jonnybaker

wake up!

last night i watched charlie brooker's screen wipe 2014. it's a month by month roll through the year with him taking pops at virtually everybody in his perceptive and sarcastic fashion. i laughed out loud several times. part of me wishes he would rant less and shift the tone as i think he has things to say to a much wider audience but i like it none the less... but in the middle of it was an extraordinary five minutes by the wonderful adam curtis who is the most brilliant documentary maker, at least when it comes to taking a helicopter view of the narratives in the wider culture. turns out that that segment is on youtube so take five minutes of your life and watch it.

i've called the post wake up because it's one of a number of things that i have read or watched recently that have reminded me of how much things need to change and i need to wake up and (together with others) imagine and work towards a different kind of world and society than the one we have now...

stuck in your own yesterday?!

i have now blogged twice about the adam curtis v massive attack experience - and everything is going according to plan and manage the world or change the world. here's no 3!

adam curtis and robert del naja were interviewed last night on bbc 6music by mary anne hobbs. the full interview was aired on stuart maconie's freak zone. it will be up on iplayer for the week and begins at about 44mins in. parts of it were also aired on mary anne hobbs breakfast shows on sat and sun.

one of the questions mary anne hobbs asks adam curtis is are we really free? 

in response he suggests that the issue he is trying to explore in the film is how power works, how it pervades our lives - not just through westminster but through popular culture. one of the examples he gives is the feedback loops that are going on around us all the time thorugh computers - you like this so you'll like that. we've probably got so used to it now that we don't think about it. we're continually being given what we liked yesterday.

he suggests that the idea of the film/experience was to pull back like a helicopter to enable people to stop and see this static managed world (what he calls the pervasive ideology of our time). and he then muses whether we are really free?.. we're free to have what they think you like. is that freedom? it's a kind of static or limited freedom where you are stuck in your own yesterday!

i thought this was such a good line - stuck in your own yesterday. it's back to the previous post in some ways - with this approach to reality ideas and possibilities that are new will never emerge - they will be perceived as risky, unprovable, unmeasurable, and a threat. yet when we are stuck precisely what we need is this genuine kind of newness.

[update: thanks to laura for the link to this letter to massive attack and adam curtis]

manage the world or change the world?

i have not been able to stop thinking about the massive attack v adam curtis gig that i blogged about here. joel send me a link to a piece which is really interesting in FACT magazine where adam curtis says a bit more about some of his ideas. and he reiterates the theme that really caught my attention which is that we are stuck because

"we have opted to manage the world rather than change the world"

what an extraordinary insight! i think this is true in many businesses, lots of the social/charity sector and the church. we elevate managers and prefer and feel safer with them than visionaries and dreamers in top leadership positions. this may be because of fear of money, the future or simply we want to feel we can control things as best we can. and i also think it is also a really bad habit. shoot me down on this or tell me it's not true - but i am now seeing it everywhere where last week i was used to business as usual!

the article includes the words that were projected at the end of the film which i was trying to remember. they are:

"the future is full of POSSIBILITY"

"IT IS NOT PREDICTABLE"

"YOU CAN MAKE ANYTHING HAPPEN"

"YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD"

"PLEASE FIND YOUR OWN WAY HOME”

flippin' brilliant!

advanced social network

i rather like this which i spotted on james henley's blog though i have no idea of the original source...

mobilefaith

i took part in a conference in austin in the run up to sxsw interactive exploring mobilefaith - how faith and practice can be animated, supported and enlivened with mobile technologies. it's a great question and always interesting to see how new media change a lot more than we initially expect. the highlight of the day ended up being texan bbq at rudy's after it was all over to unpack all the talks and talk about these changes more. we ended up discussing education, politics and religion in the new environment for quite some time!

i was last on and felt people had been sitting for a very long time but if anyone was there (or not) and is interested in the slides they are on slideshare here. i used some of the ideas i explored a while back in digimission if anyone remembers that. it was great to bump into paul soupiset again. he was sketchbooking notes which are simple but delightful. 

there were a few good lines thrown out in the day - one of my favourites was that the bible should be thought of not as a piece of content but a piece of community...

