About six weeks ago, I went to Venezuela with some friends and colleagues for Un-Convention Caracas. I shot some video while I was there, and you can find them here.
But the official video – complete with translation – is now available. You can watch that here.
Our last day at Un-Convention – and it’s spent in Petare, known as the most dangerous barrio in Venezuela. We went there to pay tribute to a murdered political activist from the neighbourhood, watch basketball, listen to a performance by Symbiz, visit the place of work and the home of a community worker (with an incredible view) – and then it was back to Tiuna el Fuerte for the grande finale.
Symbiz were back on the stage and put on a killer of a last show, and then we were invited up to the stage to celebrate Un-Convention. What a fantastic way to finish.
In which Jez loses control of the lower half of his body, I use all my Spanish, Symbiz reveal their Machiavellian plans, a community newspaper quizzes us on political philosophy for over an hour, we get invited to a Caribbean island paradise, and then we dance.
Time for Jez and I to take a turn on a panel – this time about Digital Archives. We also shared the session with Buddy & Christian, the brothers from Symbiz, whom we quickly got to know and like. Our panel was flooded in, so we had to keep talking for an extra hour; Symbiz cut a track and made a video in an afternoon, after which they hosted a workshop – then came back to our hotel room for a beer and to record an ambient experimental piece using our freakish bathroom taps.
The start of Un-Convention itself. I get to do a bit of an introduction, Jez has something in his throat, there is music and dancing (of varying levels of skill and complexity), we get to see a model of what Tiuna el Fuerte will eventually look like… and I get to be on the telly.
I'm the Director of MTF Labs, a Senior Researcher at the Industry Commons Foundation, advisor to ArtEO and founder of New Music Strategies.
I'm an author of books about technology, culture, music and radio. I'm also an award-winning broadcaster and filmmaker, a public speaker and lecturer, record producer and festival director. I am closely following developments in emerging technologies and the cultures and ethics surrounding them, and my projects typically focus on issues of justice, inclusion, and sustainability.
Most of my work involves surrounding myself with incredibly smart and talented people who would have no other reason to ever be in the same room as each other. That's when amazing things happen.
I tend to talk a lot about music (often jazz-adjacent and particularly on vinyl, but also playlists and mixtapes). I'm enthusiastic about food and cooking, the intersection of art and science, new technologies, vintage technologies, education, social progress, silence, innovation, narrative, data commons, culture, sound art and the spoken word. This blog will continue to reflect those diverse and shifting enthusiasms. I may also digress.
I'm from Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand, I have Scottish ancestry, I've spent a decade in the south of Birmingham UK, and another in a forest in the north of Sweden.
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