the nerds are on the march

Geek Calendar sells out

2011-01-28T14:52:00.001Z

We've been fairly quiet since Christmas, as the project winds down. Christmas sales were spectacular and we've been keeping a watchful eye on the final sales since.

It is with great delight that we can now, officially, announce that Geek Calendar has SOLD OUT. The last of our copies shipped this week, so there are 2000 of you out there -- everywhere from Australia to South Korea -- currently enjoying a January of Adam Rutherford and his handsome bunny friend.

More importantly, we've raised an incredible £15,433.84 for the Libel Reform Campaign. Moreover, the spectacular media coverage (we're still hearing echoes of the project every now and again) and your word-of-mouth has raised awareness of the issues even further.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's helped make this possible. Thanks to all our geeks for taking part in this crazy idea. Thanks to our fabulous photographers, Ben Gilbert and Greg Funnell, and awesome Designer, Cosima Dinkel for making such a beautiful product. Thanks to our amazing videographers, Greg Foot, Barry Gibb and Tom Ziessen. We'd also like to thank Rob Sharp at English PEN for all his help, particularly with distribution, behind-the-scenes. And Mike Harris from Index on Censorship and Sile Lane from Sense about Science for their encouragement and support. And, in the words of Stan Lee, you! We hope the Geek Calendar will bring you all much joy this year and beyond.

It's more than we'd ever hoped for a little project hatched by a bunch of geeks in the back of a pub. The nerds are indeed on the march.

Team Geek Calendar

Team Geek Calendar

2011-01-27T13:46:00.004Z

The Geek Calendar project is very nearly wrapped up. We're down to the last few copies and totaling up the takings -- announcement coming soon.

In the meantime, it seems like a pertinent time to learn more about the three individuals so geeky they devoted much of their 2010 to it. I present to you, your organisers:

Alice Bell is Senior Teaching Fellow in Science Communication at Imperial College. She also writes a bit and once covered a bar at the Royal Albert Hall in custard FOR SCIENCE.

Louise Crane is a biomedical picture researcher at Wellcome Images, the Wellcome Trust's picture library. She hates having her photo taken, though has appeared on the cover of a magazine in spite of this (albeit wearing a comedy rubber mask).

Mun-Keat Looi also works for the Wellcome Trust, where he writes about science and spends most of his time on the internet (for work, honest).

Would you call yourself a geek?

AB: Nah, that's so last year ;) Always been a bit more of a meta-geek anyway (I study geeks).

LC: I recently spent a large amount of money on a Star Wars Lego 'Battle of Endor' set. I do not have a small child or younger siblings. So, yes.

MKL: Obsessed with details, check. Socially awkward, check. Smart, not quite. But 2/3 ain't bad.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?

AB: I think our notions of geekiness are very subjective. One person's idea of geeky is another person's normal. My knitting can get quite geeky though, by most people's standards. I mean this both in terms of what I knit and in terms of knitting something really complex just to try out a new technique.

LC: Er, possibly building the aforementioned Battle of Endor Lego set, and displaying it at a party alongside a globe covered in tin foil as the Death Star. Also dressing up a cuddly toy duck as a Klingon when I was ten. I made it a tin foil (spot the theme?) bat'leth and cranial ridges from rolled up tissue paper. Also having a party dedicated to crumble. There were six kinds of crumble, including a savoury one. Oh, and making the Geek Calendar.

MKL: Apart from making this calendar? Compiling a map so I could visit every shop in Tokyo's Akihabara district? Writing anime fanfiction (though it did get published in a US mag)? Spending over £100 on a plastic model kit? And then buying a display cabinet for all my plastic model kits?

Why did you decide to get involved in Geek Calendar?

AB: I'm not sure I actually decided as much as found myself locked into the center of it with no sign of escape. Honestly, I thought it'd be fun (it was). And Libel Reform, obviously.

LC: My initial answer was: "I was drunk". This is a strongly true statement. In fact I was so drunk at the initial Geek Calendar discussion in The Doric Arch at Euston Station that after agreeing the calendar was indeed a stupendous idea, I performed the worm on the pub floor (the worm is a particularly athletic and idiotic breakdancing move). But the reason I decided to help make the calendar happen was because I love the idea of something that is just a thought becoming reality. Also, I am friends with two top notch photographers who I fancied getting involved. And not just cos I fancied them (I had a schoolgirl crush on Greg Funnell when I first met him, aged 13).

MKL: The opportunity to be part of something great comes along rarely -- you have to seize them. Even when you remind yourself (and the other two you're with) that "this is going to be a HELL of a lot of work".

What are your memories of Geek Calendar?

AB: Mainly, laughing. That, and writing blogposts and emails at two in the morning.

LC: The first meeting with the Libel Reform guys, where they agreed we could raise money for the campaign with our calendar - and high fiving Alice and Mun-Keat as soon as we left it. Reviewing the last shots of Imran Khan after Ben Gilbert captured him on his sunset rooftop and realising we were onto a winner. Interviewing Adam Rutherford while an "invisible" Frank the rabbit nodded behind him - I could not keep a straight face. You can hear my bizarre horsey guffaw on the Geek Calendar trailer. Showing my mum the trailer and explaining three times that the handsome one in the dinner jacket was Professor Brian Cox and unfortunately he had already been snapped up by the wonderful Gia Milinovich. And when my nan asked for a Geek Calendar for Christmas, I nearly cried.

MKL: Volunteering to wear a costume on the hottest day of the year. Being very excited ALL THE TIME (often at two in the morning while updating spreadsheets).

What's your most enjoyable memory?

AB: There are several, but they have one thing in common: seeing the image Ben or Greg had captured. We'd all be running around wondering how on earth the shoot would turn out juggling, props, settings, schedules and the weather and then Ben or Greg would quietly say "I think I've got it", we'd look at the laptop and go "wow".

LC: Getting a phone call at work from Jonathan Ross, and seeing his name flash up on my mobile phone screen.

MKL: WOSSY'S CEILING DISPLAYS SUPER MARIO SPRITES!!!

What was the biggest challenge in organising Geek Calendar?

AB: Finding time to get some sleep.

LC: Scheduling photoshoots for 23 busy geeks was pretty tough. Though the hardest thing was telling Mr Ross that I wouldn't be able to go to his house and meet him because I was both allergic to and phobic of his six dogs.

MKL: Maintaining some semblance of a life.

What's your favourite part of the calendar?

AB: I think my favourite picture is the maths one - there's something about the colour and setting that Ben captured that's really nice, as well as the interaction between Alex and Matt. I also love that it was shot in the Jeremy Bentham pub, and the fact the shot was inspired by

an old 16th century woodcut. I really like Aleks' picture too, it's so full of colour and personality, and Petra's, which has an incredible mood to it (and wonderful back story to the setting).

LC: I shouldn't play favourites with the geeks - for one thing it would upset my boyfriend. So I'm going to play it safe and say all the geeky dates we noted on the calendar days - who knew that dark, cold January would be so full of wonderful things, like the day the Lego brick was patented?

MKL: The whole package came out wonderfully -- better than we could ever have imagined. Everything from the spectacular photos, to the design, the cover, our videos (especially the trailer)... Actually my favourite part is the acknowledgements on the back cover. It reminds me of all the amazing people I got to work with and the awesome team I had around me.

Who's your favourite geek?

AB: I'm going to steal Jonathan Ross' take on this: it's not fair to play favourites with geeks.

LC: Henry Wellcome, because without him I wouldn't have a job. Seriously though, the man was one of the most remarkable collectors of the last century, obsessed by the history of medicine. He travelled the world picking up not only the medicines of indigenous tribes, but the gourd they came in, the mask of the witch doctor who prescribed them, and the canoe the doctor rode up in. He had accrued millions of objects by the time he died, was probably quite mad, and left a wonderful legacy.

MKL: You're such a swot, Crane! Mine are Alice Bell and Louise Crane. They are awesome and amazing :)

AB: Well, you two too OBVIOUSLY. Goes without saying, surely.

LC: Aw, you guys...

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 15

2010-12-15T10:11:00.004Z

Today is the last day for orders before Christmas! Buy your calendar today and we’ll post it to you in time for the holidays. It’s the perfect gift for that special geek in your life – even if that geek is simply you.

Our last advent present to you is another photograph of Jonathan Ross, looking quite the evil genius.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 14

2010-12-14T10:03:00.004Z

For a bit of fun, our journalists hid behind their newspapers in our September photoshoot. Having to hide your opinion about scientific and medical topics for fear of being sued for libel is wrong, and the laws that force this kind of behaviour are outdated. Geek Calendar is raising money for the campaign to change this. Buy your calendar today to support Libel Reform. And if you buy it now, we’ll post it to you before Christmas.

For more out-takes from this shoot, pop along to calendar star Ed Yong's blog post.

And the winner is...

2010-12-13T16:26:00.005Z

A couple of weeks ago we asked you to send in a photo of your Geek Calendar in a suitably nerdy setting. The photo that impressed us the most was by @kingmuskar on Twitter. Mostly because his calendar is so wonderfully framed by a Rancor beast, and at least one of the Geek Calendar judges is a big Star Wars nerd:

You can't say we're totally biased towards our preferences though. The very same judge (okay, it's me) is very scared of dogs and yet this photo by @shell_here was chosen as the runner-up entry:

Congratulation to @kingmuskar, who will win a signed copy of Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw's book, Why Does E=MC²?, and @shell_here, who is getting some limited edition Geek Calendar badges in the post.

p.s. We also loved this photo of the Geek Calendar and a Christmas pterosaur that was posted after the competiton deadline. Thanks @physicus!

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 13

2010-12-13T10:26:00.005Z

Petra Boynton’s shoot took place at Cross Bones Graveyard, where prostitutes, the poor and other outcasts of society were buried until its closure in 1853. Every 23rd day of every month, a small group of people gather to honour those buried at Cross Bones. Their lives are commemorated with ribbons and tokens tied to the gates seen in the background of Petra’s calendar photo. In this alternative shot, you can see the gates in their full glory.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 12

2010-12-12T10:05:00.005Z

We decided to see what Frank the rabbit got up to after Adam Rutherford’s Donnie Darko-inspired shoot. Frank said he uses public transport to reduce his carbon pawprint.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 11

2010-12-11T11:44:00.002Z

Photographing comic artist Sydney Padua in her studio was like capturing a lovely creature in its natural habitat. This alternative shots shows her drawing the cartoon that we included in our pre-order prize draw.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 10

2010-12-10T10:10:00.004Z

When the Geek Calendar crew piled into the home of Gia Milinovich and Brian Cox, a few days after Brian had recovered from altitude sickness and in the middle of them moving house, we did not expect our Valentine’s couple to be such good sports. Gia had back-combed her hair into the perfect 1950s hairstyle, and Brian looked dapper in his tuxedo and monocle. In this out-take, our photographer Greg took things back to basics with a lovely portrait.

Our Videographers, part 2: Greg Foot

2010-12-09T15:36:00.000Z

The next in our series highlighting our videography team is our star Editor, Greg Foot (you've heard from him on this blog before).

This is something of a coup for us really, as Greg is now a TV star with a growing fan following. He recently convinced Gavin Henson to take 750,000 volts of electricity and you might have seen him on BBC3 recently. We knew him way back when he was but a wee lad....

Would you call yourself a geek?

Yep, definitely! Geek and proud! I don’t have an obsession over one particular thing like many geeks do, I’m just really interested in how the world works and finding fun, different ways to understand it. My twitter stream is full of links to cool or quirky science stories I’ve come across, wicked little videos of experiments & high-speed camera stuff, or just some clever little animation.

However, my main geeky side is probably linked to my love of escaping the Big Smoke for an adrenaline fix. I’m never happier than when I’m careening down a piste or surfing across a wave, but I’ll always find myself wondering about how long that wave has travelled to get here or how the latest climbing tech has been designed to get you up that rockface and keep you safe. So, my geeky passion is in uncovering the science that’s all around us and we never really think about.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?

