Drone Island #Bebopyourworld

I was out flying again yesterday and managed to capture my son playing in the nearby islands. I find it really wonderful that he will have such films about his life captured in this way and it's another reminder of how drone technology is providing new memories of our lives. In the end, the best drone cinema experiences may be those simple, personal movies that are made, which tell us more about what life we have had. Oblivious to my filming him, or the wider perspective on where he is located, the film situated him within the place far more effectively than he could ever hope to perceive from ground level. I have no idea what he will make of a film like this when he is grown up, but, as his parent, I am sure I will find it very moving to look back and know more fully that he had all of this around him growing up and I think drone film making has the potential to make us feel this way, one way or another, wherever we live. That wider perspective we have on the world around us is simply breath taking.

My First Dronie

freeflight-3-8d9ea9-h900

We are half way through the 12 month Project Daedalus, a Nesta Digital R&D for the Arts creative technology research prohect in which we have been exploring the creative potential of drones. Over this period, I've been learning to fly drones and am at a point where I feel pretty comfortable with control sticks, the conventional way of flying. However, the new Parrot Bebop drone uses a mobile device for flight. It's a very differnt experiece. The interface looks like this on the screen of the iPhone I use. The camera of the drone is visible as the background, with the controls overlaid onto it, from which you can control flight and camera.

So, after spending a few flights practicing, including some quite hair raising moments, here you have my first effort at shooting a dronie.  One of the tricky things about the dronie is that controls are back to front, but this the first time I tried to think about film making while flying, which feels like a big step. Next is to choreograph an actual story.

ps. A Dronie is the new Selfie :)

Our digital future?

My latest piece published in The Conversation takes a look at the Manifesto pledges from a digital point of view.

Science Communication & Chester Zoo

Yesterday, I spent the day at Chester Zoo, filming with our Brazilian PhD researcher Luiza Passos, who is working with the Golden Mantella frog, a species under threat in Madagascar, under the supervision of Professor Robert Young. In the afternoon, I gave a talk for Heads of Depts at the Zoo, talking about science communication opportunities. It was such a refreshing and engaging discussion and we've got so much to do, not least of which is working to build a really exciting and creative documentary programme around the amazing science that is happening at the zoo!

#TotalEclipse

The morning started off without much expectation. I was Googling how to shoot the eclipse 15 mins before capturing this (nothing helped). Luckily, the cloud coverage was just right for this kind of shot.  

The future of universities

Article published in Zocalo, picked up by TIME:  

Students will be in the driver’s seat — Andy Miah

Technology will force universities to re-define their role within 21stcentury life, and this has a lot to do with the DIY generation, who figure out what they need to know via Google and Wikipedia. These platforms are the equivalent of the single-celled organisms that gave birth to humanity’s evolution.

In a world where learning experiences are ubiquitous and we rely less and less on institutions to deliver them, technology forces universities to re-think what they offer in the 21st century. Universities are no longer the gatekeepers of new knowledge, even less so with the rise of citizen science experiments, where non-experts can gather important data, and alternative qualification options, such as Mozilla Open Badges.

Students of tomorrow will want flexible, mobile-enabled learning experiences that are as compelling as film or theatre. The success of TED talks is indicative of the changing demands on teachers today and the changing attention economy of the new generation. Universities need to think carefully about how to curate learning experiences, making each lecture truly memorable and life-changing. The classroom now has to empower students to set the agenda and drive their own learning.

As we move into an era of sentient computing, universities need also to see technology not just as a vehicle for communicating ideas or enriching learning, but as a co-collaborator. Computers will become entities onto which students will project learning expectations. The machines will teach us, they will also learn, and they will spend more time with students than a lecturer ever can. If we want humans to remain at the heart of that interaction, we then need to really reconsider what we offer that they can’t.

Andy Miah is a professor and chair in science communication and future media at the University of Salford in Manchester, England. Follow him on Twitter @Andymiah.

OK Glass? The Aspirations and Anxieties of the Google Glass Generation

My first talk for the School of Arts and Media at the University of Salford, Manchester ;)

Salford Sonic Fusion Festival

As each month passes @SalfordUni, there is another amazing thing happening. The other week it was #SonicFusion, directed by Prof Stephen Davismoon who just happens to be best mates with Prof Eduardo Miranda, a remarkable composer and AI researcher at Plymouth, whom I have worked with and known for a few years now. There is a staggering amount of experimental innovation at Salford University and this weekend of really provocative and beautiful audio visual experiences was no exception. Here's what I grabbed during the weekend:

One teacher per student

This week, I was in Seoul presenting at the Global Education Dialogue run by the British Council and co-hosted by hte Korean Council for University Education. The conference focused on the role of technology in the race for global talent and my talk developed the idea of 'intelligent learning systems' that can enable universities to get to a point where their staff student ratio is 1 to 1. Here's the @prezi

Are mirrors becoming obsolete?

