Surprising Kevin

Sarah, Kevin’s lovely girlfriend, invited us over to see Kev as a nice surprise. Kevin has been busting his ass at CIID for the last year, so the plan was to go to see him, catch the CIID end of year show and basically let rip for the weekend. It worked out perfectly; he had no clue we were coming - Ciarán even called him “from Dublin” as we were arriving to chat about some freelance work. When we got to the exhibition he had disappeared somewhere; and got a bit suspicious when we asked him where “exactly he was”. We found him and some champagne ensued - it was lovely.

CIID

I couldn’t talk about the weekend without talking about the CIID end of year show - which was inspiring. There is clearly a wealth of talent coming through the course, so hopefully CIID will be around for years to come - I know that funding this type of programme is very challenging.

My favourite project on display was the Synthesising Personality project by Tobias Toft. Tobias built everyday objects that exhibit personality traits; an introverted lamp that moves away as you approach, a neurotic computer, a psychotic plant. It’s amazing how, with subtle movement or reaction to stimuli, you were able to recognise “human” behavioural traits in inanimate objects. It was a lovely, pure idea implemented to a very high standard. Other projects included Kevin’s lovely interactive storytelling project Remember Dreaming and Cheap, Fat and Open - an open-source platform for musical experimentation (which we jammed on for a good 20 minutes).

A Cyclist’s City

The weekend contained a fair share of drunken cycling - Kevin and Sarah had kindly arranged some bikes for us to use to get around the city.

In Copenhagen, everybody cycles; parents, children, old and young.  Bicycles aren’t a commodity and there are few enough “cool bikes” - most are mildly rusty, well loved, functional workhorses. Cycling in Copenhagen is deliciously normal.

Copenhagen is a model of how cycling can work in a major city where population density/housing allows most journeys to be taken by bicycle. The city basically has an alternative roads system for bikes; a third lane on most major roads set aside for bikes. It was a lot of fun to jump on our bikes as a group and head out around the city and feel safe and separate from most traffic. There’s no reason why Dublin people couldn’t move towards this type of model over the next generation (although we may have missed the boat somewhat with the terrible planning decisions made in the last decade). Hey, we can always dream.

Other Highlights

It’s late, and I’m a bit shattered - so a quick summary of the rest of the weekend’s highlights: an amazing (and cheap!) boat tour around Copenhagen, coffee and sticky cakes by the lake, a wander around the weird and wonderful Christiania, made up billiards games in the pub, cooking breakfast for people in the mornings, even more drunk cycling, and sweaty dancing the night away.

Go to Copenhagen - it’s brillo. Kev and Sarah - thanks for a great few days.