Amuse Gueule is a collaboration between myself as film director and Tom Slater Sound Designer working with Joel Gray, Nick Simonin and Jennifer Mututeli performing and sculpting. Easier to watch than explain!

The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos is one of the most important books I have ever read.

That’s a massive declaration considering the wealth of literature that’s been published. But in terms of my long standing interest in Digital Literacy its not an understatement. Domingos sets out the ‘five tribes’ of machine learning: inductive reasoning, connectionism, evolutionary computation, bayes theorem and analogical modelling. The book is as much about epistemology and ontology as it is technology. It’s a must read for anyone interested in the digital world now and in the future, the future being the operative word.

The Master Algorithm on Amazon 

Pedro Domingos Ted Talk on the Master Algorithm

Seven Music Videos in Four Locations in One Day!

Goldsmiths University Music Department Asked for a Rethink on Showcasing their Best Talent.

Instead of one evening in an anonymous venue I suggested we film the artists in various locations around the University to show off their talents and the extraordinary facilities at Goldsmiths University. Getting all the artists available at the same time meant shooting all the videos in one day. Here’s the results…

FILLE

Dido’s Lament

LYDS

D.A.N

Goldsmiths Keyboard Collective

Goldsmiths Sundanese Gamelan

How our memory is being effected by computer file structures.

A fascinating article for someone like me. I’ve always wondered why we ‘look’ for files. Why we often can’t remember where we saved a file. A hint of naming conventions let alone tagging and the computer will find the file. That’s what computers are good at – searching. However this paper suggests we’ve assumed the folder/file logic.

Read the full paper here.

JIBO, The Worlds’s First Social Robot for the Home

And I want one!

Much to several friends dismay I think this is a fabulous device. I’m not going to get into the whole privacy issue here (Although I do have to say it’s all about security not privacy) mainly because all to often it distracts from recognising invention. A significant number of the population in the world ‘search’ using the internet. Smart phones mean we can not only search on the go, but we can use voice to do so. Jibo is a logical progression in this space, as is Amazon’s Echo amongst others. The promotional film places the device in our social world, beyond search. It does assumes if not rely on us placing our lives in the digital world. The simple calendar, once a grid of dates scrawled with notes and stuck to the fridge must now be integral to our every day activities. I don’t make a note of the fact I need milk, but with the ‘smart home’ and the ‘internet of things’ racing into futures an automated communication device is a logical addition to the myriad of digital hardware we already rely on. Jibo, like many digital assistance, seems to presume we need to reminded of every detail, regularly. This speaks to our digital ontology. What do we ‘need’ to remember now everything is stored in the cloud? That’s a debate for another post. In the mean time I for one will be ordering one, once I’ve updated my calendar of course.

Barry Sykes and I have worked together on several projects. This film is a documentation of an exercise based on a YouTube video watched over 65 million times. In it, someone called Juan Mann roamed a Sydney shopping centre holding a handmade sign offering ‘Free Hugs’. Intrigued by it’s popularity and the motivations of all involved Barry decided the only thing to do was try it him self. I helped produce the film that documented his efforts and designed the way it was exhibited.

On Going Song.

‘The Ongoing Song or Filming myself singing one note, for five seconds, once a year, every year, for the rest of my life, each note added onto the end of the one before, slowly building up into some kind of continuous, wavering, improvised chronological tune.

Jake Strickland worked with Barry Sykes to develop the method for filming and archiving, or perhaps more importantly realising that it was impossible to plan for technology so far in the future. Understanding and the various approaches to filming the ‘single note’ different film makers would have and the implications of those interpretations was another part of the collaboration, which is ongoing.

‘The Least Most (The Most Least?)

A one-take, single-shot record of a visit to a notorious local tattoo parlour. Made for my ‘The Desperate Designer’ project at ‘GALLOP’, London, part of the London Design Festival 2009

Filmic style and the effect the hardware would have on the subject was the starting point for this collaboration. The resulting film is a intriguing reflection on “I like the aesthetic of a tattoo, just not the commitment”.

False Memory Archive Installation

A Collaboration with Dr. Kimberley Wade and Alasdair Hopwood 

Alasdair and I worked together on the installation of this work at the Freud Museum London. Using mixed media we’ve started by building a 3D model of the space so we could plan the layout, including cabling and projector positions. This image represents two people having a (fake) Facetime conversation.

The Creekside Discovery Centre Weather Station is a project I’ve been working on as part of my MSc in Digital Sociology. There’s a whole site dedicated to the work. These are just a few images representing the basic concept: an open source monitoring station. Initially I looked at air and water temperature but the long term plan is to include air and water quality as well.

Jake has an understanding of the ergonomic needs of users and the needs analysis exercise that he performed in the formative part of the project was recognised by staff to have been of enormous importance in reflecting upon their current use of and future needs relating to ICT

“I find Jake to be of excellent character. He is punctual and attentive, and approaches his work with boundless enthusiasm”

Jake a reflective and responsive practitioner who is acutely aware not only of current technologies but also their application to the setting we are working in

Deptford High Street Interviews

Helping my son’s year 7 class make a film about deptford was properly good fun. Addey and Stanhope is the local school and is celebrating 300 years of educating the community. This film was part of Year 7a’s project, which has done on to win an award! Best of all it’s a fabulous slice of Deptford and the brilliant people that occupy it.

Global FootPrint

My task was to design the images and project mapping for this project. I also created this short film to celebrate all our efforts.

The project as described by the fabulous METRO-BOULOT-DODO…

The finale of the county-wide Global Footprint project brought together many months of work across Northamptonshire. Work that has been undertaken by a highly skilled team of artists, historians and archivists to celebrate the importance of the County’s shoe industry – a living industry with a rich heritage and a bright future.

