One Plus One Equals Three

Attempts to Kill the Worm Largely Unsuccessful

Channel 9 brought 'the worm' back last night. The worm is a somewhat informal – yet hardly scientific – data visualization that conveys viewer/audience response to the performance of political party leaders engaged in televised debate. We had one broadcast last night – and the worm made it fun. In short, the pollie goes good – worm goes up. Pollie goes bad, worm goes down.

The Liberal Party* were not in favour of using the worm in the most recent debate. The party's leader (and current Prime Minister) John Howard is somewhat notorious for his downhill slumping worminess in such debates – and currently, he needs all the help and positive spin he can get with his party trailing markedly in the polls. But the worm snuck onto our screens, created a controversy, and showed which pollie had an upturned worm (Rudd) and whose worm was headed seriously south (Howard's).

Such a simple data visualisation sums up the action succinctly, makes politics fun for children ("look, the worm is going UP"!) and personally I'd like it to see it as an on-screen option on most TV shows. As in, "I think this show sucks (worm down), what do others think?". "Yep – it's a downturned worm."

*Note to those outside of Australia, the Liberal Party is not known for its 'liberal' standpoint on things. Which is, well, weird given their name. They don't like worms either. And – 'the worm', just in case you're wondering, is at the bottom of the images shown above.

It All Begins With a Dot

A series of stunning opening sequences from various TV news programmes on NRK, the national broadcast network of Norway. Amazing what you can do with a dot.

Interestingly, NRK (Norsk rikskringkasting) is financed by license fees.

Fifteen Minutes on Six Feet Under: TV Titles Bliss

The titles for Six Feet Under are considered by many to be the apogee of TV titles design. They certainly "raised the bar for television everywhere". Beautiful, haunting and elegant (words not often associated with the TV medium) and matched by a brilliant programme.

Here's a 15 minute 'behind the scenes' video on the creation of these great titles. Contains the background to those opening chords, a description of how to find a 'solo tree' in Seattle and how to film a crow in the US – which is actually illegal(?). A must see (even if this is quite a big download). Enjoy. I've watched this three times already...

Also, another example of fine TV show titling by Digital Kitchen: The Company (a mini-series about the CIA). Superb stuff.

"The Prime Minister's gone on BoobTube."

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe are legendary satirists in this country. With a current Federal election looming, our 'pollies' are currently falling over themselves to appeal to younger voters by creating sites on MySpace and by putting video clips on YouTube.

Here, Clarke and Dawe 'critique' the PM's latest foray onto YouTube. Wonderful and brilliant stuff indeed. (Video clip on RHS of that page).

According to his MySpace page, Kevin Rudd likes Hogan's Heroes, Get Smart and "John Denver is great for car trips".

John Howard's aforementioned Climate Change Announcement on YouTube doesn't exactly adhere to McLuhan's concept of 'The Medium is the Message'. A video like this... on YouTube? Oops. This appears to many (myself included) to be the work of a man firmly rooted within the 20th Century. 10-4 dudes and hepcats...

Pleased Two Drop By Weekly

Two weekly-updated sites are highly recommended by 1+1=3. They're well-worth a visit: johnson banks' Thought for the week (see continuation) and the ABC's By Design.

A Catholic View: ABC's By Design
While I'm working (well, actually the night before, which is often when I'm working anyway – or posting to this blog) I often download podcasts of interesting radio programmes – and of course I tend to focus on design shows. I've listened to various shows from abroad, from all over the place – and I'm not just being parochial here, but one of the very best comes from dear old Aunty in Sydney. It's By Design hosted by Alan Saunders. It's design radio par excellence and its design coverage is wide-ranging indeed, covering quite unexpected design terrain.

By Design has discussed the following topics of late: the aesthetics of nursing homes, (enviro-friendly) tiny houses, designing fireworks displays, queer culture in public toilets, Amish house design, the design of memorial gardens in cemeteries, the world of online communities and they ran a primer on fonts. That's just a sampler of some of the recent programmes. They also built a house on Second Life – you're welcome to visit.