On Valentines Day, I was quoted in The Times for an article about the replacement of mirrors by screens. Here's a link to the article, but here's the full quotes I gave to Kaya Burgess, the article's author:

"As screens rapidly replace mirrors to occupy the reflective space in our lives, we find ourselves in a novel moment in history where we could, if we choose, actually see ourselves as others see us, rather than see the flipped version that mirrors generate. Yet, so far, we are sticking with the familarity of the reflected image. If selfie culture is realy about vanity and narcissism, then we might be smarter to use the screens to present us with what others see when they gaze in our direction and, if we do, the whole idea of reflection may become redundant. In 50 years, we might look upon our reflected selves with a degree of trepidation and anxiety.

"With the growing attention of the internet of things, the idea of smart mirrors is becoming ever more appealing. You could wake up in the morning and look into your smart mirror, which would quickly analyse your health and tell you if you are coming down with an illness, or whether you need to do a bit more exercise or get more sleep. Of course, these mirrors will not be mirrors at all, they will be ultra high definition screens, capable of providing all kinds of augmented reality content that will, hopefully, enrich our lives rather htan scare us all to death."

mHealth and the Wearable Technology Revolution

Today @SalfordUni, the Business School hosts a symposium on Digital Innovation, focusing on health applications. Here's my @prezi  

Drones for Good?

Today, I published a piece on #drones for @conversationUK, which explores some of the new applications that are emerging and which were showcased at the Drones for Good international prize in the UAE last weekend. Here's the piece in full.

Future City 2015

On 10th Feb, I will be the MC for an event run by the @UKTI in Paris looking tagged #FutureCity2015. In relation to this, I  was asked also to make a film that would open the event, focusing discussion around new opportunities and foregrounding a number of technological changes to cities that are imminent.

Here it is:

The event is principally for business and will look like this.

09:30 Welcome by His Excellency Sir Peter Ricketts

British Ambassador to France

09:40 Current opportunities in France

Caroline Maurand, French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy

10:05 Focus on the Grand Paris Project

Serge Dupont, Société du Grand Paris

10:20 Current opportunities in the UK

Dan Byles MP

10:45 Focus on London Regeneration Projects

Sue Vincent, Urban Design London

11:00 Coffee Break and Networking

11:30 Inspiring Case Studies in the UK:

Introduction to the Greenwich Automated Transport Environment (GATEway) project

Pierre Lefèvre, Greenwich GATEway project

Value from the Work of Many Hands

David Roberts, Igloo Regeneration

Paris-London – communicating vessels?

Michel Mossessian, Mossessian & Partners

12:15 Inspiring Case Studies in France:

French Placemaking British style – a collaborative hands-on approach

Kathryn Anderson, Barton Willmore

Grand Lyon

Gilles Vesco , Grand Lyon

The FFR Grand Stade – An urban catalyst

François Clément, Populous UK

13:00 Networking Lunch

14:00 Pre-arranged 20 minutes one to one B2B meetings between

French and British companies until 17:00

10 years on @Flickr

This month, I will have been using the photo sharing platform @Flickr for 10 years, posting nearly 1,000 photos per year. For a while, Flickr seemed to lose pace, as other new photo mobile applications like Instagram and even Twitter image came about. However, for a big screen, high-res photo experience, it is still the most beautiful place to visit and I am still 100% behind it. Here is a journey through that decade, with a few highlight images.

2004: At the Athens 2004 Olympic Games with my awesome friend Martin Yelling, athlete, commentator, genius.

2005: The Long March to Freedom, part of the Make Poverty History campaign, Edinburgh

2006: Who's Who in the World? Me, apparently lol

2007: No Nano, Grenoble - while there on a project about nanotechnology :)

2008: Human Futures at FACT, Yann Marrusich, Bleu Remix

2009: De Militarized Zone, Korea

2010: The Reactable, a curious musical instrument, used by Bjork

2011: Christchurch, New Zealand, after the quake

2012: The Scissor Sisters play the Tower of London, around London 2012

2013: West Kirby, home

2014: Sochi 2014 Olympic Games

2015: Rae Morris, Liverpool

Rae Morris opens in Liverpool

Last night, I went along to shoot Rae Morris' first gig in her UK tour, which launches her debut album. It was an extraordinary night and she's clearly going places. A huge treat was also to hear Fryars, who are phenomenal, quirky, and all kinds of interesting. Here are some shots from the night.  

