Was reading Logic and Emotion while thinking about my own painting of “Is Google God?“. David Armano works at Digitas, a firm I have some experience with though IBM.  David brings up a point about the work of two architects and how they approach the results of  their creations -  I have often thought about with my own work:

“…Are we really so sure that conversations can’t and shouldn’t be “designed”?  Does design = control?  What would the developers/designers of Twitter say about their application which has evolved into something that goes beyond answering “What are you doing?”.  Are they not designers because their application is used in ways that maybe were not predicted?  Sure baking soda can be used to keep refrigerators smelling fresh, which was maybe not the original intent—but somebody conceived, invented and created baking soda. 

Each and every “2.0” application is architected, designed and developed.  Many of these digital experiences facilitate dialogue which manifests itself in different ways.  We the people, the users, the consumers, co-creators and mashers then become the “children” who decide how we want to play and socialize.  We do what comes natural.  But that doesn’t mean our playground was never designed in the first place—it was, we just do what children have always done.  We play.  We investigate and interact with our environments.  We improvise and adapt.

“design” is inherently about control.”

I’m not so sure that it is.  And if design is about control, then maybe I shouldn’t be a designer.”

Don’t know, not sure - if, as a painter, many of my works succeed as I intended they would.  Certainly I don’t have the patience or skill to do a lot of detail work, as I think of it. 

But does that make my work a failure?   No, according to David Armano - because people will react to art work independently of what the Artist intended - perhaps it’s more important that they react at all - and just scan and look on.

So maybe, we come back to “engagement” - the same thing that marketing tries to do (and I tried to measure on the IBM’s home page).   We can’t really control what people make of the messages we put out - but the most important thing might not be they get something out of it - not that they get exactly what we intended.

So..with my “Is Google God?” painting - it didn’t really do everything that I wanted in my mind - but I hope the colors speak for themselves - and if someone gets something entirely different out of my painting(s) than what I expected or intended, that’s not really a bad thing - As David points out - you can learn new things from how people react with your creation - or you get upset they don’t react as you intended.

I got over to the studio later on this evening - I wasn’t feeling well today but dragged myself over there after running some errands in Park Slope.  Once I got to work - it was 4 or 5 hours of non-stop painting - and as promised - I created my first version of “Is Google God?” study / painting.

Painting: Is Google God?  Marshall Sponder - 3-24-2007  Oil Pastel / Pastel on Paper, 22 x 28″

A couple of things I added - the references to “Top 10″, that’s obviously a reference to the obsession to get be within the Top 10 Search Results.    Also, the long black “line” or “snake” is actually “The Long Tail” of Search.  

I’m really linking how I treated my “Thumb” with 3 patches of color next to each other (Red, Blue and Peach).   Feels great to be able both to imagine and execute on my ideas - I never used to have, years ago, as much freedom to “go all the way” as I do now.  I want to push my paintings as far as I can go.   Adding “The Long Tail” might have made the painting busier - but I got the intuition, last minute, to add it - it made sense to me The Long Tail (as a concept and image) ought to be depicted here.

I’ll probably do a larger acrylic painting, or series of paintings around this theme soon. 

We’ll see.

I am going to try something different today and post about what I’d like to paint before I got over to my studio.  I’m getting a late start but plan to go over there soon.   Also the Paris Trip is moving along - and my Passport arrived today - plus a certain amount of help, not as much as I’d have liked, but it’s in the right direction.

Not that easy for me to get a photo I liked - and it’s not exactly what’s in my mind- but it would do.   If the text in the search box of my mobile phone (IE: The Google Phone?) were clearer…. it would say….

Is Google God?

Well, maybe to some people, Google is like a “God” in it’s ability to reward traffic to those it “favors”.   Hmm, does Google take any ritual sacrifices?  I guess you can’t just make an offering and expect rankings and business to improve.

So…what I want to paint about is the power of Search Engines to shape our lives - and present us with a version of the truth - the Google Truth.  Maybe I’ll post something about this over at Webmetricsguru.com as it’s also about Web Analytics .. kinda.

I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Ha, Ha, Ha……is Google God…. I’m grinning, and having a good time with it….wonder what I’ll manage to do with that idea?  Stay tuned.