Electro Dad

Tumblr

2012-01-02T17:28:00.003Z

Hey regular readers (all 2 of you). Just to let you know I have also started keeping a tumblr. The tumblr is not a blog its just a quick scrap book for bits an pieces I find online that inspire me. You can find it here > SUBSAMPLE <

Dead umbrella

2012-01-02T12:59:00.002Z

Dead umbrella, a photo by its cold up north on Flickr.

Dead umbrella, hard to spot

Dead umbrella

2012-01-02T12:58:00.002Z

Dead umbrella, a photo by its cold up north on Flickr.

Dead umbrella

2012-01-02T12:57:00.006Z

Dead umbrella, a photo by its cold up north on Flickr.

Dead umbrella

2012-01-02T12:57:00.005Z

Dead umbrella, a photo by its cold up north on Flickr.

Dead umbrella

East Coast Burnout Mix 5

2011-12-28T18:07:00.001Z

East Coast Burnout Mix 5 by Dominic Smith on Mixcloud

East coast burnout mix 4

2011-12-17T23:27:00.001Z

The East Coast Burnout Mix 4 by Dominic Smith on Mixcloud

East Coast Burnout Mix 3

2011-12-12T00:40:00.000Z

The East Coast Burnout Mix 3 by Dominic Smith on Mixcloud

Another one..

Long Shots NYC

2011-12-06T12:00:00.001Z

Long Shots NYC, a set on Flickr.

Sad umbrella subway

2011-12-06T11:10:00.003Z

Sad umbrella subway, a photo by its cold up north on Flickr.

Sad umbrella bowery

2011-12-06T11:10:00.001Z

Sad umbrella bowery, a photo by its cold up north on Flickr.

Sad umbrella brooklyn

2011-12-06T11:09:00.001Z

Sad umbrella brooklyn, a photo by its cold up north on Flickr.

Burnout mix 2

2011-12-04T12:09:00.000Z

East Coast Burnout Mix 2 by Dominic Smith on Mixcloud

Sorry about this...

Too much to share

2011-11-28T00:00:00.002Z

I am kind of paralysed by the sheer amount of stuff I could post here at the moment. I am not sure where to start. I have recently been on a research trip to New York, The New media programme I have been developing has gone from 0 to 60 in under 1 second and I have a ton of sad umbrellas. But I will spare you all of that for now and post this mix I made instead.

The East Coast Burnout Mix by Dominic Smith on Mixcloud

Yantra - James Whitney (1957)

2011-10-29T10:46:00.000+01:00

Nearly There!

2011-10-23T19:54:00.000+01:00

Well,

Last Wedneday I sat the viva voche exam for the PhD I have been working hard on for the last 4 years. It was tough going, the examiners asked some tough questions, but ultimately they were good questions and it was a privelidge to have them read my thesis, the points and issues they raised were spot on and can only help with the final shape of the thesis. I passed (subject to approval from Research Committe, which is normal). Yeay! I have ammendments to make to my thesis, but they are not too arduous and as mentioned they are based on the reccomendations of the examiners and will serve to make the final thesis stronger, which is a good thing!

The image above is a wide shot of the accompanying 1 day speed show I presented of some of my work at the Reg Vardy Gallery.

This was all made possible thants to the continued help and support of my suprevision team at CRUMB, thank you Beryl and Sarah (and Gilbert for your early input and enthusiasm).

Dead Umbrella 18

2011-10-23T18:43:00.003+01:00

Dead Umbrella 17

2011-10-23T18:41:00.003+01:00

Dead Umbrella 16

2011-10-23T18:39:00.001+01:00

Improving Reality

2011-09-25T20:41:00.004+01:00

LevelHead by Julian Oliver - one of the speakers at Improving Reality. Photograph: Florian Sander.

On Friday I went to the Improving Reality conference, organised by Lighthouse Brighton.

I was LOADED with man flu (thanks to some classy gent who sneezed all over me on the Metro last week I suspect). So I dosed up on max strength lemsip and sat quietly in the audience sucking up links and references like a nerdy basking shark.

What follows are my notes, they are not extensive and they will have errors. Where they are sparse it is not because I was uninterested, on the contrary, I was listening intently and not taking notes (just in case you wondered). I met some friendly people and what I saw of Brighton I liked.

Improving reality conference notes 23/9/11

Session one – Reality Hacking - Moderated by Honor Hager

Julian Oliver http://selectparks.net/~julian/

Discussed - Augmented reality and Hacking

Referenced Artist: Felice Varini

Stage effect - Peppers Ghost

His projects:

Level Head 2007-2008

Newstweek

Aral Balkan http://aralbalkan.com/

Fun talk, video based. Argued that the term AI was outdated and showed a funny picture of a cat. Spoke about a desire for joined up thinking in terms of interfaces and infrastructure. Also later advocated children learning how computers work in the hacking sense, not in the Microsoft software user sense. Of course I fully agree J yet having worked in this very area it is easier said than done (the usual problems of returning to the space to find cracked versions of windows installed on Linux boxes came to mind..).

