Post-pandemic workplaces 1 2 / a book about sentient lightbulbs / Kevin Kelley turned 68 and gave young people some advice / Bela Banathy’s book on changing social systems / furniture music (coined by Erik Satie) / the paper that coined and defined ‘wicked problems’ / Un Chien Andalou online / The NewYorker about Lorraine… Continue reading Sunday Scraps #4
Author: designswarm
Blogging since 2005.
The world of (inconsistent) data
I left Bulb in late April 2019 and moved on to work with a team inside ING researching how financial institutions could utilise building data to develop a new generation of sustainability-led financial services until March this year. After working with Bulb, EDF & British Gas over the past 15 years, I certainly knew plenty… Continue reading The world of (inconsistent) data
A shepherdess: 9 years at the helm of #iotlondon
In autumn 2011, I was asked by Usman to curate and organise the London Internet of Things Meetup. He was busy growing Pachube and I had just shut Tinker London the year before. Ed Borden was the Pachube evangelist and ran the first 2 or three. I got involved from November 2011 and our 100th… Continue reading A shepherdess: 9 years at the helm of #iotlondon
Prisons or domes? Notes on the role of the home under COVID-19.
I wrote a book on the history of technology in the home which came out in 2018 and six weeks into my government mandated self-isolation, I’m thinking about what I wrote. Home as a space to return to, not exist in. Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23–79) famously wrote ‘One prefers one’s home to all other… Continue reading Prisons or domes? Notes on the role of the home under COVID-19.
COVID-19 or The end of coherent action?
COVID-19 or The end of coherent action? https://washyourlyrics.com/ Anecdote 1: My downstairs neighbours have had people over for dinner on Friday. In a pandemic. Anecdote 2: A South London yoga instructor suggested we all ‘clap for carers’ and ‘millions’ of people did it at once last Thursday. I only heard about it the next day because… Continue reading COVID-19 or The end of coherent action?
Can makers help the NHS during COVID-19?
Can makers help the NHS during COVID-19? (In light of conversations with Alyssa Alabassi and her experience of front-line support of COVID-19 right now) Could we support the NHS with access to light industrial talent (design students, prop makers, fashion designers) to manufacture ‘good enough’ face shields and protection scrubs for front-line NHS staff while… Continue reading Can makers help the NHS during COVID-19?
What Anne Frank can teach us about a crisis.
I live in London and my local supermarkets seem to have run out of hand sanitiser. It’s March 2020 and in the midst of a frenzy around the 50+ cases of coronavirus in the UK, Jack Monroe writing about what to stockpile for Brexit back in November 2018 doesn’t seem like a bad idea anymore.… Continue reading What Anne Frank can teach us about a crisis.
How the internet will eat your home
How the internet will eat your home (This post will link all the threads of client work I’ve had since I wrote my book on Smart Homes. You could call this ‘the missing chapter’.) So the UK government has just announced it will start fining landlords who rent out properties that are below an E rating… Continue reading How the internet will eat your home
Turncoats: Nuclear Homes Arguments
I’m speaking at tonight’s Turncoats an evening of architecture debates. I’ve been asked to talk about the nuclear home so here are my five minutes for and five against. For: The nuclear home helps people develop a variety of skills like picking things up when they’re done with them, cook an egg for a loved… Continue reading Turncoats: Nuclear Homes Arguments
Better reading
It’s incredibly hard to read Dominic Cummings’ blog post without wondering what his everyday life must be about. What he reads, who he hangs out with, who he goes surfing/golfing with will help create a world view where Peter Thiel is a reference and machine learning can help civil service keep things ticking along for… Continue reading Better reading