Order, chaos, order: Jennifer Shaw's 'Hurricane Story'

The chaos that followed Katrina made anyone who cared feel like a small thing arranged into involuntary scenarios devised by unseen forces. In Jennifer Shaw's Hurricane Story, the artist arranges things, and in doing so restores wonderful order to her story, and her city’s.

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The Right Stuff

Tumblrs like The Burning House and Everyday Carry offer collections of what's meant to be profoundly personal stuff. Are the self-portraits via possessions — or something more interesting?

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Stealth Iconography: The Google Maps Pin

Some symbols achieve at-a-glance familiarity status without, evidently, having been designed to do so. The Google Maps “pin” is an example. It’s iconic by accident — or at least by stealth.

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Dedigitization

Over the last five or ten years, more people have gotten more comfortable with the notion of “digital goods” having real value. People collect and covet objects made of bits and existing only in online games or virtual worlds or other non-physical realms. Increasingly, though, things from the digital world are crossing over into physical manifestations that can be bought and sold.

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Rob Walker is a technology/culture columnist for Yahoo News. He is the former Consumed columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and has contributed to many publications. He is co-editor (with Joshua Glenn) of the book Significant Objects: 100 Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things, and author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are.

Recent Book

Significant Objects: 100 Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things
Edited by Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn
Fantagraphics, 2012
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Other Essays: 2010-2012

Etsy Goes Pro
Wired, October 2012

Tumblr Follows Its ♥
The New York Times Magazine, July 12, 2012

What It Takes To Be A 'Tuber
The New York Times Magazine, June 28, 2012

A Product of Creative Friction
The New York Times Magazine, June 3, 2012

This Brand Is Your Brand
OnEarth Magazine, May 31, 2012

MakerBot's Meta-Tools
Fast Company, January 2012

Politics As Entertainment
The New York Times Magazine, January 4, 2012

The Dog Ate My Paycheck
Marketplace, December 16, 2011

Recognizably Anonymous
December 8, 2011: Slate

A Visual Object for the Digital Era
December 2011: The Atlantic

What Percent Are You, Really?
November 29, 2011: Marketplace

The Machine That Makes You Musical
October 23, 2011: The New York Times

The Cult of Bang & Olufsen
October 2011: Wired

4CP Friday: Effacement
September 2011: HiLobrow

Replacement Therapy
September 2011: The Atlantic

Not All Consumers Are Equal
August 18, 2011: Marketplace

The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter
August 5, 2011: The New York Times Magazine

The Swan Song of the Top 40
July 15, 2011: The New York Times Magazine

Foursquare's Branding With Badges
July 5, 2011: Slate

Failure Chic
June 16, 2011: Marketplace

Hiring "the crowd" for a design job
May 31, 2011: Slate

Advertising that's "relevant" — but to whom?
May 23, 2011: Marketplace

Disliking "Dislike"
March 31, 2011: Marketplace

The Propaganda of Concern
March 22, 2011: Slate

The Sound of Radiolab
The New York Times Magazine, April 7, 2011

Disliking "Dislike"
Marketplace, March 31, 2011

Fun Stuff (Digital Collections)
The New York Times Magazine, February 11, 2011

Go Figure (Scalies)
The New York Times Magazine, February 4, 2011

Ghosts In The Machine
The New York Times Magazine, January 9, 2011

Collecting: Bicentennial Quarters
DesignObserver.com December 9, 2010

Go Figure (Scalies)
The New York Times Magazine, February 4, 2011

The Hidden: Filtering "Friends" On Facebook
TheAtlatntic.com, October 4, 2010

Hearing Things (Music Objects)
The New York Times Magazine, September 10, 2010

Taking Lulz (Sort of) Seriously
The New York Times Magazine, July 16, 2010

Brilliant Mistakes (Digital Antiquing)
The New York Times Magazine, July 25, 2010

Valuing $0 (Gifts)
The New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2010

Rewind (The Cassette)
The New York Times Magazine, April 23, 2010

Slightly Used (Best Made Ax)
The New York Times Magazine, April 3, 2010

Clutter, Objects, Joy
Murketing.com, March 4, 2010

Shopping Our Way To Safety (Review)
The Journal of Industrial Ecology, February 2010

The Unlikely Success of Boing Boing
Fast Company, December 2010/January 2010

Site and Sound: One Home, Sixteen Objects and the Things We Listen to Now
Essay for Rewind, Remix, Replay exhibition at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, January 20, 2010

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