Gaynor Aaltonen

Saturday, 24 June 2017

About Me: Gaynor Aaltonen

Thanks for dropping by. I am a freelance writer, editor and publisher, and author of several books. Whether working for newspapers, publishers or as a speech writer I specialize in the arts and in health, from architecture, art and design to literature, cinema, mental health and physical activity. (I authored the Government Policy Report Everybody Active, Every Day for PHE). Right now I am working on a new sideline in archaeology. My work can be found in both national newspapers and tiny, specialist arts publications. Although I have many interests, including 'green' energy, for the last year I have been writing a new book on archaeology, and another on pre-history. Some blog visitors might know me better in my former role as a culture and tourism specialist, as I spent several years with the National Trust, turning the charity’s then loss-making magazine into a commercial success. In return, I gained an in-depth knowledge of the UK’s heritage and history, along with conservation and the environment, and had a wonderful time working for a much-loved and inspiring charity.

How can I help you?

* As a journalist: clear, entertaining copy delivered to deadline
* As an editor: readership-grabbing ideas, the ability to get complex issues and ideas across in simple, engaging language; a strong grasp of design; and extensive experience on a wide range of publications.
* As an author: a strong ‘voice’ and the ability to tell a good story.
* As a ghost writer: I'm a good collaborator, story teller and researcher.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any commissions.

Art Tours

I've written the scripts for a number of gallery tours, for example for The Titanic Museum and the Guggenheim Museum. One is about the super-fabulous Austrian artist Egon Schiele, one of the most exciting artists ever to have lived, in my view. That was followed by an audio tour on Claes Oldenburg, which should be a challenge, because he's a 'Pop' artist who unlike Andy Warhol, did not disappear in a blue haze of 'sixties drink, drugs and death. It's his sense of humour that has kept him going, I reckon.

Books

Proud of ‘The History of Architecture’, an entertaining and beautifully illustrated book for Barnes & Noble and Arcturus Publishing, which opens up this occasionally austere subject to a wider audience. My Mum's friend Steff says it's the best book she's read on the subject, because it's so accessible (thanks Steff!)You can always count on your Mum for good reviews...Still, I also got this message, out of the blue:

'What a brilliant book. Thank you very much for all the knowledge and ideas you share in it. We are reading it with great pleasure! Yana rereads your pages again and again, admiring your literary style. Great work!'
Yana & Dimitri Vorontzov, New York

A varied bag of tricks, my books. They also include ‘Spooks: Behind the Scenes’ originally written for Orion Publishing. For fans of the BBC series it's great - to everyone else, I suppose, an utter mystery !

Editing

I have extensive experience as a magazine editor, ranging from DESIGN Magazine to the vast circulation title The National Trust magazine, turning it from loss-making recycling fodder into a must-read with an annual profit of £2.8million. I am capable of producing entire publications out of a hat, or managing a conventional team within an organized publishing set-up. I have also edited books, including Sea Fever, a collaboration with the photographic agency Magnum and photographer Stuart Franklin, and ghosted whole manuscripts for best-selling authors. I have put together several commercially successful supplements on the creative industries, particularly design and film, for The Guardian (see above).

Smart textiles: beyond the hype

(FULL ARTICLE)

It may be smart, but is it sensible? Integrating smart technology into clothes and other textile products could radically alter the future, writes Gaynor Aaltonen.

Already, the technical textiles sector is worth £1.3bn a year in the UK, and there is great media excitement about the power of smart textiles to transform the mundane into the near magical. As with all emergent technologies, there has been an ambiguous response to such a revolution, from the highs of reading about Harry Potter style ‘Disappearing Cloaks’ to the lows of nasty tell-tale ‘smart’ shirts that will reveal your biometric data to the authorities. So how much of the talk is hyperbole? The truth is that little headway has so far been made in developing truly smart textiles with applications ready for market. Carole Collet, course directorof the CSM Textiles Futures MA, points out that few live projects have solved the problems of integrating electronics – the so-called ‘killer-ap’ is wearable computing without annoying cables or batterypacks – and traditional weaves. And although many electroactive polymers and sensor polymersfor fabrics are in development, we are some way from the point of true technology convergence. “We can make a smart textile system,” says CSM reader in technical materials and design Sharon Baurley, “using textile circuits and touch sensors to send a signal around a garment. But it’s in actuation that the technology is still inadequate. And to develop smarter materials, we need to talk across industry sectors, involving fibre chemists, computer and electronics specialists, and interaction as well as fashion designers. And that’s a huge cultural shift.” However, as Carole Collet emphasises: “Too often the focus is on the new technological developments themselves. It is the way we think, the way we use information that counts.” Companies like Nike are already pushing the cultural boundaries with performance wear that measures pulse, pace, distance and time. The technology that brought us the mood ring of the 1970s, thermochromism, is already well advanced, bringing us design concepts such as wallpapers that change colour, or blinds that open and close in response to sunlight. One of Carole’s students, Ruth Craddock, is developing intelligent products for interiors. Imagine a restful Sunday at home, with no need for clocks – the walls change in both colour and pattern over the course of the day. Projects such as these highlight the potential for products with so–called soft, intuitive functions.“I believe the 21st century marks the beginningof a new textile design revolution,” says Carole Collet. “One that will be not just smart, but poetic.”