18th March, missed a recording last week, just as I was about to start the dog ran off and I had to run off after her. What has been happening? Thinking that I should be doing more recording I should probably be recording the sessions that I have given at Bower Ashton and for the Holburne Museum and recording the introduction to the project that I gave to the kids yesterday. I missed all that and it would have given me an interesting insight into what I have been talking to them about. But it was centred around the Holburne Gardens experiment and working on the plans as to how I should present this to my U4th to get the most out of it but a set of lesson plans and recording what I am doing both of those things would have been very good. Both of those things that I have missed! Reading... Dust and Magic again remembering how beautifully written it is, talking about topology, talking about maps, talking about exploring, talking about territory. And then reading the book Pause and Effect, which started off talking about perspective and viewpoint and narrative, and that has just started to mention plot, with the origin of the word coming from the old French for a bit of land. And that is an interesting connection through topology and exploration and journey and maps and walking, the connection between story and walking and journey, telling a story, going on a journey, narrative, some strange ways it all seems to tie in together, like Chaucer. I was talking to the students yesterday quite a lot about perspective, to the extent of being the voyeur of the flâneur, looking through the hedge, looking out on the world like a story teller or a narrator or an observer, seeing what is going on, looking through the fence, so you are sort of outside of it looking at the bench, thinking yourself into stories, or telling stories about the people who use the park, and what their stories might be. So I was talking to them also, showing them the photographs from last year, and talking about the images in terms of - if you put the character in then it tells a story, even though the story is not explicit it’s there, and if you have an image with two characters in the you have the conversation between them if you have a character even though it is not explicit you are immediately thinking about who it might be where they might have come from are they male or female what’s their life story, how do they relate to me, how do I relate to them. All those sorts of things, and then from the talk last night on the theory behind games it came up in the discussion at the end this thing between when you are in the game, and in character, but you can step out of character there was an interesting point about playing the game tomb raider and people if they made a beautiful jump they would be themselves - I made that beautiful jump - if they failed they would be in character, or step out of character - rather Lara failed to make that jump, and the game theorist was saying when he is playing tomb raider he is not even looking at the figure of Lara Croft, he is involved in the game so the figure, the avatar becomes irrelevant because you think yourself into that position while you are playing. There was also a lot of talk at the end about expertise and virtuosity in games playing, making me think a lot of musicianship and the fact that it can become a spectator sport, a bit like the Photoshop ping pong that I have been following a bit on the email. In the far east there are performances of games playing virtuosity, and other games players can pick up on that. And one of the points that the speaker made quite forcefully is that a lot of people who are looking at games theory are themselves games players - a periscope effect - that they are looking at it only from their own view point as games players. Right. Second gate.

Tags:HolburneSilver ProjectSydney Gardens ProjectSilver ProjectDust and MagicSilver ProjectGamesSilver ProjectVirtual RealitySilver ProjectPause and EffectSilver ProjectVoyeurism