My Creative Everyday

Southwark Bandstand Did you know?  1. Heavy & bulky sliding box cameras were the standard design of the 1840s & early 1850s.  2. Captain Francis Fowke patented the 1st British camera to use concertina-pattern pleated bellows in 1856.  3. Invented for & used by the Royal Engineers, these cameras were advertised as the most portable & lightest in use. 4. Fowke was one of the most important British architects of the 19th century (The Royal Albert Hall, The Natural History Museum and the V&A), but his other inventions include a military fire engine, an improved umbrella & a portable bath.  5. The original bandstand in Southwark Park was one of a pair designed by Fowke in 1861, commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society for gardens in South Kensington. 6. Bandstands provided a focal point in parks & the Victorians thought 'good music would free the mind of urban griminess & humanise the industrial landscape'. 7. In their heyday in the ...

Read the final Write On! magazine feature of a special three-part series on ChatGPT. In " The Future of Writing & AI ," I interviewed Dr Blay Whitby, who I approached after reading his book Artificial Intelligence: A Beginners Guide (2008). I love how our conversation even related the invention of electric guitars to technology and what lies ahead for us. 🎸 I was pretty excited to interview Dr Whitby since he's been writing about AI since 1984 and I'd read one of his books which gave me some really interesting insights into AI. Also, Dominic Jarkey, a senior R Programmer and data scientist, provides a fascinating perspective. I hadn't expected bird identification, cats and weather prediction to come up! 🐦🐈‍⬛️⛅️ So, with ChatGPT upon us, are we like butterflies flapping our wings, buffeted by wind, or caterpillars about to undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis from a chrysalis? 🦋 Or do you think AI is another bubble of the tech boom? Interestingly, it is c...

Read the second in a special three part feature on ChatGPT in Write On! magazine -   "Art, Literacy & The Singular Literary Genius" , which centres around Doctor Omar Kholeif, Egyptian-born curator of exhibitions across six continents, whose work includes commissioning award-winning art, authoring, co-authoring, or editing 41 books.  What can technology do for people in the creative field, but also what about our digital literacy? Are we constantly feeling like we have to keep up, and why are some people more open and interested in ChatGPT? A big thank you to Dr Kholeif for his time, sharing his story and wise. Internet_Art, published by Phaidon Press is gorgeous in hardback if you're looking for an art coffee-table book.  I continued to draw on  Catherine and Imo's observations and insights. The MFA  City University students are in their final year and both working on their first novels. Their interview helps tie all three parts of this series.  Also m...