Archive for 2009
Awards 2009, facebook, i-phone app, Jeremy Kyle, JLS, Marvin, trainline
In Uncategorized on December 29, 2009 at 11:26 am
The final instalment of my awards this year is for services for entertainment new technologies.
Facebook status update of the year comes from someone I forget, but they wrote: X thinks if you give a person a fish you feed them for a day, teach a person to use facebook and they won’t bother you for weeks.
i-phone application of the year is awarded to the trainline app, for changing my life (partly due to the i-phone itself) and always making sure I know when trains to East Dulwich are running. It even runs faster than the main trainline website.
The Self-Employed Homeworkers’ Daytime TV Award goes, in this first year, to Jeremy Kyle for services to waterproof mascara and out-and-out public humiliation.
Finally, the Special Sit-ups Award is awarded this year to Marvin from JLS for keeping us smiling all year.
176, 40, Awards 2009, M4, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Pret a Manger
In Uncategorized on December 28, 2009 at 10:19 am
The second instalment of my awards for 2009, charting my best bits of the year, relates to transport and catering.
Motorway of the year has to go to the M4 for always being clear and for having lots of service stations with M&S food outlets. Always a pleasure when you’re on the move.
Bus of the year – the 176 is always a high contender for its regularity and 24-hour service, but this year it was just pipped at the post by the 40. This route had a new fleet of vehicles in 2009, making it smell a lot less like fried chicken.
Sandwich of the year has to go to Pret a Manger’s Crayfish and Rocket sandwich which, even though it has 370 calories, is a quite a treat on any day.
The inaugural Ruining Christmas Eating Award goes to Morrisons supermarket who have placed adverts this year featuring their festive Wensleydale with apricot and amaretto. Who on earth thought that was a good idea? That said, they did go some way to re-establishing their brand with me when they launched their online cheeseboard creator. Try it out!
2009 awards, Antwerp Fashion Museum, Delvaux, Popova, Rodchenko, SS Great Britain, Tate Modern
In Uncategorized on December 27, 2009 at 12:11 pm
It’s the time of year for award ceremonies, so I’m instigating here the inaugural, annual awards from Steve Slack HQ. 2009 has been a great year for museum visits. Here are my highlights
Museum visit of the year is awarded to SS Great Britain in Bristol for their excellent interpretation and choice of audio guides – visitors can choose whether to listen to the perspective of a first class passenger, someone travelling in steerage or the ship’s cat.
Exhibition of the year goes to the futurist show Rodchenko and Popova at Tate Modern. I’m not always a fan of TM shows, but this one really did it for me, with some excellent pieces being gathered from far and wide for the display. And great exhibition branding too, which really fit with the show’s concept.
Interpretive device of the year goes to the Antwerp Fashion Museum for their exhibition on Belgian handbag design house Delvaux. I particularly liked the display of how to make a handbag, and also some great mock-ups of advertising and promotional material from the last 150 years. I blogged about it here.
East Dulwich, Christmas shopping, online retail
In Dulwich OnView on December 11, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Argh, I’ve left all my Christmas shopping too late again! With the postal system up the spout, if I order anything online now I’m not going to be guaranteed to receive it before I’m supposed to start handing out presents.
I’m going to have to shop locally. Here’s a piece which went live this morning on Dulwich OnView, about where I’ll be sourcing some unique and creative gifts. And by shopping nearby I’m helping to support the local economy.
Full of Christmas cheer now.
happiness, Thought for the Day, BBC Radio 4, Anne Atkins, sorrow, depression, Young Foundation, Oscar Wilde
In happiness, what i'm reading on December 9, 2009 at 10:55 am
Anne Atkins’ Thought for the Day yesterday morning reflected on the Young Foundation’s report into the psychological needs of people in Britain today – Sinking and Swimming: understanding Britain’s unmet needs, which dwells on the nature of depression.
We know a great deal more about depression than we used to. It’s an illness – some people get it and some people don’t. In many cases it’s treatable and there are tremendous success stories in how, as a society, we are dealing with it. Still, it’s now reckoned that 1 in 4 of us will experience depression of some sort during our lives. I find that a rather shocking statistic, and a very sobering one when I’m presently dwelling on what makes us happy, not what makes us unhappy.
Through my research into the nature of happiness and from talking to lots of people about what makes them tick it has become clear to me that, for many, the only way to truly understand what makes us happy is to to understand what makes us unhappy.
Anne Atkins thinks she knows where the root of this unhappiness lies in the very nature of society itself. She says:
“Depression is linked to two objective factors: relationships, and material well-being. As society becomes more fractured so we become more wretched. And the greater the disparity grows between rich and poor, the more dejected we become. The way to happiness would seem clear, if not easy. Better relationships and a fairer world.”While acknowledging that the theraputic treatments available for those who are depressed are valid, she seems to suggest that people just need to man up and get over their depression. That tears are good for us sometimes and, as I suggest here, the happier moments in life have to go hand in hand with the unhappier ones. But I think she’s confusing unhappiness (a state of mind for many) with depression (an illness). She’s surely getting confused when she suggests that to get over depression, all you need do is find happiness. I’m no expert on the subject, but I’m pretty sure it’s more complicated that than.
She quotes Oscar Wilde: “Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.” Depression is much more than sorrow, more than feeling down or simply being unhappy. It’s a chemical inbalance that affects an entire person. Unhappiness and depression are different beasts.
Of course, Thought for the Day is a moment of religious contemplation and yesterday’s speaker seems to suggest that looking forward to a time when there will no longer be any sorrow (I assume she means the end of time for Judeo-Christians) we will have something positive to focus on.
I really don’t agree with her conclusions. You can read the full transcript of what she said on the BBC website.
audio tour, British Museum, i-phone, multimedia guide, random access
In Museums on December 9, 2009 at 9:46 am
The British Museum’s new multimedia guide has gone live with the public. It’s a random access tour, which means visitors choose which objects they want to learn about as they wander the Museum, rather than following a set tour. Although there are some short tours on there, if that’s what you’d like to do.
I’m particularly excited as I have written just over half of the content for the guide. It’s like a conventional audio guide to a museum, but in addition to a sound only tour, visitors also receive a handset with a screen on it – about the size of an i-phone. At various points around the Museum, the guide will refer you to an image or some moving footage on the the screen.
One of the golden rules of writing audio material for museum guides is not to refer to something that isn’t there. There’s no point saying:
‘There’s a vase similar to this one in the Louvre in Paris, with a thicker base’.
What you can say is:
‘Take a look at your screen now and you’ll see a vase, similar to this one, from the collection of the Louvre in Paris. Can you see how the shape is slightly different at the bottom? That’s because….’
This added freedom meant the guide was great fun to write. The handset comes with a stylus, so I could even direct visitors to little interactive games and give them a variety of different commentaries from which to choose.
It seems like ages since I finished writing the content for the guide, but that’s because since my job finished there’s been a lot of other people involved. Aside from checking and editing my scripts, and translating the final text of over 200 commentaries into ten languages (yikes!) the Museum’s staff have also had to program all the interactive and multimedia elements into the handsets.
Yesterday the multimedia guide underwent the ultimate litmus test – my mother took the guide and, after a while of figuring out how the interactive map works, found it quite straightforward to use. And she seemed pretty impressed with the multimedia elements.
Now we’ll just have to wait and see what the public think! Do let me know if you’ve used it, and what you think of it.
Antwerp Fashion Museum, Belgium, Delvaux, handbags
In Museums on November 25, 2009 at 8:08 am
Saw a great exhibition this weekend at the Antwerp Fashion Museum all about the Delvaux fashion house, Belgium’s leading manufacturer of luxury handbags. I know, handbags, who’s interested in that, right?
It was actually a really cleverly thought through exhibition with a great design, which allowed visitors to wander through the history of the company at their leisure. I saw just as many ladies gawping at the bags as I did chaps looking intently at the striking design of the space (and the photos of pretty models). And it was about much more than just bags – the way in which fashion has responded to changes in the way we travel, technology, surrealism, with changing materials. And even how branding and advertising have morphed over time, yet still staying true to the principles of the founders of the company.
Charles Delvaux owned a luxury travel goods business in Brussels (founded 1829, the year before the revolution which led to Belgian independence and thus older than Belgium itself!). Over the last 180 years they have gone on to produce travel goods – most famously bags – of incredibly high quality.
The exhibition used one of my favourite interpretive devices – the timeline – to great effect, placing key handbags in line with the development of the company.
And here’s a great way of displaying all the individual components which need to be individually cut to make one simple-looking bag.
The show gave me not only a sense of how these bags are made and the respect Belgians have for the brand (the royal family carry them) but also of the way a design house has interacted with European design history since the early 19th century. Well worth a visit.
(Open until Feb 2010, Entry €6.)
92-95FM, BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House, happiness
In happiness on November 12, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I always delight in listening to Broadcasting House on Radio 4 – on the Sundays when I’m up at 9am. Or on the podcast.
This week, they are apparently going to be talking about happiness.
They say: “Massive wins on the lottery, or divine views of land with loamy soil for the self-sufficient, or a soul mate by the sea? We’ve a rare insight into a sixty year study in the USA which has been devoted to discover what makes us happy. The answer might shock.”
What can they mean? I’ll be tuning in at 9am on Sunday 15 November. BBC Radio 4: 92-95 FM.
Bodleian, New Bodleian, Swindon, University of Oxford
In Museum [Insider], new content on November 2, 2009 at 3:09 pm
The New Bodleian Library, part of the University of Oxford, isn’t that new. But it’s about to have a revamp. They are in the process of reworking the buildings which holds the special collections of the library – it’s going to be beautiful when it’s done.
And the sheer number of books being added to the giant collections of the Bodleian means they’re very nearly out of space in the city centre. So the University is building a high-density storage facility just outside Swindon – not too far away, so that books can be ferried back to the academic reading rooms pretty swiftly.
There’s a piece about the redevelopment of the Bodleian live now on Museum [Insider].
Angola State Penitentiary, happiness, Russell Brand, stand up
In happiness on October 28, 2009 at 10:11 am
One of the things I’m really enjoying about my research project into the nature of happiness and what it means to us today is that everyone has got something to say about it. Some of what people say about it might be seen academic and high-brow – and the idea is that my book will contain some of that kind of content. But it’s such an emotive topic that there are also some really personal and straightforward responses to the question ‘what makes us happy?’.
It’s a huge topic, and everyone has got something to say about it. That’s why I’m trying to interview people from as diverse a background as possible.
It appears even Russell Brand wants in on the subject. His latest stand up set is called Russell on Happiness and recalls some of his recent experiences of staying in Angola State Penitentiary. Apparently in these shows he’ll be interacting with the audience as he shares his thoughts on the subject, which will be filmed for an ongoing documentary project.
