The British Broadcasting Corporation is in my view the best broadcaster in the world, and today it’s under attack from commercial rivals and politicians (primarily in the Conservative Party) backed by those same rivals (notably members of the Murdoch family). The BBC, in response, is proposing its own cutbacks in services. It’s the thin end of the wedge.

Unfortunately, the current Director General, Mark Thompson, who got the job in the wake of the Gilligan debacle, and his colleagues at the top of the Corporation, have historically seemed to lack a backbone as far as standing up to critics of the Corporation is concerned. Instead of fighting back, in fact, the BBC and the BBC Trust seem to be taking the view that when threatened, you should throw in the towel and do what the opposition demands, however contradictory, ill-advised or short-sighted. The likely result, it seems to me, is the emasculation of the Corporation and the degrading of a magnificent institution, the envy of the world.

In addition, offering to make cuts is the thin end of the wedge. Just as the skimming off of the licence fee to fund digital switchover provided a precedent for skimming for other purposes, so a decision to make voluntary (or involuntary) cuts provides a precedent for more cuts. We already know the Tories want to dismember the BBC, and this is just starting their dirty work for them.

The Murdoch family, conscious that the world of newspapers is changing dramatically, want to try and halt the tide of change rather than going with it and seeing what new innovations they can come up with. It’s rather like the record companies trying to hold back change by making their customer the enemy. Both will fail. However, the Murdochs may cause extensive collateral damage before they realise this, and nowhere is this of more concern to me than in the case of the BBC.

Thus it is that today the BBC Trust has published a Strategy Review for public consultation. It recommends closing BBC Radio 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network, reducing the content of the BBC Web Site – one of the most popular in the world – by 25%, and other measures. You can find the actual review itself here. You can also read the commentary of the BBC Chairman, Michael Lyons, on the review.

We licence payers have the ability to comment on the proposals, and I recommend that you do so. This can be done via an online survey which asks a series of questions based on the proposals.

If you are concerned as I am about the proposals, I also urge you to sign the petition at avaaz.org. Petitions have swayed the BBC in the past. There is also a petition at 38 Degrees.

I thought I would include here my answers to the questions posed in the Online Consultation questionnaire. I hope you find them of interest. I’ve also written some additional comments on the situation in the Transdiffusion MediaBlog.

BBC Strategy Review: My Response

The BBC’s strategic principles

Do you think these are the right principles?

The only thing I am concerned about is “Doing fewer things”. Why do fewer things? In particular the web site is a marvellous resource and worth every penny. The BBC should be doing unique things that nobody else can be bothered to do, and the web site is one such. Radio 6 Music is another.

The BBC needs to offer quality and originality, and the web site, Radio 6 Music and the Asian Network deliver these.

Should the BBC have any other strategic principles?

The fundamental Reithian principles of “Inform, Educate and Entertain” still work well in today’s environment. The BBC has a duty to deliver these to the public that pays for it. That means adopting new technologies and new delivery methods, and giving them the funding they need to do the job well.

The BBC is in a lose/lose situation in that if it produces popular programming, commercial rivals will moan that it stifles competition. If it produces high-quality and original programming that attracts relatively few viewers and listeners, people will say it’s wasting money.

Thus the BBC needs to unequivocally commit itself to quality and originality and make it clear that by making the programmes the commercial competitors will not make, it is bound to lose viewers and listeners, and that this is an inevitable consequence of such a strategy. Thus criticism of the size of viewing and listening audiences must be ruled as irrelevant and this must be made perfectly clear.

Proposed principle: Putting Quality First

Which BBC output do you think could be higher quality?

There are broad areas where a channel or station could offer “higher quality”, but primarily by dropping programming of a lowest common denominator nature. One could argue that general entertainment programming with very expensive celebrities, for example, or reality shows (were the BBC to consider doing them in the future), can be left to the commercial stations. That doesn’t mean that the output of the BBC in these areas is not of “high quality”, but that the types of programming themselves are not original or of high quality.

Offering you something special

Which areas should the BBC make more distinctive from other broadcasters and media?

Celebrity chat shows and reality TV are not distinctive. Anyone can do them.

Factual programming is a particular area where the BBC already is distinctive, and this can be improved by taking advantage of the fact, for example, that there are no commercial breaks, and thus no perceived need for incessant recaps. The audience can be treated as intelligent and given a well-paced story, without having to be reminded of past points all the time or taking three steps forward and two back on each subtopic.