Jose Luis de Vicente http://medialab-prado.es/person/joe_luis_de_vicente

Discussed AR (augmented reality) as something not requiring technology and related it to architecture. A good example he gave was a bus stop that no bus ever stops at. It is placed outside of a home for people with Alzheimer’s. When patients forget where they are and try to get home they go and stand at the bus stop. Care workers can instantly see what is happening and bring them back in. This was personally the most poignant example of a different reality, much like the classic evangelical Philip K Dick moment in which the protagonist realizes that their reality has been constructed by someone else.

Conil base station? – Maybe misheard, cannot find any references to this online

Ordos – A place in China where no one lives, it exists as a result of property speculation

Tower of David – Venezuela

Speed shows

Concept of ‘critical engineering’

The classic example of the Lumiere brothers making audiences run out of the theatre by projecting a train hurtling towards the screen. This reminded me of the way the kids tried to run out of the Classic cinema stalls during the early trials for our trans media game time machine.

Session 2 – Beyond Cinema – Moderated by Paula le Dier

Matt Hanson

Quoted Anthony Dunne when talking about work that pulls the viewer towards the screen

Referenced his own book – The end of celluloid

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

Lizzie Gillet http://www.spannerfilms.net/people/lizzie_gillett

Talked about producing the Age of Stupid via crowd sourcing and alternative distribution models. Was very nice, engaging and honest. Discussed crowd sourcing and motivations for investment.

Matt Adams – Blast Theory

Mixed reality lab – Nottingham University

The trolley dilemma – Philippa Foot

Chris Hedge – Empire of Illusion

Richard Stark the Jugge and Made in USA – Godard.

Performing Mixed Reality – MIT Press (coming out soon).

Jamie King - http://jamie.com/ Steal this film

Bit torrent as a distribution model. Copyright and distribution etc. Nice engaging guy. Reminded me of an example in hackers, Steven Levy. It goes something along the lines of the clever folk like Jobs and Wosniack exploiting hacker behavior and legitimizing it, i.e. they sold blue box hacking devices dorm to dorm, copying captain crunches blue box phone phreaking design for free long distance calls, thus making network access affordable to hackers and and and. King was able to actually turn a profit for an indie (the yes men) as a distributor using similar methods (IMHO).

VODO

Nielsens Law

Session 3 – Gaming For Good moderated by Matt Locke

Tassos Stevens http://allplayall.blogspot.com/

Coney

Jet pack joy rides

Super me games – playsuperme.com

nightmarehigh.com

adventures in learning

haringey challenge match

a small town anywhere

The loveliness principle

Playful Secret Agent

Adrian Hon http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/adrianhon/

He had a worse cold than me and told a funny joke about us all being depressed because we voted Liberal Democrat.

Discussed collaborative games in which there are not winners and losers

Sixtostart.com

Times up – http://timesup.org/

Physical Narratives

Sam Gosling

Christoph Buchel – Shelter II

Sensory Circus

Domestic Bliss

20 seconds into the future

physicalnarration.org

Alice Taylor http://wonderlandblog.com/

3D printing and online games

Shapeways

zcorp

Barcelonaaaa

2011-08-12T19:27:00.000+01:00

I had the good fortune to have a very quick trip to Barcelona this week, I went to catch the show "The Cinema Effect. Dreams" at Caixa Forum (which is a great venue BTW).

Like I said it was a very quick trip mostly spent in darkened rooms watching projections. But I did grab some quick snaps.

What a great city.

Dead Umbrella 15

2011-07-26T20:24:00.001+01:00

Dead Umbrella 14

2011-07-20T22:18:00.000+01:00

Dead Umbrella 13

2011-07-20T22:15:00.000+01:00

Dead Umbrella 12

2011-06-27T23:04:00.001+01:00

Dead Umbrella 11

2011-06-27T23:02:00.001+01:00

Dead Umbrella 10

2011-06-23T20:43:00.002+01:00

It is in!

2011-06-10T13:49:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Well I finally did it. I submitted my PhD thesis about 2 weeks ago. It has the rather charming title :

"MODELS OF OPEN SOURCE PRODUCTION COMPARED TO PARTICIPATIVE SYSTEMS IN NEW MEDIA ART"

Since submitting I have been a bit lost to be honest. The first few days I just slept and stared at the walls. Since then I have been strangely compelled to keep writing and reading. I also seem to be getting some of my work in a few up and coming shows, but more on that later.

The main thing is... Who fancies a beer?

Dead Umbrella 9

2011-05-28T12:17:00.000+01:00

Credits to Ian Fenton for this one.