I wonder what the documentary is all about. Will have to investigate …
Dulwich Picture Gallery, quiz
In Dulwich OnView, Museums, new content on October 27, 2009 at 9:32 am
It’s that time of year again when Dulwich Picture Gallery gets ready for the annual Gallery Quiz. Teams of six compete in the grand setting of the Gallery – surrounded by beautiful paintings in the famous enfillade – and see their scores projected onto a large screen at the end of the Gallery. There’s a piece promoting the quiz live on Dulwich OnView today.
Design Museum, local authority, Museum [Insider], planning permission, relocation
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on October 26, 2009 at 11:07 am
I’ve been writing quite a few pieces for the online magazine Museum [Insider]. The articles are usually about huge development projects taking place in the heritage sector – often around the construction or renovation of museum buildings. Museum [Insider] tries to get the inside word on what’s going on and give its readers an edge in the competitive world of tenders and contracts.
Some trends have started to become apparent in the way in which some of these projects are managed. Something that has struck me of late is the way many ambitious building projects don’t get planning permission approved when they are first submitted to their local authority. Someone always comes along and voices opposition to the scheme. But after a small redesign and resubmission, the plans often get waved through.
It’s happened quite a few times on various different projects. I’ve picked it up and explained my theory on how it happens in the most recent article about the plans behind the relocation of the Design Museum’s headquarters.
Ancient Europe, Bonnie Greer, Nick Griffin, Question Time
In Museums on October 23, 2009 at 11:16 am
Last night’s Question Time on BBC1 caused quite a stir, primarily because of the presence of Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party on the panel. He is an odious man and managed to show himself to be the complete and utter fool everyone knows him as, on national television. I’m pleased the BBC allowed him to be on the show. Giving him the chance to spout his nonsense in a primetime public arena, means we can all now openly criticise him for not only being misguided, but also wrong and stupid.
It was great to see Bonnie Greer on the panel as well. And well done to her for recommending that Griffin visit the British Museum to brush up on his ancient history. Watch the video of Bonnie putting Nick Griffin right on his history.
I worked on the interpretation for the Ancient Europe Gallery (Room 51) at the BM, to which Bonnie Greer referred. Do pop along and see the display if you’re interested. We used a moving map to show the migration of settlers onto the UK mainland after the last Ice Age. And there are objects in the display from the first hunter-gatherers and famers who inhabited Britain. Perhaps you’ll spot Griffin in there, brushing up on the history of migrating peoples.
Ashmolean, Barbican, British Museum, Bunker, Exquisite Bodies, Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill, HMS Belfast, Life at Sea, Moctezuma, Modern Art Oxford, Museum of Natural History, Pitt Rivers Museum, Power of Dogu, Revolution on Paper, Tower of London, Wellcome Collection
In Museums on October 22, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Phew, it’s been a bit of a hectic week for museum-visiting Steve.
I’ve been working hard, honest, but in the last seven days I’ve managed to visit:
The Wellcome Collection to see Exquisite Bodies, an exhibition about 19th-century anatomical models, some of which were pretty gruesome and explicit. But a good show, now sadly closed.
Bunker exhibition at the Barbican Centre. It’s an imaginary WW2-esque bunker (of indeterminate location) where visitors are free to wander the network of rooms, filled with props, dust and a working underground postal train!
The British Museum to see their Power of Dogu exhibition – a lovely group of ancient objects from Japan which haven’t really been displayed before in this country. Great interpretation (well done Claire E.)
The Life at Sea exhibition on board HMS Belfast, which gets people of all ages imagining they’re in the Navy.
The British Library for their great interactive sound exhibition about 20th-century speeches, called The Sound and the Fury. And I can’t resist a visit to Magna Carta whenever I’m there too. As the Americans would say, it’s just so old. And it’s important too.
A behind-the-scenes look at the new Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which opens on 7 November. I’ve been working with them over the last month, writing the new audio tour for the museum. It’s looking fab back there – such a creative and well thought out museum space. While in Oxford I checked out an old favourite – the Museum of Natural History and the recently re-opened Pitt Rivers Museum, which looks much the same but is greatly improved in terms of getting round the building. Yes, I saw the shrunken heads. Yes, they’re still really cool.
Also in Oxford I made a trip to Modern Art Oxford to see the Karla Black exhibition. When I look at modern art I generally don’t like to say ‘I could’ve done that’. It’s a rather crude and simplistic assessment of someone’s work. But sherbert on the floor and a giant condom full of custard really don’t do it for me.
Yesterday I was at the Tower of London to see the crown jewels, beefeaters, ravens etc. And also to see Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill in the White Tower. It’s not been made by HRP, but by the Royal Armouries. And it shows. There’s some great film of shiny armour and clashing swords. Real Tudor video and everything.
And this morning I put my nose around Moctezuma at the British Museum. It’s got some fab objects never seen before outside Mexico, and a real twist in the tale – hard to achieve in a narrative museum exhibition. The BM also opened another Mexican-inspired - Revolution on Paper, which features some really striking posters and political art (along with other things which inspire me less.) I always marvel at the size and breadth of the BM’s prints and drawings collection. It’s just huge.
I think I might need a period when I don’t visit any exhibitions. I’ve definitely got museum fatigue!
audience consultation, British Library, Points of View
In Museums on October 19, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I’ve just started a really interesting piece of work with the British Library. They have two spaces at the St Pancras site which they use for temporary exhibitions. They have plenty of ideas about what they want to put on in that space – almost too many, in fact. So, I’m going to be working with them to them decide which ones to run with. I’m going to be running some interviews with members of the public and also chairing some focus groups for them, with targetted audiences, analysing visitors’ initial reactions to the exhibition ideas and trying to gauge whether there is a ‘market’ for some of their ideas more than others.
It’s going to be happening throughout November, so I’ll be spending a lot of time in their lovely building. And probably their cafe too!
They have a lovely looking photography exhibition opening next week called Points of View.
A344, English Heritage, National Trust, Stonehenge, Wiltshire Council
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on October 15, 2009 at 11:05 am
In many ways, I don’t want to get started on Stonehenge. It’s been a long, hard struggle for the many organisations involved, but after nearly twenty years of wrangling and non-decision making it looks like English Heritage and their partner organisations (such as the National Trust) are ready to move forward with Stonehenge.
Years ago, it was agreed by the many stakeholders that the A344 road should not pass so closely to the stones for reasons of conservation. It’s been a long time in the planning, but everyone has now agreed that the road will be moved and how visitors will interact with the stones there. Plans submitted to Wiltshire Council now indicate a bespoke visitor centre, set into the hillside, 1.5 miles from the stone circle. There visitors will be able to learn about the historic landscape in which Stonehenge sits – it’s huge and stretches for miles – and then get into road trains which take them up to the stones.
The reason it’s taken so long os that there have been so many people involved in the decision-making process. Plus, with changing governments who see it as more or less of a priority than their predecessors, it’s been difficult to get any real leadership.
Everyone is now hoping that the plans are passed by Wiltshire Council. They will, of course, be undertaking their own consultation on the plans. But if they get the go-ahead, the visitor centre could be open in time for the Olympics.
There’s a piece analysing the plans and giving more context to the Stonehenge debacle on Museum [Insider].
Dulwich OnView, Dulwich Picture Gallery, online writing
In Dulwich OnView, Museums on October 12, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I’ve had a great day today, working with Dulwich Picture Gallery and a couple of local schools. The Gallery are running a project which sees sixth-formers from two schools coming together to create a local online magazine about cultural life in the area. There’s an arts focus of course – it’s being paid for by an art gallery – but it’s thought that it will reflect more than just DPG.
They are using the free software from WordPress we use for Dulwich OnView and which I also use for this site.
I taught a session about online writing – how that differs from writing for traditional media and some helpful hints about writing in the world of the blogosphere. We’ll be following their progress on Dulwich OnView. Their magazine is due to go live in about a month of so.
arts quarter, Great Yarmouth, St Geroge's Chapel, theatre
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on October 1, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Great Yarmouth is working on a really exciting project to turn a listed, but ignored, church building in the town centre into the hub of a new cultural quarter. It’s going to be turned into a theatre space, which will hopefully attract visiting production companies. They have big money for it, and big aims too. They also intend to renovate other lsited buildings in the area and get loads of arts organisations to move in.
Exciting times. There’s an article about the renovation of St George’s Chapel on Museum [Insider].
In Museum [Insider], Museums, happiness, new content on September 30, 2009 at 1:01 pm
So, it’s six months today since I left full-time employment and went it alone as a freelance writer. What have I achieved and what will the next six months have in store?
I’ve realised that I know a lot of things now I didn’t know in April. And they aren’t things I necessarily expected to learn as I went along. That’s what’s been so much fun about this lifestyle I’ve chosen for myself – things change, work (paid and unpaid) comes along and networking is still as important as ever. And the nature of writing for the web is continually evolving as well – new technologies and tools come along. I didn’t even know what twitter was six months ago!
The great thing about publishing quite a lot of online material is that I’ve been able to see the results of my work pretty much instantly, and I’ve also been able to solicit feedback from others about what I’ve been writing. Other projects are yet to be published, but will come into the public domain in the next few months.
A quick summary of my first six months as a real writer:
I co-authored the content for the British Museum’s new multimedia guide (like an audio guide but with pictures, video and interactive games). I also wrote an audio-described tour of the Parthenon galleries at the BM for visually impaired visitors. Both of these will go live in December 2009.
For the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, I’m writing a new audio tour for the entire museum. That’s a work-in-progress at the moment, but I need to move fast on it as it opens to the public in late November 2009.
A lot of web articles have appeared all over the place. I wrote 23 features articles for Museum [Insider], the online magazine for suppliers to the heritage sector in the UK. There were also 14 new articles for Dulwich OnView, an online magazine about life in and around south London. And using this website as a promotions tool, I’ve created exactly 100 posts – the latest one just this morning.
There were a few random pieces of work as well. I’ve written content for a local film-maker’s website; edited text for the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery website; scribed some pieces for an international travel blog; chaired a strategic direction workshop for Kingswood House and even edited an academic conference paper on the nature of discipleship amongst the evangelical Christian movement in the UK!
I continued work on my ongoing research project into the nature of happiness and what it means to us today. It’s had to take a bit of a back seat for the moment while I focus on paid work, but the idea is to start firing a book proposal off to publishers in the near future. My research notes find their way on to this website every so often.
Up next, I’m going to be doing some consultancy for a large heritage venue in London – secret as yet, but news coming soon. I’ll be soliciting responses from their visitors about ideas for potential future exhibitions. The regular pieces for M[I] and DOV will continue as well as some happiness research and there’s some more audio writing in the pipeline. And I’m going to teach a workshop on online wrting for a local school.
What will the next six months yield? Will I have a book deal? Will more people read me?
Who knows, but I’m certainly having a ball right now.
