It’s January again, which, for Nottingham, means one thing – New Adventures in Web Design.

NAIWD (as I like to call it) is a two day conference starting tomorrow, Wednesday 18th Jan, focused on the art of web design. It’s a big deal – developers and designers will be descending on Nottingham from all over the UK and beyond, full of ideas to discuss and explore. Who knows, we may even see the Next Big Thing™ from conversations started here.

Unfortunately, the conference itself has long since sold out, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get involved with the programme. If you have a spare £150 in your pocket, you can get down to one of the workshops – where you can learn from luminaries who have created sites such as these. Alternatively, enjoy the ‘after hours’ entertainment – bowling, football, real ale (mmm) and a big ol’ party at Escucha.

So if you do get involved, let us know what’s going down, and see if you can spot Creative Nottingham’s resident beard, John-with-Beard, who will be getting stuck in…

Less than a decade ago digital fabrication was an impossible dream for the hobbyist. Only large companies, Universities and government research agencies had access to tools that could interpret information from a data file and make that into a real touchable thing. Digital fabrication is likely to be as empowering to user as desktop publishing was in the 1990’s, desktop fabrication is set to revolutionise the way we think about what a computer can be used for.

All over the world places like the Nottingham Hackspace are starting to provide anyone who wants it, access to these sorts of tools.

Tony Shannon works on the Hackspace CNC Machine

Computer Numeric Control (CNC) Mill
If you can draw a graphical file on an ordinary desktop computer, the CNC machine and it’s software can interpret that file in the physical word, using a router or drill bit to create cuts and pockets on metal and wood. Shapes and holes are made in the material by very precisely controlling the position of the router head and the position of the workpiece in three dimensions, X, Y and Z or left to right, forward and back up and down. By controlling the Z access very thick materials can be cut layer by layer.

In early 2011 the Nottingham Hackspace invested in a project to develop a small CNC machine. A fabrication tool that was cheap and could be easily built by an a maker in their shed. My DIY CNC started shipping their home invented and developed CNC machines in August 2011. The small machine is available at the Nottingham Hackspace along with 2 much larger milling machine capable of cutting tougher and larger workpieces.

Laser Engraver/Cutter

By positioning mirrors and lenses you can direct the beam of a powerful laser. By mounting those lenses on a similar mechanism to the CNC machine you can control where that beam of laser goes very precisely. A laser beam from a 40w laser is capable of vaporising plywood up to 6mm thick. As the laser can move very quickly and precisely and because the strength and speed can be controlled, very intricate designs can be cut in paper, card, felt and leather not to mention plywood, MDF and acrylic. We’ve even used the laser at Nottingham Hackspace to cut rice-paper for decorating a cake!

the Nottingham Hackspace Laser cuts 3mm ply

My favorite project on the laser cutter has been the creation of a tactile braille birthday card for the wife of one of the Hackers. The laser can make deep letter shapes and braille, Rocio, who is blind, will be able to feel the shapes in the plywood making it a perfect personal gift. The design was by Hackspace member Martin Raynesford

3D Printer

Perhaps the most futuristic and unimaginable new fabricating machine is the 3D printer. It works by using software to slice up a 3D graphic. To make that it then heats ABS plastic, squirting it out and building the object layer by layer.

Matt Lloyds’ RepRap Mendle is the unofficial 3D printer of the Nottingham Hackspace. Most of the parts of this home built machine were printed on another RepRap machine or printed as replacements on this same machine. When you start to talk about a machine that can replicate itself you can see a whole load of geeks go weak at the knee and get misty eyed at the prospect. The Nottingham Hackspace is in the process of printing parts for a new 3D printer called a RepRap Prusa named for it’s inventor.

RepRap 3D Printer makes Barcamp Nottingham Logos out of ABS plastic

These tools are very empowering and easy to use. With practice and a little software knowledge the ability to prototype almost anything is with in grasp of almost any boffin. Sites like THINGYVERSE.COM are a superb resource for the sharing of open source fabrication projects. Hackers love to share their intellectual property and let their designs have a life beyond that of their makers imagining.

It’s an exciting time. I can only imagine the tools that will be available in the next decade. Perhaps Star Trek like replicators are not so far in the distant future!

(1) Atoms are the new bits by Chris Anderson
Wired Magazine UK March 2010

The author (2nd from left at back) with Tim Hunkin (3rd from right) and members of Nottingham Hackspace at Tim Hunkin's workshop Suffolk October 2011

Having heroes is healthy, heroes are to be emulated and not passively adored. We should choose to live our lives as we imagine our heroes would. I want to tell you a little about three heroes who have been a great inspiration to me in the last few years and I hope they will inspire you too.

