Current thoughts on producing a unique, beautiful and independent video podcast.
In 1176 the then Prince of Wales, Rhys ap Gruffudd, invited a wide range of learned folks to Cardigan Castle to participate in the first ever Eisteddfod—Eistedd means “sit” and Fod means “be”—a cultural festival with the aim of sharing and learning from each others artistic expressions.
Creative Welly‘s model is simple: bring together two souls from different disciplines whom have never met, and then through a modern-day fireside situated discussion, we uncover the person plus lessons behind the projects / initiative / companies / organisations / approaches.
The dinstinct visual concept of the final video form is all about creating intimacy for the viewer, to offer through the peripheral, the sense of being connected deeply in to the discussions (check out the latest two episodes to see what I mean if you haven’t already seen):
For the participants themselves, nearly all comment on the wonderful sense of space it offers, simply having the time to explore ideas and experiences in unhurried conversation. This is how it’s filmed:
As for the financial model of such a creative endeavour: it’s independently produced which means we rely on the generosity of David Hamilton at Flashdog Studios who hosts us (for free) and the technical talents of Jono Tucker of Empire Films who produces the video offerings (for free). I work hard on curating the participants plus make it all go live to the world via creativewelly.com (for free) as well as pay for the video / domain hosting. There is no funder or advertising involved which ensures no agendas being pushed, so in essence we lose money although we gain so much in offering the world a totally original way to ‘sit’ and ‘be’ (as a viewer or participant).
Three chilled audio offerings to add to the playlist when experiencing a cheeky getaway to the cosmic colonies:
Pre solarboost – 1m23s – First Audio Recording of Sounds on Mars – create22 – justadandak.comPeri solarboost & chapters of interstitial space – Sounds of Perseverance Mars Rover Driving – Sol 16 – chapters of interstitial space – create22 – justadandak.comPost solarboost & positioning to land – 2m30s – NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight – create22 – justadandak.com
Radical material varietals which replace the current extractive system, buildings that react in bio-sensitive ways, and cities which heal our planet.
“The documentary debuts at a critical juncture when the anthropomass—the mass produced by humans—has exceeded that of the living biomass on our planet.”
I watched her give her Design at the intersection of technology and biology TED talk whilst attending TEDActive in 2015 and we connected virtually shortly after. Ever since I’ve been trying to bring her out to this fair land to either speak at TEDxWellington or Creative Leadership NZ (however, diaries never aligned).
She is the founder of The Mediated Matter Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plus originator of Material Ecology: exploring / teaching at the intersection of technology, biology and sustainable design. The above is a retrospective of sorts relating to her work and an invitation to explore what is being done beyond ones own level of literacy.
I watched the short documentary hanging on by my cognitive-fingernails, as the conceptual and material potential shared realigned with something precious which has been lost of late when speaking to local leaders and industry professionals about their approach to city planning / building / construction industry practices, and that is, hope.
There is a vast amount of latent possibilities in the projects explored: whether it be 3D printing optically aligned glass with a molten calligraphy pen for high-efficiency solar-energy capture, adaptable bio-based structural materials with programmed decomposition, co-designing with silk-worms to inform future architectural forms and processes, synthesising pigments to enhance structures with their embodied properties, plus building autonomously at large-scale for urban settings; one ends the viewing experience seriously considering either retraining into this emerging field or at least supporting the best way one can to allow it to shape future discussions plus positively rebalance the world back to bio-equanimity*.
It’s all about making nature your / our client.
Thank you, Neri!
*my work as MC and podcast producer for the wonderful teulo.co platform is playing some small part in this.
Bookstack is a simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organising & storing information (free wiki app).
cchound.com is a curation of CC licensed music from various artists and genres for you to use, however you like with correct attribution, in your creative projects.
For many, battling the debilitating monotone internal narrative is too hard to even start: that nasty voice in your head reducing you down, limiting your potential, constraining your joy, crushing your confidence, opening the doors to anxiety, igniting your loathing of self / life, feeding the dangerous black dog.
And due to the direct link from mind to heart, cultivating strategies for dealing with the bastard brain needs to be prioritised to experience fully this living experience. Unlearning where our precious attention goes is the key to unlocking the melodies which rounds off positive aspects of existence.
For most of my life this wicked voice held the reigns and defined the journey, complimented by the learned repression of any verbalised ’emotional’ state.
I’m starting to relearn the roots of my operating system and in doing so, rerouting many of its commanding protocols, releasing the energy for a more rounder me.
Recently, I sent the following to a friend who was asking how I was:
My heart is a beautiful mess of things, like an Hieronymus Bosch painting: full of magic and weird characters plus brilliance and terror!