The BBC Web site and its range of services is distinctive and unlike any other offering, with its broad spectrum of news, comment, information and blogs. This needs to be developed further and take full advantage of new technology.

Stations like Radio 6 music, Radio 3 and Radio 4 offer distinctive programming and music that cannot be heard elsewhere. Radio 3 is nothing like Classic FM, for example. There should be more specialist programming not less.

In general, the BBC is not being distinctive when it produces programming similar to that found on commercial stations and channels. The BBC’s strengths include factual and documentary programming, high quality modern and period drama, linking into new technology such as the web site and iPlayer, and music radio that escapes from the mainstream.

The Five Editorial Priorities

Do these priorities fit with your expectations of BBC TV, radio and online services?

Yes, they do.

Proposed principle: Doing fewer things and doing them better

We welcome your views on these areas.

Closing Radio 6 Music and the Asian Network are in direct conflict with the goal of “Offering something special”. While one might argue that ultimately there should be no need for an “Asian Network” as a separate entity, we are not there yet.

However in particular when considering Radio 6 Music, this kind of service – a service that a commercial broadcaster would not consider offering – is exactly the kind of thing the BBC should be doing and closing it runs contrary to previously-stated criteria.

In addition, radio is cheap – you could close BBC 3 and save a dozen specialist radio stations.

The BBC Web site is also fine as it is. I enjoy the breadth and depth of coverage, which is unmatched by other operators, not because the competition is stifled but because the competition simply cannot be bothered to do it this well.

I do not regard limiting the scope of the BBC web site as being in line with principles of excellence, originality or public service. We pay for the BBC and we have a right to the best possible service from it.

Arguably, nobody could do a web site better – it is one of the most popular in the entire world. Restricting its scope comes across as a knee-jerk response to criticism and not in line with stated strategic goals.

I would like to see BBC local radio remain locally generated as far as possible. There are plenty of people who would volunteer to produce and present locally-based programming outside drive time given access to BBC resources, for example.

I do not have particular views on other areas mentioned in this section.

Proposed principle: Guaranteeing access to BBC services

If you have particular views on how you expect BBC services to be available to you, please let us know.

I do not have any particular views on this section at present.

The BBC archive

Please tell us if you have views on this area.

The BBC is the greatest broadcaster in the world and it has a history of programming stretching back to the 1920s. In the past dreadful sacrifices have been made in the name of cost-effectiveness that have resulted in priceless coverage of international events, unique drama and other programming being irretrievably lost. Much of BBC coverage of the Apollo XI mission was taped over for example.

Maintaining a comprehensive BBC Archive is vital going forward and the mistakes of the past, resulting in irretrievable loss of our cultural heritage, must not be repeated in the future. We need to save the unique programming and output for ourselves and for future generations.

In addition to being archived, programming should be available to the public online and/or via viewing/listening environments like those offered by the BFI.

Proposed principle: Making the licence fee work harder

If you are concerned about the BBC’s value for money, please tell us why.

I have no specific views on this beyond suggesting that as far as salaries, expenses and similar areas of expenditure are concerned, I expect the Corporation always to be aware of cost and to negotiate the best possible deal. I expect contracts and expenses, for example, to be at levels generally regarded as standard in the industry.

Proposed principle: Setting new boundaries for the BBC

Do you think that the BBC should limit its activities in these areas?

No.

Just because your commercial competitors say you should or shouldn’t be doing something doesn’t mean that you should listen to them or that they are talking sense.

Closing 6 Music reduces the output of unique original programming and runs counter to other strategic goals. It also saves only a tiny bit of money in real terms.

Reducing purchases of overseas dramas is not a valid decision if you are intent on offering audiences the best. There are some areas of drama where no UK production can match the quality of programming made overseas, notably in the USA. Denying BBC viewers high quality content simply because it wasn’t made here is absurd.

Equally, there are areas where the BBC is second to none, and I am sure the Corporation does its best to sell these shows overseas and thus facilitate additional services without requiring an increase in the licence fee.

Reducing the scope of the BBC website makes no sense at all in terms of quality of service criteria. The web site as it stands offers a unique service that is unparalleled, not because competition is stifled but because nobody can be bothered to try. It is a unique service, just like, say, the Guardian’s online offerings. In different ways, I am happy to pay for both.