if anyone wanted the piece i read on the network of christ it is here. it was actually part of a series where i was reflecting on clay shirky's brilliant book here comes everybody - see also posts on sharing and collaboration , i participate therefore i am and its a small world 

to conclude the day i wrote a final piece of liturgy that went like this...

god of connection
your presence is always on

god of relations
to you we belong

god of community
you have called us friends

god of participation
your possibility never ends

send us out in the power of your spirit
with #mobilefaith
on an adventure of the imagination 
to join in where you already are

in the name of the Open Source
the Portal
and Flow

#amen  #isthishereticalorinspired

(thanks to karlie for the join in where you already are line which i 'borrowed' from here). it's about time i added some worship tricks so the #mobilefaith prayer is worship trick 18 series 4

if you are in austin...

i am heading over to austin for a week duing SXSW which should be fun. i am there from march 5 to 11. bob carlton is organising the trip and what's happening. it includes 

march 6 dreamers who do - a gathering with  emerging church type people 

march 8 mobile.faith - an event exploring how faith and practice can be enlivened with mobile technologies

march 10 - pause@sxsw practices for digital sabbath 

i was also very pleased to see radiohead on the schedule when it came through!!!

hellvetica fool

well my favourite april fool of the day is that if you google helvetica everything shows up as comic sans! i have taken a screen grab as i guess it won't last beyond today...

gods behaving badly

pete ward has a new book out on celebrity culture - gods behaving badly. he's had this fermenting for a few years now so it's great it's finished. i made a comment that has been put on the back of the uk edition of the book. it's a fairly long comment so i'll repost that here...

Whilst many people might dismiss the culture's obsession with celebrity as trivial or trashy, Pete Ward typically dives in and gets under the skin of the ubiquitous presence of celebrities in our culture. Uniquely and creatively wearing the lenses of both cultural studies and theology he suggests that the conversation about celebrity is at its heart a conversation about the possible self - who am I and who do I aspire to be?  Madonna, Paris Hilton, Tiger Woods, Princess Di and Michael Jackson turn out not to (just) be trashy but to be an arena in which contested notions of what it means to be human are being negotiated. Ward suggests that theological language and themes are at play in the  conversation but transcendence has collapsed into the self - a sure sign that notions of the sacred are shifting. This kind of reflecting on and listening in depth to the flow of meanings in popular culture is wonderfully refreshing.

one of the ideas i like a lot in the book is what pete calls the para-religious. by that he means that while religious language and imagery and myth is at play in popular culture it's not really religion as we know it but is a kind of religion, often ambiguous and where the transcendent seems to have pretty much collapsed.

celebrity

pete ward gives a preview of his thinking on celebrity as a kind of religion - book to follow in the new year. the mission challenge he suggests isn't so much to read off christian doctrine but to engage with how meaning is created and flows in popular culture.

social media boot camp

jason clark sent me an e-mail to say he is hosting a day on social media in september covering these four things -

• What is Social Media, why is it here and why is it important? 
• The main popular tools of Social Media including blogging, Facebook and Twitter 
• How you might better use Social Media for your own communication and life 
• How your organisations, church, and ministry might engage strategically and meaningfully with Social Media

 details here 

did you know...

that if you have a wii plugged into a television (as we do) you can use it to watch bbc iplayer? i'm sure you did know but in case there is anyone as slow on the uptake as me i thought i'd mention it...

anyone watch the tv debate last night? i confess i was catching up on desperate housewives but felt so shallow for doing so that i stopped and watched it!!! - clegg, brown, cameron came out a definite 1,2,3 on that performance for me

changing the rules of the game

stephen fry gives the most optimistic view of the ipad. i hope he's right. the planet is certainly a better place with apple on it! what i like is the idea of things that change the rules of the game which certainly the iphone did. equally iplayer has changed the rules of the game for watching television and listening to radio (along with tvcatchup). or the new digital cameras such as the 5dmkii has changed the rules of the game in movie making . what will change the rules of the game in christianity i wonder?

trying to follow

i can't remember how but i came across the blog trying to follow by ariah fine before christmas and really enjoy the thoughtful design pulled out... here's one example

what's hot in 010

the spiritually astute business leader's guide to what's hot in 2010 makes for a good read

apparently UniTasking is in and MultiTasking out -

The onslaught of mobile technologies and social media addiction is sucking up our attention in the virtual world while we are attempting to do other things in real life at the same time, and it is getting a little out of hand.

