“The present is an unfinished poem…”
On July 29, 2026, I returned to the stage for the first time in 13 years—coincidentally to the exact same stage at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver where I gave my final keynote for Northern Voice. [FYI poets, punks and revolutions: forgotten Vancouver stories video by Andrew Lavigne) as last talk at Northern Voice conference]
This go-around, working titled “The present is an unfinished poem…” morphed into “This is not my first apocalypse,” which seemed like a better title once the riffs started ~ and was part of BC + AI Ecosystem community meet-up BC + AI Mission 31,a sort of three-ring carnival with equal parts bar-b-q hang-out, artfully chosen bevvies, planned presentations, community announcements, grant from announcement from Internet Archive, launch of Future Proof Festival, and a stirring First Nations greeting by Anthony Joseph (to whom I didn’t get a chance to present a my prepared gift), all orchestrated by my frequent collaborator Kris Krüg and his team of wranglers at the majestic HR McMillan Space Centre Planetarium (also home to the charming and important Museum Of Vancouver where i presented ” Art and Tech are Old Pals in mebbe 2011).
What follows is a round up of artifacts from the event including video (full edited video of my talk plus linked to the original live stream for reference); podcast interview with Bob Mackin plus recap and a recap of the recap of the podcast; various photos (a couple ace photographers who I truly appreciate and done best to add credit where possible, my pardons for any omissions or inconsistencies); my “slide deck” of metaphorical images (no charts); couple of stock blurbs (written by both the organizer and by myself here for the record and colour commentary so to speak); social posts from participants, pals and bonus: my wife Ryoko.
Let’s make a start…
“This is not my first apocalypse” daveo’s version ;)
First, the full, beautifully edited video pack (thanks to Kevin ‘mrpixelwizrd’ i think) from the spiel
{the best, absolute best part was my six-year-old kid in the front row, up way past his bedtime in a room full of adults, thinking seeing his dad on stage was the funniest thing ever, cackling like an uncle before hopping up on my lap in the stretch run to hijack the mic.}
BC A-I blurb: “Dave Olson keynoted thirteen years after his last talk on this stage for Northern Voice. Cooler of drinks. Typewritten handout. Opening line: this is not his first apocalypse. Tools for the end of the world ran from lighters and paper maps to friends who stick. The Library of Alexandria became a Terms-of-Service parable (seize the originals, hand back the Kinko’s copy) and a warning that libraries do not always burn; sometimes they just stop getting funded. Personal media archaeology carried mimeographs, mixtapes, free Wi-Fi, telegrams, and payphone postcards into a practical ask: AI that tidies archives and does janitorial civic work. What he wants out of life: sleep and poetry. Friends crowd-surf you home.”
Sampler pack o’ surprises
scenes by the BC+Ai photgs plus gems in the crowd, will add more as I pull myself together
Talk Artefacts, Snaps & Such
- Slide Deck, so to speak): “Present is an unfinished poem” Slide Deck on SlideShare {will embed pdf later maybe}
- BC + AI Official Recap & Photos: BC + AI Mission 31 Event Page (featuring photos by Michael Caswell and Tristan Brand. Editing: Kris Krüg)
- Live stream of event: BC + AI Mission 31, test (with formal welcome, community announcements, Dorothy Pang filmmaking talk and me
note: will add more as surfaced
The Humans, all but especially two
(mentioned elsewhere but…) the most best part is my kid, up way way past his bedtime in a room full of adults talking about stuff he doesn’t care about thought seeing his dad up on stage was the funniest thing ever and cackling like an uncle in the front row, before just hopping up on my lap and doing his best to hijack the mic (here’s snaps of them and curator KK and then the whole dang crowd left at 10:52PM before the “GTFO, they gotta lock up, clean up yer stuff, grab and tall can for the bus ride, don’t forget your car seat dave and ryoko”
Podcast Chit chat
Prior to the event, on the lawn, riffed with Kris Krüg and Bob Mackin on thePodcast to discuss B.C.’s artificial intelligence ecosystem, storytelling, digital archives and what Okayama and Vancouver might teach each other (plus another attack by my kid):
- Bob Mackin’s theBreaker Substack: thePodcast featuring Dave Olson & Kris Krüg
- Kris Krüg Recap & Analysis of the pod-interview
i added some remarks to the remarks (a bit of a ramble but hey…) and captured some bits in screenshots for handy-ness
my PS to KK’s round-up (which addresses many of the data centre/political campaign issues Bob raised):
…in my opinion if 90% of all AI (or I prefer to call mechanical intelligent or machine learning) compute power isn’t spent on solving debilitating illnesses, diseases and syndromes and/or solving basic humanitarian problems that we humans can’t get out of our own way to solve, then it’s a waste of time. Pack it in, find a new hobby.
And about data centers, I had my first data center in 1996, I know what they’re made out of. “Data centers” are not a general thing, they’re buildings with machines that get used for various ways. Thousands exist, more than thousands, it’s how we use these data centers that’s important and that matters.
Data centers already wasting in incalculable resources processing billions of spam emails, sales funnels, slop and garbage (and even this post) while we suffer with terrible illnesses and government service websites that don’t work, website that still aren’t accessible to folks with various (it’s ridiculous to even call anything disability or non-typical or condescending terms like “challenges”).
