dots and spaces

Fareham Byte 2012

We're organising an interactive one-day festival at Fareham College. This logo was designed by Heather.

sushi cam

*edit - a new film to replace the previous one that was removed by the user (I don't know why, it was charming).

A clever little film where a camera is placed on the conveyor belt in a sushi restaurant. Seen at Reubenmiller.

By the way, I'm thinking up ideas for an alternative Christmas tree for Aspex gallery, any ideas, feel free to let me know.

Imakethings Profile

Artist Profile: Andrew Groves from Stephan Caspar on Vimeo.

no title

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

Just a lovely little experimental film. I'm so sorry, my posts are almost shorter that those on twitter - which is on probation, I still don't know if I like it. I'm a sucker for all kinds of social networking, and I thought this could be fun - but really who cares? Again, the right brainer in me wants it to serve some kind of purpose and the no brainer in me want to turn the internet off and get on my bike. I'm assured my new Conti's are in the post and on their way - come on, let's all track it together - oh, if only we could.

Muxtape update

Almost as soon as I posted about the wonders of muxtape, a note appeared on the site saying that it had closed down due to problems with the RIAA Recording Industry Association of America which acts to prevent piracy and copyright theft. Although the note promised users that it would get sorted out and that it would return, my rss feed has been flagging an error sign since.

I checked the other day though, and there's some good news and bad news. read it here. Its interesting, saying that negotiations have been taking place for some time, and that deals were in the off about licensing with the major record labels. Everything seemed to be going well, but then the RIAA intervened, and the site went down, making it harder to get finance, and harder to work. It sounds like Muxtape's Justin was going to meeting after meeting, being bullied by big business who stumbled around, not knowing whether to take him to court or hire him. Of course they recognized the importance of muxtape, and what a great site it was, but they couldn't help themselves, trying to ramp up the marketing, change the way it worked, **** with it, basically.

So, to end this sorry tale, Justin pulled out, walked away. You have to admire him, with great integrity he reminded himself why he set it up in the first place, because he loves music and loves listening to new music. Hang on, the good news is that Muxtape will be back, but in a different guise. It will belong to bands, who can load up their muxes, promote themselves with a page and some pictures, and use it to get out there.

I'm sure the Pirate will help out with a tape. Muxtape is dead, long live Muxtape.

wii posted

So, i thought i'd try and do a little post using the wii. It seems to be going ok. The keyboard is a bit tricky but it works. In fact there's something to be said for checking your e-mail using a tv in your living room.

So, still early days with the wii, but love playing the sports games, and cultivating Mii's. Bug me if you want my code.

*actually, now I'm editing it with the mac, because there were loads of spelling mistakes and strange errors. mmm.

from the rooftops

Some of the more observant of you have noticed that this site responds to a new address - you can now find dots and spaces at the usual typepad address and now at the new sparkly www.dotsandspaces.co.uk. This is because I now have a hosting package where I can play around with a few website ideas, host my portfolio at www.giantparty.net and sort out my email.

The last couple of years have been a huge learning experience in terms of the web and I now feel very confident building sites using html and css (old skool), and now cms packages such as joomla and drupal, and specialist blogging tools like wordpress and typepad (which is what has driven this little site since February 2004). There is plenty of advice out there to support these web tools and if you have a problem, or need a little fix, you can be sure someone out there has already beaten you to it.

If you think that you'd like a blog then drop me a line. I've already set up a few sites for various people who use their blogs to do everything from keep in touch with friends, talk about important issues, sell their wares, rap about life or just put up some pictures. It can look professional or low-fi, personal or minimalist - you choose. Remember, the revolution will not be televised...it will be blogged.

widgets

Just in case anyone fancies it - my blog is now a widget that you can get here. I don't really know the point of it yet, but as with all these things it just takes a little time.

new design site

A couple of weeks ago I attended a seminar run by the design council which explored the ways in which to encourage small businesses to use design as part of their strategic thinking. The idea being that investing in design should be thought of in terms of benefit and investment just as much as say, employing more staff, investing in technology etc.

I've set up a little site very quickly using the free google.pages tool - its very easy to use and has allowed me to trail a new idea I have. I'm still not very sure what its about, but I'm thinking about it as an experiment. I would welcome your comments and appeal for hypothetical problems to solve. These are strategic problems where design would play a role in solving them.

This is very different to the usual route I take as a graphic designer, (less image-maker, more conceptual) but the idea is to allow yourself to multi-task - to be the creative - the solution could be product, print, web-based or simply a concept. I know that many people do this already, but as I think more about this, it could become quite interesting.

we'll see - I wanted to explain the appearance of these new pages and hope you'll forgive me as I have a little play.