Thinking and doing: collected thoughts
Some thoughts on an upcoming book I designed for historian Elizabeth Cox, published November 2025 by Massey University Press…
At the Australian Science Communicators online symposium 2021, David Harris curated an Art and Design stream, and in it we had a vibrant session getting messy with manifestos. Here's something I wrote for the ASC about it……
A quick spin through the A load off your mind concept, prepared as a backgrounder for PCST 2021 (aka PCST 2020+1)…
Information on the Engagement Incubator project we presented at PCST 2021 (aka 2020+1)…
A reading list for the laundromat in a box remote COVID workshop participants…
On trying to work out what science is and finding out I'm far from having this licked……
A lament at the imminent passing of a sadly neglected building……
A lowdown of things type, for my Spatial Type class: a rough guide to the terminology of type, of choosing typefaces, and the use and detailing of doing things with type……
A little spin through A load off your mind laundromat……
A little background on the A Load Off Your Mind laundromat……
This post has information, including ethics information about the NZAS A load off your mind science culture laundromat…
This week, the wonderful Stephanie Pride told me to write 250 words a day. Turns out I default to largely self-indulgent twaddle, but this is my musing about being a critic of and a practitioner in one discipline……
A food analogy always goes a long way, and this one has the added bonus of helping me recall what intradisciplinary, crossdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary are!…
Huh. So it appears I've been more tied up in my health than I realised. And hopefully this getting it off my chest (or out of my brain), will have helped me move forward…
It’s time to tackle the elephant in the room. Despite signing up for a PhD with ‘reflexive’ in the title, my sense of what that means in practice is pretty tenuous (though obviously I’m hoping that evolves as I write this post!). It is probably on-par with my grasp of the rules of cricket: I have a general sense of the broad points, but the details are sketchy…
I’ve been PhDing for just over a month. I have more books out from the libraries of Massey, Vic and elsewhere than is reasonable for a single human. I was feeling a bit smug in a ‘look at me being busy’ way about the piles on my desk(s) but the unopened ones have begun to make me feel guilty. Looming ominously, they may be multiplying on their own… I really need to learn to speed read…
So I’m underway. I got off to a flying start with a two day hui with Te Pūnaha Matatini, the Centre of Research Excellence who are funding my scholarship. I met a whole heap of amazing people, some of whom will likely become my research subjects, and many more great sounding boards (HT David Hall for the great references!)…
Earlier this year, I applied for a PhD. It was a spur of the moment thing. A SCANZ email came through my inbox and there was a notice about a scholarship to work on a science communication focused PhD at Victoria University, a brisk 20 minutes from my current home at Massey’s School of Design…
I'm just back from a trip to the States, the highlight of which was seeing our students accept a Global Design Award at the SEGD conference in Miami. The project that was recognised was Pipe Dreaming, our installation for FESTA, the Festival of Transitional Architecture in Christchurch – one of my favorite ever projects…
I've got a lot going on. I should get better at recording it…
I say yes to too many things. Today something monumental happened. I said no to something. Well rather, I said 'I'm sorry I said yes, I shouldn't have, I'm too busy'. It feels good! Part of the reason is, I hate not doing a good job of things I've said yes to, and I'm definitely teetering on that edge at the moment.
So I've decided to focus, and start actually recording my process, and documenting what I've been up to. Recently, I've been working on a few things…
This is an article written by Nick Kapica and I about FESTA; the Festival of Transitional Architecture in Christchurch:
In the aftermath of the devastating Christchurch earthquake of 2011, FESTA was born. FESTA is Christchurch’s Festival of Transitional Architecture, initiated in 2012 as a way to reimagine a city in flux, finding its feet and redefining its spaces. The first FESTA was a nighttime light show and street party; a moment of joy and wonder that helped reconnect people, through a shared moment, with the city centre; socialising and social bonding. It was so successful it became an annual event…
This is a diary essay I kept while working on Extraordinary Anywhere, a book I designed with Anna Brown, a colleague and mentor at Massey. A heavily edited version of this (with some of the angst redacted!) was published as the design colophon in the book…
This section has a selection of articles and posts I've written, and some work-in-progress things that haven't quite made it to 'finished work' stage. I believe in sharing my process not just the finished article, and (unless the copyright is owned elsewhere or jointly) in Creative Commons access.