vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
vivdunstan ([personal profile] vivdunstan) wrote2024-10-22 11:37 am

Glasgow Worldcon 2024 viewing list

I've just finished my marathon viewing of a large bunch of videos on catchup from the Glasgow Worldcon this summer. Watching on catchup I missed out the chance to take part in the live Q&As. And I also found the user interface rather cumbersome, that I had to watch on my laptop, which limited how frequently I could do so. But I still managed to get through quite a large number of talks.

Here are the events I watched, each one about an hour long, typically with 45 main minutes of discussion, followed by 15 minutes of audience Q&A:
  • AI and Work - Do Androids Dream of Taking Your Job?
  • ENIAC and the Post-War Dawn of the Computer age
  • The Horror Out Of Space
  • *Scot-ish: The Influence of Scotland on Fantasy Worldbuilding
  • It's Life, Jim, but Not as We Know It
  • *Iain Banks: Between Genre and the Mainstream
  • All the Shakespeare: the Bard's Influence on SFF
  • The Untold History of Worldcons
  • Inadvisable Rocket Science
  • A Fireside Chat with Samantha Béart
  • Guest of Honour Interview: Ken MacLeod
  • *The Many Legs of SF: Creepy Crawlies in Space
  • 50 Years of TTRPGs
  • Comics Can Save Your Life
  • Faeries in Fantasy Literature
I've marked out above those with asterisks that I especially enjoyed. To pull those out specifically these were:
  • Scot-ish: The Influence of Scotland on Fantasy Worldbuilding
  • Iain Banks: Between Genre and the Mainstream
  • The Many Legs of SF: Creepy Crawlies in Space
The first two of these had obvious Scottish connections, which I unsurprisingly appreciated. But I also found them particularly rewarding in other respects. But I enjoyed something in everything I watched, not just these particular highlight talks.

Martin and I had originally hoped to be at the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon in person. We had low cost attending memberships in place. But things didn't work out that way. However I was able to watch on catchup, and have very much enjoyed that. I was also active in the Discord during the convention, and treated myself to some purchases inspired by the Dealers' Hall.


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