King's College London, museum studies, Musum of Jurassic Technology
In Museums, what i'm reading on September 30, 2009 at 10:21 am
We had a great meeting of the King’s College London museums reading group yesterday. It’s a forum where academics working in social aspects of museums studies – and educational theory – get together with professionals from the museum sector and discuss the latest papers relating to our work and research. We take a different topic each time – this latest gathering was devoted to four studies of motivations amongst museum visitors.
We read:
The effect of visitors’ agenda on museum learning (Falk, Moussouri, Coulson, 1998) – still one of the most quoted papers on motivational theory. Breaks down the idea that education and entertainment are not indeed opposite ends of the visiting spectrum, but are actually continua which run in parallel.
Motivational factors and the visitor experience: a comparison of three sites (Packer, Ballantyne, 2002) – an Australian study which moves on to the next step and calls for ‘a common theoretical foundation for interpretation in museum other informal learning settings’.
Personality and motivation in visitor satisfaction (Yalowitzm 2002) – a PhD summary comparing cognitive and sensory needs and experiences in three Coloardo visitor attractions.
Accessing and incorporating visitors’ entrance narratives enchances guided museum tours (Tsybluskaya, Dodick, Camhi, 2009) – a great piece of research looking at getting museums visitors talking about a subject before they encounter it, in order that a guided tour might dwell on their expectations.
We talked around these and other pieces of research and ended up looking at examples of museum practice which take us out of our comfort zone – which challenge not only our motivations, but also our expectations of a visit. I’m so pleased we got to discuss the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, a long time favourite of mine where the very notion of a museum is broken down. I’ve flicked through the guide book again this morning and I still don’t really understand what it’s all about. It’s just brilliant.
Sue King, Mel McCleary, Jeannie Avent Gallery, East Dulwich
In Dulwich OnView, new content on September 25, 2009 at 11:53 am
I’ve just written another piece about my neighbour Sue King, a glass artist.
She and another neighbour from my street, Mel McCleary - a textile artist – are putting on a joint exhibition at the Jeannie Avent Gallery in East Dulwich, starting next week. The show is called ZEST and is reflective of their love of bold colours and striking designs. There are some images and more details about their artistic background in the article on Dulwich OnView, which went live this morning.
Henry W Pollard and Sons, Museum of Somerset, Taunton Castle
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on September 24, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Building works are well underway at Taunton Castle, where the Museum of Somerset will find it’s new home in early 2011.
They’re using a local builder called Henry W Pollard and Sons. While working on the project, renovating the Great Hall, buolding workers discovered a piece of graffiti from the last time the building was tended to in 1934. It turns out, Pollard was the contractor then as well, so the firm is now looking back into its archives to see if they can identify who it was. What will they find on the site in another hundred years, I wonder.
There’s a piece about the development project at the Museum of Somerset and deails of the architects, designers and contracts coming up there on Museum [Insider].
Dulwich OnView, Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery
In Dulwich OnView, Museums, new content on September 18, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I’ve been working the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery for about seven years, helping them to slowly broaden the appeal of the Gallery and to widen the demographic of the membership. We’ve been running different types of events and trying to create an image of the Gallery that is less stuffy and traditional than most people might initially think. Numbers are up and the kind of people visiting the Gallery is slowly starting to change. I’m not saying we’ve reinvented the wheel there, but we’ve been taking baby steps.
One of the ways of getting the message out has been the community online magazine Dulwich OnView, for who I write regular articles about life in and around south London.
I also recently helped them to rewrite some of the content for the Friends’ online presence on the Gallery site. It’s all online on the Dulwich Picture Gallery website.
new museum, Southampton, Titanic
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on September 13, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Southampton City Council are to build a new museum on the site of their present magistrates court and police station which will tell the story of the city’s maritime and naval history. But rather than dwelling on the comings and goings of ships and boats over the centuries, the story will be dominated by the ill-fated ship, Titanic. Many of the souls lost at sea on the ship were staff and crew members from Southampton, a fact sometimes overlooked when interpreting the story. A similar exhibition, with private money, is also being planned in Belfast, where the ship was built.
There’s a piece about the planned museum and news of who’s working on the project on Museum [Insider].
Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Repetory Theatre, brown roof, Library of Birmingham
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on September 10, 2009 at 8:39 am
I published an article about Birmingham’s new library, set to open in 2013. It’s going to be huge – utterly enormous.
Set on Centenary Square in the middle of the city – the site of much regeneration work of late – the new nine-storey library will share a building with the Birmingham Repetory Theatre. There’ll be an amphitheare out the front and the top of the building is a ‘brown roof’ which means it’s covered in plenty of living things to attract other living things to live there.
If it gets the go-ahead from Birmingham City Council (it should do – they are the client after all) it will become the second most expensive heritage building project in the country, next to Tate Modern’s extension. If it all goes ahead, I’d even consider a trip to Birmingham to have a nosy!
British Film Institute, Inglorious Basterds, national Film Collection, nitrate-based film, Quentin Tarantino
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on September 3, 2009 at 10:27 am
The British Film Institute is building a new film storage facility to house the National Film Collection. It’s a high-tech building keeping the nitrate-based film at low temperatures and humidity.
If you’ve seen the movie Inglorious Basterds (saw it yesterday and very much enjoyed it, despite Quentin Tarantino’s messing with history) then you’ll know that the film is highly combustable – some of the characters conspire to blow up a cinema full of Nazis by setting fire to a pile of nitrate film.
There’s a piece about the companies involved in the archive building project on Museum [Insider].
Heritage Lottery Fund, Hugh Broughton, Maidstone Museum
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on August 26, 2009 at 8:50 am
You might not think it, but Maidstone is a hotbed of cultural funding.
The town has had 53 grants to date from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which have seen over £8.4 million invested there. And now they are asking for more, for a huge redevelopment of Maidstone Museum. Fair play to them, I say – the money is there for the taking (after a long and complicated application process) so good luck to them.
The designs look great – the usual swathes of glass and steel, but sensitively balanced with the charming exisiting red brick building. and they plan to uncover previously unseen Tudor walls inside the building. It’s all been designed by Hugh Broughton architects, who are a small, but award-winning practice.
They are due to hear back from the HLF in September about their current application, which is detailed in my recent article on Museum [Insider].
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gail Gosschalk, Sue King, Nic Webb, swamp cypress, spoons, Ikea, Habitat, flat-pack furniture
In Dulwich OnView, happiness, new content on August 25, 2009 at 8:08 am
A few weeks ago I went to Peckham to meet a craft artist called Nic Webb.
He’s been working recently with a huge pile of wood from Dulwich Picture Gallery. The swamp cypress tree there was cut down last year because it was sick. He’s been turning the wood into, wait for it, spoons. So off I trundled to meet the spoon man. And here’s the result – an article on Dulwich OnView.
These aren’t any ordinary spoons. They’re beautifully crafted pieces, all very individual. Meeting Nic was a wake up call to the power of the craft maker movement in London at the moment. He spoke about how the design for each spoon is led by the natural shapes and patterns in the wood – there’s no one design he works toward. Each piece is an individual.
We’re bored nowadays of having mass-produced rubbish in our homes from Habitat. Let’s go back to having hand-crafted, beautiful objects with some integrity. And let’s get to know the people who make these things for us – craftsmen, designers and makers all have great stories behind them and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know some of them of late. I wrote pieces recently about glass designer Sue King and local artist Gail Gosschalk.
I think there’s a bit of an overlap with my happiness project. I suggest we’d all be happier if we fill our homes with objects that have some integrity to them, rather than flat pack furniture and cheap crap from Ikea. Of course, that’s easier said than done – hand-crafted items are usually comparatively expensive. But meeting Nic and talking with him about his work certainly made me appreciate the power of the craftsman once again and I believe it’s a movement worth supporting.
I’m going to look for craft artists to include in the happiness project. Let me know if you have any good suggestions.
Barack Obama, blogs, Journal of Happiness Studies, Mondays, the guardian
In happiness, what i'm reading on August 24, 2009 at 9:45 am
It turns out that Mondays aren’t that bad after all. In fact, they’re the second happiest day of the week.
This piece in The Guardian reports a really interesting piece of research – a long-term study of the content of blogs and their relation to collective happiness. They trawled through a load of content and analysed how ‘happy’ people were by what they were writing. Words like joy, happiness and fun got put in one bracket, while words like sad, boring and loss went in another. And then they looked at not only who was happiest, but when we are happiest.
There are countless ways of measuring happiness, all of which have their flaws, but this seems like a clever way of indicating happiness on a global scale.
According to this methodology, Obama’s first day in office was the happiest for the world in a while. Interesting stuff. It’s all reported in full in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
Lordship Lane, Herne Hill, Breakspeare, Champion Hill, Gipsy Hill
In Dulwich OnView, new content on August 23, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I just found some more stories behind local place names in south London. There’s a piece about them on Dulwich OnView.
Do take a read of the article if you’ve ever wondered where the names Lordship Lane, Herne Hill, Breakspeare, Champion Hill or Gipsy Hill come from.
Christianity, disciple, evangelicalism, freelancer, guru, pastor, www.guru.com
In Uncategorized on August 20, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I’ve just had a bit of a diversion from normal writing service. I’ve spent most of this week editing a conference paper. It’s by an evangelical pastor who basically ran out of time and steam and wanted me to knock it into shape for him - so it was a creative editorial job, basically.
It’s a really inrersting topic. He spent some time discussing the nature of ‘discipleship’ – i.e. following in the footsteps of the disciples of Jesus Christ. He then wrote to 150 evangelical pastors in the UK and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about how they see discipleship in terms of their ministry in their churches. The results are actually quite surprising. The author was showing that there’s a tension within evangelicalist movements at the moment. Should the main aim of such ‘seeker’ churches be getting as many people as possible to convert to Christianity, or is it more about getting ‘good’ Christians who really understand what they’re believing? Is it a numbers game or a project of spiritual enrichment and development? Which is more important – quantity or quality?
The author of the paper suggests that there need to be some changes in the way such churches operate and, while he’s fully committed to the principles of evangelism, recommends some pretty major reforms for the church.
I got this piece of work through guru.com, the free online service marketplace for freelancers. If you’ve got a trade and you want to show yourself to the world, then get yourself on there. And if you’ve got a piece of work you need doing, then stick it on there and see who bids.
Or if it’s a writing/editing job, give me a call!
new exhibition galleries, triforium, visitor experience, Westminster Abbey
In Museum [Insider], new content on August 17, 2009 at 1:01 pm
There’s a large piece of consultation going on at the moment about proposed plans for an overhaul of the visitor experience at Westminster Abbey. They’re planning to update the visitor facilities and overhaul their education service (like everyone else does).
But there are also exciting ideas around about new exhibition galleries high up in the building, in a presently unused area called the triforium. And they’re even thinking about adding a domed top to the building which, they say, isn’t techincally finished yet.
