It's been as bright as Brasil in London these last few weeks. We're staggering under the weight of so much sun.

I'm glad also to see the emergence of a few things I've been working on lately - a Proboscis 'Diffusion' text (using a nice new format) - is available at:

 http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1238

Having worked on this gothic piece in the cold and dark of New Year's Eve 08, it's fun to see it reach the light of day now n dense July.

The essay I recently wrote for the BBC is now up at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/knowledgeexchange/8.pdf

along with some essays by Pat Kane, Bill Thompson, Stephen Heppell etc commenting on a recent programme of collaborative research which the Beeb supported with UK academics funded by the AHRC. In the piece I wrote I was asked to concentrate on the nature of the knowledge, innovation and partnerships involved in the programme which brought academic researchers together with broadcasters for collaborative research into shifting media trends, public engagement through social media etc.  I argue for openess of processes and 'sharism' (citing Isaac Mao) as an essential part of any research into the impact of so called new media on the traditional public sector broadcast domain.

Yesterday, I went to see the Architectural Association end of year student show in London and was mightily impressed. There's a Latin American theme to some of the diploma work. One project group were seeking to design a new high speed railway line to run the whole way down through Chile and they link this back to London's railway stations, to Paddington Station in particular, one of Brunel's great accomplishments. With the graduation party going on in the park opposite beyond this year's temporary Pavilion it was possible to find some space in the small hot galleries, enjoy the accompaniment of Brasilian Music whilst looking at beautifully intricate designs for micro-infrastructure development within the Port of Rio de Janeiro and pick up at reduced price - for one night - copy of a new publication, Articulated Grounds: Mediating Environment and Culture.

This June is a blast - as ever. It's end of year Show at the RCA: the work the design students is open to the public for another week and is well worth a visit. Jonathan Ive of Apple will be among the visitors on Tuesday during Innovation Day when he is also due to give a talk at the Royal Geographical Society. Among the works on show is a Wind Knitting Machine which is attached to the outside of the RCA building, facing Hyde Park which is producing a woolly sock using the natural elements....see http://blog.mydeco.com/2009/06/26/wind-powered-knitting-machines-solar-flowers-and-chairs-that-turn-into-bedside-tables-it-must-be-the-rca-graduate-show/

and inside  other works include Jose Garcia Huidboro's Branch which you can view occasionally 'live' on the web.....athttp://www.thebigbranch.com/

 The report on Digital Culture in Brasil which I -co-wrote with Felipe Fonseca has finally been launched in Sao Paulo (unfortunately without either myself or Felipe who was much too busy getting married the same week).....but it can be easily read now on the Virtueel Platform site at http://www.virtueelplatform.nl/en/#2646

 We're happy to see it out in the world....and Felipe and Ricardo Ruiz and others have been working on a translation into Portuguese  which is an essential step - and can be viewed at http://desvio.weblab.tk/pub/mapeamentobr

 I'm also just recovering from writing a report for the BBC here in the UK on the 'nature of knowledge, innovation and partnerships' in their recent collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council - more about which later.

We're just about to embark on commissioning some publishing related to Paralelo, the workshop held in Sao Paulo a couple of months ago which looked at how artists, designers, scientists and engineers are working together to address environmental and ecological concerns in Brasil, the Netherlands and the UK.  The ensuing essays will also be available on the Virtueel Platform website where you can also find out more about their recent E-Culture limited edition publication which contains essays on the Network as Laboratory and another which I have written called Tracing the Trace (reflections on doing the digital mapping document in Brasil for the Netherlands Ministry of Culture). The 'deluxe box' publication contain many other interesting pieces written by various national and international commentators on trends in media culture ......more at: http://www.virtueelplatform.nl/en/#2653

Whales can't smell (or so they say)which seems a shame now summer is deepening with a shock of scents here in southeast London. The turn of the year leads inevitably to several events held in different parts of the city on the same night - Monday this week was a good example: Tony White reading from his fabulous Albertopolis Disparu - produced during his recent residency at the Science Museum, sample reading at: http://allumination.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/return-to-albertopolis/ -  at the Green Fingernail pub in Romilly Street, Soho (part of the London Short Story Festival) - and in Farringdon, the Art&Architecture organisation organised a very nice evening of presentations relating to the immaterial and invisible - with Minimaforms -http://www.minimaforms.com/video/memorycloud/- and Usman Haque describing the process behind creating some of his inspiring -  http://www.haque.co.uk/skyear/ -  works that tend to the sky and offer memorials in transitory form of something resonant in place.

This week also is the 4th Takeaway Festival now held at the rather 'precious' Dana Centre in London's South Kensington  - a festival that migrated from Ravensbourne College when it was spawned under Karel Dudesek and Armin Medosch (who initiated the name) -and which has been offering a space for public encounters with for demos and debates at the edges of contemporary art, media, robotics, software and hardware. This year's festival has been supported by Arts Council London which has offered some commissions for work related to RFIDs - more at http://www.takeawayfestival.com. 

 

A tv programme tonight on BBC4 about clouds describes diamond dust, a kind of effect caused by freezing air that becomes visible. I have not had access to my website for about six weeks for some reason the hosting service stopped letting me into it, leaving me a little bereft. In the meantime, I had a good time at Paralelo - the wikisite at http://paralelo.wikidot.com/is still a good place to find out more about what happened and the flicker site at http://www.flickr.com/groups/paralelo/conveys much of the energy and joy.

 I also went to Dublin to the Science Gallery to the show about INFECTION which opened a week or so ago, uncanningly timely as the visitors to the gallery are given nose-masks and upstairs we are given a chance to interact with an exhibit that visually shows how fast the spread of a pandemic flu would occur  - spread through air flights for eg between Korea and Dublin. Since I have been writing here, there has been a pandemic scare - now receding. The Dublin Gallery show was clearly very infectious.

& so to Cambridge to hear the illustrious Law Professor and Chair of Creative Commons - James Boyle, from the Centre for the Public Domain at Duke University - present a talk at Wolfson College, introduced by John Naughton. It takes me back, partially, to the CODE conference we did at Queen's College in the same city, in April 2001, when Boyle and Naughton were among the star turns at a pregnant and prescient moment in terms of IP law and all the associated issues, linked to the growth of interest in peer to peer production, the Microsoft anti trust case, IBM beginning to use Linux etc. It is funny that today's Guardian newspaper has an article in its Technology section mentioning that open source software is doing very well during (and because of) this global recession. Boyle's talk tonight manages to remind me of the importance of advocacy. Ben White from the British Library asked him a great question: given that politicians tend to respond best to emotion rather than wonderfully intricate and often correct cerebral arguments, how does one win out?
Hahha. That is indeed the question.........