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
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
One of my favourite things of 2010 was the chance to share my love of Leeds' industrial history with a roomful of the city's finest technologists, artists and designers at TEDxLeeds. The video is now up on the TEDx site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWyeJZPPyb4 My notes from the talk are here, along with the Prezi slideshow. You should … Continue reading On the (past, present and) future of the a city
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
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
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
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
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 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.
There's a patch of wasteland near my work that some people say could be a city park. I'm not sure if this is even the right place for a park. As Jane Jacobs wrote in The Death and Life of Great American Cities: "Parks are volatile places. They tend to run to extremes of popularilty … Continue reading A park in your imagination
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
Matt Edgar writes here 