As always, there’s a piece all about these plans on Museum [Insider].
happiness, happy thoughts, memory, Richard Wiseman, yesterday
In happiness on August 12, 2009 at 10:09 am
Research shows that simply thinking about one event that went well in your life the previous day can improve your happiness levels instantly.
Try it. Just think back to yesterday and remember something that went well. It can be quite simple – seeing friends, a good cup of coffee, reading a good blog, or just the weather.
Pyschologist and quirky mind stuff man Richard Wiseman has been writing about this on his blog at the same time as running his ongoing happiness experiment. It makes for really interesting reading. There’s a short video on his site encouraging us to think about nice things that happened yesterday.
Do you feel any better now?
In Uncategorized on August 8, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Lincoln Castle is due to put in a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a major renovation of the castle buildings. At present Lincolnshire Crown Court shares the building with a visitor attraction, but the two are not natural bedfellows. When high profile cases are being heard, visitors to the castle are greeted with added security patrolling the building and a throng of media presence – not the greatest visitor experience.
Once the court has been relocated to a new building in Lincoln, the plan is overhaul the visitor experience. The castle holds one of the only four remaining copies of Magna Carta, which was signed in 1215. So, the plan is to revamp the museum in time for 2015 and a spectacular 700th anniversary re-display.
As always, there’s an article about it on Museum [Insider].
beansprouts, happiness, itsu, marketing
In happiness on August 3, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I find it quite hard to wander the streets of London and not leap for my camera every time I see the H-word.
I was walking past itsu the other day, the healthy food outlet in the centre of London, inspired by Japanese cuisine. Their motto is health and happiness. A catchy strapline, I thought.
On closer inspection of their website, I discovered that their marketing claims:
health – because itsu food is light, full of goodness & won’t make you fat
happiness – because it tastes amazing. You can eat lots without guilt, sorrow and pain.
Hang on a minute. So, itsu food in itself won’t actually make me happy? It’ll just make me not experience guilt, sorrow or pain.
Hmmmm. I don’t really buy this argument. Firstly, I’m not sure whether we’ve actually bottomed out that whole ‘absence of pain is pleasure’ issue. And secondly, there is a certain amount of pain in buying lunch in itsu, as it’s so incredibly overpriced.
Clever marketing, but I’m yet to be convinced that eating a bowl of beansprouts for £7 is going to make me happy. Well done for trying though.
But it does reinforce the fact that happiness is an excellent marketing tool.
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, happiness, Mr Micawber
In happiness, what i'm reading on July 29, 2009 at 8:57 am
The character Mr Micawber in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield is a good source of quotes on the subject of happiness. In the novel, Micawber, an eternal optomist in the employ of Uriah Heep, is repeatedly convinced that ‘something will turn up’. His name is, therefore, used to refer to someone who lives in constant expectation of a better life.
For example, in chapter 11, he says: ‘I have no doubt I shall, please Heaven, begin to be more beforehand with the world, and to live in a perfectly new manner, if -if, in short, anything turns up.’
A Dickens quote has even given rise to the ‘Micawber Principle’, based on the character’s following observation:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six. Result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six. Result misery.”
2006 international happiness survey, Copenhagen, Denmark, egalitarian, equality, happiness, James Naughtie, Radio 4, social capital, social care, Today programme
In happiness on July 28, 2009 at 12:01 pm
We’ve known for quite some while that the Danes are the happiest people on the planet. The 2006 international happiness survey confirmed it. There were a couple of pieces about it last week on Radio 4.
This article on the Today programme on Friday 24 July 09 explains why James Naughtie thinks the Danish people are so happy after a visit to Copenhagen.
Here’s a quick summary of what he found out. The Danes are so happy becuase they have:
- a comparatively small difference between high and low incomes.
- greater gender equality with very few ‘home-makers’ or ‘housewives’.
- social care from cradle to grave – childcare from six months; healthcare provision that means people don’t need private treatment; free universities etc.
- a sense of modesty about their equality, but also about their happiness (which is an unthreatening value about which to brag).
- a sense of ‘social capital’. And that the government values the happiness, health and well-being of the people.
- an inclusive business atmosphere where everyone’s opinion is heard, from the MD to the tea-boy.
- a sense of community where there is a core of society in which everyone feels proud.
It’s this last one that appears to be somewhat of a challenge for Denmark today. Danes have begun to realise that their egalitarian principles are not necessarily a simple sense of equality for all, but are tied in with ideas about how similar they all are as a nation – a sense of pride in ‘Danish-ness’. Is that ever likely to be eroded in a world where the composition of populations becomes more and more like a patchwork quilt?
It’s not to say that immigration into Denmark is a potential threat to that pride in common Danish values, but that’s because there is perhaps an expectation that people moving into Denmark are supposed to integrate and become part of the common denominator.
So, they have a clean, handsome, polished and contented country. But perhaps that’s because they are a country that wants to protect their happy state. They have some of the highest taxation in the world (most people pay over 50% tax), and as long as they see their services being delivered and their happiness continuing, they are sure to pay their fair way.
But will it be preserved into the future?
We’ll keep an eye on the Danes and see if they’re as happy next time they measure international happiness.
British Museum, UAE, Zayed National MUseum, Sheikh Zayed, Louvre, Guggenheim, Bedford Museum, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on July 28, 2009 at 10:33 am
News broke this weekend that the British Museum is to work on a new museum for the United Arab Emirates. Saadiyat Island, a natural island along the coast of Abu Dhabi, will be home to the new Zayed National Museum, which will reflect the life and achievements of Sheikh Zayed (1918-2004) – a major player in the establishment of the federated UAE.
Unlike the Louvre and Guggenheim projects currently underway on the island, this will not be an outpost of the British Museum, rather a partnership project delivered in conjunction with the museum. The BM is acting in an advisory role as a consultant. There’s an article about the new Zayed National Museum on Museum [Insider].
I also had a piece published there last week about the work taking place in Bedford City centre as they begin an HLF-phase 1 project to link Bedford Museum with its neighbour the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery.
Queen Victoria, Royal Surrey Zoological Gardens, Walworth Road, Lost Zoo of Southwark
In Dulwich OnView, new content on July 24, 2009 at 9:18 am
Lions, tigers and bears all used to live in the former Royal Surrey Zoological Gardens, just off the Walworth Road. Who knew?
Apparently Queen Victoria used to pop down there for a nosy at the animals, from time to time.
There’s a piece about the Lost Zoo of Southwark on Dulwich OnView.
David Cameron, Denmark, Iain Duncan-Smith, James Naughtie, Michael Sandell, Radio 4, Richard Leyard, Today programme, Will Wilkinson
In happiness on July 23, 2009 at 3:45 pm
James Naughtie started an interesting discussion on the Today programme this morning about the advantages of governments aiming to set policy that is in the interests of the well-being and happiness of the general public. I’ve written before about how David Cameron claimed, well before the recession began, that we shouldn’t be looking at GDP, but GWB – general well being. But Naughtie introduced some key thinkiers who are writing about this at the moment.
Richard Leyard (social scientist and economist) – claims that in 20 years we’ll be basing policy on the well-being and happiness of the people.
Michael Sandell (social scientist) – spoke at the Reith Lecture about the common good.
Iain Duncan-Smith (former Tory leader) – convinced that happiness is just as important for the left and the right in politics and that the current banking crisis gives us a chance to ask questions about the way we live our lives. Apparently we are deeply unhappy because our society is broken.
Will Wilkinson (Cato Institute, Washington) – suggests that the idea of contentment has to be reconciled by progress. On one hand we could all be Buddhists and remove all desire and wanting – and therefore remove ourselves from any potential disappointment. But on the other hand, he claims that while the ‘treadmill of striving’ causes a huge amount of anxiety it also drives progress and this should not, and cannot, be stopped. So his solution is to for us to find the balance between ambition and expectation. Simple.
Naughtie is off to Denmark tomorrow – where the people are said to be blissfully happy. I’ll be tuning in to find out their secret.
In the meantime, here’s the link to the Radio 4 website for this morning’s broadcast. And if you like, you can read James Naughtie’s accompanying article online.
With thanks to Nick Hopwood, who actually heard the piece!
BBC FOUR, happiness, iPlayer
In happiness on July 23, 2009 at 9:05 am
Are we having fun yet?
Happy Families is a new BBC series looking at changes taking place in British society, examining how childhood and families have transformed over the last decade. But from the scramble to get into the best schools to the pressures on working parents, are we too stressed to be happy?
It was screened on Wednesday morning and is available to view on on iPlayer until Wednesday 29th July.
Arnolfini Gallery, Banksy, Bristol, Museum of Bristol, SS Great Britain
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on July 20, 2009 at 9:09 am
Hot on the tail of their Banksy exhibition promotions, the council-run museum service in Bristol is now set to open their new flagship Museum of Bristol in 2011. It’s housed in a reconditioned harbourside building in the emerging arts quarter of the city, not far from the SS Great Britain and the Arnolfini Gallery.
Read all about the plans and see lovely pictures of what’s going to be going on inside the build on Museum [Insider].
Angela Tilby, Proverbs, Radio 4, Thought for the Day
In happiness on July 16, 2009 at 10:11 am
This morning’s Thought for the Day on Radio 4 was by the ever observant Rev. Angela Tilby, who was recounting a TV drama she saw recently, underlining the folly of chasing money in the pursuit of happiness.
Who end up happier? The city banker, the ruthless salesman or the security guard. Perhaps there’s a certain predictability about who ends up being happiest at the end of the story. But Angela Tilby astutely links the story to the book of Proverbs: ‘Riches do not profit in the day of wrath’ and ‘Better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be rich and crooked in one’s ways.’
And as she concludes: ‘The longing for the happiness that money promises is so embedded in our minds that we are in danger of falling into a new delusion. This week all kinds of lobby groups have argued for more money; all for good and necessary things. But the cash has run out, and deep down we know it. There is no one to blame, but ourselves, who believed that money was infinite, like God and all we had to do was want it. We are going to have to learn to be poor and to find our security from within.’
The full text of her broadcast is available here.
Quoted text, copyright BBC.
British Museum, electronic media, formative evaluation, Museum Practice, Museums Association, Museums Journal
In Museums on July 14, 2009 at 11:59 am
I’ve had a letter printed in the Summer 2009 edition of Museum Practice (MP) magazine. MP is the sister publication of Museums Journal (MJ), both of which are published by the Museums Association in the UK. While MJ is a monthly magazine devoted mainly to news, reviews and the strategic direction of the museum sector in this country, MP is a more reflective, quarterly publication which aims to highlight best practice across the sector and give lots of practical examples of work going on around the world.
My short letter was in response to a series of pieces in the Spring issue about technoligical advances in interpretive media in museums. I just wanted to make sure people were aware that while we are all keen to develop new and exciting means of interpreting museum objects for visitors, it’s important to bear their skills and needs in mind. And that it’s possible to quite easily and cheaply evaluate this with visitors.
