You know, the best thing about this month’s Wired is the cover. Meant to publicize their weird lead story about bringing a sense of smell to cyberspace, the cover used the olfactory shattering talents of that Ren and Stimpy animator. There’s even one of those peel off scratch n sniff stickers placed squarely in the armpit of one of cartoonist John Kricfalusi’s patented Goon characters. Smelled like bubble gum by the way, and not sweat.
The story in itself was sort of interesting. The creators, called Digiscents, make this argument that smell is a missing ingredient in cyberspace. Personally, I’m looking forward to touch more. Preferably in the form of my trembling, submissive fembot slave version of Peta Wilson, who plays Le Femme Nikita. Just waiting for that suit to come online.
Meanwhile, back at the Wired article in question, the creators, invention seemed to pass the mustard with Wired journalist Charles Platt (always a sure bet by the way). He described it as looking like a pencil sharpener. Scents of orange peels, bananas and incense were clearly delivered by the machine, according to Platt. He does ask an interesting question as to whether people would be as interested in this as, say, MP3. I would have to answer with a definitive probably not.
I wonder if you could pick the scents to go along with the websites? I’d choose the fragrant aura of moldy books whenever I hit Amazon or a grungy sweaty hat whenever I accidentally click on the Drudge report. I wonder if there’s a scent for politically motivated slander.
The other significant big piece in this month’s Wired is a photo spread of 10 of history’s most significant computers, everything from Eniac to the Altair. The groundbreaking computers and parts were shot in a way that kind of reminded me of pornography shots. I suppose the seriously geek might find it kind of hot.
Meanwhile, back at the rest of the magazine, a somewhat uninspired issue this month. But chockful of pages and ads. You could take this month’s Fast Company and this month’s Wired, place one in each hand and get considerable resistance by way of arm curls.
Lots of small interesting pieces however, which sort of makes the whole stronger. There was a small bit on the electric paper that Xerox is developing, which was reported on the wires a lot over the last two weeks. There was also a very small piece on a plastic display developed in Britain that could be as revolutionary as that paper. Imagine people walking around with video displays on their backs. I sort of wish Wired had done a bit more with this story, even though there had already been a story done in MIT Tech Review some months ago. I guess that’s why I think the MIT review is now, page per page, wild notion after wild notion, the best science mag on the market now.
There was also a very interesting graphic that compared Jerry Hall boyfriends Mick Jagger against Paul Allen. Examples: Mick jagger: Dabbled in Satanism during “Sympathy for the Devil” period. Paul Allen: Longtime friend of Bill Gates. Mick Jagger: Many still consider him sexy. Paul Allen: Cofounder, Microsoft.
Aside from the smell story, I didn’t think that most of their lead stories were that interesting. The stories feel slightly overedited. Whenever a bigshot like Po Branson or Bruce Sterling write you always get the sense of an author's voice. I didn't get that feeling from their pieces on Schwab or the New Sony. Factual, just not a lot by way of storytelling. I also think that Wired has gotten too conservative visually. I liked it more when they were irresponsible and hard to read.
November's Red Herring, for example, looks better this month. But there were some good photos, namely some progressive architecture and a select scene from Toy Story II.
Overall, though, Wired should always be more ambitiously designed than Red Herring. Very disappointing. Sure, it was a little hard to actually read in the old days but I could feel the passion as it were…Just couldn’t make out all the words is all.
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