The Great Northern UK Hive Meetup | The Hepworth Wakefield

in #hive-1279112 years ago

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On Saturday, I went to the Great Northern UK Hive Meetup in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK. It was held in @c0ff33a's coffee shed in Hall Street, Halifax, and combined a late Victorian industrial building with a giant, state of the art, modern coffee roaster and, centre back, the computer monitor showing the future: every line on the screen is a block recorded on the Hive blockchain.

I was there early, ostensibly to help @c0ff33a, who I had promised would have nothing to do except provide the space and buy in the catering. I did help to put up the folding table where I sat to write the Saturday Savers Club post. Sadly, I wasn't much more use than that 😁.

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(Source) Thankfully, @livinguktaiwan remembered to take a picture for posterity, otherwise, everyone was too busy talking!

From left: @stevenwood, @goblinknackers, me, @slobberchops, @livinguktaiwan, @shmoogleosukami's dad, @c0ff33a, @shmoogleosukami and @onw (Mr LivingUKTaiwan took the picture). You can see pictures of @dandays and his wife and @rimicane and shenanigans through the day on @livinguktaiwan's post here and @molometer's post here. You'll also find @c0ff33a's pre-meet write-up here.

We're really lucky in the UK that we have active Hiveans who will support each other for events like these - @c0ff33a did a sterling job, all with a bad back, including ferrying people to the rail station to catch their train home and everyone contributed in some way, and everyone was great company.

It's dead easy to organise your own meetup: pick a venue - a pub or a bar or a cafe - set a date and a time and let everyone know about it. It is good to have a friend to be part of the team, it's not quite so lonely and you'll know you'll have at least one person to have a drink and a chinwag with (Hiveans do talk, there is no doubt about that)!

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We also had a coffee roasting demonstration in this small 5kg roaster with the special Hive Blockchain Brazil Nuts coffee blend. We all got a bag to take home, too 😍. You can buy your pack (using fiat or crypto) from White Rose Coffee Roasters.

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The next day I visited a building that was the complete opposite: The Hepworth Wakefield, about 18 miles from Hall Street in Halifax. I guess this is a modernist building: it stands on an island, with the river on one side and the canal on the other. The aim of the architect was to make it look interesting from whichever way you approach the building - there is no "front" or "back". This is the bridge over the river from the car park to the gallery. I love the colour, so close to the natural stone of the area.

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I was there to see an exhibition by Sheila Hicks, a textile artist using fabric and thread for her art works. This is one of the early rooms in the exhibition, "Off-Grid", featuring monumental pieces in a monumental room - the building is almost cathedral like inside. These three pieces - the giant Turkish Prayer Rug on the far wall, and the two columns of threads looked like architecture to me.

Sheila Hicks studied at Yale with Josef and Anni Albers in the 1950s and you could see their influence in her early work - colour, shape and the small woven experiments, almost like sketchbooks or a diary that Hicks makes to explore and record ideas.

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I was more interested in some of her later work, like this piece, made from 3,000 nurses uniforms, torn into strips and dyed. The work was first shown in Hicks' Paris studio. She walked through the streets carrying great bundles of the strips, attracting attention to what she was doing: the local prison governor decided it was an event and arranged for the prisoners to see the exhibition rather than work that day.

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The artworks often have a profound effect on people who come to view them, especially if they have been in hospital or have experienced trauma themselves.

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This is a small part of a huge wall-hanging composed of the pockets that people use to keep their personal things in while they are undergoing surgery or other treatment. There was another column of belly bands used to cover the bellies of newborn babies and their severed umbilical cords. I found these works very moving, repurposed fabrics, gathered, processed and displayed in sculptural form. The laundered hospital white of the pockets compared to the bougainvillea colours of the nurses uniforms.

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The theme of the exhibition was reflected in the building and its surroundings: the view from the cafe window showed the weir and two men fishing on the small beach created by the rushing water.

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A service corridor with the toilets and changing room leads to a portrait of the beautiful free access flower garden and nineteenth century mill buildings opposite. The garden was what I had really come to see. I've just started to keep a sketchbook and experiment with watercolours. The garden sounded like a peaceful place to be after the intensity of Saturday's Meetup.

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I was amused by the green, purple, yellow colour palette of the garden.

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It reminded me of something ...

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... or someone 😍 x

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Three things newbies should do in their first week and, for most things, forever afterwards!

