Last day in Manchester/Last post!

Before catching the train back to Brighton, I attended the last bit of the FutureEverything conference and visited Manchester Art Gallery. The collection was really great - art from a wide timeframe. There were some Joana Vasconcelos textile sculptures placed throughout the galleries which added an interesting contrast to the painting collections.

Ford Madox Brown's painting Work

Hylas and the Nymphs, John William Waterhouse 1896

Some Tom Waits broken umbrellas like dead birds

Sarah Lucas ciggy gnome

John Mills' Crawling Couch 1987

And now I'm back in Brighton for just a few more days during which I'll be tying up loose ends then flying home on Sunday. I can't believe the two months have already passed. I've had an amazing time in England, though I'm really excited to go home and carry on with life! Thanks for reading :)

Manchester Day 3

Today was the first day of the FutureEverything conference. It's being held in the Manchester town hall which is an incredible Neo-gothic building. The presentations were held in the most majestic room - I felt like I was at a church service all about technology and the future. I loved the juxtaposition of the old school architecture and the new school ideas being discussed.

The photo below was definitely not supposed to be so orange. There's something going with the color profile between my computer and the blog server. Kind of a happy accident, though - you can see the architectural detail better this way.

The presentations were wonderful - they were structured a lot like TED talks. The crowd was generally nerdy and eager about technology and ideas surrounding the future. During the coffee break I had - out of complete chance - a great chat with someone who works (self-employed) with architecture/construction firms to made housing more sustainable. It was a great collection of people/ideas to be a small part of. The conference has really opened my eyes to how many people are actively engaged with developing and using technology to positively impact the world; people are developing tools in innovative ways - often with the help of Kickstarter (which was very widely mentioned today). I noticed that there was a theme of crowd-funded projects for the people, by the people.

Here's a good toilet in the hostel. A fine basin.

Day 2 in Manchester

My second day in the city started off at a 3D-printing presentation/workshop, directed by an American artist, educator, engineer, and designer named Golan Levin. He was very knowledgeable and gave us a well-rounded presentation on 3D printing and all related topics. He briefly introduced us to some basic 3D-modeling software in which we created our initials (very simple, like stacking blocks. Much like Minecraft, apparently).

This is a MakerBot 3D printer. The green and grey spools on the right are kind of the equivalent to ink cartridges in a regular inkjet printer; the spool supplies a long, thin, strand of plastic which, when heated in the printing nozzle, melts and is extruded like writing with icing on a cake. The nozzle moves back and forth, building up thin layer after layer of plastic on a metal platform until you get a 3D object. It's just a very mechanized way of sculpting from bottom-up.

Here it is printing the letter 'M' I made. You can see in the photo below how the 'M' is on a base of plastic which you peel off once it's finished printing (the printer lays that down initially as a support for the actual object).

There's my 'M'! I purposely made it look pixelly but it will print any kind of shape - rounded, square, anything. I included a little loop on the top so I can wear it as a necklace. This took about 20 minutes to print. It's about an inch wide. You can make an object as large as the printer's dimensions allow, though it takes quite a long time to print. This MakerBot model was one of the older ones but apparently they've gotten much quicker.

Later that day, I took a train to Liverpool to see an exhibition and also just to check out the city. At one point, I heard music (again, rock/metal) coming from inside some church walls which was a sensory experience I really enjoyed. There was a music video being shot inside.

Neat architecture all over the place

Some Mercer ladies' names 

Popped into the maritime museum for a gander. Found the Titanic

River Mersey from the Albert Dock. The Tate Liverpool is also found here.

I had a sleepy train ride back to Manchester. I went to a restaurant called the Soup Kitchen for an amazing meal of minty lamb pie, roasted potatoes, braised red cabbage, and a half pint of Guinness. Some of the tastiest food I've had yet!

Day 1 in Manchester

When I arrived in Manchester yesterday, the first thing I saw when I left the train station was a woman in an inflatable penis costume. Onwards I went to my hostel. I'm staying in a private room (instead of the shared sleeping space) which is nice although no quieter - last night's sleep was punctuated by noisy guests but also loud cheers from the streets below that I imagine were football related. My room is cozy, kind of has a view, and smells like old wood. You can't tell in the photo but the wallpaper is glittery.

The building is old and comes fully equipped with a cool elevator. I think they only use it when guests staying on the upper floors have heavy luggage.

Manchester is all about steel and brick.

After checking in, I went for a walk and my nose led me to street food. The pick of the day was italian tapas (the red stuff is REALLY TASTY chorizo sausage).

An ironic tree

My ears led me to this. Most street performers play guitars or other small instruments. This guy had a full drum kit, which is not an easy thing to lug around; my experience as the tag-along little sister of a drummer can confirm that. He was playing metal (as much as one can with just the drums).

After I was fully fed, I headed to the FutureEverything headquarters to check out some art.

This thing is one of many BUQS (Ubiquitous Electronic Life forms) placed around the city. They have an electronic computer part inside of them which allows them to chirp and beep and make noises (like birds) and communicate with each other. They're actually programmed to respond to each other. The person who was making them told me that "they use the city as an instrument" to break up the monotony of the typical city sounds.

Another one lurking

This one was newly constructed

The innards

Barely noticed this little cigarette wedding on my way down the road.

A view from my room

I treated myself to Thai food for supper. I opted for a veggie green curry with jasmine rice - it was the tastiest of its kind that I've ever had, and the serving size was big enough to reasonably split between two people. Paired it with a lovely Thai beer. The service was incredible. Overall great dining experience.

Night lights

Selfie in action