Adam Savage

Savage is best known as the co-host of Discoveries “Mythbusters” to which since 2003 he has brought a humour and vigour making it a highly entertaining show. For those who might dismiss the show as being a whoopy, dumbed down explosion-fest, I’d ask you to consider the techniques, thought, maths, rigour and time that goes into the builds for small scale testing. A particularly memorable maker moment for me is the episode called “Lead Balloon” which as you might image involves a balloon made out of lead.

Mythbusters is filmed at M5 Industries in San Francisco, California. M5, the workshop of co-host and special effects artist Jamie Hyneman, is a workshop kitted out with almost everything you could need to build almost anything at all and it’s not a great leap of the imagination to see that the Nottingham Hackspace has the same aspirations and asthetic.

Adam’s work on the show is well documented. His skills as a professional (and hobbyist) prop maker, sculptor and artist are not so well known. From the age of 15 he has spent many hours trying to recreate Deckard’s blaster the gun prop from the film “Blade Runner”. Which he documented in great detail on “The Replica Props Forum”. He built a full scale model of R2D2 as well as sculpting a replica of “The Maltese Falcon” which formed the basis of his excellent talk on obsession that can be seen on Fora.tv. Adam makes the very valid point that making something isn’t really about finishing it, it’s about the act of making it.

Adam has written for Make Magazine on several occasions and has recently started to perform stand-up as well as fronting a stage show with Wil Wheaton (yes from Star Trek) called w00tstock. I have heard that Adam intends to do more public speaking and teaching, specifically sculpture at a local college in California. He would of course always be welcome to speak at Hackspace.

Limor Fried

MIT graduate and New Yorker Fried is an engineer and business women who should be emulated. Self styled as Lady Ada after the first programmer Lady Ada Lovelace, Limor runs a successful web based educational electronics company from a low rent office in an empty block in New York’s financial district (they were going cheap after the credit crunch).

Fried’s company Ada Fruit Industries sells their kits online (http://www.adafruit.com/) but also shares all the information you’d need to copy and make that kit for yourself. Just like Open-Source Software, Ada Fruit are pioneering Open Source Hardware. By sharing her electronics work on a Creative Commons Licence she no longer cares that her work might be ripped off by a corporate giants. This strategy has benefited Ada Fruit Industries who provide an excellent service. Limor was named “Most Influential Woman in Technology” this year as well as being featured on the cover of Wired Magazine in the USA

Tim Hunkin

You have probably seen some of Tim Hunkin’s work, his career has been prolific and has included architectural sized bonfires, a variety of mechanical clocks including the water clock on the Holland & Barrett shop in Covent Garden, mechanical collecting boxes, interactive museum exhibits and cartoons (until 1987 he drew “The Rudiments of Wisdom” in The Observer.) He’s responsible for the flying pigs and sheep used by Pink Flloyd on tour, which was parodied in The Simpsons as well as for his arcade machines at Southwold pier in Suffolk.

We’ve been lucky to host a talk by Tim at the Nottingham Hackspace in August 2011. Tim spoke enthusiastically and animatedly about the “Under the Pier Show” a rather Pythonesk collection of arcade machines and simulators Tim has adapted in cunning and amusing ways. Hackers were lucky enough to be included on a trip there run by “Engagement Party” a Nottingham based artist’s group I would encourage anyone to visit the pier it’s well worth the journey and Southwold is a lovely town (with a brewery tour too!)

Tim’s approach to making is very pragmatic, when discussing welding I said I’d not tried it yet, as I’d not been trained, Tim laughed “it’s like a glue gun for metal”. On a trip to his workshop he simply handed me a plasma cutter nozzle (a high voltage metal cutting tool) and encouraged me to get on with it, no health and safety briefing or risk assessment needed!

I think in common with all prolific and successful makers, Tim isn’t afraid of failure. After-all if you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t making anything. He has a wicked sense of humour and I think he finds messing things up a great joke. In his workshop there were about 8 small angle grinders, when asked why he had so many he explained “you can’t have to many, they are so useful to cut apart messed up welding!” He also has a great optimism in reflection of the great projects he has worked on, even when eventual and inevitably they fold and reach their end.

Hunkin is best known for his television work from the late 80s “The Secret Life of Machines” which you are encouraged to download or watch on You Tube. The secret life is the best primer I know into learning how to understanding the way things work short of taking them apart yourself (do that too!).