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Wow, how cool that UK Hivers are getting to meet each other at events like these.

I'm quite envious because I used to live in Yorkshire, but that was long before Bitcoin and Hive and all the amazing blockchain developments we can now enjoy...

!CPT

Yes, there have been several around the country and it's been great to get them going again after the COVID19 restrictions.

There are Hivers in Japan, but I appreciate that distance may be prohibitive. There were many people from Pacific rim countries at SteemFest (now HiveFest) in Poland in 2018. The longest journey took 34 hours (although that could have been the result of multiple lay overs).

wow I am very happy that you held your Hive meeting in such an interesting place, on the other hand I am very moved by the works of textile art exhibited there. Thank you for sharing all these photos😍

I was very pleased to go back there again - last time, I hardly had time to visit anywhere and it is such an interesting part of England.

Glad you enjoyed the art and the photos 😍

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Great to see you all gathered up there and it makes me want to get to a meetup. I have been discussing doing a local one as I have a few friends on Hive and I'd like to introduce them to more of the community. I will look at doing something over the summer.

Looks like you had a great weekend. Hope to see you again soon.

!PIZZA

It was quite touching in a way, I keep finding myself getting a little tearful each time I see one of the photographs, especially of people I have known for a while and met other times. I can't believe how quickly the day went, it seemed like it was no time between sitting down in that empty space and then gathering up the last bits and pieces and folding up the table!

Hope you are feeling better. It would be great to have another event in the summer. One of the newcomers mentioned how good it was to meet "real" people and get a sense of the energy there is behind Hive. You're not too far from London (or me) either, so maybe some folks would like a day out from there.

I can't believe how quickly the day went

It did go very quickly... I felt we were overstaying a little as it was around 6pm when we vacated. I didn't notice it go by.

I didn't notice it go by

It's a really weird time thing 😁

PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA!

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What an awesome experience this must have been.

I imagine it must have been great to engage face to face to the people behind the online names and posts.

I'm also happy you got a chance to see some other places nearby including that beautiful garden.

Thanks for sharing this memorable experience with us.

It is lovely to meet up with people, I always enjoy it 😍.
You learn so much - about Hive but also people share other things.

You know, I planned a trip for four days this time because there is so much to see there and still I didn't get to do everything!

Wonderful 😊

I'm sorry you didnt get a chance to cover everything on your list. Hopefully there will be other opportunities in the not too distant future.

such an extraordinary show! It's amazing that this artist came up with such an idea.

Yes, it's very unusual.

I thought I'd successfully avoided camera lenses but she shot me anyway!

My mothers name was Sheila. Spelled the same way too. She'd always say I before E except with me. =}

she shot me anyway

Need eyes in the back of your head!

Good to meet you, so pleased you were able to come by 😍

Thanks so much for organising Shani, it was great to finally go to my first UK meet up. It's a pity I didn't have time to see more of Halifax, though I saw the best part, which is you lot!!!!

I saw the best part

😍

Halifax is always there for another time.

It put a smile on my face to put faces to the names. I immediately recognised @stevenwood, though, as he's never been shy of a selfie. 😉 After so many lockdowns over there it still seems a little strange that you're now allowed to gather again. Even @dandays is over from the US! 🥳

We missed the photo-op due to train scheduling but I'm not exaggerating when I say we were so comfortable putting faces to our virtual stranger friends I can only wish family functions were that smooth.

🤫 :secret:

Haha. Families! Nothing to add there...😳

It put a smile on my face

It does that, doesn't it? 😍

Being able to move around again is taking some getting used to, I've got out of the habit!

I don't have much to say about this lol!

I just wanted to express how happy I am to see you joining Listnerds!

I hope mine and the team's upvotes get your mail verified.

Yoo hoo, @amirtheawesome1, so nice to see you 😍

Thank you for the warm welcome to Listnerds, greatly appreciated. I see my score has gone from 8.399 to 28.888 - that's verified, I think? Thank you very much for your support!

I'm glad you've found a home here, and with the Comedy Open Mic, it's good to see you doing well 🙂. Hope things are working for you off-line, too.

Yeah, that's enough to get it verified. I saw your name pop up in Tribaldex but wasn't sure you'd be using the platform. I would have shown support sooner had I known, but I was busy myself.

Also, thank you, I am so happy my comedy community worked out. Took a lot of spending from my own pocket plus begging investors to get it running so it's good to see it in a good place.

