About a year ago an essay appeared in The New Yorker about the ubiquitous Microsoft program, PowerPoint. It proffered the ideas that PowerPoint had a built-in power to structure the way people composed presentations and that it stifled creativity. This piece about David Byrne by Jackson Braider shows that this is not true. The secret to PowerPoint is to start with a blank page - don't use a template and let one's mind roam. This is an artistic piece about a much maligned piece of software, which is a tool, like a keyboard, a camera, a guitar. Mr. Braider found someone who uses this particular tool with imagination. Because of the popularity of PowerPoint, this piece has wide appeal and would fit in well in a business or arts segment.
Review of David Byrne Does PowerPoint
Deborah Astley
Posted on October 09, 2004 at 03:19 PM
About a year ago an essay appeared in The New Yorker about the ubiquitous Microsoft program, PowerPoint. It proffered the ideas that PowerPoint had a built-in power to structure the way people composed presentations and that it stifled creativity. This piece about David Byrne by Jackson Braider shows that this is not true. The secret to PowerPoint is to start with a blank page - don't use a template and let one's mind roam. This is an artistic piece about a much maligned piece of software, which is a tool, like a keyboard, a camera, a guitar. Mr. Braider found someone who uses this particular tool with imagination. Because of the popularity of PowerPoint, this piece has wide appeal and would fit in well in a business or arts segment.