Deliberately Whimsical [586]

Greetings from EMFCamp...

Jul 17, 2026

I’m Christian Payne, autotelic, photographer and writer. In this weekly dispatch I’m standing in the bar at EMF camp. This is one of the easiest places on planet Earth to seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going. You really have to be here to get a sense of what this is all about. But I'll try to give you a glimpse.

It’s also bloody hot. But if you are south of Newcastle in the UK you probably knew that. Thanks for joining in.

#TheAction

This is my sixth EMF Camp. It’s never the same playground, yet always full of people who delight in learning for its own sake. People immersed in the playful, unusual, or delightfully odd.

Open minds and open source, many of the projects here have no commercial value. Some could be worth millions. Many never get finished. Others are deliberately whimsical. And yet, this is the place where you really are free to tinker and experiment. No idea is too crazy and collaboration is part of the culture.

It’s impossible to count the new ideas that are born here. But I really love the energy that comes from all these weird and wonderful minds. So happy that I’m able to discover and play among them. Play breeds creativity and here you can see it, hear it, smell it and get your hands on it everywhere you go.

EMF camp in it’s 7th year and was is born of play, of Jonty, Russ and the team problem solving this culture into existence. A community that accepts everyone for who they are and values curiosity and the journey it takes you on... No matter how crazy..

In my normal week I might work to a list, attempting to optimise and organise my days. But in this rare environment things are different. Yes I made a list of some things I might like to experience... But serendipity rules and time cannot be wasted here. Plus most of the talks are recorded, should I get caught up in one mind-blowing cat after another.

This is exploration without the fear of failure. Every second is in the hands of wonder and every hour wonder-full.

#TheSeen

I’ve a bunch of photos from EMFcamp that will at some point see the light of day, but right now they’re stuck on my camera as I attempt to both make the most out of my time here and get something resembling a dispatch out into the wild.

In the meantime I'm dropping the occasional hastily shot phone video into my Bluesky.

The guy behind Count Binface has done some other cool stuff.

Stolen from the internet.

#TheWords

Just finished Wifedom by Anna Funder.

This book sets out to restore Eileen Blair to the story of George Orwell, his life and his writing. In that, I think it succeeds. Part biography, part literary criticism and part memoir, it argues that Eileen’s influence on Orwell’s work has been overlooked for far too long. Tragically so.

The book was an easy, thought-provoking read, it also made me question much of what I thought I knew about Orwell, his life and his creative partnerships. But it also left me with a lot of questions. Like how much of it was dreamed up?

Richard Blair, Orwell and Eileen’s son, has criticised a large part of this book while also spending years campaigning for his mother’s contributions to be properly recognised. He has often described Eileen as Orwell’s intellectual equal and believes she played an important role in shaping Animal Farm. His main concern was that the book sometimes relied too heavily on imagined thoughts and scenes, portraying her as more of a victim than the evidence allows.

Whatever the precise truth of their relationship, the misogyny of the time is hard to ignore, and certainly not as behind us as we’d like to think. If nothing else, Wifedom has sparked an important conversation about Eileen Blair and her place in Orwell’s life and legacy.

To follow this, I would very much like to read Sylvia Topp’s ‘Eileen’, a biography Richard Blair himself has praised for its careful research. It’ll be interesting to compare the two.

#TheHeard

I just saw Magz Hall talk about her radio art and I’m hooked. Check out her projects here.

#TheConsumed

This is not my first time camping with electricity, but it is my first time camping with an electric kettle and induction hob.

The grass is so dry outside I did not want to have a naked flame and with power to the tent at eMF camp I thought Why not?

It might not feel like ‘proper camping’ but certainly makes mealtime easier. And if you are looking for a decent sauce in a jar then the Mutti Arabbiata is not bad at all.

We have all the cherries we need and more …and yes. It’s possible to take them for granted. They will of course end up in some kind of preserve.

#TheThings

I used to get great satisfaction from fixing computers, but it doesn’t come close to the satisfaction I had earlier this week in fault finding and repairing a typewriter.

I’ll share more on this in a future issue.

Recently I flashed my Meshtastic nodes and switched my hardware to Meshcore. I won’t link to any of this super nerdy unlicensed radio comms tech as there’s a bit of a bun fight going on over the new protocol of Meshcore. Some folk want to monetise the Open Source tech and the good guys don’t.

Explained as simply as I can, it’s a low power, long-range mesh networking messaging system that has your message hop from one device to the next till it reaches its destination.

This has really taken off recently and I’m finding that from my home I can message internationally via hand full of line-of-sight nodes. No GSM or internet needed.

This has been really popular here at EMF camp with a variety of group chats popping up and really active conversation across the valley and beyond.

My battery on this particular device (a ThinkNode M1) that pairs to my phone has lasted two days so far. So much fun.

#TheLinks

Why the past still feels a little modern.
As everyone is on the net here the Documentally community map won’t load for me. I’ve met a few subscribers here but I was attempting to see who was the most local subscriber on the map..
Just picked up the latest version of what must be the best festival badge ever.
Has ai-already killed non-fiction?
Some of my other places include these.
The cult of the enhanced self.

#TheThanks

Thank you lovely people. (Especially supporting subscribers). You’re awesome. ♥️ Apologies if this is shorter than usual but there is so much happening here I want to immerse myself and nothing I share can really do this place justice anyway. Hope I get to see you here if you are here and if not see you here in 2028?

All errs here are human made.

Must dash, Nullsector is waiting.

Thanks for reading!