The Internet of Things, Big Data, and Future Media - Implications for Education

Today, I am giving a talk at the #BETT2015 Show in London and also participating in a panel on social media in education. It's a huge event and I've never been before, so it will be fun to discover what it's all about. It's still early days for the Internet of Things in education, so there's a lot to talk about and I'll post slides here at the end of the day, summarising my talk and some of the discussions.

Digital Utopias

Tomorrow, I am compèring the Digital Utopias conference, an event curated by @ANDfestival and produced by @GoogleUK @ACE_NAtional @Hull2017 @theSpaceArts and @BritishCouncil It's an extraordinary programme. Here's the brief:

Digital Utopias is a one-day conference which will inspire and incite debate about how new technologies are enabling creativity across the arts. The conference aims to capture topical and diverse approaches to curation, archiving, collecting and creating from a range of art forms, from the visual arts to theatre.

The event will provide an opportunity to discuss new tools and emergent practice, whilst delegates will connect with international arts organisations and specialists in the field to unpick the creative and critical challenges facing organisations today.

and here's the programme:

Morning Sessions

Sessions in the main theatre will be compèred by Prof Andy Miah.

10:00-10:20

Welcome from Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair, Arts Council England and James Davis, Programme Manager, Director, Google Cultural Institute

Main Theatre

10:30-12:00

Debate: After the future

Main theatre

After the future examines how art is changing in the digital age and how new behaviours and systems are emerging in the creation, exhibition, interpretation and dissemination of art. Through sharing recent and historical examples, the panel will examine the challenges of classifying a growing and chaotic field. Asking questions such as; What are the practical challenges and values, which should inform the future? And how can our media art history inform the sector?

Chair: Sarah Cook, Morgan Quaintance, Ruth Mackenzie (The Space) and Jon Thomson (Thomson and Craighead)

Or choose from the following sessions:

10:30-12:00

Clinic: What to do with your data?  

Rehearsal space

Puzzled by Open data, big data and meta data? You are not alone!  Led by CEO Gavin Starks and Art Associate Julie Freeman, this Open Data Institute session demonstrates what art organisations can do with their data and the small steps you can make right away.

Led by CEO of ODI Gavin Starks and Julie Freeman.

10:30-11:30

Showcase: Presentation and talk by James Davis, Programme Manager at the Google Cultural Institute 

Studio theatre

Google Creative Lab UK will talk about their chrome web experiments, games and prototypes.

12:00-13:00

Lunch  lower and upper foyer

Afternoon Sessions

13:00-14:30

Debate: Disruptive Innovation

Main theatre

This panel will unpick alternative models of “innovation” through examining production models and their cultural value. Interdisciplinary artistic practice can create new platforms, resources and art forms,  but what are the benefits to artistic practice and how can cultural appropriation be avoided?

Led by Tatiana Bazzichelli (Curator and writer) Memo Akten (Artist), Lynn Scarff (Programme Director of The Science Gallery) and Jose Luis de Vicente (curator and researcher).

Or choose from the following sessions:

13:00-13:45

Showcase: Designing Performance (Performance & Interactivity)

Studio theatre

From sensory performances to projection mapping technologies, we invite The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Sarah Ellis, artists Marshmallow Laser Feast and theatre company Extant to discuss how performance is being enhanced by new technologies and the challenges of live performance in the flesh and online.

13:00-14:30

Clinic: Archiving & preserving in the Digital age

Rehearsal space

How do we ensure long-term access to digital information through collecting, archiving and preservation? This session gives hands on tips for museums, curators and collectors on both moving image and social media archiving.

Led by Dragan Espenchied, Rhizome  and Luke Collins from Lux, Scotland.

14:00-14:45

Showcase: Copy and Paste (Literature & Publishing)

Studio theatre

Changes in technology have played pivotal roles in literature (from Gutenberg to GoogleDocs) and we invite showcases from writers, publishers and software developers who are looking at everything from generative writing, books as code and alternative distribution models.

Led by Jim Hinks, Comma Press and Joanna Ellis from the Writing Platform.

Afternoon break – 15 mins

Choose from:

14:45-16:15

Debate: Activate the Public Space

Main theatre

The public space is augmented with information, networks, forces, bodies, buildings and technology. How do we define the public space? How do we create work for a time where the distinction between being offline and online is harder distinguish. We hear from a range of organisations, who have opened up new social spaces, data and communities through gaming, networked objects and growing DIY communities.

Led by Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield) Prof Jennifer Gabrys (artist), MolMol (Yes Yes No) and Iain Simons (GameCity).

15:00-15:45

Showcase: Curating Networks

Studio theatre

Curating Networks showcases projects that rethink ideas of authenticity, ownership and authorship in relation to archives, collections and traditional formats and gallery spaces.

