I’m back, walking and will be limping the streets of London 2-4 June!
Join me here for my SXSW adventures- hopefully fewer ambulance rides this time…
0730 Wake up. Tube network is completely fucked and it’s pissing down with rain. Welcome to SXSW London! Austin we miss you
0800 squeeze recently broken leg into compression socks, swear a little bit
0830 give up on District line plan and resort to Uber to mainline
0900 finally get Uber, huge smile on drivers face, as there should be cos surge fares are surging!
0940 wonder if it’s possible for my coat to actually dissolve in the rain?
1005 arrive at UK House! They even painted on a red carpet! UK house know British weather alright…
1010 excited for Digital Arts panel with my friend Marc Boothe of B3 Media from our Austin panel
1035 Great panel! Thought provoking qu from Marc- how can we support the community in a less extractive, more proactive way?
feeling really happy to be back here! Incredible journey after my leg saga to be here on two feet at SXSW Ldn 11 weeks later! Feeling a bit like the Little Mermaid cos every step hurts still but only on one foot. Maybe I’m a mermaid cyborg?
1300 what a great networker! Caught up with a lot of people including some peeps who saw my DMLab show last weekend. And have a PLAN…more on this later, we obv always need a plan and plots. Sitting down resting ankle and refuelling pre pass pickup and then time to hit sxsw proper!
1310 liberated some super cool badges from British underground inc epic retro software badge!
1320 time to get working on that calf muscle rebuilding….!turns out i have to pick up pass in person so lets go walk! Weather is looking up…
1330 bus rovers! David always looks the coolest
1350 after a nifty bus journey make it to pass pickup!
1425 make it to truman brewery expo. Amazing installation- you are beautiful by Enrique agudo. And beanbags. Note to self make sure beanbags are in next project
1440 great seats for Art Cure talk thanks to the sxsw access team!
1540 Very thought provoking talk on evidence base for impact of creativity on health and recommendations for daily dose of creativity. ‘Listen to five bangers a day’ ….!
Wonder why we are spending our extremely limited money on funding the analysis and administration of creativity rather than creativity itself? This makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Head into hall and see someone likely looking spinning chairs. I cant resist a spinning chair at this stage in the day. Sit down and enter a talk on how to win at LLM marketing. Also get informed that the speaker’s husband is a great kisser, because emotional resonance w buyers shows up well on the algorithm. AI insights like this are why I personally come to SXSW…
Hmmm, what shall we hit next??
1600 check out the casio stand… casio have made a live interactive furbot!!!worth a stroke for conference stress reduction
we also learnt to play the piano (again) via pirates of the Caribbean game
Tom’s expression here is peak composer. Imo would be more useful having notes of scale than fingering in the game version as its really hard to work out where to put your hands…
and then an impromptu End Times reunion!
and checking out some cute casio samplers w amazing composer Rylan
hmmm where next???
the bathroom obv to update this blog. More soon!
1625 Adobe firefly play interlude!!!
maybe i should become a prompt engineer?
1800 meet up w paraorchestra crowd for happy hour non alcoholic cocktails
1815 classical unlocked mixer at the ditch- literally a crypt! Feeling a bit undead after today, but get resurrected by a free drink.
1900 see Adrian utley and Hans Martin Buff new piece Flow! An epic sample from his session singer’s contract formed the centrepiece- saying they owned her voice until the end of the solar system until the sun dies!
had a lovely chat afterwards about his PhD. I owe this man a LOT- the epic cube we recorded The End Times with!
2000 it’s pizza time! And a little debrief
2030 head back to Shoreditch town hall and run into pals Ruby and Isaac from Paraorchestra before checking out another showcase. There may have been some sock gossip involved here…
2130 discuss whether we’re going to catch Michelle Obama’s talk. Check the schedule and realise it happened this morning 😂#sxswfail
2230 in the taxi home, ankle sore but still in one piece! Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow holds.
WEDNESDAY 3rd June 2026
late start today due to a complex set of circumstances involving a cat, a coal scuttle and some bureaucracy.
1900 we hit the Ditch and manage to locate that most precious of sxsw gig features, a Chair
1930 Kyla has got an incredible voice, great band and looking amazing too. Best band of the festival so far.
2000 we head over to UK House to catch the showcases there and run into a happy group of Paraorchestra peeps heading the other way in search of noodles. My compression sock is mistaken for a fashion statement. Perhaps I should lean in and start a trend? What do you think?
2030 bands and chips!
2200 head home as ankle now approaching elephant size. Join us tomorrow for more daytime sxsw action!
THURSDAY 4th June 2026
1030 slightly more awake so decided to go w light green today! Tube drivers back on strike! London London…. On way in to sync talk!
1130 lil coffee and planning day! Spot a tape machine shootout at Abbey road and some deepmind audio afterwards- a must do!
1200 realise we forgot to book XR experiences! Run(limp lol) in pouring rain over to Rich Mix and unfortunately the lesbian simulator is booked up. Manage to nab three experiences for later in the day back to back and head back over to Shoreditch
LONDON you need to boot up a simulation of the Austin weather stat!
1220 back at Shoreditch, lovely access team grab me a chair, ask me to remember face of person in queue im ‘behind’. Have to fess up that i cant remember faces due to aphantasia, David takes on this job w glee!
1300 Fascinating to hear about Ant and Dec’s business journey, very inspiring esp their advance adoption of digital content platforms! Many hilarious anecdotes including them claiming to have started Google…!
1350 hang out in the venue waiting for Brian Eno’s discussion on what it means to make and support music /musicians
Jacob saying he feels music is one of the best examples of the majesty of the hive mind.
totally agree!
1400 brian- they dont cut the grants to technology courses- we need to articulate our position more clearly on value of art. Also discussion on importance of building a sense of belonging through music.
1415 Brian ‘data doesn’t change people’s minds- feelings have become the province of the far rightly, unfortunately the left’s response to this is to produce more data- and ppl dont care. We need to make eg climate change an emotional issue not just a data issue’
1500 head over to the Abbey Road popup – caught the ends of the tape edit comp….!
1510 check meta talk- bin it as they start mansplaining ambisonics to the audience
1515 head over to Deepmind demo of Flow for some vibe coding- great vibes here from Myriam and Sarah and a really fascinating talk! Plus excellent taste in laptop stickers.
also loving the gender balance in this talk….the mainly masculine energy in the audience perfectly balanced by the power team on stage!
1610 head to Truman brewery for worldbuilding talk
September 2026 Time travel forward and it looks like this blog kinda ended abruptly! In retrospect my ankle was absolutely killing me. It’s so nice walking around now and being in less pain as the great leg recovery continues! I won’t pretend I can remember now what happened at SXSW London after this, but I will say it was a great few days and looking forward to more in the future!