The BBC sets the standards here and in many other areas. Because the BBC had an original, brilliant idea doesn’t mean to say that they have to give it up because the commercial boys didn’t think of it themselves or see how they could make money from it.

I see no reason why the BBC should restrict or reduce its local offerings. Nobody else is going to do it, whatever they say. There is little or no money to be made there but there is a service that can be provided. Public service is part of the BBC’s remit. I do not have views on other proposals in this section.

Should any other areas be on this list?

I would seriously consider whether BBC 3 meets criteria for quality and originality. The few original programmes would be entirely appropriate on BBC 2 or perhaps BBC 4 for example.

My fundamental view is that there are no areas of service that the BBC provides that I am not happy to pay for. However if you are intent on making cuts, then closing BBC3 would save quite a number of radio stations.

This website is dedicated to Brigit!

We honour Her and What She Signifies, The Healing of Our World

Last night, on the 31st January, the Eve of Brigit’s Day, I moved into action, re-invigorating a very ancient tradition of honoring the ancient ‘Celtic’ fire Goddess Brigit: Her name may be spelt variously, especially as regards the use of ‘d’ or ”t’ (Brigid/Brigit), which are very closely linked. She is also endearingly known as Bride and Bridey–thus Brides’ Well or Brideswell–the name of my husband’s and my website: www.brideswell.com–signifying MUCH! The Goddess of Healing, Poetry and Birthing, is very well-connected (smile!)–as the many wells, especially in Ireland, contest.

In years gone by, my pal Kathy Jones (of Glastonbury UK Goddess Conference fame) and I, amongst others, revived the tradition of creating Bridey Dolls, birthing a yearly Bridey, appreciated through the year and beyond. So I too birthed a Bridey last night, attached my special California wand (normally it should be of some tree or bush that starts with a ‘b’), and swaddled her in an ornate Moroccan travelling pouch left by my old Wise Crone Cafe pal, Margaret Kimber. I stood at the door and knocked thrice, and each time my savvy goddess-wise husband (whose surname is that of the Great Goddess of the Trackways, Elen) correctly called out “Enter Bridey!” She entered our home officially and lives with us now, bringing Her Blessings. Tonight She will eat with us–’poundies’ (potatoes), eggs and lots of butter and cream–as milk and butter are especially associated with her. Her blessings on our house will be many, as She is a benevolent, healing Presence to a household who honours Her.

And for the first time I created a Brigit ‘brat‘ (wait for it!): I placed a piece of unwashed cloth,  a white (milk-colour) handmade shawl brought back from the recent 9th World Wilderness Congress in the Yucatan, out in our garden, as it is said that Brigit will come by and turn it into a magic cloth.  The full moon had risen (in Leo, my sun sign!), flooding the garden with clear and silvery enchantment; I placed the shawl on a prolific rosemary bush (associated with The Feminine, as Sage is with The Masculine). This morning, covered with dew and a dusting of silvery frost, I brought it it. It is now a healing blanket to be carried Where Need Be.

Brigit’s Time–Imbolc–heralds the coming of spring, when wee lambs start to appear in the hills and dales of this Magical Island of Britain, when ewes’ milk pours forth,  a by-product of which can be a lovely cheese!

My husband and I often visit our favourite local ‘holy well’ in yes, Holywell (near St Ives, Cambridgeshire). From being an overgrown bramble infested site some years ago, it’s been restored and cared for (THE GREAT RETURNING has its own natural momentum). Once there were many such such ‘holy wells’–too many have been sealed up or forgotten. They marked healing springs, where in olden times people would tie bits of cloth and other items on branches of trees and bushes nearby, as an indication of prayer for some healing necessity. There are still a few of these in Scotland and Cornwall. Most such wells and springs would have had some linked association with Brigit or a form of Brigit, often transposed onto some Christian saintly figure (males or female). Thus the ‘pagan’ Brigit became St Brigit, and Long May She Live in whatever form She chooses to take through these difficult times, when we sorely need Her Healing Touch.

Hail Brigit!

There are many celebrations in honour of Brigit…as The GREAT  RETURNING gets underway. As well as in Glastonbury (where the Goddess Tradition is alive and well!), back in my ‘home town’ of London, Ontario (Canada), The Circle up at Brescia College (at my old Alma Mater, University of Western Ontario) is sponsoring a Brigid (Brighid) Festival from 19-21 February: “Entering the Matrix…Being Betwixt and Between”, featuring the Irish scholar Mary Condren: “It will be a weekend of ritual, learning, community, art, movement, workshops and exploration as we reclaim the ancient female wisdom traditions of Old Europe through the figure of Brighid: http://www.brescia.uwo.ca/thecircle/brigit.htm;  Contact: The Circle circle@uwo.ca “. My good goddess-pal Penn Kemp, with whom I have facilitated a Great Returning workshop last autumn in London, is also one of the workshop facilitators.

