The Interesting North lineup is going to evolve in the run-up to November, but here’s a taste of who’s going to be speaking so far:
Robert Shearman
Robert works as a writer for tv, radio and the stage. He’s just finished a ten episode treasure hunt novella – with each globetrotting chapter providing a riddle that leads the heroes to another destination, and the readers to the next instalment the following week. Fun, mayhem, and sword swallowing ensues!
But he’s probably best known for reintroducing the Daleks in the Hugo-nominated and BAFTA-winning Doctor Who episode starring Christopher Ecclestone…
Tom Armitage
Tom writes, designs and develops for the web, and thinks quite hard about many things best described as “new media”.
He’s enjoying talking/thinking about rules and mechanics and why it’s these things that make things gamelike, and not scoreboards…
Mike Wallis
Mike is going to talk about cake. People tend to look at cake and think “yum”, but it’s far more interesting than just a tasty comestible; the structure, how all the different elements interact, and the history of how cake came to be are all interesting topics.
You just thought it was something tasty to eat with a cuppa, but when you think about it cake can illustrate religion, psychology, molecular biochemistry and engineering, as well as being something tasty to eat with a cuppa.
Suw Charman-Anderson
Suw is a writer, collaboration strategist and lapsed geologist.
Earlier this year she followed, in considerable detail, the exploits of Eyjafjallajökull, The Little Volcano Who Could (Close Airports Around Europe On A Whim). Part of a community of vulcanologists and lay enthusiasts, she watched for earthquake swarms, monitored live webcams, and attempted to interpret interesting yellow blobs on the volcano’s infrared cam.
For your delight and delectation, Suw will be attempting to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull live on stage, as well as pointing out some of the more interesting aspects of the eruption.
Gemma Teed
Gemma is a freelance account planner who never quite grew out of her childhood obsession with horses.
She’s going to talk about why sidesaddle riding is making a comeback, how ladies stay on sideways and how the sidesaddle and ladies riding habit evolved. There will be lots of pictures.
James Boardwell
James does research and development around social technologies at Rattle, producing strategies, prototypes and services for clients like the BBC, INQ, Umbro and Channel 4.
Being run over by a taxi hasn’t put him off bikes and riding, so he’s going to talk about push bikes, single speed, fixies and fads.
Marcus Brown
Marcus has been an online art director, MD of a concept agency, a production controller at a printing company, general manager for William Lea’s business process outsourcing operations in Germany and European online coordinator for Nintendo.
Online he has been the Dead Artist, Sacrum, Charles Stab, The Joker, The Lord God Almighty, The Kaiser and is currently causing trouble as “Jack The Twitter”.
“Marcus Brown is turning in some of the finest, most important culture criticism being produced today. I know you’ve heard me say it before, but this time, really: you’ll thank me. If you don’t die laughing first.”— Chris Locke, author “The Cluetrain Manifesto”
He’s going to talk about losing his mind & spending a week in a mental hospital.
Toby Barnes
Toby has a long history in digital media working in publishing, publication and development for the likes of Emap, Virgin, MTV Networks and Two Way TV Games.
Toby created Videogames & Digital Media Consultancy Pixel-Lab and in 2008 set up Mudlark – a production company obsessed with making life playable.
He will be talking about James Bond: Architecture Critic.
Oli Shaw
Oli Shaw has been a purveyor of fine strategy, ideas and direction since 1998. He’s going to talk about the art & game of ‘catching sleepers’ – public transport passengers who fall asleep whilst journeying on buses, trains, tubes and alike.
What started off as a passing curiosity to alleviate the monotony of my long daily commute soon developed into a year long ‘lite’ anthropological study on the behavior of ‘sleepers’ on public transport. Through this study he has been looking at identifying the traits, behaviors and patterns of sleepers. What similarities could be found in the type of person that makes a ‘sleeper’? As well as the pros & cons of different sleeping methods and tactics.
Through the documentation of this study he’s developed a simple game for continued entertainment in which others can competitively play the game of ‘Catching Sleepers’ too.
Eliot Fineberg
Eliot is an experience planner at Friday in London – he’s not sure quite what that means, but hey ho. Friday makes useful, usable & delightful things with the internet at the heart of them – from iPhone apps for the RHS to prototyping the future of online banking for HSBC. Before that he worked at Headshift on projects like Antony Gormley’s One & Other.
He is going to talk about Wikiality & Journeys Into The Surreal. Or less pretentiously put: “I wonder how many lies you can tell someone before they actually stop believing you?”
Matt Edgar
Matt Edgar works in product strategy and design leadership in web and mobile media. Before that he was a newspaper journalist and history student.
He’s going to talk about a tale of green sand and subterfuge: An uneducated Leeds engineer sets up in competition with one of the biggest names of the industrial revolution. He undercuts their prices, poaches their staff and is suspected of stealing their trade secrets. They retaliate with a campaign of dirty tricks and litigation aimed at stopping this upstart in his tracks.
Josie Fraser
Josie Fraser is a UK-based social & educational technologist who actually does have interests in things other than social networking services, terms of service and privacy policies.
As a consequence of being raised by hippies and watching too many Werner Herzog films, Josie has developed a long standing fascination with, and will be talking about, feral children.
She will be asking and attempting to answer a range of questions on the subject, such as are snow hens really the worst parents anyone could have?
Frankie Roberto
Frankie makes web things – previously for the Science Museum in London, and currently for design agency Rattle in Sheffield.
Frankie is going to talk about Lego, of which he has a vast collection. Everyone loves Lego. And you might think that it could do no wrong. But Lego have made mistakes and have courted controversies, from messin’ with the greys to establishing a policy on skin colour. So this talk will give you a rundown on lessons from the brick.
Stefanie Posavec
During the day, Stefanie spends her time designing book covers for Penguin Books. When night falls, her alter ego creates information-based art projects (sort of like Superman, right?) for OK Go and David McCandless of Information is Beautiful. Her work can be found at www.itsbeenreal.co.uk.
Stefanie is completely fascinated with the concept of American baseball scorekeeping, and she’s going to talk about why she find the process of gathering information for the sake of it so appealing and connect it to some examples from her projects, where for her, the process of mapping is as important as the outcome.
James Wallis
James has been designing and writing about games since he launched his first fanzine aged 14. He designed the card-game Once Upon a Time, a Games 100 choice for Best Family Game, and the Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which was nominated for two Origins Awards and an Ennie Award.
Few attendees of Interesting 2008 have forgotten his legendary exposition of a Geophysical Survey of World of Warcraft, deriving the size of the planet by dropping dwarves from towers.
He will be giving a very short talk on Works of Fiction with Really Stupid Titles Involving the National Socialist Government of Germany 1933-1945.
Juxtavoices
Juxtavoices will be providing musical interludes. They’re a large choir open to any singer irrespective of training. Their repertoire mixes simple scores and instructions with improvised elements, which often allow the choir to determine the shape of the music as it progresses.
To quote one member: “The possibilities are endless… chanting… incantations… howling… wailing… speaking in tongues… interwoven with lines of other stuff… folksy, bluesy, gospelly, punky, funky, jazzy, plainsong, hymnals or whatever…? It’s barking!”
More speakers will be announced in the run-up to 13th November- follow the progress on Twitter!