vivdunstan

Belatedly browsing the schedule for Oxonmoot 2025 in Sched, and wondering how anyone with colour blindness can cope with the colour scheme Sched uses to differentiate between in person, hybrid and online events. Luckily not a problem for me, but seems like a core thing Sched should be doing better.

Meanwhile after wondering that, I am now speeding through the Oxonmoot programme, seeing which events I hope to watch. Probably watched after the Oxford event, using the wonderful catch up streaming the con organisers have honed over the years. I am very likely to sleep through the whole live event.

... quite a bit later ...

And that's seemingly 31 events in the Oxonmoot 2025 programme I'm especially interested in and hope to watch, probably after the event. Marvelling as always at the range of talks and events. Phenomenally grateful to the Tolkien Society and Oxonmoot organisers for making this event accessible online.

Finally going through the Edinburgh Book Festival programme, and disappointed as the proportion of streamed talks diminishes even further for yet another year. Luckily I am finding some gems, including Robert Macfarlane and Hallie Rubenhold. But it is pretty poor representation on accessibility grounds.

I used to attend the Edinburgh Book Festival in person, though usually then only attending one or two talks. But those days are past, as my neurological disease progresses, and streaming that took off as Covid started was a huge help to housebound me. And now that’s in major decline.

P.S. Streaming tickets now bought, for the above two talks, plus those with VE Schwab and RF Kuang. I will probably watch them belatedly on catch-up in bed.

Back home from the V&A Dundee now. Really enjoyed the Kimono exhibition. We could turn up any time to get in, with our new joint memberships, and the V&A staff handled that we hadn't got our member cards in the post yet. I came away from the front reception desk with a freshly printed temporary membership card, and they will look into the missing cards (I'm thinking Dundee East postal depot backlogs!). It was incredibly busy when we got into the exhibition, so much queuing needed to get around the different sections. Slightly anxiety inducing for infection phobic us. We dodged a few obviously coughing or sneezing people ... And we skipped some bits that were of less interest. But I saw all the bits I really wanted to see. I was especially interested in the early history and some of the related artefacts on display. Plus kimono pattern books and drawings and paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries. I was agog at those. I only had a few things I struggled to see from my wheelchair because of height/arrangement. More of a problem was navigating around the fellow visitors, who were so engrossed that we'd often have to very clearly alert them to wheelchair coming through. I needed a horn! But we both enjoyed it and are glad we went. And just outside was the Dundee Tapestry exhibition still, which was also attracting lots of visitors, and we were happy to go round it. Bought stuff in the shop after - which is still a bit too much of a squeeze with a wheelchair, though somewhat improved after my feedback a year ago which they acted on. Then coffee and bagels lunch at the kiosk/van outside. Very glad we made it, though I won't be surprised if the same thing happens as last time we went there, and we've picked up an infection (was Covid a year ago). Fingers crossed not though!

P.S. Martin just said he could have done with fewer physical kimonos on display. I also found some of those some of the less interesting elements of the exhibition. But as he said, if you went to a kimono exhibition and didn't see lots of kimonos you would probably be justifiably disappointed! But overall the balance was good.

P.P.S. Have just emailed the V&A Dundee with some feedback on the Kimono exhibition, including how it was much better for me accessibility wise than Tartan, and also to thank them for improvements they have made re accessibility in the shop. Which they did after my feedback a year ago.

Just finished my catchup viewing of the Tolkien Society Oxonmoot this year. And wrote up a blog about it. It's amazing how well it worked to make the event accessible even for me in very extreme circumstances. Thank you to all the team!

I’ve now watched 5 panels, and will watch many more in the coming weeks and months. Generally things are working well. But today’s viewing was very much a tale of two halves.

“Scot-ish: The Influence of Scotland on Fantasy Worldbuilding” was a delight, with an all Scottish panel talking about Scotland and how it’s depicted in fantasy and scifi too, across all mediums. Only hampered by one panelist who was a bit far from his microphone. But the repartee was a delight.

By contrast “It's Life, Jim, but Not as We Know It”, with a bunch of space scientists talking about the search for life in space, was exasperating. None of the in-room panelists were clearly audible, all too far from their microphones. However there was another panelist calling in remotely, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Who was clearly audible, and constantly good value. I ended up fast forwarding through much of the other speakers though, just unable to hear them enough, despite trying repeatedly. I did turn on the captions.

A friend of mine watched many Glasgow Worldcon events live, and ran into similar problems. He gave lengthy and detailed feedback to the con in one of their dedicated feedback sessions. Including raising the problem of people not using their microphones correctly. And often inaudible questions from the room, at least for the online audience. So I am expecting to have more problematic experiences as I watch more.

Still very grateful to have any chance to see it though. We hung on to our very early bought attending memberships, just in case we might get there for a day visit after all. But in the end relied on the streaming.

I just wrote up my experience watching masses of Cymera 2024 on streaming.

Very disappointed with publisher Unbound today. I was going to back their new book of Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's TV scripts. But on going to the website today - which has upgraded, and needed me to reactivate my account - I found all my past fulfilled orders no longer in my Unbound account, including all ebooks. Only unfulfilled orders are showing. Unbound now deliver ebooks only via proprietary app Glassboxx which is poor accessibility wise. I will buy this book, but not via Unbound.

I mention from time to time my reading problems with print, despite being a book historian with a PhD on reading habits. Here’s an illustration of how I read with eBooks, with my Kindle on top of a print copy, same section in both. The Library book by ‪Andrew Pettegree‬ and ‪Arthur der Weduwen‬. This is quite extreme, but means that despite the brain damage from my progressive neurological disease I can continue to read enthusiastically and in huge quantities, both fiction and non fiction. But print is an enormous problem for me to manage now, and increasingly so.

Absolutely delighted that the SHARP 2023 book history conference will be totally online, hosted from New Zealand. I’ve been very disappointed with the very restrictive online options for this year’s conference in Amsterdam, which coupled with limited info being given out in advance re the streamed content left me not able to confidently register. I think I made the right decision. Even without Covid the in person venue also seems to have been very problematic on accessibility grounds, so I’d have struggled a lot if I’d been there in person. Online is different, yes, but it does have the potential to open up the conference to many more people around the world. And it is lovely to see the University of Otago hosting it. I may even submit a paper, possibly prompted by my experiences as a disabled reader who relies on eBooks and utterly gigantic fonts to read. Though I’d need to widen from just me. If not I will be a very happy audience member. Here is the CFP.

Looking at SHARP Amsterdam, this year’s SHARP book history conference. It’s a sort of hybrid this year (Covid measures permitting), with online sessions only on 2 out of 5 days, and just keynotes and SHARP AGM online on other days, rest in person. I’d like to attend online, but with just 2 days focused on online I can’t be sure with my unpredictable neurological illness that I’d be well enough to make even the reduced online registration fee worth it. I need to decide soon, before May 5 price rises. It does feel like a step back re accessibility. Also as a P.S. looking at the programme most of the talks I would like to see are on the not online 3/5 of the programme. So again even the reduced online registration fee is highly questionable for me re value. I’m a disabled housebound academic.