Join us at the Findhorn Community in NE Scotland for Paths to Inner Guidance, 5–11 June, 2010

Presented by Leona with Rhiannon Hanfman: Faced with a variety of environmental, social and economic crises in the world and our individual lives—all demanding difficult personal choices—how can we find ways to walk the good talk and create positive change?  This week offers participants an opportunity to connect with their innate inner wisdom: ‘the still small voice within’.

Guidance comes in many forms; in this workshop we look at what form works best for us. We will explore the sequence of expressing gratitude, finding the right questions, using intuitive tools such as meditation and/or prayer, learning to be open and receiving answers—and then acting upon them.  Such tried and true disciplines encourage us to live more authentically and creatively. Learning to receive and follow true guidance creates a useful pathway by which to negotiate life’s complexities.

News Flash! The week includes a full one day version of the renowned ‘Transformation Game’. Rhiannon is a current Game Guide, whilst Leona was a keen Game Guide years back when The Game was first born and bred amongst Community members.

The Passing of a Grand Woman
Florence Boyd-Graham: Dec 22, 1913 – Nov 24, 2009

Florence was born in Toronto into the era of the First World War, lived through The Great Depression, and with her husband, Lt Cdr William A. Graham (RCN, RN, RCNR) and four (soon five) children, survived the Second World War in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The family moved back to Toronto, did another NS stint followed by over 50 years based in Oakridge Acres, London. Losing her mother Nell at age 15 impacted her greatly: she dedicated herself to mothering, followed by first class grand and great-grand-mothering.

Having seen her children through the various levels of higher education, she returned to University (the University of Western Ontario) herself in her late 70s, graduating with a BA/Hons BA (but did an equivalent of an MA) in Philosophy. During these years, she worked in Veterans Affairs, was a member of the United Church, the Unitarian Fellowship (a dedicated choir member in both), and the Albert Schweitzer Society, followed by the Raging Grannies (add ‘Reveling,’ she always said) who sing protest songs for good causes.

On the environmental front, in 1962 she brought home Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, got involved in ‘Pollution Probe’ and The Coop Store. An active member of CFUW and the Oakridge Ratepayers Association, she never ceased doing public service.

She travelled widely to visit her children far and wide, and became a fond supporter of The Findhorn Community in NE Scotland (where she visited eight times).

Her favourite gatherings were her local weekly ‘coffee group’ with dear friends Pat Dinsmore and the late Evelyn March, her monthly book club with David Smith and friends—and of course good-spirited bridge parties!

Florence was, in essence, a grassroots philosopher who spoke her mind, whose search for ‘truth’ was unstinting. Her interests were both wide-ranging and breathtaking. Our family home, ‘540’, was virtually an Open House for over 50 years, featuring notable parties, workshops and late night sessions. She brought the World into the Canadian suburbs and turned her backyard into a woodland wildlife haven. She represented the best Canada can boast of: A Grand Woman—not a ‘lady’, she said, that smacked too much of ‘the aristocratic’.

Our world is less without her physical presence, but indeed, she walks tall amongst us in the best of Canadian life, what made us Canada from 1913-2009, and through her surviving children, Robert, Joan, Leona and Ralph—her darling youngest son Ian passed away in 2005—and finally through her grand-children Laura, John, Bruce, Nathalie, Kim-Ellen, Lila, Alex, Lara and Danny; and her great-grandchildren Gabriella, Garrett, Sean, Geordy and Charlton.

Fly high and free ‘Sophia’-Florence, as you travel the heights with Socrates and Plato—and of course, the Great Sappho.

A memorial service was held at Mt Pleasant Chapel on Friday December 4 from 1-2pm (see programme below).

Memorial programme - click for PDF

Main photo courtesy of the London Free Press

On Sunday last I had the almost unique opportunity to attend a performance of George Antheil’s Ballet mécanique at the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, part of the Cambridge Music Festival. The concert also marked the 100th anniversary year of the publication of the Futurist Manifesto.