Dead Umbrella 8

2011-05-19T22:00:00.001+01:00

nearly dead umbrella

2011-04-30T22:30:00.000+01:00

Dead Umbrella 7

2011-04-20T17:19:00.002+01:00

Dead Umbrella 6

2011-04-19T20:04:00.004+01:00

Dead Umbrella 5

2011-04-19T20:03:00.001+01:00

Dead Umrella 4

2011-04-19T19:55:00.001+01:00

Dead umbrella 3

2011-04-19T19:52:00.001+01:00

Gah!

2011-02-26T20:45:00.000Z

Still running late on the old PHuD. Hoping its only by a week. Working like billio (see what I did there?) to try and get it done.

Message to myself more than anything follows below:

I'm still here

2011-02-17T13:24:00.003Z

This is just a quick post to say I'm still here!

I am in full on thesis/work mode This has currently been the only thing I have had time for for months. Switching on a computer just says work to me so any spare time (spare time lol) is spent with my kids and or doing things that require depth perception.

The deadline I have for Thesis submission is the first of March.

Massive amounts of soz if I have not replied to emails or done anything entertaining for too long now. I'll make it up. Thats a promise!

Winter bootstrap 3

2011-01-06T22:50:00.003Z

Again it is time to pull myself up by the bootstraps. It is time tackle life and all its demons.

Seriously thinking of going to a stand and tan just for a dose of UV light.

MONSTERS

2010-11-13T14:23:00.002Z

I saw an advanced screening of Monsters the other week.

Its great. Gareth Edwards, the writer and director talked aand answerded questions afterward. You can find it here >

Gareth Edwards-Kate Taylor- -MonstersQnA- -02-11-10 Edited by PixelPalace

Kodachrome

2010-10-10T20:32:00.000+01:00

Just beautiful

Does it seem to be persisting?

2010-10-05T23:07:00.001+01:00

I remember making one of these Gysin dream machines in about 1994. It didn't do much for me. Looked nice though.

200

2010-09-26T21:47:00.002+01:00

The 8th Sphere (2010) - Florian and Michael Quistrebert

Hans Richter - Rhytmus 21

Not only but also

2010-09-22T10:24:00.001+01:00

Show a bit of support for this project if you have a moment

Also

2010-09-22T09:41:00.002+01:00

I have started a new job. I'll go into it in more depth if I know you and we are in the pub.

But I figured this blog would be a good place to leave various bits of things that inspire me. So appologies in advance for any lack of personal content for a while i.e. dear internet I just stubbed my toe.

Light painting with an Ipad - http://www.dentsulondon.com/blog/2010/09/14/light-painting/

You're Not My Father, 2008 - Paul Slocum

Cloudscapes by Transsolar and Tetsuo Kondo Architects / Architecture Biennale Venice 2010

Sorry I havent posted

2010-09-22T09:36:00.002+01:00

Well actually I'm not but this was just a little attempt to crowbar this post into Cory Arcangels sorry I havent posted and create an infinite loop that eventualy divides the internet by zero.

Help, bring beer!

2010-08-31T08:46:00.002+01:00

Help there has been a terrible mistake. I am stuck at Euro Disney, I have been here for 2 days and 2 more to go. Please bring beer and a good book!

updades

2010-06-28T10:12:00.003+01:00

I figured I had better update this blog just so it does not become dead space on the internet.

To be honest I have just had my head down writing and dealing with daily tribulations. Still writing up thesis, its going slow but its going.

The sun is out and I'm indoors mostly. We did sneak off this weekend to Kielder which was nice. However I am now shattered from hoisting the dude around (hes getting big these days).

I have some work coming up in a show at the CCA and a job interview this week.

Wish me luck

Publications

2010-03-25T11:27:00.002Z

2 interviews have been published!

1- A Brief History of Curating New Media Art

An interview with Magdalena Sawon & Tamas Banovich at Postmasters

2- A Brief History of Working with New Media Art

An interview with Michael Mandiberg at Eyebeam

Taking a moment to breathe and think

2010-03-08T09:29:00.006Z

Wow so its all go at the moment. I'm just going to a mind dump here for my own future reference. Feel free to read and comment (comments are always good).

1. The shredder
This is up and running like a dream. I can't believe it is. Like most projects that are worth doing this one really stretched me. I have learned a lot about my own practice through this one, I will write and reflect more later, but the main thing is this project had that classic fight or flight moment. You know the one, you reach a point were it looks like whatever you are doing will never work and you wish you had a steady 9 to 5 job and bitterly regret ever calling yourself an artist. But I persevered and with the right help and support it is up.

2. Talks.
I have to do 2 x 1 hr talks this week one about the shredder and one about Datarama. I am trying to finish these off right now but I have plasterers/decorators round reaching the parts of my corridor a normal mortal cant reach. That wouldn't be so bad but they have local radio blasting really bad music..

