January 16, 2004

So David Byrne, being an artist, could perceive "the negative effect [Powerpoint] had on the way people communicate."

"Artists are notoriously snooty and suspicious of anything coming from the business community," he says, using that expression "business community" that has such a negative effect on the way people communicate.

But check out the slide show he made after he overcame his "initial disdain for the program" and "became intrigued by its artistic potential." I'm still going with "initial disdain for the program."

I remember back in the early 1970s, when a computer printout consisted only of letters and numbers, people figured out how to get a printout to form a recognizable image, using the same principle of perception that makes it possible to do something that is really worth doing, like this. But making printer crank out a face made of letters and numbers was not, without more, worth doing, though it seemed pretty amazing at the time.

1 comment:

Icepick said...

PowerPoint - yeech. One of the good things about having my career destroyed (hey, I'm looking for all the silver linings I can find) was not having to work with PowerPoint anymore.