Ha! Well, that’ll probably be when I decided to get my mates together for a big dodgeball tournament (love that film!). That meant fancy dress of course, so I drew on some geek inspiration and went as C3PO. We’re talking full-on gold costume with wires, gold boots etc! The mask got in the way a bit tho. Which is why we didn’t win of course...

[INSERT IMAGINATION HERE. Greg declined to provide photographic evidence of this escapade, sadly.]

Which was your most enjoyable Geek Calendar shoot?

Well, I actually only went to a couple of shoots as Barry J Gibb and Tom Ziessen kindly offered to go film them for us so I could tackle the editing! Watching Evan Harris maneuvering giant chess pieces in torrential rain in the BMA quad has to stand out!

What was the biggest challenge in putting the videos together?

Trawling through over a dozen tapes and then cutting all that material down to a short trailer vid! Our geeks said so much interesting stuff about their jobs, their geekiness and their passionate thoughts on Libel Reform it was hard to select the best bits!

Do you have a favourite month from the calendar?

I think Adam Rutherford’s photo is my favourite. It’s a brill shot in a great location that captures Adam’s film-loving geeky side. Plus, thinking of Mun-Keat being inside that bunny outfit on the hottest day of the year always makes me laugh – that’s some serious dedication to the Geek Calendar cause right there!

How did you get into filmmaking?

When I was at uni studying science I got really into making short films and radio shows. I still wanted to stick with my passion for science but wanted to combine it with this newly discovered creative side so after I graduated I spent a fun year doing a Masters in Science Media Production at Imperial College London. That opened doors for some cracking work experience and since then I’ve been working in-front and behind the camera making science documentaries.

I think the key now to getting a job in TV or as an online multimedia producer is to have as many strings to your bow as possible. So if you want to get into this sort of thing jump at every chance you get to learn how to shoot, write, edit and make great tea! Oh, and chat to as many people as possible as you never know where the next job will come from.

What's a normal day in the life of a filmmaker?

I’m freelance so every day is different – which is great because you don’t get bored, but also a bit of a juggling act! Until recently I’ve been most often found huddled over a laptop coming up with new TV show ideas for an independent TV company, filming and editing taster tapes, or eating far too many biscuits in brainstorms!

In amongst those days I’d been squeezing in the really fun days where I could be found on the beach teaching a bunch of students about the science of surfing or out filming a show and getting to do cool things like build an Archimedes Death Ray. In the last few months though I’ve been spending more time on the latter type, so fingers crossed for more!

Who's your favourite geek?

That’s a really tricky one. I’m torn between two. Carl Sagan has to get a mention for being such a passionate science communicator and for enthusing so many people with the wonder of the cosmos.

The second is a curveball – Garrett Lisi. He’s the guy who proposed his model for a unified field theory a few years back. But I don’t mention him for his scientific work (which received a whole barrage of both support and skepticism), but more his way of life: he lives in Maui and splits him time between theoretical physics and big wave surfing. And for me, that’s a geek I want to be like!

Anthony Garett Lisi

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 9

2010-12-09T10:26:00.003Z

This photograph of Chris Addison examining the runners of an airfix model spaceship was Mun-Keat’s favourite shot. It was a very close second indeed!

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 8

2010-12-08T10:42:00.000Z

The old adage goes “never work with children or animals”. In this shoot, we worked with both (although the animals, including my cuddly polar bear Ice Cube, were stuffed). In this shot, Simon Singh's baby son Hari shows early signs of comedy genius as he yawns while Simon reads his great tome, the Big Bang.

Our videographers, part 1: Barry J Gibb

2010-12-07T11:40:00.002Z

Along the things we're most proud of at Geek calendar are our fantastic videos. The trailer has been viewed over 10,000 times (and not just by us!) and the Geeks on Geekiness and Geeks on Libel Reform vids were featured on the Guardian. All this was made possible by our fabulous videography unit, and we'd like to pay tribute to them with the latest in our series of posts on Team Geek Calendar.

First up, star cameraman Barry J Gibb (no relation to a certain 70s pop star...). Barry is a Multimedia Editor at the Wellcome Trust (watch his films on their YouTube channel), a former neuroscientist, author of The Rough Guide to the Brain, and a massive gamer.

Would you call yourself a geek?

Affirmative. And in that sense I think I grew up feeling a bit abnormal. Not until I made it to university did I realise the planet was also populated by these other oddities who were obsessed by machines, biology, history, science... It was a nice moment.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?

Maybe it was when I made my Steve Austin (the Bionic Man) action man figure ride the programmable vehicle, Big Trak. In my mind, this was technological nirvana. It might have been the time I wrangled over my gamer tag for days (until settling on 'digitaldestiny'). It's really hard to say; I still show off how many online kills I got to my wife as she nods wryly.

Which was your most enjoyable Geek Calendar shoot?

Probably the one with Brian and Gia, though not for the reasons people might think. I tend to be entirely oblivious to fame and celebrity - as far as I was concerned this was just another shoot for my mates. That said I'm quite voyeuristic and love watching people (this does help if you're a filmmaker).

What struck me was, far away from the usual lights, cameras and fuss they must inevitably experience, were two lovely human beings with a young child and cats. And we were in their home. It was touching and a real privilege to share a slice of their 'real' lives.

Which was the most challenging shoot?

Easy. Lewis Dartnell's. Every thing about his shoot was a challenge (which makes it a lot more fun, actually). Interview? In the taxi on the way to the observatory - rubbish audio, confined space, jiggling around...

Then we get to the observatory whereupon I felt compelled to explain to those around me (except Ben, the photographer) that cameras, like the human eye, tend to work by capturing light, a phenomenon that appeared to have escaped everyones attention as we stood in the pitch black dome. Pretty much every day I will thank the Gods for my iPhone but on that day it was vital: my entire dome shoot was lit by Louise's screen being maxed out. Oh, and I managed to get locked in!

Do you have a favourite month from the calendar?

They're all such wonderful images but if I had to pick one it would be July (Aleks Krotoski). The composition and setting are wonderful and the intensity of her personality shines.

How did you get into filmmaking?

By sheer force of will. I don't believe you can do anything well unless you love it. For years I loved science at the lab bench but then I became aware of new ways of expressing this fondness for the natural world, through words and film.

I resigned, went freelance (my parents thought I'd lost it), wrote The Rough Guide to The Brain and reinvented myself as a science filmmaker. I'd been using Final Cut Pro for fun since its very first version, so it was just a question of finding people brave enough to take a punt on me and my new camera. I worked harder than I'd ever worked before, got film gigs, became known at the Sheffield Doc/Fest and never looked back.

What's a normal day in the life of a filmmaker?

A good day involves filming or editing. Everything else is a distraction. For example, I'm writing this on my iPad as I travel to Edinburgh to make a film about a very cool breakthrough involving blood. There hasn't been a chance to do a recce, so I'm walking into the unknown, as is frequently is the case. I'll show up (on time), must develop a good relationship with the interviewee in a matter of minutes, then acquire as many fabulous and relevant shots as possible to tell the story. Working with scientists is a bit like herding cats - apart from the odd few, most will happily avoid the gaze of the camera; it's my job to make them feel willing and comfortable.

The flip side of this is editing. I'll need to sit down and watch all the rushes in real time, then start building the story, the film, from scratch. I love editing - it demands level of patience I feel carries over positively into many other facets of life. I've never yet met an editor I didn't want to sit and chat with over a beer.

What's the best thing about your job?

Two things, dancing on the edge of chaos, and people. Documentary filming means knowing what you want but frequently having little idea of whether or not you'll be able to get it. I find this need to be adaptable and fast very fulfilling. You absolutely need to think on your feet and you must be able to work the camera flawlessly (geek alert) - what the camera sees and hears is the only thing that matters, knowing how to control the beast like it's an extension of yourself will save your life.

And I love meeting the people. I'm getting to chat to scientists all over the country at the top of their game - it's fascinating and a genuine privilege. The other week I was having dinner with Sir Walter Bodmer and his team in Islay (see the film below) - amazing company (and lovely whisky).

Who's your favourite geek ever?

It just has to be Sir David Attenborough. As a kid I watched this man on telly both obsess and enthuse over the various lifeforms inhabiting the planet and was immediately drawn into his world. He is the reason I became aware of the natural world, he helped inspire my entry into science and the work he still does acts as a source of continuous amazement. I once stood next to him in the Royal Society and was weak with admiration. Even away from animals, his humility and clarity of thought leaves my humbled. David, you rock.

Image credit: Flickr/aSIMULAtor

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 7

2010-12-07T10:24:00.000Z

When mathematicians get angry, calculators go flying. In the photo that made it to May 2010, Matt Parker and Alex Bellos got a little verbal. In this shot, things are rather more heated!

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 6

2010-12-06T10:42:00.000Z

So many people have asked if the Toy Story alien in Lewis Dartnell's picture was Photoshopped in. It wasn’t! I had to act as ball girl while photographer Ben threw the alien up in the air for each photo, retrieving the toy from wherever it landed in the Planetarium. Thanks to Ben’s great skill and timing, we got the shot we wanted. Here’s Lewis cuddling up to his extra-terrestrial teddy.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 5

2010-12-05T11:58:00.002Z

Kat Akingbade is so photogenic that we really struggled to decide on which photo should go in the calendar – she looks amazing in all of them! We decided on a close-up, but here she is standing in front of Henry Wellcome’s collection of glass bottles, skeptically examining some pills.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 4

2010-12-04T12:59:00.001Z

My heart sank on the day of Evan Harris’s photo shoot. Having planned for a glorious, sunny photograph in the beautiful BMA quad, I couldn’t believe we’d had the bad luck to book the shoot on the one rainy day in August. But the soggy chess match between Sabrina Chevannes and Evan made for a perfect “April” showers spread. This photo comes midway through the match, when Evan still thought he had a chance at beating chess champion Sabrina.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 3

2010-12-03T10:28:00.002Z

In this shot, the 1970s orange chair in Wellcome Collection’s Club room became Ben Goldacre’s throne, making the media his subjects.

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 2

2010-12-02T10:36:00.003Z

At Imran Khan’s shoot, our first idea was to photograph him with toys all over his desk at the offices of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, where he is (probably) the youngest Director ever. In the end, our photographer Ben noticed the beautiful sunset outside, and snapped the shot on the rooftop that made the final cut.

Here’s Imran’s desk as we imagined it should be, for minimum productivity and maximum fun:

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 1

2010-12-01T08:54:00.002Z

Over the next 15 days, we’ll be posting up photos you won’t find in the Geek Calendar. Some of them are alternative shots that were almost chosen for the final spread – we really agonized over these decisions! Others are out-takes that we hope you’ll find amusing.

The last photo will be posted on 15^th December, the day for last orders before Christmas. We can’t promise that any orders received after this day will be posted out before Christmas, but we will make sure that any received on or before this day will be with you before the holidays.

To kick off, here’s Aleks Krotoski doing her best Minnie Mouse impression:

Geek Calendar photo competition

2010-11-30T19:41:00.000Z

Tomorrow is the 1st of December, the day when you can finally unwrap your Geek Calendar and hang it with pride on your wall (that is, if you haven't already). We want to see your calendars in action! Email or tweet us a photo of yours, and the pic we like the most will win a signed copy of Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw's illuminating book, Why Does E=mc²?

Your photos will be judged on the following category: whatever makes Alice, Louise and Mun-Keat smile the most. Do whatever you can to show off your calendar, make it funny, make it beautiful. Send in your pics by the end of Friday, and we'll announce the winner next week.

For inspiration, here's Mun-Keat's calendar at his desk at the Wellcome Trust:

Season's Greetings

2010-11-29T23:58:00.000Z

"Season's Greetings" to you all.

Yes, we know it's a bit early but (a) Team Geek Calendar love Christmas so much so, we had a Christmas party in July. (b) We thought you might like to use this pic as an e-card to your friends (might be a good way to drop present hints...).

So if you like the card, please do forward it on. You can use our Season's Greetings page or download a larger version on flickr.

Big thanks to Aleks for letting us use one of the out-takes from her shoot, as well as to Greg Funnell who took the photo and our amazing designer Cosima Dinkel for turning it into a card.

