The Flying Trilobite Blog

Photo © Star Wars, JJ Abrams, Disney and maybe FIFA.

Star Wars has been a huge source of inspiration and I annoyingly defend the prequels. In public and online. For me, the movies have never been about the dialogue, and yeah, they have problems. That's not the most important thing to me.

They are about me, at 9 years old lugging around my 3 heavy Art of Star Wars concept art books everywhere I went until the glue in the bindings failed. Looking through all the concepts that didn't make it into the films set my mind on fire, and I drew and drew and drew. I made up my own aliens and scenes. Star Wars is about unfettered creativity brought to life.

I was 3 when the first Star Wars came out. I got to see the Prequels through the eyes of our nephew as he was growing up, and we talked about morality and how someone like Padme could love someone who makes bad decisions like Anakin did. And now my two boys are going to grow up with a new trilogy.

So in this roundabout way, I would like to thank concept artists past and present, and the effects artists for inspiring generations of my family.

Me, talking about using Twitter to share expertise at the Association of Medical Illustrators last summer. In the case above, I am talking about how lending an art historical perspective on feminism can help science communication. Read more on that here.

If you're not on Twitter you are missing out. I have been a fan of Twitter for immediate news and conversation for years. But now...

With the outrageous acts by authorities against the black community in Ferguson, with everything that happened in Toronto politics in the Ford era, with the vital conversations about feminism in geek culture and the science communication community - I am starting to feel that if you're not on Twitter you are abdicating your own understanding of news and the world.

There are great thinkers out there. Even if you don't want to engage in community building or add your voice to activism (and yes: there are racist, misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic assholes out there, as well as just plain old jerks) you should still be on Twitter just to keep up to date with the world and cultural shifts.

Mainstream media isn't enough. and probably never was. We have alternatives. Get online, find your own networks. Take responsibility and try to understand the world through many voices.