Thursday 12 August 2010

Calm in an Alienating Storm

Ever since I got back from New York I have been thrown through the technical hell of creating a huge interactive questionnaire. I'm using XForms with server-side support from BetterForm - fascinating, and I think powerful architecture, but as with so many things like this, it doesn't *quite* work!

More interesting is how I feel. Programming seems to suck the soul out of me. I feel 'instrumentalised', technologically-determined. It's quite alienating. A world full of this is a horrible world. Is this where we're going? What can we do about it?

I did this improvisation to calm down. What's 'calming' about it? Slow regular metre - gently rocking some human sense in a madly disruptive world maybe; Steadying disruptions with undramatic harmony; Stillness which draws me back to what I perceive, not on the crazy communications I'm having to make; Like a prayer.

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