3. Thinking about art.
I suppose this relates to the fight or flight moment again. Although most of my work probably fits into a conceptual category I still draw. I draw because it is an instant shortcut to good thinking for me. When drawing your not just thinking about balancing lines etc but the nature of what it is you are drawing, its relation to things you are not drawing and why you are doing it in the first place. I suppose for this reason I like some comic/graphic novel artists. These are people who draw compulsively, its like breathing to them. So it stands to reason that the good ones have something interesting to say.

Where am I going with this? well there is a journal I follow by Brandon Graham. In this post here he says something that was a lightbulb moment for me, "I was thinking, one of the things that can drag you down as an artist is thinking that it should get easy eventually. You think I`d know this but I always suprize myself at how it is always hard work." I have been very guilty of this thinking myself. I have become attached to the idea that I will get good at what I do.

So it might sound a bit far out but I think I am going to let go of this idea. The thought of not trying to be 'good' is a bit mind boggling and I suppose I should add the caveat that it does not mean that I will let the quality control slip but rather the idea that if I get good at what I do then it will get easier. Its a lot like being on a car journey with someone who is constantly asking "are we there yet?" After a wile it gets a bit irritating.

yes I know

2010-02-12T11:55:00.002Z

I know its wrong but I laughed

Oh and this also

Upside Downside

2010-02-06T16:50:00.004Z

On the upside I did this simple drawing I'm quite happy with.

On the Downside, My back has gone (ever been to a chiropractor? Its awesome!) and worse than that my laptop harddrive has gone shit kaput. Don't think I lost very much in the way of work but I did loose and entire summers worth of photos. Wife was in tears. First person to say you should have backed it up gets a stern look. Most of it was, just not the photos, gaaaaa.

Rumpus

2010-01-25T09:30:00.002Z

Morning

Well I got over the Lurgi. I am such a grumpy git when I'm ill. I wish I was dignified and graceful but alas I just hate everything and everybody until I reach optimum health, even then I'm not sure I could be called happy.

But today I have a few things to confess. Its probably best to do this in list form:

1 - I started weight lifting about 3 months ago. I figured my son needs a lot of lifting and handling plus he is only going to get heavier. So I decided to get ahead of the game strength wise and hit the weights. If truth be told I am loving it. I surprised myself.

2 - I set up a deviant art account here. I was interested in seeing how the community organises itself and it turns out some of my favorite illustrators use it so its handy to keep up whith what they are producing.

3 - I have actually started to enjoy writing my thesis. I hit a serious writers block, the presure had built up too high in my head and caused a big blockage. My supervisors were very good and encouraged me to write 200 words a day. I have been managing this and sure enough it is gradually starting to flow.

lurgi

2010-01-15T09:11:00.002Z

No early rising today.

Got the lurgi.

Feeling grumpy.

Go away.

E.R.L

2010-01-14T06:29:00.005Z

Bed 11:30pm
Awake 6am

We took the cat to the vets yesterday. But it was too ill and I had to come to the hard decision to put her to sleep. I signed the forms and came home without her. I collected the kids from school and told them.

My daughter thought I was joking at first but then got it. She cried for a few minutes, now she wants a dog. It took longer to help my son understand but he finally got it although he now thinks she is sitting on grass in the clouds. This would be kind of OK despite my attempts not to bring religious metaphor into the situation but now he's talking about building a rocket so we can go and get her back.

Sometimes its hard being a Dad.

Early Rising Log - version 2

2010-01-13T07:15:00.004Z

I will be attempting to become an early riser again. I tried a few years ago but it didn't last. I figured it is worth another shot.

The goal is to be in bed asleep by 10pm and up at 5:30 to meditate and write for an hour or so before I have to get the kids ready for school.

So today is the first entry.

Bed 10 pm
Awake 5:30 ish.

----------------------
Image taken from > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sleepy-gorilla.jpg

Why I pay for music

2009-12-16T16:41:00.005Z

I like music. I like a lot of different types of music. If you could see my record collection your first thought might be that I am a music snob. I was once accused of that by an old girlfriend when she realised I didn't have any Supertramp records. I am not a music snob but I do have limits and that relationship didn't work out for some reason.

Do you remember Napster? I mean when it first came into existence and not what passes for Napster these days. I can remember searching it to find all sorts of obscure tracks that I did not have a hope in hell finding through other means at the time. Stuff like Robert Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End and all manner of obscure Dub, Reggae, Electro etc. There are many articles about how Napster revolutionised the music industry so I wont labour the point. Once Napster was closed down other P2P clients filled the gap: gnutella, kazaa, edonkey and soulseek to name a few (I am deliberately ignoring bit torrent for the time being as it is a different beast) Within a certain generation P2P became a very normal way of consuming music.