Sheety, which turns Google spreadsheets into powerful APIs to rapidly develop prototypes, websites, apps & more.
This open-source software license that developers can use to prohibit the use of their code by applications or companies that threaten to accelerate climate change through fossil fuel extraction.
Wellington needs to become a capital city which leads through bold action.
Recently, I was approached to consider taking over an established annual event which gives a platform for ideas to shape the future of the city. I’ve been involved in the past both as a speaker for one event and voluntary organiser for two others, so know the people and format very well.
My response was:
“…bring those with power together and have them outline clearly and transparently what powers / resources they have (and don’t have) THEN what they are prepared to devolve / make available along with the processes for access. Only then, invite the wider community to impact on those areas as then you’re proposing / designing from the actual rather than perceived.”
Like most cities in the world, much of the power and resources are held by traditional institutions with established processes which aren’t very accessible and / or transparent. Revealing this and spending time *’sharpening the axe’ enables the citizenry to assist in directly shaping the priorities plus collaborate in the action needed.
So here are half a dozen ideas, in no particular order, which I’ve been thinking about for years (stretching back to my Collider days), and which could provide a starting point if some humans had the time / the money / the energy, to start an ‘action lab’ for the city (half of which can be easily achieved with a few grand, educated souls and the space in ones diaries)—feel free to steal, go off and start to actualise them out:
1. Central City Calendar
An event and activity listings for the city in one online portal. Developed through a reverse data-capture process which pulls in details from other places, this takes no extra collaboration or permission from anyone and would create a one-stop-shop for the vibrancy of activities in the city. With email subscriptions available and sorting by categories (like sport or art in a particular region) and an available RSS plus an open API for others to remix as well. In the background, these events would be analysed to illustrate what communities / topics are being served (and more importantly who / what are not – see ‘2. Capital Dashboard’).
A simple adoption of the doughnut economy framework into all the governing councils activities and plotting the activities via an online dashboard which tracks, records and displays visually the ‘health’ of the city. This would include data on such things as:
carbon emissions
traffic / public transport use
house prices / commercial rates
councils and other agencies budgets and where it’s going
building projects and their state
amount of green spaces vs urban
recycling / waste
weather and ocean data
police recordings of incidents
listings of new companies in the region by topic (pulled from companies house) etc
Over time the data will reveal trends which can inform policies and decisions. It also becomes a visual connective point for the civic understanding / education on interconnected topics.
A map of publicly owned spaces / venues in the city with overlaying data of past / current / future use along with hireage costs, where this money goes plus processes of access and limitations (meaning conditions of use like only allowed to use certain ticketing, audio & visual and catering suppliers). This would again over time uncover insights on gaps / opportunities, types of use, who accesses, financial transparency of operations etc. and would create a blueprint for a community activation plan.
4. Beautify / Rewild
A open invitation for artistic collaborations to radically beautify the urban landscape through nature and / or art. The city has become grey or any new builds just full of glass and steel. We need more colour and beauty. Any new capital-builds will have to adhere to a new artistic policy before gaining permits to break ground plus demonstrate commitment to carbon zero / regenerative approaches (see #2). All this would be again transparently known, shared, tracked becoming another differentiating point of the city.
Addendum: Imagine commissioning ten local artists at $10,000 each to chose a letter of “Wellington” to make in their own style (they would get a further $2,000 in material costs with $10,000 left for it’s installation / upkeep). The resulting work would be hung off the ground on a public wall such as the side of Te Papa to celebrate the creative breadth of the city. Resident artists are remunerated for their time and talent, their work would be on permanent display to extend their brand and connection with the public plus the city would get a unique installation for interested parties to stand under, individually or in groups, and take funky shots from all angles for sharing on the socials (rather than this which cost the same amount of money).
Wellington is the windiest capital in the world with a rugby team with an associated nickname, so imagine an annual festival exploring through art, clean energy, installations, discussions, sport powered by and in celebration of this wondrous gift of nature we have here, and stop fricking complaining about it!
Introduce radical legislation to address ownership disparity and free up access to homes, not properties (such as to hinder things like 3rd, 4th, 5th etc. property owners). This is about local and regional government legally ensuring all new construction include social housing considerations and also introducing laws to impact on owners of rental properties to set a certain criteria of health and well being. If this can’t be done at a city / regional governance level then prioritise community initiatives to support and amplify up to national policy changes.
However, there’s certainly enough talent in this city to divert it from the current trajectory. There just needs an honest and brave attempt to uncover what I advocated for in the above quote. Then the citizens and supportive bodies can amplify this as an opportunity to ignite a more city-level collaborations through radical experimentation and positive action.
Go, Wellington!
*Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