Trust is in and Paranoia and Arrogance out

Embedded Generosity in and Embedded Hoarding out

Online Community Building in and Online Personal Brand Building out

Collaborative in and Competitive out

Gen Y leaders in Boomer Leaders out

Being in and Doing out...

[ht: bob carlton]

generate magazine - an artifact of emergence

tim snyder who i met in 08 in austin is staying at the moment, visiting a few communities and coming to resource this weekend. along with paul soupiset and makeesha fisher (and a bundle of others no doubt) they have pulled off creating a new magazine - generate. this may be old news but i have only just seen a copy so forgive me... it's full colour all the way through. the design is brilliant, it's a great size and it's printed on the most eco friendly paper you can get. it has a mix of culture, arts, articles, reviews, even a bit of liturgy and poetry thrown in. there are very few celebrities - it holds up artists and communities and small voices. i really like it - congrats to the team who have pulled it off who produce it totally as volunteers. it's mainly funded through advertising and then of course subscriptions. in these times doing a magazine is foolish! it's expensive, you have to post it to people, will they buy?- but against the odds foolishness has paid off. i think initially there will be a couple of issues a year. you can see sample pages here at the brilliant issu.com

so we were talking about this in the pub - tim, steve, adam and i - and reflecting how magazines have a different edge to books. they often connect with movements. they are cheaper. they are somehow more transient, catching a moment. they can hold a range of perspectives together even opposing opinions, you can dip in and out, you can like some pieces or writers and ignore others, they can hang around on the kitchen table for anyone to pick up. that's not to say that books aren't good. i'm a big fan too - but the genre is different.

i think generate captures the spirit of the emergent conversation as well as anything i have seen come out of the US in recent years. it has a different tone. there's lots of speculation about the movement out there in the blogosphere at the moment - is it dead, is it maturing, is it just beginning?... but this is evidence that there's plenty of energy and good and creative people around honestly working out what it means to follow christ in these times.

the strapline for the magazine or at least this month's is an artifact of the emergence conversation. this led us to an interesting discussion on the difference between artifact and artefact - turns out they both are alternative spellings of something made or given shape by humans. but steve pointed out that artifact is also a term for a glitch in digital media such as a jpg image. this is a wonderful unintentional double meaning in the strapline - see this article for examples of design accidents as sources of inspiration. now there's a feature for a future issue!

go and subscribe to this artifact.

looking back

well before heading back into work today, just a quick moment to reflect on the best of 09 in no particular order...

film - the wrestler closely followed by where the wild things are

book - translating the message (yes i know i read it 20 years after being published but amazing!) by lamin sanneh closely followed by photo wisdom by lewis blackwell

exhibition - richard avedon in new york at the international center of photography - i had no idea i would like a fashion photography exhibition so much. also really enjoyed richard long...

television - the wire series 1-5 (yes i know i came to the party late)

gig - i saw jon hopkins three times so he wins (check his latest ep btw), also loved dubb, foy vance, soweto gospel choir and cinematic orchestra gigs this year

album - the xx and i know a lot of people who share this opinion, dubh a close second

festival - i made it to four but slot in poland gets the nod (edinburgh, big chill and greenbelt were the others)

grace - loved the table

sporting moment - chelsea FA cup winners and mark cavendish in the tour de france a close second

inspiring new person i have met - steve bevans - the man is wonderful

magazine - geez

photo i have taken - mmm not sure maybe over the wall

work moment - being in church house and being asked by the powers that be to do something radical and dangerous (hoping they haven't changed their mind since!)

harry moment - releasing his first album

jen moment - sharing a weekend in new york

joel moment - don't take this the wrong way this wasn't an easy moment but it was exciting to see joel moving out of home

achievements - i have finished the manuscript for the curating worship book (sent off on 31 dec - yay! hopefully out by greenbelt). it's probably not the most significant but is in my mind because it's recent!

blog moment - redesigning the blog and following obama's lead to reinvent my digital self

new web experience - spotify

digimission talk and presentation

the talks from the digimisssion conference are online at slipstream. you can download mine directly here

as i'm a fairly visual person some of it only makes sense with the presentation so a pdf of that is here... (thought you mac users would like this slide!)

maggi dawn was one of the speakers. while there i took some photos for her for publicity shots one of which i have added to flickr...

