c.onscio.us/ly

I feel a bit uneasy posting about business on here. Am I embarrassed about my halfbaked ideas about business and how naive they’d sound in a few months time, is it the nagging thought of not being able to reference live projects due to confidentiality? I do think its valuable though and thinking about whether it should have a focus. A lot of what I do right now is split across project management, client expectation handling, curating projects if you could call it that.. definitely something that I’d like to track the progress of.. maybe its time for a new blog? On other news my log.organised.info got wiped. should I use that?

so about a year ago around about this time. exactly a year ago actually, I had already quit my faculty post at the university and was looking at going into the commercial world.
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Designing imperfection in grafik 181, originally uploaded by Iman.

its nice to see it in Grafik.

okay so this was my second day bar the registration day, I’ll refrain from making any broad generalisations. But, if I were to say one thing about SXSW, it is truly unlike any other conference or event Ive ever been to and Its been really amazing so far. we’ll worth the 3 plane hops it took to get here. : )

Theres a light touch of curation but it seems the popularity of the speakers, or the panels, which people get to vote on prior to them being chosen and included in the programme tap into a zeitgeist of whats fresh and new and what is being discussed around the tech / creative / development circles, but sadly they fall short of digging that deep.

I’m officially and proudly part of the Arts Council delegation. I was nominated by someone who was on the trip last year, and I had to fill in an application explaining why I’d benefit from it, and what I’d bring to the trip, and how I’d represent myself and I was lucky enough to be chosen from a bunch of other applicants.

..and what an amazing and talented bunch of bright people they are. I I feel very privileged to be with them here. Although I didn’t know everyone here from before, I’m slowly getting to know them and stealing a few moments of conversation here and there. Its quite remarkable how strong the social connections and networks are in the UK which I’m part of. You know how it works, you know someone, who knows them that sort of thing, The years of being an academic certainly weren’t socially isolated.

Seems @thetweeture who is following us, is having fun too and getting a lot of press. http://twitter.com/thetweeture

When people dont talk about something that you expect them to have a response to, it always makes me wonder whats stopping them or what their malfunction is. Mine is that I’ve been too busy and generally reluctant to dwell on any sort of failure and have been trooping on!

Heres me ranting about two recent failures (or moves towards success depending how you look at it.)
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Amusement FR, originally uploaded by Iman.

It was nice to be interviewed for Amusement Magazines’ glossy inaugural first issue, which I will cherish in my Glitch related bit of the bookshelf until the pages whither away. Its a whole jam packed magazine full of interesting articles, of interest to french speakers out there, sadly I dont speak french, but I liked the pretty pictures.

http://www.amusement.fr/

Glitch Painting Test, originally uploaded by Iman.

old test I wanted to do. The painting was being thrown away, close to where I work.

Wales’ theories of failure: fail faster — if a project is doomed, shut it down quickly; don’t tie your ego to any one project — if it stumbles, you’ll be unable to move forward; real entrepreneurs fail; fail a lot but enjoy yourself along the way; if you handle these things well, ‘you will succeed.’”
Jimmy Wales speaking at TED-X in Tampa 2010

I’ve been thinking about my personal optimal mode of operation lately.

I like presentation, I like conceptualising things, I like making connections, and outlining things.
I occasionally really enjoy dabbling in making things, and giving direction. When I was teaching, I was doing several of those things. With that comes a disappointment that you don’t make some of the things yourself.

But also an opportunity or mode which is more about observation critiquing and learning or remaking things, or even curation!

I think being able to do a PhD has a lot to do with being in the right frame of mind and being able to afford to do it (time and money). If you can satisfy both criteria then superb, you’re on track. Miss one of those and its basically a no go.
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