Flip flop

A few years ago at a National Digital Forum, Andy Neale spoke about the digital/physical cycle; things that move from digital to physical to digital to physical (for example, a photo of a stained glass window posted to Flickr, printed, used to inspire the pattern for a quilt, in turn photographed and put online ...).

I was reminded of this recently, reading Dan Catt's piece Dancing the flip-flop, going by the new aesthetic playbook and devaluing art. Catt takes the phrase 'flip flop' from this piece by Robin Sloan. In it, Sloan uses the video below as a sublime example of the flip flop:

It’s not as direct as the recipes above, but it absolutely qualifies as the flip-flop, and it’s exemplary of the possibility waiting here. Think of each step below as a broad cultural activity, not a specific personal action:

1. Move. PHYSICAL
2. Record that motion. DIGITAL
3. Cut it up. Slow it down. Watch the results. STILL DIGITAL
4. Reenact what you’ve seen. PHYSICAL AGAIN
5. Record that motion. Post it on YouTube. OMG

Catt's post includes a smattering of Github, the New Aesthetic and bots churning out endless variations of designs in Zazzle. It's a goodie. And as for that video? It blows my mind.