We have more out-takes of our shoots ready to share... watch this space.

Design for life: Geek Calendar's Cosima Dinkel

2010-11-25T12:30:00.005Z

A big part of Geek Calendar's character is its bespoke design, including our lovely logo (now plastered on badges, T-shirts and the like!) and our fantastic infographic cover. All of this is down to our amazing designer, Cosima Dinkel.

An ex-colleague of mine, Cosima's worked for a variety of geeky institutions including the Science Museum and the Wellcome Trust. I was lucky enough to rope her in early on in the project (little did she know what she was letting herself in for....).

Here, Cosima gives a little insight into her inspiration for the Geek Calendar design, and what makes a Graphic Designer tick.

Would you call yourself a geek?

A closet geek. I collect tea stirrers. I think that probably qualifies me.

Actually, I think graphic design is a quite geeky profession. I like the mix of the creative and technology. Having said that I'm not particularly techie like some designers are.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?
I once impersonated a typeface at a party. Everyone had to guess which typeface I was pretending to be. Is that geeky? Or just pretentious? It's a fine line ...

How was it designing Geek Calendar?

The pictures are so great, it really didn't need much designing! For the type, I thought it needed a geeky/quirky typeface so I chose a font called Pop designed by Neville Brody, which seemed to fit the bill.

What was your inspiration for the cover?

The idea was to do an infographic depicting the a breakdown of the geek year, based on the participants and all the geek anniversaries we'd collected for each month.

My inspiration was David McCandless's excellent book Information is Beautiful, which is the obvious starting point for infographics. His diagrams are really interesting, depicting data in original and unconventional ways. I wanted to do my own version of one of those. I chose a pie chart as I could just about cope with the maths!

What was most enjoyable about putting the calendar together?
It was really good fun working on a project with lots of people who were all committed to producing a thing of beauty.

And the most challenging?
The maths for the pie chart! See above.

Do you have a favourite month from the calendar?
I've got to admit I love the Cox/Milinovich because it's quite theatrical. But that might also have something to do with the ginger cat... ;-)

How did you get into design?
I've always been into art and design. My grandparents were artists. I did a foundation course and went to art school and then I got an Apple mac...

What's a normal day in the life of a designer?
Lots of cups of tea. A fair amount of procrastination. I have to say the Internet is really really distracting!

What's the best thing about your job?
The cups of tea. Seeing the finished product and sniffing the ink.

Who's your favourite geek?
I'd have to say the photographer Martin Parr because of his geekish obsession with collecting ephemera. I particularly like his collections of crap postcards.

Image: Flickr/Gareth Courage

From Greeks to Geeks

2010-11-24T13:45:00.003Z

This post was originally written for and published on the Wellcome Library blog. Thanks to Ross MacFarlane for letting us re-post it on our blog, and for coming up with the genius title.

A 16th century woodcut from Wellcome Images has been used as the inspiration for a 2011 calendar page. The page from the Geek Calendar features mathematicians Alex Bellos and Matt Parker in a 21st century interpretation of an image from German writer Gregor Reisch's Margarita Philosophica.

The Margarita Philosophica is a beautifully illustrated encyclopedia of knowledge created by Carthusian humanist Reisch (1467-1525). First published in 1503, it was used as a university textbook throughout the early sixteenth century. It contains twelve illustrated books on subjects including grammar, arithmetic, music, geometry, physics and physiology.

The image that inspired Geek Calendar’s mathematical photo shoot shows Arithmetica supervising a counting contest between the Christian philosopher Boethius, and Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician whose name will be forever associated with triangles. Boethius is using Hindu-Arabic numbers to calculate; Pythagoras a counting board. The image represents new versus old: Boethius is sometimes credited with introducing Hindu-Arabic numbers into Christian Europe.

For May 2011, the Geek Calendar’s mathematicians are calculating a restaurant bill tip, one using a 1970s Casio calculator, the other using a modern abacus. Argument ensues between the two hot-headed counters, unlike the much more dignified Boethius and Pythagoras.

The Margarita contains many more fascinating illustrations, including some famous depictions of the human body. The Wellcome Library holds a number of editions of the work, the illustration shown above being taken from an edition published in 1535.

Geek Calendar flyer

2010-11-23T22:21:00.002Z

We're still looking for people to spread the word about Geek Calendar at universities and colleges across the country. We've uploaded our flyer to this website, so you can download it, print it out and stick it on a noticeboard near you. Please help give the Libel Reform campaign a boost by telling as many people as you can about the Geek Calendar!

Click on the image below to download a hi-res version of the image that you can print out.

Our photographers, part 2: Ben Gilbert

2010-11-15T19:32:00.009Z

Ben Gilbert is a colleague of mine at the Wellcome Library, and when I approached him to ask if he would photograph the Geek Calendar, I'm not sure he realised what he was letting himself in for. Ben normally photographs inanimate objects such as 16th-century anatomical "fugitive" sheets, so I was a little worried he wouldn't be able to cope with the demands of our geek divas.

In the end, the geeks were as good as gold. And so was Ben, even though we made him drive all the way across London on the hottest day of the year for one shoot, and operate in the pitch black dark for another. Here, he recounts his Geek Calendar experience, and tells us more about his work at the Wellcome Library.

Are you a geek?

Definitely. Being a photographer in the digital age brings with it a playground packed full of highly technical cameras and computers, as well as a multitude of other gadgets. These tools are so intrinsically linked to successful photography that a healthy geeky side is pretty much essential to my job.

If that wasn't enough to convince you, I'm one of those strange people who will happily sit in bed reading an instruction manual from cover-to-cover.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?

It's probably sitting on the pavement with my folding bicycle outside an O2 shop in the pouring rain for three hours, in an effort to become the first person in East Grinstead to own an iPhone 3G. My discomfort was rewarded when I emerged from the shop, clutching my brand new iPhone, to the cheers of the waiting queue. Sorry, was the question geekiest or saddest?

What was the most enjoyable calendar shoot?

I think this would have to be Sydney's shoot. It was in her flat, just south of the River Thames. It was a really hot day, the traffic getting there was terrible and Sydney's studio, although packed full of interesting things, was a very tight space in which to photograph. Syndey was understandably nervous, as she’s not used to being in front of the camera. But as soon as we got her to wear her trademark top hat, she immediately relaxed and we captured the shot you can see in the calendar.

What was the most challenging?

Perhaps the most challenging was Lewis Dartnell in the Planetarium at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. We only had an hour from walking in to walking out and it was pitch black inside – the videographer Barry had to use iPhones to light his filming! For the photos, each shot was a 16 second exposure, during which time I had to throw a cuddly alien into frame and catch it with the flash lights just at the pinnacle of its trajectory.

Do you have a favourite month?

I'm fond of all of them. However, my favourite is Imran. We got the final shot right at the end when I decided to do a quick set of photos on the roof terrace outside his small office. There was a lovely, evening light with a beautiful sky, and Imran was a natural model, sporting a 'rosette' lollypop in his lapel. It was the first shoot we had done and I guess it showed us that geeks can look cool, and that, visually, the calendar could be really interesting.

How did you get into photography?

When I was growing up, my Dad had a Pentax SLR that intrigued me, and at about age twelve I got my own. We built a darkroom in the attic and that was that - I never really considered doing anything else.

What's your day job?

I work as a photographer in the Digital Imaging department of the Wellcome Library. I photograph items from the Library for readers, academics, book publishers and the editorial press. The material I photograph is varied, from ancient manuscripts to oil paintings, prints to drawings.

What’s the best thing about your job?

As a photographer, I’m allowed into places you could never normally go and to see and handle objects that would normally be kept safe behind bandit-proof glass. One of the most interesting things I’ve ever photographed was the marine chronometer H4, which I shot while working at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Image © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

H4 is the chronometer with which John Harrison won the British Parliament's competition to accurately measure longitude 250 years ago. It laid the foundations for accurate navigation at sea from then onwards. The chronometer is rarely taken off display and it was a real privilege to spend time photographing it. To hold in my hands an object that so profoundly changed the course of history was truly mind blowing.

Who’s your favourite geek?

My favourite geek is Stephen Fry, but Greg has already snapped him up! So, my second favourite geek is Richie Adler, the main character from the TV series Whiz Kids.

WANTED: students

2010-11-12T11:43:00.000Z

We're looking for student volunteers to put a few of our flyers up around campus notice boards across the country.

We'll send you a handful of flyers to put up around your uni. along with a few of our super-exclusive Geek Calendar pin badges. You can keep the badges for yourself, or give them to your friends, or even award them as prizes for best dressed geek at this year's departmental Xmas party.

Interested? Email us with your uni, name and postal address at geekcalendaruk@gmail.com First come first served basis, so be quick!

Our photographers, part 1: Greg Funnell

2010-11-12T09:49:00.010Z

A big reason why the Geek Calendar looks as great as it does is the fabulous work of our amazing photographers. We are greatly indebted to Ben Gilbert and Greg Funnell, who, between them, produced the remarkable images of our geeks -- and all for nothing more than their artistic curiosity and the odd baked treat!

In the next two blog posts, we'll turn the spotlight round on them, revealing what it was like to be behind the camera for Geek Calendar.

First up: Greg Funnell, a freelance photographer and an old school friend I brought in to the project. It was a good call too -- judging by some of the tweets we received, many of you agree, and some would even have liked him to appear in the calendar!

Would you call yourself a geek?

Yes, but I think I'd have to classify myself as a 'photo-geek'.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?

Probably the large amount of old cameras I collect could be considered an ongoing geeky habit.

Which was your most enjoyable Geek Calendar shoot?

I enjoyed them all and they each had different plus points. Photographing Chris Addison was great fun because he's full of interesting factoids and good banter. Jonathan Ross was similar to that extent *and* he had the toys to back it up. I got a little bit jealous of his collection of retro cameras though.

Which was the most challenging shoot?

Probably the shoot at Crossbones because it's always quite challenging working in fading light conditions. Added to that, we were positioned on the middle of a road that was still in use, so we had to keep breaking set and dashing to the sides with the lights!

Which Geek Calendar month is your favourite?

I think I like the one of Chris best - something about the look of genuine pleasure he's getting out of playing with that space rocket.

How did you get into photography?

The long-winded way, but let's just say I'm self taught because I'm so much of a geek. I wanted to study History and War Studies at university instead...

What's a normal day in the life of a freelance photographer?

Drinking lots of tea, responding to emails and occasionally getting flashes of inspiration that send me scurrying off researching ideas for projects. On shoot days it's very different, altogether more hectic and exciting depending of course on the job. No two jobs are ever the same. 90% of photography is about overcoming problems, whether they're logistical, technical, personal or creative.

What's the most interesting thing you've ever photographed?

I've spent time in the middle of sewers, sex dens, arenas, war zones, the black bloc, high class hotels and dirty forgotten street corners. Photographed A-list celebs one day and convicted murderers the next. That's why I love my job. Variety is the spice of life and the camera gives me the excuse to sample its many flavours!

Finally, who's your favourite geek?

Probably Steven Fry, or Ray Mears (let's face it, he's a geek of nature...)

See more of Greg's freelance photography, at http://www.gregfunnell.com/

The Mass Libel Reform Blog

2010-11-10T16:48:00.001Z

Geek Calendar are pleased to join today’s mass-blog in support of the libel reform campaign (which is, of course, the reason we're doing the calendar in the first place!).

As well as the piece below, you can read our piece for the Times last week (now liberated from behind the paywall) and watch Greg Foot's great video.

This week is the first anniversary of the report Free Speech is Not for Sale, which highlighted the oppressive nature of English libel law. In short, the law is extremely hostile to writers, while being unreasonably friendly towards powerful corporations and individuals who want to silence critics.

The English libel law is particularly dangerous for bloggers, who are generally not backed by publishers, and who can end up being sued in London regardless of where the blog was posted. The internet allows bloggers to reach a global audience, but it also allows the High Court in London to have a global reach.

You can read more about the peculiar and grossly unfair nature of English libel law at the website of the Libel Reform Campaign. You will see that the campaign is not calling for the removal of libel law, but for a libel law that is fair and which would allow writers a reasonable opportunity to express their opinion and then defend it.

