Welcome to Episode 23 of the West Park park bench podcast. And I am actually today back in the park it's been two weeks of not disruption because I knew what I was about to go off and do but I've been down to London and it wasn't quite settled in my shedule so I've had a few previous weeks rescheduling things that should have been in those weeks, but people moved I think due to strikes. And finally I had a week, all coordinated down in London getting everything done, so that I can come back and continue a few weeks before Christmas and then head into the new year.
So today's episode is going to be titled Workflow. Workflow, not just for consistency.
So coming back today and going swimming and wandering past this park bench to sit down and record this is just a bit of a full stop punctuation reset of my workflow. And I was really wanting this to happen this year and that is to have a point in my shedule that when all things fall apart, I can reset without any great effort I am back in the West Park it's mid December. It's very cold now and I'm not sure whether this park bench podcast will evolve into something else. I think fireside chat. I think I definitely need to find somewhere I can do fireside chat. And also would love to have guests. It's the one thing that I've not been able to shedule, having guests on this podcast, you know conversations.
The alternative of this title was going to be AI either artificial intelligence or something that I currently see as Augmented Intelligence. And that's something I think will be episode 24
But episode 23, Workflow, why workflow Well, since we've been in the digital age, not only have we had work schedules to be places physically and time present, but also being able to manage our technology and manage that. Just the time that it takes to open an app, know that app, learn that app, understand how that app sits in your workflow to connect with the next components that is in your workflow.
So let's take this podcast for example. I'm recording this on Otter and it's audio to text. I will be taking this home and opening up Otter a.i and exporting the mp3 and I will also be getting the link to the transcript with audio and putting that in the documents so that I've got record so it's documented that audio because no opportunity to edit extension which this has evolved out of that series of podcasts which is sitting down recording, not intending to put anything at the beginning not intending to clip anything at the end but just having a raw piece of content that is intended to be what it is and that goes on, Anchor. Anchor is a podcasting software which is owned by Spotify. Very simple. Create a new episode, upload the audio, and then I use the opening paragraph of the transcript to form my opening of the show notes on Anchor I've then been using the summary feature which gives me a list of keywords that appear most in the podcast and I use those as as keywords that hopefully if there's any search engine stuff going on, that will pick them up and then very helpfully otter has started to produce a takeaways list and that has a list of questions. It has the list of relevant points and they're time stamped so I can copy those out and put them into the shownotes.
So gradually over this 20 Plus episodes. I've I've developed that workflow. And then the question is, Can that workflow be taken with me? Is it dependent on the technology that I had at my desk? And although it isn't, I can do that process on my laptop, which I can take with me. Often the world that is revolving around the reason why I'm away doesn't give me the time to be able to put the episode up, so as I'm recording this episode 21 and 22 are waiting to be uploaded. So if you've jumped from Episode 22 to 23 that I haven't got around to doing those yet. If you look at the episode list and those episodes are in there, I can change the date stamp of when I upload I can put them in sequence.
So workflow. So part of the theatre producing that I'm doing includes a small scale virtual production installation. And that is going to be taken with me on tour. I'm currently working out how many LCD volumes I need. I believe I'm still learning vocabulary so the entire volume is the big LCD screen. Those LCD screens are made up of components. And just like with staging, there will be a fixed size of the smallest components. So I've got to work out what the smallest component is, and then work out what the maximum height grid of the venues that I'm travelling to and finding what the compromise is between getting the highest and the widest to being able to actually get that into the smallest and the largest venue that I'll be touring to. So on top of the technology, there will be a workflow for the designers and the technicians to be able to follow and implement in order to do our job properly. How do we build the environment how do we use the environment? How do we get content into the environment? How do we get the content onto the LCD volumes, which are the big LCD television screens? And then how do we queue that how do we progress that and then how do we pack that down again? So workflow for the whole physical process workflow for the whole content creation process and also workflow for the team. So workflow is so important and anyone who's collaborating, workflow is at the core and collaborating with a team and understanding the workflow enough to be able to integrate people into your collaborative process, bringing them into an ensemble is huge.
So workflow. It feels like it hasn't been around with me for very long. The phrase it's quite an awkward phrase, Workflow. But it is the phrase that's emerging out of technology, perhaps it's got its roots in code. I'm gonna have to look that up. But if anybody knows sort of the entomology of workflow, let me know I know in industrial work situations when manufacturing started to become processed and automated, working out how things were done, and then how you automate those into a workflow. But workflow should not always be about removing the human component and that is a different podcast again, or a different episode.
As we get more efficient, and we have more and more technology to integrate into our workflow, so that we don't have to integrate humans into the workflow because that can be quite problematic because they come along with existing practices, existing workflows, existing expectations, they come along with their own frailties of not always being on time or not always being well or not always being in the moment, and when not none of us are perfect, but with technology where you can switch on and switch off and as long as it's maintained, and it's coded solidly.
It can just be there for us and I think there's a big, big danger of over reliance on technology, rather than perfecting workflow which is solid enough to incorporate humanity and to incorporate human frailty. Because I do this podcast on my own. I don't have anybody editing it. But I would like to have a team. And whenever I've become most despondent, especially with freelancing, it's often come down to missing a team or missing being part of something that has that, that has permanence and I often realise that that is a job. One job, one team, one location, different work, jobs and different projects and clients but ultimately being in a job and having a job to do and being part of workflow, being part of someone else's workflow. And I'm often not regularly part of somebody's workflow.
So meditating on those single topics is is really quite key. There's no script to these podcasts. There's no, There's no notes, there's no bullet points. There is a walk to the swimming pool. There is a 40 minute swim, and there is a wonder to this park bench for the moment I sit down, put on the foam spoffle which actually today I haven't put on because it's not that windy. So I do hope that there's not too much popping and just record this stream of consciousness.
So thank you so much for listening. There are a few regulars. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you telling me that you you listen to them. I'm really pleased that you enjoy them. If this is your first time listening. I'm Caron. I'm a independent theatre producer living in the East Midlands and this podcast is recorded in West Park which is a beautiful feature of the very small, old industrial mill town known for upholstery right now. So it is the UK home of upholstery was late there were Mills there's quite a few mill buildings, but I live here close to the M1 close to East Midlands Airport close to be able to travel into Nottingham and Derby haven't ventured to Leicester and Birmingham very much been really central and anyone who would like to come and join me on the podcast would be more than welcome.
I can also accommodate not park podcasts, but just thank you just bringing to the end here and just saying if you are interested in hearing more of my stuff, it's really important at the moment that the algorithms know that people are paying attention and aware of certain topics so if you aren't following me on Twitter, do find me @pcmcreative do find me on youtube pcmcreative Caron Lyon you'll find me it just makes that little bit of difference just the subscriptions don't have to ring the bells or anything like that because if you want to hear more, you'll come back and find me. So thank you very much for listening. And I will bring this episode 23 to a close