Led by Katrina Sluis (Photographers Gallery), and Irini Papadimitriou (V&A) and Hullcraft (Joel Mills and Hannah Rice) University of Hull.

16:15

Closing remarks

Main theatre

16:45-17:30

Showcase: Crafting Code (Art and Science)

Studio theatre

Crafting Code explores the role of new materials in art production and how data can be materialised, examining the interchangeable role of artists, engineers and makers. We invite presentations on the ‘algorithmic’ opportunities this expanding field is developing, from design, digital sculpture and science to 3D modelling & wearable technology.

Speakers include Karen Gaskill (Crafts Council), Gretchen Andrew and Matthew Plummer-Fernandez.

16:45-18:00 Clinic: R&D as serious play

Rehearsal space

This session will bring together representatives from a selection of recent R&D projects to discuss how to design and manage a process that is playful and serious at the same time. Facilitated by a representative from the Digital R&D Fund, each representative will share their experience, before moving into a panel discussion and workshopping ideas with the audience. Creative technology projects are not just about delivering an end product - managing a R&D process which is creative, useful and rewarding for all parties is where the magic happens.

17:00-18:00 Networking Drinks

Foyer

18:00-18:30

Performance: The Measures Taken

Main theatre

The day will finish with an immersive digital art work. ‘The Measures Taken’ is a collaboration between Marshmallow Laser Feast and Alexander Whitley Dance Company. Both a dialogue, and a duet between human movement and the digital world, this performance promises to be visually striking and kinetically charged.

- See more at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/jobs-and-conferences/conferences/digital-utopias/programme/#sthash.ymmObLsu.dpuf

Credit: Karl Andre Photography

RIP Google Glass?

GoogleGlassGoodbye

Today, I received an email from Google Glass, telling me that it's over! Here's what they had to say:

and I am also posting the 'memories' file they sent us - 'Volume 001 as they put it (how many volumes are expected?!). I will write a piece about this over the next few days, but what I find most fascinating is the sense in which this may be seen as a failure by critics. Certainly, we expect anything new to stick around for a while - even though we change our iPhones every couple of years hmm. Ok, well, maybe Google Glass for 2 years isn't so bad - but it's only been 6 months or so in the UK. That's a bit too brief.

It will still work of course, just no further development. But, so what? Does that matter? IT does enough as it is is and I can't imagine needing much support. Although, my first Glass did break due to overheating and the reflective foil of the projector bubbling up and rendering it unusable. The did send another one though, quickly. hmm, I don't know how to feel. Abandoned? Let down? Disappointed. Or, the owner of what will become a cult object - the first wearable camera, kind of.

Truth be told, I have had nothing but fun with this device, and the people who have tried it out have loved it. Here's the video I made from the IAAF World Junior Championships last year. This was typical.

So, I think I will stick with Glass for a while, but then RideOn just contacted me about these. Next..

eSports

This question frames a @BBC5Live debate tomorrow night I took part in @MediaCityUK . The show was in front of a live audience and went out on @BBC1 'red button' and Twitch, where it had 83,000 concurrent viewers. You can also tune in through the BBC Radio 5 Live channel. If you are nearby and would like to come to the live show, email me and let me know. I can put you on the audience list.

Here's the full brief and deets:

We have a special programme tomorrow night which you can hear on BBC Radio 5 live and watch via the BBC Sport website and Twitch, as we explore Gaming, and the Rise of the Cyber Athlete. With computer game events now attracting thousands of spectators, the industry has teams, managers, star players, they compete in the X Games, and there's even a transfer window - so is it a sport? We'll be debating that question with those involved in eSports on Thursday 15 January from 8.30-10pm.

We’ll be broadcasting from the Blue Room at Quay House in MediaCity, Salford, in front of a live audience. It’ll have a Top Gear feel to it – with refreshment provided to all

Take a look at this cool new tech from RideOn, which I mentioned in the prog, showing how augmented reality is fusing with real world sport experience to create a hybrid gaming experience.

Uploaded by Alon Getz on 2014-12-04.

A career in sports broadcasting?

Back in the summer of 2014, the International Amateur Athletic Federation brought me in to give some social media training for their athletes at the World Junior Championships. The others involved were the extremely accomplished Olympians Ato Boldon, Joanna Hayes, and Charmaine Crooks. While there, I conducted this interview with Ato Boldon, to give people an insight into a career in sports broadcasting. The interview focuses on what Ato did while he was competing to start making his way into this highly competitive industry.

By the way, in case you are wondering about the t-shirt, the back story is from the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, when the Opening Ceremony ring display failed to open. It became a bit of a meme online, so there is an interesting story in terms of social media and sport behind it. Read more here