The end of Philosophy (until Christmas anyway)

Vanishing into the future 

So the Key Themes sessions at City Lit came to an end yesterday (blimey I've got gaps Monday and Tuesday now) and I should admit to being slightly saddened by this, I can't really say that we became a 'tight group' but there was something of a loose camaraderie amongst this group of adults in a shared endeavour to find out where something of a search for a hidden  type of knowledge would take us.

Well just because it was the last session didn't mean that we had an easy ride as we wrestled with the question (again) of What Philosophy is and what is it for?

Groups of students reported back - we major-ed on it as using 'Critical thinking' and others highlighted the fact that a lot of time could be spent analysing things that had not previously seemed problematic.

It was agreed (I think)  that Philosophy was an enquiry into the meaning of existence, and one of the things that also emerged was how we struggled to explain ourselves clearly (this issue was highlighted later too when some spoke of the obliqueness of the writings of some philosophers, Heidegger for example)

Another student mentioned the need for group consideration but a removal from the others was also mentioned as a time for 'thinking' and getting ideas formulated for future perusal.

On a more concrete level Scott our  esteemed teacher explained how he some anguish on the amount of discussion which some of the classes included and he also recommended to us a book  Introducing Philosophy A text with Integrated readings by Robert C Solomon (Robert is  fairly recently deceased, in 2007 at the relatively early age of  64)

A further pointer was to abandon materials  if we felt that they  weren't working for us at a particular time and perhaps we'd go back to them later, it was also  suggested we might wish to take further our studies with one of the other courses in what is an expanding section of the City Lit offerings .

Almost lost in my thoughts and those of others too

OPEN Ealing - Photography Exhibition time

Great to see some actual prints (of mine) in this electronic world.

Well yesterday marked the end of the first version of the OPEN  Ealing Digital Photography course and I'm sure that those behind the course will have got some good ideas for a version 2 of the course should it get the go-ahead.


What I would note reflecting on it is that a trick was missed on weeks 1 and 2 in issuing a course outline, goals etc. and the Flickr Group account could have been there from day one.



Having said that despite the lack of numbers and loose structure I really enjoyed it immensely and have been energized to take more pictures, be more critical of them and take the hobby further.

Yesterday there was a small exhibition held and although it offered only a tiny window of opportunity to showcase some photo's it was very pleasurable - I can only imagine  the buzz a top class practitioner gets from a big show with  crowds looking at their work.

Cameras lovely cameras

I was quite happy with my pictures and the nature of a physical  artefact (a print in this case) lends some legitimacy to the endeavour - I hope that I can offer at least one of my pictures to a new home when the three are presented back to me.

Also nice at the same event  to have the chance to sample excellent (artisan I suppose) cheeses from Cheddar Deli (of Northfields Avenue) and to see the fine artist and human Nick Pearson (great insight into his career here) who I reminded of the need for an OPEN  Design Course to be given  by him.

Small business Saturday at Portobello Road Market

Less pedalling

On Saturday I went down to Portobello Road Market to take some photo's for the RBKC (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) promotion of 'Small Business Saturday'  in my role as a Volunteer Photographer with the Street Trading Office.

Not flattering

It was a cold but very bright day there which gave challenges in terms of getting a balanced picture and being able to see the display on the camera, hopefully some of the pictures captured the project and there were certainly plenty of people around.


There's a real split between the numbers of people (attending) towards the top end (more  collectables)  and the area around Golborne Road where some of the stall holders are newer to the business.

I was interested to see the ebikes shop and also had a good chat with a fantastic photographer Philip Shalam who was selling some really lovely prints from around £20 upwards on his stall in Golborne Road.

Some cracking pictures from Philip

Philip has worked all over the place including the USA where he still gets some prints done, nice mixture of local and exotic images with a great eye for structure.

At the other end of the market in the curio section there were some very nice 'film' cameras that were generating a fair amount of interest amongst punters.

A golden age of Cameras?

I'm not sure if the Small business sector is getting the help it deserves and warrants, hopefully the profile will have been raised by the activities  on Saturday, also hope that the Treblemakers got some money from the crowds towards the charity Kids  Company they were singing for.

The Treblemakers give it their all for Kids Company.

Disruptive Design from Ilona Gaynor & Web design by Government digital Services

Along side the Collection Lab at the Design Museum are a series of exercises by designers with the theme of Disruption, one of the designers handling the brief of Design Museum's supremo Deyan Sudjic is  Ilona Gaynor who has her own research studio that labours under the delightfully enigmatically name 'Department of No'.

Leading us on to 'The Collection'

Ilona's piece is all about the law and the idea of the theatre of a case around a fraudulent win of the (UK) National Lottery - the exhibition shows sets that one can imaging in a drama retelling the story and locates it alongside other memorable fictional court drama's that we're familiar with an intriguing idea that seems close to reality.

A rope selected by Ilona

Nearby too are 'design' items selected the designers who have contributed to the disruptive theme, for Ilona this a rope knot.

Stop 4- GOV.UK

What is particularly noteworthy about the 2013 design winners GOV.UK is that it very much a team effort and the team is from somewhat surprisingly (to me) the state sector.

It is also different in that it is not so much a physical design as a 'user experience' and has the ability (and requirement)  to be changed and to adapt.

On making the award mention was made of the use of an  adapted Margaret Calvert typeface, the original typeface having been used in the classic motorway sign-age, this though is ofd course only a part of the design.  

The words that go with the design 'item'