The finale saw MBD illuminate the old factory on West Street, Rushden in an explosion of colour, sound and moving image, recalling the heyday of the many boot and shoe factories found in the town. Performers from Rushden college will featured in this high-tech historical happening as audiences relived long forgotten memories, and the show highlighted key moments in the town’s history. The event was free and was held alongside the switching on of the town’s Christmas lights on 1st December 2012, a day when thousands of local people gather to celebrate the winter season.

J&M Community Soccer School

A simple little promo for my local community football school. My son had been attending every saturday so the least I could do is help out with a bit of promotion.

Old Vic

This promo was created using a mix of motion graphics and 3D modelling. The exception project being run by the Old Vic in the tunnels underneath Waterloo Station needed a short film to be shown at the launch. I also created a complete 3D render of the tunnels using SketchUP.

Another collaboration with the Old Vic this time working with several schools around London we gathered the pupils thoughts on ‘Manners’ and ‘Class’. Both films use a mixture of motion graphics and green screen techniques.

Sci-Fi Channel’s Winning entry to the 48 hour film challenge.

This was an award winning short film I produced and appeared in for the SciFi channels ’48 hour film challenge’. Over 300 entrance had exactly 48 hours to make a short film with had to include the provided title, one line of dialogue and a prop. We won! It was a truly brilliant experience that has influenced my working practice ever since.

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Amazing Footage of a Drone filming Fireworks

Using a fairly inexpensive bit of kit, a Phantom 2 drone and a GoPro, we get a unique view of a firework display.

We all take a lot of technology for granted – the virtually omnipresent microchip – the handheld device capable of communicating with satellites nonchalantly wedged into a pocket  – its hard to please the modern digital audience these days. But the footage of a drone equipped with a GoPro camera is simple brilliant. The technology is affordable. The application, at face value, fairly simple. But the results are awesome (and I mean awesome in the real sense of the word and not a youthful Americanism). It’s a view of a firework show that I’ve always wanted, always imagined as I peered into the sky. Flying a drone through the exploding fireballs brings opens up a whole new world.

This video is a brilliant example of how technology can present us with entirely new ways of thinking and of seeing in a very democratic way. I love it as did my 10 year old son, as did my seventy-something year old dad. As impressive as the technology being used is, the experience, the visual awakening, is the overriding take-away.

Video curtesy of Jos Stiglingh 

Old Tech – A Reminder Of What We Used To Use

A collection of old tech that I used to use.

Computing power gets better and better, or more specifically according to Moore’s Law; the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. I don’t think this really registers with most domestic users. I’m remember buying a PC in the late 1990s from John Lewis and asking advice on two different machines. ‘That one is faster’ was the answer. ‘What’s fast?’ I asked. The salesman didn’t really have an answer. Most laptops and desktops you can buy today are fit for purpose. Even if you’re a film editor or music producer most machines can cope. There’s obviously the higher end of the production that will want to work with 4K video and thus will need higher resolution screens, a big lump of processing power, loads of RAM and a decent graphics capabilities. But even the entry level iMacs (not cheep computers I grant you) can cope with these demands.

The machines in my collection are a long way from this sort of power but at the time seemed totally revolutionary. The iPad outstrips the combined computing power of the devices on the wall. Read on for more specifics.

 Sinclair ZX Spectrum

8 Bit computing with a choice of Memory: 16KB / 48KB / 128KB

Image curtesy of Retro Games Now

Daily Thompson – Track And Field!

You really had to have been there to know what the title means. But talk about a physical aesthetic. The famous rubber buttons are one of the first things people remember about the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Repeatedly tapping two keys to make a stick character run was the height of entertainment.

I’ve no idea – Old Tech!

Another find from Deptford Market. I think it’s a resistor tester. One way to find out was to take it apart and have a look inside. But the screw head at the front has been wax sealed and I couldn’t bring my self to break it.

Here’s a gallery of some of the tech I have at my studio.

Headgear Measures City Stimulation

Headgear Used To Measure City Stimulation

Having discussed methods for researching ‘why we buy stuff we don’t need’ during this afternoons lecture, once back at my studio I came across this article which basically covers one area we looked into; potential sensory measurements.

Although the news article is headed ‘Headgear Measures City Stimulation’, they demonstrated the equipment on London’s Oxford Street and in particular the tester said, when venturing out wearing the device; ‘Lets go and see what I like in Oxford Street’.

Our search terms didn’t find this article in the brief time we spent on the exercise, which is also telling.

That’s a lot of money for minimal space!

Storage Costs have significantly decreased.

Storage Costs have significantly decreased. But then again people didn’t conceive that they may need more storage space when everything was just code. This 8GB memory stick that I got free at a trade show would have cost $1,330,640.00 – Yep. That’s over a billion dollars!

Just some of the tasks a modern smart phone has taken on.

What a modern smart phone can do.

And 1993 doesn’t seem that long ago! Anyone familiar with my general positive demeanour towards tech wont be surprised to hear I don’t think this photo does the Smart Phone justice. In particular the iPhone, which didn’t just introduce a very versatile bit of technology, it also introduced a user experience that engaged a much bigger audience that traditional tech managed to achieve. I spent sever sessions in the playground of my children’s primary school explaining how the iPhone worked to a new customer base – mums.

Have We Changed That Much?

It’s not the most concise of headlines but it addresses the issue of technology versus the ‘old days’.

I love this picture. There’s so much talk about digital devices intruding into our lives. Some bizarre concept that we all talked more in ‘the old days’. Digital devices are a window to a wealth of information and knowledge.

The power of the press to control  our news feed is being undone by the ability to consume news from wider sources – isn’t it?