why? he has a book coming out. an experimental site. a new dog. and a daughter.
why not?

how did you get started with putery things?

I got online to email my wife, who was then my girlfriend. She was going to school in Georgia and I was here in Alabama. I gradually got into breaking into other people's unix and vax systems online. But I started getting headaches every time I would go on these late night intrusion raids, so I took that as a sign that it was time to stop. Making web sites seemed the next most interesting thing.

what do you do for a crust? (gusset not realising that the term "crust" - ie - means of supporting oneself isn't global)

answer 1: I'm trying to make something metaphorical or slangy out of that question, and I just can't. Sometimes I eat out at CiCi's Pizza for lunch. It's a buffet. It's not that good, but it's filling. Plus they shout things whenever they make a specialty pizza. Sometimes they have the TV tuned into ESPN extreme sports, so that is kind of fun to watch. More often than not, it's some equestrian show, which is easily ignorable. One time it was women's skeet shooting. You just never know.

answer 2: I used to do this:
http://www.integritymusic.com
now I do this:
http://www.lab404.com/work/

how did you get involved in writing a book?

I went to a web design conference in New Orleans and attended a talk on "the fine art of screen design," which was basically just a rehash of the last half of Philip Megg's "A History of Graphic Design." I thought I could give a better, more web-centric talk, so I built a web site and sent it in to the conference people as a proposal for a talk.

Some months later, I met Jeffrey Zeldman at dreamless. He asked me to write an article for a list apart. So I did, and in that article, I linked to the conference talk proposal. Michael Nolan read the article, linked to the talk site, read some of my other online articles, and sent me an email asking me if I wanted to write a book for New Riders. I said yes.

what have you got out of the process of writing one?

I made some new friends. I codified some vague ideas. I stayed up a lot. I missed several days of work. And I got some money.

what are the other styles around besides the big ten that you thought of featuring?

a sort of cube flash style: natzke, stride-on, dennisinter.

And a bubbly sweet iconic style thing: thedesignersrepublic, designershock (maybe it has something to do with having the word "designer" in your URL.)

what's the draw for you of places like rhizome.org and dreamless.org?

It helps my thinking to come up against other people who are thinking. It codifies my ideas, helps me clarify where I'm coming from. I'm on an overt mission to persuade designers to be more conceptual, and to persuade ugly concept artists to be more pretty. So I guess I have an agenda. But mostly, it's just a free education.

in another interview that you've done (with yourself), you talked about self doubt. how do you deal with it?

That interview was mostly just to mock pretension. I guess I deal with self-doubt by making another playdamage installment. Then I look at it and say, "yes, that's cool. That's what I wanted to make." And then the self-doubt goes away until it's time to make another one.

current picks of stuff that you love, web or otherwise?

I'm soaking in Marshall McLuhan's "Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man" lately --and it tweaks me. Online, titler is king, and has been for the last year. The movie "Beat Street" perpetually and deeply inspires me, and I don't care who knows it. Musically, I've been listening to the Danielson Famile and Mary Timony/ Helium an inordinate amount lately. And finally, I'd like to thank the academy, and my producers. Look ma, no hands.

future plans?

lather. soak. rinse. repeat.

peace,
curt
http://www.playdamage.org
http://www.lab404.com