Monthly Archives: December 2010

What I'm doing

Journal Racing Prototype

1 Comment

As I mentioned when talking about racing earlier, I'm going to run a prototype version in the UK starting next week.  Just to see how it works really.

I will be giving out 3 empty journals/notebooks in stamped self-addressed jiffy bag with intended "final" destinations of Edinburgh, Liverpool and Penzance

This is a first draft of the instructions that I'll put in each book – your comments and insights are welcome – please let me know if you think I've missed something obvious.

If you receive this package:

on or after 31st January 2011; or
in {the intended final destination} before 31st January 2011; or
there is only room for one more entry, regardless of the date

then please add an entry as described below, put the book in the jiffy bag, seal the jiffy bag and pop it in the post.

Otherwise…

Please do:
Start a new page for your entry.
Put your name, today's date and your location, preferably a postcode (the first part only will do eg BS1, W14 etc) at the top of the page.
Write and/or draw something about you and your day
Pass it on to someone you know who is closer to the intended destination
Keep it moving, if you can let it go again within a day that would be best.

Please don't:
Abandon the package in a public place assuming someone else will pick it up
Just take it straight there – this is about a human-scale journey, not necessarily efficiency.
Hold on to it for more than a couple of days maximum.
Add anything else to the package that will increase the postage.
Modify the packaging so that it can't be posted.

Thanks for taking part!

If you wish to, and if you are on twitter, please tweet when and where you pass the package and include the hashtag #journalraceuk

Again, only if you wish to, e-mail a picture of yourself with the package and/or any thoughts on the project to post@journal-racing.posterous.com

If you have any questions, or just want to say hello, give me a call on 079191 82825 or e-mail lloyd.davis@gmail.comOriginally posted on Tuttle2Texas2

What I'm doing

Purpose

There's a nice little side exhibit at Tate Britain on Turner's use of Colour and Line.  It includes this descriptive panel which caught my eye in relation to this project.

Some thoughts:

What was tourism like in the early 19th Century?  How did these travels work?

The story of the journey itself is secondary to the things that get made as a result of the journey.

For those who need to know purpose: "to gather (visual) material to use as an inspiration for … finished works"Originally posted on Tuttle2Texas2

canon

Costs: Kit for Content Creation

For the 2010 trip

In my one-man social media empire bag this year I had:

My trusty, but aging, Nokia N95 and Asus eeepc 1000H

Loaned Canon 500D, Nokia N900, Nokia 3G Booklet

While away, I bought a US sim card with “unlimited” data from T-mobile for one month.  Mike Oh in Boston loaned me a lens for the Canon because it hadn’t come with one (!) and an SD card

I took about 1000 pictures over the three weeks.  Most of them with the Canon but did get some with the N900 although picture quality wasn’t as good as on the N95.  I didn’t have my N95 charged and ready to go all the time, because it wouldn’t play as nicely with the US sim card as the N900. 

I didn’t find much use for the 3G booklet – it was lighter than my Asus but the 3G would only have been useful on the move and there was very poor signal on all of the trains we used.  In any case, I prefer to write when I’m sitting still and take in what’s going on when I’m moving.

I would have made better use of the N900 if I had had an intro to it before I left.  It wasn’t until New York that I found out how to zoom in and out on the screen 🙂

Likewise I would have shot much more video if I’d been more familiar with the Canon before leaving.  I didn’t get the hang of it until I was in Austin… I simply didn’t have time to read the manual on the road.

With hindsight, I think I should have made a case to get Canon and Nokia to let me have those devices for the year of my residency at C4CC rather than just for the three weeks of the trip.  If I have another residency this year I’ll give it a go – there’s so much more value I can bring with kit that I know well and can rely on having for a while.  The other issue raised by having a short-term loan was that I worried more (perhaps irrationally) about damage or loss.

The thing I really felt the lack of was a computer that could handle the HD video that the Canon pumps out – both in terms of working on stuff while away, but also editing things together afterwards. I also worried a lot about only having one copy of pics and vids that I’d shot.

