I’m pleased to say I’ll be joining the librarians of Aotearoa / New Zealand for this year’s LIANZA conference, 24-27 September at Addington Raceway.
More news to follow.
Category: Libraries
Library Island at NLS8, Canberra
I’ll be running an interactive workshop, Library Island, at the 8th New Librarians’ Symposium in Canberra, Australia, this June.
There will be drama, there will be danger – and the freedom to reimagine librarianship in a whole new way.
Watch this space for more information nearer the time. Or sign up for the conference today.
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Melbourne-based digital artist Peter Miller, who featured in last month’s Library as Incubator piece on the links between libraries and musicians, has released a new piece: Beyond the Wall of Sleep.
The piece blends H.P. Lovecraft, NASA recordings, and a reading of the rules and regulations of the Insane Asylum of California, drawing on material from Librivox and Prelinger Archives.
You can read more about the history of Beyond the Wall of Sleep at Peter’s website, and read about how libraries, archives, and multimedia artists might work together in Library as Incubator’s “Sing Me A Library”.
Or just enjoy the spooky video, above.
Sing Me A Library
My latest column for Library as Incubator explores the links between libraries and musicians, from Glenn Gould’s radio documentaries to English community choirs and digital experiments in today’s Australia.
Commence festivitization sequence…
The State Library of Queensland has a staff Christmas video competition – as I found out when I returned from my regional travels to be told I’d “volunteered” to shoot an entry for my new colleagues at the Regional Partnerships team…
Half an hour running around with a camera, and a bit of editing time later, Rogue One RAPL was born. It’s good for a laugh, and features some of the great people I’ll be teaming up with in the new year:
Of course, this is only the second best Star Wars related activity I’ve ever been involved with.
Or maybe even the third.
Becoming death literate – panel discussion
After Brisbane’s first Deathfest – a microfestival which explores, challenges, and celebrates our understanding of death, dying, and bereavement – I’m pleased to share a panel discussion which addressed grief, death, and end-of-life care in modern-day Queensland.
Joining me were Fiona Hawthorne, general manager at Hummingbird House, Queensland’s first children’s hospice; Ian Mellor, who manages body bequests for Queensland University of Technology; and Dr Sarah Winch, healthcare ethicist at the University of Queensland and author of Best Death Possible.
In an age when literacy has come to mean so many things – always with a sense of empowering people to read or make sense of some new terrain, topic, or experience – what would it mean for us to become truly “death literate”?
You can listen to the panel discussion now by clicking on this link or visit the State Library website.
For more on healthcare and wellbeing work during my Queensland residency, read “On Health and Wellbeing” and “Giant Robots Need Therapy Too“.
For more on Deathfest, visit the Metro Arts website.
“Bless my cotton socks, I’m in the news…”
What links stone circles, public libraries, the seas of the Torres Strait, and 1980s pop band The Teardrop Explodes?
You can find out in my keynote from last week’s SWITCH 2016 conference in New South Wales – “Science Fiction Double Feature” is available to download from their website as a PDF.
Crawford Award, Adelaide
I’m honoured to be guest speaker at the ceremony for the annual Crawford Award (no, not that one – the one for library innovation in South Australia). It takes place in Adelaide this Friday.
I’ve never been to Adelaide, and I’m doubly excited because it’s the home of one of the greatest Aussie television shows, Danger 5.
I’m sure that’s exactly what the Crawford Award show is going to be like.
Losing control in digital space: Liberact 2016
Last month I spoke at the Liberact conference of digital interactive experiences.
My paper was ‘Play, Chance, and Comics: Losing Control In Digital Space’.
We explored comics, creativity…and what digital designers could learn from the noticeboard at a gym.
You can see an annotated PDF download of my presentation here.
Extended Play: 2017 Creative in Residence at State Library of Queensland
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be continuing my residency with the State Library of Queensland through to the beginning of April 2017.
In the new year, I’ll be working with the library’s Regional Access and Partnerships team to deliver programs, partnerships, and events for rural and regional areas in Australia’s Sunshine State.
Watch this space for the latest news!
matt finch / mechanical dolphin 