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Archive for November, 2004
Pro-am hobbyists
Pro-am hobbyists: A new report from the New Labour-aligned think-tank DEMOS, The Pro-Am Revolution: how enthusiasts are changing our economy & society. £10 on paper, or free to download the PDF. If you smile at the old maxim: “professionals built the Titanic, amateurs built Noah’s Ark”, then the report’s for you. Interesting policy suggestions: do […]
Sacred fuels – New York creatives
Sacred fuels: I just found a major US report from two years ago, November 2002; The Creative Engine: how arts & culture fuels economic growth in New York City neighborhoods (PDF, 312kb). How New York solved the ‘space crunch’ problem, around keeping long-term creative/arts workspace affordable, should be of great interest to places like London […]
Free art?
Free art?: Julian Stallabrass ruminates on the shocking obscurantism of contemporary artists, and what it may be obscuring…. “If, in wandering around galleries, you no longer think about the wonders of art but rather of the principles of sponsorship or the processes of gentrification, then you begin to grasp the limits of art’s supposed freedom.” […]
Boubat
A final Boubat: To be published next week, the sumptious 300-page Edouard Boubat : The Monograph, edited by Boubat’s son. A late interview with Boubat is here.
Cornwall corn
Cornwall corn: Oh dear; how not to promote your region to the creative industries. Those who deal in ‘smoke & mirrors’ can see straight through their use.
Breeding for Bush
Breeding for Bush: An uncanny correlation.
Shelton bar demolished
Steel away: Shelton Bar steelworks goes beyond ‘the point of no return’ today, as the demolition of the half-mile long giant continues. It’s just a pity some sound-artists couldn’t have been allowed to do something interesting with it, over the summer…. (large version, 100kb) (large version, 60kb)
Professional poverty
Professional poverty:As the poor continue to get poorer under New Labour (another report, out this week), I’ve found interesting new research (PDF, 20kb summary) by the Elizabeth Finn Trust. It shows that even professionals haven’t escaped…. “Currently 14% of the professional class in the UK … are living below the poverty line.” That’s a significant […]
Schoogle
Schoogle: Google have Google Scholar in beta. It currently searches about 8-million scholarly papers & abstracts. It seems very useful to those who “know what they’re looking for”, who already have a good overview of a particular field, and who don’t have access to university facilities. If a result isn’t a link to a free […]
Grains of truth
Grains of truth: Documentary photographers respond to the crisis in the countryside. There’s to be a one-day conference at the Lowry Centre on 8th Dec 2004, The New Rural Photography. littoral@btopenworld.com for more information & bookings.
Boredband
Boredband: Peter Cochrane, on the reality-defying rhetoric on UK broadband…. “an industry spokesman said the UK was the leading broadband nation in the world. This was received by a stunned silence from a conference audience well aware that the UK is actually at the bottom of the league. … In the UK it now seems […]
28mm last issue
It’s lens-cap time:The last-ever issue of 28mm is online now.
Wallet & daub (rural crafts)
Wallet & daub: The Daily Telegraph reports that the Countryside Agency is set to publish the first major report on rural crafts for 80 years. It seems the sector is far larger & healthier than anyone thought, and – if tinkering bureaucrats can keep their hands off it – could overtake farming as the major […]
Chinese CI’s
The tiger stretches: UK Trade Partners has a recent report available (PDF, 3.4MB), surveying the current state of the creative industries in China. It’s interesting to know what the Chinese have at home, because that may give some hints about what their ‘cultural tourists’ might travel abroad to see; the World Tourism Organization predicts that […]
Feed the roots
Feed the roots: UK Creative Export has pre-released a discussion pamphlet, Nurturing the creative economy (PDF, 4.4MB), aimed at busy policy makers.
Google Double
Google Double: With Google mysteriously doubling in size (the lads have suddenly found a missing 4-billion web-pages, down the back of their settee), I wonder if we may start to see groups inventing new descriptive terms – not only for the sake of cringe-inducing trendyness, but also for ease-of-location in the seemingly limitless search-engine oceans? […]
In Search of Agenoria
‘In Search of Agenoria’: A photography project about the Black Country industrial landscapes around Dudley.
What I had for tea
What I had for tea: In accordance with the Code of Honour of the Weblog Writer’s Guild; here’s my annual post about ‘what I had for tea’. Batchelors Savoury Rice (2-mins microwave-able sachet). It’s disgusting; avoid like the plague.
Penguin suits optional
Penguin suits optional: Birmingham’s own uber-fan Steve Green finally launches his own weblog. Starting off well, with shocking revelations about the state of the hotel dusting at Novacon; beat that, Matt Drudge! 😉