Banksy in Boston: F̶O̶L̶L̶O̶W̶ ̶Y̶O̶U̶R̶ ̶D̶R̶E̶A̶M̶S̶ CANCELLED, Essex St, Chinatown, Boston shared CC by Chris Devers
It was my pleasure to be invited to seize the #ds106radio feed, and share some time with Martha and Jim’s ds106 cohorts. I was asked to talk mashups… which should theoretically have been easy. I’ve written articles and presented on mashups before… But it had been a while, I had not given the subject much thought lately, and given the jolt of fresh energy that ds106 has injected into my system the past few months, the last thing I wanted to do was rehash old material, even under the pretense of ‘remixing’ it.
Thankfully, I was able to use this event as an opportunity to call on a group of people who have profoundly influenced me in recent years with their divergent approaches to media. I am so grateful to have talked with Vicki Bennett (AKA People Like Us), Mara Balestrini, Julio Alonso, Gino Cingolani, and Tony Hirst, as they all indulged me with lengthy conversations on their respective interests and expertise. My intention is to follow up with a series of blog posts to give each of these interviews the deserved attention I could not provide in a single wide-ranging session. Each of them provoked and challenged me, opened me up to new ideas, and were absolutely ace all round.
I have the presentation outline, full and excerpted interviews, and references here. At the top of the page is the
archive of the presentation session (1 hr, 24 mins… 61 MB)
…which includes bonus bits like Jim Groom abusing his class as he introduces me, technical futzing as Skype calls fall like rain, and a follow-up chat with Tony Hirst, David Kernohan, and (briefly) Amber Thomas calling in rowdily from a pub in England at closing time.
A couple meta-notes…
I loved presenting over #ds106radio… Its lack of imposed structure opened up all sorts of aural possibilities. The difference between sharing over a web radio channel, as opposed to presentation software such as Elluminate, is roughly equivalent to using blogs and wikis instead of a learning management system. More chaotic (and yes, I lost focus a couple times, between the radio stuff and following Twitter), but way more open to unexpected possibilities.
I didn’t adequately respond to some feedback from @noiseprofessor (who provided counter-examples to my suggestion that mashup culture is not so relevant in 2011, among other great points), and @grantpotter (who kicked hard at Bruce Sterling’s assertion that “folk culture is for hicks”). We’ve talked about doing a freewheeling followup on these and other points sometime on #ds106radio on Thursday, and I hope we can.
Thanks to the #ds106 community for giving me the platform and the vibe… I learned a lot and had a blast.
