My goodness.
When I started this blog in 2005, it was an experiment. The software was new technology and there were many people eager to get their hands on it — to see what they could do with it and how it might change society. In my early posts I tried out different styles of writing and different topics to write about. I made friends and received praise for my output. It was in the back-and-forth of blogging that I learnt to write clearly and persuasively, which has led to a weird, varied and rewarding career.
The impetus to experiment with new technology came out of the milieu in which I was working at the time, in the office of 59 Productions in Edinburgh. Collaboration was highly valued: the idea that creative people would, together, be more than the sum of their talents. Digital technology was becoming cheaper, and we adopted guerrilla approach to film-making and theatre. Where the tech did not yet exist, we chained together disparate components and made-for-other-purposes software to produce the desired effect.
Scotland was the perfect incubator: host to internationally famous festivals, and yet small enough that the most influential and creative people in Scottish film and theatre were usually only a phone call or a five minute walk away.
We made some marvellous things.
Continue reading “59 Productions and the creative Large Hadron Collider”