Infoxication [502]
Greetings from Paris...
The AirBnB listing said that the apartment came with a view of the Eiffel Tower. And it does. Sort of. There is it on the right. with a light on top.
I’m Christian Payne, autotelic, photographer and occasional writer. In this weekly dispatch I’ve mostly been working in France but still trying to seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going. Considering the chaos that is your inbox, I appreciate you opening this email.
#TheAction
My train ride from home into Paris was delightfully uneventful. Outside of a few chats with strangers, I just worked on honing my workshop slides.
My ninth floor apartment in Pantin was twenty mins on the metro from the Gare Du Nord and a few minutes walk from where I was working.
I was met at the door of the apartment block by a lady and her four year old son. She was there to show me around on behalf of the owner. When asked she appeared to know nothing about him, but she was friendly and her son shy. At least shy at first.
Once we ascended the nine floors to the top, he got into the apartment, took off his shoes and seemed to feel at home. While his mother showed me the facilities, he laughed his head off and haired around the living room sliding round in his socks. There were sculptures and delicate looking Tin Tin models on the shelves. He thankfully ignored all that and focused on screaming while bouncing on the sofa. His mother looked at me and apologised. I told her not to worry as I had kids and quite miss this pre-screen energy. He then bounced over the back of the sofa, ran in to the adjoining toilet and did a massive poo.
Embarrassed, she apologised as we stood outside the door waiting for him to finish. A long thirty seconds. I was cool with it, but a part of me would have been keen to have been the first person to use the freshly cleaned loo.
Once left alone, I set to preparing my Parisian ritual of acquiring bread wine and cheese. Not that easy on a Sunday. The bigger shops don’t seem to sell alcohol and the wine was covered with big sheets.
I logged my search with my Radiacode strapped to my leg. The level of ionising isotopes was pleasingly low enough to produce and entirely green route.
The blue dot is my start and finish point and the concentrated bit of green was where I found a small shop with a single dusty bottle of wine and did a little dance.
I wasn’t expecting much but it turned out to be a decent bottle.
I’ve now been in the apartment long enough to find the light switches in the dark. I’ve also discovered that outside of the view, the benefit of being on the 9th floor is that the rising heat from all the apartments below means I can sleep with the window open, even in winter.
This morning Paris awoke with the creak of cranes, swinging their loads above the still sleeping heads of the lucky ones. I plodded along a towpath, Bonjouring to people I didn't know. Today was my last day of work.
#ThePictures
This week I watched Undercover: Exposing the far right. A documentary showing the work of HopeNot Hate.
One of the most powerful trailers I’ve seen recently as for the upcoming 28 Years Later. The soundtrack alone on this is terrifying.
I thought it was only Leica Cameras that were blazing ahead with using C2PA to prove authenticity and protecting provenance with content credentials. But there’s a lot more happening on the CP2A site with lots of industry players getting involved. Here is more on how Leica uses it…
#TheWords
In regards to the title of this dispatch, it was one of my students who introduced me to the word Infoxication. It means Infobesity or information overload. It might have been coined by M.Eric Johnson. …And here I am adding to the noise.
“We have met the Devil of Information Overload and his impish underlings, the computer virus, the busy signal, the dead link, and the PowerPoint presentation.” - James Gleick
Long read… Endless work little money occasional UFOs, a son reconnects with his elderly father over recounting his five decades driving Brazils roads.
#TheSound
This week (thanks to some of my students) I have been listening to Tuareg-produced Tishoumaren, a variation of Desert blues. This is Mdou Moctar…
…and learning about the Brazilian’s illegal psychedelic rock scene…
And this is a caffeine fuelled snatch of unedited audio I grabbed with James Barisic today.
#TheConsumed
Approximately 65% of the world is lactose intolerant.
I haven’t travelled that far to find food this week. Over the road from where I’m working is a little Italian. Simple tasty food (top two photos) and great service. Cheap too. And the closest eatery from my apartment is Toscanacci. Locally famous for its pizza but their focaccia is pretty amazing as well. (Bottom two photos)
#TheThings
There’s an incredible amount of speculation around the random UAP sightings happening above the US and other places. Although I really don’t want to add to that speculation, I’m going to :-) The more I read the more I think the US is well aware of what is going on and it’s potentially testing a defence system. I’ll share why I think this in the supporters discord.
This transmedia project ‘The Bird of a Thousand Voices’ brings an ancient Armenian folk tale Hazaran Blbul to life. It’s a collaboration between Armenian composer & pianist Tigran Hamasyan and Dutch filmmaker & visual artist Ruben Van Leer. together they premiered the project at the Holland Festival. It’s a series of films, musical theatre, kinetic art instillations and you can play the game here.
#TheThanks
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#TheWeb
Person creates an app enabling people to take selfies with public CCTV cameras. They are then sent a cease and desist letter that is captured on one of the cameras. I mean… If you are going to make these things, people are going to play with them.
Despite having a link to this newsletter in my presentations this week, not one of my pupils have added themselves to the Documentally community map. I shall bear this in mind when it comes to marking their work. ;-)
An interactive historical map.
Papermaking, a rags to riches story.
Some of my other places include Letterboxd, Flickr, Strava, Untappd, my audio RSS feed, Swarm, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, a ham radio newsletter or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Birdsite or Bluesky.
I was so proud when my lad got his grade five piano with distinction, but was worried that was it. I’m not sure he’s that bothered any more but stories like this give me hope.
#TheEnd
Gotta dash as I’m on other deadlines. All mistakes are proof of life.
So glad I got to get this out and thanks for reading sharing and liking. Paris has been wonderful and I’ll be back in England for the weekend. Maybe see you around?
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” - Plato
Catch up,
See you out there.
Over…
Ahhhh delightful Paris and shopping there is an experience all of its own. Haven’t been for a good twenty years though. Will be interesting to see how Paris looks now compared to the early 2000s.
The drone thing is interesting and will be interesting to read your hypothesis on Discord. My son-in-law has seen some here in Berkshire. Mind you it might be Altitude Angel a local company who’ve been testing and developing technology? Or would this be something that the AWE are working on, who are not far from me in Aldermaston; nobody would tell us though.