Random header image... Refresh for more!

In Memoriam: Florence Boyd-Graham

by Leona Graham 29 November 2009
Thumbnail image for In Memoriam: Florence Boyd-Graham

An obit­u­ary for Leona’s mother, who passed away on Tues­day Novem­ber 24 at the age of 95.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

Ballet mécanique in Cambridge

by Richard Elen 25 November 2009
Thumbnail image for Ballet mécanique in Cambridge

Sun­day 22 Novem­ber saw the per­for­mance of a seldom-performed avant-garde com­po­si­tion from the 1920s – George Antheil’s Bal­let mécanique, a cacoph­ony of elec­tric bells, sirens, air­craft pro­pellers, per­cus­sion, piano and one or more syn­chro­nised player pianos. This occa­sion fea­tured the ver­sion for sin­gle player piano, per­formed by Rex Law­son on the Pianola. Here’s some of the back­ground to the piece and the performance.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

& Simpson">“Only Remembered” — Coope Boyes & Simpson

by Richard Elen 14 November 2009

Lead­ing British folk musi­cians Coope Boyes and Simp­son pro­vide the music in this overview of the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford’s First World War Poetry Dig­i­tal Archive in Sec­ond Life. This three-and-a-half-minute seg­ment is the clos­ing sequence from the 10 Novem­ber edi­tion of the TV pro­gramme “Design­ing Worlds”, pro­duced by Treet.TV.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

Working at the World Wilderness Congress

by Leona Graham 4 November 2009
Thumbnail image for Working at the World Wilderness Congress

Leona worked at the 9th World Wilder­ness Con­gress, a project of her for­mer employ­ers, the WILD Foun­da­tion, in Merida, Mex­ico. Read about the Con­fer­ence and its goals.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

Oxford University’s virtual First World War site opens in Second Life

by Richard Elen 1 November 2009
Thumbnail image for Oxford University’s virtual First World War site opens in Second Life

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.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

Steampunk in Oxford

by Richard Elen 1 November 2009
Thumbnail image for Steampunk in Oxford

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. An excel­lent exhi­bi­tion: it’s on until Feb­ru­ary 21, 2010.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

“…And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.”

by Richard Elen 26 October 2009
Thumbnail image for “…And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.”

I was recently com­mis­sioned to record an audio tuto­r­ial on aspects of the First World War, and read a selec­tion of four poems by some of the “War Poets”, as part of a project by the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford’s First World War Poetry Dig­i­tal Archive. The project is based around a re-creation of a Great War bat­tle­field in the vir­tual world of Sec­ond Life.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

Ironbridge Gorge Museums

by Richard Elen 1 October 2009
Thumbnail image for Ironbridge Gorge Museums

Iron­bridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Her­itage Site, has a wealth of muse­ums and attrac­tions that tell the story of Britain’s early indus­trial her­itage. Birth­place of the Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion, this is where the tech­nique for smelt­ing iron ore using coke was dis­cov­ered, and the site of the world’s first cast-iron bridge, erected in 1779.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

Tour of a Victorian Bobbin Mill

by Richard Elen 28 September 2009

20-minute tour of Stott Park Bob­bin Mill near Lake Win­der­mere in the Lake Dis­trict, Cum­bria. The mill was in con­tin­u­ous oper­a­tion from 1835 until 1971 and was oper­ated suc­ces­sively by water wheel, water tur­bine, steam and finally elec­tric­ity. The mill is now in the care of Eng­lish Heritage.

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →

Renaissance Music at Lincoln Castle

by Richard Elen 23 September 2009

While in Lin­coln for the recent Steam­punk Con­vivial, I encoun­tered these Renais­sance musi­cians – the City of Lin­coln Waites – play­ing in the old Cas­tle (video).

Bookmark and Share
Read the full article →