transitlab » Newcastle

Ian Forrester and Alexandra Deschamps Sonsino at #TDC

Brian — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Ian Forrester, BBC (chair) “Make Epic Shit”

lesson of the wiiMote: a piece of technology that is not crippled, has amazing functionality and is cheap + a community of developers means that we all can make Epic Shit if we want to

Alexandra Deschamps Sonsino, TinkerIT called on us to:

consider technology as a tool, rather than something to consume. She argues that we are in a similar place to the pre-industrial time, where ‘ordinary folks’ are making things that help solve there own personal problems, or fulfill desires. (see t!pot a weighing device that tells you when the teapot is empty so you can decide whether you want the last cup)

A new community for newcastle geeks or pseudo-geeks

brian — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:14:34 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Whilst I didnt get to BarcampLondon last week, I was present at some fairly interesting conversations and seminars.

Monday night was the inaugural meeting, or pilot meeting of SuperMondaySomethings at the Beehive Research Center at Newcastle University. Whilst it has a strong focus on open source, I think the main thing is dialogue. The turnout was a pleasing 20 or so IT enthusiasts, with Pete Hindle, Derrick Welsh and I as the ‘digital artists’.

Looks to be fun, first Monday of the month, theres also a Googlegroup that is linked from the main site

Super Mondays is a strong and vibrant community of IT enthusiasts based in The North East of England. We meet up once a month for a range of IT user group meetings and some unstructured discussions.

There is no membership, no fees and no rules….the community is basically undefined! If you want to attend then just come along.

You can find out more here:

http://www.supermondays.org

Joycewalks continued…

brian — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:26:51 +0000

Joycewalks was great. A small crowd to be sure but still the unexpected occurred. We we navigating the city using a generated map, and text from the Lotus Eaters chapter of Ulysees (Joyce), but the local made an appearance in stories of art projects been and gone, the history of the area. Crossing the city with a different purpose brings a different accenting. In the interest of the piece we started at a pub in Newcastle, and with a pint under our belt proceeded to walk away from the busier parts of the city, through the orchard road tunnel(a graffiti project), past the arts council and it’s smoking room, the telegraph bar(and talk of it), the old wall and down the green jungle of an escarpment to the tyne river. In the process of the tour we passed buildings in all states of disrepair, gentrification and post gentrification. The vodka bar that was open a few years ago, now is just a dusty dancefloor, a sign in fake russian, and an advertisement for £2 shots, the warehouses still being converted, the old cobbled road and smooth granite for the wagon wheels of old.

So it became more than the text, of course it was always going to be, we are all waiting for the serendipity of connection with our environment and our fellows.

Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sctv/sets/72157605657658132/