more cutout poems!

[batiferrite]

So, here's the robot series! First, the mock-up layout:



And close-ups:





These were made before the other ones and I basically just used the words and pictures from one article for them, so it's a bit different of a vibe / design philosophy.

That article itself was super dystopian, though, honestly! (If you play around with inspect element, you should be able to figure out how to get rid of the paywall... I got it once, but keep messing up in trying to reproduce it for a tutorial-ish-thing, and can't find guides that work online, sorry.)

I have one little scrap floating around my table: "they patrol borders and attack targets they deem hostile." It was treated like no big deal??

Then, there was another section talking about robots being programmed to care for children, disabled people, and the elderly -- after working in a center for disabled people, I realize such places have a high turnover rate, but I really don't think a robot could properly care for vulnerable people like that! In these facilities, basically the only human interaction residents get is with staff and if you take even that away... it's just inhumane!

And beyond that, sex robots?? And how employers are incentivized to have robot workers, even if they're less productive, because "humans are troublesome." And how having robots grab things in warehouses actually makes things more stressful for human employees and deprives them of that little bit of downtime -- the list of unrealized horrors goes on!

Comments

[a_flyleaf]

God, I wish. Oops, two-year blip on the radar that killed millions, and definitely is not ongoing in any significant way! Well, we’ll just brush our hands of all that and carry on like normal again!!!! . . . aughhhh

Continuing the tone boomerang, Blexbolex is fun to say! Wow, that picture book is gorgeous; similar stylistic hallmarks, very different vibes indeed. Shame about L'Oeil privé not being known in the English world. You might have seen it already but I found an English(-translated?) article about a newer picture book where he talks about his process and shows some before/after illustrations; similar style, but has an entirely different feel to it. Really cool stuff!

But yeah, flipping back (and dw about the negativity, The State Of Society can really call for it…)—christ, is it bad that I thought that the night sky ad link would be one thing and then it was something different entirely x_x As if billboards are not enough!! Dreams too, geez; although (and this isn’t so much a counter as a focus shift), I’ve definitely had various dreams about things I was thinking about before I fell asleep, and based on that survey graphic towards the end it’s not like the brands have to try to worm their way in >:V What concerns me a liiiittle more is “advertisers could, in theory, use smart speakers — 126m of which are now installed in US homes — to market products to us in our sleep.” I know they’re (the “smart” devices are) sometimes accessibility aids but god!! Surprising yet not, and entirely disappointing!!

[batiferrite]

For real, it's so ridiculous! Like, in May, the US gov't just arbitrarily decided it's officially over and are stopping their coverage for at-home test kits and treatments, while new strains are still coming out every month...

Yeah, it's sad, I wish these little funky indie comics were more easily accessible.. Interesting article! It's amazing to have such an involved plot with only a noun per page. Also, I didn't realize that he was part of the whole Oulipo-thing (or that there was even a branch of it for comics, for that matter), but looking at some of his other works, it really makes sense.

Oh, I think I remember hearing about that one, too! I can't help but think of that classic Tweet (which is itself talking about, yet again, a completely separate instance of space advertising...):

NotABigJerk

if i ever look up at the night sky and see a space billboard i am becoming a terrorist

Ah, my dad has a bunch of Alexa's -- one for every room in his house. He seems to mostly use them for turning off the lights when he has a migraine or playing music and that sort of thing, but I still really don't get the point of paying for the privilege to have your house bugged... It really is impossible to satirize the modern day.

[a_flyleaf]

The United States has mobilized and sustained a historic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bold, bold claim for a page that’s basically saying “we have arbitrarily decided this is not an emergency anymore so we’re scaling back to tracking it like a normal disease that is not continuing to change or adapt in any way.” God

Oh, I’ve never heard of Oulipo! Took a little Wikipedia dive and I am extremely amused by the page of a lipogram novel (cited as an example of an Oulipian work— actually, I won’t say why! It’s curious, and I applaud its author ;V

Ha, the tweet you linked seems to have been taken down since; thanks for quoting it! The sci-fi dystopia is today. 😔 There’s one singular Alexa in my family’s kitchen and it’s pretty much a glorified Amazon delivery notification device; I made a point to tell everyone to keep it muted when not in use, and I guess I’d rather it be 90% deadweight than get used for everything, but still…. Smart lights and the like scare me, honestly.

[batiferrite]

Still, just what a mess...

Ah yeah, I really like reading about Oulipo and other avant-garde-y movements! I haven't actually read A Void yet, but I did read a kinda similar book several years ago, where a totalitarian local government bans residents from using certain letters of the alphabet. Very neat concept!

Oh, lol, I guess it is good that I quoted it. Scary how easily things can just disappear like that on the internet... I think even with it muted, it'd still be able to listen to you, though, right? Yeah, my dad went super crazy with all of that, he even had an electronic lock installed... I can't help but think about what happens if the power goes out or he loses internet, or worse, if a malicious party hacked into it or something...

[a_flyleaf]

Scary how easily things can just disappear like that on the internet...

No kidding 😔 The Internet Archive has a browser extension, and if you land on a 404 page there’s a little notification-circle that tells you if there’s a backed-up version, but it’s a bandaid on a dam and all that.

I think even with it muted, it'd still be able to listen to you, though, right?

I… I have no idea, honestly, and I wish I did >:\ Without knowing more about the technology the best I can assume is that, if they were blatantly lying, there maaaaaybe would’ve been a lawsuit about it by now? But there’s always loopholes.

On smart tech in general, I am fairly certain I’ve seen local news blips about people’s home security systems getting hacked into, which isn’t the same thing but if people can do that… Like, this is basically hearsay because I don’t feel like doing a 5-second google search to lose a little more faith in technology, but y’know. Dystopia today etc.

[batiferrite]

Honestly, with increasingly instabilities in major companies, like Twitter's eminent demise and Google going down every now and then and basically taking the rest of the internet with it, it's really scary thinking about how the future of the internet is going to go. Like the one XKCD comic:

We're at a point of depending so much on the internet, but it's also so fragile...

I also came across this article a while ago, where Mozilla talks about how horribly literally every major car company violates your privacy, to the point of collaborating with police after even a "informal request" for info.... I guess the point of all of this horrible stuff is to make us apathetic and no longer care about our safety and privacy -- like how because almost everything has a warning that it can cause cancer, people just blow it off entirely and joke about it. It really does feel hopeless...

...Again, sorry that this has become such a depressing thread.