In which we share an unusual breakfast, Jez and Ruth present at a bi-lingual press conference, Alex explains Cameraboy Will’s patented two-step ‘Vengabus then text’ dating technique, and we witness the strict discipline of the Tiuna el Fuerte hip hop school.
Adventures in Venezuela continued… in which we go up a mountain in an unsafe vehicle, hang out in unsafe places, have accidents, and present a danger to ourselves and others, all in the name of grassroots and independent music.
I’ve started going through the hundreds of video clips that I took in Venezuela last week, and have started editing them down to a manageable size for general consumption. Here’s the first video from our first day in Caracas.
I’m also going to (eventually) upload all of the unedited videos so you can get Jez’s full narrative of events, and I’ll post that on the Dubber and Jez blog, where we keep a record of all our international adventures — but this is a bit more manageable.
This video is a 3-minute edited highlights package from day one, in which we went to a barrio in El Valle, met some rappers, did some interviews, appeared in a music video, listened to music in the street, danced, watched motorcycle tricks (some of us even got involved), and stayed up past our bedtimes. The usual, in other words.
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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