My AutoBioCast project
STARTING IN LATE 2012, I am currently engaged in preparing a number of personal reminiscence podcasts, documenting aspects of my life and times and work.
This project evolved as a number of friends were asking me to write my autobiography. I have a number of reasons for not doing that, mostly to protect the privacy of others. But I agree that I have some worthwhile stories to tell, if they could be organised into reasonably short topical episodes. And I have decided to do them in podcast form.
These are not being produced in strict chronological sequence, but as the fancy takes me and as I manage to collect my material. The programmes, or podcasts, are being ‘published’ via the audio streaming servers of PodOMatic, but I am also posting the MP3 files here for anyone to download.
Over time I shall also be adding my narration scripts. These are not quite verbatim, as during a recording I sometimes choose to deviate slightly from the script. I prepare them in large type, and with linebreaks and pagebreaks that assist me in a more natural delivery. The versions here use smaller type to save paper, but the breaks have been retained.
This page includes embedded PodOMatic players for the audio streams, but they may be load slowly or not at all. Or, you can follow the links to the PodOMatic site itself — or just download the files to keep, play on your computer to transfer to a portable MP3 player.
1. Luz, South East Asia and me
Published November 2012
— 16 mins
About a radical Filipina scholar and campaigner, Luzviminda B Francisco;
how she and her husband and friends got me involved in the struggles for
human rights and decent standards of living for ordinary people in
South East Asia. Luzviminda Francisco was my first boss, at the
Europe/Third World Research Centre in London, and introduced me to
many interesting people and important issues.
PodOMatic
streaming service page, or shortform URL: http://is.gd/OGGiAk
MP3 file download from this server: filesize 7.5 MB;
(right-click & ‘Save Link/Target’)
2. The Means of Reproduction
Stencil duplicator (and stencil) in a clandestine jungle printshop
Published 24 November 2012:
— 21 min 44 sec
Much of my life has been taken up with the business of printing,
and preparing publications and publicity for printing. It all had
to start somewhere, and for me it started at school. In the ’sixties
and ’seventies, photocopying and litho printing were expensive,
but we had two low-cost means of publishing stuff: spirit duplicators
(Banda, Ditto) or stencil duplicators (Gestetner, Roneo, Rex-Rotary etc).
In this programme I explain how those technlogies worked, what was my own experience of using them at school and university, and what the social and political significance of these technologies was in terms of ‘freedom of the press’ and as a precursor to Web publishing.
PodOMatic
streaming service page, or shortform URL: http://is.gd/750xTO
MP3 file download
from this server: filesize 14.9 MB
(right-click & ‘Save Link/Target’)
3. Art, Print and Artwork
Conrad with a graphic arts camera
Published 4 January 2013:
— 23 min 12 sec
In a continuation from the November 2012 episode ‘The Means of Reproduction’,
Conrad Taylor describes his engagement in the years 1975 to 1985 with three
reprographic methods which finally allowed a rich mix of headline and body type,
illustrations and photos: electrostencilling, litho printing, and to a lesser
extent photocopying. This in turn required learning how to prepare camera-ready
originals, or ‘artwork’, using scalpels, Cow Gum — and a very large camera.
PodOMatic
streaming service page, or shortform URL: http://is.gd/Le252D
MP3 file download
from this server: filesize 10.5 MB
(right-click & ‘Save Link/Target’)
4. Typesetting before 1985
Theresa, star compositor at Jubal Multiwrite
Published 17 March 2013:
— 23 min 25 sec
Conrad revisits the decade from 1975 to 1985, but this time with a
focus on his experiences of various methods of preparing texts for
print publishing: using metal foundry type, ‘cold composition’
machines, and the 2nd & 3rd generation of phototypesetters.
This was all before the invention of ‘Destop Publishing’,
but a remarkable girlfriend, Nicola Bourdillon, had already made him
aware that computers were taking over the world of typesetting...
PodOMatic
streaming service page, or shortform URL: http://is.gd/CSNhG8
MP3 file download
from this server: filesize 10.7 MB
(right-click & ‘Save Link/Target’)
Script download (PDF)
— Actual recording deviates slightly from script
(right-click & ‘Save Link/Target’)
5. Cat and Mouse; or, how I met Desktop Publishing
Noi (Sang-usa Suttitanakul), our Mac Plus, and Luktaan the cat
Published 22 October 2013:
— 17 min 54 sec
The fifth in Conrad’s series of autobiographical podcasts.
“While Noi and I were working at the magazine ‘Inside Asia’,
and I had started working as a course leader for Popular
Communication Courses, we visited a trade show at Earl’s Court,
Repro 85. Gestetner company was marketing the new Apple
Macintosh computer as ‘Computer Aided Typesetting’ (CAT)
and they had put on top of the Macs, silhouette models of
cats that looked just like our brown Burmese cat.’
Conrad here tells the story of that encounter, and its immediate effects, and hints at the various interesting technical engagements with electronic publishing and communication to which that encounter was the gateway.
PodOMatic
streaming service page, or shortform URL: http://is.gd/4bAM5H
MP3 file download
from this server: filesize 12.9 MB
(right-click & ‘Save Link/Target’)
Script download (PDF)
— Actual recording deviates slightly from script
(right-click & ‘Save Link/Target’)