gromits unleashed & beautifully caught in bristol

I studied in Bristol (UK) and so its always been a city close to my heart. It holds a lot of special memories for me and is one of my favourite cities in the UK to wonder around in. Especially with the cardiovascular workout of getting up the near vertical slant of Park Street.

On 1 July 2013 the ‘Gromit Unleased’ charity art exhibition was launched in Bristol and it’s surrounding area. Spearheaded by Aardman, the unique art trail featured 80 giant, 5ft high Gromit sculptures, individually decorated by an eclectic mix of well-known and local artists, designers and celebrities in order to raise funds for the local children's hospital.

The sculptures were distributed around the area with one also placed at London Paddington Railway Station. It's such a clever way of bringing a new dimension to the city while promoting a great cause. Bristol tourism staff estimated that the exhibition generated as much as £58 million for the city during the two-month display, with visitors coming from all over the UK and from as far afield as the United States and Japan to marvel at these giant sculptures.

The Gromit statues animated the city for ten weeks from 1 July, before being auctioned to raise funds to support the expansion of Bristol Children’s Hospital.

I met the talented photographer Steve Hyde at my family's guesthouse in Braunton, Devon (shameless plug) on a recent visit and he explained more about a project he has worked on as part of the exhibit in order to bring the Gromits to life in an interesting way after going on the Gromit treasure hunt and capturing each one on his camera.

"I’m a proud Bristolian and I love walking around the city so it seemed quite natural to pack my cameras and set off with my wife, Linda, to photograph a few Gromits one sunny day in early August.

We started with Gromit No.39, ‘Stat’s the way to do it, Lad!’ outside the Aardman building and worked our way down through the docks, into Millennium Square and onward from there. We were not alone though. We had to queue at most sculptures and found most of them by simply following the crowds. Grommiting seemed to have taken the city by storm! By the end of the day I had photographed eighteen Gromits and was hooked.

We went back into the Bristol the same week and visited another 20 Gromits. I returned for a third session a week later but this time used my bicycle to get around the Gromits outside the central Bristol area.

We drove out to get the remote Gromits and finally with 79 in the bag I bought a train ticket for London and set off to photograph ‘Gromit’ at Paddington. I had a few odd looks when I told people I was going to London to do nothing other than photograph a Gromit sculpture but having photographed the other 79, in my world, I didn’t have any option other than to go. I’m glad I did as well. I felt quite good knowing I’d completed the task."

Steve decided to bring the photo's to life in an engaging and innovative way.

"When I reviewed the pictures after our first trip out I began to think what could I do to make my efforts a little bit different, especially as I didn’t have my kids or grand children (they’re much too old or young for that) or anyone else I know in my shots. It was then I came up with the idea of converting them into polaroid style shots using a conversation action in Photoshop.

Although it might seem a little bit crazy using top grade professional equipment ,which is honed to producing large super sharp, well exposed shots, to generate under exposed fuzzy 3inch square images, I really liked the results. As a photographer I was also forced to totally re-think the way I composed the shots with the final polaroid result in mind and that was quite a challenge. Of course, no amount of photoshop trickery can ever really produce a genuine Polaroid copy but the results are still something a bit different from what I would have expected to produce at the start of the project."

All eighty sculptures are featured in the book with a few portraits of Steve's favourites towards the end.

Steve sends thanks to everyone involved for getting the project out there, promoting the city, generating loads of cash for a great cause and providing so many people with a lot of enjoyment over the last ten weeks or so.

where did all the steering wheel locks go?

my first (and only) car

Probably a meaningless ponder but walking through Redfern, where I’ve been living these last 6 weeks, I couldn’t help but notice that I only saw one car featuring a steering wheel lock. As someone who hasn’t owned a car since she wrote off her Citroën AX a month after passing her driving test 8 years ago, I suppose I haven’t had the opportunity to deliberate the investment. But for that short spell of driving my papier-mâché on wheels (named 'Scum' after its registration plate SCM by my boyfriend at the time), whose boot wouldn’t lock and brakes didn't work, I would always ensure that the wheel was locked with a big red birthday present lock. Especially given I had a younger brother with a tendency to get up to mischief and who, after a couple of weeks of mysteriously having to push my seat forwards whenever I entered the car, I discovered was slowly filling my ashtray after sneaking through the boot and making the Citroën the exclusive after party venue on our drive.