😍

!LUV

It looks like you all had a great time - and its great you also got to see some sights while there too ! The material artworks and the flowers look great !
!LOLZ

Some jerk threw a bottle of omega 3 pills at me.
Luckily my injuries were only super fish oil.

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It's a beautiful part of the country, much more grandeur than the landscape where I live. I kept seeing things in passing that I wanted more time to explore 😍.

Are you in Edinburgh or somewhere else? Edinburgh would be a great place to have a meet up 😁

oH HOW lovely to put some faces to the names! I know some of you but others I didn't have a clue what they looked like! Love the garden - there's something about yellow and purple together I think that attracts bees? But I can't remember where I read that.

It was lovely to see everyone again - nearly two years since we have been able to meet up. The garden was amazing, so interesting, they have a curator gardener who did a fine arts degree.

Hive meet up is really cool.
We get to make new friends on hive with great personality and eventually it becomes a privileged to meet them in person.

Am glad you took a tour afterwards and found the great artwork.
I almost though the pieces of fabrics was a painting on the wall until you described the torn nurses uniforms.
And that pocket hangings are really something touchy, going into the theater and dropping something in there with the hope of either coming out alive or not is a huge one.

Thank you for sharing this beautiful post with us.

That first photograph ... being with people again ... you are so beautiful and look so happy! Thank you for sharing this ... the sculptures are moving ...

We were so happy to see each other again 😍.
Thank you for coming by, glad you found the sculptures moving.

uh...oh... I nearly do not dare to ask, but were you reminded of my sub-capsule (if yes, then I am intensely blushing and feeling honoured that you remembered my color choices and thought of me in front of these amazing flowers)
I love the fibre artist you introduced us to and must research later (and write more... later later... like hopefully tomorrow. I am just now back from the doctor because i lost hearing in one ear after cold/corona and it had to be cut open - not painful but somehow nasty. Now I am dizzy but hope it will heal fast. Therefore no coherent commenting today)

I have just bought a small loom ... 😂

were you reminded of my sub-capsule

Of course 😍 the colours are so vibrant!

Hope you feel better later x

Reading a post like this tells me that being part of Hive is also being part of a bigger community. It is encouraging to read about your Hive Meetup there in Great Northern UK.

Thanks for the idea on how to organize a meetup:

. . . pick a venue - a pub or a bar or a cafe - set a date and a time and let everyone know about it. It is good to have a friend to be part of the team, it's not quite so lonely and you'll know you'll have at least one person to have a drink . . .

Excellent collection of photos especially the last three, very refreshing!

!PIZZA

!CTP

Hello @rzc24-nftbbg, good to hear from you 😍.
It is easy to organise a meet up - but more fun if you do it with someone! I hope we will see more informal meet-ups over the summer.
Glad you enjoyed the photographs!
!LUV

Yes, I !LUV to see more meet-up😊 posts!

!PIZZA

I really enjoyed hearing about your gathering today and seeing different photos from the various posts. Great job on organizing the meetup.

Wow those first floor to ceiling pieces are so intriguing. I love her idea of art and the displays she created are architectural. I bet it was even more amazing to see in person and up close. Thanks for sharing all the fun you had in both places ~

amazing to see in person ...

I kept thinking - "that must be so heavy" especially of the prayer rug, it was life size, like the arches that we use to shore up cliffs and embankments. And then I was thinking about how large the space where she made it would need to be!

I have repetitive strain injury in one of my hands so I'm unable to knit at the moment. I have been working on socks, so very small needles and yarn and working small scale. I have had to stop for a while until my hand recovers - a good chance to try other things!

Delighted to hear you had a great time. Lovely photograph of the attendees. I think that’s important, records that moment to the chain for posterity.

Yes - here's one from 2019, taken by drone:

It was back on the old chain then, we hadn't met Justin Sun yet

It was nice meeting you in person, Shani!
I see you went to an interesting exhibition, I like the upcycling side of textile art. I was always fascinated by synthetic fibres until now. We don't appreciate natural fibres enough. I think most of what I see in your pictures looks like synthetic textiles.
There is a company in the UK which upcycles memorable clothing into a chair. Like, for someone who passed away or baby clothes when babies are all grown up. It is memorable and moving. And is like an art piece in your house.

Wow! I can imagine how great it was to see everyone. Lovely link-up. Thanks for sharing. 😃

😍

😍