"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
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
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
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
The Interesting North team have done a brilliant job on the video of my Matthew Murray and James Watt presentation, "Green Sand and Subterfuge". After you've watched it, why not read more about Murray and the Good Engines newspaper that I made to go with my talk, or relive some of the other Interesting North presentations.
Interesting North presentations by James Boardwell and Toby Barnes plus an all-too-short chat with Tom Armitage in the pub after the event prompted me to rescue this post from my blog's permanently-in-draft folder. I'm not sure it's finished yet, but make of it what you will. Originally it was going to be a sober and … Continue reading Aramis, or the Love of Pedalling
Notes for my TEDxLeeds presentation, "The Makers of Leeds". The Prezi version is here. It starts with the amazing view from the top of the TEDxLeeds venue, the Mint, which looks out over Leeds on all sides. The American architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen said: "When you look at a city, it's like reading the hopes, aspirations … Continue reading The Makers of Leeds
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 … Continue reading Bee meets bonnet: the Other Fourth Plinth
It's Heritage Open Days from 9-12 September, a once-a-year chance of free access to properties that are usually closed to the public or charge for admission. Buildings all over England will be open, except in London where you have to wait a week for Open House on 18-19 September. Like every year I'm spoiled for choice with … Continue reading A bath, a clock and a giant walking robot – it’s Heritage Open Days this weekend
OK, so I have to get this stuff down by midnight before my head turns into a pumpkin. dConstruct was a day well-spent, listening, tweeting, scribbling and discussing design and creativity - with nine of the most thought-provoking talks we'll hear in the UK this year. And some of my smartest colleagues and former colleagues … Continue reading On a faster horse: meanders heading home from dConstruct
Matt Edgar writes here 