Pic Blog

Internal Monologues and a Ramblin' Mind

2011-05-09T16:59:00.006+01:00

This little note from a member of my team (bless you!) got me thinking.

I've realised I'm seeking digestible content, ideas, stimulus that I can sink my teeth into. Stuff I can trust, without having to circumnavigate the web.

Sort of like TED, but not. A Modern Reviewmeets School of Life maybe?

Gaming in a print publishing world

2011-04-09T17:13:00.008+01:00

T'was
asked to talk about games and gaming at a Digital Publishing Summit. A theme that surfaced was how print should interwork with digital; using each platform to their best effect.

It also made me realise how much of my world is made of sound and images, not text.

Mind expansion in the Future Laboratory

2011-03-09T21:34:00.008Z

Deeply and completely inspired by a Future Laboratory Trend Briefing in the Camden Roundhouse (pictured).

It felt like a luxury to take 2-3 hours out to hear their take on ubiquitous gaming. But I came away refreshed and revitalised, like a shampoo advert - and got introduced to Clock Opera.

Leave Blank

2011-02-02T21:21:00.000Z

Waiting to meet up with a long time wannabe collaborator in St James Park, I got a few moments of space to stop and think, and realised how little stopping and thinking I do.

I guess it's as much about clearing out things that get on top of you as fresh thinking.

Nice to have a few moments to leave a blank page.

Positivity

Neon And?

2010-12-21T22:28:00.005Z

Seeing this neon & whilst visiting Ogilvy's office in Canary Wharf made me think about the complexities of reading signs and symbols in an abbreviation obsessed age.

If you're not familair with the language, then txt code is difficult to decipher. But for the literate, there are beautiful new ways to communicate using symbols and data.

Information is Beautiful

Trust Stupid

2010-09-19T21:59:00.002+01:00

Making bold statements and keeping things tight and concise is what advertising does well and education does not.

Educators tend to add not takeaway. Boiling something down to its essence makes it richer and more memorable - I learnt that at a Raymond Blanc cookery school.

Diesel ad campaign

Sardine Eyes

2010-09-13T23:18:00.003+01:00

A friend and I cooked tapas together, inspired by La Boveda in Palma de Mallorca.

A poor man's fish, they were a surprisingly cheap ingredient, if a little bony.

And their eyes follow you round the room.

So don't look at their eyes.

The Ministry of Power

2010-07-28T16:16:00.002+01:00

Odd feeling coming f2f with people with real power - the photo wall of education secretaries at the Department of Education.

Someone told me once that politics is often decisions by anecdote. If so, we put a heck of a lot of faith in the people we vote for.

Power

Living with Dave and Nick

2010-07-16T17:14:00.000+01:00

I wonder what buzzword or phrase will be remembered for this administration?

The eighties gave us 'There’s no such thing as society' from Margaret, but more memorably 'Gizza job' from Yosser. We await a comedy drama featuring 2 cleanly shaven smartly dressed twins.

Boys from the Black Stuff

Quietly protesting

2010-07-10T22:11:00.000+01:00

Are we heading for quiet unrest or a collision cause to riots and public unrest? There's a scent in the air of quiet discontent as the 'new' Government unveils its economy recovery plans.

Just wonder if summer 11 is a hot summer that quiet unrest will spill out onto the streets.

Protest

Stop Making Sense

2010-06-29T19:08:00.002+01:00

The full impact of public sector funding cuts is just about sinking in. Radio 4's Today programme covered the knock-on effect of businesses who supply products and services to the Government.

I'm starting to look for formulas and clues as to the speed and severity.

Alternative Perspective

2010-06-18T22:21:00.000+01:00

Impressed with my daughter Beth’s ability to draw inspiration from unusual sources.

She combined the way small children see the world enlarged with Jasper Maskelyne - the illusionist employed by the WW2 British military intelligence, to come up with a clothing range. Not obvious design references.

Moorfoot on Unsure Footing

2010-05-24T11:42:00.000+01:00

At Moorfoot, the Government office for education in Sheffield, the scaffolding is up and the signs are coming down.

Presumably because the remaining civil servants would be rattling around the building, kicking their heels.

Rumour is they're going to knock it down to make way for an intergalatic highway.

Objet Trouvé?

