Category Archives: Creativity

On Quora, empathy and editorial value

Posted on January 25, 2013 by

One of the things I wanted to do more of this year was write about digital products. I’m going to start with Quora, because it’s a site I keep coming back to you, and yet I don’t think they know … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Digital Products, On Journalism and Media | 2 Comments

Fashion versus Clothes (and Apple, of course)

Posted on May 15, 2010 by

Image: Flickr user JBlaze B It’s always interesting to look at the choices a successful business makes, particularly, choices that are conscious limitations. So-and-so inc expanding into a new area or launching a new copycat product is fairly dull. Looking … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Japanorama | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

David Mitchell on ideas and characters in his new book

Posted on March 24, 2010 by

Just been to see David Mitchell read from his new novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet at Shoreditch House. Readings are always a little weird, bits of text disenfranchised from their home-novel, and the author never seems to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Creativity | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Added to the wishlist: The Cello Suites

Posted on November 27, 2009 by

[Book] Via the indomitable Tyler Cowen’s short but sweet Books of the Year post: “A very good gift book is Eric Siblin’s new The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.  It signals the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Creativity, Music | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Added to the wishlist: A Crisis of Brilliance

Posted on November 23, 2009 by

[Book] A Crisis of Brilliance, by David Haycock, courtesy of a review in the Guardian: “The particular cauldron of intensity into which Haycock plunges is the Slade School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture…  and the students who experience this ‘crisis … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Creativity | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

8-bit trip: Lego bricks as pixels

Posted on August 24, 2009 by

This video comprises “1,500 hours of moving Lego bricks and taking photos of them.” It’s not particularly coherent in terms of theme, unless you call “8-bit games and music rule” a theme. Which maybe we should. Worth it for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Ephemera and links, Games | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Year of the Ox’s most popular internet slang

Posted on August 14, 2009 by

FAIL is over – especially if you’re in China. Apparently, these are the Year of the Ox’s most popular linguistic terms on the internet (although we’re only halfway through the year). Wonder how long it will take for ‘yùzháizú’ – … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Digital Products | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Virtual reality, then and now

Posted on April 25, 2009 by

In the 1980s and 1990s, the term ‘virtual reality’ was understood to mean the creation of reality inside the computer – and thus we would need to experience it using complex imaging and interaction systems (3D googles, cursors mapped to … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Digital Products, Ephemera and links, Music, On Journalism and Media, Tech | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A post in 2 parts: Mark Rothko and Camerabag

Posted on January 3, 2009 by

Took the shot above yesterday at Tate Modern, and it’s the first one I’ve got from the iPhone’s camera that I’ve been really happy with. It’s from Tate’s excellent Mark Rothko exhibition… Part 1: Overheard at Mark Rothko Well, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, iPhone, London, Photography | 2 Comments

My Favourite Piece of Travel Writing

Posted on October 11, 2008 by

My favourite piece of travel writing is short and to the point, but it questions everything about ‘here’ and calls to mind perfectly the change of ‘there’ that is its lure. It is a description of people in an airport, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Creativity, Thought For The Day, Travel | 1 Comment