As I created a powerpoint presentation last weekend for a CASE conference, I couldn’t help but think about David Byrne’s experimentations with powerpoint. Byrne has always toyed with unique subversions of commerical or corporate culture. In the piece, “Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information,” he creates dissonance by using powerpoint as creative expression in a 20-minute DVD, apparently to the chagrin of those in the Edward R. Tufte’s camp that “PowerPoint is Evil.”
I’ve endured my share of mindnumbing PowerPoint slides and agree that it tends to lull people with its generic templating. But still, I like Byrne’s perspective as he described in a December 2003 CNN article. “Software constraints are only confining if you use them for what they’re intended to be used for,” Byrne said in a phone interview. “PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way.” Creativity altering technological ubiquity? I think I could sit through that.
Voltaire Santos Miran EVP, Web Strategy I've developed and implemented communication strategies in education for more than 20 years now. I think my team at mStoner is the smartest, funniest, and coolest group of colleagues ever, and I can't imagine being anywhere else. Except Barcelona. Or Paris. Or Istanbul. To quote Isak Dinesen, "the cure for everything is salt ... tears, sweat, and the sea."