The good news is that the British Government has made a commitment to draft a bill that will reform libel, but it is essential that bloggers and their readers send a strong signal to politicians so that they follow through on this promise. You can do this by joining me and over 50,000 others who have signed the libel reform petition at
http://www.libelreform.org/sign

Remember, you can sign the petition whatever your nationality and wherever you live. Indeed, signatories from overseas remind British politicians that the English libel law is out of step with the rest of the free world.

If you have already signed the petition, then please encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Moreover, if you have your own blog, you can join hundreds of other bloggers by posting this blog on your own site. There is a real chance that bloggers could help change the most censorious libel law in the democratic world.

We must speak out to defend free speech. Please sign the petition for libel reform.

The response

2010-11-01T12:32:00.000Z

As Louise mentioned in the previous post, we've been taken aback at the amazing response to the calendar.

We don't want to gush, but... ok, we will gush:

You can see a full list of press coverage on our new media page.

What's really been making us grin though is people's reactions to the calendar, particularly on Twitter. The pics were especially lovely: here's one already on a wall! But it's been great to know that the calendars have safely arrived and to eavesdrop on the nice things people are saying about our little project. Here's just the smallest of samples:

So, a huge thank you to everyone for their kind words and especially those who've already ordered a calendar. If you haven't yet, do it now.

Incredibly, we've already sold out our first print run. Don't worry, a second print run is on the way. But they won't be reprinted forever, so get in there quick to secure yours (and tell your friends!).

The Geeks on Geekiness

2010-10-29T23:42:00.006+01:00

Our latest video aired exclusively on the Guardian this week, alongside Alice's post on the Guardian Science blog about the meaning of the term 'geek' and asking: What's the geekiest thing you've every done?

Our geeks answered the same questions during their photoshoots, and you can hear their answers in the vid.

Again, credit for this video goes to our fabulous videography team: Editor Greg Foot and cameramen Barry Gibb and Tom Ziessen.

Geek Party

2010-10-28T11:23:00.012+01:00

Thursday the 21st October was the zenith of the geek social calendar. Not only was Stephen Hawking at the Royal Albert Hall and the winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books announced, but it was also the official launch of the Geek Calendar.

Although the calendar has been available for pre-order since August, Thursday was the day we pushed the green button and let all systems go. And go they did. We had a wonderful amount of press coverage. More on that in another post shortly, but I have to admit, I nearly burst with excitement when I saw the calendar on the front page of the Guardian website.

Thankfully we had a big launch party to celebrate at, hosted at the Free Word Centre, home to English PEN and Index on Censorship, two of the three organisations that run the Libel Reform campaign (the other is Sense About Science).

The dress code on our invitations said 'geek chic', which we'd put in as a kind of joke. But the geek community, being what it is, took the words to heart, and some outfits were remarkable. There were several Lois Lanes and many spectacular spectacles. One girl, Bekky Kennedy, a former Sense about Science intern, had blue fairy lights in her hair.

However, it was the Nature podcast crew who pulled out all the stops: Charlotte Stoddart turned up with a molecule as a hair clip and Geoff Marsh appeared to have tattoed "e = mc2" onto his knuckles, though I think it might have just been biro.....

Several of our calendar geeks were there, mingling with a crowd of friends, supporters, press and competition winners. There was some amusement as each of the geeks came face to face with their larger-than-life likeness: each of the final calendar photographs had been blown up poster-size and plastered all over the walls as a photo exhibition.

Later in the evening, Mike Harris from Index on Censorship interrupted proceedings to introduce me for my little thank you speech. I was very nervous about this, but luckily got a lot of laughs, mostly for my mocking of Drs January and April.

I then introduced Simon Singh, who explained that he wasn’t really in the calendar, the featured geek was his baby son. Hari Singh "couldn’t be at the party tonight", but had sent in a pre-recorded video message (via his mum) explaining, in smiles and gurgles, that he was very proud to be featured in such a well-produced calendar for an important cause. Sile Lane from Sense About Science then took to the stage to explain why libel reform remains important and something we need to follow through to the end.

You can hear all the speeches below. Thanks to the Pod Delusion crew for recording this:

Following that, it was time to let loose with some live music! The poptastic Spirit of Play, who provided the backing tune for our video trailer, made a special guest appearance, filling the room with such songs as 'Wave or Particle' and, of course, the song that’s become our theme tune, 'Geek of the Week'.

There were two highlights of the night: the arrival of Brian Cox and Gia Milinovich, straight from the Royal Society do. Looking fabulous (of course) they signed their poster print and hobnobbed with a slightly star-struck crowd. Watch this space for an auction of that and all our other geek-signed posters (all raising more funds for the Libel Reform campaign of course).

After the party, a very tired, but very, very happy, Team Geek Calendar retired to the pub, munching on the amazing cookies made especially for the launch party by Wendy of Quirky Cookies. Featuring agarose gels, double helices, labcoats, Higgs-Boson particles, and even our logo, they were the geekiest foodstuffs we’d ever seen, and truly the icing that topped off our cake.

Thanks again to all who came to the party and helped us celebrate the launch of a truly geeky project. The work's not over yet though. Tell your friends (be it tweet, blog, Facebook, email or Second Life) about Geek Calendar and be sure to buy one for yourself and the other geeks in your life. All money goes to the Libel Reform campaign and the project will only truly be a success if we can raise more money, and awareness, to make libel reform happen.

More from the launch party:

Photoset on our Flickr account (credit to Benjamin Thompson for these):

Audio interviews from press on the night:

Mike Harris, from Index on Censorship, on the Pod Delusion

Gia Milinovich on the Pod Delusion

Audioboos from @documentally, talking geek with Brian Cox:

Listen!

and with Jenny Rohn and Imran Khan from the Science is Vital campaign (which also had something to celebrate that week!)

Listen!

Pre-order prize draw winners

2010-10-26T21:52:00.006+01:00

Way back in the summer, at the height of Geek Calendar production madness, we announced a prize draw to entice you to pre-order a calendar in August.

The draw was made a few weeks ago and we can now announce the lucky winners:

Lewis Dartnell signed book: Vanessa Stainthorp
Roger Highfield signed book: Sophie Freeland, Tom Chance, Werner, Tara Herman
Mark Henderson signed book: Anne Coleman
Alex Bellos signed book: Christine Sexton
Signed set of Simon Singh books: Katie Hanrott
Knitted Higgs Boson: Catherine Owen
Sydney Padua Babbage & Lovelace Libel Reform sketch: Amy Blencowe
Geek Calendar launch party tickets: Jenny Woods, Carmen Windsor, Richard Parmiter, Penny Vickers, Fiona Mcrobie

Congratulations to all!

The Geek Calendar is here!

2010-10-21T01:17:00.000+01:00

The Geek Calendar has arrived! After much hard work, we are pleased to finally unveil the finished product.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but we'll elaborate on more specific parts of it in the coming weeks. If you haven't ordered yours yet, what are you waiting for? Buy here, and remember, all proceeds go toward the Libel Reform campaign.

Layouts:

Product shots:

TAM London

2010-10-20T15:56:00.014+01:00

Team Geek Calendar were up at the crack of dawn last weekend to sell our hot-off-the-press calendar at the The Amazing Meeting London (TAM London).

TAM is a conference for critical thinkers that raises money for the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), founded by magician and skeptic James Randi (that’s the Amazing Randi to you and me). With speakers such as Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, Susan Blackmore and Graham Linehan, we figured there would be quite a few geeks in the audience wanting to buy the calendar. We weren’t wrong.

This was the first time the calendar had been seen by the public, and we made our first sale at the painfully early hour of 8.15am. I manned the stall in my geek chic Geek Calendar tee-shirt and handed out button badges we had made especially for TAM and our official launch party.

It was great to meet people who had been following the progress of our nerdy little project on Twitter -- we even gave out some copies to people who had pre-ordered. For those of you who have pre-ordered and haven't received it yet, it is in the post and should arrive soon!

Taking turns to man the stand, and with help from our stall neighbours, The British Humanist Association and The Pod Delusion, Mun-Keat and I did manage to sneak away from playing shop to hear some of the conference talks.

Richard Dawkins presented a reading list to illustrate why evolution is the new Classics, and Cory Doctorow talked about copyright in a jacket that looked like a barcode. But the highlight was Geek Calendar’s Mr January, Adam Rutherford, and his hilarious account of attending the Alpha Course.

Credit: Pewari Naan

Most of what he said was spot on, though he lost a few geek points by claiming the Lord of the Rings films are boring. Shame on him!

Besides Adam, many of our other geeks were also in attendance. Gia Milinovich, Evan Harris and Simon Singh all spoke at TAM, and all stopped by to say hi. Evan even signed a copy for one lucky geek. Also present in the audience were Jonathan Ross and family with Mrs Ross, Jane Goldman, purchasing one for the family wall.

Apart from selling our wares, we also did a few press interviews. Mun-Keat did a piece for the Righteous Indignation podcast and I was interviewed for JREF TV and the Naked Scientists podcast – keep your ears peeled in case I make the cut.

To pass the time in between sales, hilarity and the media, I also did a spot of knitting, and I’m very pleased to introduce you all to the Geek Calendar’s new mascot, Pete the Pterodactyl:

Comic artist Alan Moore concluded the conference talks... and he signed a calendar! We’ll be auctioning this off to raise even more money for Libel Reform soon.

If you haven’t yet, buy your copy now – in the words of TAM host, Professor Richard Wiseman:

"It’s a porn calendar for brainy people... it's even printed on glossy paper."

The Geeks on Libel Reform

2010-10-19T13:16:00.006+01:00

Although Geek Calendar is a celebration of nerdishness, it's main raison d'être is of course to raise money and awareness for charity: the UK Libel Reform campaign.

Why Libel Reform? We'll let our Geeks explain:

Credit to our video editor Greg Foot for editing and Barry Gibb and Tom Ziessen for filming.

You can find out more about the Libel Reform campaign, and sign the petition, at www.libelreform.org

All takings from Geek Calendar sales go to the Libel Reform campaign, so don't delay, order yours today!

Things

2010-10-18T15:31:00.002+01:00

A quick shout out for Things, Wellcome Collection's new, two-week only, exhibition in London.

The idea is that you bring something no bigger than your head that means something to you, however unusual, and donate it to the exhibition. By the time the exhibit is complete, it will feature dozens of objects of all shapes and sentiment, with a range of stories attached to them.

With Wellcome Collection playing host to three of our shoots, we felt we ought to give something back and couldn't resist donating one of our crafted props -- Kat Akingbade's 'Homeopathic Pill Bottle'.

The bottle is 26 December on the Calendar of Things ("A supposed hangover cure?," asked artist Keith Wilson, when I handed it over). You can view it's entry on the Things website or in the exhibition itself, which runs until this Friday (22 October).

Final Shoot: Jonathan Ross

2010-10-06T13:13:00.005+01:00

It's been a madcap ride, but after a summer of hard work our fifteenth and final shoot for Geek Calendar arrived, and boy was it a biggie: Jonathan Ross.

'Wossy' is one of the UK's biggest stars (and not just on Twitter :P). He's worked in TV and radio for over 20 years and has a plethora of TV credits, notably his own Friday night chat show, BBC Radio show and taking over from Barry Norman as the presenter of the BBC's flagship Film programme.

But we love Jonathan, not for his fame, but for his geek credentials. His career has seen him front cult favourites such as The Incredibly Strange Film Show and Japanorama. And if that's not enough for you, he's appeared as himself in a Neil Gaiman short story and has just written his first comic book series, Turf. And let's not forget, he's married to the lady who wrote the screenplays for Stardust, Kick Ass and X-Men: First Class.

Jonathan is well-known as a huge cult film fan, comic book nerd, gamer and toy collector. So I couldn't help but envision a huge wall of alphabetically-organised comic books, wall-to-wall Marvel and DC comic art, the latest tech and collectibles coming out of your ears. As it turned out, my imagination came up sorely short.

