Meaningful and worthwhile [414]

Greetings from the shed...

I’m Christian Payne, generalist, photographer, writer. Seeking novelty and exploring how we share. Thanks for joining in.

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#TheAction

June the 25th was another glorious day for the 1984 Symposium. I wrote it up in this post and i’d like to thank all those who attended our 17th get together. Plus of course George Orwell’s son Richard Blair and the Orwell Society for boosting attendance at the graveside. As well as delivering a great reading. There were tea and cakes happening but I never made it into the church.

Since then I’ve been head down building a deck for a workshop i’ll be delivering at the Thinking Digital Conference next week. It focuses on using multimedia for community building around content and has a heavy slant on how machine learning tools can play their part in the process. Are you going to the workshop, dinner, or main event? Let me know or just say hi if you see me there.

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#ThePictures

If you have 15mins here is a short film i’m sure you will enjoy.

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Greenpeace made this.

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I've watched all of the videos on Jim Moir’s website of him painting, quite addictive. Here's something to whet your palette.

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#TheWords

I have started reading the book ‘Facing unpleasant facts, narrative essays by George Orwell’. It tackles many isms and continues to be relevant…

“Apparently nothing will ever teach these people that the other 99% of the population exist.”

In the forward George Parker Wrote…

A career like Orwells would be difficult to undertake today. There is too much specialisation in writing, two little genuine independence, and not much room in the major newspapers and magazines for strongly individual essays. It was hard enough to make a living as an essay writer back when Orwell was alive — in 1944, one of his most prolific years, as an essayist, he earned less than £600 for his 100,000 words — and much harder now. Yet for any young writer, willing to try, these essays aren’t merely survivors, historical artefacts, and literary masterpieces. In his openness to the world, and his insistence, on being true to himself, Orwells essays, show, readers and writers of any era what it means to live by the vocation.

I think it was written in 1999. Today, while the rise of subscription newsletters is providing new opportunities for writers to earn a living, it remains to be seen how sustainable this model will be in the long run. Also what impact it will have on the broader media landscape.

I have thought about de-generalising and focusing, but I think those that subscribe to my dispatches do so because of my voice and perspective over a number of interests. I’m not exactly sure. It’s been a while since I asked you about such things. Please correct me if i’m wrong. Your comments are always welcome.

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A secret re-wilding movement.

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I shared this little ditty with supporting subscribers earlier in the week. Thanks for all the lovely messages.

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#TheSound

As it’s the last day of Audiobloggers month, here are my posts for the 30 days.

Day 1: A virtual version of me

Day 2: A chat with my dad about rewilding

Day 3: A rookie error, an ambisonic moment & the sound of a new cassette tape

Day 4: A summary of my time at the Stealing Thunder Festival

Day 5: A binaural recording with the MicTrak M4

Day 6: A first impressions review of the Zoom MicTrak M4

Day 7: A chat with Ash Levitt, President & CEO Heil Sound

Day 8: Sitting by a river with a beer

Day 9: Me reading the passage written at a bus stop in Bangkok

Day 10: Me a little stressed while prepping for guests

Day 11: The other bit of slow audio I recorded by the river

Day 12: Coffee at the noisy end of the village

Day 13: Some watery prose with a backstory ..and just the audio here

Day 14: Contemplating an old T-shirt

Day 15: Sitting with a new friend on a hill

Day 16: Introducing the Capcorder

Day 17: Sheep shearing with Dylan Davies

Day 18: As the eye comes over

Day 19: Tales from the slow lane

Day 20: Working not working

Day 21: Insights for a vigilant society (An invite to the 1984Symposium)

Day 22: A chat with Dave while holed up in Rugby

Day 23: A piece of audio I recorded without noticing a serious error. Listen out for a cameo from Lauren Laverne.

Day 24: Walking into the first St Neots Festival.

Day 25: Signing off from the 17th 1984 Symposium

Day 26: Words spoken at the #1984Symposium

Day 27: I suddenly find myself net controller

Day 28: Zelda to Ludovico

Day 29: An impromptu chat about audio workflows

Day 30: My final post in what has been a fantastic month.

If you search the tag #AudioMo on Mastodon etc, you will hear lots of thanks in peoples final posts. This has obviously been very enjoyable for many. But it needn’t end there. If you want to drop into the ears of the more vigilant in the community, you can use #Audio365 at any point in the year.

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#TheConsumed

Oxford sauce is a new one on me. Not to be confused with the much older Oxford sauce which was originally called Cumberland Sauce. The ingredients are a combination of molasses, dates, tamarind, anchovy, garlic and birdseye chillis. I picked it up at the pub next to Orwell’s Grave. It has a lovely flavour and I have reached for it a few times this week.

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Space food and what it might look like in the not to distant future.

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#TheThings

This guy makes the Polyend Play look easy. But he’s had almost a year and a half to get to grips with it. He’s certainly getting his money’s worth though in regards to producing this sponsored video. As soon as I watched it I was off looking at how much it costs. Almost £800. Thankfully I don’t need it.

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#TheThanks

Thank you to those that support my writing with a small monthly subscription.

How small? Subscribing monthly to all the content I share costs less than the price of a four pack of baked beans from Aldi. I must be worth at least that to you. No need to miss any posts again.

Or if you prefer you might like to buy me a coffee or send a tip via PayPal or Monzo. Either way… Thank you for reading.

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#TheWeb

• Is the army’s new tactical bra ready for deployment?

• Welcome Stuart Witts to the Documentally community map

• What’s the perfect design process?

• If you are an academic teaching interactive storytelling and film making Stornaway are offering 10% off their platform.

• I’m loving the world’s first fish doorbell.

• Still enjoying Mastodon. Moreso. But also getting stuck into Bluesky & T2. I think it’s called hedging your bets. I have a couple of invites for T2 if you need one.

• What else might atrophy if we become too dependent on generative AI

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#TheEnd

There is nothing like a deadline to be on time. I’m off to the theatre right now. ‘The Ocean at the end of the Lane’ by Neil Gaiman. Over the weekend I hope to be sipping wine while finishing my deck for #TDC23

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“The theater itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution."

~ Augusto Boal

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DIY

See you out there.

Over…

A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.