Item 42: Do Something Different Weekend

Location: Barbican, London

As part of the East London Festival, the Barbican was opened to the public and filled with creative workshops at the weekend, many of them free!

With knitting, juggling and recycling activities on the schedule, I managed to head in on Saturday afternoon for some crafty action. Fun was had making badges from recycled magazine images, backed onto decorative rosettes from material cuttings. Even with kids running everywhere, parents had just as much fun making things for themselves, however strange they looked at the end of the day.

For me, the highlight of the exhibition was the virtual bike ride through East London - "The East London Cycling Machine". Two cyclists on a tandem bike rode two routes through the East. The front rider was steering while the on the back filmed the journey. For visitors at the weekend, we were able to relive their days' worth of travel in 6 minutes, sitting and peddling on the exact same uncomfortable bicycle. Concentrating on not falling off the mounted bike, we watched the footage of the trip, having one of the riders provide a dynamic narration using a speaker phone from behind. This was more effort than your standard virtual reality ride!

Item 42: Do Something Different Weekend? CHECK!