Knowledge Transfer in two directions...

I had an interesting culture clash moment recently -- looking at Urban Tapestries from two *completely* different perspectives. At 8:00 in the morning, I met up with other students of the "Reading the City" course at Goldsmiths College to walk with Prof. Michael Keith through the Brick Lane area, and hear his commentary on the rich and varied cultural histories of that neighborhood. The entire time I thought: "This is a *perfect* venue for Urban Tapestries -- how else could you portray the wild overlap of cultures that exists here??" My only nagging doubt was that UT was far too technical, upscale and ivory-tower for the average resident of the community. (as in -- who would carry PDAs around here at night -- if they could afford them?)

Then I took the tube to the DTI's Knowledge Transfer Community Seminar in Westminster, where Alice, Rachel and I were representing Urban Tapestries as part of HP's Mobile Bristol project. The difference in venues was striking -- Urban Tapestries easily had the most "street" feel of any display there! (I was also the only male not in a suit, and Alice and I were about the only ones wearing color in the room! You can see us at the back of the shots here) It made me feel that Urban Tapestries had a chance of popular acceptance, especially when compared to the "smart fridges" and other laboratory creations that were on view at the seminar.

Phil Stenton of HP's Mobile Bristol Project gave a nice presentation that included information about Urban Tapestries. It seems like what we're building is complentary to their work in Bristol.

You can check out all the presentations from the Seminar here

Posted by nick at November 17, 2003 04:27 PM