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Hand-Made is Alive and Well

Apr 12th, 2010 No comments yet. Tags: , ,

I’d usually post this to the CorvusTweets twitter stream, but it’s notable enough to bring to a post. Cameron Lee of Vancouver’s LiFT Studios has a post that reminds us of the irreplaceable experience of hand-made items in a world of copied-and-pasted distractions:

Simple pencil, chalk and biro pen drawings are now common place in galleries around the world. These artists are taking ‘the basics’ to whole new heights. There are so many examples of amazing art made with the simplest of tools. here are just a few samples from some amazing artists that you should check out.

Quietly dropped at the end of the post, Cam includes his own hand-made gift to the digital world: the beautiful Sketch-Block font, free to download.

Also in the vein of hand-made and artful works, I recently spotted one of Rachel Ashe’s Altered Book pieces on @somisguided‘s desk in our office. I wasn’t aware of these before, and found it absorbing in a way that can’t be conveyed on a screen. Lest you believe that hand-made art is on the decline, Cam and Rachel are providing ample evidence to the contrary.


Springtime is for Coworkers

Apr 12th, 2010 No comments yet. Tags: , ,

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be offering a coworking desk to the Vancouver tech community for the next few months. The details are written up on their own page, and I’m keen to see how it goes and to see some old friends from around town and to make some new ones.

Spiritual Wayfinding: Namaste Publishing

Mar 24th, 2010 No comments yet. Tags: , ,

I knew it was coming for a couple weeks, but this tweet from @somisguided was one I’d been looking forward to:

Totally and utterly thrilled to launch the Namaste Publishing website: http://ow.ly/1kJDB

Seeing any work go live is a satisfying moment, and with the new Namaste Publishing site that is especially so for three reasons:

  • the client vision
  • the team I worked with
  • the information architecture and experience design challenges in meeting the vision with the audience and subject matter

With all that going on, this project deserves a full writeup.

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Tuesday’s Loss

A sad episode unfolded last night on the Meetup page for an upcoming Third Tuesday Vancouver event that left me distressed over the health of our aspirations for social media: openness, discussion, plurality; you know, the good stuff about the stuff we’re trying to build and use.

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Hacking the Kindness of Strangers

Oct 25th, 2009 No comments yet. Tags: , ,

Last week I found myself in a guerilla marketing campaign that started while waiting for a friend on Granville St. here in Vancouver and ended up in the pages of the Globe and Mail. While not the most memorable affair, campaign for the Sumac Ridge winery left me thinking about subtle line that smart marketing can cross into bad experiences.

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Empty Spaces

Aug 20th, 2009 No comments yet. Tags: , ,

Vancouver’s tech community learned yesterday that the beloved coworking facility Workspace is to close its doors tomorrow. Jayson Minard, who took over the business from founder Bill MacEwan less than a year ago, emailed members with the bad news, and a shocking imperative to clean out any personal belongings before the end of August 21.

I planted myself at Workspace part-time for two years, joining before the doors opened on the basis of an idea and a tour from Dane. I made new friends, enjoyed what was still Gastown’s best cup of coffee, and got things done against the view of peaceful mountains and the busy harbour. Though I worked more on remote projects, Workspace made me feel like I was working in the Vancouver community. Last last year I needed to change things up and ended my membership, but was still in there every two weeks for meetings. I have one last meeting there today at 4.

Workspace showed what the upper bar in coworking looks like, but more importantly it was a fantastic hub for Vancouver geeks and a symbol of innovation. It doesn’t sound like there will be a chance for a closing party to give it a proper sendoff.

Speaking of losses, the wider world of geekdom saw another one on the same day with the disappearance of the anonymous uber-coder _why. Not being a coder, I never knew much of _why, only that the work under that name was widely-respected and packed with personality. John Resig’s tribute sums up the value that _why brought to the community, and touches on the ephemerality of our works:

If there’s any analogy that I can make about _why, his online persona, and all the works that he’s produced over the years it’s to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the sand mandala. After a mandala has been constructed – and displayed – it is ceremoniously deconstructed – which is meant “to symbolize the Buddhist doctrinal belief in the transitory nature of material life.”

It’s a fitting theme for those who work on digital products, which can have less durability than fresh sushi. Nick Sweeny recently wrote about the durability of things written down hundreds and even thousands of years ago, and the durability of what narratives are created by communities that form and live online.

Technology and business are relentless in the pursuit of tighter cycles, and the urgency can fool us into forgetting too easily what came before. I don’t think that the space left by the disappearance of _why or of Workspace will be so forgotten, as they live on in the better coding and better relationships that came out of their existence.

So, here’s to the life of things done well, all of which have their own ends.


Illuminares, 2009

Jul 24th, 2009 No comments yet. Tags: , ,

A rare personal note to the blog today, letting you know that the Illuminares festival happens tomorrow. Also known as the Lantern Festival, this Public Dreams Society production is a signature summer event for Vancouver locals, and one of the purest community experiences I’ve ever seen. I’ve used my summer posting to the Slow Blog project to reflect on the personal and public value in this utterly unique event, and to announce that I’ve recently joined the society’s board of directors.

It’s an amazing event produced by an amazing group of people. It’s a chance to enjoy a family-friendly, non-corporate and truly memorable event. For those interested in technology, culture and the arts, it’s a chance to see how low-tech can create high-grade experiences, and to witness an emerging tradition of even documentation by attendees through cellphones, photos, and blogs.