2010-04-16T10:31:00.000+01:00

Wondered if this was the boss level clue for an alternate reality game? Or maybe the marker for the start of a geocaching game? Or perhaps the central theme for an interactive narrative? Or an objet trouvé?

Or maybe someone's dropped their toy.

Schoogle

2010-03-31T22:50:00.000+01:00

A great idea - an educational Google - conceived at the BectaX swansong event.

No doubt about it, it's the start of a drive toward commercial educational apps, as the Government withdraws its financial support for the use of technology in education.

Abbey Road Cans

2010-03-29T21:47:00.001+01:00

Standing on the stained, dampening carpet of Studio 2, Abbey Road, during Sarah Knight's recording session.

There was a tangible presence about the place, rooted as it is in the history of British music.

Department of Health Jaffa Cakes

2010-03-18T22:43:00.001Z

Somewhat ironically I thought, we were presented with Jaffa Cakes at a Department of Health meeting.

However, as Mr Reeve often purports, the tangy orange centre counts as one of your five a day...honestly.

5 a day

Hardcore Punk Jazz

2010-02-21T01:37:00.000Z

Nought so good as a tranquil Sunday evening of hardcore punk jazz.

The thing is, you see, you need to listen through the music not to the music.

Ummm, nice.

Led Bib

Zelda on the Brain

2010-01-24T20:34:00.000Z

I get this strange sensation when playing Zelda - I start seeing objects from the game in the real world.

This one was the spookiest, as I found it outside my front door.

I think the Princess dropped it.

The Sacred Realm

Couture Sucks

2009-11-11T19:31:00.000Z

Learning myths #289 - no one likes maths.

Messages and street fashion ain't nothing new and it's a shame the message isn't a wee bit more thought provoking.

Nice t-shirt tho.

Wildfox

Wispa Gold Social Messaging

2009-11-06T16:27:00.001Z

A new definition of social advertising?

Using personal messages as the focus and the copy for billboard ads.

What's interesting is how close people feel to a brand like a Wispa and how the ad agency has made a connection with intimate messages.

Wispa Gold Messages

Musical Pictures

2009-10-30T02:20:00.001Z

Here spotted wearing the daughter's geek glasses at Mr Hudson/Calvin Harris gig in Sheffield.

Pondering a long running idea about capturing the feeling you get from gigs using a mobile/online app to bring fans closer to artists and vice-versa.

The Pitching Green

2009-08-12T20:04:00.003+01:00

Doing a not-at-all-good pitch at the Electric Works in Sheffield...

and learning, learning, always learning.

The next one will be better.

After all, we all know life's a pitch.

www.stephenbayley.com

Learning from Advertising

2009-08-11T17:58:00.002+01:00

Struggling with how to motivate reluctant audiences.

I'm learning alot from advertising people like ThinkBox about getting messages across, simply and directly.

But I think facing difficult issues is harder than selling something people might like to buy.

Nesta Creative Business Mentoring

Bring me my Music, Now!

2009-07-25T18:51:00.000+01:00

Would I have discovered Led Bib without the Mercury Prize?

Or Mr Hudson and the Library without Later with Jools Holland?

Is the pleasure of discovering and collecting music lost for the iTunes gen?

The Art of Persuasion

2009-06-11T23:46:00.000+01:00

Learning from some lovely people at Ogilvy about getting people to do things they don't really want to do.

Tapping into desires and motivates, hooks to grab attention and ways to maintain motivation.

Blogilvy

The wind begins to howl

2009-04-30T17:40:00.002+01:00

Is that horse's hooves I hear on the horizon?

Was that a wildcat growling?

Can anyone smell sulphur?

Dark times ahead...

Seeing Ronin at Kings Place

2009-04-13T10:27:00.001+01:00

Seeing Zen Funk specialists Nik Bärtsch's Ronin (wonder if there are any other Zen Funk bands?) and witnessed possibly the best bass player I've ever seen, Björn Meyer.

Made me realise I should never, ever pick up a bass again!

Serious Play

2009-03-01T23:16:00.003Z

Dreaming up playful ideas with serious messages with Mr Nolan.

It's a bit like cooking without a recipe and with new ingredients - you have to start somewhere and see where it takes you, knowing it might all go Pete Tong.

Serious Play?

