Contents Magazine har en intervju – “The Library as a Map” – med föreståndarna för The Prelinger Library i San Francisco, omnämnt här åtskilliga gånger. Bland annat pratar de om sin organisationsprincip för serendipitet:

[T]he process of research is inseparable from the physical process of exploration of the world. In my experience, creative and intellectual work flows from physical engagement with the landscape. There are literal manifestations of this, such as the discovery of forgotten places and the collection of forgotten literature from the shelves of a rural shop. More intangibly, the processes of walking, hiking, or taking a road trip are useful activities for developing new ideas or thinking through puzzles.

The result is a landscape-based, geospatial arrangement system. This system, in outline, “starts” where the library is, in San Francisco, and “ends” in outer space. Its rough structure moves from place-based subjects to the made worlds of art, media, and culture, to abstracts like society and philosophy, to space exploration.

Läs också “On the Virtues of Preexisting Material“.

Ny (för mig) musik jag lyssnat på under januari månad. En del mer än annat så klart. Fetmarkerat det jag gillat mest.

• Oren Ambarchi, Connected.
• Villagers, {Awayland}.
• Dawn Richard, Goldenheart.
• Ducktails, The Flower Lane.
• Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z, “Suit & Tie”.
• Shlohmo, Vacation (Remixes).
• The-Dream, Terius Nash: 1977.
• Disclosure, The Face EP och feat. AlunaGeorge, “White Noise“.
• Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory, Elements of Light.
• Christopher Owens, Lysandre.
• Everything Everything, Arc.
• Django Django, Django Django.
• Toro Y Moi, Anything In Return.
• Matthew E. White, Big Inner.
• Foxygen, We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic.
• Woodkid, Iron.
• AlunaGeorge, “Your Drums, Your Love”, “You Know You Like It”.
• The Knife, “Full of Fire”.
• Azekel, “That Feeling“.
• Youth Lagoon, “Dropla“.
• Lee Gamble, Dutch Tvashar Plumes.
• Shackleton, The Drawbar Organ EPs & Music for the Quiet Hour.
• Tegan and Sara, Heartthrob.
• A$AP Rocky, LongLiveASAP.
• Jim Jones, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God.

Knyter ihop säcken “tech-arkitektur/stadsplanering” och “hackerantropologi” med de här observationerna om Google-gentrifieringen av San Francisco från London Review of Books:

Sometimes the Google Bus just seems like one face of Janus-headed capitalism; it contains the people too valuable even to use public transport or drive themselves. In the same spaces wander homeless people undeserving of private space, or the minimum comfort and security; right by the Google bus stop on Cesar Chavez Street immigrant men from Latin America stand waiting for employers in the building trade to scoop them up, or to be arrested and deported by the government. Both sides of the divide are bleak, and the middle way is hard to find.

Via Mind Hacks, en PDF av antropologen Gabriella Colemans bok om hackerkultur, Coding Freedom. I likhet med andra antropologer har hon hängt djupt, i det här fallet i hacker-kretsar i San Francisco. Från en intervju hos Wired:

Wired: Did you get grief for not traveling to somewhere exotic?

Coleman: Yes. All the time. They just kind of laughed at it. They were like, ‘You’re so lucky. You get to be in San Francisco going to cafes and hanging out with hackers. I had to really sweat it out and be in the jungle. It was really difficult.’

It’s funny because my committee loved my dissertation, and it did very well and won all these prizes, but I always had trouble getting job talks in anthropology departments. Even today, I rarely get invited to give talks in anthropology departments.

En gång klagade jag, via Alexndra Lange, på att de stora teknikföretagen (Apple i det fallet) inte integrerade sig mer i städerna när de bygger sina kontor m.m., utan hellre lägger dem lite isolerat utanför städer, som universitetscampi. Men i fallet Google och London stämmer ju faktiskt inte det, som lär sig av att läsa den här Financial Times-artikeln. Dels har man Google Campus vid Old Street “Silicon Roundabout”, men man planerar också ett nytt högkvarter vid King’s Cross, smack in the middle:

Unlike its Californian cousins, it is in the centre of the city. Its rough’n’ready interiors were designed by retail specialists Jump Studios and use the slightly tired tropes of industrial aesthetics (containers, plywood furniture) to create a robust, urbane series of social spaces including cafés. More impressive is the way Google has looked to the future in its use of an existing building revitalised, a far more sustainable pattern than the incessant desire to demolish and build anew.

Daniel Day-Lewis naglar ju Lincolns ljusa röst. Tydligen var det något som många samtida berättade, att han hade en förvånansvärt ljus och mjuk röst. Men skådespelaren som spelar Martin Heidegger i Margarethe von Trottas Hannah Arendt har inte alls satt hans, också ljusa, röst. Man kan höra den här:

Idag får det räcka med den här filmen, med tillhörande analys:

Man kan aldrig få nog av såna här murmurerings-filmer, så jag kastar upp en sån (tyvärr lite förstörd av Alt-J):

Det här är ju bara för sorgligt att läsa:

Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, according to the Saharan town’s mayor, in an incident he described as a “devastating blow” to world heritage.

Hallé Ousmani Cissé told the Guardian that al-Qaida-allied fighters on Saturday torched two buildings that held the manuscripts, some of which dated back to the 13th century. They also burned down the town hall, the governor’s office and an MP’s residence, and shot dead a man who was celebrating the arrival of the French military.

Jag nämnde den här skatten i ett inlägg för tre år sedan.

Uppdatering: Time.com: “Timbuktu Locals Saved Some of City’s Ancient Manuscripts from Islamists“.