If there were an MTV Cribs for geeks, Jonathan Ross's house would have to be first for a visit.

Wossy's 'office' is beyond nerd nirvana. For one thing, THE CEILING DISPLAYS SUPER MARIO SPRITES!!!

Another thing to geek out about is the chairs. They may look like something out of Blake's 7, but they're actually fully wired for surround sound, which is perfect for watching movies on the matching plasma screen or, as Jonathan says, getting your arse kicked by your son at Halo. (I have to say, surround sound chairs must give him quite the advantage over other online gamers. Beware Master Ross on XBox live!)

Jonathan gave us the tour of his favourite possessions, putting up with our (ok, my) exclamations of "OMG that's not an original [insert obscure character] figure from [insert Japanese anime]". That did, however, turn up a couple of facts:

1) He has a custom-made briefcase so he can carry his favourite figures around with him

2) He has possibly the coolest mother-in-law in the world: she knitted him an original Astro Boy figure (at the bottom in the pic below), complete with a voice recorded off a DVD!

We also got to meet the Ross pets: both real and artificial:

Back to our subject, Jonathan was really up for hamming it up. He tried on several different costumes, including a winged hoodie and these awesome 'Icarus' trainers (taken out of their box and worn for the first time just for Geek Calendar!).

We also tried a few of him going commando (no, not like that) posing with an original Johnny Seven OMA gun (the Rolls Royce of toy guns, I'll have you know).

In the middle of this, our shoot was interrupted by a parcel delivery. Jonathan popped out and returned with a Fed Ex package. From another Jonathan. Jonathan Ive (a.k.a. the designer behind Apple's iconic product line of the last 13 years). Inside? The latest range of iPods announced by Steve Jobs just days before. All of them. OMGWTF?!

During the shoot Jonathan told us tales of life behind the camera (including the exaggerated rumours about his BBC contract and how disappointing it is when people take your jokes the wrong way). We talked tech gadgets (he has SO many retro games consoles and cameras), his wife's prowess at World of Warcraft, and how Twitter is simultaneously a wonderful communication tool, but also making it a little too easy for people to snipe at each other.

We heard about the projects on his horizon, including a travel show taking in the Trans-Siberian Express on the way to Hong Kong, and more comic books -- with one an awesome-sounding series on old-age superheroes (think Mr Fantastic with his bits sagging :P).

We also recorded a great video interview, several bits of which have made it into our series of videos (the first of which you can see here).

Jonathan was really accommodating and a fantastic host. We really can't thank him enough for taking part and having us round to geek out all afternoon (though I'm sure he enjoyed it as much as we did!). Thanks also to the lovely Gia Milinovich for helping us arrange the shoot.

Here are some further pictures of the Ross office. As always, there are more behind-the-scenes shots on our Flickr page.

Twenty geeks, fifteen shoots. Mission complete (at least this part of it).

Geek out.

Geeks on film

2010-10-01T13:44:00.013+01:00

Greg Foot, Geek Calendar's video editor, introduces the first of our special videos -- our trailer!

When we came up with the mad idea that is Geek Calendar we had a whole bundle of bonkers ideas. One of them was to make a video to whet your whistle about the final shots and show how much fun the whole thing was to put together!

When you get your grubby mitts on your very own Geek Calendar and flick through those glossy snaps you’ll see that lots of thought went into the choice of location and shot and, as you’d expect with the likes of Jonathan Ross involved, every shoot was a right laugh!

The marvellous Barry J Gibb and Tom Ziessen very kindly picked up their cameras and tagged along to whatever shoots we could fit into our geekily crammed diaries. And for those we couldn't make, organiser Mun-Keat had his Flip Video camera on him at all times (as geeks do), pointing it in the right direction enough times to give us some great shots.

Finally, you can’t have a trailer without a cracking tune, and we got a very appropriate one thanks to our friends at Geek Pop, the purveyors of fine nerd music. They had loads of great suggestions, but we eventually settled on the aptly-named Geek Of The Week by Sprit of Play.

My only qualm was that the original track was more chilled than we needed (it’s a great acoustic track – check it out). I was after something upbeat, preferably with some 8-bit goodness in there (cheers to Adam Rutherford and the Nature video crew for inspiring us). Luckily, I met the Spirit Of Play guys at the Green Man music festival and asked if they would do us a special version of the song. They jumped at the idea and the Geek of the Week (Geek Calendar remix) was born! You can grab the track over on Geek Pop's very kind blog post.

Getting our own customised remix was the icing on the cake for us, and we hope you guys like the trailer. Keep your eyes peeled: we’ve got two more videos coming soon featuring more from our geeks!

Greg Foot

Shoot fourteen: Dr Evan Harris and Sabrina Chevannes

2010-09-17T10:57:00.002+01:00

When we decided to do all the shoots over the summer, I was a bit worried they'd all look a bit, well summery (not so great for depicting November or March). Thank goodness for British Weather because it BUCKETED down for shoot number fourteen.

Our subjects here were a pair of chess geeks: Evan Harris and Sabrina Chevannes.In his 13 years as an MP, Evan gained a reputation for more than just party politics. A qualified medical doctor, he is well known for campaigning for civil liberties, human rights, evidence-based policy, secularism, parliamentary reform and, of course, libel reform, where he headed the parliamentary campaign. He also recently launched a science policy blog as part of the Guardian's new network of science blogs.

Sabrina's played chess for England, and recently helped launch Chess in Schools and Communities, a charity hoping to get a million children playing by 2015. Sabrina was also once on the Crystal Maze and her website has a photo of her standing over a chess set with boxing gloves (by this we mean Evan's great and all, but Sabrina is a bit cooler).

Other stars of the show: the AMAZING chess set, lent to us by the London Chess Centre, and our location, British Medical Association House. Behind-the-scenes, as well as usual Geek Calender team of art-director Louise, photographer Ben and videographer Greg, was chess expert Malcolm Pein.

After giving up on the idea that the rain might stop, we set up the game in the courtyard of the BMA. Here Evan and Sabrina shake hands before the start of the game.

Chess was a very appropriate theme for Evan's shoot. Not only because he is a massive chess geek (seriously: that is possibly the geekiest thing on youtube), but because Chess is such a game of political tactics.

The whole shoot had rather a political flavour to it. Evan told us his "favourite geek" is fellow-calendar star Simon Singh, because of the way he helped get scientists active in political campaigning, as Evan put it, the way Simon "turned geeks on to libel reform". Evan also talked about the mechanisms and processes involved in the history of the libel reform movement; the ways in which science and fee speech groups connected, the way the moment in the political cycle was caught.

The other big theme of the shoot was fashion. Aside from everyone admiring Greg's trainers, we also had the umbrellas Louise speedily sourced from under her desk nearby (Evan's, sadly, was broken, it seemed to funnel water over him, so he was possibly even wetter that he'd have been without one... sorry Evan). There was also Evan's amazing chess tie, which he wore specially for the occasion. He admitted that had it since his was twelve, but has never had a girlfriend who would let him wear it in public.

I think Sabrina won the battle of geeky-chess clothing though: here she is using the chess board as a cloak (from the start of the shoot, before it got soaking wet).

Sabrina won the chess game too by the way, hands down. As Malcolm said, Evan's a top player, it's just that Sabrina is better.

Thanks again to Evan, Sabrina and Malcolm, the Chess Shop and the British Medical Association.

Shoot thirteen: Petra Boynton

2010-09-13T09:27:00.001+01:00

Shoot number thirteen, unlucky for some? Especially spooky as we were shooting by an old graveyard.

Pah! Superstition! Thirteen is lucky for us, because our geek number 13 was the most-awesome and amazing, Dr Petra Boynton.

Petra, if you don't know her, is a psychologist. She lecturers at UCL, teaching doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Her research focuses on issues of sexual health, including the effects of pornography, women involved in street prostitution, policy and practice in sex education, evaluating advice giving in the media, sexual functioning, and modernising sexual health services. She is also an expert in research methodologies, a keen campaigner on evidence-based healthcare, and the UK’s first evidence-based Agony Aunt.

Recent posts on the 11 year olds on the pill stories or how to be an agony aunt (or uncle) should give you an idea of some of the work she is famous for. We can also recommended this video of Petra discussing science and sexuality in women's magazines, and her bit in the Guardian Science podcast recently, after her appearance with Guerrilla Science at the Secret Garden Party.

Our location (Petra's genius idea) was at the gates of the Cross Bones cemetery. Colourful, no?

Cross Bones' exact age is unknown. There is a reference in 1598 to it as the "Single Woman's churchyard" (a euphemism for prostitutes). Excavations conducted in the 1990s as part of the Jubilee Line extension found an extremely crowded cemetery, with bodies piled on top of one another. It's likely that by the late 18th century, it seems to have become a more general paupers' cemetery and up to 15,000 people are believed to have been buried there.

This part of town lay outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, so Londoners would cross the river to enjoy its brothels, theatres and bear baiting (all illegal in the City itself). That's why the Globe Theatre is there. It's also why one of the roads by the Globe is called "Bear Gardens" (look closely, and you can spot the remains of the hook the bears were attached to).

There's very little of Cross Bones left, all there is to see really is the gate. This is a modern one, not part of any original structure. Indeed, it would be hard to tell there was anything special if there weren't so many ribbons, mirrors, toys, flowers and notes attached to them. Since 1998, on the 23rd of every month a vigil meets to mark "the outcast dead" and add these "trinkets" of remembrance (6:45pm if you want to join them). We saw a reference to someone who had died in 1752, and a note about a man who died in a workhouse at 87 (amazing that someone would have lived to that age in workhouse conditions, it makes you wonder about his story, no?).

The riverside bit of Southwark has all the glamour: Tate Modern, Christopher Wren's House (just tucked beside the Globe, built for a view of St Paul's) or the giant stained-glass window devoted to Shakespeare at the Cathedral. But here, just a few minutes further south, people of today have taken time to celebrate this lesser-known people of the area's past, and celebrate with colour too.

Although it was a lovely location it did make for a slightly complex shoot: this was the middle of a central London street after all. Even though it was quiet and traffic only flowed one-way, we had to keep shifting the lighting equipment at every cry of "car!". Still, as the light faded, our photographer managed to do pretty things with headlights in the background and the results were some very atmospheric pictures.

We worried that Petra's coat might look a bit like a labcoat. Not that we have anything against labcoats, but it would have been a bit odd in this context. However, if anything, it made her look a bit more like a police investigator. Petra and I were both reminded of Prime Suspect, but art-director Louise thought it was more like Dana Scully. Looking over the final photos, I think Louise is right (though Petra has better hair than Scully).

I'll leave you with a snap of the gate as it stood, still in the night, as we were leaving. An amazing bit of town: do drop by if you are in the area.

UPDATE: Petra's written a lovely account of her experience of the shoot over on her blog.

Shoot twelve: Simon (and Hari) Singh

2010-09-02T11:17:00.001+01:00

Our twelfth shoot is one of our most anticipated: the hero of the Libel Reform campaign, Simon Singh.

Author, journalist and TV producer, Simon is one of the UK's best known science writers, penning the likes of 'Fermat's Last Theorum', 'The Big Bang' and 'Trick or Treatment?'. His misfortune kickstarted the libel reform campaign: in getting sued by the British Chiropractic Association, he raised awareness of the UK's misguided libel laws and the widespread outrage led to a strong movement to reform it.

Simon's victory in the case gave hope for the future of free speech in the UK, one that bodes well for the next generation, including young Hari Singh. Born a month before his father's triumph, Hari is an inquisitive fellow, wide-eyed and eager to discover as much about his world as possible -- no time to keep still Daddy!

Our location was Hari's nursery in the Singh house. And what a lovely room to have. The first thing that struck us walking in was the wonderful murals on the walls, including a very topical appearance of space and dinosaurs....

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The dinosaur mural was hand-painted by Hari's mother and grandmother - such a lucky boy!

It wasn't just space and dinosaurs: another had an undersea theme, followed by robots and bears, then a scene of monkeys. Being the geeks that we are, Team Geek Calendar couldn't help but speculate at the 'evolutionary' ordering of the murals, with the monkeys followed by Hari's cot, then robots, and back to space.... coincidence?

