21 Jan 2014

In praise of the in between times

I love that special space between the roller coaster that is finishing off work and preparing for christmas, and then the return to normal and a new year, and new start.  Its the annual time in between things. Its the point where one part has finished, and the next one has not yet started. And […]

16 Oct 2013

Ideas about Objects, Objects with ideas

Recently we have been playing with the React guys from Bristol, an established group bringing academics and creatives together through their grant-giving powers and initiatives such as Objects Sandbox. Gill has been asked to be an advisor on the programme and also to run the initial Ideas Labs they have to help get these two […]

31 Aug 2013

Sandbox adventures

How lovely to be invited by Bristol’s Ished and the Pervasive Media Studio to be one of the advisors for their upcoming Object Sandbox coming up soon. The application deadline is this December 13th, and you can find it here with interviews being held in January 2014. It’s a part of their REACT programme, which […]

28 Aug 2013

Prototyping cultures in your pocket

Often I get through a business or strategy book and realise that there was one chapter or a particular model that was really worth reading. That’s not to say the remainder is not worth reading, but you get the impression a lot of the time that the rest of the book could be skipped. Time […]

16 Aug 2013

Small change

We’ve been tracking the crowdfunding explosion in the US, and indeed happily invested many times in new technologies or initiatives we wanted to see and use, like ThingM, Designer Founders Book and Twine. Being a part of something’s early development is such a thrill. If it booms, you can say you were a part of […]

14 Aug 2013

The power of the creative development corporation

I’ve been following an online conversation between friends exploring possible limits to rapid gentrification. This has been brought home to me primarily as a result of being in Hackney Wick. This is an interesting area (many have written about this, especially in the wonderful book on SoHo: Illegal Living and less academic pieces like here […]

9 Jul 2013

Masterclass Reset

Masterclass Reset

Gill had the honor of joining Coney for their Immersive Theatre masterclass. A week with one of the most innovative theatre companies in the world has got to be the best antidote for the craziness that was our final few months at CMU. Deftly tutored by Anette Mees, Tom Bowtell and some masterful session from […]

3 Jul 2013

Busting Old Models

This article by Steve Denning in Forbes on Michael Porter’s company, Monitor Group is wonderfully enlightening in terms of how models get reified. It was gratefully passed on by John Thackara, had us jumping around, from that ‘I-knew-there-was-something-broken-about-that’ Basically, it debunks the notion that Porters 5 competitive forces had been used widely by business thinkers […]

3 Jul 2013

The time we got Overlapped!

We got invited to the last Overlap in Touchstone centre for Crafts, out in the wilder parts of Pensylvania, working with Mike Hruska and Ryan Coleman, longer term Overlappers. The Centre hosts blacksmithing with Dennis and ceramics with Leigh, as well as plenty of other skills to learn.   We took over the whole place […]