If you’re a member of the Museums Association and have a log-in you can read the letter here.
We did some really straightforward, but incredibly worthwhile, formative evaluation of electronic media at the British Museum before I left there earlier this year. And now I’m freelance I’m still available to carry out evaluations using questionnaires, surveys, focus groups and observed visitor study sessions.
Do get in touch if you’d be interested in hearing about my work in this area.
audio guides, British Museum, Imperial War Museum, multimedia guides, National Gallery
In Uncategorized on July 11, 2009 at 10:05 am
I’ve been working with the British Museum of late, writing their new multimedia guide to the permanent collection – it’s like a traditional museum audio-guide, but it has a screen as well so you can show images and have visitors click on little interactives and games. It’s been great fun, but a bit of a learning curve for me as I was previously used to writing pure audio. I find that the more gudies I take, the better my writing becomes. I’ve really enjoyed making little interactives – click on the screen to find out more about ……
Recently I’ve taken some good tours. The Imperial War Museum multimedia tour is great and has loads of content on there for families especially. And the tour for the Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery was brilliant – it really got me looking closely at the paintings and comaring them to works in other museums being shown to me on my screen. One of the golden rules of audio writing for museums is don’t write about what you can’t see, but with this you can!
I’m now working on a tour of the Parthenon galleries at the British Museum for visually impaired visitors, which is a real challenge, but great fun. I’m having to come up with as many different ways of saying – the object infront of you is made of pale grey marble. It all goes live in December, once it’s been translated into nine languages!
ACE, AIM, DCMS, heritage sector, HLF, Museum sector
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on July 8, 2009 at 10:59 am
The professional museum sector in the UK is a baffling place. There are so many organisations working at strategic and managerial levels across the museum and heritage one may quite legitimately suggest that, while there is certainly a lot of broth, there are perhaps a few too many cooks.
One might ask how many quangos, directives, strategic reviews and government agencies do we need to run a succesful arts sector.
I’ve worked in the museum sector since 2001 and have, over that time, now built up a reasonable knowledge of who does what at a strategic level in the UK. But as a supplier to the sector it must be very confusing to see all these organisations out there. Do you know your AIM from your ACE. Or your DCMS from your HLF?
I wrote a piece recently for Museum [Insider] which reviews the top organisations (and their many acronyms) and provides an overview of who’s who.
conservation, restoration, Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland
In Museum [Insider], new content on July 6, 2009 at 10:45 am
Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland is presently undergoing a major piece of restoration work. They’ve not only decided to revisit the stonework of this charming building (built 1446), but also to make it fit for the future by conserving the building, reworking the roof and other facilities on site. And there’s going to be a brand new all-singing, all-dancing visitor centre there too. There’s more in a recent piece on Museum [Insider], as per norm.
Cyanide & Happiness, facebook, online scrabble
In happiness on July 3, 2009 at 9:14 am
If this project is going to be indicative of where I spend time on the Internet, it had probably also include facebook. Having disabled facebook scrabble (a source of much happiness to me, but not at all conducive to the life of a writer) I now spend a lot less time on the site. Face book never ceases to amaze with what it can throw up. Let’s see what happens when I search for happiness:
Happiness – nearly 60,000 people have signed up to be fans of happiness. They say: ‘what is better than a true emotion that we can express through smiles and laughter. nothing. we have pages for our favourite artists and stores, but what about our favourite emotion?’
Cyanide & Happiness – a visual artist with an interest in comics and superheros with nearly 80,000 fans. You can read their peculiar comic blog here (not on facebook).
HAPPINESS – a positivity movement with 68,000 fans. They say: ‘Happiness is a Choice! Let’s make this world a better place by choosing to be happy and making the people around us happy. Let’s spread the Love and the Good Vibes!’
Happiness Nki Nwaokolo – a personal profile. She lives in London and supports Manchester United. (I haven’t posted a link as I don’t want to think we’re stalking her!)
Happiness – a group for sharing happiness. They say: ‘Just add pictures of happy things, or things that make you happy!’ They have 6,000 fans.
Time Out, Trailer Happiness, Waiting for Happiness, Whispering Happiness
In happiness on July 2, 2009 at 9:02 am
As part of this week’s mini-investigation into what the we can find on the web when we search for happiness, I turned my attention to the online version of the listings and review magazine Time Out. I have confined the interview research part of my happiness project to people living and working in the UK at the moment, so I’ve just searched Time Out London. What will our nation’s capital have in store in terms of happiness …
A review of a London bar called Trailer Happiness in Kensington. They give it four stars out of five. They describe it as ‘tongue in cheek decor matched with a serious attitude to booze’.
The 2002 movie Waiting for Happiness is currently being shown in London. (Although Time Out couldn’t tell me where or when. I’m sure I could find it if I looked hard enough.)
The Tristan Bates Theatre in WC2H is showing a play called Whispering Happiness until this Saturday. (Starts 7.30pm, tickets £13)
And that was it. Only three things to make us happy in London this week. Still, it’s quite a good mix of results.
Goldfrapp, iTunes, Kasabian, Orson, Sound De-Zign, The Fray
In happiness on July 1, 2009 at 8:20 am
Many of us carry a little bit of the Apple corporation around with us each day. But do we ever listen to music relating to happiness? I know I do, but that’s because I download lots of songs with the H-word in the title. Here’s a quick flick through the results when I searched for happiness.
Happiness (Kasabian) 2009
Happiness (Goldfrapp) 2008
Happiness (Orson) 2006
Happiness (The Fray) 2009
Happiness (Sound De-Zign) 2009
Also featured down the list are The Pointer Sisters, Ken Dodd, Will Young, Robert Palmer, Macy Gray, Teenage Fanclub and Divine Comedy.
There are at least 100 tracks simply called happiness, and many thousands with happiness in the title. Bob Dylan chose his favourite songs with happiness for the BBC a few months ago, which I wrote about on this website.
BBC Bristol, David Cameron, General Well Being, happy cows, Ministry of Happiness
In happiness on June 29, 2009 at 10:45 am
Let’s start this mini-investigation with one of the first sites I often visit each day. The good old BBC News website.
A happiness search in the news and sport section yields:
An article about how sisters make each other happy. 2 April 09
A study from the USA about how happiness is infectious (it rubs off on other people). 5 December 08
A local news piece from BBC Bristol about how some people there are very happy, while others are cripplingly lonely. 1 December 08
Newcastle University say that happy cows produce more milk than unhappy ones. 28 January 09
A very readable comment piece about happiness in the economic downturn and whether our politicians should be paying more attention to making us happy in the recession. The piece features David Cameron’s suggestion that if we valued General Well Being (GWB) as much as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we might not have got into such a mess in the first place. There are some great responses from readers, including the suggestion that a Ministry of Happiness be established! 9 October 08
happiness, results, search engine
In happiness on June 28, 2009 at 8:19 am
As part of my ongoing research project into the nature of happiness and what it means to us today is having a bit of an experimental week.
Given that I’m seeking out a wide variety of responses to and definitions of the concept of happiness, I regularly tap the H-word into search engines and wait for the smorgasbord of results to spring forth before me. There’s always quite a surprising range of answers. So, for the rest of this week I’m going to present the results of what I’ve found on different websites – I could have chosen any sites, but I went for pretty mainstream sites that I use on a regular basis. I’ll update the results each day.
What use is this? Well, the findings might not necessarily be indicative of what happiness means to us – it’s just some content I’ve pulled off the web, after all – but they might be food for thought in my ongoing investigations. We’ll see …
I will list here the top results from searches using the search engine on a particular site. If prompted, I’ll ask for the engine to give me results by relevance, rather than by date. I’m after the subject matter, not necessarily the most recent material.
Sue King, fused glass, Cockpit Arts, Maker Difference
In Dulwich OnView, new content on June 26, 2009 at 9:15 am
From my study, I see over the fence into my next-door neighbour’s back garden. I’ve long admired the striking glass sculptures which adorn her lovely garden. Sue King makes stunning fused glass pieces herself. Last weekend I took a trip to her studio in Deptford – part of the Cockpit Arts open weekend where the public are allowed in to nosy around the studios and buy artworks from designer-makers.
There’s a brilliant vibe in the studios and they are proud to be an incubator of creativity. Artists renting there don’t simply get a space in which to practise when they pay their fees – they get business support and commercial encouragement too. It’s like a community in there. They even have a manifesto, called Maker Difference, which encourages us not to buy objects d’art from Habitat or Heal’s, but to go and meet artists and get something completely unique. It’s inspirational stuff.
I was so impressed with the studios and with Sue’s work that I wrote a piece about it for Dulwich OnView, which went live this morning.
2015, Science Museum
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on June 18, 2009 at 4:57 pm
The Science Museum is 100 years old this week. Big news.
What’s bigger news is that they’ve just unveiled their plans for what the museum is going to look like in 2015. It’s a huge project which basically involves sticking lumps on the existing building. There’s going to be a domed blob protruding out the front of the building, through the glass, and a huge golden inverted take-out tray on the roof for a new gallery about Space. The whole thing opens in 2015, so there are, doubtless, plenty of jobs coming up there in the next few years.
Take a look at the images of the what the build will look like and read about it on Museum [Insider].
Lost Southwark, south London, local history, Cuming Museum
In Dulwich OnView, Museums, new content on June 12, 2009 at 10:40 am
There’s a new exhibition of paintings, etchings, drawings, maps and all sorts of 2D material chronicling the history of Southwark life and architecture at the Cuming Museum in south London. Popped along to see it last week and to write a piece of Dulwich OnView about it. Lost Southwark is definitely worth a look if you live in south London and are interested in local history.
Anna Cutler, Gillian Wilson, Tate Modern, TM2
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on June 10, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I wrote a piece a few months ago about the proposed developments at the back of Tate Modern. Turns out Tate got planning permission for the new extension which will rise eleven storeys high from the back of the existing building.
I went back to Tate Modern last week to interview Anna Cutler (Head of Learning) and Gillian Wilson (Curator of Interpretation) about what they’re up to now. We chatted about the content planned for TM2 and the interpretive thinking about their audiences that’s going into the project. Their plans sound really exciting – there’ll be a wider variety of interpretive devices in the TM2 – something for everyone.
The resulting article is live on Museum [Insider] now.
dulwich, Gail Gosschalk, Paris, artists
In Dulwich OnView, new content on June 5, 2009 at 10:32 am
Just posted a lovely little interview on Dulwich OnView with a local artist, Gail Gosschalk, who now lives in Paris. She’s back in Dulwich this weekend to show some of her work in an exhibition.
The way she describes her work makes me want to follow suit. I could easily live in Paris, sipping coffee and penning articles at whim. What a life that would be ….
Commonwealth Institute, Design Museum, Kensington, relocation
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on June 4, 2009 at 8:25 am
There are plenty of rumours around at the moment about the Design Museum and their potential change of venue in the not too distant future. But who knows what’s fact and what’s merely flotsam and jetsam on the museum industry drinks circuit?