Nevertheless I’ve been in many cars and journeys and gone are the days where the driver reaches under the backseat to whip out a long solid weapon to attach to the wheel. Why is this? Who won? Are people content with taking the risk? Has mandatory car insurance spared the car lock polava. What do these businesses do now?

Ahh and so a quick search on Wikipedia explains all:

Modern vehicles are fitted with a steering lock which is an anti-theft device. It is fitted to the steering column usually below the steering wheel. The lock is combined with the ignition switch and engaged and disengaged either by a mechanical ignition key or electronically from the vehicles electronic control unit.

Alas I realise I have become one of those luddites who is behind the automotive industries technological progression, but, after experiencing two blessed weeks without seeing a single vehicle, I can’t say I’m too disappointed. I am delighted to reminisce about Scum though and true to his name was he when he collided with a BMW 7 series. I had one very sore and broken boyfriend in the passenger seat who, bless his heart, after two operations, a few screws and a plate, forgave me and I’ve learned has since been duly compensated and now is the one driving the BMW.

3 years & still not offended anyone.

Blimey. That went by fast. I fell asleep on the train and awoke a few stops further than I expected. It's been three years since the launch of jectaspecta. I feel on such an auspicious day perhaps something digitally celebratory should take place like, for example, writing a blog post...

Firstly, my purpose of blogging is really self-serving. I have an appetite for understanding new things, and as someone who learns through experience, have found that writing these learnings down not only serves my memory but also might be of some (if any) value to others. Of course, I'm sure its mostly not, but people seem to visit anyway lost in a back alley of the interwebs stumbling in to my random mumblings and tangents. And yet while that remains the case, there are some things I have learned about blogging which might be of interest. Doubtful. But may be.

The 'proverbial list' of three things I've learned about blogging:

1. Don't expect the posts you spend the most time on to garner the most attention.
That doesn't mean its not worth investing your time in writing about things you love or are genuinely interested in as I mentioned above.

For example a couple of writings I deliberated on for days are certainly not my big winners according to Mr. Google Analytics, but I enjoyed learning about them:
food for thought
philosophical about the interwebs

Sometimes however you can strike bloggerland gold; I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that "changing the perceptions of giving" had had over 1500 views and this post was actually one that I was keen to share with others.

2. Be yourself.  
Some blog as a way to bring to life a professional persona. Others to keep a virtual diary of their latest escapades. I think one needs to be true to themselves and their interests while being authentic. This is my personal point of view. I don't just write for an audience; I write for myself because I'm actually interested in articulating ideas, stories or random thoughts.

If you have a point of view, don't be afraid to express it whether political (who will occupy wall street?) or even a personal tale (my festival story).

3. Edit, edit and re-edit
I have a terrible habit of editing posts once they're published. I'd like to blame perfectionism but perhaps in one's haste to 'go live' a comma goes amiss or worse still, what should be a pointy sentence becomes an overstatement with too many words to even breathe through. Knowing people have shorter attention spans with content online, keep it direct, use videos and images.

One of my most popular posts has lots of pictures of Hunter S. Thompson and two sentences. And lets be honest, people visiting this post aren't interested in what I have to say, hell no, they want some entertaining shots that Google Images has thankfully ranked highly in their search page.

Nevertheless the point remains. Keep it pointy, yes I know I don't do that particularly well but, it seems to work.

And with that I am going to tuck in to a cuppa earl grey for a sense of nostalgia and amuse myself with my rather lame first posts written three years ago whinging to myself about the prospect of turning 24 while looking down the barrel of (gasp!) 25, as I am now, looking down the barrel of 30. A charming quote I wrote, very apt given I am now leaving Sydney:

"I say be inquisitive, relentlessly raise the bar, be charismatic, chat to strangers, pick minds and don't be afraid of change."

