I’m not generally one for New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I decided to have a go at Project 365. The idea, in short, is to take one photo per day for a year. The claimed benefits of this vary, but boil down to improving one’s photographic technique, creating a “photo diary” for yourself, and documenting your year for the purpose of sharing with others (usually on Flickr).

I was hoping for a mixture of these, but most importantly I intended to keep the creative juices flowing through the year by enforcing a tiny bit of creativity each day. I’m always looking for ways to train my brain to look at the world differently, and spending a bit of time each day framing life through a camera lens seems to be a good way to go about this. I actually bent the rules a little, and let a bit of digital art and even one short video sneak in amongst the photos. After all, the creativity is the point, not the medium.

Anyway, in case you hadn’t guessed by now, I’ve decided to officially abandon the project. I started off well, posting a photo a day until well into April, with a maximum of two or three days backlog. Things started slipping a little in May, and then I caught up again, but I quickly got so far behind that there didn’t seem to be much point carrying on. Today is the 177th day of the year, and my most recently uploaded photo was number 130.

There’s little point dissecting all the reasons, but suffice it to say that it didn’t have the intended effect. Once I started to run out of immediate things to take photos of, and the few generative art ideas I had bubbling away in my brain were turned into pixels and committed to the interwebs, the thought of having to do something creative every day got less and less attractive, and began to feel more like a chore. I decided to have a break to see if that would help, but it actually seemed to make things worse. My photos from my holiday in Cornwall in May let me catch up a bit, but I was still quite behind, and I’ve had no real motivation to take any photos since.

Interestingly, I don’t regret the experience at all. I enjoyed the creative bits while they lasted, and once I began to get fed up of the project, it made me want to get on with other non-visual projects (more on this soon). And I was actually pretty happy with quite a few of the photos that I took.

You can have a look at the 130 photos in the final set, or see below for some of my favourites (click to embiggen).

I spent the weekend at BarCampLondon6 at the offices of the Guardian near King’s Cross Station. I think my brain is too full of interesting things I’ve picked up over the last couple of days (not to mention too deprived of sleep) to actually process any of it into a coherent blog post, but you’ll get an idea of my thoughts by looking at my posts on Twitter tagged #barcamplondon6, and my Flickr set from the event. Thanks to the organisers for their hard work, and to all the people who took part.

My talk was about Processing. The photos below are by Rain Rabbit.

Me:

The audience (yes, I probably should have picked a bigger room):

You can view the slides on Slideshare:

Finally, here’s one of me playing with Auduino an Arduino-based synthesiser created by Peter Knight from tinker.it:

The EASy MSc, which I’ve just finished, was a brilliant experience. It involved lots of hard work and was very stressful at times, but was ultimately extremely rewarding. I feel like I’ve learned more (and been more excited about what I’ve been learning) in the last year than at any other time in my life. The highlight was probably my trip to the Artificial Life XI conference in Winchester, and my publication (PDF) at the conference.

I’ve decided I’m going to stay in Brighton if I can, and I’m currently looking for a job. If anyone reading this wants to employ an enthusiastic and creative programmer, please feel free to get in touch! My CV is available here.

So, hopefully I’ll post again soon with something a bit more substantial.

Richard Stallman, Manchester, 1st May 2008.

Accuracy of note debatable.

I have sat at home all day waiting for Leopard to arrive, and TNT have failed to deliver it, despite several call centre employees assuring me it was on the truck and out for delivery today. TNT, you suck.

Steve, I know you’re probably busy today pimping your new operating system, but when you finally get round to checking your RSS reader and notice an update on your subscription to j4mie.org, please heed this advice: TNT must be punished for breaking that final link in your impeccable customer satisfaction chain. There are several ways you could accomplish this, but here are just three suggestions:

• Immediately withdraw all your business from them. That’ll teach them for failing to employ a few extra drivers to deal with the demand.
• Ban all their employees permanently from Apple Stores. Not only will they be unable to take stupid pictures of themselves with Photo Booth and upload them to their MySpace accounts, they’ll be stuck using Windows forever. Actually, this option may be slightly too cruel.
• Brick their iPhones.

So today is Blog Action Day, and the theme this year is Global Warming. Oops, I mean Climate Change. Or, as the organisers themselves diplomatically and non-specifically put it, the environment. “What would happen,” they ask in the catchline of their website, “if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day?” As if the answer is obvious: the temperature of the planet will begin to decrease, of course. Well, it all sounds like a lot of hot air to me (Ouch. I apologise for subjecting your eyeballs to that pun).

Why the scepticism? It certainly doesn’t stem from the science: the data is in, and the results are conclusive. Even Sir David Attenborough is convinced. There is no serious argument to be made against the fact that we are changing things for the worse, and something needs to be done.

But the science was left behind long ago, washed away by the tide of politics and self-promotion. Hundreds, thousands or even millions of people blogging about the environment isn’t going to change a thing when their motivations are questionable. Consciousness raising doesn’t work if the public consciousness is already saturated. Fashion-driven posturing around any issue only increases cynicism and will divert attention from the actual problem, which will almost certainly make matters worse.

So what’s the answer? Just do something. Don’t talk about it, don’t worry about it, don’t obsess over how your contribution will reflect your personality and how others will see you. Don’t panic. Just do it. Start with something small, which won’t make any difference to your everyday life. No need to spend thousands on solar panels or start composting your own shit. Just, for example, unplug something you don’t use. Or get one of those reusable shopping bags. Or whatever.

This idea isn’t new (in fact it’s fairly obvious, really) but surprisingly few people seem to be articulating it. At the risk of being accused of allowing my musical tastes to intrude slightly too extensively into my opinions on other issues (but if the arguments are good, what does it matter who makes them?), John Mayer’s “Another Kind Of Green” idea, which he has talked about on his blog, seems like a good start:

“In the “degree of difficulty” column, reversing the effects of global warming is a .5 out of a possible 10, at least in theory. You just get back by reversing the way you came. No accounting for a volatile political world stage, or clashing of belief structures. Just throw this bitch in reverse and we’re home.

The trouble is, nobody has managed to come close to bringing this issue to you in a way that doesn’t turn you off. At best, it’s a bore, and at worst (toilet paper square accounting?) it’s insulting to human autonomy.

It seems to me that when it comes to this issue, we’ve been given only two sides to pick from: side one says the future of global warming does not present a doomsday scenario, almost chuckling the matter aside. Side two says it is a dire issue (which it is), and then goes on to inundate side one with so many separate nakedly-scientific points that they make naivete seem cozy by comparison.

So here I am, introducing a third side. A laid-back, panic free approach to environmentalism. One that believes the message of “An Inconvenient Truth” is sound, but that it’s an incredibly un-fun name for a movie. A side free from the cry of hypocrisy, for it doesn’t make sweeping promises. A side that drives an SUV on the way to the grocery store but then produces nylon mesh bags at the checkout line.”

No website for this campaign yet (although akog.org currently forwards to johnmayer.com, so I imagine one is forthcoming). It just seems to me like a nice way to articulate the idea, and a convenient public figurehead to advocate it.

So what did I do for Blog Action Day? I went through all the electronic gubbins under my desk, and unplugged all the stuff I don’t use. Probably only saved few watts, but it’s a start eh?

I have a nice little flat near London Road Station. If I lean out of my bedroom window, I can see the sea!

I don’t know many people in Brighton, so if anyone reads this and fancies a pint, feel free to get in touch.