Recently noted:

• Joshua Noble considers the primacy of utility for the Eyewriter project. Noble: "The medium of its art is both as an object and as the work that is created with it. This isn’t to say that there is a perfect balance between object and utility, that they are weighted with perfect equality. Utility wins out; nothing is added that doesn’t contribute directly to the use to which it is put, the design dictum “form follows function” is obeyed, and yet the purpose to which is it is put, it’s conditions, are explicitly art." Also, see Noble's recent essay on Interactive Architecture for Rhizome.
• Fred Scharmen discusses the "containerization" of art, architecture and digital networks.
• The recent suicide of mischievous designer Tobias Wong left many of his friends and peers scratching their heads – no-one saw it coming. Alex Williams scrutinizes the circumstances surrounding Wong's death for The New York Times and provides a grim, fascinating read.
• Peter Kirn looks beyond MIDI to consider the best way to digitally represent musical notes. Kirn: "From the Moog sequencer to the Page R editor on the Fairlight CMI sampler to the array of buttons on Roland’s grooveboxes, rhythmic sequencers that follow the grids devised in Western music notation are often the most popular. Even if the paradigm of the interface is one degree removed from the notation, the assumptions of how rhythms are divided – and thus the kinds of patterns you produce – remain."

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