marcus gilroy-ware

marcus@mjgw.com | +44 7870 14 80 33 | cv/resumé

I work in a number of different areas and media.

Some are specialities with years of experience, others not.

For me, they all converge around one nascent, as-yet unnamed discipline; essentially a deep, and often participative study of our creative and civic lives on the web.

My true interests and critical skills lie at this point.

Follow @mjgw

different people think of me as...

a lecturer & speaker

Visiting Lecturer in Online Journalism at City University London, where I convene the online journalism curriculum for students on the Master of Arts in International Journalism.

I have also recently spoken at London Design Festival, Centre for the Humanities, University of Utrecht (Netherlands), SILS - Pratt Institute (New York, USA), Nottingham Trent University (UK) and Centre for Creative and Social Technology (CAST), Goldsmiths, University of London, where I am a visiting tutor.

an entrepreneur

Founder and director of VSC Creative, a creative consultancy.

Co-founder of Not on the Wires, an online-only international journalism publication.

Co-founder of Smartest, a web standards-based content-management system for design-critical projects.

Co-founder of Silk Road Studios, a digital content agency and production facility.

a journalist

Member, editorial board; Broadsheet, Frontline Club, London UK

Co-founder and co-editor, Not on the Wires.

I also write articles on a freelance basis.

Journalism is first and foremost an elusive philosophy of communication.

a coder

Created Smartest - a fully featured web publishing system - from the ground up, as well as Quince 2 - a rapid development architecture on which it is built.

Lead developer at VSC Labs

Preparing a number of forthcoming iOS projects that blur the line between technology and art; code and culture.

a lawyer

Well, not yet. Studying for an LL.M. at School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London. I am interested in where the legal meets the digital - everything from criminal law to defamation law to intellectual property and notions of ownership.

Law, like technology, is a fascinating manifestation of the human mind, not some 'other' inorganic domain.

a linguist

Once upon a time, at least. Received a BA in Linguistics from School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College in 2005.

I speak Brazilian Portuguese (fluent), French (pretty good) and Spanish (good enough to explain vegetarianism).

a designer

Creative director of Not on the Wires, responsible for all storytelling design and, admittedly, branding too.

I have been doing digital design work since the age of 5 (Here is a picture of me aged seven as some sort of vague proof).

Design is a useless concept by itself. It simply makes other things more functional and occasionally more beautiful.

The approach we can learn from real artists, by contrast, is invaluable.

a musician

I was named after a certain prominent electric bass player hailing from Queens, NY.

I have been an electric bass player since childhood. jazz, funk, avant-garde.

I studied contemporary improvised music with Yusef Lateef and Mark Dresser.

“Marcus Gilroy-Ware is a virtuoso electric bass player” --Mark Dresser, 2002

other things too

I am also a coordinator and contact point for the estate of my late grandmother, Dr. Beryl Gilroy, who was a novelist and well-known educator.

I also have strong politics, but unsolicited political assertions and cyberspace don't mix well :)

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