I joined Edinburgh’s Pedal on Parliament last Saturday, a protest to make Scotland’s roads safer for cyclists. It was quite impressive I would have never expected that many people, I overheard figures of 1500-3000 people being mentioned. When all lined up to get ready to cycle to parliament, and there was a queue running through the entire middle meadow walk, I was just thinking “WOW” and it felt very empowering.
#unravel is an interactive exhibition by the Scottish arts collective FOUND. #unravel is a big record player. Except that this record player does not actually play the records you put on. Instead, you will hear the voice of Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap) telling stories that he associates with that particular record, accompanied by sounds created by the machine. But put on that record a little later, you will not hear the same story again: #unravel interacts with its environment, it will sense how many people are around it, what people are tweeting about it (hashtag: #unravel), the time of the day (are the kids in bed yet?) and it is even meteorosensitive! Taking all these factors into account, #unravel will tell a different story each time.
#unravel was revealed! After brief talks by Andy Clark (Philosophy, Edinburgh) on the Extended Mind and Simon Kirby (FOUND Collective) on the rationale behind #unravel, visitors could, for the first time ever, listen to #unravel’s stories.
In a second session on February 9, #unravel was joined by Jon Rogers from the University of Dundee, Kate Stone from Novalia, Pete Thomas from Uniform and Tommy Perman from FOUND, who gave a preview of their talk for SXSW Interactive: “Can Printed Electronics Save the Music Industry?”. Also shown: Paper headphones.
As it is in the tradition, right after the exams I went back home and attended this year’s Immergut Festival again. For me it was the 8th year in succession, in the 11 year history of the festival.
This year’s highlights include Lali Puna, who just blew me away, in just the same way they did in 2004. It was just such a brilliant, atmospheric concert. I also enjoyed William Fitzsimmons as well as Efterklang a lot, FM Belfast were terribly dancable. Unfortunately I missed Talking to Turtles. Apart from that it was a truly beautiful festival – once again. It was also one of the most relaxed ones I have ever been. A total success.
