ZERO HOUR & Co.

To us, making the best use of our own website means that aside from using it to show our wares, it also exists to experiment with new web technologies, extending both our toolbox and showcasing new possibilities.

Earlier in 2011 we implemented the latest of CSS3 and HTML5 trickery into the ZHC website, and as advanced as it was, the obvious drawback was accessibility.

Aside from cross-browser and operating system issues the more relevant concern in the age of roaming users is mobile compatibility. There are of course ways to counter these issues but is building three websites to do the job of one always necessary? For our own showcase website we think not, that said, the experiments are truly valuable.

In some cases using advanced trickery is ok, some concept websites sit nicely at the lead edge based on their core market and objectives. Since applying some fairly advanced techniques to the recently launched vtalk website we have returned our own website to simplicity and minimalism. This time round, from the outset, we shifted our focus to mobility.

This continual experimentation inevitably leads to progressive enhancements as each time some new innovations remain, working happily alongside the “tried and tested”.

Accessibility is a concern we often discuss, and of course it depends on a website's purpose, but it is not necessarily the fault of a user as to what technology or connection speed is available. Moreover, the internet should on the whole remain inclusive not exclusive.

Each year since 1994 Backbone Youth Arts has presented the 2high Festival - a youth run multi arts Festival. Vera Ding, Arts Queensland's Director of Theatre & Writing, gives an external validation of the significance of the 2high Festival and Zero Hour & Co.'s recent contribution. She writes:

Through the 2high Festival mentorship program young practitioners (mentorees) develop their professional practice, whilst ensuring that existing established practitioners (their mentors) are exposed to the skills, knowledge and application of new digital technologies for the creation, presentation and promotion of new work and arts practice. This approach has also manifested into a strong partnership with Zero Hour & Co. and the development of a vibrant, engaging web tool and evaluation report that are definitely best practice.

Firstly we would like to thank Alanna Hankey, (2high Festival Manager 2009, 2high Festival Director 2010), who played a key role in last years' connection between ZHC & Backbone alongside her ongoing accomplishments for this one-of-a-kind festival.

ZHC would also like to thank the following for their time & support:

Backbone Youth Arts, in particular, Stephanie Drewett, Andrew Cory, Pat Swell and Nicholas Paine. 2high Festival 2009 Coordinators, 2009 Artists, Dan Koop, Katie Mackenzie, Ponyo, Barbara Restorick, Shaun Restorick, Chrisanthi Demos, Alex Litherland (4C Arts Collective), Hannah Suarez, Brisbane Creative Industries, Scene Magazine, 4ZZZ, Faster Louder, Sora Mankiewicz (Raleigh Paper), Trent Schofield (Colour Chiefs) Ken Francey, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane City Council, Arts Queensland, Youth Arts Queensland and, of course AbaF, for continuing to ensure noteworthy arts and business connections are recognised.

2high Festival 2010 is looking so well-oiled and extraordinary this year it's uncomfortable. A credit to the team currently in the control room and to all those who have contributed to the feel good legacy that is this wonderful machine. See you all at Brisbane Powerhouse 12 & 13 November.

Venture to:

2009 2high Festival website

2010 2high Festival website

The iPad lands in consumer's living rooms this April. We're excited. Very excited. If the iPhone was the introduction to the touch experience and die hard 'app' addiction, the iPad is the encore. But what are the implications to the current state of the web?

It's a fact. The iPhone and iPad are having interesting ramifications on web already. For example I use the Facebook App on my phone around 3 times a day, whereas I only use the Facebook website once a week. Likewise for Twitter and other social applications.

My 3yr old daughter happily navigates my iPhone, drawing pictures, playing games, perusing the app store and taking photos. On one occasion even posting to Twitter!!!. However when she's sitting in front of a desktop monitor with a mouse and keyboard, she seems clumsy and un-natural. It feels like an archaic experience. I even caught her trying to touch my monitor, followed by a confused face when it didn't work.

Whether we like it or not, the primary method of 'surfing the web' as we know it, is in a transitional phase.

What does this mean for the traditional web?

The traditional web, to me, is websites that only work well in a standard browser, viewed on a laptop or desktop monitor. It websites that rely on people sitting at their desk, with time to spare. An increasing rarity. 

At the end of the day, people will connect and interact with objects they find the most entertaining, convenient and affordable. This means if mobile devices start to dominate the web market, the traditional web experience will need to adapt. 

The next step forward is delivering platform interdependent websites where-ever possible. On a simple scale, this can mean detecting mobile devices and serving alternate content. Or, on a larger scale, developing an API for your website so others can implement their own mobile experiences whilst retaining a core repository of information.

Obstacles such as screen resolution, touch interaction and limited bandwidths create new considerations for designers and developers. User interface decisions are now more vital to ensure the experience is quality. Content becomes king yet again.

Slow down there, sonny

While it all sounds gung-ho in the land of hand-held. The technology is effectively still in it's infancy. The App store is a bloated mess, filled with useless applications obviously created for a quick buck. And while some mobile optimised websites are great, most still feel clunky and rushed. 

