Author: MK

Little Sparta was more than just a garden.

“The movement of words and language into the world has been most fully realised by Finlay in his now famous garden, Little Sparta, set in the windswept Pentland Hills of southern Scotland. Begun in 1966 when Finlay relocated with his family to the site, an abandoned farm, Little Sparta is a deliberate correction of the modern sculpture garden through its maker’s revisiting the Neoclassical tradition of the garden as a place provocative of poetic, philosophic and even political thought.”

Rest in peace, Ian Hamilton Finlay.

We all know already that eBay is where you can drool over (and possibly win) the weirdest, most obscure, most gobsmackingly awesome techno-junk-thingys. It’s where I picked up a set of five US Military issue stenomasks for a cool twenty bucks. I’d just like to highlight two auctions happening right now that are particularly deserving of a second look, and, perhaps, your bid.

First off, an original “hard-wired device” by Roger Ibars.

This piece is titled: “Nintendo gun shoots Sony Digicube”. A Nintendo light gun Zapper is hard-wired to the Sony clock so that firing the gun sets the time and alarm status of the clock. Very, very nice.
As of this moment, 12:25 PM GMT, the bidding on this item stands at £195.00 and there is only one day and six hours left in the auction! Take me to the bidding!
(via WMMNA)

Secondly, an amazing pair of megaphone helmets.

These are so cool, I’m speechless. I can only quote one of the commenters on the Music Thing blog, who says “HI I’M BULLHORN SMURF. FUCK YOU, LET US ROCK.u” Indeed. Four days and eight hours left, bidding is already up to £180. Get your bids in, chickadees!

(via Rob Cruickshank and Music Thing)

My conversations with the cab drivers here appear to follow a strict template. Here’s how they work:

Me: Can I get to (usually “the top of Marchmont Crescent” or “Waverley Station”)?
Cabbie: Aye. Where are you from? (she’s probably American but I had better ask, he thinks.)
Me: Canada.
Cabbie: Where in Canada? (Whew! I’m glad I asked her.)
Me: Montreal. (sometimes I say Toronto, depends on my mood.)
Cabbie: Canada’s a nice place.
Me: (nods. During my first month here, maybe I would have choked back a tear)
Cabbie: So are you just here for a visit or are you here to stay?
Me: Here to stay – I’m on a work permit.
Cabbie: Oh, OK! (Visibly brightens, his passenger is not a tourist!) What do you think of Scotland?
Me: It’s gorgeous! (Which is truly the first compliment that springs to my lips about Scotland.)
Cabbie: How long is your permit for?
Me: Two years.
Cabbie: And then what?
Me: Who knows!
Cabbie: You should marry a Scotsman and stay forever! (Turning around and looking at me to get my reaction at this point)
Me: (has brief daydream about accepting or rejecting suitors based on the aesthetic qualities of his tartan) Well, that’s one option.

The scene usually ends with me giving him a generous tip and then being called “a wee darling”.

Note to readers: This post should not be construed as an invitation to submit marriage proposals. This post should also be considered to offer no insight into whether or not I am interested in marriage, to a Scotsman or anyone else. It should also not be implied that I take so many taxis in Edinburgh. What else do I want to disavow? Hum, that’ll do it for now.

It’s been a really busy week!

New Media Scotland (the national agency for art and technology in Scotland, and my place of work!) held an Upgrade! event at the CCA Glasgow this week, and broke another attendance record. The speakers were Professor Clive Greated and Marianne Greated, a father-daughter, scientist-artist team. It was a really engaging talk and I have lots to say about it, but I will have to do this later. In the meantime you can read more about the speakers here.

New Media Scotland is one of the supporting organisations for a one day Art and Technology Conference with A-N, taking place tomorrow in Stirling. (This is why you’ll have to wait for my comments on the Upgrade! talk, there is much to be prepared for tomorrow!) I’m going to be at this event speaking about New Media Scotland’s programmes. The speaker line-up is great, I am especially looking forward to Beryl Graham‘s keynote.

And on a personal note, also this week, a piece I wrote about presenting art on public video billboards was published in the latest issue of Glowlab’s online periodical. Check it out!