This is going to be a short one this week, as there’s really only been one thing on my mind besides school shootings, GamerGate, ISIS, Ebola and all the other things I can’t write about because they bum me out too much. Darius Kazemi (aka @tinysubversions) is a legend in my part of the internet. You might remember him from this Boston Globe profile or from the buzz around Amazon Random Shopper or from any one of his dozens of other projects. The sheer volume of output is impressive enough, but the consistent through line in Kazemi’s work is the humor and humanity present in his (literally inhumane) bots.
This past week brought the release of the video of his XOXO talk and oh boy, it’s a doozy. I implore you to scrape together 22 minutes to watch this – you won’t regret it:
It’s difficult to describe this talk without giving away the ingenious, layers-deep rhetorical device but it is safe to say that if you have ever had a response to your work meet, exceed, or fail to meet your expectations, you will be able to relate to the message. You never can tell what people might like, but you can’t let that uncertainty stand in the way of you doing the damn thing. Onward.
Periodically yours,
Bob Sherron
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