Gossip ferret here had a little look around and wrote a piece about the potential move to the former home of the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington for Museum [Insider].
breast cancer, Professor Penny Hopwood, psychiatrist
In happiness, new content on June 3, 2009 at 2:43 pm
I’ve just completed another interview as part of my ongoing research project into the meaning of happiness.
Professor Penny Hopwood is a psychiatrist and has spent the last 25 years working solely with patients who are undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She must have met a wide variety of people over the years and heard some amazing stories. I was certain that helping people through those experiences must have given her a pretty unique perspective on what it means to be happy.
Of course, she can’t talk about her patients, and I’d never expect her to, but she did give me an enlightening interview, in terms of how the mental state of a cancer patient is cared for and also her own individual very personal response to happiness.
Read the interview in the happiness pages of this website, here.
Penny has been a family friend for many years and I’m really grateful to her for taking part in the project.
Happinesss, Jane Kenyon
In happiness on June 1, 2009 at 11:08 am
I was trundling through the Internet the other day and came across this charming piece by the American poet Jane Kenyon (1947-1995).
Happiness
There’s just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.
And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.
No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.
It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.
National Railway Museum
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on May 26, 2009 at 8:16 am
The National Railway Museum (York) opened in the 1970s and hasn’t really had much of an overhaul since. The great hall, the central exhibition space where the huge exhibits are stored, is due to have a revamp soon. HLF have awarded them £200,000 to firm up their proposals, but it’s thought the full project will cost in the region of £20m. There’s a piece about it on Museum [Insider].
In Dulwich OnView, new content on May 26, 2009 at 8:08 am
In January I stared into my cultural crystal ball and wrote a piece on DOV predicting the hottest tickets in south London in 2009. Thought I’d revisit my guess work and see how I did. There’s a quick piece on DOV today.
Some I got right. Some I got terribly wrong. I would’ve thought ”The Dulwich’ could have written a song, at least.
Dulwich Festival, Artists' Open House, Camberwell College of Art, fried chicken
In Dulwich OnView, new content on May 20, 2009 at 3:07 pm
As part of Dulwich Festival each May, there is an annual Artists’ Open House – two weekends on either side of the festival when local artists in around the Dulwich area throw open the doors of their homes and studios and invite the great unwashed in to see their work. (And hopefully make a purchase or two along the way.)
I went along to see some of them this year and wrote a piece about some of the artists I met for Dulwich OnView. My particular favourites have to be the students from Cambwell College of Art who, have been inspired by the abundance of fried chicken boxes in the locale. What inspiration!
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow School of Art
In Museum [Insider], new content on May 18, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Glasgow School of Art is set not only to revisit its main building (designed by the youthful Charles Rennie Mackintosh) but also to create a new wing over the road. There’s been an astonishing response to the call for architectural practices interested in working on the project – over 150 companies applied. There’s an article all about it on Museum [Insider]: Mackintosh’s Glasgow Gem Expands.
audio guides, Museums and Heritage show
In Museums on May 14, 2009 at 10:04 am
Off to the Museums and Heritage Show this afternoon at Earl’s Court.
There’s a session on the Cultural Olympiad I’m thinking of attending. I can’t decide whether I’m excited by the CO, or if it’s going to end up being a mish-mash of badly planned, over-funded and underwhelming programming. It could so easily be excellent. And I’m hoping for the latter, of course. We’ll see.
And then off to see the lovely King’s museum learning reading group. We’ll have some geeky chat about audio guides and pull some academic literature to pieces.
What a fun day ahead.
British Museum, First Emperor, Hadrian
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on May 7, 2009 at 7:31 am
My old stomping ground, the British Museum, are set to open a brand new wing in 2012. It’s going to house their new state-of-the-art research and collections management centre, plus a new puspose-built exhibition suite. That means they’ll be able to move out of the Reading Room and return it back to a library, which will please many. The BM has proven in recent years that it is just as capable of putting on blockbusters as the National Gallery and Tate, and that they need a space large and well-serviced enough to do just that. First Emperor and Hadrian were such huge successes and it’ll be great to see them build on that.
As ever, I’ve written a piece about it for Museum Insider. Take a look if you’d like to know more.
Chinese Ceramics, British Museum, Grayson Perry, Sunday Times
In Museums, what i'm reading on May 6, 2009 at 11:23 am
Oooh exciting news from my former employer the British Museum. Turns out Grayson Perry went to see the new Chinese Ceramics gallery – the last major project I worked on before I left in April – and he really likes it.
There’s a piece about it in the Sunday Times. Thanks Grayson.
Glasgow Guggenheim, Kelvingrove, Riverside Museum, Zaha Hadid
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on May 2, 2009 at 10:07 am
Turns out Glasgow is having even more investment pumped into its arts scene. After the huge success of Kelvingrove, the old museum of transport is now being transformed into the Riverside Museum. Heralded as the ‘Glasgow Guggenheim’ - because of the striking design of the building (Zaha Hadid) – it will open to the public in 2011.
I’ve had a bit of a root around for some info and there’s a piece now live about it on Museum [Insider].
Dulwich OnView, Lewis Robinson, Southwark Council
In Dulwich OnView, new content on May 1, 2009 at 7:40 am
I met this week with a local councillor in my area (London Borough of Southwark) and chatted with him about arts and culture provision in the borough. He’s Cllr Lewis Robinson, the Executive Member for culture, leisure and sport and he’s also the councillor for one of the wards in Dulwich, so he’s a good guy for us to get to know.
The motto of Dulwich OnView is
celebrating people and culture in south London.
He’s a reasonably important person in the world of culture in south London, so we thought it would be best to interview him.
Take a look at what he had to say.
British Museum, Chinese Ceramics, Sir Percival David
In Museums on April 29, 2009 at 8:15 am
As a writer, it’s great when the hard work pays off and you can read your work in print, or online. But having worked in museums over the last few years, I’ve also been able to see work to which I have contributed up on the wall in an exhibition. It’s always sad when it gets taken down at the end of the run, but then there’s always the next project coming along to get me excited.
Last week, the British Museum opened a new permanent gallery of Chinese Ceramics, housing the Sir Percival David Foundation collection of Chinese ceramics. I’ve now left the official employ of the BM, but went back to visit the new gallery recently. It looks absolutely fabulous – over 1700 objects are on display in the same room. That’s a lot, but the sensitive display allows visitors to examine every piece in the collection either visually in the display cases, or virtually on a touch-screen which we built in-house. It was a great project to work on and I’m proud of my contribution towards the team effort as an interpreter. The touch screens, which are linked to the museum’s collection database, are pretty forward thinking. Other venues will be watching to see how well they work.
And best of all, it’s a permanent gallery, so the text won’t get ripped down in six months. Do go and see for yourself, or ask for a guided tour.
There’s no link to an article about it. I just wanted to show off.
bed and breakfast, blogging, derbyshire, highfield
In what i'm reading on April 28, 2009 at 10:36 am
One evening last Christmas my parents and I were sat around talking and we got on the subject of the web. They told me they were interested in setting up a website to promote their bed and breakfast – they run it from their home in Derbyshire, in the heart of the Peak District.
I told them about blogging and my experiences of writing for places like Dulwich OnView. We arrived at the conclusion that perhaps they didn’t need a website, just a blog. So I spent a few hours setting them up with one and sent them off into the world of blogging. And now look at them.
Here’s their blog. I follow it, primarily, for updates from the chickens.
Maybe the credit debacle has meant you’re cutting back on a big holiday this year. If you’re looking for a cheap alternative, a relaxing weekend away at Highfield comes highly recommended by me, their sometime, non-paying guest.
Catherine Parr, Hampton Court Palace, Henry VIII, Kensington Palace, Queen Victoria
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on April 21, 2009 at 8:01 am
Had a grand day out last week at Hampton Court Palace, nosing around their new Henry VIII display. 2009 is the 500th anniversary of Hennry’s accession to the throne and as such they are theming the year’s programming around him. The palace is set up as if it were his wedding day (wife no. 6, Catherine Parr). Visitors are invited to the wedding party and costumed actors are parading around the place the whole day. Great fun.
Whilst there, I also interviewed someone from Historic Royal Palaces about the planned redevelopment of the visitor experience and interpretation at Kensington Palace, due to open in 2012. The first tranche of work is focussed on Queen Victoria, who spent her early years at Kensington before she became queen.
There’s a piece on Museum [Insider] with some exclusive details about what they’re planning.
Angela Tilby, Barack Obama, Jesus, Sermon on the Mount
In happiness on April 20, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Something on Radio 4′s Thought For the Day last week struck a chord with me. Rev. Angela Tilby sought to bring President Obama down a peg or two for trying to make biblical links in his oratory when talking about revialisting the world economy. He says that we must ‘build our house upon rock’.
But Angela quite rightly points out that just a few lines later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is telling us not to even bother building up worldly goods – indeed he offers a warning against the belief that material possessions can bring us happiness.
So be careful, Barack the orator, when using biblical quotes.
coffee, digitalspy, stranger
In happiness, what i'm reading on April 20, 2009 at 9:31 am
Apparently, the simple act of picking up someone else’s tab in a coffee shop is enough to engender a feeling of well-being for you and your lucky new friend. It’s a craze sweeping coffee shops in America.
DigitalSpy tells us more …
museum, Southend-on-Sea
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on April 16, 2009 at 11:20 am
It looks like Southend-on-Sea is to close its museum and art gallery and roll them into one shiny, new arts venue right by the seafront. The plans look pretty exciting and they’re certainly enthusiastic about it in the town.
Here’s a new piece about it on Museum [Insider].
ed haliwell, mental health, the guardian
In happiness, what i'm reading on April 14, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Happiness is abuzz in the news this week with the revalation that we are all really rather stressed, anxious and fearful. The Mental Health Foundation has called for a national campaign to raise awareness of how emotions affect our health and behaviour, and what we can do about it.
It all sounds like a bit of hot air to me, but Ed Haliwell puts it rather well in The Guardian today.
Apparently we need to develop social and economic cohesion and moving towards values and behaviours that lead to happiness.
Sounds simple, eh?
The MHF have an hilarious campaign, not aimed at making us any happier, just making us realise how awful life is. They say:
As part of Mental Health Action Week, you can order your free information pack, which gives you information on fear and anxiety, as well as a poster to help you raise awareness of the week.
Wow, I feel happier already.
Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length, Pulitzer, Robert Frost
In happiness, what i'm reading on April 13, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I recently came across this poem by American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963).
As with plenty of creative souls, he had a particulary tragic personal life. His father died when Frost was 11, leaving the family penniless. His mother died when he was 26, resulting in the institutionalisation in a mental hospital of his sister some year later. A family rife with depression, he was also forced to commit his daughter to a mental hospital in 1947. Three of his six children died while he was still alive and one committed suicide.
