Today I went to Bristol to give a talk at the Pervasive Media Studio. The Studio is in a redeveloped 19th-century building, surrounded by the Bristol cathedral, the aquarium, and the planetarium. So the space literally has a little of everything, from the medieval to the postmodern to the cosmic.

The talk, like last week's at Milton Keynes, was useful in helping me further sharpen my thinking about contemplative computing: there are things that happen in both the process of working on the talks themselves, and talking over the ideas with the audience, that have substantive intellectual value.

First, talks are useful because they help you pare down the essence of the argument, and figure out what's really important to it and what's not. Often you're inclined to talk a lot about something because it's at the top of your mind, or connects to what you've read most recently; and while that might satisfy your immediate passions, it's not necessarily the best way to get other people thinking about a subject. This is most likely to happen when you're early in a project, and still working through the structural questions– i.e., where I am right now– and having to do an overview for someone else is useful for forcing your to take a broader perspective again.

my huge audience, via flickr

Second, talks give you a chance to mix all these ingredients together into something that feels more like its your, rather than a bricolage of stuff prized from various sources. It's not just that because you say it, you feel that it becomes yours; but a talk can be an opportunity to think again about how different parts fit together, to see that some elements should be highlighted (e.g., things that really resonate with crowds, or parts of an argument they can frutifully disagree with), while others should be pared down.

It's also very interesting to see how many people in the CS and HCI worlds have first-hand experience with meditation, silent retreats, etc., and are intrigued at the idea of finding ways to have those experiences inform their technical work. I suspect there's a deeper well of talent and interest here than I realized. Which is good.