iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

If you haven’t already please VOTE. (This only applies to the UK which is currently in the grip of Council Elections.) (I’m not advocating that you vote for any specific party, that’s up to you, but I’m just keen on there being as large a turnout as possible.)

Poster with the word VOTE in different colours arranged down the poster.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Magic pink underpainting of those clouds… #Art #Sunset

Photo taken through the window of the sunset… the gold, the pink, the trees… beautiful!

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

#inmotion The coach has left the Coach House where it sleeps and is currently bowling down the High Street to the pub… #PrintPromptMonday - OK, I know it’s Tuesday but I overslept!

Black and white Lino print of the Coach House, a small residence with a central front door at ground level with a hay entrance above and a wide entrance for the coach on the right. A weathervane sits on the peak of the roof and trees boarder both sides of the house. Underneath the house is a legend that reads COACH HOUSE.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Two naive black and white prints… #PrintPromptMonday #IntotheWild The Gate leading out, and Big Trees.

A black and white wood panel print showing a five-bar farm gate between two gate posts flanked by hedgerows.

A black and white Lino print showing three big tree shapes growing from a verdant undergrowth.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Perhaps a bit more needed… WI-FI is a must these days and Power/Energy to run everything - which inevitably drags in Infrastructure and Contracts etc Mind you, if we could all achieve Digital Wellbeing it would help! (@lthechat.bsky.social Helen Beetham)

A modified Maslow’s Triangle.
Starting from the top:
Digital Wellbeing;
Self Actualization;
Self Esteem;
L❤️ve;
Safety;
Phisiological …?*!!!;
WIFI;
POWER
Infrastructure, Contracts,
Green, Ecological, Profit;
GAIA.

This was done very quickly on an iPad in response to a question during a weekly #LTHEchat session on the need for Digital Wellbeing in HE.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Visited a small museum in Valadon’s birthplace near #Limoges some years back… en.visitlimousin.com/stay/leisure... #WomensArt

Photo taken in Musée Espace Valadon (https://en.visitlimousin.com/stay/leisure-activities-and-facilities/cultural-activities-in-limousin/musee-espace-valadon-bessines-sur-gartempe-en-4130865/) in 2019 showing a view of a studio space in homage to Suzanne Valadon in her birthplace near Limoges.

At the top left is a painted canvas of a female nude sitting on a white cushion. On the right is a canvas on a fabulous curly easel showing a portrait head of a woman. At the bottom is a wooden print rack with some prints and sheets of drawings stacked in it. The floor is tiled in plain pottery tiles. The walls are white. A bedspread is pinned to the wall behind a red stuffed settee. Several blank canvases and an easel are propped up against the wall.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

This weekend I came across Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970), a truly astonishing textile #artist from Norway. nkim.no/en/hannah-ry... Her work was considered so offensive in 1937 that it was #censored. #WomensArt See also: theconversation.com/reading-pica... @theconversation.com

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

A6 #LTHEchat “Integrating Generative AI (GenAI) for student feedback offers personalized learning opportunities but raises concerns about accuracy and over-reliance. Studies highlight both benefits and challenges.” Is what ChatGPT said… And offered these resources:

Screen shot of output from Chat GPT in response to a question on #LTHEchat

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

We’ve just watched Episode 6 of #Patience on @channel4.bsky.social but can’t find out the full cast… Anyone know who played the bad female Superintendent who had tried to halt the enquiry? Tried @IMDb and @radiotimes.bsky.social but no luck… CGI or AI? Nah, they’re not that good yet.

Publicity photo for PATIENCE a TV show on Channel 4.

The photo shows the two main characters in the show.

On the left is Ella Maisy Purvis who plays Patience Evans, a young autistic woman, working in a clerical role in the basement of the City of York police station. She is wearing a red roll neck sweater under a dark jacket. She has blond centre parted hair and is wearing noise cancelling headphones.

