Bee meets bonnet: the Other Fourth Plinth

If knowledge and enthusiasm are the raw materials of our post-industrial society then The Culture Vulture is proof of the rich seam of the stuff that runs beneath Leeds and Bradford. It’s all the more amazing because it’s the independent, unfunded achievement of one person, Emma Bearman, who routinely marshals a large and eclectic mix of contributors to keep the site choc full of new and interesting things.

So I’m delighted to have finally got around to contributing something myself, by way of a modest proposal for Leeds’ own fourth plinth. Some may call it rabble rousing or think I have a bee in my bonnet :) but I like to think of it as a simple amuse-bouche for a couple of forthcoming events.

I’ll be speaking about the Makers of Leeds at TEDxLeeds2010 on Wednesday 10 November and about James Watt Junior’s feud with Matthew Murray at Interesting North on Saturday 13 November.

The two talks will be separate and self-contained, but both are part of a wider arc of discovery and storytelling that I started with a GeekUp Leeds talk in February last year and continued with “1794” at Ignite London and in this experiment.

The plan also involves a newspaper, of which more follows.

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