The Shift-Time Blogging Project

Martin Smith has been in Holland witnesing the testing of Umerus before Theo Jansen brings it to Shrewsbury next week. He’s writing up his experiences on his blog but here are some of the first shots he sent from his phone:

Check in here for more

Tweetup is the rather cringeworthy name for a meeting of Twitter users in a local area. Twitter, like most social networking services, brings people together who would otherwise not have met. And being people there’s often a desire to meet up offline. (See also the Shropshire Flickr Community who meet up regularly to take photos together.)

The Shropshire Tweetup started in June and plans to meet every month. The next one will be in Telford and the date is currently being finalised with the 18th looking popular.

You can get a snapshot of Twitter usage in Shropshire by looking at this search for activity in the area but it won’t make much, if any, sense. A better snapshot might be the Shropshire Twibe (again, excuse the terminology) which lists people who have explicitly declared themselves to be from Shropshire.

Like most social environments, the best way to get involved with Twitter is to follow people you already know and take it from there. But if you don’t know anyone casting the net wide with the above might help.

Just remember, at first glance Twitter doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s rather like recording random 10 second snippets of conversation in a crowded pub, editing them together and expecting coherence. The trick is to hang out in the pub.

Sue Tortoise has uploaded some photos of the Primordial Soup sculptures that will be on display along the river bank in Quarry Park next weekend. Here’s a slideshow:

Shropshire-based artist Martin Smith is in Holland meeting Theo Jansen prior to him coming to Shrewsbury to build Umerus next Thursday. He’s blogging his progress and experimenting with livblogging from from the beach. I’ve embedded the live blog below - scroll down for the most recent entries. If you have a question for Theo stick it in the box at the bottom!

Wren Miller, half of Wren and Ray, has been posting photos on her Facebook chronicling the development of The Remembrance Path, a participatory art exhibition in the Quarry Park that’ll be open over the weekend of the 4th and 5th.

She starts with the sketches:

Moves to their “workshop” in the Darwin Shopping Centre…

And finally the construction of the piece itself.

Most of the photos have detailed captions and following them through gives a great sense of what they’re trying to do here. Go check them out.

Getting involved in the Shift-Time blogging project is easy. Simply put something relevant on the Internet and let us know about it.

But if you need some help or want to do something a little more adventurous we’re holding a surgery on Tuesday 23rd at The Hive in Shrewsbury from 6-8pm. You can get help with the techy stuff from me, Pete Ashton, and talk to some of the organisers of the festival about getting official access to the events.

Bring your laptop if you like but there’ll be a couple of computers available. It’s run on a drop-in basis and I’ll be dealing with everyone in turn but will endeavour to spend 20 minutes or so with you.

If you can’t make the surgery you can always ask me stuff via Twitter.

Part of my role in the Shift-Time blogging project is to help nascent bloggers and such to do what they want to do. This stuff is easy but sometimes you need a nudge in the right direction. While the surgeries we’ve been running have been great they’re only useful if you have a question ready and can be at the Hive at the right time. The Internet is supposed to solve that sort of thing so here’s a possible solution.

If you’re using Twitter you can ask me stuff. Simply prefix your message with @askpeteashton and I’ll answer it through my Ask Pete Ashton account.

The idea is it’ll force you to break your question down to the essentials and because I’m unable to ramble on and on I’m more likely to answer you in a timely manner. 140 characters have their advantages.

If it turns out to be a bigger question and if I have the time I’ll get in touch for a more detailed answer. But I’m hoping most of it can be dealt with here.

This isn’t an exclusive service for Shift-Time but if you mention the festival I’ll prioritise your tweet, as it were.

I wrote more about the service on my ASH-10 blog.

Lovely to see a Shift-Time Flickr group has been formed without any input from the Shift-Time organisers. It appears to have spun out of the Shropshire Community group and is open to all. If you’re posting photos from Shift-Time to Flickr add them to this group. We’ll be monitoring the group pool and posting the most interesting shots on this blog.

Here’s a slideshow of the most recent photos in the pool. Right now there’s not much there, obviously, but it’ll soon grow.

Steve Green went along to Belvedere School to have a look at the preparations for Naturebots. He’s written quite extensively, took a bunch of photos and posted the video they gave him to YouTube:

I was on the phone today to my new best buddy Dick Strawbridge of ‘Its’ Not Easy Being Green’ fame. He’s speaking in Shrewsbury on Sunday night as part of the Darwin Science & Adventure Lecture series. His talk is all about the Evolution of Engineering so I mentioned Quantum Leap, our own engineering miracle that’s taking shape on the banks of the River Severn opposite Shrewsbury Theatre Severn where his lecture is being staged. Check out the cage that’s been constructed to support the structure whilst it’s being built. It looks seriously industrial but the arch itself will be surprisingly elegant once it’s finished.

The design is inspiring but it’s also the kind of engineering challenge Dick would appreciate. There have been moments of serious head-scratching I can tell you but it’s coming together and I’m very excited.