October 01, 2006
Sex and Death.
I've decided I really enjoyed Picnic '06. I found Amsterdam itself to be utterly charming, having spent more than a few days there this time. Seeing Andy, Laurel, Diarms & Anna from the homeland, meeting Anna's two wee ones, meeting the lovely Souris & Silvio and seeing Neb again was great. I got horribly lost once on my bike, but somehow managed to find my way to the meeting place. It's always nice when that happens.
The conference itself? The sessions I enjoyed most were finally hearing Linda Stone talk about Continual Partial Attention, as opposed to just reading about it. Hung out with Julian Bleecker - he's a nice chap, who told me about the fabulous Blind Camera. Was reminded of GNE by Habbo Hotel (Sulake Corp) - fun to think where GNE would be now... Listened to Philip Rosedale talk about Second Life - he reminded me a bit of Stewart actually.
Ben Hammersley gave a proselytistic speech to the European Media Audience about the lucky position we find ourselves in: "The Responsibilities of Possibilites". He spoke about the fact that, as a race, our "things" may not disappear into darkness anymore. The thing that caught me most about it was imagining twenty five years in the future, when we might describe to a grandchild what it was like at the start of the internet... what we all did at the very start of this "Application Age". (Incidentally, Ben takes wonderful photos.)
The other thing I particularly enjoyed was a fantastic live video performance of The Tulse Luper Suitcases by Peter Greenaway. This is a wonderful, dense cross-media project that reconstructs the life of a man from Wales from the contents of 92 suitcases.
I have therefore decided that I will be institute a Greenaway Salon at my home upon my return. Probably with a lot of raw meat and anatomical diagrams of babies. (Note to self: Buy velvet drapes.)