Nude Display - heading for a downturn

2009-02-03T16:19:00.004Z

Storm clouds ahead, batten down the hatchers.

A shop in Sheffield prepares itself for the downturn.

I'm attempting to shoot the recession via my flickr picture blog.

Following Nigella to the Mountain Tops

2008-12-24T21:29:00.004Z

Attempting a Christmas bird the Nigella way involves soaking the bird overnight in a variety of succulent substances, before roasting and basting to allow the juices to flow so you can taste mouth-watering meat.

(Did that sound like Nigella?)

www.nigella.com

Woss Out

2008-11-10T21:08:00.000Z

Happened to be at the Beeb the day the Woss/Brand affair blew up.

I wonder what the future holds for the BBC? Will it stand its ground and forge its own identity as a vibrant, cutting-edge public broadcaster and multimedia channel...or not?
BBC Charter

Navigating by sound and pictures

2008-10-27T19:00:00.003Z

Whilst at a LKL event(talking about accessible gaming and Plan-B, our prototype soundscape game for the beeb) I heard Roy Orbison come alive via a video-based search app with image recognition software presented by Nick Weldin of the Rix Centre.

Neat.

Money does Nothing

2008-10-18T21:56:00.004+01:00

If it's true, why doesn't someone please tell that to the financial houses of the western world? You generally get a feeling that someone somewhere has buggered things up for the rest of us. Can anyone honestly say they understand the state of post-capitalist economics?

Maybe YouTube will tell me?

2008-09-19T21:58:00.002+01:00

At Y Design awards ceremony. Well, less ceremony, more nightclub with limited stock of cheap wine, most of which was consumed by my esteemed colleague and I. We pondered the fact that we could have grandparented the designers there, strutting in their cardingans and drain-pipes. Didn't win anything, can you tell?

Great Things - Think Positive!

2008-09-17T21:54:00.001+01:00

Remain positive. Think happiness. Be upbeat. Believe. The glass is half full.

Note to self, try not to listen to Radio 4, it can't be that bad, can it? Tra la la...sorry, I can't hear you...tra la la.

nick baylis - happiness

Growing a Tache to Raise Cash

2008-09-16T22:49:00.000+01:00

My upper lip is sprouting for the month of September, along with other gentlemen across the land, to raise cash for Everyman Cancer Research.

I've gone for the classic handle-bar and can be seen here sporting the new look on the terraces (well, plastic seats) of the Madjeski stadium, home to Reading FC.

NB we got a thorough 6-0 thumping. Don't think it was anything to do with the tache.

Tache Back

Gigging with the Geeks at Alt-c

2008-09-10T18:42:00.001+01:00

At the Alt-c 2008 conference at the University of Leeds (a vast Stalinist campus) , getting a sense of the prioritises and interests of (mainly HE) learning technologists.

Currently a la mode is edublogging, all things twitter-esque and mobile learning. Second Life seems to have waned a little.

Pedagogy is well down the list, according to this cloud tag, but blending learning and technology is always the tricky bit.

Eat an Apple or the Glumph Gets It

2008-09-04T23:21:00.001+01:00

Presenting our prototype healthy eating game for primary schools at a Melt event, to a 150-strong audience of ardent creatives and digital artists.

We stacked the apples, thinking people would prefer cake, but lo and behold, this was all that was left.

Healthy artists love Melt.

Cultivating a New Way of Seeing Food

2008-08-19T22:17:00.003+01:00

Localvore foodies. The 100 miles club. Slow food. Keeping it local is a revolution going on in kitchens across the land. Well, in granite top Aga kitchens, that is.

The next challenge is to get a new food worldview in Ikea and MFI kitchens too.

Slow Food

A Long Summer with Teenagers

2008-07-11T19:14:00.001+01:00

We've been burgled! Nope, it's just an image that won't be appearing on Myspace/Facebook. There's no carefully constructed haircuts, cheek sucking or 'from above' camera angles here. This is one reality of teenage space.

Tidy Your Room

A Rubber Ball is My New Friend

2008-06-17T19:11:00.001+01:00

My new rubber friend is helping me get back on the road to recovery from surgery (a microdiscsectomy, L5-S1 for those who like to know). Physiotherapy keeps up with science and commerce - new research means new devises, new practises.

