Posts tagged ‘interesting2007’
hypertime and the physics of comics
If you weren’t at interesting2007, one of the most (surprisingly for me, given the topic) interesting talks was Jack Schulze’s entertaining presentation on hypertime and the general physics of comics. You can check out the slides and transcript here.
Hypertime is explained as “a manifestation in the story of the comic which allows the writers to refer to any of the instances in all of history of any character inside the comic itself” – otherwise known as a really good get-out clause that allows the coolest versions of much-loved comic characters from different time periods to interact with each other (and paper over any continuity glitches).
My favourite quote from Jack’s talk:
“you don’t get John Pertwee turning up in contemporary Doctor Who, though that’d be quite good if he did”
UPDATE: Feb 2009 – browsing though the archives I realised that the Dr Who ‘Time Crash’ episode from November 2007 (where David Tennant crashes his Tardis into the fifth doctor Peter Davidson’s Tardis) looks like a brilliant example of hypertime in action. Maybe one of the Dr Who scriptwriters saw Jack’s talk?
May he live in interesting times
This post by John Griffiths might help to explain exactly why I refer to Russell Davies so much in this blog and why interesting2007 was a great manifestation of the Russell Davies ‘brand’.
other things I learnt at interesting2007
- how to make a post-modern eggs, bacon, chips & beans
- how to get a comedy-entertainment TV show commissioned
- how to change the world for a fiver
- why we like printing
- that Cezanne didn’t like touching people or being touched
- video games are Art
- comic books are very big on intertextuality
- shorter is harder
- the mundane can be interesting
- cities are slow computers
- bunting rocks
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt
I’m guessing that it was a bloke at The Design Conspiracy who printed my t-shirt as the logo was positioned so that it sat neatly under my boobs, rendering it invisible unless you were less than three feet tall. Never mind, it was a nice idea…
So, the day itself. Conway Hall was a perfect venue and like the big brother of The Breakfast Club (spiritual home of Coffee Mornings).
I’m not going to go through every detail or every speech because the other 299 people there are bound to have covered if off, blog-wise and the 500+ pictures in the flickr pool provide a pretty comprehensive record of the day, but I learnt some very interesting things, including:
- the history of shaving foam
- nine ways to make a better erotic film (they had to remove Russell’s six year old son Arthur for that bit, obviously)
- why men with short legs are better swimmers
- how to chop a log
- what its like to be on Oprah
- why Ibsen and The Muppets have a lot in common
I saw the editor of The Spectator do a fabulous Al Pacino impression and The Independent’s Rhodri Marsden play a saw like a violin. And I finally met Beeker as well as making friends with Carol, Claire and Sam.
It was a fantastic day. The post-lunch Buddhist chanting session wasn’t my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed every other speaker, as well as the general chatting and milling around, the afternoon tea (courtesy of W+K) and the session at the pub afterwards.
There were goodies and freebies galore (badges, books, shaving stuff, a specially-for-interesting mix by Dino & Terry, fruit, smoothies from Innocent) and, more importantly, a real sense of everyone mucking in to make the event a success.
But the abiding memory I’ll take with me is the inscription above the stage at Conway Hall that seemed to sum everything up:
Sooooo excited
Interesting2007 (or as my MD refers to it, Planner’s Paradise) is tomorrow! Can’t wait, I’ve signed up to twitter so that I can receive on-the-day updates and am ready to blog, flickr and twitter my experience.
Also looking forward to receiving my one-off event t-shirt from The Design Conspiracy and meeting up with Andrew, James, Russell, Paul, Rob, Lauren, Beeker and well, everyone there.
Note to clients: do not have any strategic crisis this weekend as the UK planning/creative thinking community will be unavailable.
Interesting update
The brand new wiki for the Interesting2007 conference/festival/fun day/planner’s party thingy can be found here. Another 100 tickets went on sale today, but got snapped up straight away. If you are still chasing tickets, check the Interesting2007 website for the next ticket release, or go straight to the ticket sales site. There is also an option on the sales site to email Russell Davies if you’d like to be informed when the next tranch of tickets are released.
More Interesting
I noticed on my blog stats that I’ve been getting a lot of hits from google searches for Interesting2007. I’m getting very excited, I’ve sent my t-shirt off for official branding and everything.
I’ve retagged my Interesting2007 posts to make them easier to find on the blog, but this means that they’ll show up as fresh posts. Sorry, blame wordpress.
Interesting2007
Russell Davies has come up trumps again with a fab idea for a kind of user generated festival conference thingy for Planning types in London on 16th June 2007.
The plan is to have all sorts of speakers speak about all sorts of stuff. Not brands, advertising, blogging and twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things. I’m hoping to find fascinating people and to just ask them to speak about something they care about. I want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, musics, jokes and whatever. There will be 20 minute slots and 3 minute slots. Some people will play music or sing. And some people who can’t be there will be asked to send three minute videos. Perhaps. I reckon we can squeeze a lot of interestingness into a day. And then have a party afterwards.
I can’t wait.
website: www.interesting2007.com
