The Now of the NetStream: Facts vs Story; Platform vs Muse

The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth...in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future. from Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I am a child of the NetStream where the eternal present rules, subsuming both past and future in its infinite flow. Although this is most obvious in the ceaseless aggregated tide of the social network and newsreader, the now also dominates each individual blog, not only for the readers but for the writers as well. So it was only through an impulsive browse through my recent posts, that I realized that:

a) almost every one was primarily visual or audio-visual; and
b) they were created through over a half dozen platforms:

• Assorted RL action figures and dolls in a comic and a video
• iPad sketches
• FriendsHangout video
• iClone video
• GoAnimate video
• OmniGraffle chart
• Web screen capture

Facts vs. Story

In retrospect, I see my ongoing shift to imagery as an expression of my ever-growing belief that visual storytelling is a much more effective means to communicate than textual argument. I'll take a picture over 1000 words any day. Perhaps I'm lost in the The Shallows, but I hardly ever make it through reading a blog post more than a screen in length.

Platform vs. Muse
It is a bit ironic that my most recent videos about virtual worlds aren't even machinima and only one post in the last month included an image from Second Life (and it was composited with a RL image). But I think it is just a sign that my commitment is to the present-moment inspiration of my Muse rather than allegiance to any particular platform or subject-matter.

Anyway, enough virtual navel-gazing for now. Thanks for listening.