Reasons not to download music without paying for it

Strike 1

It was around 2000 / 2001 I think. I was organising a live music / club event in Newcastle and I was trying to book some talent. I went down to London to meet a few people and sort out dates and fees etc. I was really struck by what one person said. They were / are a very talented musician signed to one of the coolest record labels around then and now. The subject of soulseek came up. They had been logging in and watching how many times their tracks were being downloaded and were in a state of shock. I figured that even if they got a few pence for each downloaded track then they could have given up their less than glamourous day job to write even more and better music for us all to listen to. So when hit with this thought which is kind of hard to argue against I decided that downloading an artists track without paying them (unless they have either agreed to this fact or have been dead for long enough not to care (see open music archive)) was difficult moral territory (specially the good ones).

Strike 2

The Digital economy bill. A bill designed to safeguard the wealth of in my opinion 'Large content producers'. It is fine, they can stay rich if they want, that's the free world for you. I am not going to go into the detailed wrongs and rights of this bill. If you are so inclined you can do the research yourself. But you should make yourself aware of the dangerous amount of power it awards the secretary of state to redefine copyright laws and the penalties if you fail to follow these. Also there is a certain delicious irony in having Peter Madleson champion a three strike policy, I mean what strike is he on now?

So how are they going to manage this situation? How are they going to ensure we are not illegally downloading music? By monitoring EVERYTHING we do online silly. Deep packet inspection with supposed anonymisation protocols.... Phorm.... facebook's constantly changing privacy settings. Take your pick. How many of you out there would like to do something about this bill? how many people want their internet use constantly monitored (and slowed down) just in case you are downloading a God awful Lilly Allen track? Well the first thing you can do is stop downloading music you haven't paid for! As good old Bob Dylan put it "But to live outside the law, you must be honest". To fight such an abhorrent law that is in many ways a wolf in sheep's clothing (just in case you didn't realise, I doubt Peter Mandleson could give a damn if you don't pay for Lilly Allen tracks) Then you must first be squeaky clean. You must be on a morally higher ground than them (not hard in the case of our Mandy).

Strike 3

Music downloads are generally over priced. Also I don't care what you say mp3's sound bloody awful. If we the generation of cheeky downloaders got our spending power behind our obscure taste in music them maybe we could apply enough pressure on the moguls to provide higher standards at better prices. OK so strike 3 is a bit short and unnecessary in comparison to strike 2, but I like things to be in 3's (like Mandy)

That's my take on the current state of music, copyright and morality. My choices and opinions only.

Did I ever download a tune I shouldn't have? Of course not Officer....

Would I ever do it now? No.

Image of skull taken from wikimedia : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skull_and_crossbones.png#file

Winter Bootstrap version 2

2009-12-08T12:02:00.004Z

It seems it was almost the same time last year that I had to perform a bootstrapping on myself to get things moving in a positive direction.

October

2009-11-12T11:52:00.005Z

Rip Van Winkle poking a 'twitter' with his stick

October was crazy.

There were too many all-nighters. Too much email, too many deadlines. It was all just too much.

The dude is off school today, he did a pretty convincing job of being ill this morning. Im not convinced anymore but it has given me a chance to quickly write something here.

Interesting things I did in October:

- Datarama 06

- Talk for New Directions - Other speakers included people from Channel 4 getting all over excited about social media, not sure what their names were but I'm pretty sure they ended with 'Van Winkle'.

- UK Gameboy Youth Orchestra - a workshop I ran, it was organised By Novak and Central Library. Teaching 8 x 14-18 yr olds how to write music on original nintendo gameboys, they then did a public performance of Terry Rileys 'In C' mp3 HERE.

- Animation Project - finally broke the back of an old project. Its all done and dusted, more on it when its all official (it's been submitted to some swanky awards).

Lots of other stuff to show, hopefully I'll get the chance. I also need to upload a dead umbrella and a WWC.

Image taken from http://wikimediafoundation.org

I dont know about you but..

2009-10-13T10:52:00.002+01:00

I need an 8o's face workout today

datarama 06

2009-10-12T13:49:00.002+01:00

Friday was Datarama 06 it was a good one. We had a full house towards the end of the session and a good variety of projects.

Its the sort of event that relies upon the audience. If they give then its good. If they don't then we go home early. I am glad to say we didn't go home early.

Bill Brand

2009-10-04T20:19:00.001+01:00

WWC6

2009-10-01T13:31:00.004+01:00

New regular stream and podcast

2009-09-22T14:32:00.004+01:00

We (ptechnic.org) finally got round to doing a live stream. It was a simple one just to get the ball rolling. The archive of it can be found here. You can also subscribe to it as a podcast if you miss the live events. Hopefully it should be quite regular with different poly members taking charge of lots of different shows.

Oh yea, also on a totally different note I did go to the art shop yesterday. I bought some Ink sticks and grinding stones. I didn't buy any Chinese type brushes because they only had small ones and I want a one of those big muthers.

Question to readers

2009-09-17T11:51:00.005+01:00

Ello,

This is going to be one of those awkward moments, similar to when an actor shatters your suspension of disbelief by suddenly looking at the camera lens and addresses you, the viewer.