Doesn't time move fast?

who will occupy wall street?

With over 700 arrested over the weekend and hardly a peep from the nations mainstream media, the US Occupy Wall Street protest against the nations state of economic affairs and policy has been an interesting one to witness from the other side of the globe.

And of course, without being there how do you know what to believe? How can you make a fair assessment when your perception might be at the mercy of the voice of those who may not have your best interests at heart? Perhaps that's when the power of social media really does come in to play, because these people don't profit by sharing their story, they're giving you insight in to their world in order to empower and protect their community without the bias or perversion of a middle-body's agenda.

A perfect, somewhat disturbing, example of this can be seen below where the New York Times changed the first line of a story about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. The change subtly shifted the blame for the mass arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge from the police to the protesters. In the first version of the story, police allowed them onto the bridge and then “cut off and arrested” them. In the second, there was a “showdown” in which demonstrators “marched onto the bridge.” Adding interest, the author of the piece was changed from “Colin Moynihan” to “Al Baker and Colin Moynihan.” Who is Al Baker? He is the guy in charge of the police bureau at the Times.

via Society Page

So once again the internet has been a key enabler for organising the masses and while news portals such as CNN have kept shtum about the reality of what’s going on, people have taken the lead in becoming content producers, citizen journalists, the voices from the ground sharing livestreams, twitter updates, videos and blogs to let the rest of the country and the world know what is really going on and continue to organise further protests (there are over 60 locations around the country right now).

Some of the most upsetting footage has uploaded on to YouTube (for example, this one showing innocent female demonstrators being maced in the face by a police officer).

But there are suspicions that even the diplomacy of Twitter has been compromised (with over 1 billion tweets, how was #occupywallstreet not a trending topic?) and knowing governments are getting in to bed with social networks and mobile phone providers, one might question what side of the fence these conversation platforms are on... But people continue to be the propagators of a message they feel needs to be heard nevertheless and that message is platform agnostic so long as there's the infrastructure in place and people willing and able to listen to it.

via Laurel Papworth

And what are these people so upset about? Is there any wonder? Was it only a matter of time?

More charts on Mother Jones

A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of the US? $31,244. The economic downturn shook the many and yet benefited significantly the few.

And what will happen? In a representational democracy the government must respond to the wishes of its people. Otherwise it becomes a dictatorship. And that doesn’t sound like the ‘land of the free’ to me.

healing your body with your mind

So basically, if you believe in something that gives your life meaning, you have a better life. Why?

the power of algorithms

I recommend watching this. Twice. It's a fascinating observation on the power of algorithms and how these complex computer programs can determine espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts and architecture. Most fascinating the algorithms applied to culture such as the success and value of a movie before its even released enabled by an algorithm.

"We're writing things that we can no longer read and we've rendered something illegible and lost the sense of what's actually happening in this world we've made..."



This raises the question; is maths an art? One thing that has always fascinated me is the relationship between maths and art whether historically, culturally or cognitively.

Some of the greatest artists and architects in history certainly found their own algorithms to determine perfection (the Egyptian pyramids a fine example).



Now however these algorithms are increasingly complicated and applied to the intangible world of technological communication.

Facebook-algorithms change the way we organise our social life. Amazon-algorithms influence the way we spend our money. Google's search-algorithm decides, which content we view first (or at all) and Twitter's algorithms change the way we are informed about news. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Algorithms in hospitals change the way people are treated, path-finding algorithms change the way we plan our cities and organise traffic. Scheduling algorithms influence which subjects your child will hear when it can concentrate the best, and which it will hear, when it can concentrate the worst (I'm guessing art ironically).

