Is it possible to feel nostalgia for times you haven’t lived through? Somehow, this did it for me: London 1927 from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.
May 092013
Mar 052013
I’ve stopped using Facebook and Twitter for Lent. I thought this might prove difficult, given how easy it is to log in and spend time on them without really meaning to. But it’s not. Change the passwords to something random you can’t remember, don’t tell your browser, and remove anything from your phone that might push a notification into your pocket and make your ears burn. Social media works by making you think that you need to be connected, need to be fighting off messages with a repost here, a witty comment there, a rebuttal there. But you don’t need this; you didn’t need it before you signed up for Read full post >>
Jan 302013
I’ve started a photography evening class, to try and make sure that some of what I do with my free time doesn’t resemble work. When I was a teenager I did quite a lot of black-and-white film photography. I was not a terribly happy teenager at boarding school, and like many teenagers I used to retreat to a dark room to get away from myself. There was something I really liked about the methodical nature of the work: developing films, finding my way around in complete blackness and in red light, and watching the images appear like magic in the developing tray. Later me and my dad built a darkroom in Read full post >>
Feb 042011
Here is my new favourite toy. Have a play when you have a spare hour. Quite apart from its elegance and beauty as a means of displaying information, it reminds me of the potential of new technology and the astonishing generosity of the people that design it and make it openly available for all to benefit from. It’s an antidote, however temporary, to cynicism and jadedness.
Oct 282010
I have spent a significant amount of time since I got here trying to get my phone unlocked by o2. After all the grief, hours of wasted time and farcically inept customer ‘service’, and just as I was on the verge of sending my phone back to the UK so that my parents could tap in an 8-digit code to unlock it (because that’s what o2 told me I had to do), well…. I’ve only gone and done the bloody thing myself with the help of an internet phone-hacking site! This has saved me €30-odd, though I can’t get back the many hours I spent on the phone to those Read full post >>