Introducing Colonnade & Entablature

What's all this, then?

Welcome to the first issue of the Colonnade & Entablature. The purpose of C&E is to seek to understand the technological, legal, cultural and societal processes that are changing and molding how we experience the world(s) that we share, together. The name refers to classical architecture, with the colonnade being a series of columns that hold up the entablature, an ornamented superstructure that lays across column capitals.

Each Tuesday I will publish a new issue with a brief column, a handful of links related to C&E’s key pillars of Emerging Media, Social, Influence and Platforms, and an endorsement by me of another media product that I appreciate. I expect that the news, analysis and examples that I share will be of interest to strategists, analysts, creatives and marketers.

My pledge to you as a reader is that you can assume good faith in my approach to curating and sharing the content of the newsletter, and trust that I am not deliberately seeking to antagonize, inflame or injure through the topics I choose to write about, or what I select to share with my audience. I welcome any and all feedback, and will accept reader comments on the same basis (that they are addressed in good faith).

Let’s talk some more about those key pillars I mentioned above. Here’s a quick summary of what I mean by each of them:

• Emerging Media - I am intrigued by the new formats that now mediate our experience of the world(s). This includes both common mobile technology like the smartphone, as well as new applications such as virtual/augmented/mixed reality, virtual worlds like the so-called ‘metaverse’, and audio interfaces of the type you find on a smart speaker or automobile voice interface.

• Social Media - This pillar focuses on the intersection of social media and culture, technology, law and politics. As more of us receive information through algorithmic social feeds and express ourselves via selective disclosures to our friends and followers on social media, what does that mean for pluralistic society?

• Influence - A consequence of Emerging and Social Media is a rupture from the old rules of mass communication. Where once one needed to control a printing press, radio tower or TV antenna to reach and influence a wide audience, now each of us holds the potential for infinite reach in our hands. How do different people activate this possibility, and what are some successful techniques that they employ to do it?

• Platforms - Technology has eliminated many of the classical restrictions of time and space, allowing buyers and sellers to meet and communicate without regard for their physical proximity. This has driven the rise of platforms to provide such marketplaces across a variety of goods and services, but what are the economic consequences of the likes of Uber, Amazon and Apple?

My goal is to keep the focus of this newsletter within the four pillars outlined above.

Regarding the endorsement section, I will use this portion of the newsletter to highlight a cultural object that I enjoy and want to recommend to my readers. It may be a podcast, another newsletter, a book, a Twitch channel, whatever. I will not make any endorsement unless it is actually something that I appreciate, and I will not accept any kind of payment or other in-kind gift in exchange for inclusion in the endorsement section.

Finally, a bit about myself: my name is Richard and I am a digital and social media strategist and account director with ten years of experience in the agency world. I am a global traveler and history buff who has lived on three continents. I have two masters degrees and have studied under thinkers like Manuel Castells and Slavoj Zizek. I’ve worked in the editorial department of glossy fashion magazines in New York City and in the development department of a mini-major studio in Hollywood. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and early on was introduced to the internet at my grade school’s library. All of this experience and knowledge has informed my views and interests in the topics covered by this newsletter, but I don’t presume to be more knowledgeable about them than anybody else.

I hope that you will enjoy Colonnade & Entablature, and I welcome any comments and feedback. If you like the newsletter, please recommend it to your friends and connections.

If you want to follow me, you can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Medium, or email me at colonnadeandentablature@gmail.com

See you next Tuesday!