When looking to cost this, the kit I was loaned retails today at:

Canon 500D £515

Nokia N900 £350

T-mobile sim $50 = £33

3G Booklet £520

4GB SD Card – £5

Total I would have had to lay out on kit: £1423

For the next trip

Now the things I don’t have for this year’s trip yet are:

A DSLR & decent lens that shoots HD & some large data storage cards

Some large USB sticks for data backup.

A light-ish laptop that can comfortably handle HD video

A smartphone with US sim and a friendly data plan

Open to suggestions on how to acquire the above.  A longer term deal that might include support for my continuing Social Art would be preferable to me and doubtless of more value to the sponsor than a loan just for the duration of the trip.

Originally posted on Tuttle2Texas2

What I'm doing

Costs for Tuttle2Texas

I'm going to take a look at what was required to do the first trip.  The idea of using these experiences to put a value on the power of my social capital is becoming more and more interesting to me.  I think this is one way into it.

Lets group things under the following headings:

Kit (camera, phone, laptop etc)
Flights
Accommodation
Travel between cities
Travel within cities
SXSWi
Food & subsistence

I think there'll probably be a post for each of these – it's not as simple as adding up a list of numbers (even if I'd recorded things in any detail) but I think it will help in being more structured in keeping records next year.

I'm starting to look for cash sponsorship for next March's trip to cover those things that can't be received in kind as well as offers of other corporate support.  If you know anyone who'd be interested in getting involved in this way, point them in my direction.Originally posted on Tuttle2Texas2

What I'm doing

Stranded by snow? Come and work at #C4CC

Thanks to a helpful man from the University and his blow torch and to Brian and his salt-sprinkling skills, the Centre will be open at least today, tomorrow and Wednesday this week

We’re happy to welcome anyone who’s unexpectedly in town and stuck because of the snow.

If you need somewhere to touch down, plug in, recharge, sup some coffee and maybe meet some new people, we’re at 16 Acton Street, WC1X 9NG very close to King’s Cross/St Pancras station and we’d love to see you. 

I’m going to be here from 11am to 5pm but there may well be others in at other times too – call me on 07919182825 to check.

Originally posted on Centre for Creative Collaboration – blog

conversation

Visions of Collaboration

Today after Tuttle, we watched Brazil, the Terry Gilliam film that contains a cameo from Robert De Niro as Harry Tuttle, Heating Engineer and Freelance Subversive who gave our club its name.

I’ve already said that I will start showing classic road movies in the New Year in the run up to Tuttle2Texas2, but I’d like to propose another movie-watching idea more directly connected with the mission of the Centre.

I will confirm timings after Christmas, but the idea is this: to watch, in a group, a film that tells the story of a famous collaboration and then to hold a conversation afterwards reflecting on what we, as a group, have learned or what ideas it sparked in us.

How about it?  What would you like to see?  My first choice is The Great Escape, but I’m wondering if there are good ones about The Manhattan Project, the US Space program or from further back, pyramid or cathedral building – preferably where collaboration is the central theme of the film, rather than just a backdrop – any ideas?

Originally posted on Centre for Creative Collaboration – blog

What I'm doing

To Southby or not to Southby

1 Comment

Well it didn’t come as a great surprise but I got confirmation yesterday that my panel about Tuttle2Texas (last year’s trip) has not been accepted in the (pretty much) final round of selection for the South By South West Interactive Festival.

I don’t know the reason it wasn’t selected.  Obviously with the large numbers of entries, there isn’t any specific feedback.  I can only assume that “they” don’t get “it” – I’ve not gone through the accepted panels and done any rigorous analysis on which British panels were chosen and anything I say looks like sour grapes anyway.

So it raises a question or two:  Why do I still have Austin as a stopping place in the middle of the plan.  Do I need to go to Austin? Was I only going to speak?  Is it too much of a constraint?  What could I do that was interesting in Austin without going to SXSWi?  What could I do elsewhere in the states at the same time as SXSWi that would still be connected but not actually being there?  Why am I going in March if it’s not tied in with being in Austin for March 11th to 15th?  What is the trip called if I don’t go to Texas?

Hmmm….

Originally posted on Tuttle2Texas2