They say you should never work with animals or children, but Hari was a perfect subject, attentive and full of wonderful expressions (he has a great range, from 'fascinated' to 'distracted'). He offered few problems for Daddy, apart from trying to climb into a copy of 'The Big Bang' ("He's trying to get into the book," said Simon, "something many of my readers struggled with...")

Both father and son were decked out in the finest Libel Reform 'propaganda' -- the idea for this shoot being that libel reform safeguards the future of free speech, a future that will hopefully allow Hari, and those of his generation, the freedom to express himself like his father.

We had great fun with Hari's toys, including a zebra who does a stunning rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' from Les Miserables. So what did they name this zebra? Susan Boyle!

I'll leave you with with a few other photos from the shoot, including Hari's impressive reading list. As always, these and other behind-the-scenes shots are on our Flickr page.

Thus our twelfth shoot was completed.

But we're not done yet! You're getting more than just 12 months for your buck, so stay tuned for the next exciting Geek Calendar shoot, and don't forget to pre-order your calendar!

Preview

2010-08-31T11:38:00.000+01:00

So far, all our calendar shots have been under lock and key. But we thought you might like a preview of some of them, so I took a sneaky screen grab earlier when I was having a look through the first set of images. These aren't the final choice of shots. They are low-res versions, they haven't been through post-production let alone design. But it's flavour of where we are going.

There is a lot of work to do before they become the calendar. We also still have more photoshoots not even represented here. Expect another three (at least...) blogposts about these soon (and checkout flickr for backstage pics of Shoot 12, Shoot 13 and Shoot 14).

Remember, we're only doing a limited print run and all orders made before 5pm British Summer Time, 15th of September 2010 will be put into our special prize draw.

Buy your calendar now.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

2010-08-20T11:18:00.036+01:00

Geek Calendar is now open for pre-orders. Alert your Grannies now! Or just buy one yourself. In fact buy several. It is £11.75 (plus P&P), lasts you until January 2012 and geekifies any room it graces.

Put your order in here.

In case you are wondering why you'd buy a calendar in August, we're only doing a limited print run.

Plus, all orders made before 5pm British Summer Time, 15th of September 2010 will be put into our special prize draw. Prizes include Sydney Padua's AMAZING, signed illustration of Charles Babbage suing her for libel (draft of this here), tickets to our star-studded launch party in October and, er, a hand-knitted Higgs boson (more prizes to be announced in the next few weeks).

The actual calendar photos are still secret - the photos here and on flickr are just backstage snaps, not the final calendar images. However, we'll be posting some sneak previews soon, and you can tell who is featured in the calendar from our blogposts (e.g. last three: Chris Addison, Brian Cox & Gia Milinovich and Aleks Krotoski). We also have a couple more shoots to do (including at least one very exciting one) so watch this space.

So, what are you waiting for? Put your order in. It's what all the cool kids aren't doing.

UPDATE 15/9/10: Signed books from some of our geeks, including Simon Singh, Lewis Dartnell, Roger Highfield, Alex Bellos and Mark Henderson (in 6 different languages...), have been added to the prizes.

Geek Dates

2010-08-10T16:25:00.006+01:00

We're looking for some geek dates.

No, not dinner and a movie with a guy/ gal who has an impressive collection of 1987 synthesizers (though that might be cool too). We're looking for momentous dates in geek history to include in the calendar. A lot of calendars mark significant saints days, but the Libel Reform team pointed out Geek Calendar should be a bit different, with notes relating to science and technology instead. We agreed and decided we need about three "geeky dates" for each month. Our calendar's going to have two Decembers and two Janurarys, so we need double for those months.

This is what we have so far. What else should be there? Maybe we should replace some of the ones we have? Let us know what you think - here or on twitter.

December 10 Ada Lovelace born (1815)
December 17 Humphry Davy born (1778)

January 8 Alfred Russel Wallace born (1823)
January 12 HAL9000's birthday

February 11 Palindrome day (at least in UK, it'll be ~~11/2/2111~~ whoops obviously we mean 11/02/2011...)
February 12 Charles Darwin born (1809)

March 16 Caroline Herschel born (1750)
March 3 Alexander Graham Bell born (1847)
March 25 Themes tunnel opened (1853)

April 25 Publication of double helix DNA structure (1953)
April 30 Publication of Einstein's thesis (1905)

May 4 Star Wars day (May the 4th/ force...)
May 11 Richard Feynman born (1918)
May 25 Towel day

June 6 playable version of Tetris completed (1984)

July 5 Dolly the Sheep born (1996)

August 1 Discovery of Oxygen (1774)
August 6 First website goes online at CERN (1991)
August 4 John Venn born (1834)

September 10 Large Hadron Collider fired its first protons (2008)
September 28 mold that became penicillin discovered (1928)

October 9 Check the time/ date at 6:07am and 8 seconds...
October 21 Edison tests incandescent electric light bulb (1879)

November 4 First edition of Nature published (1869)

November 24 Publication of Origin of the Species (1859)
November 27 Signing of will of Alfred Nobel (1895)

December 9 Smallpox eradication (1977)
December 24 Newton's birthday (1642)

January 4 Newton's birthday (1642, it depends on what calendar you use...)
January 26 first demonstration of television (1926)

... and if it was a date with a geek you were after, last week's Times Eureka magazine had a few tips. They suggested you take geeky-dates to the Science Museum, but note that trips to the Jenner statue in Kensington Gardens tend to be less successful. We're not sure how you can get the geek to go on a date with you in the first place though. This video might provide some hints:

Shoot eleven: Chris Addison

2010-08-06T13:58:00.005+01:00

One of the striking features of the recent boom in British nerd activity has been the inclusion of comedy. Clearly, many comedians have always been a bit geeky (and many geeks have always been funny), but it's noticeable that the two seem to be hanging out quite so much recently. Somewhere along the line science and technology got funny. Or at least it made some funny friends.

When it came to a geeky comic to include in our calender, there were a load to consider, from Josie "let me tell you about my A Level Maths" Long to Robin "Infinite Monkey Cage" Ince, but Chris Addison was personally recommended (hat tip Adam Rutherford), and he's even been in a sitcom set in a lab. Turns out, Chris's a ginormous space geek too.

Our shoot took place in the green room of the Wellcome Collection, the set-up being that Chris is hanging out backstage after a gig, sitting on the floor absorbed with a load of geeky toys.

Chris arrived at the shoot bearing an impressive quantity of space-toys (the biomedical-themed items come via team GeekCal's personal prop collection). He then pulled out the book he's currently reading: Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire. That's Michael Collins the astronaut, not the Irish revolutionary leader, in case you were wondering (the lesser known astronaut in Apollo 11).

As well as buckminsterfullerene and the problem of going off at tangents when you're trying to tell a story... not that team GeekCal suffer from this at all... um, were where we? Yes, we talked about the aviation museum at Duxford and the Apollo 10 module at London's Science Museum*.

We also talked about how amazing the film In the Shadow if Moon is and some of the other work by its film-maker. Also, Chris' recent brush with moon landing deniers (and why anyone would find it more entertaining to imagine a CIA plot than the fact that mankind has walked on the moon).

Chris said he'd done biology at GCSE, but didn't take science much further as a student. That didn't stop him maintaining an interest though, and he's often used science in his comedy.

He mentioned reading Richard Feynman's Six Easy Pieces. The book is based on a series of physics lectures, which famously a load of different people turned up to (not just physics students) because they were so easy to follow. Chris got two lectures in, was thinking "this is brilliant, I'm growing as a person", then turned a page... and felt like he'd missed something. We suspect a lot of people can identify with this (team GeekCal included). It's a brilliant book, but does take a swift tricky turn about a third of the way in. Requires a stiff cup of coffee after the first few lectures.

Not that Chris seemed to have much problem with physics, using his inflatable model of a spaceship to explain Newton laws of motion to our photographer.

We'll end with a shot that shows the excitement, wonder and glamour of space rather than the just something to play with, with Chris holding one of the rockets up next to the green room's lights. (we're also quite pleased with this similar snap of the spaceship standing by the green room mirror)

* Geek-tastic anecdote: Adam Rutherford was at the Science Museum recently, standing by the Apollo 10 module (admiring the scorch marks you can see up the side, no doubt) when he heard a voice that sounded familiar. He looked over and realised it was SCULLY OFF X-FILES (i.e. Gillian Anderson). It was several months ago, but he's still getting over the excitement.

Email list

2010-08-06T11:51:00.001+01:00

The calendar should be available from October, with special pre-orders opening soon.

You can now sign up to our email list for alerts on when we go on sale.

Shoot ten: Brian Cox and Gia Milinovich

2010-07-26T09:51:00.006+01:00

A domestic setting for our tenth shoot, at home with Prof Brian Cox, Gia Milinovich, baby George and their two cats.

We really liked the idea of having a geek couple for one of our shoots, and Brian and Gia seemed like the obvious first choice. Gia's been taking some time off work recently, but she is well known for media work on science and technology, and is a long-time blogger. She's also the reason Jonathan Ross is on twitter (but we'll forgive her). Brian Cox recently presented the acclaimed Wonders of the Solar System for the BBC, and is currently filming a follow-up series. He is also a working scientist; writes for the Sun; was scientific adviser on the movie Sunshine; and is becoming well known for his advocacy of science funding. Oh, and he used to be a rock star.

Inspiration for this shoot came from a great suggestion on twitter to show Brian struggling with the instruction manual to a microwave. We folded in the idea of a geek couple, added retro theme into this, and the idea evolved into a set complete with broken toaster, instruction manual and martini glasses, all shot in Brian and Gia's kitchen. The cats were quite taken with all our audio, photography, video and lighting equipment.

Once we could tear Barry away from the cats, we did a quick interview with Brian and Gia about what they felt geekiness means. To Brian, a geek is someone obsessed with how the universe works and the tools for understanding the universe, including cameras and buses. The reason he mentioned buses was that, as 6 year old, Brian was a bit of a bus-spotter. Well, "bit of" is probably an understatement: he would stare out of his front window for hours collecting the serial numbers of buses (not route numbers, not registration numbers: the serial numbers). He has since graduated to plane spotting, as you might guess from his twitter avatar.

Gia's felt her definition was a little less narrow: "it's just being obsessed with anything". Gia also had one of the best answers we've heard to the "who's your favourite geek" question: Ben Folds. She said she feel in love with his music but he also made feel ok about being a geek.

Here's another shot of one of their cats, this time exploring the props. We know what you internet people like.

This was also the second shoot where everyone got very excited by the Guardian's microphone (again, joining us to record some interviews), and also yet another shoot to include a bit of a geek-out over cameras. Though Aleks and Greg's camera-off last week made an awesome image, Brian and Greg's discussion of charge, vibration and collection of dust in their cameras has to have been the geekiest. Even the cat talk turned into discussion of enzymes, as the man from the Guardian told us if you put a Siamese in the fridge, it goes black (NB: He hadn't actually tried this, and wouldn't suggest you do either. Please be nice to your cats).

We'll finish with a shot of one of Gia's shoes. She knew they wouldn't be in the calendar photos, but wanted the outfit to be complete anyway. A professional from head to toe, that Gia.

Shoot nine: Aleks Krotoski

2010-07-19T07:37:00.003+01:00

Technology is obviously a big part of geek culture and plays a big part in bringing geek communities together. When we started planning Geek Calendar, this was one of the first areas we wanted to represent, and who better than Aleks Krotoski.

Dr Aleks Krotoski is a journalist and academic interested in technology and interactivity. Her recently completed PhD was on the impressively titled 'Social Influence in Second Life: Social Network and Social Psychological Processes in the Diffusion of Belief and Behaviour on the Web' and she is currently Researcher in Residence for the British Library's Growing Knowledge project.

On the media side, you may remember her from the classic gaming TV shows Bits and Thumb Bandits. Today you may have seen her on the recent BAFTA award-winning BBC documentary series, The Virtual Revolution, or heard her in her regular role as host of the Guardian Tech Weekly podcast.