The opportunities are endless which is why to understand culture, we should try to understand the algorithmic confines in which they might be influenced.

learning from the masters

One day I hope all my dabbles will converge or at least make a little more sense to me. I doubt I'll have a Bill Gates moment where my calligraphy course will lead to creating differentiation in a market leading product that will subsequently make me billions (but here's to hoping). Anyway, amongst screen writing courses, mountain climbing, documentary making, visiting Shamans, a law degree, resin jewellery course and a black belt Vipassana meditation retreat; I've always maintained and pursued an interest in photography. I think this is mainly due to my being a closet creative without a canvas or perhaps looking for a story to tell... with limited barriers to entry.

Following my second photography course last night I have delved further in to the theory and practice of good photo composition and understanding the symbiotic relationship between aperture, shutter speed and depth of field (the 'Exposure Triangle'). I'll spare the details.

What I love about photography is the planned spontaneity involved and the longevity of a beautiful moment captured. It can tell so many stories and hold meaning in so many different ways. A person who did this very well was Henri Cartier-Bresson. Here is some of his inspiring work (to classical music no less).

make a bad situation less volatile

There are a lot of things to be unhappy about in London right now, amongst a backdrop of media drownings, a struggling economy and police saying to their bellies "you're under a vest" (that was a bad joke wasn't it?) there are people who are losing their jobs, their homes and change is one thing they can be certain of.

One individual in particular is willing to look on the brighter side of a bad situation. @fern_tastic from W+K London lost her job. Rather than hiding in a cupboard and smudging mascara down her face, she decided to share a rap about redundancy to encourage her co-workers to be optimistic too.

How refreshing. Although little did she know that one of the meanies from Campaign Mag would try to rain on her parade (its one thing to pass judgement on a shit campaign and another to do so to an individual who has just lost her job and is trying to keep a smile on her face and those around her).

Their comments that it was "possibly the worst white, middle-class... embarrassingly girly rap"clearly missing the point (a concern in itself) did more to embarrass themselves than Miss Fernie T as she promptly responded inviting the challenge and remaining positively optimistic.

Go Fern! I think we all could learn from Miss Trelfa.

Full disclosure: Fern is one of my favourite people in this world.

evoking an emotional response

Alfred Hitchcock explains how to inject emotional tension into a scene. A great way of explaining how to bring a story to life by bringing your audience on the journey i.e. story-telling is more than providing the knowledge, its about creating emotion...

where do you think most of google's searches come from?

Every day, people come to Google Search to ask questions. Through Google, questions become answers, and answers lead to the next set of questions. These people come from around the world and all walks of life, speaking hundreds of different languages, typing in search queries every single day. Today Google share the Search Globe, a new visual display representing one day of Google searches around the world—visualizing the curiosity of people around the globe.

The Search Globe visualizes searches from one day, and shows the language of the majority of queries in an area in different colors. You’ll see a bright landscape of queries across Europe, and parts of Asia for instance, but unfortunately we see many fewer searches from parts of the world lacking Internet access—and often electricity as well—like Africa.

why would we think social media is revolutionary?

Check out this podcast feature from Clay Shirky's on "Why Would We Think Social Media Is Revolutionary?"

In this podcast, Shirky discusses the most recent examples of effective use of the Internet and social media to effect political change in authoritarian countries from the Green Wave protests during the 2009 Iranian presidential election to Tunisian insurgents' recent ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Learn how revolutionaries and reformers have always used the most effective communication tools to distribute their message to the masses, going as far back as the printing press. For example looking at how the equilibrium state moved to freedom of expression when the printing press evolved and the first Bibles were created and how the printing press acted as a political medium.

Shirky talks about what we can do to help promote worthy causes by paying attention to and volunteering remotely for the regions of the world you care about most. Social media is another distributer of messages and information. It's almost global and has the power to create accountability.



In the same breath it worth watching Wadah Khanfar, the head of Al Jazeera, who shares a profoundly optimistic view of what's happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and beyond - at this powerful moment when people realised they could step out of their houses and ask for change and the impact his reporters had on being present and distributing their news story to the rest of the world.

advertising buzzword bingo

Because saying them isn't fun enough.

storytelling at the heart of what we do

The Stories We Construct

View more presentations from Stephen Anderson

Great presentation. A nice reminder of the power of storytelling and understanding how these stories are translated and the value they bring when experienced.

social media me

Another one to throw in the mix (there are plenty better one's out there but I'm all for sharing). Somewhat simplified.

