Author: MK

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Art & Culture Asides

How Not To Make A Difference

Rosa Parks - someone who made a real difference.

I recently attended a course at “The School of Life“, in London, UK. This course was called “How To Make A Difference”. It cost £30 and featured wine, sandwiches, and cake along with a couple of hours of lecturing and group activity. It unfortunately taught me nothing new, and in fact made me feel ashamed to be there: what kind of privileged middle-class jerk was I, attending a class on how to make a difference, when I know full well what to do? When I know full well what those who are not in my elevated position have to do just to carve out a tiny bit of space for themselves?

It didn’t help that the examples of the “changemakers” in this “class” (oh yeah, I am using quotes very recklessly and lazily!) presented were 98% white males, negating long and powerful histories of activism around the world by, uh, everyone else.

I pointed out this terrible omission to the teacher, and so my duty to “The School of Life” is done.

Instead of writing angry screeds to Alain de Botton (heavily involved in the establishment of said “school”), or overly angry screeds here (I could go into much further detail), I decided I’ll write something cursory here about my experience, as a kind of word to the wise to my friends and associates, and hold my own event here in Amsterdam, on How To Make A Real Difference. (Hat tip to Alex for putting this idea in my head).

Stay tuned for details on this event.

10/06/2010 update: Alain de Botton himself has been in touch to discuss my concerns in depth. Kudos to Alain and the School for being very attentive to my feedback.

Categories
Art & Culture

My FutureEverything “Don’t Miss” List

I find myself in the same situation time and again when I arrive at a major international festival: too many events happening at once! Spoilt for choice! Unable to decide if I should go to one talk or another, which are of course happening at the very same time in different locations!

The programme for this year’s FutureEverything festival is so overflowing with juicy content, that perhaps you too will suffer this dilemma. In the face of such a cornucopia of content, there is something for everyone, but maybe you want to peek over my shoulder and see what I’ve circled in red on my FutureEverything diary? (Oh and hey, I wouldn’t mind you sharing your picks with me too!)

Music:
Ryoji Ikeda – test pattern [live set] / Mika Vainio [live]: “complex audio-visual terrain” … “analogue warmth and metallic harshness”
Konono No.1 [live] / Bass Clef [live] / Jon K: “a thundering sonic attack of 21st Century African music that sounds like nothing ever heard before”
Moldover [live] / Atau & Adam [live]: “a performer who combines the charisma of a rock star with the mad genius of a basement inventor”

Conference:
GloNet: “an experimental format happening simultaneously in five cities around the globe: Manchester, Sendai, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, and Vancouver”
Shaping the City panel discussion: how are cities shaped by climate, culture, and citizen participation?
Keynote: Ben Cerveny: “taking us from 1960s Situationist ideas to current collaborative interaction in public spaces”
Keynote: Keri Facer: “Learning to live in uncertain times”
New Creativity panel discussion: “How do we play, collaborate, and create in a way that makes a real impact on the world?”
McLuhan in Europe 2011 – inaugural lecture with Darren Wershler: “describing the fascinating connections between McLuhan’s predictions and declarations”

Art:
The Feast of Trimalchio: Stunningly beautiful, UK premiere
Eyewriter: a pair of low-cost glasses & custom software that allow artists and graffiti writers with paralysis to draw using only their eyes
Cu Exhibition: “diverse and experimental contemporary art from both national and international artists”

Get tickets!

Categories
Art & Culture

FutureEverything


I’m pleased to say that the full programme for the FutureEverything conference for 2010 is out. It is our best and most ambitious yet. We are also delighted to present the world’s best speakers under our conference themes of ImagineEverything, Unlimited Connectivity, Open Data and The City Experiment.

12-15 May 2010, Manchester, England. Obtain your festival passes now here: http://futureeverything.org/tickets

The FutureEverything conference will take you on a journey through the most cutting-edge developments in a range of exciting fields. Join us to hear about why governments should open up the data that they hold, and what we can do with this information to change our lives. Listen to leading artists and scientists discuss what we can dream and do with unlimited bandwidth. Visionary speakers will illuminate the science of the web, the ways the networked city is being rewired, how poetry can be encoded into DNA, ways we can play the city like an instrument, and how relationships between generations are going to change over the next hundred years.

Continue reading “FutureEverything”
Categories
Asides

Narcissism Evolved (or devolved)

Image removed at Melissa Whitworth's request

1994-2009: In a recent article on the Telegraph, Melissa Whitworth describes the phenomenon of “phototherapy”: “For many women who are not ill, phototherapy is a chance to step away from the humdrum monotony of everyday life. … it’s a chance for many women “to have a pin-up moment away from their busy schedules, the screaming kids, work, household duties and family”.” Ms. Whitworth underwent some phototherapy herself (see results above), enjoying a “pin-up moment” that she deemed “brave and shocking”. Well, let’s see…

From the GlamourShots Facebook group.

1990: “After years of success in special events photography, Candid Color Systems® introduced a new company targeting the female portrait market called Glamour Shots®. Knowing that women liked to be pampered, Counts’ brainchild filled a niche in the formal photography business by offering a complete session to its customers which included a personalized consultation, makeover, hairstyling, wardrobe changes from a vast clothing stock in the store, a fun photography session and what is considered a first for this industry, the customers could actually view their proofs on a video monitor right after their session and order their pictures instantaneously.”

1890: Oscar Wilde published “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. The novel describes how the beautiful Dorian sells his soul, so that a portrait of him will grow old but his own beauty will not fade. “”How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it was only the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this–for this–I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!””