On the right and slumped slightly lower is Laura Fraser who plays Detective Inspector Bea Metcalf in the City of York police. She is wearing a turquoise silk blouse under a dark jacket. She has dark shoulder length hair.

They are standing between shelves in an archive of police reports.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

How's this #monochrome image #OnlineArtExchange… A faded black and white furniture catalogue circa 1900 from Heal and Son for Chairs and Table fixed to one of the Tables in the lovely Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City. www.broadway-gallery.com Go see it… @artukdotorg.bsky.social

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

A thought post #LTHEchat… Is a student's response to an assignment a form of #feedback on your #teaching? So that would mean your feedback on their #assignment would be feedback on their feedback… Does this change the dynamic?

Laurillard's Conversational Framework

Essentially the diagram shows the relationship between student and teacher and the interflow of theory, ideas, conceptions and feedback etc.

Google Laurillard's Conversational Framework for more details.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

By colour and size was a favourite way of categorising books where I came from… thus: “I’m looking for a little Red Book about 3” x 4”, can you help?” (Photo is of very uncategorised books!)

Photograph of books on 3 shelves. There are two notices attached to the shelves. The first one implies that books on the top shelf are “Self Help” books. The notice below this says “PLEASE ASK FOR ASSISTANCE FOR TOP SHELF ITEMS Thank you”.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

This #Badge is left intentionally blank for cases just like this… Please cut out and fill in as appropriate. Well done.

4 cartoon Badges. The top round pink one is for Swimming 10 mtr, the middle white one says “This badge intentionally left blank”, a half hidden blue grey one is for Computers in S, and the last square one is for Wood Craft. The badges are pinned to a shirt top pocket out of which is poking a pen.

The cartoon was a gentle dig at the trend for awarding Badges to students when they had achieved something of merit so that they could feel proud of themselves.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

And for Computer Technology as well… think back to when you were a child (even if it was only a decade ago), are the computers you saw/used then anything like the ones that are powering Bluesky? The first one I used in the 70s was the size of my house, now I carry one around in my pocket.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Nothing much changes… This is a poor copy of a cartoon that I drew for City News, the in-house paper for the City University, London in the late ‘70s.

Cartoon drawn for City News, the in-house paper for City University, London in the mid ‘70s.

It shows a graph. The vertical axis on the left is labelled 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 hundred thousand. The horizontal axis is labelled 1973, ‘75, ‘77.

Two lines are shown, one solid line rises from 3.5 in 1973 up to 6.5 hundred thousand in 1977 and shows the number of students, a second dashed line falls from just over 7 in 1971 to 3 hundred thousand flats in 1977.

The two lines cross in the centre of the graph forming a hammock shape.

A barefooted disheveled looking student is asleep and snoring in the hammock.

The cartoon is headed Rae’s Laugh and is signed Simon Rae.

City University, London is now City St George’s, University of London.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Bizarre sensation this morning listening to Bob and Roberta Smith presenting Make Your Own Damn Music on radio #Resonance 104FM Felt like an actual part of the artwork, not just a listener Felt manipulated like the oil paint on one of his canvasses Normally a reader or a viewer but not a material

A painting by Bob and Roberta Smith RA
Make Your Own Damn Art
2010.
Oil on board. 1005 mm x 999 mm x 64 mm.
© Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/make-your-own-damn-art

The image is made up of the words from the title of the painting painted in bright block letters in stripes across the painting which appears to be planks of wood laid horizontally and fashioned into a square. Nail heads are just visible at the end of the planks.

MAKE is in red on a buff background, YOUR is in pale blue on a red background, OWN is mostly in pale blue on a dark blue background, DAMN is in red on a buff background and is noticeably narrower than the other words, MUSIC is in green outlined in red on a black background.

All the letter have a slight shadow which gives a 3D effect.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Lots of sawing and building work on a remixed episode of Bob and Roberta’s Make Your Own Damn Music on radio ResonanceFM104 to accompany my morning porridge making as he explores the urgency of facilitating every child’s Right to Art which involves breaking down a lot of walls. www.resonancefm.com

Cartoon face wearing glasses and a pink T-shirt. The caption reads:

“Can you afford creativity?”

