— I'm Timothy Greig. I live in Wellington, New Zealand, and work
for AIM Proximity. I'm interested in game design, information architecture, librarianship, and transmedia storytelling. Updates? — Try the RSS.

I’m one of those people who likes to read things as I use them. I’ll examine the chocolate wrapper as I munch, read all the fine print on the pen I’m using as I daydream…

So every morning in the shower – whether I’m stealing Michelle’s shampoo, or just using my own (a crumbly rock-thing from Lush) – I’ll read and ponder the back of the herbal essences bottles.

I guess the packaging designers at Herbal Essences realized this, and so they included something for me to read.

There’s something comforting about reading what a product is doing for you… and usually, you’re just reading the ingredients list on the back, wondering what half of the things you’re putting into your hair are.

Whether or not herbal essences are a nice company, or if their shampoo is very good, I don’t know – but this nice narrative about how good I’m going to feel after using their shampoo is a really neat touch.

Shampoo has such a strong visceral component: how it smells, what it feels like when you put it in your hair. I feel like this story on the back helps enhance the visceral by adding a reflexive feeling too.

Just look at all the great words they’re using: dousing, silky, rich, protect, shiny, healthy, light, lustrous, happy. So awesome… I kind of want to go wash my hair now.

I’ve just finished up a round of lectures for INFO525, our ‘Intro to Technology‘ course in the Information Studies Programme. Our programme has a significant distance component – which for this paper means that each lecture is given three times:

• on campus for students studying here at Kelburn (Monday afternoon),
• online via audio conferencing for students all over New Zealand (Monday evening),
• and via telephone to a group of students who meet at Auckland City Library (Thursday evening).

It’s the second time I’ve taught for this paper, but teaching in the course this time around really got me thinking about how really different the three lectures are to teach – each with their own advantages and challenges. (more…)

Of course The Matrix, Lost, and Doctor Who are EXACTLY THE SAME as Brooklyn Museum and Nottingham City Museums and Galleries! This week I’ve just given a lecture that brazenly linked ideas I’ve been thinking about for ages concerning Transmedia Storytelling with Libraries and Museums.

TV and Movies, Erik Boekesteijn from the Delft Public Library, Cats and Rabbits, Transmedia Storytelling, Natalie Tran, Henry Jenkins… just a few of my favourite topics, all smooshed into a two-hour lecture mashup.

Next week, I’ll be talking about Social Network sites specifically. It should be quite fun, especially as I’m going to use it as an excuse to play many videos of incredibly handsome men.

I’ve posted all my notes from the fantastic conference I just attended while in Melbourne – to flickr. There was a really amazing line-up of speakers, and I’m really looking forward to going back over these notes later on, and adding my thoughts and annotations. For now, though, here they are raw. Any comments and questions appreciated!