(Fact: Aleks was also once named one of the Top Ten girl geeks by CNET, above Paris Hilton, but below Lisa Simpson).

Our idea for this shoot was to use somewhere tech-heavy, but related to Aleks's many professional roles. So what better (and convenient) place than The Guardian podcast studios?

Thanks to The Guardian's Alok Jha and Andy Duckworth, we gained access to one of the studios for an afternoon. For the record, the Guardian has about five audio recording studios, though sadly the big one where Tech Weekly is usually recorded was in use -- unfortunate, as we were looking forward to meeting its resident Sarah Palin ;)

Aleks carries a tremendous number of exciting gadgets with her: daily equipment includes her iPhone, Macbook and SLR camera, making for a good weight-lifting workout just carrying her handbag! But this all provided useful props for the shoot.

Our idea was to photograph Aleks surrounded by microphones and tech to capture her Tech Weekly role. We tried a few variations with different headphones and impersonations of Geordi La Forge and Minnie Mouse. This was her point of view.

Our other, crazy, idea was to show Aleks' 'wired' brandishing two interconnected iPhones and decorated with a variety of colourful cables borrowed from the Guardian's multimedia storeroom.

Yes, Jesus did cross our mind, an irony that was not lost on us when Aleks told us of her Catholic upbringing!

In-between shoots, we kept our subject fueled with Haribo and talked Twitter, iPhones (there were no less than five in the room at one point) and Dopplr.

We also discussed the mysterious lack of clocks on The Guardian's 'multimedia' floor and King's Place's terrible wifi (seriously, what's up with that?).

This was also the first Geek Calendar shoot for our other photographer, Greg Funnell, and he and Aleks bonded over their love of photography, SLR settings and who had the better camera. Who won? I think Greg (he does this for a living, after all ;) ).

In her video interview, Aleks named Simon Pegg (for geek favourite Spaced), Cory Doctorow ("the man so prolific he puts us other geeks to shame") and fellow Geek Calendar-er Ben Goldacre ("He has great hair") among her favourite geeks. I also liked her description of a geek as "someone who wasn't in the in-crowd when they were younger, but is now changing the world and making it a better place".

Aleks was a really good sport, going along with all our zany ideas, and it was a real pleasure to work with her. You can see more behind-the-scenes pics of the shoot on our Flickr page.

*UPDATED 19/7/2010 10.47. Corrected title and link to Aleks's PhD thesis.

Shoot eight: the multi-media one

2010-07-16T11:02:00.001+01:00

A multi-media shoot. There was the usual GeekCal silliness of Alice taking photos (for the blog), Barry filming (for the video); and Ben taking photos (for the actual calendar). But this was especially media-heavy, as our subjects are all members of the UK science press pack. Hannah Devlin and Mark Henderson from The Times science desk, Nigel Hawkes (late of Times Health), blogger Ed Yong and New Scientist editor, Roger Highfield.

Another layer was provided by Alok Jha, from the Guardian Science Weekly podcast who popped along with his microphone for a few interviews. He refused to be photographed though, and instead hid behind a biscuit. That's the pic on the left hand side. In the middle, Ed momentarily turns his back on Hannah. On the right? Well, those are some chips...

... the chips were one of our prop ideas. Each of the writers had a poke of chips wrapped in their newspaper or magazine. Or in the case of Ed, printouts of one of his blogposts. Yesterday's news being today's chip-wrapping and all that.

As the shoot progressed and the chips got a bit soggy, the mainstream media types all had some fun throwing them at Ed. We're not sure what Mark is doing to them here though (singing?).

While we were shooting we noticed a guy taking photos on his phone of us. Alice thought she recognised him from a tweetup he had organised at Broadcasting House last February. She googled him when she got home and lo, if a pic of our shoot wasn't already uploaded to his Flickr page?

Yes, our photoshoot of journalists was paparazzi-ed by the Radio Four blogger. I don't think it is possible to be more rock and roll than that. Thanks to Steve Browbick for letting us re-publish the photo here.

The shoot took place in Gordon Square (thanks to UCL for letting us use it), just a stone's throw from the location of our sixth shoot, the week before. This connection provides us with our closing question. Bloggers vs. journalism, who has the best shoes: Ben Goldacre or Roger Highfield? (....& as loads of people have said on twitter, what's with Ben's purple socks?).

Shoot seven: Sydney Padua

2010-07-14T10:09:00.000+01:00

An artistic seventh shoot, as our subject was Sydney Padua. We know of Sydney from her webcomic, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. You can follow these on her website, see a BBC's Tech Lab feature on it, there's a slideshow at the Oxford Museum for the History of Science, and/or watch a lovely video of her presentation on graphic storytelling.

This all started when Sydney agreed to do a biographical sketch of Ada Lovelace for a friend who co-ordinates Ada Lovelace Day. The punchline was "Wouldn’t it be hee-larious if there was a comic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage fighting crime?". The answer being clearly "yes", she kept going.

If you don't know who Babbage or Lovelace are, Google it. Trust us, the internet loves them. All we'll say here is that they were around largely in the 19th C, hence the hat.

One of the best things about meeting Sydney (and there were lots) was the definition of geek she gave us. We've been asking a few of our geeks this question, part of a small video of the shoots we're making. Sydney's answer was that "geek", to her, means having a passion. Be this for your work, your hobby, or something in between. To spend all day at work, often doing something you love and feel passionate about too, and yet still find the time and energy to, for example, set up a world famous web comic about crime fighting heroes in the history of technology*.

By day, Sydney works in visual effects. You've probably seen some of her animated creations at the cinema. We were especially excited to spot a figure of the Iron Giant on her window sill (and an original sketch from the film). As she explains on website, she does the comic for "no particular reason" other than she likes "history, science, comics, primary documents, and pointless non-remunerative projects". This is something Team GeekCal can identify with.

Our setting was Sydney's studio, and she sketched throughout the first part of the shoot. As she tweeted later, pencil geeks will be interested to know this was a real live blackwing she was working with. Apparently blackwings are a thing (seriously, if you aren't a pencil geek already, google "blackwing". There is a whole world of geekiness out there waiting to be discovered).

A member of Team GeekCal knew a musician who used to import special music pencils to London from LA. Apparently they were somewhere between HB and 2B and had a different shaped/ sized led which was especially good for quickly forming clear musical notation. Sadly, this musician isn't around anymore, so we can't forward him the link to the blog on music and pencils we've just found. Suffice to say, pencil geekery = not just for people who draw (also, that somewhere, there is a blog about anything and everything).

A better shot of Sydney's sketch, below. This is still unfinished version though. She polished it off and signed it later, and it's now safely under lock and key at Geek Calendar HQ. We are debating whether to auction it off for libel reform. We're pretty tempted to keep it for ourselves though, it's pretty darn cool, no?

* After Sydney's comics, our favourite bit of Babbage-inspired geekery has to be the person who made a Difference Engine out of Lego.

Shoot six: Ben Goldacre

2010-07-09T12:15:00.002+01:00

Dr Goldacre is a prolific guy: you've probably at least stumbled across his blog, tweets, seen him on telly, radio, in the Guardian, on stage or read his best-selling book. You can even buy the tshirt (or underpants*).

The dude gets about, and he isn't afraid to bring his opinions with him. Even the calmest of press officers spill their coffee at the merest rumour he's on site. Quacks, spin-doctors, PRs hide. The most hardened of journalists shudder at the very mention of his name.

So, our 6th subject: The angry young man of UK science? In person, not in the slightest. Ben was cheery and relaxed, humble even. He was also incredibly patient about our various silly requests.

We got him to sit on a set of different chairs (including a very tiny stool, which must have been a tad uncomfortable) and lay about on the windowsill, draped in about fifteen different broadsheet newspapers whilst reading a life and style freesheet.

Our location was the Club Room at Wellcome Collection, and we played around with "framing" him through some of their bookshelves for a while (framing, as in media-framing geddit?).

He chatted about the web, scientists and the media, and his new (awesome) idea for linking the first two of these. He also said he wanted to eat the brains of one blogger. That was a bit scary. We suspect he was joking though, and meant it as complement (e.g. see this lovely piece about science bloggers by Ben, from 2008).

Then he toddled off and we packed up, with a great set of images for the calendar on file. All in all, a very pleasant shoot. Plus he was wearing shiny shoes. Yes, that is a tweet-pic of a load of mainstream media (dead tree versions) lying at the feet of Ben Goldacre. SYMBOLIC.

* When I am not messing around doing silly things like Geek Calendar, I am a (semi) serious academic and recently wrote the entry on popular science for the SAGE Encyclopedia for Science and Technology Communication. I take immense professional pride in the fact I sneaked a mention of these underpants into my piece (the book's out next term, we'll see if it made the final edit).

Shoot five: Alex Bellos and Matt Parker

2010-07-07T08:11:00.000+01:00

Monday night saw our fifth shoot: almost halfway there. Or maybe it's only a third, if we go for a fifteen-month calendar? Such fractional debates are appropriate as this shoot was maths themed. This was also geek calendar multiplied. A duel-subject shoot: Matt Parker, “standup mathematician”, and writer Alex Bellos.

You might have come across Matt's work on maths-busking, these awesome vids promoting maths teaching, or his wondrous way with socks. We also spotted a tweetpic preview of his forthcoming Edinburgh show (including shark costume).

Alex represents a more literary end of maths-popularisation. You can watch co-geekcalendar subject, Adam Rutherford, interviewing Alex about his new book, Alex's Adventures in Numberland on the BBC's Culture Show site. Alex was the Guardian's South America correspondent for five years, and ghostwrote Pelé's 2006 autobiography.

Seeing as we'd found two such super-cool maths geeks, we had an idea for the image of both of them arguing over the division of a bar bill. As soon as we mentioned this to Alex, he remembered a 15th century woodblock of Pythagoras and Boethius having a counting contest - one with numbers, one with counting table - and suggested we took this as an inspiration.

Geeky-credit where geeky-credit is due, it was quite geeky that Alex referenced a 15thC woodblock as an image idea, but when I forwarded this to the rest of the team, art director Louise emailed me back within minutes with the exact image. Louise is a picture researcher at the Wellcome Trust, and knows her stuff.

Matt and Alex hadn’t met before, and it was funny watching them bond over mutual maths-y acquaintances, love of puns and, most of all, calculation machines. As Mun-Keat dead-panned : “I had no idea eBay was such a depository for retro-maths kit”.

The coolest of these was quite clearly Alex’s Curta (top right hand corner). The Curta is the only mechanical pocket calculator, and the most accurate one up until electronic ones hit the market in the 1970s. They have quite a dramatic history, too: Curt Herzstark invented it while a prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp (read all about this on p.194-6 of Alex's book). You can watch Alex's Curta in action in what is possibly the greatest book trailer ever made, which also has some great advice on cutting cake. On a similar topic, we can recommend a vid from Matt too, featuring his "skills for bills" (it also mentions cake).

Our location was the Jeremy Bentham pub just off Gower Street, which is officially a geeky place for a pint, Londonist says so. All in all, I think this was probably the geekiest of the shoots we’ve done so far. Trust me, Imran’s affection for research policy documents took some beating. Maybe it was the pub location, but it was also one of the most convivial.

If this snap of Louise looking at photographer-Ben’s computer is anything to go by, it looks like we caught a good shot for the calendar too.

Finally: the “cake crumbs” on the plates are actually a mix of coffee granules and mayonnaise. FACT.

Shoot four: Kat Akingbade

2010-07-03T12:24:00.006+01:00

Another week, another shoot for Geek Calendar. This week our subject was the writer and broadcaster Kat Akingbade.

Kat has a degree in Clinical Sciences and has conducted research at the University of Oxford, worked for the World Health Organization and BBC Radio 4, and written for Nature, amongst others. However, her best known work is perhaps the the Channel 4 TV show Science of Scams, which she presents with Derren Brown.

The idea for this shoot was to play on her Science of Scams persona, with her examining a 'quack' bottle of pills with that detective/scientist's friend, the magnifying glass.