Not like education then.
Society of Physiotherapy

Isobel Campbell, the Choice of Neurosurgeons

2008-06-05T20:51:00.002+01:00

So there I was, still groggy from the anaesthetic after been under the neurosurgeon's finely sharpened blade. What did he listen to whilst inserting the knife, I enquired, assuming a little Bach or Chopin perhaps. Nope, Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell of all things. I wonder what brain surgeons listen to?

Last game, last rites?

2008-05-04T18:18:00.005+01:00

Last game of the season in the topsy turvy world of a football fan. Potential relegation to the dark and dismal League 1 loomed (that's division 3 in old money). With a reduction in the ticket price to a tenner, wednesdayites came out of the woodwork to fill the ground. (BTW we won 3-1).
footballgroundguide

360 degree convergence?

2008-04-02T19:05:00.001+01:00

At the blesséd BBC again, pitching, pitching. Currently and for the foreseeable future we're grabbling with bringing together the power of television to hold your emotions and tell stories with the 'agency', freedom and playfulness of games and new media. Everything bad is good for you.

New media is about banking on uncertainty

2008-02-27T21:12:00.003Z

We work a block away from people who still make 'things'. You know, real things, things you can pick up, or things that are heavy and can be melted and molded into useful things, like girders and knives and paperclips. Whereas we make things that don't really exist, things that my dad still can't believe I can earn a living from.

Soho and Noho, NYC

2007-11-02T20:06:00.004Z

I love downtown NYC, I act like a kid, relishing the feeling of being on a Starsky and Hutch set. This trip combined some good business meetings and the pound sterling nodding and winking encouragingly at us, so Soho and Noho were our hunting ground.

Brits on tour, ding dang dong.

Sheffield, birthplace of football

2007-10-24T23:02:00.000+01:00

Marking 150 years of football with dinner at the Cutler's Hall - image of the ceiling therein thereof.

There in penguin suits with my brother, honouring Sheffield FC, the first football club in the world, who now play in, umm, Dronfield.

Sheffield FC

Innovators, entrepreneurs and money makers?

2007-08-30T22:52:00.005+01:00

Attending a Games Innovation Workshop held at the swanky new offices of Nesta. I tend to cynically think of innovation as those 'first over the trench' who take the risk for others to follow and invariably make greater commercial success. Pushing at boundaries is maybe a phrase I feel more comfortable with.

Barcelona Space Invaders

2007-08-07T21:04:00.004+01:00

I think pervasive games (gaming meets real life) could be the new cheese rolling and bog diving - celebratory events that bring communities together, in an increasingly de-ritualised western world. But making ends meet for those who make them is the rub. Here the Space Invader sells maps and t-shirts, which is canny enough.

Games, Learning and Society 3.0

2007-07-12T23:42:00.000+01:00

Talking about DoomEd, our Half Life proof of concept learning game at GLS 3.0 conference. Pondering developing games that remain games whilst having explicit educational value. What we call 'situated science' - learning in a meaningful context. There's a webcast of the talk under the title So, You Want to Design a Game for Learning.

Gulf between Children's Media and Education

2007-07-07T20:44:00.000+01:00

Talking about the gap between children's education and their media at showcomotion.

My argument being that people have rich learning experiences in gaming and web 2.0 worlds, but that they learn very differently in their own media spaces to how they they learn in the confines of the classroom.

Storm Brewing

2007-06-28T19:30:00.000+01:00

The picture captures the storm brewing that would lead to the Great Sheffield Flood. The shot has become my most viewed flickr image by far.

I wish I could say I intended it, but actually, I was thinking of something else, cacooned in my ipod. A random, unintended capture of a moment in time.

Awarding Auckland

2007-06-12T23:17:00.000+01:00

George Auckland, BBC Learning, after receiving a Lifetime Achievement award, at the RTS Educational Television Awards 2007.

George is the quiet and unassuming cornerstone of UK interactive media and education and the godfather of DESQ.

The award is richly, richly deserved.

Personalised Signs

2007-06-01T22:02:00.000+01:00

Sometimes a printed sign just doesn't hit the mark and a more personalised approach to communicating with an audience is required.

Case in point, a notice on a bus. It made me laugh and make me think twice about chucking my bus ticket on the floor.

So it worked. Although the bus driver was still a miserable ***.

