My talk from day one of IAMW16 in Barcelona, exploring what the mechanics behind the internet are, why we look for them, and why we might be looking for the wrong thing.

1. Metamechanics
Working out how
the internet works
John V Willshire
@willsh
Smithery, London
#IAMW16
Barcelona

3. culture
Things
People
prototype
strategydesign

5. Jean Tinguely
Swiss Artist &
Scupltor
1925-1991

6. http://www.vernissage.tv
Most famous for his
kinetic sculptures…
if you stare
long enough,
you see how
they work

7. Like a lot of the
exhibits here in the
Cosmocaixa museum

8. Stare at it,
see how
it works

9. Humans
love
spotting
patterns
in repeat
behaviour

10. Mechanics
“the behavior of physical
bodies when subjected to
forces or displacements, and
the subsequent effects of the
bodies on their environment”
Wikipedia

11. Mechanics:
What happens
to things
when
things happen
to them

12. What makes the
internet go round?

13. What patterns, what
mechanics can we spot?
Let’s think Small, then big…

14. “an aggregation of many individual
pieces of content”At home, I have Lots
of packs of cards

18. Content: what’s on the cards
Design Fiction Kit: Near Future Laboratory

19. Mechanics: that they are cards
Design Fiction Kit: Near Future Laboratory

20. artefactshop.com
We make these

21. Artefact
cards are
high quality
blank cards
for working
on projects

22. Deal
Shuffle
Order
Stack
Turn
Spread
Rearrange

23. card Mechanics are
about movement

24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9dIQOrVhM5E - Prof. John Wood, TED, on Synergies
“The Creative Quartet” - Prof. John Wood
1
2
3 45 6

25. “We are currently witnessing a
re-architecture of the web, away
from pages and destinations,
towards completely personalised
experiences built on an aggregation
of many individual pieces of
content…”
Paul Adams, Intercom
@padday

26. “an aggregation of many
individual pieces of content”

27. “an aggregation of many
individual pieces of content”

28. The mechanics of
cards allow us to
design quickly using
mechanics akin to
the internet

29. Let’s zoom out…

30. but this year…
Two separate
friends
recommended
I read these
two books

31. 1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999

34. What if these
two models fit
together?

35. FAST
SLOW SLOW
FAST
Does fast move fast,
and slow move slow?

37. The most interesting part of the
hybrid model is the gearbox

38. P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
S5
S4
S3
S2
S1
THE
GEARBOX
slowFast
slowFast

39. P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
S5
S4
S3
S2
S1
The slow
drift east
cronuts
for lunch
We can see conventional
relationships of fast and slow

40. P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
S5
S4
S3
S2
S1
Lighting
displays based
on actions
But start to see how the internet
allows us to create new things

41. P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
S5
S4
S3
S2
S1
product
futures as
marketing
But start to see how the internet
allows us to create new things

43. Internet Mechanics:
continually moving,
always unexpected,
often unintended
http://www.vernissage.tv

44. “Working out how
the internet works”
This isn’t really the
right thing to aim at…

45. Stare at it,
see how
it works?

46. Stare at it,
see how
it works?

47. “We wanna
see the
patterns…”

48. Pattern match
that, kids

49. People keep
getting in
the wayhttp://www.vernissage.tv

50. And the
internet
helps
people keep
get weirder

51. “In science, when human
behaviour enters the
equation, things go nonlinear.
That’s why Physics is easy
and Sociology is hard.”
@neiltyson

52. Strategy is dead.
design appropriately.

53. Strategy is dead.
design appropriately.
Where once a strategy would hold
for years, we are now witnessing a
world in which a strategy can’t
even hold for the time it takes to
formulate one.
Everything keeps changing.

54. OODA Loops
Observe
Orient
Decide
Act

55. Observe
Orient
Decide
Act

56. Observe
Orient
Decide
Act
A metastrategy, a
strategy of
strategies: do the
most appropriate
thing for your
circumstances

57. Design WITH the
mechanics, not
AGAINST them

58. Kareisu
(empty Chair)

59. </happyending>

60. ?

61. Jean Tinguely
Study for The End of the World 2

62. self-destructing
machines

63. These are all
products of
the internet.
For all the
good the
randomness
brings, other
stuff is made
possible
too…

64. self-destructing
machine?
what if the internet is a

65. Thanking y’all
John V Willshire
@willsh
#IAMW16
Barcelona
smithery.co
artefactshop.com