Archive for October, 2005

Double Lammy

Thursday, October 27th, 2005

The final event of the conference was the address by the English Culture Minister, David Lammy (that’s Minister for Culture in England, btw, not Minister for English Culture). He was down to speak for twenty minutes, but overran by a further twenty. A sort of ‘buy one, get one free’. It was very interesting. Of [...]

Going critical

Thursday, October 27th, 2005

Earnest, serious, dull. That is not, however, the definition of professionalism. Overrunning your time, stumbling delivery and reading from a script. I’m not going to name names, but the general quality level of the presentations at the conference was really low. I’m not talking particularly about the content, but rather the presentation and delivery, [...]

Let’s do lunch

Thursday, October 27th, 2005

There’s certainly occasional food for thought, but as far as I can see precious little thought went into the food.
Meanwhile a variant on an old joke:
Q. What’s the worst thing about an interactive computer in a gallery?
A. The incessant whine that comes from the curator.

I live by the river

Monday, October 24th, 2005

Continuing the Clash theme… well I am in a hotel in County Hall, which is after all by the river, and I can see the top half of the London Eye from my window…
So, here I am. And I take back what I said about the lunch - there were seats! Admittedly they were for [...]

London calling

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Hmmm, I suspect that the Clash reference may date me rather accurately. No matter. Despite what I said here, I am going to the MA Conference in London, though I expect the Scottish contingent to be somewhat smaller than in previous years. We shall see if any of the interesting-looking sessions will live up to [...]

Schrödinger’s Cat in the Hat Box

Tuesday, October 4th, 2005

When Heisenberg announced with pleasure,
“There are some things you cannot measure.
Not simultaneously at least.”
His irritating smile increased.
“The surer the momentum’s grown,
The less position will be known.”
“But that’s not all,” intruded Bohr.
(A name quite apt. I won’t say more)
“It’s observation perhaps
That makes the wave function collapse.
Until it does it’s all just smeared.
OK, I know it sounds [...]