the white island

look at all the people

right now, on this beautiful, spring-like thursday evening, i am sitting in one of my favorite places - weaver street market - and accomplishing very little. instead i am looking at multimedia on the web (clearly something i am addicted to) and watching all of the people here at weaver street. a man just left his table.. he must have been between 40 and 55.. and he had a shaven head and was wearing a long, maroon skirt and a vest with no sleeves coming out from it. he looked very monk-like, an appearance i assume he was probably going for, though the vest added a quirky twist to his style since it looked like it came more from an outdoors store than a monastery. and there are so many other fascinating people here.. as always.. like the man with the dreads who always meditates, the laughing children, the countless hippies, the grungy, contemplative writers.. it goes on and on. And so it was fitting that just a few minutes ago, Feilding sent me a link to Monoface, where the picture above comes from (click on it for the link). It's a flash-based site that allows the user to click on the eyes, nose, mouth and head of the person and you can shuffle through different options. I mixed features to create the face above. And it's a fun thing to play with but it it is certainly in interesting in the context of thinking about the many unique people in this world.

The other site I found is a project called "6 Billion Others" and it features interviews from people all over the world. Some are simply the people introducing themselves. Others are on specific subjects, like laughter. The point, it seems, is to show that no matter where we are from, people are all the same in a sense. And this is certainly an important concept to keep in mind when we think about the global community that is now thriving thanks to technology. It is worth watching to remind us of these things. Click below to see the site.

posted by Whitney Shefte @ 6:17 PM