Yellow Sign Design

Great reception for frying brains

2007-05-13T21:46:00.000+01:00

It's one of those things really, we want our cake and eat it. I want to walk in the wilderness of the Lake District, but I want to be able to send and receive txt as well. Maybe I should ditch technology for a while, see how I cope?

I felt better when I looked up the SAR (specific absorption rate) of my phone and turns out I only fry my brain at a rate of 0.64, which sounds reassuring low...doesn't it?

Mobile phone SAR ratings

We us get digital in Yorkshire

2007-05-04T20:50:00.000+01:00

Despite the glamour of a tux - a series of black tie do's has lead me to buy a penguin suit - the Yorkshire Digital Awards had a parochial, small town feel to it.

I left with the impression that, despite best efforts of the sponsors, Yorkshire is still rooted firmly in the 20th C.

Wednesday v Birmingham City Away

2007-04-28T20:40:00.000+01:00

So the hula skirts and Sylvester the cat costumes get another outing for the annual knees up that is the last away game of the season.

The myth of pervasive hooliganism gets blown away as I chat to a bloke dressed as Marge from the Simpsons...

Trusting BBC jam

2007-03-14T22:52:00.000Z

The day BBC jam got caught up in a sticky mess.

The balance of fruit and sugar tipped when the public service remit was taken to mean commercial concerns would be affected. In a postmodern world, surely there’s room for public and private initiatives to work alongside one another?

Innovate, Create, Originate

2007-03-09T22:49:00.000Z

At the BBC Innovation Labs, locked away in a luxury hotel for a week with Mr Nolan, working through ideas for alternative audio debates on arts and heritage. Getting the audience and their needs right is the prerequisite of a good idea, before matching this with a technology answer. But if it’s not enhanced by technology, it’s not an answer.

Melting Tricks

2007-02-27T21:42:00.000Z

How come I seem to team up with people who do tricks? Let me rephrase that, people who perform a slight of hand. Let me rephrase that... Anyway, the Yorkshire melting pot has brought together me and manthorp
to see what magic we can conjure up.

MELT

Old Britannia

2007-01-25T18:35:00.000Z

I caught a glimpse of the old world, a world without wikipedia.

Leather bound, musty and missing 1966, I wonder how many Britannia yearbooks sell these days? Editorial validity was as suspect then as it is now, just dictatorial rather than democratised.
Encyclopædia Britannica

Shower Controls II

2007-01-18T20:26:00.000Z

So here's another shower design problem (see August 2006 for version I). I know you're going to think I'm obsessed, but you've got to admit, where'd you start with this one? Design needs to move in gentle steps to be usable. Red and blue spots would have helped here, me thinks.

Having to guess is not a good user experience.

About Design

Rules of play, rules of writing

2006-12-04T20:31:00.000Z

Getting down to writing (about games and learning) is tough, what with the day job, but there's nothing like a McFarlane deadline. There's a mood and a mode I need to be in to write - I blame my addiction to keeping my inbox trim and tidy - so I go where there's no wireless and no modem.
Email Addiction

21st Century Teaching?

2006-11-27T22:21:00.000Z

Whilst working on a pitch for the redesign of school science labs, a timely parents evening revealed a science cupboard stacked high with textbooks and VHS tapes. There was no way of telling if they were redundant or central to lessons and learning. Judging by the parque floors and 60s benches, I suspected the latter. 21st Century science? BSF

Puzzling away

2006-10-27T20:23:00.000+01:00

What's the connection between Alan Turing, Albert Einstein and Lewis Caroll? Puzzling times. I'm thinking puzzles, modern and old and the fascination people have with them. There's a geekiness to puzzles, akin to train spotting. But somehow, puzzles are part of most of our media experiences.
www.cut-the-knot.org

Merging Media to Find New Music

2006-10-21T09:35:00.000+01:00

One way to get to know new music is to merge media. I combine Amazon customer reviews and 'customers who bought this also bought', cross-referencing myspace, before buying in old-fashioned shops.

I still thumb through dusty plastic cases in Record Collector - Sheffield's best music shop. (When I was 12, I'd spend Saturday mornings sifting slowly through vinyl). RC provide commentaries in tiny handwriting on price tags to help me whilst I meander in their lovely, scruffy shop.