My attention was drawn to the event by my friend Paul Lehrman, whom I knew originally as a brilliant journalist who used to write for me when I was Editor of Studio Sound back in the 1980s. Since then we’ve done a bunch of stuff together including music for KPM Music Library and much more.

Today, Paul is a music professor based at a university in the Boston area, and he has made quite a name for himself for his realisation of a version of Antheil’s work which calls (at least in its full version) for a percussion orchestra of three xylophones, four bass drums and a tam-tam (gong); two live pianists; seven or so electric bells; a siren; three aeroplane propellers; and 16 synchronized player pianos. As you can imagine, it’s a flamboyant, controversial, downright noisy piece of avant-garde music.

This large-scale version of the piece, composed around 1923, was never performed in Antheil’s lifetime, apparently because the friend of Antheil’s who told him you could sync up 16 player pianos was wrong: the technology of the time did not allow it. Paul Lehrman, however, was commissioned by music publishers G. Schirmer to realise the work for the 16 player pianos called for in the original manuscript, using modern digital technology in the form of digital player pianos, MIDI, and samples for the aircraft propellers.

This he did, and the first performance took place at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, exactly ten years ago (on 18 November, 1999). Since then it’s been performed on numerous occasions around the world. You can read more about it, and about Antheil, at Paul’s site which you can find here at antheil.org.

Cambridge: rattles, pianos, Pianola and electric bells

This was not the version performed at West Road on Sunday, however. That was a somewhat more restrained version performed on this occasion on a single Pianola plus two live pianists, three xylophones, drums and percussion, rattles (performing the propeller parts), two electric doorbells and a hard-cranked siren. Musically, it was a version first performed in 1927 (and not very often thereafter). Paul asked me if I could go along and interview Paul Jackson, the conductor, experience the performance and find the answers to some questions about this particular version.

This sounded as if it could be enormous fun (which indeed it was) so I duly turned up for the event, Music hard and beautiful as a diamond, part of the 2009 Cambridge Music Festival, consisting of three works performed by Rex Lawson on Pianola, Julio d’Escriván on iPhone, the Anglia Sinfonia, Anglia Voices and MEME, conducted by Paul Jackson.

Pianola mechanism with roll

The concert itself was preceded by a 45-minute presentation by Lawson and d’Escriván about the Pianola and the iPhone as an instrument respectively (d’Escriván’s piece started the evening). I was particularly interested in Lawson’s exposition on the Pianola.

The Pianola is quite different from the Reproducing Piano and is not even truly the stuff of “player pianos” in saloons in cowboy movies, though they all use a “piano roll” to provide the notes. In the case of the Reproducing Piano, the roll contains not only the notes but all the tempo, expression and other aspects of an actual performance. Thus the big selling point of these systems, therefore, was to get famous performers and composers to perform their works, which could then be flawlessly reproduced at home.

Actuators in position over the Steinway keyboard

The Pianola, on the other hand, began life as a “cabinet player” – a box on castors that you wheel up to a conventional piano (a Steinway grand in the case of the Sunday performance) and lock into place so that its felt-covered actuators can press the keys. It’s powered by pedals, which drive the roll and also force air through the holes in the roll to sound the notes. By changing the pressure on the pedals (eg by stamping on them) you can also change the loudness of the notes – in other words, give the performance dynamics – that can be applied to different parts of the range. There’s also a tempo slider – and even technology that picks out the top line automatically.

This is all rather important, because the piano roll for a Pianola contains only the notes – the player determines the tempo and expression (in a solo performance, for example, including visual cues printed or written on the roll). Thus a Pianola performance actually is a performance, and not a playback. Yes, the notes are provided, but the expression is manually applied.

Pianola rolls were not created by playing the instrument and recording what the performer did, as in the case of the Reproducing Piano. Instead, they were created simply from the score. Imagine a MIDI sequence created in step-time with no velocity information and you get the idea.

Most people couldn’t be bothered to learn the subtle nuances of Pianola performance, however, and simply pedalled away, giving the instruments a rather lifeless, mechanical reputation which was entirely undeserved. Ultimately, mechanisms were built into (usually upright) pianos – and hence the player pianos in the bars depicted in the cowboy movies aforementioned.