The image is signed @simonrae

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This is so nice… It reminded me of a poster from the ‘80s that I should have kept ☹️ It was advertising an event to do with the the #INMOS #Transputer (www.rs-online.com/designspark/...) and featured a beautiful knitted version of a Transputer in situ. I do so wish that I had kept a copy!

Photograph of a board from a massively parallel Meiko Computing Surface, which features four T800 transputers plus external memory taken from https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/revisiting-the-inmos-transputer.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Arggg… Listening to fabulous radio program on #Resonance 104FM playing classical music and talking to classical musicians Elgar, 3 Counties Festival, opera, trumpets 🎺🎺, Debussy But it's from the Archive… don't know who what or when 🙁 www.resonancefm.com

Close up photo of 4 ears of corn

Wheat colour against a black background

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Photo booth, c. 1970 Stourbridge College of Art.

Black and white Photo Booth image of longish haired young person wearing a black polo neck and grey cardigan. Two chains around his neck, one metal chain link, one black cord string with clusters of six white beads set 3 by 3. He is holding his metal framed glasses up toward the camera so that a smaller image of his face is reflected in each lens. He has a whispy moustache.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

An oil pastel drawing done in New Quay, Wales some time ago.

A drawing done from the window of the cottage we were staying in for a week in New Quay, Wales in October.

In the foreground is a municipal carpark and toilet block. Beyond are the brightly painted buildings on the quayside. Then comes the green fields on the far side of the bay below a fairly threatening sky.

I used oil pastels which sometimes turned on their side to get a straight edge line.

And yes, they are messy! I try to remember to wear a latex glove on my drawing hand to keep clean 🙂.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Drawing from sometime earlier… It was a nice café that we went into for a coffee and something to eat. I had time to draw other customers.

Drawing of the bay at Tenby in Wales. Two people sit with their backs to the artist looking out at the bay. Several small boats are bobbing at anchor. Across the bay a strip of land separates the sea from the sky.

I tried to do the main outlines in a fine black ink pen with one line, not taking the pen from the paper. I added colour using coloured pencils later.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

@uksnowmap.com #uksnow MK17 0/10 No snow… what we had had almost gone 🙁

Photo of garden with very little snow from the earlier fall left.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

@uksnowmap.com #uksnow MK17 5/10 Still snowing, but still variable fall from very small flakes to quiet large.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Way back I used to get confused with Simon Rae - author and poet of world-wide fame… Once had an email from a Japanese fan who asked what the meaning was of a verse of his famous poem, for her homework. Couldn’t help Tried his publisher X Have you ever been asked about the meaning of anything?

Cartoon of a short-haired, bespectacled chap with a big nose and a blue sweater furiously scribbling on yellow post it notes and discarding them to the winds…

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Hope so too… Looking forward to seeing how a dual platform for #LTHEchat can work. As long as people have the essentials I don’t think the platform matters too much (as long as no one curdles the milk!).

Cartoon showing the essentials of #LTHEchat:
an 8 o’clock start;
something to lubricate the thinking process (possibly a glass of red wine, Sanatogen or Ribena*);
comfort food (possibly ice cream or cake*).

* other lubricants or comfort foods are available. (The 8 o’clock start is non negotiable.)

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Worked on an ICL 1905 in 1974 (BIG! Room sized. Didn’t own it obviously.) Hero of a strip that I used to draw… the caption says it all! We saw Star Trek when it open in London.

#1 of a strip showing a concerned Computer Operator bemoaning the fact that he (an ICL 1905 magnetic tape drive) hadn’t been working…

(Caption reads)

“O.K. Own up..Who gave him a ticket to see ‘Star Wars’?…. Saw it on Boxing Day didn’t he.. Fell in love with ARTOO DEETOO……”

#2 of a strip showing a concerned Computer Operator bemoaning the fact that he (an ICL 1905 magnetic tape drive) hadn’t been working…

(Caption reads)

“..He hasn’t done any work since. Keeps muttering “May the force be with you!”…Fat lot of good that is..all this work to do..tut..tut..”