Playing with Science

2006-10-17T21:57:00.000+01:00

Teachers and fellow digital designers at a science workshop at the London Science Centre.

Aim of the day was to inspire science teachers with new teaching resources, so was trialling Science Supremo. To avoid mis-conceptions, classroom-based games need a snappy genre name. Answers on a postcard...

Handholding Learning

2006-10-12T21:55:00.000+01:00

Angela McFarlane talking at the Handheld Learning Conference about the use of mobiles and handheld devices in learning, drawing from the good and the bad pilot mobile projects, in what is still an emerging field.

And she did it from Oslo, her voice booming from the ceiling. Technology, brilliant, isn't it?

Baggage liability

2006-09-28T21:39:00.000+01:00

They're a bloody liability those luggage trolleys. You know, those bags on wheels that business people and holidaymakers have embraced like teenagers in love. You always bang into them and they invade your personal space.

So I propose a mandatory luggage proficiency test. People would need to traverse a series of cones, whilst apologising as they go. Every owner would need a luggage tax disc or be fined on the spot, maybe by citizen's arrest, to make me feel better.

bikeability.org.uk

Dating Comedy

2006-09-21T20:57:00.000+01:00

A poster of the of-the-moment comedians who are 'Little Britain'. So when does comedy become classic? (4 Candles, Dead Parrot) and how come comedy dates? Maybe comedy is intrinsically linked to its social time zone? Which would explain/excuse It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

comedy.wikia.com

Biking Mad in Sheffield

2006-09-19T11:45:00.000+01:00

Cycling on the seven hills of Sheffield seems a bit silly. On flat lands like Oxford, it must be a breeze, as seen by the proliferation of pedal-driven vehicles in the pic.

But never mind. Hills are made for climbing and after nearly 3 hours of advice from Stanley Fearns, I have a new bike suitable for hill ascension/descension.

Don't Tread on the Grass/Art (delete as applicable)

2006-09-15T18:25:00.000+01:00

Where do you mostly find art? I stumbled across some whilst in Coventry, which was nice.

But, if you stumble across art and you are therefore unprepared for it, does that change the way you see it?

Or, if you go to an art gallery, all prepared for art with, say, some nice sandwiches and a flask of hot tea, does that change the way you see the art?

www.artangel.org.uk

Camper Showers - following form and function?

2006-08-29T18:14:00.000+01:00

Now we all know that good design is a happy blend of form and function. So whilst honeymooning in the Casa Camper hotel in Barcelona, I was faced with a number of design ideas, not least that we were in a hotel run by people who make shoes.

Amongst other design conventions that Camper have fiddled with, some successfully, some not (their website is purely for the style conscious) was the shower.

So, given the instructions (left), how would you turn the tap on?

Pollença fiesta

2006-08-02T08:02:00.000+01:00

A Majorcan folk festival transforms the tranquillity of a hilltop village into a sea of people in Christian or Moorish costumes; kids with wooden swords, girls in white dresses, face-painted burly blokes.

Something that, with our folk hang-ups, would never happen in Angleterre.
www.folkarchive.co.uk

Give us a sign

2006-07-30T13:22:00.000+01:00

Backside Lane, just outside Doncaster. No disrespect to Doncaster, of course.

Without realising it, I was following in the footsteps of a tradition of rude signage spotting.

rudebritain.co.uk

Phones in hotel bathrooms

2006-07-28T13:06:00.000+01:00

Why do hotels have phones in their bathrooms? Is it health and safety? Are they worried you might do an 'Elvis' and need to call an ambulance whilst on the throne? Do they just want to help you stay in touch with the outside world?

I’ve asked Hotel Designs. I'll let you know when they let me know.

A melting pot of serious games...

2006-07-14T07:59:00.000+01:00

Talking seriously at a Serious Games seminar, run by Melt. My talk was called 'All games are shite, discuss.'

I was aiming at waving a pointed stick at the games industry, but it turned out to be preaching to the converted - with an audience of e-learning types and games enthusiasts, rather than my hoped-for throngs of games industry personnel - who didn't show, despite the free bar!

Good things also from Tom Betts and Jacob Habgood.

Barriers to Social Networking

2006-06-06T15:36:00.000+01:00

Barriers are coming down online, social networking is everywhere and influencing everything. Users are producers, not consumers.

