From the optical illusion of the Russell Square aeroplane to the temporal plywood of anniversaries. At one level, anniversaries are meaningless folds in the map - artifacts of an arbitrary time-system force-fitted onto the relentless drift of natural history. An ocean liner strikes an iceberg and sinks. The-square-of-the-number-of-fingers-a-human-has multiplied by the-time-it-takes-for-the-Earth-to-circumnavigate-the-Sun later, we're watching a … Continue reading View – History – Flatten layers: part 2. Anniversaries
Category: introspection
Week 790: Leaving Orange
On Valentine's Day 1997, I left my job as a newspaper journalist to work with the small, smart team who were building a pioneering news service for the web in a squat, Leeds-look, edge-of-centre office block. "You can always come back," said my editor, "if this Internet thing doesn't work out." For a long time … Continue reading Week 790: Leaving Orange
View – History – Flatten layers: Part 1. The Russell Square Aeroplane
One summer morning a jetplane flew south over central London, gear down, seatbelts on, devices off. Thousands of feet below, traffic flowed around Russell Square. An open top bus turned into Bedford Way, plunging its passengers into the shade of the tall university buildings. Thanks to the aristocrats whose names the streets wear, this part … Continue reading View – History – Flatten layers: Part 1. The Russell Square Aeroplane
“Our real stories are too dangerous to tell”
Once more to The Story at the Conway Hall, where facts and artistry have an uneasy relationship. Matthew Sheret's god-like view of Last FM users' scrobbles calls into question the hours spent by artists, producers, and record companies in sequencing the songs on an album. "Before we had data..." explains away Simon Thornton, recalling past … Continue reading “Our real stories are too dangerous to tell”
No Idle Words: a style guide for the age of austerity
Russell Davies' lovely post on the writing style of the GOV.UK beta inspired me to scan this 1951 Post Office writing guide. We inherited it from my wife's grandfather who taught telecommunications at the Post Office's training college, in the days before BT. If anyone knows more about the booklet I'd love to hear from … Continue reading No Idle Words: a style guide for the age of austerity
A message from you mobile
Being text of a presentation delivered at Ignite Leeds on 2 February 2012. Who in here is holding a phone in their hand right now? OK, everyone be very quiet. Can you hear them? Did you ever wonder where they all came from? What they want? When billions of a new species appear on Earth … Continue reading A message from you mobile
“That even space travel is now a reality”
And now for today's news from the Department of Serendipity. Quote Investigator digs diligently, delightfully and with positive results into the provenance of William Gibson's lumpily doled-out future|present. But the bit that stands out for me is Ralph Thomas' 1967 criticism of Marshall McLuhan... McLuhan suffers also from a mixed-up time sense. He believes the … Continue reading “That even space travel is now a reality”
History is the handrail
History is the handrail for which we reach when knocked off balance by the present day. Therefore it seems apt that at the Museum of London a "timeline handrail" runs from 1688 to 2012, around the new Galleries of Modern London. At first sight this is a cute way to lay out the span of … Continue reading History is the handrail
#walkshopping (winter edition)
We made a walkshop! At sunset on Tuesday, undeterred by George Osborne, high winds and torrential rain, 17 of Yorkshire's finest designers, technologists and geographers gathered to walk and talk, to see Leeds in a new light. The inspiration came from Adam Greenfield and Nurri Kim’s booklet “Systems/Layers”: “A walkshop is a new kind of … Continue reading #walkshopping (winter edition)
Down with Façadism: a provocation for Culture Hack North
I was honoured to be asked to do a short talk on the opening afternoon of the brilliant Culture Hack North event in Leeds this weekend. For one thing, it was a chance to appear alongside Rachel Coldicutt's dream team of Rohan Gunatillake, Natasha Carolan, Lucy Bannister, Helen Harrop, Frankie Roberto and Greg Povey. Also, … Continue reading Down with Façadism: a provocation for Culture Hack North
Video: Five minutes on the pace of change
Presentation at Bettakultcha's Hallowe'en event, the day the human population hit seven billion... Original post: http://matt.me63.com/2011/09/16/the-pace-of-change/
“If they could sentence me for thinking, I would have been sentenced for life”
This Ada Lovelace Day I'd like to introduce you to Laura Ann Willson of Halifax. The way into this tale, the loose thread that first attracted my attention, is a 1920s advertisement. But tugging that thread a little, Laura Willson's story just gets better and better. Her achievements, it seems, are so diverse that no … Continue reading “If they could sentence me for thinking, I would have been sentenced for life”
Let’s talk service design in Leeds. And one more thing
We're fortunate to have three great presenters for the next Service Design Thinks Leeds on Tuesday 25 October. (It's our seventh event, but we're calling it SD Thinks Leeds | 04.) In part 1, we'll have perspectives on service design in health from Jane Wood and Daniela Sangiorgi. In part 2, Rory Hamilton will show … Continue reading Let’s talk service design in Leeds. And one more thing
The pace of change
It has become a commonplace of our culture that we live in a time of accelerating change. Take this extract from Stephanie Rieger and Bryan Rieger’s dConstruct presentation. Slides 52-56... It took radio 40 years to reach a market penetration of 50 million... by comparison we only had 10 years to 'adapt' to television... while … Continue reading The pace of change
At dConstruct, the real world is calling. It wants its designers back
Kelly Goto stands on the stage at Brighton's Dome, head down, staring at her palm, a perfect mimic of the modern smartphone user, and issues a simple challenge to the dConstruct audience: "Help people to stay upright." This is the pivotal moment at which digital design finds itself. After decades training people to gaze into … Continue reading At dConstruct, the real world is calling. It wants its designers back
Matt Edgar writes here 