The pill bottle is actually a large brown lab bottle, courtesy of our previous subject, Lewis Dartnell. We filled it with cheap paracetamol pills and labelled the bottle with two different labels: a leftover from Wellcome Collection's 'Quacks and Cures' event, and a finely written (thanks to our friend Laura Pastorelli's lovely calligraphy!) nod to the UK sceptics community.

The location itself was a convenient one. We were looking for a backdrop featuring unusual items that might fit in with the investigative theme of the shot. We didn't have to look very far -- a number of the Geek Calendar team work at the Wellcome Trust and next door is one of the finest collections of weird scientific/medical ephemera you can imagine: Wellcome Collection.

With the help of Kirsten Warren and Sam Horston at Wellcome Collection we were granted after hours access to the two permanent galleries: Medicine Man and Medicine Now.

Medicine Man features bits and bobs from Sir Henry Wellcome's vast collection -- everything from medical instruments and paintings to sex toys and shrunken Incan mummies. An earlier recce with our photographer Ben spotted a lovely collection of well-lit bottles just by the entrance, so this was the first place we tried.

Following that, we moved on to the brighter, more modern surroundings of Medicine Now, home of the giant jelly baby and a DNA sequencing machine.

There, we tried a few shots of Kat at the clinical-looking white tables, to a background of the colourful pictures contributed by that kids (and adults) visiting Wellcome Collection.

In-between shots Kat told us about her day filming the new series of Science of Scams and how she'd spent her afternoon at a trapeze artist training facility(!).

Kat was really good fun to work with and spoke passionately about her investigative work. She was also extremely modest, embarrassed almost to be the subject of a photoshoot (and, like the rest of us, came to realise that being a model is harder work than you'd think!).

We were really pleased with the resulting shots. You can see further behind-the-scenes shots over on our Flickr page.

Shoot three: Adam Rutherford

2010-06-29T07:42:00.005+01:00

Our third shoot was with Adam Rutherford, at the lovely Rio Cinema in Dalston, re-creating a scene from Donnie Darko.

Adam describes himself as a "professional geek", so obviously we had to ask him to be in our calendar. He has a PhD in the genetics of the eye, and now works as an editor at the ultimate* science journal, Nature, running their (awesome) podcast and video department. You might also have seen him on TV, heard him on the radio or read some of his pieces at the Guardian. Here's a pic of Louise interviewing Adam for our video, just before the shoot.

As well all his science-ing, Adam is also a not-so-secret ginormous film geek. He even admitted to having watched Gus Van Sant's shot for shot remake of Psycho alongside the original, just to check.

So, Adam insisted if he was going to be in Geek Calendar, it had to be a film-themed shoot and that is why, on one of the sunniest days of the year, we all spent several hours in a darkened room, inside this gorgeous building, rather than out of it.

Just the six of us amongst rows and rows of empty seats, a flickering screen at the front and the sound of a projector running echoing around us (a sound that was ever so slightly like a waterfall, I was pleased I'd gone for a wee before leaving home).

It was lovely and cool in there though. Well, at least for those of us not wearing a bunny costume.

Between setting up shots topic we compared notes on Ang Lee's Hulk (under-rated, no?), Watchmen (the bunny had been to the Secret Cinema premier showing, jealous much?), Psycho (apparently that's chocolate sauce in the shower scene) and Lord of the Rings (a film mainly about going on a walk?). We also discussed some inventive ways to stop bunny ears going flaccid, but that's probably best kept between ourselves.

Despite a few fits of giggles, at least from me**, and Adam constantly being told he was "too happy" for the morose teenager role, not to mention poor Mun Keat nearly fainting in the bunny costume, we did get some amazing shots for the calendar. We were really lucky with the Rio's red seats which made a lovely contrast with the Bunny's grey fur. You can sneak a (v blurry) peak over at our flickr page.

I leave you with a shot of the rest of the group as I left, sitting in the cinema checking film clips on a phone.

* Sorry, Science. We think you are cool too.
** What is it about a bunny costume that makes anything the person in it says or does funny?

Shoot two: guest post from Lewis Dartnell

2010-06-23T10:48:00.003+01:00

We thought we'd let our geek subject tell you about the second shoot, so what follows is a guest post from Lewis Dartnell (photos by me, though not many as it was too dark inside the Planetarium!)

The plan for this Geek Calendar shoot was to go for an other-worldly feel. My research is in astrobiology and the search for life beyond Earth. I was scheduled to give a big public event at the Royal Observatory in the evening of Thursday 17th June, using the awesome wrap-around graphics capabilities of the vast planetarium dome to explain exactly where we're most likely to discover alien life, and I thought this might also make the ideal setting for some photos.

The Greenwich planetarium is as close to the 'natural habitat' of a research astrobiologist as you're ever likely to be able to reach in an afternoon, and it holds a particularly fond place in my heart. The extraterrestrial landscapes projected onto the cavernous dome also provide a far more exciting backdrop than the clinical blankness of the benches and shelves of the microbiology labs I work in at UCL.

So on the sunny Thursday afternoon, I met Ben the photographer, Barry the documentary film maker, and Louise the fearsome photoshoot director in the backstreet between the Wellcome Collection and UCL, and we bundled ourselves into a black cab with a heap of kit piled in around our feet. Barry had callously declared he wanted to sit as far away from me as possible (he later tried to claim it had something or other to do with the focal length of the camera lens… What'evs) so we sat diagonally opposite each other. Barry wired me for sound, balanced the video camera on his knees, and Louise lead the interview as we bounced through the jostling streets of central London towards Greenwich.

Being interviewed and filmed inside a cramped black cab driving to my next event was quite a surreal experience, but I'll be honest about secretly enjoying the thrill of feeling like a politician. In fact, with me never quite knowing if Barry had paused the recording for the time being or not whilst we nattered openly about science communication and communicators, I did feel acutely aware of the embarrassing potential for a Gordon Brown-esque radio mic incident.

The photo shoot itself was an enormous amount of fun. Ben needed a little while to set-up all his lighting, digital camera, monitor and other snazzy-looking items of kit so Barry, Louise and I slinked off to one corner of the dome (?) to muck about with some more informal photos. iPhones were commandeered to act as impromptu lighting and we got some great shots involving cuddly alien toys and Mars bars.

The main photo shoot was set-up so that the planetarium dome loomed behind me, offering a gorgeous backdrop of the projected images of martian landscapes or interstellar gas clouds. The angles, though, dictated that I needed to perch my ass right on top of the back-support of a reclining cinema chair, and I spent a leg-tensing half-hour trying not to wobble too much during the long-exposures needed for the dark conditions, or topple over backwards completely and re-break my arm. For the later shots Ben tried carefully tossing the Toy Story cuddly alien in to the frame, using the flash to catch it floating at head height beside me. Louise performed the vital role of toy retriever, huddling out of shot behind my chair. At the time, though, she did look uncannily like a Wimbledon ball girl crouching at the net, with me the Umpire peering down across the court.

We had quite a tight time constraint to get the photo shoot over and done with as the planetarium operator, Liv, needed to test-run the full show before the audience started pouring in. Liv hadn't finished coding the graphics and animation sequences for the show until 1 am that morning so I am deeply indebted to her for her dedication. I was pretty nervous before the show started (even more so than the Geek Calendar interview and shoot!) as there'd be no time for any rehearsal, and I just had to launch into a 45 minute ad lib over the hard-coded graphics sequence. All went well though, and there was a great response from the audience.

And where in the night sky will we first find signs of alien life? Ah, well you should have come to the planetarium show!

First shoot! Imran Khan

2010-06-11T12:10:00.003+01:00

It was our first shoot last Tuesday. The location was the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) offices, just at the side of UCL. Our "geek" was Imran Khan. No, not that Imran Khan (or this one). The UK science policy Imran Khan. The new Director of CaSE.

Imran's not the most famous of our geeks, but he is one of the coolest we know. We are keen that this calendar show off some of the most interesting members of the UK's nerd life, whether they are well known or not.

Imran's job is to act as a political advocate for science and engineering in the UK. He works with politicians and civil servants, industrialists, educationalists, the media and academics to keep science policy at the forefront of the public agenda. You might have read some of his recent posts on the New Scientist's S-Word blog. Up until the election, he was Evan Harris' researcher, and we had some fun hacking his computer desktop image, trying to make out Imran had pasted his face onto pictures of Evan to make out they were friends. We also surrounded filled the CaSE desks with photos of Evan, so Imran could look onto him adoringly.

Imran's also one of the younger subjects in our calendar, so we had a lot of fun hiding toys and children's books in his office surrounding. You might be able to spot "Everybody Poos" behind Imran in the shot below. That belongs to me, Imran's office library is much more serious. The child theme was also behind the giant lollipop in his pocket (sourced at the Natural History Museum's giftshop). Although I do like the way it looks like a rosette, very appropriate for all the policy connections.

I think it's fair to say we were all a bit nervous for the first shoot. We soon got into the swing of things though. After dragging the equipment to CaSE's offices at the top of the building, Barry and Greg, our film-makers, took some behind-the-scenes footage while Ben, the photographer, set up. Greg quizzed Imran about his favourite geeks and views on libel reform while Louise, the art director, pulled out her assortment of props. Everyone was soon giggling and/ or hard at work.

Don't you love that Greg's notebook matches his watch?

As everyone else worked away, Mun-Keat and I hid in the corridor to plot our next steps (ok, MK made lots of efficient notes about admin for future shoots. I nosed about the CaSE offices because I'm a giant science policy nerd).

We won't be showing the calendar images till we launch, but I got a sneak peek of Imran's photos on Wednesday, and they are amazing. Ben's done a brilliant job. We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, with shoots in all sorts of exciting places, with all sorts of exciting people (and a giant rabbit costume). The next shoot should be space-themed. Possibly with an alien. Watch this space.

First few ideas

2010-05-15T19:53:00.000+01:00

So we offically launched the twitter feed on Friday. Thanks to everyone who RT-ed and recommended us as a "follow friday". We also had a few tweets letting us know who you'd like to see in the calender. Here are some of my favourites. We need some more though, what do you think?

.@geekcalendar I would include some of the @afrigadget folks in the #geekcalendar http://bit.ly/togobot because the world is full of geeksless than a minute ago via webMichelle Martin
m000sh

@geekcalendar Brian Cox struggling with the instruction manual to a microwave #geekcalendarless than a minute ago via webBill Wilkinson
drbillyo

.@geekcalendar I'd be keen on @wossy (wearing his glasses) surrounded by his awesome comic collection. Or his retro computer collection...less than a minute ago via TweetieGia Milinovich
giagia

And finally, a few less helpful suggestions. Ta, muchly :)

@lulucrumble @ayasawada @alicebell Erm, if theme of #geekcalendar is the secret life of nerds, surely it should be the "nerdcalendar"?less than a minute ago via SeesmicAlok Jha
alokjha

@alokjha @lulucrumble @ayasawada @alicebell Screw #geekcalendar. Geekcolander is clearly what the public wants.less than a minute ago via TweetDeckEd Yong
edyong209

UPDATE 10pm, Sunday: I retract my cynicism, looks like Ed might have been right about the demand for geek colanders... (warning: contains a rude word).

Hello

2010-05-11T17:16:00.000+01:00

Geek Calendar is a celebration of the nerdishness of British life. It showcases our geek heroes in ways you will have never seen before.

We're going to launch the calendar in September with an exhibition hosted at the Free Word Centre in London, and it'll also be available to buy online. All profits will go towards the Libel Reform Campaign.

It is not a 'pin-up' calendar. Instead, we want interesting photos of intriguing people, reminding us of each person's ideas, achievements, creativity and, most importantly, their ability to take the mick. Our working theme is 'The Secret Life of Nerds'.

We've started to ask a few people who we'd like to include in the calendar, but frankly, we need more ideas. So, what do you think? Who are your nerd icons?

They don't have to be famous, they don't have to be scientists. They can be young, old, short, tall, grumpy, enthusiastic. The do have to be a bit nerdy, they have to be available for a photoshoot in the UK this summer and they have to be interesting.

Let us know. Leave a comment here, or tweet using the #geekcalendar hashtag.