Not the kinda cool you're looking for

Unfinished puzzle on Flickr.I took this photo a few months ago,...

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:02:31 +0100

I took this photo a few months ago, it was at my nan’s house. We’d just scattered my mum’s ashes. I took it knowing my nan didn’t have long either.

My nan died at the weekend, and I’m having the same confusing thoughts and feelings as I had last September when my mum died. For most of my childhood, I was closer to my nan than anyone else. She treated me and Simon so well, taught us about exploring, inventing, making stuff out of nothing and above all having fun. The last time I saw her, a few months ago, she was still the playful, cheeky person I remembered.

But, there was a big black hole in our relationship. She pretty much disappeared out of our lives when we were about 13, at a time we needed her more than ever. Simon and myself were left to look after our mentally ill mum until it got so bad we had to leave home.

That last bit sounded a bit ‘woe is me’, I didn’t mean it to. I am able to see a whole lot of positive things that came out of those times. I guess the death of family members brings up all sorts of memories, good and bad.

I don’t hate my nan for the black hole, I kind of understand why it happened. I’m just upset I didn’t have the chance to spend much of my adult life with her. At Christmas, we made her a book with photo’s of the adventures Simon and myself had got up to over the past ten years. I hope she enjoyed sharing some of those memories with us.

Booth Teeth on Flickr.Back to work after a week working on Work...

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:07:18 +0100

Booth Teeth on Flickr.

Back to work after a week working on Work (see below). My teeth are aching.

Back from another day at our (informal) apprenticeship at...

Sat, 12 May 2012 19:44:34 +0100

Back from another day at our (informal) apprenticeship at Amberley Print Rooms. We are classing it as a Stanley James Press Outpost. The man in the picture is called Terry, and, he is one of the best teachers I have ever had. He has a way about him I wish my school teachers had had. I spent most of my day finishing some type setting I’d started a few weeks ago, realising there were still typo’s, old letters that needed replacing and spacing issues. I then learnt how to use a Heidelberg printing press, although I know I have barely scratched the surface. The machine is 60 years old, but works pretty well. It has some amazing design features, like a little indent to measure how much packing paper you need to put in and a safety device that means you can’t get your hands or head mangled in one of the various moving parts.

If you’ve never visited Amberley, the place needs some interested eyes and ears, so please come.

Work - an experimental photographic...

Wed, 09 May 2012 18:23:00 +0100

Work - an experimental photographic investigation/publication

Next week, I’m going to be taking part in Matt Westons Publishathon at New England House in Brighton. The idea is that we publish a load of stuff over five days using the materials and equipment to hand. Me and Emily are taking the week off ‘Work’ to be involved. So, it’s pretty fitting that my publication is going to be called ‘Work’. At the moment, the idea is for me to make a book each day, the contents of which will contain photographs of a single person at work, with maybe a few words. With my People Who Do hat on, I’m really interested in how and why people do stuff, what makes them work, what people class as work, how they do their jobs, how they fill the large bulk of their time/lives. These publications are hopefully the start of an ongoing set of books I hope to make over the coming months.

At the moment my daily plan is this:

Load 2 black and white films from the bulk loader
Spend up to 3 hours with the worker, taking photo’s of them at work
Develop the films
Scan the negatives
Design and layout the book
Print a number of copies of the book
Bind and finish the books
Sleep

I’ve pretty much covered everything apart from picking the 5 people I will photograph, so, if you know someone that has an interesting or not so interesting job in and around Brighton, and you think they wouldn’t mind me hanging out with them for 3 hours one morning next week, please get in touch. If you hook me up with someone, I’ll send you a copy of their book.

Hidden in plain site. (via It’s Nice That : How to...

Tue, 08 May 2012 19:04:00 +0100

Hidden in plain site.

(via It’s Nice That : How to hide an aircraft plant - amazing 1940s photos show you how)

I want to ride on this. (via FFFFOUND! | Tumblr)

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:41:09 +0100

I want to ride on this.

(via FFFFOUND! | Tumblr)

The View From Ouchy on Flickr.Visited Switzerland for the first...

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:51:23 +0100

The View From Ouchy on Flickr.

Visited Switzerland for the first time. Saw some beautiful sites and met some interesting people. We were very well looked after.