As the great, the good and the balding in the interactive industry gathered to find out what all the fuss was about, I too pondered the impact of user gen. I concluded that watching overweight teengers miming to Britney isn't particularly impressive, whereas flickr, folksonomy and a bloody good film are.

Content 2.0

Leeds has one, so we has to have one

2006-05-26T15:20:00.000+01:00

There's a sort of watery globe sculpture thing in Leeds. Nice, if you like that sort of thing, but nothing remarkable. Except a while later, Sheffield got one too!

It was the same with the trams in Manchester. Whatever Leeds or Manchester do, so Sheffield Council follows.

Bless the Council, We'us be avin Arvey Nics next...opps, don't want to give them ideas.

BBC Look Leeds

The Games People Play

2006-05-19T15:15:00.000+01:00

I saw this game when turning 40 in Dublin. The missing pieces made me think how kids make up rules of play, often as they play. They'd come up with a way of playing Chinese Chequers with pieces missing.

Inventive play, decreases the older you get. And more's the pity.

A Theory of Fun

Contemplation, Art and Adolescents

2006-05-01T11:45:00.000+01:00

Bank holiday Monday art trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. James Turrell's framing of sky and light to inspire and contemplate.

The moment of stillness was interuppted by 'Boorring! Wanna go to the shop' from the kids.

art21/turrell
Deer Shelter

Away Game Fun and Frolics

2006-04-30T11:43:00.000+01:00

The infamous last game of the season. Wednesday v Derby was an away game moment, when you realise the majority of football fans are good natured, fun loving creatures. The whole day and especially the ninety minutes was 'humour, not hooliganism' - and we won!

Football Ground Guide

Crime in the Cultural Centre of Sheffield

2006-04-20T11:28:00.000+01:00

Dial 999 - our promo display's been stolen!

From under the noses of the Workstation reception - the home of the office - our lovely video of sumptuous games was taken away without consent of the owner.

Somewhere out there in South Yorkshire, in someone's living room, there's a plasma screen showing our games showreel.

Sheffield's Workstation

Barnstorming for the beeb

2006-03-07T11:20:00.000Z

A barnstorming week, holed up in a luscious Yorkshire countryside hotel, there to refine and re-refine a proposal for the BBC with my illustrious colleague and long time collaborator Stuart Nolan.

We started with a brain game social science experiment but having been pipped to the post by a Michael Aspel fronted programme - would you believe it - we came away with a seed of an idea for a radio/interactive cross-over.

bbc.co.uk/labs/2006/yorkshire

Fun, Games and Inclusion?

2006-02-09T11:17:00.000Z

Talking about games, learning and accessibility at an Institute of Education SENJIT conference.

Introducing SEN advisers to game-based learning, it's clear nventiveness is needed in what unfortunately is seen as a limited market by publishers.

www.audiogames.net

15 minutes of fame...in South Korea

2005-12-15T11:15:00.000Z

A Korean TV film crew paid us a visit, making a docu. on creative industries that thrive outside London.

They asked what were the benefits of being in the fifth largest city, on the outskirts of the Peak District? I explained, whilst driving the 5 minutes to work.

www.warhol.org

Where the truth lies no one knows

2005-09-09T11:13:00.000+01:00

At a brainstorming event at Nesta, seeking inspiration, but thinking more about perspiration. During the session I coined a new catchphrase 'creativity & cash flow clashes'.

An educator who doesn't teach anymore and a businessman with no fiscal focus. I'll get me coat.

david lynch daily

Seriously Serious Games

2005-08-30T11:10:00.000+01:00

A gathering of developers and pretenders at a Serious Games showcase in London.

The idea was to get European serious games developers together, though it looks like UK serious games has been sent to Coventry, literally.

seriousgames uk

David sells t-shirts on the sea shore

2005-07-22T11:08:00.000+01:00

In Espana with ex-pat friends, swimming, drinking, sleeping, drinking and amazingly, not thinking about work.

Using a pic I'd taken of our David in a sports-shop window, I tried to convince the kids I'd met him and had a photo to prove it. A dad joke, they didn’t laugh.

www.football-shirts.co.uk

Taking work home is bad for you

2005-07-05T11:06:00.000+01:00

In the ever-reforming education world, there’s much talk about 'work-life balance'. Mine is somewhat dramatically weighed on the work side. I tend to take work home with me, including the people and pressure that would be best left at the office, for the sake of my sanity and my family. A bad side effect is taking running your own business too personally.