The drum section and Paul Jackson, Conductor

Rex Lawson, who performed the Pianola part in Sunday’s concert, is a leading expert on the instrument, and his presentation disposed of quite a few myths, especially when it came to the performance of Ballet mécanique. The fact that the player controls the tempo means that the Pianola can actually follow a conductor in the conventional way – the Pianola does not have to set the tempo and have every other player sync to it. In Paul Lehrman’s performances, in contrast, the MIDI replay system that drives the player pianos also generates a click track that everyone follows.

Similarly, the fact that you can control the dynamics of the Pianola means that the instrument does not simply bash out all the notes at full blast. As a result, primarily, of these two factors, Ballet mécanique takes on a whole new degree of light and shade. Yes, it’s still a cacophony of 20s avant-garde exuberance, but it takes on a good deal of additional subtlety.

Lawson feels that the piece is designed to be played on these Edwardian instruments rather than modern digital systems, and that you need to actually perform the Pianola part – as he puts it, you need to “sweat”. However, he is interested in getting some fellow Pianola-owning friends together to perform the work on four Pianolas synchronised as far as tempo is concerned.

Lawson thinks the idea of 16 player pianos was Antheil showing off, that it was probably originally intended for four live pianists, and that the big problem with performing it at the time was that there were not nearly enough players in Paris who knew the subtleties of the Pianola and how to use its tempo and expression capabilities. In his planned 4-Pianola performance, he would set the tempo at his Pianola and the others would follow the tempo he set by using stepper motors to sync them to his unit. Which sounds like a great idea, though there might be issues due to stretching or slippage of the rolls: it might need sprocketed piano rolls, which did actually exist.

The boxes for the three pianola rolls

The Sunday performance of the single-Pianola version used three piano rolls, and to allow changing them the performance was split into three movements.

The performance, for me, shed new light on a fascinating composition from the 1920s. A radically different interpretation from Paul Lehrman’s, it suggests interesting possibilities for a Lawson/Lehrman collaboration.

• The programme also included Grand Pianola Music by John Adams (no Pianolas involved), and Julio d’Escriván’s ingenious and expressive Ayayay! Concerto for iPhone, Pianola and orchestra.

In this video, leading British folk musicians Coope Boyes & Simpson provide the music in their unique and moving acapella style with the song “Only Remembered”, as we view aspects of the unique exhibition by the University of Oxford’s First World War Poetry Digital Archive in the immersive 3D virtual world of Second Life.

The exhibition simulates aspects of life in the trenches on the Western Front during the 1914-1918 war and presents work by the “War Poets” of the period.

As visitors explore the simulation, they can listen to the voices of veterans recounting their experiences of the war, view original film footage and photographs from the time, and learn about life on the Western Front, encountering some of the most powerful poetry in English literature by seeing the original manuscripts, turning the pages of the poets’ war diaries and letters, and listening to readings.

The video is taken from the 10 November 2009 episode of the TV series Designing Worlds, a weekly live show covering design and designers in virtual worlds, produced by Prim Perfect magazine and Treet.TV.

“Only Remembered” (Bonar/Sankey/Tams Voice Publishing) is used by permission and is taken from the album Private Peaceful The Concert (No Masters NMCD24) by Coope Boyes & Simpson.

For more information, read this article on The First World War Poetry Digital Archive in Second Life.

Leona helped to co-ordinate resources at the 9th World Wilderness Congress (WWC), in Merida, Mexico between the 6th and 13th of November.

“Launched by The WILD Foundation in 1977, the World Wilderness Congress (WWC) is now the longest-running, public, international environmental forum. With over 30 years of conservation achievements, the WWC has become a high-profile platform for acting on complex wilderness and wildlands issues.

“WWCs include senior-level representation from governments, the private sector, native peoples, non-governmental organizations, academia and the arts in a structure carefully designed to bring together the full spectrum of wilderness-related views. Broad-based participation, combined with the spirit of open and balanced debate, creates a constructive, objective oriented environment, and generates practical conservation outcomes.

“The Congress convenes every three to four years around the world. Past WWCs have been held in South Africa (1977, 2001), Australia (1980), Scotland (1983), USA (1987, 2005), Norway (1993), and India (1998).

“Since its origins, the World Wilderness Congress has been a result-oriented conservation project that begins long before the actual convention of delegates takes place, and WILD 9 will be no different. In the months leading up to Merida, several committees, groups, agencies and organizations are working on models, objectives and targets that address a global agenda and aim to achieve practical conservation results through a diverse and interesting program –with a Latin rhythm!”

Click here for more information.

