Beacons of purposeful direction [405]

Greetings from the shed...

May 12, 2023

I thought this might be an overflow email. Things that didn’t fit elsewhere. It still might be. With some fresh stuff. But there is also a long over due thank you…

Thanks Dougie. With Blue Sky, Mastodon, Notes and Diaspora, I feel I have all my bases covered. And no, I still don’t have BlueSky invites.

#TheAction

Thanks to a kind invitation from David Hughes I managed to get to my first conference of the year!

A montage of four photos, a conference pass, bags of swag, a portrait of David Hughes and an all flows sticker on a laptop.

All FlowsLive is a creative design and tech festival in Milton Keynes and I feel privileged to have such a great event and space just 40mins down the road. Thanks to the curation and organisation from David, Richard and the team.

With such wonderful accessibility to the workflows and minds of successful creatives it was impossible not to come away inspired and invigorated.

I hope this happens next year (and does not clash with Thinking Digital another highlight) as I’d like to stop over and immerse myself properly over the three days.

The title of this issue was taken from something Kate Dawkins explored on stage there. Other highlights for me were learning about the work of Universal Everything, getting to listen to and chat with Sarah Boris, talking audio with conceptual artist Peter Adjaye, being inspired by the work and activism of Jennifer Estaris, and after his brilliant talk, getting to learn more about Elliot Jay Stocks and the many strings to his bow. Like his music which I just happen to be listening to now.

If you don’t have anything conference or festival shaped in the diary this year I highly recommend grabbing a ticket. I’ll be running a workshop at Thinking Digital and am hoping to make Stealing Thunder.

There is nothing like being exposed to new ideas, perspectives and insights, meeting and networking with other curious creatives, and perhaps even setting up some collaborations. I never fail to grow in some way and the motivation after this kind of immersion can last months.

All FlowsLive has really got the ball rolling for what I hope to be a summer of returning to these kinds of vibrant learning spaces.

A snap taken as I left the venue in Milton Keynes

In other more home based news. While I chiseled away at some of the video/audio footage I captured in Wales, I may have thwarted a house fire by turning off a smoking tumble drier and stripping it down.

Lint had got into the heating element and started to burn. I doubt it would have spread and there are two thermal cut off switches. But it’s still a reminder never to leave this things unattended. Better still, drip dry everything.

#ThePictures

Kukeri - How a Bulgarian village dances evil spirits away.

An AI generated pizza advert.

#TheWords

Big thanks to Alan Williams for sending me this wonderful book.

PLF is a favourite author of mine and this is a lovely object. The fonts on the cover look like 50’s hand painted display fonts. Unlike anything I’ve seen elsewhere. He picked up the book in his local sharing library. We have a similar looking treasure trove in my village.

#TheSound

Just started listening to The Walker Mysteries podcast and the Politico Insider Podcast entitled ‘How to become an MP’ is worth a listen.

Also @jackcabnory shared me a link to the Frontlines of Journalism by BBC Sounds. Fascinating stuff.

Meanwhile on BlueSky I saw a link pop up last week to a demo of BlueSky Spaces. A sort of clone of Twitter spaces.

I had a better photo but BlueSky has a habit of badly cropping stuff that’s uploaded. The coder pictured top right is chatting about his plans for his version of Spaces and while fun, I felt the video wasn’t needed. I’d like to see something akin to HighFidelity voice chat where participants avatars can roam around the screen and spacial audio will react in relation to their proximity to other avatars. I shared a link in a newsletter way back and we had a play. These places feel less hierarchical and more organic. Like shared spaces in the physical world.

#TheConsumed

In my last post I talked about the most painful eating experience of my life and what happened to me after eating weaponised chilli. More than twice the number of supporting subscribers read it so it obviously resinated. I did contemplate unlocking the post, but I feel more than enough people have experienced my embarrassment. It might be something I stick in an ebook.

A skewed sense of risk [404]

Documentally

May 8

It was Sunday. The day after the King’s coronation. Events were happening all over the country. As they were in my locale. So we headed out. I’m not a royalist, but there was the promise of sunshine, friends and beer. Also we didn’t want to deprive the kids of an interesting experience.

Read full story

#TheThings

If you are wondering why this email is late. It’s because of this thing.

Got a new laptop/main computer. I went for the latest 14” M2 Pro with 16GB.

It was the best spec I could stretch to with the funds I had saved. I finally have a machine that will render video with ease.

I was able to migrate everything but the stickers.

#TheThanks

I must thank the paying subscribers that pay $5/month to get all the content I share into this feed. Please consider upgrading to become a paid supporter. Or if you prefer PayAsYouGo you can do that via PayPal. If you do tip i’ll give the same value (plus some) in full membership. Either way… Thank you for reading, sharing and liking.

#TheWeb

The diary of a Ukrainian filmmaker turned soldier
There is still no one from Chad listed on the Documentally community map. Are you on there?
The Rolling Stone’s breakdown of the royal concert.
I had a lovely chat with AI chatbot HeyPi
Some of my other places include Flickr, Strava, Untappd, Diaspora, Vivino, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, a ham radio newsletter called 73 from G5DOC or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Twitter or Bluesky.

#TheEnd

This may appear rushed as if someone was trying to get back to a video game. But don’t let that fool you in to thinking this contains less love. In fact probably contains more as I’m glowing with appreciation for your understanding. Next week I’m playing catch up and planning another Audiocaching drop.

“I actually believe games are important. The whole world thinks the only true, real reward is getting paid. But games know the only real reward is just feeling good. Enjoying yourself. Play is for serious.” ~ Dash Shaw

Play.

See you out there.

Over…