Most of the shows I've listened to from OS cover the usual suspects: the same old faces and names trotted out as you may see, hear and read about elsewhere. By Design covers a marvellously eclectic mix of design from many facets of the design spectrum. Nice work Aunty and Mr Saunders (who has one of the best radio voices going methinks).

Peking to Paris: Great Hybrid Viewing

The ABC's Peking to Paris TV programme has been a standout of late. Here some hardy and intrepid car fanatics re-enact the 1907 road race event of the same name. They attempt to travel some 14,000 kilometres in 60-odd days in cars that were built at the turn of the century, which is certainly no mean feat. These cars were not built for long-distance driving and rough roads, especially the 6hp Contal, a three-wheeled cycle-car which looks pretty much like a motorbike with a wheelbarrow on the front. Or perhaps a motorised 'reverse rickshaw'. The sole passenger on the Contal sits precariously in front of the driver in the wheeIbarrow section. I could perhaps envisage myself travelling a suburb or three away in this contraption, but driving through Mongolia and snowy Siberia?

Wow! how could you not tune in every week to watch? It was great 'adventure TV' and was a terrific travelogue on parts of the world rarely visited by TV crews. It also offered something entirely unexpected: a very interesting and effective web/TV 'hybrid viewing' experience.

Memo to CNNNN: CNN Newsbar Redesign

The redesign of CNN's on-screen text (or newsbars) has been getting a mention everywhere in design blog-dom. The new approach has been expertly designed by Kemistry from the UK, who do a lot of broadcast design work. But their elegantly and appropriately designed outcome is not what I'd like to discuss.

The Chaser's CNNNN TV programme, a savagely brilliant parody of CNN has now finished (the repeats no longer screen). A devastatingly accurate and deadpan comic take on CNN's style of 'news-tainment', it was always a highlight of my TV viewing for the week. They also provided one of the best critiques and comments on TV graphics I have seen.

High/Low. Junk/Not.

The Alice is an Australian TV drama series on the Nine Network that is set, not surprisingly, in Alice Springs, the famed 'red centre' of outback Australia. Initially this TV series was very popular but its ratings have plummeted drastically. 'The Alice' may be consigned to the junkheap of failed Australian TV shows and its creators will most certainly have experienced both the highs and the lows of working in a notoriously fickle creative industry.

But it's the branding of the show itself (seen above in the top panel) that reveals 'The Alice's other connections to junkheaps and the highs and lows of creative endeavour.

The Graphic Datafication of Broadcast Sport

I have an ambivalent attitude to watching televised sport. Some sports I like, some I don't. Some work well on TV, others not so well. Some I watch, some not. Mostly it's not.

A fairly recent addition to the world of broadcast sport is the graphical representation and interpretation of data. Contemporary sports broadcasting now dictates that graphically interesting, 'tell the story at a glance' info-graphics are superimposed over the live action to heighten the drama of the sporting activity. These info-graphics increase one's interest, explain fundamental aspects of the sport and help make sometimes very subtle, arcane rules understandable.

Plus, these info-graphics just plain fun to watch.

Oops: Crime Not in the Olympics

The 2012 Olympics have been awarded to London. Each of the candidate cities prepared a logo that helped convey their 'Olympic spirit', unique characteristics and proposition to the IOC.

London had a typographic treatment with a swirly, festive 'finish line' ribbon entwined around its letterforms. Madrid had their abstract rippling flag/Olympic flame icon. Paris their informal 'love Paris' type-based approach. Moscow had a church tower (?) or is it a bowling bowl being tossed off a mountain?*

New York had their Statue of Liberty/athlete with a victory salute being held up by a gangster.

Or at least that's what Channel 10 thought. They unfortunately used a spoof logo (the real one does not feature a scared statue/athlete being held up at gunpoint).

As reported on the ABC's Media Watch, Speak Up and the originator of the parody logo: The Gothamist.

*Please note that bowling is, as of yet, not accredited as an official Olympic sport.