Last day’s feed from the Congress:
Video clips at Ustream

I’d like to draw your attention to the following press release regarding the opening of the Second Life presence of Oxford University’s First World War Poetry Digital Archive. I was involved in recording some of the audio for this project, including several poetry readings, tutorials and the introduction and epilogue to the installation. More details here; video at foot of this article.

An exciting new project in interactive education will launch on 2nd November 2009, drawing together the resources and expertise of the University of Oxford, and the possibilities for immersion and interactivity offered by the virtual world of Second Life.

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive and the Learning Technologies Group at the University of Oxford have collaborated to bring together a wealth of digitised archival material from the First World War into an environment that allows this powerful material to be explored and experienced in a radically new way.

“The aim of the initiative is to place the poetry of the Great War in context,” explains Stuart Lee, Lecturer in English at the University of Oxford, “It allows the visitors to the exhibition to visualise archival materials in an environment that fosters deeper understandings. Visitors also have the opportunity to take advantage of the social and interactive aspects that the environment offers.”

The project has imported into the Second Life environment a range of digitised archival materials from the major poets of the First World War (including poetry manuscripts, letters and diaries) along with contextual primary source materials.  These have been positioned within an environment which has been modelled to represent areas of the Western Front, 1914 – 1918.

The materials have been supplemented with new interpretative content and a spectrum of interactive tools and tutorials, streaming video and audio effects to create a vivid immersive experience that is, according to visitors, deeply moving.

“I had, of course, read about the First World War, and seen archive news footage too,” says Saffia Widdershins, a Second Life resident.  “But to have the feeling of walking along narrow trenches on duckboards half covered in mud, to see the dugouts, or to stand in a dressing station, hearing the voices of people who had been there describing their own experiences – this is all incredibly powerful.”

There will be a Second Life Press Launch at 4.30am SLT (12.30 UK time) and again at 2pm SLT (22:00 UK time) on Monday 2nd November. Come to the landing point at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Frideswide/219/199/646/ and take the TP to Theatre.

The installation will be open for exploration from 2am Monday 2nd November 2009.  We ask visitors to preserve the atmosphere of this environment by wearing the clothing provided at the landing area.

This weekend I had the pleasure of spending a day with a colloquy of friends in the venerable University city of Oxford, centred around a visit to the Museum of the History of Science to see their Steampunk Art exhibition.

I’d been past this building before – it’s the original home of the Ashmolean – but never inside. Turns out it’s a wonderful little museum on about three floors and a veritable storehouse of ancient scientific instruments of all shapes and size, with an emphasis on brass and the odd bit of mahogany.

The museum would be worth visiting at any time just to take in the development of scientific and technological instruments over the last few hundred years – there are microscopes, telescopes, astrolabes, electrical machines and a great deal more – but it also made the perfect location for the first UK museum exhibit of Steampunk Art, which runs until February 21, 2010. I would recommend a visit if you’re in the area or can arrange to be.

Steampunk, one could say, is a genre that imagines what might have happened if the technology of the 19th century had not been eclipsed by that of the 20th. It’s Jules Verne and H G Wells’ vision of technology; you also get a certain feeling of it from Oxfordian Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

Thus the basement of the Museum is currently filled with all manner of mysterious contraptions with glowing incandescent filaments, whirling (or potentially whirling) mechanisms, and mechanical prosthetics. Some of them are shown in the accompanying photographs.

I was joined by Oxford resident Polly (with whom I work on Designing Worlds), Lynne (my collaborator on the iPhys projects for Sunderland City College) and her husband Richard, and also, at least for part of the day, by Ann and Knick who it was lovely to see again and kindly put me up for the weekend.

L to R: Lynne, me, Richard, Polly (photo by Knick)

After the exhibition and some refreshment, we took in the last full day of a fascinating exhibition on book-binding at the Bodleian, followed by the open-top bus tour of the city, which is worth the effort. Mid-afternoon we ended up at Blackwells’ where we all seemed to acquire a set of John Grant’s series of science books, Discarded, Corrupted and Bogus Science. We then retired to the coffee shop upstairs to discuss falling standards in British secondary and further education.

In the evening, an excellent dinner at the Trout in Wolvercote.

More photos on Facebook.

As readers may know, one of my several activities is audio production, both voice-over work and the production of complete packages with voice, music, effects and so on.

