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mapping vernacular creativity v. 0.1
[updated: see here] Axel has asked me to provide a more concise definition of vernacular creativity so he can link to it, so here is a chunk from my recently submitted confirmation document that deals with what I mean by the phrase, and what I think it can do: The Idea of Vernacular Creativity This…
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OurMedia launches!
This is very exciting – the OurMedia project, which I have been peripherally involved with in the planning phase, has now launched. Blurb: Create. Share. Get noticed. That’s what Ourmedia is about. Ourmedia is a global community and learning center where you can gain visibility for your works of personal media. We’ll host your media…
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Relational aesthetics
In a circuitous way, I stumbled across the idea of relational aesthetics via my google hits this morning. This comes from Bourriaud, who is a French art critic/curator and has a tendency to neologisms like semionaut (for artist). Nevertheless am quite excited, because I like to rework other people’s two-word phrases as shorthand that can…
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The BBC and technodemocracy
One of the things I learned at Wednesday night’s talk by Paula le Dieu was that among the rash of early 80s microcomputers was something called the BBC micro (an Acorn). It came out of the BBC Education “BBC computer literacy project” – apparently, the Beeb wanted to build a microcomputer that could do everything…
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Creativity, play and communication
Thinking aloud here about some stuff that occurred to me while continuing to read Speaking into the Air this morning. You probably won’t want to read this unless you live inside my PhD with me (messy in there, isn’t it?). These thoughts also go some way to explaining what I was getting at with my…
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digital storytelling out of the box and in the classroom
So, I’ve scored myself an iBook through a project I’m involved with at QUT (you gotta love the place sometimes), and have started research for the chapter of my thesis on the technological shaping of amateurism, using Apple’s iLife suite of “creative” software as a detailed case study. Always in my peripheral vision is the…
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this is not (only) music consumption
I’m feeling a bit serious about music today. This is the christmas playlist I put together on a whim yesterday morning, when I woke up and realised I had free rein over the construction of christmas day for the first time in years. Which, thank god, got me thinking again about the ways in which…
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The ProAm Revolution
I’ve been waiting for this for a while: “The ProAm Revolution: How enthusiasts are changing our economy and society”, Charlie Leadbeater’s full-length report for Demos (with Paul Miller), is now available for purchase or free download. From astronomy to activism, from surfing to saving lives, Pro-Ams – people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards –…
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A Creative Swarm
I’m working up a theoretical model of vernacular creativity in digital culture, so… Every culture proliferates along its margins. Irruptions take place that are called “creations” in relation to stagnancies. Bubbling out of swamps and bogs, a thousand flashes at once scintillate and are extinguished all over the surface of a society. In the official…
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new fogeyisms: scrapbooking and the commonplace book
It seems a large part of my PhD research has in some way to do with finding and remixing analogs for new media buzzwords, leading me back to fogey-esque, almost premodern, words like “vernacular”, “conviviality” and so on. I’ve yet to completely work out why I like the fogey-esque terms so much, but I’ll let…