The Golden Compass by George Boyce, www.flickr.com/photos/geebee2007/3516653918/

Our Links Round-up today starts in the centre of Nottingham.  The programme of events at the New Art Exchange includes talks, workshops, tours, and more.  Full details are on their website, but I would just like to point out two:

• this afternoon, 18 October, 5 – 7 pm, there is a Visual Arts workshop for Young People aged 11 – 25 that uses the speech ‘Aint I a women’ by women rights activist Sojourn Truth as a stimulus to create visual responses. Sojourn Truth was born a slave in New York about 200 years ago, but escaped to freedom.
• A Pinhole Camera workshop, this Saturday, 22 October, 2 – 4 pm. Described as family friendly, participants will “will turn old drinks cans into working pinhole cameras”, it leaves ambiguous whether the adults bring full drinks cans and make them empty first (but I suspect not). Photos on the day are developed in the darkroom – who needs an Iphone or a Canon to be a photographer?

If you need to get out more, I would recommend a trip or two to Lincoln which is about to enjoy its first ever Digital Culture Festival from 21 to 29 October.  Going under the name of Frequency Festival 2011, there are displays, performances, debates, networking opportunities and more. There nicely laid out website provides a mailing list option and they even have their own ringtone, entitled White Noise in the Key of F, in both MP3 and md4 format.

I f you need to get out more, but want to go north rather than east, our former guest bloggers the Harley Gallery are always worth a visit.  Particularly between 29 October and 24 December, for the exhibition of 20th Century British Art from Welbeck Abbey.  This is the first public exhibition of the collection built up by William Parente who will be giving a talk about it on 3 December (talk tickets £7). Among the artists shown are John Napper, Dame Elizabeth Frink, Paul Nash and LS Lowry.

And if you would rather work on your entry for their Open Exhibition next January, and a possible place in William Parente’s exhibition thirty years hence, you have until the first week in December. The theme is “H is for …..”. Details and the entry form on their website.  I look forward to seeing the results, in 2012 if not 2041.

Inforgraphics form a big part of our graphic design portfolio here at Zabisco. They are a prime example of a medium that transforms mundane statistical information into interactive, insightful design work in a creative and compact manner. Campaigns such as William Hill’s 2011/12 season appear to combine the best of both inforgraphic design elements and narrative motion graphics into a TV advert. In a recent motion project at Zabisco, I attempted to draw from the two mediums to create a single design entity; essentially, bringing an already successful ‘inforgraphic of infographic’ to life.

William Hill’s 2011/12 season mobile betting campaign

Whenever the latest William Hill advert flashes on my TV, I instantly stop and gape at the use of typography synchronising perfectly with audio to convey an insightful and witty message that ultimately tells us the William Hill is the home of betting. William Hill (or the agency that create their motion adverts) are clever in the way they portray their betting features and offers. If a man appeared on screen and began to walk towards to the camera at a perfect 45 degree angle like in an injury claim advert, and told us why we should bet with William Hill, our natural reaction would be to defy and take an instant disliking to him. Why should we obey and do as this strange man says? I don’t even care for his tone of voice or hair style or the way his hands move when he walks, so I’m certainly not going to take his betting advice on board. William Hill’s 2011/12 season campaign caught my eye by using vivid colour palettes, well known feel-good music, powerful typography and visual metaphors that enticed me to watch on.

The music and the typography alone is enough to deliver the narrative message with great effect, without the need for a voice over to reiterate the information. Thus is the power of motion graphics. If the same information was written in a personal letter direct to every William Hill customer, the same messages in a different format would have nowhere near the impact of an interactive medium.

The message here? It’s not always just the message, it’s the messenger.

Written By Jon Ward at Zabisco. Edited by Fran McVeigh

from the Secret Life, with permission

To those of a certain age, hearing Take 5 by Dave Brubeck (youtube version), instantly brings up memories of the iconic Channel 4 television series, The Secret Life of Machines. For me this made Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod stars, and the cartoons and book which were published just polished their creative halos. Their one-pager cartoon explanations of technology anticipated many of the infographic representions we have become used to seeing in the last few years.

On Tuesday, 23 August, Tim will be at the Hackspace, talking about The Under The Pier Show and no doubt other things. Tickets are free, but limited and are available online.

Already there are blogs and summaries appearing, the TagWalk from Tim Hastings is a good source of further links, Hackspace posted to their Flickr account, and Kian Ryan and Joseph Swan overcame the urge to sleep on Sunday afternoon and posted their accounts instead.