#3 of a strip of a concerned Computer Operator bemoaning the fact that he (an ICL 1905 magnetic tape drive) hadn’t been working…

The computer is looking adoringly at a Star Wars poster showing C-3P0 and R2 D2.

#4 of a strip about a concerned Computer Operator bemoaning the fact that he (an ICL 1905 magnetic tape drive) hadn’t been working…

Shows the computer thinking a string of binary.

(Signed by Simon)

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Late 60s/early 70s… a large paperback copy of LOTR with a greenish cover. Year off before Art College. Favourite pastime - imagining casting for a film version… Used to skip the elvish language bits 😕. Drew designs for painting my bedroom walls to look like Bilbo’s dwelling. Never realised 😕.

My most LOTR’s photo image.

A B&W photo of trees in winter. A big tree on either side in front of a sapling in a cage between them. Almost dead centre is a reclining stag. The antlers are just visible through the mist.

The more imaginative readers may see the reclining stag as the first
outrider of a diverse force of ‘the good’ waiting in readiness for the trumpet call sounding the advance. The forces of the other side are encamped in the ruined abbey, luxuriating in their recent victories. Little did they know that these ‘victories’ were, to use the modern idiom, ‘fake news’, buffed up and reified by a subtle fifth column of carefully prepared influencers upping the successes of the other side and downing the good.

Only the morrow would know the success of all the planning and subterfuge. Which side would triumph? If the other side then at least four years would be needed to realign and replan, to gather itself and convince the world that they could win. If the good were to succeed then… would they be rigorous enough to root out the bad to make sure that they could never rise again? How does one curb the bad? Censorship? Well hardly, not really in the armoury of the good, much more of a dark art! If the bad won… well - recovery may not come in my lifetime or in my children’s lifetime. Would the trees, the oaks and the yews survive? When everything was inches deep in developer’s concrete.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

For aficionado of 1950s SF… archive.org/details/gala... Freely available. Looks like some great graphics and stories. #graphics #sciencefiction #1950

Cover from Galaxy
Science fiction
April 1954
Showing a sandy desert landscape. In the foreground is a dark tree-like form with one apple at the end of a branch. A spacewoman in a yellow costume is reaching up to pick the apple. A Spaceman in a green costume is standing behind her watching. Behind them stands a Rocket ship pointing into the red sky.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

I loved comics back then but, you know… kids, mortgage, responsibilities, haven’t been able to keep up with them since. #comics

2000AD

No. 1 26th February 1977
8p Earth money
(Difficult to explain, at that time the exchange rate was about $2 = £1 and 8p is £0.08 so about 16 cents possibly 🤔) (But my maths might be all wrong - I’ve got a streaming cold and I’m old and I can’t get my head around it)

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Yea aren't they great! I've used them for ages… they are truly magical (although, having said that, a lot of my drawings do tend to end up rather muddy 🙁).

Drawing done of Pirate Ship play frame on summer's day in full sunshine using Magic Pencils with bit of black pen outlining.

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Or did people think that there was a direct line or tube from the lungs to the bum like from the mouth to the lungs?

A page from 'De humani corporis fabrica' by Andreas Vesalius, published in 1534.

From https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/getting-under-the-skin

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Simon Rae @simonrae.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

First post on Bluesky… Just listened to Joe Cushley and Balling the Jack on Resonance 104.4 FM radio… Weather crispish and coldish… Awaiting any developments… “Tell me, tell me if anything ever got done.”

Drawing of a black Robert’s internet enabled radio set on a garishly coloured cloth in front of vase of artificial flowers tuned into Resonance 104.4 FM or www.resonancefm.com signed by @simonrae

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