A bit of a bar at the Folies-Bergere moment.

I am popping into town for some meetings tomorrow. I was going to treat myself to some new materials for my new drawing obsession. But I figured I would throw open a question on my little blog before I do. I was looking for something to shake up my drawing methods and put a bit of life back into what I am doing. Currently I am doing lots of pen and ink stuff, adding and subtracting with black and white inks until I am happy. So the question is what should I buy (bearing in mind I am skint) to shake it up a bit?

See, it wasn't that awkward.

Happy face

2009-09-14T21:23:00.002+01:00

Homebody

2009-09-12T20:33:00.013+01:00

Since my last post I have been to Belfast, London (ish) and Paris. Get me.

Belfast was to talk at Isea which I think I mentioned. That seemed to go well, the biscuits were nice (the crumb team had posh Jaffa cakes). Then I flew to Heathrow, met my family and drove to France. We went to Disneyland which is a post in itself, although strangely when ever I try and remember it I just keep hearing this tune (its a small world after all) after a marathon brainwashing session akin to any of the more psychedelic scenes in the prisoner.

One thing I can share from being in France is a few sketches I did from the back door when the kids were in bed. There was a wee bit of woodland behind the place we were staying and I figures it would be a good exercise to try and make something of it.

The larger image was the first I did. But to be honest, while it has areas I like it is a bit over worked and stale. So i kind of tried to loosen myself up with a few quick drawings

Personally, the last one that took 90 seconds is my favorite.

There you go anyway, no doubt they will end up being incorporated into something else. Maybe drawing is a good therapy for a recovering new media artist.

Oven Gloves, I heart my new pens, chemical alarm.

2009-08-24T15:13:00.004+01:00

How many blog posts start with things like 'life has been hectic but/so'. I am struggling not to begin another post in the same way. Tomorrow I'm off to ISEA which is conveniently located at Belfast this year. I will be running a session based around my current research. My brain has been in a foul mood with me recently and the only way I have been able to get any space / peace is to draw as it certainly doesn't want me to sleep. What started as a couple of doodles on the back of a cd cover with a biro and some tippex has rapidly (5 drawings later) turned into what are becoming more and more elaborate drawings (which I dont really have the time to do, but at 1 a.m. when my current insomnia is just kicking in I'm in no fit state to read about information theory).

I recently bought a set of pen nibs and some inks from dinkybox. They were a bargain and the people behind the site seem nice too. I never plug stuff you can buy on my blog (apart from Joy Division oven gloves), but this is a one off. pay them a visit.

Dance Dance Dance Dance (in me Joy Division Oven Gloves)

I Love XKCD.com

2009-08-24T15:10:00.003+01:00

youtube ninjas

2009-08-22T22:43:00.007+01:00

This is my 2nd illustration attempt for a screen play.

May come back to this and add shadows, but wanted to get something up.

Can't wait to see this

2009-08-18T14:32:00.003+01:00

bass2

2009-08-18T12:50:00.004+01:00

Tidied up a wee bit last night but will jettison future tidying to start a new one with better layout.

Back to the grindstone.

bass1

2009-08-17T01:28:00.004+01:00

Sketching out an idea for an image for a screenplay someone sent me.

It is early days. This image needs simplifying and the foreground character of he Chav with the stolen mobility scooter needs to be brought out / become more obvious.

I don't think that I will go with this sketch but it got the ball rolling.

wwc5 finished

2009-08-13T00:33:00.004+01:00

wwc5

2009-08-10T16:49:00.003+01:00

Fish comish stuff

2009-08-10T16:39:00.003+01:00

Evenin,

Just a quick recap on the latest adventures of The Fishery Commission.

On 17th July we played at an event called Ghost Trace Stellar that I was part of through my dealings with The Polytechnic. You can hear the tune we played here > TUNE

Video here >

Then we played on 31st July at an event called Designing Life at The Shipley Art Gallery

July was a good month for The Fishery Commission.

Mandiberg Interview

2009-08-06T11:04:00.004+01:00

Here is a link to an interview with Michael Mandiberg:

LINK

This was one of the many I did while in New York last year. It is a good one and we put it up on the CRUMB site.

If you stumble across this blog Michael, Please accept my humble appologies for how long this took to actually go live!

CMC

2009-07-09T10:03:00.005+01:00

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of participating in one of Eyebeams curatorial masterclasses on the question of What open source is and what it means for art. I was originally going to fly out there and participate in the flesh but it clashed with the dudes birthday and several other commitments. I did participate via skype which was fun. I wasn't sure how this would work, I asked should I just kind of carp from the sidelines and they seemed to think this would be fine. So that is what I did. Scott Burnham was the main speaker with Fred Beneson adding some excellent responses. I did record the audio for the full conversation, I just need to check with everyone before I put it out there.

wwc4

2009-07-08T18:49:00.005+01:00

moth

2009-07-04T13:10:00.005+01:00

What sort of moth is this?