So, henceforth from today, a note to self, take work seriously, not personally.

lifebalance.org.uk

Frank Lloyd Wright - suit you sir

2005-06-23T11:03:00.000+01:00

The GLS conference (see previous entry) was housed in Monona Terrace, designed by Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright.

A genius of a modern architect, he mixed organic shapes with modern building techniques, famously for the Guggenheim in NYC. He coined the thoroughly American 'prairie style' and was also notorious for various shenanigans in 1900s America. And lets face it, was camp as tits.

www.franklloydwright.org
www.mononaterrace.com

Games, Learning, Society and Green Tights

2005-06-22T10:42:00.000+01:00

At the Games, Learning and Society conference in Wisconsin, presenting my learning games research. A gathering of the clans of academics, theorists and PhD students looking at games social impact and use in learning - hence the conference title!

I had a chance to talk, nervously at this one it has to be said, about my obsession with Zelda and with role playing. I'd promised some people there I'll come in green tights, but thankfully for the attendees, I chickened out.

glsconference2005

Boys and Toys and Hobbies

2005-06-09T10:40:00.000+01:00

At a Panerai watch launch, sipping champagne with the almost exclusively male audience.

It's a modern middle-aged man's prerogative to have a hobby. So what, if viewing a collection of vintage Italian navel watches, whilst discussing crowns and bezels with other Paneresti (Panerai collectors are known as ‘Paneresti’, apparently) isn't that far removed from scribbling down particulars with blunt pencils on windy station platforms.

www.viapaneristi.com

There's a first time for everything!

2005-06-01T10:38:00.000+01:00

A humdrum trip to Glasgow, halted when smoke fills the carriage. Nothing to be alarmed about, say Virgin staff as they sprint up and down the aisles. Later, 200 passengers clamber down a wooden ladder onto the track. (Hang on, wooden ladder, fire?) After standing in emergency tents for 4 hours we get coached to Edinburgh and get a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Wednesday in Cardiff

2005-05-22T10:36:00.000+01:00

Caught up in football euphoria - SWFC in the League 1 play-offs.

After joining the hundreds already queuing for tickets at 6am, camp chairs a-ready, I realised I’d joined the ranks of football fanatics.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d noticed the changes over the years, the Saturday PM routine; the subscription to SMS updates and a newly discovered ability to communicate with the male of the species.

www.swfc.co.uk

A Wellcome Eye on Science Teaching

2005-05-03T10:18:00.000+01:00

I hated Science at school. It seemed pointless and unpoetic to me. Plus, I wasn’t any good at it. Science was irrelevant and uncreative. I stared out of the window, waiting for English and Art to start.

So I’m probably well qualified to attempt to make science lessons more interesting. The Wellcome Trust and Nesta are funding us (alongside Centre for Science Education) to develop ideas for innovative ways to engage pupils in science.

shu.ac.uk/cse

From FutureLab to RealityLab

2005-04-20T10:06:00.000+01:00

A FutureLab conference with a 14-19 theme, in Sheffield, not Bristol.

2 days of talk about 'Transitions, Technology and Learning' future technology, visionary ideas, concepts and creativity.

Then it’s back to reality, to the everyday practicalities of production and the appeasal of the great god of fiscality.

Shame you can’t invoice for inspiration.

futurelab14_19

English pride, English culture

2005-04-09T09:53:00.000+01:00

Visiting a whiskey distillery as part of a Scottish stag do, I was acutely aware of my English accent and my visitor status in a land that possessed a noticeable air of national pride.

To be proud of your country and your culture isn't something we English are comfortable with these days. We're ashamed of hooliganism and embarrassed about morris dancing. Centuries of colonial tyranny probably don't help either.

morrisdancing.org

Virtual Learning is Doomed?

2005-04-04T09:24:00.000+01:00

At the Virtual Learning? conference in Bristol.

My session was part of 'Play & Experimentation', where I stayed for the duration. A pertinent inclusion of a question mark after Virtual Learning, considering the mixed points of view, mostly not playful.

www.desq.co.uk/doomed