How he then managed to win so four Pulitzer prizes for his work and publish so widely is a wonder. He penned this charming poem in 1942:
Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length
O stormy, stormy world,
The days you were not swirled
Around with mist and cloud,
Or wrapped as in a shroud,
And the sun’s brilliant ball
Was not in part or all
Obscured from mortal view—
Were days so very few
I can but wonder whence
I get the lasting sense
Of so much warmth and light.
If my mistrust is right
It may be altogether
From one day’s perfect weather,
When starting clear at dawn
The day swept clearly on
To finish clear at eve.
I verily believe
My fair impression may
Be all from that one day
No shadow crossed but ours
As through its blazing flowers
We went from house to wood
geovisit();
For change of solitude.
Auschwitz, happiness, Roman Halter
In happiness, new content on April 10, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I received a touching hand-written note this week from Roman Halter, a friend of mine and survivor of Auschwitz who I’ve interviewed already as part of my happiness research project. His interview is available to read on this site, but he decided to write an addendum. He writes:
A life free from being terrorized, free from that fear, is happiness.
Freedom under the law in a true democracy where the citizen is protected from the criminal and the criminal is isolated from society is, for the citizen, happiness.
Happiness on many levels.
One man, before being taken to the gas chamber at Auschwitz [said] Psalm 31, verse 6 [and was] calmly led to a happy end with a spirit that was devoid of fear. [The verse reads: 'You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord'.]
We were told (the group of 500 metal workers from Lodz ghetto selected for slave labour) in Auschwitz-Birkenau that we looked so weak and were so starved that we, all of us, were only fit for the gas chambers and we should know that we came to Auschwitz-Birkenau through [the] gate which is only one way and that is ‘IN’. The out part is through the chimney. So, when eventually we were put into cattle trucks and PASSED OUT of Auschwitz-Birkenau the joy, the happiness of most was something I will not forget.
Roman has also added a simple line drawing of the recognisable gateway to the camp at Auschwitz with an arrow pointing to the entrance.
ceramics, V&A
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on April 9, 2009 at 2:23 pm
The ceramics galleries at the V&A have been closed for a while for a major redevelopment. The new galleries are going to be completed in two phases, with the first suite set to open in September 09. They promise to be stunning.
I’ve written a piece about them which went live on
Museum [Insider] today.
facebook, facebook groups, dulwich
In Dulwich OnView, new content on April 8, 2009 at 8:27 am
I recently reviewed my facebook profile and decided to cull a few of the groups I’m in. Do I still need to be in the group Every time your misplace an apostrophe, God kills another kitten?
I’m also a member of a few facebook groups linked to the local Dulwich area. It got me thinking about what else might be out there. There’s some strange stuff in the world of the Internet, and some of it is closer to home than you think.
Read my musings, and some of the funnier groups in my local area, on Dulwich OnView.
Bob Dylan, Dalai Lama, Gretchen Rubin, Richard Gere
In happiness on April 7, 2009 at 11:14 am
Further to Bob Dylan’s favourite songs on the theme of happiness, here are a few of my favourite things he said during his most recent show:
Can’t promise I’m gonna make you happy, but I’ll do my darndest
Everyone you know can make you happy. Some do it by arriving and some do it by leaving.
Richard Gere once told me something the Dalai Lama once said: ‘If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion.’
Some people have to get high to make other people happy.
When talking about feng shui and its importance in a happy home: Los Angeles zoo spent $4500 to a feng shui expert to make three monkeys from China feel more at home. I don’t think it was the feng shui that made them feel happy. I think the monkeys just liked the fact that they can make zoo keepers spend $4500 on them.
Some people like to sweat in the hot sun. Some like to lie in the shade in a hammock. Who’s to judge which is better?
According to research, do you know what makes people happy? Money, religion, friends and marriage. How much did they spend on this research? I could’ve told them that. And people who earn over $80,000 are happier than people who earn less than that. Do you know who’s really happy? The guy who got paid to do this research.
Also, Gretchen Rubin – who blogs about happiness – found a really nice quote from Bob Dylan in his memoir Chronicle.
BBC 6 Music, Bob Dylan, Theme time radio hour
In happiness on April 6, 2009 at 10:07 am
The latest edition of Bob Dylan’s radio show (05 April 2009) was on the theme of happiness. He played an hour of tracks, each linked to happiness somehow, interspersed with his grizzly, philosophical musings about why he likes each song. He played:
Feelin’ high and happy Hot Lips Page
Love and Happiness Al Green
Then I’ll Be Happy Jimmy Heap and the Melody Makers
Happy Home Elmore James
Happy Days are Here Again originally from the movie Chasing Rainbows (recorded on Black Tuesday, 1929)
Happy Rolling Stones
Get Happy Al Green
Happy Plastics Family – advertising jingle for du Pont
I Wanna Be Happy Ella Fitzgerald
Happy Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
You Made Me So Very Happy Blood, Sweat and Tears
The Happy Cowboy The Sons of the Pioneers
Everybody’s Happy Nowadays Buzzcocks
Smile Judy Garland (originally written by Charlie Chaplin)
Happy Trails Dale Evans
You can listen to it on the BBC 6 Music website until Sunday evening, when the next episode comes out.
BBC 6 Music, Bob Dylan
In happiness on April 3, 2009 at 7:20 am
Each week on BBC 6 Music Bob Dylan plays tracks for one hour based around a theme. This week’s show (05 April ’09) is on the theme of happiness. I wonder what he’ll play.
Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Hour is on BBC 6 Music on Sunday night (Monday morning) midnight-1am. Listen to the show on digital radio in the UK or online, or listen again after the event if you’re not usually up at midnight on a Sunday.
I'm a writer, writer lifestyle
In Uncategorized on April 1, 2009 at 9:58 am
I’ve been investigating what it might be like to live the life of a writer for the last year, shifting to working part-time in my role at the British Museum and experimenting with the lifestyle of a wordsmith. It turns out I absolutely love writing and the life that goes with it.
So, now it’s time to move on from the BM and give this career a proper chance. As of today, I’m officially a writer. It’ll be strange, but I’m very much looking forward to responding to the question ‘What do you do?’ with ‘I’m a writer.’
I’ve left the employ of the BM, but I’m not leaving them completely. One of my next projects will be to write a tranche of new material for the museum’s audio tour, which is going to be great fun. I’m also continuing to write for Museum [Insider] and for Dulwich OnView (where I cut my teeth as a writer) and will be contributing to other blogs and online magazines too. And research into happiness continues as well.
It’s going to be a busy year. Let’s see what happens next …
Tate Modern
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on March 31, 2009 at 2:22 pm
It’s almost as if the Tate brand can’t stop expanding. St Ives, Liverpool, Tate Modern. Now planning proposals are in to build a huge extension on the back of the Bankside site, to create vast new public spaces and areas for display. As ever, I’ve written a piece about it on Museum [Insider].
Dundee, V&A
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on March 27, 2009 at 1:08 pm
The V&A in London is perhaps going to follow suit with other national museums and open a branch in the provinces. Tate went to Liverpool and St Ives; the Imperial War Museum went to Manchester; and the National Maritime Museum went to Falmouth.
Now the national museum of art and design is considering opening a branch in Dundee. The proposed idea is wouldn’t be owned by the V&A, but it would take blockbuster exhibitions from there and show them to a Scottish audience.
Plans also propose close collaboration with local artists and universities, with artist in residence schemes planned to run continuously. It’d be a great addition to the Scottish arts scene.
There’s a new piece about it on Museum [Insider].
good life, happiness
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 25, 2009 at 6:46 pm
A piece in The Independent today pointed out that we live in a frenetic, throwaway society and that we don’t take enough time to do things slowly and really enjoy them. They suggest the good life – the elusive happiness we all crave, apparently – can be achieved through celebrating ten simple pleasures of life.
How many of these have you done recently? I wonder if this is the path to happiness:
Roasting a chicken - the smell, the slow cooking, the crispy skin. And the accopanying trimmings.
Going for a walk - recharge the batteries through exercise and appreciate your local area.
Caring for clothes - a sense of achievement through fixing something rather than buying new.
Cleaning the windows – let the Spring sunshine into your home.
Servicing the car - er, like the clothes, I suppose. Not sure it would make me that happy.
Baking a cake - the smell, the satisfaction, the icing. And a cup of tea with it.
Making sloe gin - expectation as it matures in the bottle infront of your eyes.
Reading a map - I don’t understand this one. Just use google.
Brewing a cup of coffee - another aroma one. They like smelly things don’t they?
Or just doing nothing - personally, I find this one terribly irritating.
I can see where they’re going with these ten steps, but I’m not sure they’re necessarily a recipe for happiness. And it’s not a great path to the good life if you’re a wheat intolerant, sober, vegetarian, caffeine-free cyclist who lives in a windowless space and hates baking – but there’s got to be something that makes you happy.
Barbara Hepworth, Hepworth Wakefield
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on March 21, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Wakefield is to get a new multi-million pound art gallery devoted to the work of iconic British sculptor Barbara Hepworth. I wrote a piece about the development and what we can expect there for Museum [Insider].
Alleyn's School
In Dulwich OnView on March 17, 2009 at 6:35 pm
A piece on Dulwich OnView about a new multi-million pound theatre in Dulwich at Alleyn’s School. The building won’t only be used by the school, but is also going to be made available to community organisations. Great news for us in Dulwich.
Here’s the article.
A. A. Milne
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 15, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I was just reliving some childhood memories, flicking through the A. A. Milne’s When we were very young, when I came across one of those nuresery poems that rings a bell, but I don’t know why. The title jumped out at me, obviously, but I wonder what the message of the poem is? As with all Milne poems, the line-spacing is important, so I’ve copied it here:
Happiness
John had
Great Big
Waterproof
Boots on;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Hat;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Mackintosh -
And that
(Said John)
Is
That.
arthur brookes, conservative, gross national happiness, liberal
In happiness, what i'm reading on March 7, 2009 at 7:52 am
Some interesting research about political motivation and happiness from Syracuse University. Prof Arthur Brookes claims in his book Gross National Happiness that conservatives report significantly higher levels of personal happiness than liberals.
Increased happiness in conservatives is not necessarily down to their individual politics, but is linked to contributing life factors. They are are statistically more likely to be married, go to church, and be optimistic about their future – things we know boost personal happiness. For liberals, the rates of happiness are somewhat lower. The author suggests that the liberal equity agenda, while completely honorable, takes a stronger personal toll and contributes to a life with more questions asked than answered. Liberals are more likely to have less smooth home lives, when compared to their conservative counterparts. There’s an interview with the author here.
It’s important to remember most studies like this reporting levels of happiness have collected data via personal response questionnaires. So, in fact it’s more a case of conservatives reporting that they are happier, rather than actually being happy in themselves. For me, this research perhaps means two things:
-1- Conservatives say they are happier than liberals. Is that because they truly are happier (they do appear to have very settled lives) or is it because they feel they ought to say they are happier and living the American dream?