#digimission

today i am one of several speakers at digimission - an EA gathering reflecting on mission and digital culture. it's from 11-3 at st pauls church, robert adam street w1u . i think it's being broadcast/streamed here and the twitter hash tag is #digimission.

think stream

the rise of social distribution networks is a good (long) piece (ht nic). i liked the concept of streams:

A stream. A real time, flowing, dynamic stream of information — that we as users and participants can dip in and out of and whether we participate in them or simply observe we are are a part of this flow...

...This world of flow, of streams, contains a very different possibility set to the world of pages.   Among other things it changes how we perceive needs.  Overload isnt a problem anymore since we have no choice but to acknowledge that we cant wade through all this information.   This isnt an inbox we have to empty,  or a page we have to get to the bottom of — its a flow of data that we can dip into at will but we cant attempt to gain an all encompassing view of it. 

the Network of Christ: Here Comes Everybody 4

I have done a series of three posts so far in relation to Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody.

sharing, co-operation and collective action
I participate therefore I am
it's a small world

I have also taught on small world and networks for our CMS team and this has catalysed a lot of reaction and discussion which has been great. In the comments on the last post small worlds there is a brief discussion around what this means in relation to the catholicity of the church - or put another way the need to be connected in to the wider church. So this part four isn't directly in relation to the book but is sparked off this series. In respsonse to Ben and Steve's comments I have had a go at an improvised reworking of 1 Corinthians 12:12-end - the Network of Christ.

Just as a network, though one, has many small worlds, but all its parts interconnect, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit and given a portal into the wider network of Christ - whether Orthodox, Emerging, Missional, New Monastic, Catholic, Anglican, Post-denomnational, Pentecostal, Baptist, Ana-baptist etc or any blend of the above the Spirit flows through our networks. So the network of Christ is not made up of one small world but of many interconnected small worlds and hubs.

If the Australian missional communities should say 'because I am not focused on worship I don't connect into the wider network' it would not cease to be part of the global network of Christ. And if the French Catholic church should say 'because I can't feasibly imagine homogeneous missional church planting I don't belong to the wider network it wouldn't cease to be part of the global network of Christ either. If the whole network lived in the small world of Alternative Worship where would the growth of African churches be? If the whole network lived in the Anglican small world where would the prophetic passion for justice of the anabaptists be? But in fact in the  network of Christ God has catalysed and flows in lots of small worlds just as God wills. And the network is such that the Spirit creates an environment where She flows and small worlds emerge as the Spirit beckons the network into the future.

If there were just one small world with no external connectors where would the network be? The redemptive gifts that the Spirit has distributed throughout the wider network of Christ would not flow. They would remain static.  So don't let the small world of which you are a part ever say 'I don't need you' to another small world and don't despise the gift of external connection. To be in Christ is to connect to Christ and to participate in the Network of Christ where the Spirit flows. And be careful that you don't just notice the hubs that seem important or powerful or branded and neglect the weaker or less connected small worlds. God flows in these parts, distributes gifts there and has a special love for them. And the small world in which you mostly participate is most likely to be energisd by connection to other small worlds which are the most different to you so don't be tempted to just connect to others who seem like you.

You are the network of Christ and each one of you is connected and participates. And the Spirit flows in and through you and has distributed different kinds of gifts and roles - pioneers, catalysts, networkers, artists, mission leaders, loyal radicals, local practitioners, environmentalists, guardians of flow. Are all external connectors? Are all local practitioners? But eagerly desire the greater gifts to flow throughout the network of Christ.

I am making this piece worship trick 43, series 3.