So today is the last day of Guardian Leeds, and this pledge gets a mention in John Baron's characteristically gracious and professional signing-off post. Leeds won't let quality local news slip away without a fuss. There have been two meetings and numerous discussions about what happens next. You can find out more on two new … Continue reading Guardian Leeds: the regeneration begins
"Si j'etais bien en fonds, j'achèterais une presse !" - French Revolutionary Camille Desmoulins The role of the printing press as transformational communication technology is a commonplace so powerful that it is frequently invoked as a parallel to the Internet. We think of it in terms of the spread of ideas, of bibles hitherto copied … Continue reading Rev. Dr. Priestley in the Library with the lead type
"Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts. Ancient scribes made errors or alterations when copying manuscripts by hand. Given a manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic seeks … Continue reading D-block GB-588000-207000, a textual criticism
Think about this carefully because it's quite a commitment. The Guardian is “winding down” its Guardian Local pilot including the successful Leeds blog. I think this is a mistake. In just a short time John Baron and Sarah Hartley have created a service that gives a new and authentic voice to the UK’s sixth largest … Continue reading I will commit £23.32 per month to a citizen-run news service for Leeds that offers quality writing with a determinedly local focus but only if 35 other local people will do the same
Thanks to @MrAlanCooper for highlighting Rahul Sen's beautifully-written piece on the relevance of the Bauhaus movement to modern-day interaction design. The world would be a better place if more designers could cultivate such a deep appreciation of the history. I tried to comment on the Johnny Holland blog but was foiled by the pernicious Recaptcha, … Continue reading Mobile experience in use and ornament
There's something tantalising about unfinished buildings. This one's not on the scale of Nostell Priory's west front pediment but was a delight to happen across on a Northumbrian spring day. The small stone gargoyles on the north wall of St Michael and all Angels Church, Howick, were all carved by Maria, 3rd Countess Grey (daughter-in-law … Continue reading Insert faces here: a 160-year-old placeholder made of stone
Culture Vulture Emma challenges us all to see our home town anew through the eyes of a tourist. My contribution is over on the Culture Vulture blog: A railway that runs on coal and love And if you liked that, you might also like this: Good Engines a 12-page black-and-white newspaper telling the tale of … Continue reading A railway that runs on coal and love
This is my youngest son, Pascal, when he was two years old. He's looking sheepish because he's just picked an apple. It's an apple from the orchard at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, the orchard where Isaac Newton first conceived of gravity. We were drawn to this beautiful, remote farmhouse for a tea break on a long … Continue reading “The bit where the screen went black and you said ‘look up'”: on the irresistible pull of a story in the place where it happened
London has Christopher Wren, Barcelona Antonio Gaudi, and Leeds, well Leeds has Cuthbert Brodrick, the Victorian architect who left us just a handful of public buildings including the amazing, elipitical Corn Exchange. So when the organisers of Bettakultcha, the most fun you'll ever have with Microsoft Office, secured it as the venue for their latest … Continue reading Corn and Grit: Notes from a talk at Bettakultcha VII
Cornelia Parker got the army to blow up a shed full of stuff and then hung the shards from an art gallery ceiling. It felt like a metaphor for almost all the talks at Matt Locke's brilliant event, The Story: everywhere narratives are fragmenting, and no one seems certain how to put them back together. … Continue reading Small pieces loosely joined: on the way home from the Story
Tim Wright's 'Harrison Fraud', the tale of a practical joke gone too far, was a highlight for me of last year's The Story. Now he has worked with another favourite project of mine, Bookleteer, to make 'The Second Book of Urizen', a walk around London in the footsteps of William Blake. It's a booklet, not … Continue reading Blakewalking back to 1794
I transcribed this sign in preparation for a talk about the Leeds Corn Exchange at Bettakultcha VII. I love the way we can tell so much of the building's history from the list of things that were forbidden there. Like Rachel Whiteread's 'House', the art is in the negative space. The corn factors have gone, … Continue reading Corn Market Bye-laws: history in the negative
An Anecdote, related by Citizen Thelwall, at the Capel Court Society, during the discussion of a question, relative to the comparative Influence of the Love of Life, of Liberty, and of the Fair Sex, on the Actions of Mankind. You must know then, that I used, together with a variety of youthful attachments, to be … Continue reading King Chaunticlere; or, the Fate of Tyranny
We have three great presenters for the next Service Design Thinks Leeds on Tuesday 1 February 2011. Simon East, of Drivegain, on "Designing a new eco-driving service" Jean Mutton, Student Experience Project Manager, University of Derby, on "Designing the Enrolment experience" Lauren Currie, Snook, Glasgow, (by Skype link) on "How Snook do Service Design in … Continue reading New year, new thinks
The depths of winter, two weeks off to take stock of where we are and where we're going, a chance to catch up with family and friends. We travelled through blizzards, cooked and ate good food, lit fires, drank wine, fiddled with MP3 play-lists, time-shifted TV, and made one (thankfully minor) visit to Accident and Emergency. We … Continue reading And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet
Matt Edgar writes here 