-2- The research shows that liberals report lower happiness levels because they have a more challenging lives. They are less likely to have as much family stability and they have that oh-so cumbersome liberal agenda to which they feel they ought to contribute. It might just be me, but I think living a life with an open liberal agenda that doesn’t mean being tied down to a family, a dog and a church sounds rather fun.
Aristotle asks us whether we would rather be a pig satisfied or a man dissatisfied? To be honest, as much as I crave the perceived stability and wealth of the right, I think I’d rather be a dissatisfied liberal than a satisfied conservative. But that’s just me.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on March 6, 2009 at 1:06 pm
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford was the first ever public museum (opened 1683). It’s had a long and prestigious career. But the current building is not fit for purpose in the 21st century, so they’ve decided to give it a face lift. From the outside it will look pretty much the same, but the interior is in the process of being extensively overhauled, including the interpretation.
Here’s an article I wrote about the transformation of the museum for Museum [Insider].
Deano Dunbar, rod and cone dystrophy
In happiness, new content on March 4, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Here’s a new interview I completed recently with Deano Dunbar, an extreme sports enthusiast. He’s been fired as a human catapult and had stomach-turning advenures all over the world. He’s also registered blind. He told me what happiness means to him.
happiness, website launch
In happiness, new content on February 28, 2009 at 11:09 am
I’ve been adding content to this site for a while now, but today I’ve told everyone about it. Here goes nothing.
There are plenty of links on here to pieces I’ve been writing recently.
And I’ll be updating the happiness project pages regularly as this research project develops.
Have a look around and let me know what you think.
Edinburgh, Museum of Scotland, Royal Museum
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on February 25, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I was in Edinburgh at the end of last year and visited a few of the museums there. The Museum of Scotland is a wonderful place, recently redeveloped with a new interpretation strategy and a great display technique involving placing star objects in the middle of open spaces and forcing people to look at them.
Next door is the Royal Museum, currently under development itself. I’ve written a piece about the planned changes to the building for Museum [Insider]. There’s also a short film of what the new building will look like. I look forward to going back and seeing what’s happened.
BBC Radio 4, Canon Lucy Winklett, Thought for the Day
In happiness on February 24, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Canon Lucy Winklett said something which struck a chord with me on Thought for the Day a couple of days ago. I’ve been thinking about it since.
The problem she analyses is quite timely for me. It’s sometimes hard to put into words exactly what we are feeling, especially when it’s an emotion or attitude we’re not used to speaking about regularly. I’m finding a lot of people I speak with about happiness face this issue too. Her solution to the problem is spiritual:
“However articulate we think we are, there are times in the face of tragedy or fear or incalculable happiness, when expressing ourselves seems very hard – and we just don’t know what to say. It’s at these times, when we don’t have the words, wrote St Paul, that the Spirit of God is close. “Don’t heap up empty phrases” Jesus of Nazareth taught his followers. Our prayers are our attempts to speak in the language of the human spirit – a language that is yours and yours alone – the silent speech of your soul.”
The full text of her thoughts is available on the BBC website.
experiences, possessions, San Francisco State University
In happiness on February 22, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Psychological research at San Francisco State University suggests that, in the long run, experiences make people happier than possessions.
That’s in part because the initial joy of acquiring a new object, such as a new car, fades over time as people become accustomed to seeing it every day, the research claims. Experiences, on the other hand, continue to provide happiness through memories long after the event occur.
But surely the experience of owning a possession linger just as long?
The full story is on the CNN website.
Debbie Keeble, Woman Farmer of the Year
In happiness, new content on February 20, 2009 at 8:43 am
I’ve added another interview to the happiness pages of the site. I recently interviewed Debbie Keeble, Woman Farmer of the Year. She told me about what makes her happy, how her pigs are happy and why her husband loves Ken Dood.
Take a look under HAPPINESS PROJECT above, or just click here.
Aric Sigman, facebook, health, MySpace, social networking
In happiness on February 19, 2009 at 9:52 am
So, it appears that the piece of research examining how happiness and online experiences correlate (mentioned on this website last week) might be flawed from the start.
An ‘academic’, Aric Sigman (whoever he might be), is now suggesting that because we spend so much time infront of computers, we are interacting socially less and less. And that this has a negative impact on our health.
He claims: that a lack of face-to-face networking could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.
Source: article today on the BBC website.
So, taking these two theories together, if we continue to interact using online social networking tools such as facebook and MySpace, we’ll end up being happier, but unhealthy.
I’m getting confused by all this. I might have to try and marry the two together.
Does social interaction make us happy?
Does it matter whether that interaction is face-to-face or online?
Dulwich Picture Gallery
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on February 16, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Here’s a piece published today on Museum [Insider] about forthcoming plans at my local, favourite museum Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The Gallery will celebrate its bicentenary in 2011 and there’s news here of how they intend to celebrate with an ingenious exhibition idea – borrowing twelve masterpieces from other art galleries around the globe and displaying them in the enfillade, one a month. So, you have to go back twleve times in one year to see them all. Good idea.
Here’s the piece.
facebook
In happiness on February 14, 2009 at 1:21 pm
You can become a fan of anything on facebook. Even happiness, it seems.
social interaction, virtual happiness, Virtual Happiness Project
In happiness, what i'm reading on February 9, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I just came across the Virtual Happiness Project. It’s a research project with an interesting hypothesis:
1) The origins of happiness lie in social interaction. From sitting round the camp fire to the modern dinner table, we thrive when we are interacting.
2) The Internet has become a more and more social place in recent years. It’s the modern day camp fire.
3) Is the Internet virtual happiness?
These people are trying to evaluate the links between happiness and online experiences. Like many other research projects, it’s trying to unpick what it is that makes us happy. But what excites me about their work is that they are examining happiness in a truly modern context using the Internet as their frame of reference. Interesting stuff.
Take a look at their website and the short video there which explains the project in more detail. More details as and when they publish their findings.
Museum [Insider], Robert Burns
In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on February 5, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I’ve just started writing articles for the new online magazine Museum [Insider]. The aim is to provide online information for suppliers to the museum and heritage industry about what’s going on inside our nation’s museums. From tenders and contracts to features articles and inside news, the idea is to give access to news about developments in museums to those in the private sector. Anyone can read the bulk of the content on the site for free, but only those paying for the subscription service get access to the juiciest details.
My first piece about the developments at the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum has just gone live on the site.
David Beckham, Victoria Beckham
In happiness on February 4, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Victoria Beckham has given an insight into what makes her happy. It turns out it’s not shoes or riches that make her feel warm inside. Rather, she finds happiness in seeing her husband filling his potential as a footballer.
David is presently on loan to AC Milan from LA Galaxy, but rumours have suggested that Victoria has been reluctant to move her family from the US to Italy.
In an interview with the Italian Vanity Fair this week, Victoria said “I am happy because I know he is happy at Milan. It’s great to see that he has already started to score goals in your tournament.”
Source: Digital Spy
commune, Tobias Jones, Utopian Dreams
In happiness, what i'm reading on February 3, 2009 at 5:51 pm
The subtitle of this book is In Search of a Good Life, so I thought it would be a good read as part of the ongoing happiness project. Turns out it hasn’t provided me with any concrete info for the research project, but it’s certainly got me thinking.
Jones’s book recalls how he spent a year with his wife and newborn child living in a variety of communes in Italy and the UK. But the communities he stays in aren’t what you’d think of when you first hear the word ‘commune’. Rather than political philosophy or social motivation as their main common factor, each community shares a common religious goal. He investigates what placing religion at the hear of a community does to people.
From Quaker pensioners, to old-fashioned farmyards and new age communes. Interesting reading.
Evelyn Waugh, Saki
In what i'm reading on January 29, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Continuing my love affair with Evelyn Waugh, I’ve just read A Handful of Dust. This is perhaps one of the darker Waugh novels, but still a joy to read. Like many of Waugh’s novels it’s an hilarious parody of the upper classes of the 1930s and the inherent contradictions of the establishment. Like much of his other work, there’s an underlying dark tension in this book. Themes of divorce, betryal, one-up-man-ship and child death run throughout – yet it still gets me laughing out loud.
The final chapters are based on the Waugh short story The Man Who Liked Dickens.
If only people still wrote like him. I think he took a lot from Saki, but I’m yet to start drawing the direct links between the two. More on Saki soon …
Gemma Weekes, Love Me
In Dulwich OnView, new content on January 27, 2009 at 10:04 am
Here’s an interivew with newly published author Gemma Weekes, who I spoke to a few weeks ago. Her new book Love Me, is out now. She’ll be speaking at the Blue Mountain Cafe in East Dulwich on 4 Feb.
Here’s the interview.
Barack Obama, happiness
In happiness on January 21, 2009 at 1:07 pm
In his inaugural address yesterday newly sworn-in President Obama made a reference to Americans’ right to happiness. He’s clearly a man with deep religious conviction. It’s interesting to note he sees it as a God-given right.
He said:
“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
Source, BBC News website
In Dulwich OnView, new content on January 16, 2009 at 11:12 am
India, Sanjeev Bhaskar
In what i'm reading on January 8, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I’ve just finished Sanjeev Bhaskar’s book accompanying his BBC ONE series last year. He travelled around India with a camera crew in search of two things – the old India in which his parents had grown up and of which he heard tales as a child, and the new India, a centre of technological innovation and global commerce.
I must say after seeing the TV programmes, I was a bit disappointed with the first half of the book. He seems to travel from city to city, just telling the reader what’s there. But when he gets into the social, religious and political history of India in the C20th, it gets much livelier and his prose becomes more emotional. At the time of Partition in 1947 his parents were part of the huge migration from Pakistan into what we now call India. Although he wasn’t born at the time, it’s an event which has clearly remained in the memory of his family. This, and many other occurances, make for an emotionl and personal book, sensitively written.
Scroobius Pip
In happiness on January 7, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Quite excited today. Have just confirmed that I’m going to interview Scroobius Pip this week for the Happiness project. Good to get a popular name on board so early in the project. I’ll post the results of my interview in the happiness section of the site when I’m done.
Iran, Marjin Satrapi, Persepolis
In what i'm reading on January 4, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I’ve just read Persepolis by Marjin Satrapi. It’s the first graphic novel I’ve ever read. This weekend’s newspapers inform me that the term ‘graphic novel’ is a bit too serious, but likewise, calling it a ‘comic’ doesn’t do it justice. In fact I think it’s an incredibly versatile way of telling a story.
I was gripped throughout. In the past I’ve worked on a gallery display about ancient Iran and I’m currently working on an exhibition about an Iranian Shah from the 1600s, so the content was all quite timely for me. I bought a copy for my aunt for Christmas. I wonder what she thought of it?
