Design, Wit and the Creative Act Speaker Panel – Where Tobias Wong fooled us all (??)
The lineup for Design, Wit and the Creative Act, Core 77’s latest offsite event, promised to make for a fun and informative evening.
Ze Frank
Digital Age Satirist
zefrank.com
Tobias Wong
Artist
brokenoff.com
Paul Budnitz
Founder, Kidrobot
kidrobot.com
Kelly Dobson
Technologist
kellydobson.com
Steven Heller
Writer/Editor
hellerbooks.com
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First Impressions
As I walked into the Art Directors Club*, it seemed as though all of my ideas about what a design conference should look like had finally been realized.
Songs from an indie rock playlist filled the gallery-like space. A pair of young guys dressed in black fiddled with a video camera set up on a track that traced the back corner of the room. Attractive men and women with black-rimmed glasses sat in black folding chairs, paging through free copies of ID and Craft, or chatting near the coffee and Pepperidge Farm cookies.
It was, in short, the sexiest conference I’ve attended to date.
* (an appropriate and well-equipped venue, which I greatly appreciated after reading accounts of the horrible venue chosen for The Future of Webdesign)
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Ze Frank
The star of the evening was Ze Frank, who acted as moderator.
His ability to crack wise during awkward moments and play the jerky gentlemen helped smooth over bumps both technical and interpersonal.
Best of all, his bullshit barometer is well calibrated. On more than one occasion, Ze called out a speaker when he or she circled around or completely avoided questions. For instance, Paul Budnitz kept insisting that his morally-offensive aesthetic comes from nothing other than his personal sense of joy. Ze’s reply? “I guess I don’t buy [it].”
And did I mention he can name-drop DuChamp, Barthes and Sontag in a single sentence and not sound pretentious? Yeah. Great stuff.
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Steven Heller
There’s no question that Steven Heller is extremely well-qualified to speak at an event that deals with issues of design and “the creative act.” In fact, Ze pointed this out during his introduction and suggested that maybe Heller should have been the moderator. But the “wit” part tripped him up.
The crowd was unresponsive to his bogglingly brief slideshow, which seemed to focus on blunt humor more than wit — an important distinction. So he reverted to the role of “the unhip old guy,” inserting loudly lame jokes into his responses during the panel. As another attendee put it (too harshly, I think): “He just ended up looking creepy.”
But when he wasn’t trying to be funny, his insight into the history of the medium was refreshing in the midst of the others’ unintentional self-promotion. If he would have recognized the value in his ability to play the straight man instead of trying to mix it up with the younger crowd, he could have avoided the discomfort that he both obviously felt and sometimes evoked.
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Tobias Wong — or Not
It’s entirely possible that the man that was saw speak and present himself as Tobias Wong was, in fact, someone else entirely.
Before the event, I had seen only one small photo of Wong, which seemed to picture a dark-haired Asian man. So I was surprised when a very American-looking blond took the stage. But not being entirely familiar with him or his work, I took only a mental note of this, and listened on. Later that evening, another attendee mentioned his surprise at his appearance and I agreed. The conversation ended there.
But today I couldn’t get over the feeling that something about him wasn’t quite right. So I Googled his image and found that all of the results were of a short, thinnish Asian man with dark hair, kind of large eyebrows, and a mark on his chin. The man that we saw lacked any of these traits.
Observe…
(guy in the middle is Tobias Wong in 2006, via Inhabitat)
(guy on the right is “Tobias Wong” in 2007, via my Flickr photos)
I think it would take more than a dye job and some weight gain to make these two bodies belong to the same person in a little more than a year.
After hearing him speak about his work — and considering the topic — I have the sneaking suspicion that we were all listening intently and paying homage to someone who was, in fact, an actor.
I’ve been in a very conspiracy-theory kind of mindset since the latest Facebook fiasco, but I think I might actually be right here. If anyone has any comments on this, I would very much like to hear them, either here or via e-mail [heather (dot) rasley (at) gmail].
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Thoughts on Kelly Dobson and Paul Budnitz to follow.
Hi Heather,
I just got an email from Ze Frank telling me that Tobias Wong isn’t in-fact Tobias Wong. This explains the wrong picture on the core77 list of speakers…so what’s the deal? is this a joke i didn’t get? If so i guess he was right when he said that humor is only effective in its relevant cultural context. I hope to clarify this and update as more information is available…but for some weird reason i feel that The joke in this case was on us.
See my overview of the event on my blog:
designmanagement.typepad.com
Ah ha!! I knew it! Please keep me updated on any further discoveries. We were definitely had last night. No question.
It wasn’t Tobias, it was a friend of his, another designer. The setup was an art project on Tobias’s part, they practiced together for some time to make it work. There were a lot of little jokes in fake Tobias’s talk for people who knew what was going on. Tobias was in the audience, actually answered a question for fake-Tobias during his talk.
Yeah, it’s been confirmed to me by reputable sources by now. Again, I get the joke, but here’s the thing… While inside jokes are often very funny, they usually end up hurting someone by their exclusionary nature. In this case, the victims were the audience members who paid $50-$195 to see someone who they were eager to learn about. I think there were about a dozen ways that the joke could have been played out in a way that wasn’t so “insider.” At the very least, they could have asked Real Tobi to come out and take a bow at the very end.
I also went to the event and wasn’t familiar with Tobias’ work but sensed something was off. I’m disappointed that no one in the audience or one of the panelists outed the imposter– THAT would have made good theater. I think it was a lame joke, but it definitely quenched any interest I have in Tobias’ work.
so… what does this prove? that most people don’t know what tobias wong looks like? i guess being a designer makes your lame practical joke an “art project”
make your own tobias wong ‘original’: http://www.colorwarepc.com/
i think “tobias wong” should also change his name.
Does it really make you a victim if the hoax trully reflects the nature of Tobias’s work? For more details on the “fake” Tobias check my post on the hoax entry…
so, the true question: where you there to see the real tobias or there to learn more about his approach, designs, work, etc…? everything was presented acurately “tobias” indeed talked and answered questions seriously.
if youre there to see tobias, then make a lunch date with him directly. it will cost a lot less that the core77 event.
nice article :) and Tobi Wang shouldn’t change his name :D
In the stage was Tobias Wrong : )