Bigger version there.

holy crap we're creating a democracy

Social media. Naughty countries get exposed. Naughty brands do too. Nothing new except its going to get bigger, increasingly adopted and with larger reach and more technology - people increasingly will own your brand.

UPDATE: Interesting article on the correlation of internet access and democracy

great digital goodness

Everyday we continually witness the evolution of awesome technology enabled communication. Sometimes I struggle to keep up. Which is why I've been lazy and given you a brief installment :)

Google’s Christchurch Person Finder
Technology is coming to the aid of those affected by last night's earthquake in Christchurch. Within hours of the devastating 6.3-magnitude quake, Google's "emergency response team" had set up a simple web tool to help people request and post information about missing friends and relatives. The person finder, embedded below, already has 4300 records of both missing people and those who are letting their terrified relatives know that they're safe.

Set up by New Zealand's Earthquake Commission, the simple website lets users tweet to #christchurch, or #eqnz or #ChristchurchQuake to give information about people who are trapped or where damaged buildings and even payphones are located. The site also lists reports as they come in from residents including live pictures and where working ATMs can still be found.

Oscars streamed live, for a small fee of course.
Just thought it topical to share the latest innovation from the Oscars (award show starting in one hour) check out the latest socialisation of traditional media via their live streaming of the awards ceremony, behind the scenes, twitter feeds and other bells and whistles.

HOME a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand: Something for you to watch tonight

HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. When it comes to environmental policies such as climate change legislation, land conservation, or bans on oil drilling, a grasp of the science and economics behind the issues might seem essential. But polls show that people tend to base their views on ‘gut’ feelings and personal philosophies. As we know in advertising, targeting the heart, therefore, might sway minds when numbers can't.

HOME is a carbon offset movie streaming free on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU


Kinect childrens imagination (like what I did there?)
Chris O’Shea is a Kinect Hack. He’s brought the imagination of children to life through storytelling, performance and technology in a bid to encourage children to get excited about storytelling.

Little Magic Stories from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

Very cute demonstration of creative utility.

actions speak louder than words

I have always strived to live by this adage. Its one thing to say something and its quite another thing to live your life by it. I could tell you what I’m good at but if nothing in my life demonstrates it – I’d be tripping on empty words. And so philosophically speaking, while we’re ever keen (especially it seems in the world of advertising) to blow our trumpets and shout the loudest, know that people will expect the same promises reflected in your behaviour.

 

via Edward Boches Presentation on Making Digital Work

I read an article recently which asked the question of whether the way we tackle a brand’s position should evolve in the same way that the landscape has. Taking in to account the notion of the purchase funnel turning upside down, with loyal customers being more important than prospects and the affects of social media where a brand talking about itself won’t be able to have a credible engagement with a community because essentially its consumers who own the media.

via Edward Boches Presentation on Making Digital Work

What does this mean for positioning? David A. Aaker defines Positioning as “…part of the brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and that demonstrates an advantage over competing brands.”

Building strong brands is hard these days; price competition (directly affecting the motivation to build brands), proliferation of competitors reducing specifically the positioning options available, media fragmentation plus internal pressures such as organisational bias against innovation and pressures to invest elsewhere mean that there are growing challenges in ensuring your brand is preferred.

Well with new, vigorous competition coming from various sources and even those entering different categories through brand extension strategies (such as Weight Watchers food or Dove Shampoo), new product development (think Coke providing alternatives to carbonated drinks such as bottled water and juice) and innovation, there are fewer holes in the market to exploit. These competitors not only contribute to price pressures and brand complexity, but also make it harder for brands to hold their position.

