2012: A year in photos (part 1)

It seems to be the done thing these days, blogging with barely-captioned images.

Moving forward, I think I may start doing a monthly summary of what I've been doing - as much to remind me as anything else. And as a practice run, what better than to pull together a monstrous summary of 2012?

[deep breath]

In a very literal sense my year started with fireworks, as I had been roped in to cover the street party. This meant I was on the 5th floor above La Senza for midnight, offering a terrifyingly unpararlleled view of the show.

On January 1st I went to St Giles Cathedral to see part of the New Year's Games; this was a labyrinth, complete with Minotaur, played to a strange live soundtrack.

Electric Tales at The Stand then provided the usual selection of experimental comedy storytelling. Which was followed by some dodgy non-comedy reviewer slating in in the paper and (much to my offense) remarking that the in house photographer seemed overly interested in the burlesque-style performer (as if). Nice to start the year with some controversy.

Found had a residency at Inspace to work on a new interactive project called #unravel. Featuring recordings of Aiden Moffat and a bunch of computer-controlled instruments, the installation lurked in the background on many events before it went off to woo the world.

Back in Inspace, Electric Bookshop brought us their quarterly presentations and discussions on the future of books and publishing.

My friend Caoimhe now lives in Japan so when she visited for a few weeks we simply had to do things with her.

Keith Ridgway is a writer who had spent the last few years living in Edinburgh and was about to return to Dublin. He needed some headshots so we went for a wander.

Cachín Cachán Cachunga! describes itself as "Queer & Trans* cabaret... with a focus on disabled & Deaf, migrant, & multiracial LGBTI communities". So it's pretty inclusive.

The Beltane Fire Society now have an office in the Art's Complex and since there's some large spaces in there they pulled together an exhibition of the society's history, with photos and costumes galore.

The Stitch Lounge popped up again, allowing more experienced stitchers to create interesting outfits while providing workshops for the n00bs.

And then it was time for some more Cachín Cachán Cachunga! but this time in Dumfries.

Marco Donnarumma makes strange noises with his body. Which is to say, he developed sensors that can be strapped on and provide a signal based on muscle movements, which are then translated into music. Having seen a certain amount of success with this previously with Xth Sense he moved it forward and made it more of a performance.

For the last five Februarys the UNESCO Edinburgh City of Literature trust have been running reading campaigns in the city to promote reading and literature. This year, in a break from this tradition, they lit up parts of Edinburgh to celebrate the enlightenment in a campaign cunningly entitled enLIGHTen.

Having been ousted from Cabaret Voltaire while they were rebuilt, Illicit Ink was welcomed into the Bongo Club for When Worlds Collide.

Electric Tales again! With less controversy and Susan Calman this time.

The Scottish Book Trust run the New Writers Award and every year hold an event to celebrate the new batch and showcase the previous winners' work.

Currently held in Inspace, Future Shorts pulls together exciting short films from around the globe, shown around the globe.

Ken MacLeod's new novel, Intrusion, was launched at Pulp Fiction with the support of the ESRC Genomics Forum.

There's a chap called Chris who runs occasional parties which he calls Salons; aimed at getting creative people to meet each other (and have a good time) they combine eating, drinking, chatting and performing. Oddly, the Salon in 2011 with Amanda Palmer was not the best of them...

Todd Zuniga's Literary Death Match tours the world pitting writers against a panel of judges in a wacky and not at all literary competition that is guaranteed to raise a smile.

A new Lit night, No Rhyme, No Reason launched in the Jazz Bar with a series of works in response to Jack Kerouac.

The Edinburgh International Science Festival is too hectic for them to afford good coverage of all their events, but they do splash out of a few. This year I ended up at lots of them, not even counting those at Inspace, but the firewalking was definintely the most entertaining.

Inspace's contributions to the Science Festival are called LateLab. They're fairly typical of the events held there, but crammed into a shorter period. And they were all excellent fun.

Electric Bookshop again, as part of LateLab...

Of course all of these things were happening around college work. One thing I tended to struggle with is 'Fashion' assignments, not least because I always ended up with things going wrong and being rushed. For this one, I worked with my friend Behm to create a faux-Wedding shoot featuring a bride and bridesmaids who were... not feminine. Some time with Gumtree found me some dresses, the girls at Materialise helped fit them to the models and a makeup artist recently arrived from London did exactly what was needed to their faces. Add a very handy lighting assistant and it was a roaring success!

The Scifest/Latelab series simply had to have a Stitch Lounge, but with a twist. Stitch Lab paired scientist with creatives to make a series of science-inspired outfits.

And then there was a very unusual engagement shoot...

Onto Part 2!