If you are on Twitter, the hashtag #bcnott will produce a good record of reactions, comments, and links. In case you aren’t here are some of my favourites:

proactivepaul (@proactivepaul)

the #bcnott logo made 3D on the RepRap 3D printer http://twitpic.com/5v5dxv

stevelacey (@stevelacey)

moar printings, featuring logos, companion cubes, an iPhone dock and a whistle. #reprap http://t.co/TePbO76 http://t.co/WqlQmyF

Gemma Cameron (@ruby_gem)

I tattooed an orange! http://t.co/lKDbpRu

BarCamp Nottingham (@bcnott)

the barcamp balloon dog rescue centre http://t.co/yQ7EyJ2

As a bonus, if you search the tweets on the #bcnott tag, you will find many gems (and not just that one). Two of Creative Nottingham’s team were there, did a presentation, were snapped by a visiting member of the paparazzi – can you find the result?

There’s work Gemma

Working @esendex

I’ve been enthralled by computers from a very young age. I chose my GCSES and ‘A’ Levels for my chosen degree in Computer Science. I graduated in 2005 from Salford University. I started at Aerosystems International soon after on the graduate scheme as a Software Engineer. I got to work on very cool projects (like Mission Planning Software for Apache Helicopters) but more excitedly was introduced  to concepts such as Continuous Integration and Test Driven Development as well as Software Testing and Java Development. Suddenly all the stuff I’d learned at uni came into its own and I realised that, actually, I was a pretty good developer. After 10 months I moved back up North to work for BAE SYSTEMS in Lancashire. I got to work on a couple of fantastic projects, even managed to get along to support Farnborough Airshow! Alas in early 2010 I saw a tweet from @jbjon for a job in Nottingham. I went for an interview and was sold. I moved to Nottingham and started at Esendex in March 2010. I’m learning something new every day with truly brilliant and passionate people.

There’s girl geek @ruby_gem

@ruby_gem

My first introduction to the digital community was at GeekUp Manchester in either 2006 or 2007. Since then I have attended and sometimes spoken at local user groups, barcamps all over the country and even started to organise a few events myself. I founded GeekUp Preston, ran Manchester Girl Geek Dinners, organise the annual Barcamp Blackpool (on its third year) and am a member of the North West Digital Community. Since moving to Nottingham I have launched GeekUp Nottingham (more soon), helped out with Nottingham Girl Geek Dinners, chair Nottingham Digital Community and organising East Midland’s first barcamp (more to come soon). Aside from that I have an addiction to twitter.

There’s Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails

As many evenings as I can spare, but at least every Wednesday and Saturday I skate. Before I moved to Nottingham I used to spend most evenings sat on my bum. Occasionally I’d go to my friend’s roller discos and do the occasional street skate (bit of a hangover from the 80’s and 90’s when I needed transport), that was about it. Then I moved to Nottingham and it all changed. I started doing some skating on my inlines with the Nottingham Skaters. We’d skate about 12-15 miles in 2 hours and end up at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. I was crap. I wore out a hill brake every session and we don’t have hills like that on the Fylde Coast, I tell thee! Whilst down here I also joined the Nottingham Roller Girls. We are Nottingham’s original Roller Derby Team. I’ll do a whole post on Roller Derby, but needless to say I am addicted. I’ve popped my bouting cherry earlier this year, set for my second bout in September and am on track to beat my time skating an entire marathon at the Goodwood Roller Marathon in August. It’s so much fun I don’t even realise I am exercising. Suddenly i have discovered muscles, fitness and a thirst to improve as a sports woman. It’s quite magical.

There’s the socialite

The socialite

Between all the extra curricular activities I do get to hang out with my lovely friends. Now they’re all dotted over the country, when I do see them it’s a fantastic time. Most people who know me, know that I work hard, but party harder.

There’s the ferret lover

Ruby and Perl

These are my two little fuzzbutts (Perl is the white one, Ruby is the darker one). Charlotte insists every post has a photo of my two little bundles of fluff and bitey fangs! An old friend had a polecat (like Ruby, see the bandit mask)) and I fell in love. Ferrets are like owning kittens who never grow up. Living in a top floor flat in Preston a cat would have been bored. Ferrets sleep up to 20 hours a day. So when I’m at work they sleep. When I’m asleep they sleep. If I go away for the weekend they pretty much sleep. However when they are awake they are mental. When I lived in Preston they had full run of the flat. Since I moved to Nottingham they now live in a mansion of a cage. They get regular walks in the arboretum, bite every visitor I have over (only a nip mind, never break the skin) and entertain me every morning by following me around, attacking me, eachother, towels, socks, toys and mostly eachother. I love the smelly little bitey buggers and they put up with my cuddles. Entertaining, incredibly cute and vivacious. Once you’ve met a ferret you’re hooked. More from Ruby and Perl SOON!