Descriptive Camera

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:13:54 +0100

Descriptive Camera:

mattrichardson.com

The Descriptive Camera works a lot like a regular camera—point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture the scene. However, instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text description of the scene. Moder…

I’ve been seeing some of the pictures from this on twitter recently. Nice to read about its development.

Worms on Flickr.

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:24:21 +0100

Worms on Flickr.

Merry on Flickr.Taken on the Palace Pier in Brighton, on a...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:40:00 +0100

Merry on Flickr.

Taken on the Palace Pier in Brighton, on a slightly drunken night out.

Dome on Flickr.Spent an hour looking around the Dome in...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:31:48 +0100

Dome on Flickr.

Spent an hour looking around the Dome in Brighton. It really took me back, because I worked there when I was 16. After months of working at a sound and lighting shop called MBI, I got to know the guys who looked after the tech stuff at the Dome. My boss was called Fraser Disney, which felt like the perfect name for someone working in showbiz. I had various roles, including replacing lightbulbs high up in the rooftops, setting up pyrotechnics and my favourite, follow spot, tracking actors on the stage with a heavy and very hot light. At the time, it felt like I was being paid to play, it felt like I was being paid to do the stuff I’d been doing at school for the past few years. I probably would have done it for free.

I’m sure this is all over the net by now, but, I still...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:22:24 +0100

I’m sure this is all over the net by now, but, I still have to put it on my site. What a beautiful story. The perfect way to start my day.

Amazing installation by Gabriel Dawe. Found via Cool Hunting

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 07:10:58 +0100

Amazing installation by Gabriel Dawe.

Found via Cool Hunting

Biking on Flickr.A happy thing to stumble upon on a warm March...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 23:26:47 +0100

Biking on Flickr.

A happy thing to stumble upon on a warm March Sunday.

That’s as happy as I want to be Via Devour.com

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:36:14 +0000

That’s as happy as I want to be

Via Devour.com

Surely this is a feature

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:18:52 +0000

All this simplicity, however, is overshadowed by one missing key feature: push email. For most people, email is time sensitive. You need to know when an email hits your inbox so you can respond (or at least read it) right away. That’s why you need push notification and why Sparrow for iOS is disappointing in that regard.

This kind of thinking is why people work late, look at their phones when at shows/cinema/dinner/talks/anything they should be engaging with and it’s why relationships fail. How have we got to a point where an email is critical to life? Most of us aren’t saving lives or putting out real fires. If you think you ‘need’ email to arrive straight away and alert you immediately, have you ever really thought why that is?

Sparrow released - lacks notification

You can’t be a butcher over the internet It’s all...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:45:02 +0000

You can’t be a butcher over the internet

It’s all about the process, and, there is so much about the physical process that always beats online, hands down.

Found via Swiss Miss

"Kloster held brainstorming sessions in the company to come up with new ideas that would provoke the..."

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 06:45:52 +0000

“Kloster held brainstorming sessions in the company to come up with new ideas that would provoke the American tourists to engage with the lives of those they were pointing their cameras at. One brilliant suggestion was that women workers in a Jamaican coffee factory should be given instamatic cameras so they could take picture of the passengers as they toured past them. The aim was to make the tourists feel what it was like to be watched and snapped as if they were animals in a zoo.”

- BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: WE’RE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT - AREN’T WE?

This is one of those moments that comes around every now and...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 09:43:39 +0000

This is one of those moments that comes around every now and then that I wish I could bottle up and use when I needed to. I guess it wouldn’t feel so special if that was the case. What I loved about this moment is that it reminded me of some good stuff about growing up with Simon. I feel child like most of the time, but at this moment even more so. You could never accuse Simon and Matt of being full of themselves. They exist in a world where everything seems so cool, a weird intersection of Hip Hop and electronics and space. On the outside, some of the people look like they take themselves very seriously. Simon and Matt take what they do seriously, to the point that they would rather not make money if it meant compromising on what they are doing. It tends to be mint tea, water and ginger in the changing room (if there is one). Maybe it’s like this with most people that have a stage persona, most people don’t get to see the banal world behind the scenes. Anyway, back to the point. I feel so lucky to have a twin brother that I am so close to. I love being involved in some of his projects. Most of all, I love that it gives us even more oppurtunity to feel like kids again.

Aidan Moffat (via It’s Nice That : FOUND: #UNRAVEL)

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:04:57 +0000

Aidan Moffat (via It’s Nice That : FOUND: #UNRAVEL)