Some interesting points are made about the idea of key benefit “As products become less distinctive, benefits are more likely to reside in the brand experience than in product performance or image characteristics. Differentiation now is as likely to lie in ‘our customer service rocks’, ‘we have great apps’ or ‘we support the same causes you do’ as in better, faster or cheaper.” While I doubt product differentiation is going to lose importance and by virtue of Moore’s Law statistically impossible as we continue to innovate and I like to think, co-create culture (doesn’t that sound wanky?!) – the brand needs to behave in a way that articulates what it stands for. As Carol argues; "new strategic tools are needed to helping a brand understand how to connect with customers at an individual, human level."

To me this is the brands vision/ambition, the brands “why” we connect with our customers, its noble purpose. Behaviourally this goes beyond a one-way message, it is the expectation that brands ‘walk the talk' and position themsleves in a place that connects with the customers not just by what they say, but also what they do.

via Edward Boches Presentation on Making Digital Work

One of the first vital lessons I learned in advertising is that everything communicates and as we all know, what we say is only 10% of what we communicate. Hence, actions do speak louder than words.

bloom's taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a classification of learning objectives within education. The theory is based on the following "levels". Its an interesting concept if you consider how you may wish to communicate something based on what the expectation of response is.

Remember - Recalling the information

Understand - Explain the ideas and/or concepts

Apply - Using the newly acquired knowledge in another familiar situation

Analyse - Comparing and differentiating between constituent parts.

Evaluate - Justifying a decision or course of action

Create - Generating new new ways of creating products, ideas or ways of viewing things

Or better yet, here it is according to Pirates of the Caribbean:

being a misfit

I have just finished reading a great book called "Thinque Funky" by a funkadelic Swede named Anders Sorman-Nilsson, a futurist, a trend spotter and inspiring speaker. His book asks us to look and prepare for the future, with an understanding of what is needed to progress to the next chapter. The world of web 3.0, digilogue technology, androgynous culture and creative commons.

At the TEDx talk on Friday, Anders presented his perspective on the minds we need to evangelise this movement; the misfits. The misfits who are willing to push new thinking, who drive positive change, forward-looking innovation, and solve problems creatively, and that without them your organisation really cannot compete.

Obviously as a misfit myself, I am 100% on board, but despite my bias I welcome you to take a look for yourself at his blog and appreciate the below ;)

brand insights: just an idea

What happens when you overlay SWOT analysis with an insights chart (for want of a better name)? Something I was doodling at the cafe as I tucked in to my brunch on a lazy Sunday morning. Probably not what you should be considering over a sunny weekend, but I felt the theory warranted articulation and sharing.

Insights are obviously beyond facts or info, they are the "Sparks in the dark", "Eureka's" or "Flashes of genius" and the beauty is that when applied correctly, creating alliances across Company, Consumer, Culture and Category, you get a big fat bottom line to thank you for it.

One of the things I like about this approach is the opportunity to treat your company and your consumers as an Internal influence. Increasingly we are appreciating that consumers are your brand stakeholders as essentially a brand exists in the mind of its audience - a brand is the views, attitudes and opinions that individuals have about a company or product - so it important to recognise how a company and its customers converge. Never before has the relationship between customers and brands been so tangible.

Culture gives way for so many fabulous opportunities. We live in such a fragmented time amongst niche micro cultures, fads, fascinations, multi-cultures, technologies, movements in all directions. There's ample opportunity to pinpoint inspiring and emerging expressions and values that could be leveraged far enough to redefine a brands category (great example is the recent Tontine pillows campaign)

Lastly but not least there's Category. Perhaps wrongly or rightly associated with "Threats". You could argue that Category segmentation provides more positive opportunity but I quite like looking out for "threats". It find the opposites. And while we can better understand the 'why' behind a divers set of brands/products existing in a category, looking out for "threats" broadens the scope beyond what's on your doorstep to what may be round the corner on the other street. Its a great way of looking out for substitutes and gaps in the market while ever aware of the competition to work on ensuring your market difference and advantage.

Oh dear, I feel like a royal nerd. I should probably get out more... while I work on that, I hope the above was useful ;)