With Barcamp Blackpool under her belt she now organises ; Barcamp Nottingham, GeekUp Nottingham and Nottingham Girl Geek Dinners (co organiser) and has baffled the whole of the Arboretum by walking Ruby and Perl her pet ferrets around the streets. She is also a big part of the Roller Derby craze and plays for Nottingham Roller Girls as “Ruby on Rails – 404″.

I asked Gemma 10 questions about herself to get to know her a little bit better -

Who are you?
Gemma Cameron, Software Developer at Esendex, Based in The Atrium on Wollaton Street.

What brought you to Nottingham?
I found an awesome job at Esendex. I’d never even visited Nottingham until my interview back in December 2010. I loved the company and the place so much I decided to emigrate down from the hallowed soil of Lancashire.

What keeps you in Nottingham?
My job (I get paid to do something I love), Nottingham Roller Girls Roller Derby Team, the Nottingham creative and Digital scene, the fantastic nightlife and shopping.

What makes you different to other creative people in Nottingham?
I’m a girl geek who loves organising and promoting digital events whilst balancing looking after my two ferrets and being a part of the Nottingham Roller Girls both as a skater and a trainer.
I’m a software engineer with an emphasis on testing and behaviour, constantly striving to improve and hungry to learn new things. I organise GeekUp Nottingham (a monthly meetup for software devs and tester types with fantastic speakers), Barcamp Nottingham (unorganised conference) and co-organise Nottingham Girl Geek Dinners with Kate Blatherwick @kblathers.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
I’m struggling to answer this question. I like to go with the flow and see where life takes me. It’s worked well so far and got me where I am today. I don’t look too far into the future.

What do you wish you had more time for?
Writing code in my spare time, outdoor skating and being at home on my sofa!

What keeps you awake at night?
This is a hard one. Not much as I’m usually so busy I’m glad to get to bed.

What do you think is Nottingham’s best kept secret?
Antenna and the Nottingham Hackspace. Two fantastic and unique venues with a whole lot more to offer.

What would you like to see more of in Nottingham?
More people getting involved in the digital community!

What Big thing are you currently working on?
Barcamp Nottingham (23rd-24th July) and Nottingham Roller Girls’ first bout (17th September). I’ll be blogging LOTS about these. ( :

You can see more about Gemma at
rubygem.me
twitter.com/ruby_gem (@ruby_gem)

Image Credits: F.A.T Lab: http://fffff.at/ Brendan Oliver & Brendan Randall

Many thanks to those of you on Twitter this week who provided me with details of events for this links round up – see, there’s no need for nefarious spying techniques when you have Twitter. Oh dear that sounds like product placement doesn’t it? Let’s move on – this week’s round up brings digital glories, music, light shows and cake. What more could you ask for?

First up today! Eeek! Drop everything and get to Broadway for Making Future Work. What is it? I hear you say? Well:

The fusion of digital technologies, art and design has given birth to pioneering new approaches to creation that are playful, disruptive, functional and responsive. It has also enabled collaborative projects to be conceived and developed remotely across vast distances.

Chaired by Regine Debatty, founder of the award winning blog we-make-money-not-art.com, Making Future Collaboration (our final event) includes presentations from our commissioned artists alongside Evan Roth and Aram Bartholl from F.A.T Lab (The Free Art and Technology Lab), a Brooklyn-based open source technology collective dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media.

Starts at 11am so get down there quick! Details on this here website.

Next week, as part of the NotLost festival, the gloriously named Spanky van Dykes will be hosting a music-art collaboration called ‘On an Island.’ A series of local bands will be performing their own interpretation of the title accompanied by projections and a light show in what sounds like a fusion of Jean Michel-Jarre, Hemingway and the BBC Introdcuing stage. Of course it could just be one big rave up. Either way, it’s on Thursday 14th July, tickets are a bargain £3 and more details can be found on their Facebook page.

Finally, this is one of the more tenuous links we’ve put up but what the hey, I’m feeling generous. Just outside Nottingham, the village of Keyworth is holding its annual village fair on Saturday. All funds raised go to help fund local facilities and, while this clearly isn’t usually our type of thing, we just about get away with it by appealing to all you highbrow south-of-the-river types. The West Bridgford Opera will be there. I’m not sure if they’re singing but I’ve been assured that they are selling cakes. (Incidentally, Googling to find an opera that featured cakes it turns out that there is an Opera cake, invented in Paris in 1903. Here’s a recipe. But I still don’t know about the opera.) So there you go, 11-5 on the Keyworth Playing Fields.

That’s it, everyone! Enjoy your weekend