Dont watch this before you eat!

2009-07-03T11:48:00.003+01:00

Balancing act

2009-07-02T16:37:00.009+01:00

In an attempt to balance my chi here is a list of things I like:

1- Sowing seeds
2- Loud Bass heavy Dub
3- Wearing big stripey socks with my shorts, it makes me look like the village idiot
4- Days not looking at a screen
5- Colombian coffee beans (it has that certain bite and grinding the beans makes me feel like Kinky Friedman)
6- Beer
7- Salt
8- Drawing with office stationary
9- Asking for 'unlucky' dip lottery tickets at the newsagent, that way I avoid disappointment
10- Pretending to be a creepy old lady from a kefalonian car hire shop and asking my wife if she wanna 'sma ca?'...long story that one but its still good for fun.

Oh and a last minute addition:

11- The fact that they have found the genetic variations that make some of us more at risk of becoming bi-polar. I'm sure this is based upon very sound science much like all of modern psychiatry........... I also love the way it is being covered with rigorous accuracy by the media

OK so I may have been lying about 11 being something I like.

Bile dump

2009-07-01T10:13:00.004+01:00

I have to do this. I have to make a list of things that are bugging me so I can get on with my day in a happy go lucky way. Here is a list of random things that I don't like:

1- People who unlock business potential
2- Local Government
3- Corporate sponsorship in education (particularly when it leads to eye sore building modifications)
4- Licorice
5- The current trend for girls having comb over fringes, it makes them look like the village idiot
6- The Boy band Blue
7- Cooking (I have been doing more than my fare share recently)
8- Phone calls
9- Creepy shoes
10- Tim Berners-Lee

And breathe...

WWC3

2009-06-29T12:34:00.004+01:00

In a World Without C.O.B.O.L we will find out that Richard Dadd was right.

Jah Tubbys

2009-06-23T10:42:00.005+01:00

Jah tubbys came to Whitley Bay! I'm still in shock.

It was an amazing night. They played at the Trojan Rooms, It was organised by The Ital Guidance Soundsystem.

A group of old friends turned up at my house, we had a beer then wandered down to the venue. We walked past all the hen nighters dressed as nurses exposing their flesh to the north sea 'breeze'. A typical weekend in Whitley. However suddenly there we were at the Trojan Rooms. It was a genuine oasis. We had another drink while they were still setting up, some other friends wandered in and then suddenly they turned on the bass. It was like electricity flowing through the soles of my feet into my the tip of my head.

I cant wailt until its on again next month, 31st July Ital Guidance Soundsystem With Full Crew + Guest MC Dan Man Meets Kibir La Amlak Soundsystem (Bristol) With JT, Stamina Li, Rockaway and Reuben Jah Vibes All Night!

I have a gig that night but as soon as we finish playing I am getting in my car and heading home to this.

The Fishery Commission

2009-06-18T17:25:00.002+01:00

I had a rehearsal with andy last night. I wasn't going to as i had only had 2 hrs sleep the night before (more on that in another post). But I decided to power on.

It went well and there was definitely some magic. I have uploaded 2 of our tracks onto the 8bit collective site. You can grab them here:
http://8bitcollective.com/music/spoonbender/-Slo_Breath-/
and here:
http://8bitcollective.com/music/spoonbender/-Fear_Not_The_Fax-/

WWC2

2009-06-02T23:22:00.003+01:00

Ink and white fine point.

We did it!

2009-05-19T10:50:00.004+01:00

Some of you who I know personally or maybe if you have read this blog from the start will know that my son has had a rough start in life. He was prem and very sick, consequently he has cerebral palsy and is Deaf. That's just the way it is and it is all part of living life.

One of the things that has been going on for the last three and a half years has been a fight. A fight to get him into a school that can best support his needs. I could say more but I am still worried that anything I say may jeopardise our current position.

You see the thing is, we had appealed a tribunal decision that meant he had to go to a school that we felt couldn't meet his needs (again couching my language). Today was the day we were due to go back to tribunal and fight against that decision. However The Local Education Authority wrote last week to say that they were not going to argue that their school could support his needs anymore. So basically the fight is over and he gets to go to the right school. Success. You would not believe the amount of work that has gone on in the background to get to this point..

It has not sunk in. It is hard to wind down and accept that possibly the fight is over.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us through this. Cue the music

Death to COmmon Business-Oriented Language -wwc1

2009-05-11T18:35:00.003+01:00

I bought some new pens today.

I'm in Maastricht

2009-05-03T21:54:00.001+01:00

And here is a quick vid to prove it!

Maastricht

2009-04-30T10:14:00.003+01:00

I am flying over to Maastricht tomorrow (flight 6am , ouch). I am Deejaying in a club called cafe ipanema under my alternate guise 'CaptainBuck Rodgers'. Its being organised by a chap called Rod aka Omnipotus weatherwax who runs this thing called toothless HIFI.