I feel we're in the refinement phase of the mobile web and app experience. Like the early days of the internet we know the market demand is strong. Now it's time to clean up.

To quote a recent O'Reilly post: 

If the iPad is just another consumer platform for consuming and not creating content, then it will just be another way to watch TV or listen to music or download information. Convenient, yes, but just another device.

So true. There's no point porting all the current experiences, information and practices to the new medium. The boundaries must be pushed, and tweaked and refined.

And so

With the pending release of the iPad, we're excited to embark on our mobile adventures as we come to grips with the possibilities. Interesting times ahead.

As I sit down to write this first blog (drafted on paper if you would believe) I've tried to think of what the most apt topic would be. I feel it most fitting to use the magical technology of the Internet to reflect on what its creation has caused some of us to lose.

The art of communication has evolved unheeded since mankind muttered his first discernable grunt. It has taken many forms through various languages, written text and has blessed us with poetry and song. However, over perhaps the past fifteen years our ability to express ourselves has begun to diminish, we have become Twitterfied, status updaters who have cre8td crude lazy LOL text msg language to convey our thoughts quickly and succinctly. For the first time in our history we are cutting words from our dictionaries and thus our vocabularies to make way for new acronyms and lexicon.

Should we accept this "progress" that simplifies our language? Should we instead begin a call to action, nay a movement, to save our expressiveness, to liberate our obscure adjectives and optimise our wonderful ability to really accentuate what we see and feel with verve, finesse and vigour?

ZHC believes so, and feels some things should be done the "old fashioned" way, with pride, dedication and above all a determination to complete tasks with thoroughness, free of cheap easy shortcuts.

To conclude this introductory post I would like to sign off with some words I hope we never lose, words previous generations worked hard to instill in our lives and vocabulary.

Honour, tradition, respect, culture and beauty.

S.R.

Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?... Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?... The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

— George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5

A shiny new toy, ready for inginition, for an onslaught of creative, cunning and witty observations. We're here! We did it! And yet it's been two weeks since the ribbon cutting... a.k.a. the first post — the post that hurts the most?

The last report in 2007, David Sifry noted that roughly 120,000 new blogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day so in the time it takes you to inhale 1 breathe of fresh cool air over 4 blogs are created.

While these figures are downright disturbing, I can guarantee a large chunk of such blogs fail miserably and take a nose-dive on or after the first post. Some bloggers don't even finish the first post... The hype of creating their one blog is soon outlived by the reality that blogging is writing, thinking and reflecting... hard work. Then there's the demographic who actually finish the first post and expect, like magic, world fame for their efforts. And when the glory of blogging doesn't come, it's over.

Google's leash

What it's sadly all boiled down to (in many cases), is Google rankings. Advertising and SEO agencies are driving their clients down the path to pure stat blogs in an effort to get good rankings, every post includes references and links to every pre defined keyword that will boost their business. The result is a cold un-human user experience. I think more often than not, they're missing the point. But it's really about integrity — but do you care?

I love Dan's recent post that notes:

Remember when blogs were more casual and conversational? Before a post's purpose was to grab search engine clicks or to promise "99 Answers to Your Problem That We're Telling You You're Having". 

Yeah — I'd like to get back to that here.

Touché!

An ensemble of exceedingly talented musicians with a finely tuned ear for a soulful groove, Golden Sound & The Outfit are an excellent choice of opener for this evening at Brisbane Powerhouse — but it’s the funk troupe’s entrance that is the most telling element of their set. Audience members are treated to an organ-heavy blend of soulful funk rhythms and jazzy extemporisations as they filter into the theatre before a raised curtain reveals the band in all their glory — already playing. It’s a surprising and amusing entrance that ably showcases the refined and entertaining showmanship of Golden Sound bandleader Peter Golikov while also acting as a fitting prelude for the off-kilter nature of the night’s proceedings.

Reggie Watts, similarly, practically sneaks onto the stage when he begins his set — briefly collaborating with his support act under a cover of darkness before addressing his audience with a thoroughly unbalancing, precisely modulated caricature of a British academic. Those familiar with Watts’ work know to expect the unexpected in tonight’s performance but, even to the forewarned, watching the comedian meander through a bizarre, impenetrable tirade is a curious experience. Watts’ academic satire, however, proves to be just the tip of a particularly bizarre and unquestionably miraculous iceberg that leaves audiences both thrilled and gobsmacked. It’s impossible to accurately translate the cerebral cacophony of ideas Watts cycles through in his all too brief performance.

The classically-trained musician constructs his free-flowing set with the precise intention of befuddling his audience and each and every segment is, in one way or another, a contradiction or contrast of ideas or concepts. Watts’ role-playing leaps to the fore as a Californian bimbo contemplates post-modern notions of meaning and Watts’ prodigious musical talent is just another platform for fostering ambiguity — the absurdist delivering a babbling, nonsensical rendition of Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’ mere moments after wowing the crowd with a virtuosic vocal performance. There’s no real precedent for the meticulous interpolation of order and disorder delivered by Watts tonight and, when the comedian concludes his second encore, a standing ovation seems almost inadequate in light of such a titanic performance.

— Matt O'Neill