Creative Commons edgital culture
On Friday as part of the deptford.tv series of launch events (which created a local context to explore the Creative Commons) there was a walk all over Deptford guided by Pete Pope and Ben Gidley. Starting at The Albany we went via Fordham park, past The Rubbish Fairy and Prangsta on New Cross Road and onto the Ben Pimlott building, the new purpose built facility for Goldsmiths. We were allowed to go onto the balcony and see the scribble sculpture close up. There was a terrific view of London, I especially relished the view of Olympia warehouse, a Victorian cast iron building at Convoys Wharf, which is mostly unknown to people in Deptford as the large site is enclosed by a 10ft wall. The beautiful shape of the twin roofs which covered the slipways is the hidden crown of Deptfords invisible history. Next we went to Bearspace cafe on Deptford high street, which is a calm oasis. At each stop we watched a short documentary built using the clips from the Deptford.tv video database. Participants were able to discuss architecture, film theory and technology in situ. Next we went to the Laban via the Thomas Archer masterpiece St.Pauls Church. Inside the Laban, we had a quick guided tour by a well meaning staff member who was blissfully unaware of the irony when she pointed out 'a feature' through the window saying "and you've got Deptford over there, which is an up and coming area."
After a visit to a participants home in Stowage, where the very personal story of how legacy film and video footage has been digitized into a legacy for local-social historians and The Creative Commons, we went to Deckspace inside the old Greenwich Borough Hall building for our last tea and cake, a nice sit down and a chat. In summary the walk was very much a clarion call for how culture at the edge (which I term edgital) is actually at the centre of whats really happening now. It was like looking into a crystal ball to see how digital technologies in combination with Free Software and Copyleft are transforming the social and historical landscape.
posted by andreworford ªº @ 9:21 pm
2 comments
2 Comments:
Terrific stuff! You managed to put together a walk that took in almost all of my favourite landmarks! How do I get on the waiting list?
One question, though: What's Deckspace? I really want to go inside the Greenwich Borough Hall, as it's certainly one of the buildings within walking distance of which I'm most fond.
As one Deptford blogger to another I salute you!
Deptford.tv (which is a collaboration of several parties) put together the walk - which was a one off. I cant see why such a similar walk cant be put together again. I will continue to publish my research on the 'hidden' architectures of Deptford, here at the blog. I will be paying attention to using new technologies, such as GPS, mobile, podcasting and Google Earth / Google Maps, etc.
Deckspace (run by James Stevens)inside Greenwich Borough Hall is the successor to Backspace in Clink Street (1996-99) whose old website gives more of an idea of the genesis of the current Deckspace in Greenwich. The basic idea is to provide a flexible media lab which functions as a social nexus for people who want to 'do anything' digital or otherwise. James is a very approachable person with a sense of humour and a 'can do' attitude, he has helped many projects become enabled.
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