It is my honor and delight to announce today the creation of a new blog I’m writing — RelationShaping — where we try to give form and meaning to the way technology re-frames and transforms the human body in a relational universe.  Here’s our new semiotic semantic logo that serves our mission:  “The Spear of Technology Piercing the Body In Situ ->(” and we are grateful for your company.


The idea for RelationShaping was originally inspired by a blog post I wrote here called — Virtual RelationShaping — on November 10, 2005, when I wondered how we formed each other in a virtual ether and that mind-body-memeing started here but ends there.

In my most recent RelationShaping article — Proof of Life:  Dying to Blog — I said this about the movable form you are now reading:

People who blog have obsessive personalities because they realize what few in the world ever acknowledge:  Publication
is proof of life, evidence of accomplishment, and on-the-record
preservation of a life lived — along with a Google forbearance against
immortality.

I invite you to join me at RelationShaping.com for a deeper discussion concerning what makes us alive in a virtual world.

We require you sign in there to comment as we also do here — we do that to discourage Anonymous Cowardice on the internet — and you can sign in using a Movable Type account you create with us or you can use a pre-existing OpenID, LiveJournal, Vox, AIM or WordPress.com account to login.

Once you’re signed in — you can comment on UrbanSemiotic.com or RelationShaping.com — both blogs use the same login information, even though the Sign In URLs are different:  Sign In Once, Comment Everywhere!

Urban Semiotic and RelationShaping both use the incredible, new, Movable Type 4.1 blogging software and we ride on pair Networks servers.

If you have any comments or feedback, we are eager to hear from you. We are still fine-tuning the backend — Movable Type gives you all sorts of features and settings to employ for the best performance — but everything is relatively stable right now — but that doesn’t mean I won’t break something again on the back end later today.

30 Comments

  1. Hey, I think I’m in here now. This place looks good! Congrats on the new blog. I like the logo. I really like the purple.

  2. Thanks for the support, Janna! RelationShaping is just the start of a whole new flow of ideas that will be coming out soon…

  3. I went over to the other blog. The same logging in worked. That was neat. That’s a strange site, I have to say. Sort of scary.

  4. I appreciate your comment on RelationShaping.com. That blog does have a different look and feel to it.

  5. So I do love the new blog – is it just me, or does the logo kind of remind anyone of a frowning cyclops? The dash being the eye, the greater than sign being the nose, and the parenthesis being the frown.

  6. Hello Mr. Gordon! We are so loving your new glasses. You made the right choice. Clark Kent is so 1945. SMILE!
    The new RelationShaping.com blog offers many forming fascinations that we’ve touched upon in this Urb blog, but we can really dissect them over there.
    One great thing about having both blogs on a single MT4 installation is that I can bounce back-and-forth between them and do all my commenting and Admin stuff without having to log out and log in to another site. Slick!
    I like your take on the new logo! It is whatever you think it is. To me, it’s the pointed spear of technology readying to pierce the body.

  7. David–
    I’ve said it before. But who can possibly keep up with you? I’m still exploring the Urb etc. etc. It all looks very interesting.
    One question? Have you ever run out of ideas?
    Or had writer’s block? My guess would be your just a running stream of ideas that cannot be stopped–
    My other question is, Can we see Gordon in his new glasses, too?

  9. Hey there, Donna! We are always on full-tilt and total forward motion! If we slow down, we begin to decay. There are always too many ideas for my budget and time — but that’s a good thing because it causes real conditioning and thought on which ideas are actually worthwhile in pursuing.
    There will be some neat technologies coming out this Summer and Fall and that always tempts me to find a way to re-form that technology to better suit the whims of the world.
    This article from RelationShaping.com details ideas and inspiration and their terroristic threats against the body:
    http://relationshaping.com/2008/04/proof-of-life-dying-to-blog.html
    As for Writer’s Bock — I don’t believe it in — I think it’s an excuse to waste time. But, then again, I was taught this about the secret to good writing:
    http://urbansemiotic.com/2005/07/11/secret-to-good-writing
    I think Gordon just posted a link to his glasses!

  10. I love that image, Gordon! I downloaded the gigantoid original and I looked at everything in the background… the Wii remote on the counter controlling your thoughts, the metal alarm clock box waiting for filling, the empty bottle waiting for recycling, the colander drying… oh so much fun!
    And thing things we can do with that image of you! Oh, my! SMILE!

  12. I am also, Gordon, checking that image for traces of “ruthless” DNA.

  13. Look closely at that bottle next to the microwave. I saved it because it says “love” 🙂 I just updated the photo on flickr with a lot of notes to tell everyone what everything is. 🙂

  14. Those are great annotations, Gordon! I love how Flickr lets you have fun like that. You didn’t identify any ruthless DNA! We’re waiting!

  15. Well one way to look at the charge station for the wii mote is that I don’t want a moment to waste waiting for new batteries so I can have more time to Super Smash my enemies the most efficient way possible! 🙂

  17. Gordon, I love men in glasses! Very nice.
    Now I really go crazy for men in reading glasses.
    Something about those granny glasses on men…
    David, can’t wait to read your article on secrets to good writing. Do you really reveal all your secrets?
    Now I must go to see the world premiere of the “Seussification of Romeo and Juliet” at my daughter’s school where she is playing Narrator #1.
    Parting is such sweet sorrow here at the Urb

  18. Have a great time at the show, Donna!
    There’s really only one secret to good writing as you will soon discover.

  19. Hi David!
    love the template on relationshaping! plain text and white space and some neat css. makes for great reading!

  20. Thanks for that feedback, Dananjay! That Hemingway theme is most famous as a “dark style” theme and that’s why it never enticed me. I think grey/white text on a black background is impossible to read online. When I saw Hemingway in white, I thought I should try it. You’re right that its very elegance is in its simplicity.

  21. I didn’t know that David! i’m glad you chose this version. reverse text is tough on the eyes. especially since we’ve been conditioned from childhood to read black text on white.

  22. Hemingway is so appropriate! Reminds me of A Movable Feast 🙂

  23. You’d be surprised, Dananjay, how many people love “dark sites.” I find them terribly hard to read.
    One official forum board I used to frequent had dark grey text on a black background — it was impossible to read and if you didn’t read it, you weren’t able to react on the instruction. They refused to change it because it was “techno-hip” and they liked its inaccessibility.
    I chose to leave that group instead of stay and frustrate my mind and ruin my eyes!

  25. Yes, David!
    I’ve also noticed that this is more than common theme with forum sites. terrible choice if you want people to spend any amount of time reading large tracts of text. it’s ideal for showcasing images though. most photographer’s websites use it to good effect.
    thanks for the link david! i’ve saved it for future reference!

  26. If you’re looking at an images site, Dananjay, I agree that dark works. Text is a different matter and those who refuse to accept that fact are really hurting their readers! All the big, mainstream, blogs and websites use black text on a white background.

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