interesting south vids are up

I don't actually want to tell you all about this: I hate seeing myself on film (especially after a shot of the heathrow injection), don't necessarily feel proud of my presentation (although I'm proud of the set) and it's altogether quite embarassing.

Hell, I haven't even watched it....


But I promised.

And I like to think that if I promise people that i'll do something, then I'll do it.

So, here's the link.

http://nextbutton.pureprofile.com/TVC/?id=4341

Please check out the others' presenations on the interesting south website too - they're absolutely brilliant!

Interesting Times [Part I]

On Thursday I spent the day/evening at Interesting South. For more info about exactly what that is, go here. Or here. And to find out more about where it came from, go here.

During the day, I joined the wonderful Emily and her band of troupers to help transform the Bondi Pavillion Theatre into a cosy home away from home for those attending the conference. I was hoping that the set would invoke the sense of watching people chat in their own home. Kind of like a super-sized dinner party. With microphones and powerpoint. It seemed to work well and it did feel nice and homely. I even made tea for all the speakers and that turned out to be really fun and a nice extra element to the whole occasion.

I only got to hear bits and pieces of most of the talks because I was fixing tea (and definitely didn’t have time to draw like I did in London, but I still heard some amazing things and met some really lovely people at the conference afterwards.

Here’s a hodge-podge snapshot of what I got:


Dan Hill and his spectacular system for keeping check on energy output:
“I’m not suggesting we all have huge numbers above our buildings, keeping score. Actually that is what I’m suggesting”

Matt Moore’s poetic guide for making a zombie.

Errol Flanagan's fantastic presentation on perception and understanding
"What's green, sir?"

Dr Adrienne Withall’s great study of Happiness parts I and II, including the fact that 50% of one’s happiness is genetic (oh shit) but that 40% is outlook (woo hoo!).

I loved the Happiness Manifesto and the Make Slough Happy campaign, of which I only remember a couple of points:

•Be grateful for at least 3 things a day
•Smile at a stranger
•Reduce your television contact
•Talk to a good friend for at least an hour a week;


Pia, the Sydney Dork-bot Overlord (how cool is that title!) reminded me that I need to go a Dork-Bot meeting in Melbourne, and see people “doing strange things with electricity”;

Adrienne and Pia sipping tea

The 3 Tims:

Tim Baynes, the scientist from an unnamed scientific organisation, who talked about sustainability in terms of the exponential growth, which was scary and exciting at the same time;

Tim Noonan, who is a fantastic performer and who can read people’s voices as a way of knowing more about them (vocal, instead of body language);

and Tim Longhurst, who was responsible for the fantastic Zero Coke Movement which hit big time earlier this year.

and
Juan’s Free Hugs/Free Homes campaign;

The evening went so quickly and like someone on the night said, it didn’t feel like 17 speakers, more like about 9. And the conversations in the club afterwards were similarly fantastic, including how much to reveal when blogging, what others would speak about and whether SARS was worth getting excited about.

Congrats to Emily and the Sydney Coffee Morning* crew for a fab time and keep an eye out for Interesting South 2008


Big thanks to Piers and Richard for these pics on the flickr.

*[watch this space Melbourne bloggy kids, I think I’m going to start a Coffee Morning]

interesting south pics

As I mentioned previously, I’m going to be speaking at Interesting South next week. I’m doing some designy –type things-ish for the theatre set and I thought I’d show you what I’ve been up to in the last couple of days.

Ben and the other cool kids from The Design Conspiracy were the Official Platinum Design sponsors for the original Interesting in London. Their brief from Russell included these points (as stolen from Ben’s blog – thanks Ben):

•It must be interesting. Obviously. But there is a fine line between interesting and downright messy.

•It must encompass the principles of web 2.0 (by that I mean updateable, participatory, flexible and interactive) whilst being offline quite a lot.

•It must utilise the attendees as collaborators.

•Assume zero budget.

•It must be able to dictate the look of the hall.

•It must be carbon neutral.

•It must be good.


So, in developing some ideas for Emily and the gang, I tried to play along to the same rules (and to play around with that lovely logo). And this is what’s been happening so far:


Lots of enlarging and some photocopying.
[I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly carbon neutral, but the paper is recycled and it’s better than getting vinyl lettering printed]



and then cutting out and up,



generally messing about with the logo. [It feels a little bit wrong somehow, like years of abiding by IP laws are just being frittered away… tee hee, welcome to real life 2.0.]



wondering what it would look like as an upholstery pattern



and of course, the obligatory cat-sitting-on-the-work shot.



it’s getting a bit exciting now. see you next week in sydney!

a call to arm[chair]s

OK, so as part of making Interesting South a lovely, cosy conference to hang out in, we need help from our friendly attendees, speakers, or anyone who wants to help out/participate in some way.

Furniture Drive
Firstly, we’re asking for donations of furniture, which will then go onto Salvos and Vinnies after the conference. Just think of it like putting in the middle man – a way to help us out and then help them out.

Here’s our wish-list:


1 x 3-seater lounge (2-seater is fine)
1 x lounge chair
1 x kitchen table/desk
1 x kettle
1 x medium-sized rug
1 x bookshelf (not too large)
1 x pair long curtains
1 x standing lamp
1 x table lamp
1 x side table

some small family picture frames
some books
some cushions (no more than 3)
some cups and saucers
some tea spoons



Now, if you’ve got any of these things, which need to be in pretty good condition, we also need you to help us out by taking it to a warehouse in Surry Hills on Tuesday 20th November [we don’t have a whole lot of time/resources on the actual day].