Recently many of these productions have been particularly associated with educational programmes, clients including the British Library and City of Sunderland College. Interestingly, all these projects have resulted from meeting people in the virtual world of Second Life. (Partially as a result, incidentally, I do not have a great deal of time for people who criticise me for “playing” in SL or try to convince me that nothing significant will come of it.)

I have a teaching qualification myself, and I’m particularly interested in the educational possibilities of virtual worlds: Second Life is by far the most popular and widely-used of the virtual worlds currently available, although there is increasing activity in “OpenSim” variants using essentially the same technology.

Most recently I was introduced to some of the staff of the First World War Poetry Digital Archive, based at the University of Oxford. They are on the point of launching (on 2 November) a new region in Second Life (named Frideswide after the patron saint of Oxford) which is home to a painstakingly-built environment designed to shed light on aspects of the life of soldiers in the trenches along the Western Front during the First World War. Students can visit the site and learn not only about the conditions endured by infantrymen during the Great War but also hear poetry from the ‘War Poets’, along with interviews and tutorials.

Here’s how they describe the installation:

This tour of a stylised version of the trench systems in the Western Front has … two objectives:
• to show you the physical context of the trench systems
• to expose items held in the First World War Poetry Digital Archive in a three-dimensional environment

…This [is] not an attempt to give you a realistic experience of what it was like to be on the Western Front. The physical depravation, or the chance of serious injury or death, cannot be replicated, and this should always be remembered.

More importantly perhaps, this is but one view of the War – and it would be safe to say this is a view open to discussion. …we have presented rain-sodden trenches, infested by rats, in gloomy surroundings. But this was not always the case. The opening day of the Battle of the Somme, for example, was a beautiful summer’s morning in stark contrast to the depictions we often see of the muddy hell of Paaschendaele.

Chris Stephens, who has been instrumental in putting the simulation together, commissioned me initially to provide an audio version of an A-level/University-level Tutorial on “Remembrance” along with four poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen, Does It Matter? by Siegfried Sassoon, plus Louse Hunting and Dead Man’s Dump by Isaac Rosenberg.

I’ve now recorded some additional poetry readings – Repression of War Experience, Aftermath, and On Passing the New Menin Gate, all by Siegfried Sassoon; plus 1916 Seen From 1921 and Can You Remember by Edmund Blunden – and an introduction and epilogue.

These poems have a great deal to tell us about the feelings of their authors, and many of them are powerfully moving. Dead Man’s Dump in particular is full of vivid, detailed imagery.

The tutorial, on the other hand, encourages us to ask a number of questions about our conception of what the Great War was like, and uncovers where much of our information has come from. It also challenges some of our assumptions about the conflict. At the time of writing, there are only three veterans of the First World War left alive, so we rely increasingly on indirect sources.

In the Second Life representation, you start off at an army camp and then proceed to the trenches via a floating bubble, during which you hear the introduction to the installation.

Once at ground level in the trenches, you can walk around and visit different aspects of the trench network. Along the way, images of soldiers flicker into view and you might hear an interview or a piece of poetry. The tutorials are accessed via a “HUD” (Head-Up Display) enabling you to proceed through the material and exercises at your own pace. Additional audio extracts are initiated by clicking on loudspeaker symbols.

A scene from the University of Oxford's First World War representation in Second Life. The visitor is able to walk around in the trenches and ultimately climb a ladder up on to the battlefield itself; the cubes with a loudspeaker symbol on them enable playback of audio material such as poetry readings and interviews. The green-tinged cloud and floating text ahead are part of a section on the use of poison gas during the War.

Overall, the Second Life representation is quite an intense and powerful experience, and I can imagine it will be a particularly effective educational tool.

The challenge for an environment like this is that there is a fairly steep learning curve before visitors can fully experience what a virtual world like Second Life can offer – before you can experience an installation like this you have to learn how to move around, activate things and generally operate successfully in the environment. However in this case you really need to be able to do little more than walk around and click on objects, so most people will require no more than a few minutes of training to be able to get the most out of virtual re-creations like this.

I wish the First World War Poetry Digital Archive every success with this project and am very pleased to have been able to make a small contribution to it. This installation will also be featured in the 10 November edition of the Designing Worlds show on Treet.TV.

*“…And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.” is the final line of Anthem for Doomed Youth by World War I poet Wilfred Owen – one of the WWI poems I’ve recorded for this project. Photos courtesy of First World War Poetry Digital Archive.