Ok, maybe the title is a little too strong but…take a look at the name of this blog
Yep, i’m talking about Jonathan Harris speech (beyond flash) , the last one of the conference, the only speech many people have been concerned of, and yes, i’m concerned too. FOTB has been a great conference, many wonderful sessions, many good speakers, many interesting things…but the last one was really tagged as “moralism”. I didn’t want to post about it, FOTB has to be considered a great conference, but i can’t keep my mouth closed about that session.
Jonathan session can be resumed with few words:
- he talked about the motivation and the message behind a work
- he showed many examples about it…all USELESS according to my point of view…
- he killed a whale to build up a website on which you can see every single frame of that story… (tell that story to greenpeace Jonathan!
) - he went to buthan to interview poor people and give them one baloon for each own personal wish revealed to the camera\audience (what a shame…never heard about HONOR!?)
- he built up an installation inside new york museum to make people dating…something like this, but maybe more beautiful to the eye…
- also he talked us as we were stupid guys unable to think or to have our own feelings. (this really got me nervous…)
Now…this is a slide from Jonathan’s presentation…if your work doesn’t fit these points sorry guys, you’re wasting your time…

I think the wondeful mistake Jonathan made is to put everything together…he was talking about websites, applications, art…everything, and “everything” is NEVER fitting those points. Is a RIA, or a website able to make cry someone? YES, just put a “while(true)” somewhere in the code
I just read Jonathan “clarification” on his session, but i think he had better to think at the consequences before speak about something so “dangerous”.