So, if you can help us tick off the things we need AND you can transport it, please email lauren[at]sheseesred[dot]com to organise what you’ve got and where to take it.

Heavy Lifters
All of that stuff takes moving in and out of the theatre and while it’s not huge, we need the help of about 8 toughies to help us move it into and out of the theatre on the day. If you can only help bump in, great! If you can only help bump out, great! Just email lauren[at]sheseesred.com to let me know what you can offer. The times will be 10am – 12pm and then from 10pm (we’re bumping out as quickly as possible, so that we can join everyone at the pub afterwards!)

more Interesting stuff soon...

it's official

So, regular readers of this blog will know that I went to Interesting in London this year. I had a ball because it was a fantastic conference featuring a huge range of topics, styles and information on anything that was interesting. It was like the real-time, real-life equivalent of a combination of a library, speed-dating and bloglines and I got to meet up with a whole bunch of bloggery, twittery, interesting types.

Now, the southern hemisphere will be hosting its own version, called Interesting South, held at the Bondi Pavillion Theatre on the 22nd November.

And, I'll be speaking at it.



Eep! I'm shit-scared and excited. All at the same time.

Excited 'cos i'm sharing the stage with some awesome peeps, including Dan Hill from City of Sound and Gavin Heaton - Servant of Chaos and Age of Conversation guy and Pia van Gelder, Dork-bot Sydney Overlord. Shit scared 'cos i'm sharing the stage with some awesome peeps.


Although part of me wants the theatre to be completely empty, I'm still going to encourage you to come along. Seriously, there are some amazing people speaking about some cool shit and if it's anything at all like the London shindig, it will be a great day!

And obviously, go to the website to check out more info.

I'm also going to be helping Emily and the Sydney Coffee morning kids out by doing some backdrop/set design stuff, so when i get some images of what i'm doing, i'll post them on here.

giving a friend a hand [Part I]

before i launch into my post about how rad inspiration is and how rock music can save the world, i'm asking you bloggery types to give my friend and great sculptor, kd a hand with research for her psych thesis.

it's about meditation and i know, from going to Interesting 2007, that plenty of you don't meditate, hate meditation and would love to express such an opinion. well kd is looking for such an opinions (and otherwise) for her honours psychology thesis! how's that for luck!

if you could give her a hand by following the link and doing the quick survey, that would be tops!

http://www.webresearch.mq.edu.au/honours_survey/

Interesting 2007

Some of you will remember or know first hand about the Interesting 2007 conference that happened on Saturday. For those who don't, read some bits here, here and here.

It started for me on the Friday, where I popped into The Design Conspiracy to help out a little bit. I didn't help much but I've heard that every little bit helps. And it was a great way to build up the excitement too. Made it a bit of a two-day thing rather than just something on Saturday.



I loved the absolute breadth of the variety of the speakers and have taken away so many thoughts and ideas. The main thing I got from the day, actually, was the thrill of hanging out with 'my people'. Like the first time I walked into a Last Hemeroids show at the Vic on the Park. We're all a little geeky, a bit brainy, totally open to experiencing new and exciting things (except those who hated the chanting and the drawing exercise) and not afraid to show it. It was love all round, from my end.

Although, disappointingly, while the rest of the conference was as far from a conference as I've ever experienced, as usual, the lunch wasn't long enough. But as I was discussing with Paul afterwards, that applies to life in general, so it ain't all bad.

Another extremely cool thing that came from the conference was in fact not at the conference, but the people who were there. At drinks on the friday night beforehand, I got to meet my dear blogging buddy Marcus (who is as sweet, mad and awesome in real life as he is online), as well as having drinks with other bloggers Paul and Ben Terrett. Then on the day other bloggers I got to meet included Rob Mortimer and NP, Beeker and Claire ex D&AD, plus catch up with some of the other kids I've previously met, Sam, Gemma, Will, Charles, etc. So as well as the goodness for the mind, there was heaps of goodness for the heart too. In fact it felt something like a family reunion and a mensa talent quest mash up. Postmodern was the theme of the day and I'm OK with that.



And speaking of mashups, the one thing I took away from the day was my sketchbook. A compilation of all the mad stuff and cool stuff I learned and experienced at Interesting. I sat up the front like a girly swat the whole time and sketched out the day. Well almost everything. In fact my sketchbook is a swarm of notes, quotes, words and little tidbits of images from the day. Some are ghastly, others are not so bad. My personal favourite is the image of the 'tech table', the only constant thing about the day.

Grant, who spoke exceptionally well*, has suggested (again) that i post the sketchbook as documentation of the day. I've tried to find a way that i can make it slightly animated and turn pages, like a real sketchbook would, but I didn't get very far.

*[although I'm surprised I can say that, seeing as during his talk I had to run around avoiding a disaster - trying to find something else to draw with after my pen had died after it had been drenched in tea after my tea leaked from the recycled cup i had been using all morning. Fuck!]

here's a link to the sketches as a flickr slideshow (the closest i could get to an e-book):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7299213@N03/sets/72157600394090268/show/

Suffice to say, I had a wicked day. I didn't get bored once, didn't fidget or tut, or want to hang outside (except after lunch, but i really should let that go). And at the end of the day when we were all having drinks and meeting/catching up, I could easily have gone back to do it all again the next day.

Seems like the name of the conference was absolutely perfect and I'm looking forward to seeing Interesting 2008 happening.