More Interesting

Just noted from Russell’s blog that apparently The Guardian is starting to put up some of the videos they took at Interesting’08.

Also wanted to mention The School of Everything (find a teacher for anything you want to learn about and vice-versa), and Rememble, who were two of the sponsors of the event that day, because I liked the novelty of their ideas. Rememble were basically asking people to write down on sheets of paper, their favourite ‘recollection’ about any event in their past, and an ‘anticipation’ for what they hope to achieve in the future. Mine are on the site’s Interesting ’08 timeline, if you have the patience to go through it. They are tagged ‘final year’ and ‘award’. Don’t laugh!!

Interesting2008

So Interesting2008 is over, and it was easily the best conference I have ever attended. It was for anyone and everyone who had an interest in life in general – in fact one of the speakers (can’t remember who it was right now) said that Russell’s brief was to speak on anything interesting but definitely not advertising, brands, Twitter and the like. The speakers all got that part, for sure. We learnt about Lego, why horses are afraid of crisp packets, the shift from nostalgia to fantasy, geography, the relationship between graphic design and music through the ages, masks, a geophysical survey of the World of Warcraft, toilets, coinage, food stories, how to get a good night’s sleep, Churchill, zoetropes, Hiraeth, and brain cells, for example. And with most of the speakers restricted to 5 minutes, you can be sure they had our attention alright.

The Guardian was filming the whole thing, and when I hear about where the links to the videos are, I’ll put it up here, but in the meantime some of the speakers have put up their presentations, and I’ve been able to find blogs or other virtual existences for others (linked below).

My personal favourites were Roo Reynolds because who doesn’t love Lego, Collyn Ahart Chipperfield on the argument for fantasy in today’s done-to-death reality-focussed world because I think it’s a great thought, Steve Hardy‘s reasons for the emergence of creative generalists because I identified with it, Daniel Raven Ellison on geography (but so much more) because I agree that our children need to have a curiosity for life in our increasingly urbanizing world, Michael Johnson because he entertained and informed simultaneously and brilliantly, Phil Gyford because he’s really good at emoting through masks, Matt Dent because his coinage designs are a very engaging application of design onto something we use daily, and I love puzzles, Jim Le Favre of course because his animation work with the zoetrope is superb, and Leisa Reichelt because it’s just useful to know how brain cells evolve as we grow older.

Good stuff. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Be there or be square

Really looking forward to this tomorrow, not least because it will give me the opportunity to listen to and meet some cool new folks, apart from the cool folks I already know who will be there. Some smart person also got the Wordle cloud made, so I’m just sticking it on here for effect (thanks, whoever it is!). If you look closely, you’ll see my name somewhere. If you’re reading this now and you’re coming tomorrow, then please come and say hello to me. Leave a comment and I’ll keep an eye out for you.