Hopefully it will be fun!

If life were only like this

2009-04-22T09:54:00.002+01:00

de-clutter, dub-reggae and de-socialising

2009-04-21T09:58:00.005+01:00

My de-clutter effort is much harder than I originally thought it would be. No surprises there. Although something I have noticed is a possible mistake in my de-clutter method. I had figured that by getting rid of a lot of my 'stuff' I could free up space in my head. But it seems I have to make a bit of space in my head before I can start to figure out how to get rid of my stuff. So yesterday I took drastic action. I deleted my facebook account!!!! Although I shamelessly twittered that I had done it.

Other things coming up. I am deejaying at a club in Maastricht for Queensday. That should be a bit of fun and an excuse to travel.

Anyhow let me think what else is going on. Oh we have a rough date for my sons tribunal. week beginning 18 may. Also ptechnic has a datarama coming up on 22nd may with some surprises for people.

I took my kids to se the tiger who came to tea last week, it was adapted for stage and we loved it.

Hey ho there is probably stacks more but at least I stuck my foot in the blog door again.

NZ

2009-04-21T09:56:00.003+01:00

New Zealand was a blast. I have some video I need to edit and I will post it here when I do but for the time being here is a slide show.

catching up

2009-04-21T09:52:00.003+01:00

Sorry I have not been blogging. It just got so that the backlog of information was so dense that it became unwieldy. But I figure this is on my own terms so Im just going to throw a bunch of things in a few posts to try and get me up to the present moment (which is a bit like driving with only my rear view mirror for navigation)

different energy

2009-02-02T18:57:00.005Z

When I was in NYC there was a mad energy to grasp every moment and make it count for something. There were so many people surviving on such a small patch of land I doubt it could be any other way.

Here in New Plymouth which can best be described to Brits as a sunny Aberdeen The energy is different. Its more laid back and as a result I have not been furiously blogging my every waking moment.

I have been taking picks which you can see here

The project I am working on with the poly is The Random information Exchange. The site is up but will not be steady until Friday. So far in real terms this has people learning how to breakdance (an amazing story I will share later) running an engine on tap water, learning to lay the piano and tight rope walkers. Sounds fun doesn't it. BUT I now have to find and transport an engine and a piano to th gallery ready for it opening on Friday. Oh I also have to ask the beastie boys if I can use one of their tracks in the gallery and make yorkshire puddings at 10am today. Actually the list of crazy activities stretches on and on.

Newcastle to New Zealand New Plymouth

2009-01-27T04:15:00.006Z

Hong Kong Airport

The picture above is my only experience of Hong Kong. 4 Hours in the airport waiting for a connecting flight, trying not to fall asleep incase my bags got stolen but waking up every five minutes and realizing I had been dreaming about staying awake in case my bags got stolen.

I am currently in New Plymouth - New Zealand. Im working as a member of the Polytechnic on the 3rd iteration of the R.I.E. It is for a event called SCANZ. The flight was a killer. I left the house at 10 am uk time only to arrive here Sunday 16:30 NZ time (13 hrs ahead here).

The weather is amazing and the sunlight is so good that words fail me (see image below).

Yesterday we started the residency by taking part in a powhiri, its was amazing it added gravity and form to the work we will all be doing here over the coming weeks.

You can see me sitting on the fence (as usual) here.

Radical plans for 2009 expanded

2009-01-16T15:25:00.006Z

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify."

Henry David Thoreau

I have half an hour to drink some tea and elaborate on my earlier post.

I have made a determination that by the end of this year I will be on a simplified path in life.

Don't get me wrong, I am hardly living a life of wild excess. But I do feel that the it is time to make some strong changes. This year I will be taking my first steps towards simplicity

I will be blogging here as I set out on this path so watch this space. I welcome tips, advice and links.

Next week I am flying out to New Zealand for 2 weeks (will explain more about that in another post) and then I will be in London for a week. I am hoping that Living out of a suitcase will help me focus on simplicity.

For the time being here are some links that reflect my current thinking on this subject

http://zenhabits.net/2007/09/simple-living-manifesto-72-ideas-to-simplify-your-life/

http://www.december.com/simple/live/

http://zenhabits.net/2007/04/top-10-ways-to-reduce-your-work-week/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg7EaLIJrBw

Radical Plans for 2009

2009-01-12T17:04:00.003Z

I am really pressed for time right now. Which gives me the excuse to gloss over what I have / have not been doing over the festive period.

But when I get a moment I intend to write a bit about my plans for the forthcoming year. These plans include massively reducing my possessions. Follow the 5 precepts as closely as possible (yup I'm one of those Buddhist types). Limit my computer use to the bare minimum (ironic to be writing this in a blog huh). Plan for a much more organised future that requires the minimum of technology.

So watch this space

And animal bones

2008-12-19T16:59:00.001Z

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