Dr. Richard Barbrook's Class Wargames in London, and May Day in Vienna

I've got some breaking news this week from an individual that I support here in London, both with PR services from time-to-time, with my agency the Hai Media Group, but also because I'm simply just a fan of Dr. Richard Barbrook.

Next week, Richard is headed to Vienna, where he has been invited to be a guest speaker in the Austrian city's annual May Day celebrations. He'll be taking the podium to speak with a crowd of 100,000 on Thursday, May 1st 2008, and is an honourable guest of Vienna Mayor Michael Häupl, who has invited Richard to talk about his ideas from his book The Class of the New, a popular title among many urban dwellers, who have interest in a thought leadership initiative surrounding the concept of 'creative cities.' If you are in the USA, you may have heard of an author by the name of Richard Florida, who is also known for his ideas about the urban creative classes, and yes, these two authors do share some similar views, but haven't met in person -- yet.

Much like Richard Florida in America, Britain's Richard Barbrook is both an author (his newest book is Imaginary Futures) and a lecturer of politics at the University of Westminster here in London. Prior to relocating to London, I also had the opportunity to meet and see the inspiring Richard Florida speak in the USA, and I think both academics have a lot of food for thought for people, especially urbanites, to consider. When it comes to Barbrook, I think the number one reason I most value the impact he has in this city, is because he is truly a great supporter of so many creative people, projects and entrepreneurs in London.

He is an early adopter, and is credited with being the first instructor to introduce students, and get them thinking about, the wild wonderful world of the web, with his founding of the Hypermedia Research Centre back in the mid-1990s, an academic department that was formerly based at the University of Westminster. He also conceived of, and set up Cybersalon, an organization that fosters thinking toward cyberpoltics, as well as exploring the intersection between art, music and technology with its festival Cybersonica. Over the years, many of his students have become his idea fans, and quite a few have gone on to produce some terrific things in the interactive world, as well as in the media, music, arts and entertainment worlds, including the fantastic animated rock band The Sancho Plan, which emerged from Cybersonica. Now he is getting up to something NEW:

This Weekend in London: Saturday,

High NOON at The Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park, come along and play Class Wargames

If you are in London, I'm pleased to invite you along to witness a new project that Richard Barbrook has been developing this year, called Class Wargames, a performance art gaming project of sorts that sees a group of academics, artists and gamers re-create Guy Debord's Game of War at The Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park, at 12 NOON this Saturday, April 26th 2008. *Please note that the park has re-scheduled this event from an evening time slot, to take place in the afternoon.

Who's Guy Debord? This is background from the group's website: Guy Debord is celebrated as the leader of the Situationist International and as the author of the searing critique of the media-saturated society of consumer capitalism: The Society of the Spectacle. What is much less well known is that after the May '68 Revolution, Debord and his partner - Alice Becker-Ho - quit Paris and went to live in a remote French village. Over the next two decades, Debord devoted much of the rest of his life to inventing, refining and promoting what he came to regard as his most important project: The Game of War.