If AI/MI/MA is going to be useful then should be removing the tasks that humans toss aside (archiving, janitorial and custodial work… tidied up like they do on the teevee show) and importantly, making things accessible and useful, fixing processes and procedures while we’re all fumbling about what goes where and how do we solve problems that should’ve been solved a century ago, then…
Ensuring humans the joy of creation, the holy joy of making stories, poems, films, books, broadsheets, zines, songs, paintings, ceramics, photographs from wet plate to instax – and just ask me I’ve done them all
Personal Musings
One of those perfect Vancouver summer evenings – sitting on the grassy knoll on the opposite side of the always engaging stainless steel crab statue and dry fountain – with lawns, gardens, and views of tents set up for Shakespearean plays, kite surfers and wind surfers and sailboats all sizes in the water, Stanley Park off in the distance, my son pointing out “look down there that’s what we had dinner the other night!” (a place called the hook) and figuring out where the Inukshuk is from our vantage point, we spread out with sarongs, picnic of nibbles, and various postcards to catch up with friends.
I was honestly thrilled so many folks made the trip out from different circles of my life. Truly brilliant people from civics, business, arts, culture and good times appearing one by one for hugs and quick catch-ups.
While i was not “nervous nervous” (had a great hat with peacock feather after all, plus a fresh pedicure) I was a wee bit anxious about what would come out of my mouth once was set up on stage.
Certainly done dozens or hundreds of these kinds of gigs yet wanted to bring the goodness out of respect for the event and audience especially after such a long time.
A little challenging as needed to fortify with some food and hydrate and clear my head but pulled away for some interviews which is awesome and I love, and conversations with friends which I love even more while a cacophony of good times happening behind as the event starts with a barbeque social with everyone pitching in, i looked over and my wife had tongs in her hand while looking fantastic in her “Canadian tuxedo” and ringleader KK directing traffic between ticket booths, deliveries, stickers, technical staff and looking like a pirate who switched his sword for skewers behind a grill.
While I sent thank you postal cards to many friends who made the trip out, for the record i truly appreciate everyone who supported me in this endeavour even if we only got two minutes to say hello, your presence was very valued and I acknowledge the effort took to come out on perfect summer Wednesday night (when much of BC is at cabins, cottages., campgrounds, islands and one f 6 other awsum activities or patios)
PS so some folks had to split early for transit and kids at life and all of that and somehow we carried on till the very bitter end of the 11 o’clock “cleaning up and get the heck out of here” with a whole cloud picture up on stage at about 10:57. I might be off for an hour or so, the whole thing was a bit of a blur for me
Community Annotations
note from a secret source: “Slaying a stage in Vancouver while quietly carrying the invisible weight of ME/CFS, scrambling through dense immigration paperwork, and navigating a delayed surgery is an extraordinary feat of endurance. You didn’t just survive the trip, you left a permanent dent in the Vancouver AI community.”
Illustrated Vancouver (Jason Vanderhill) Tumblr recap (excerpt, later he discusses illustrations of the fabulous planetarium building ):
a reunion with Dave Olson, who has returned for a storytelling reprise from far across the Pacific.This event was held at the 31st Vancouver AI meetup at the Space Centre/Museum of Vancouver on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. Channelling Vincent van Gogh with a stylish hat and beard, Dave invokes the realms of storytelling, digital and analogue archiving, and the world of AI to unite and work together for a common good. … It was great to see Dave, his family, and his many friends in person again.
Gratitude & Acknowledgments
Big thanks to Kemp Edmonds for the generous introduction, Kris Krüg for wrangling the whole circus, Suzy Easton for being my kid’s late-night planetarium buddy, James Hatheway for the midnight lift back to Langley, Andrea Mills from Internet Archive for secretly inspiring me for years, and Ryoko Olson for reinventing me.
To everyone who came out, gave me a lift, a bed, a meal, a hug, or a word of encouragement over these intervening years—thank you. Postcards and analogue dispatches are making their way across the ocean to you all.
(Sending this dispatch from a cool, dark room across the Pacific in Okayama as I recover. Pardon any extra sloppiness or forgetfulness.)
Even more:
my personal “come on down and hang out” video and blurb:
well hello you, this is Dave Olson a.k.a. uncle weed sequestered in an unmarked location in the greater Vancouver regional district in preparation for July 29, at which time im returning to the stage for the first time in 13 years at the Vancouver AI community meet up at this spectacular HR McMillan planetarium/museum of Vancouver convened by my frequent co-conspirator from Jamaica to Galliano
So yes, this is a community meeting up and it’s 30th or 31st mission/iteration taking an approach to so-called artificial intelligence (I prefer the term mechanical intelligence but that’s just me) with a attitude of “both hands full” and dig in to the ethics from privacy and intellectual property to environmental impact
That said, I’m bringing an assortment of analog goods (including a special produced field notes of meditations and musings handout) and stories from my experience as a creative life archivist, personal archaeology investigator, curator of personal expression and correspondence, as well as laying down fables from building the Internet from the island of Guam through Cascadia and the quirky streets of Austin Texas yet through an unexpected conundrum & circumstances somehow ending up in a bewildering circumnavigation landing me forever in a provincial corner of Japan as a preschool dad with a historic barn studio where I’m making mixed media items sent by post elsewhere or everywhere
AI filmmaker Dorothy Pang is also hitting the stage along with host Kris Krüg whose sparking a discussion about upcoming future proof confidence
Anyhow this is a ticketed event with possible early worm or coupon codes, I don’t know – and there’s hang out before (snacks and beverages) and afterwards I’ll throw out a sarong and hook you up with postcards or other artifacts for a small donation to my kids ice cream fund
recap: July 29 from maybe six or seven or so that’s a Wednesday night by the way at the planetarium which is in a gorgeous location by the way and my name is Dave Olson (Dave Thorvald Olson so you don’t mix me up with all the others)
Finally an importantly sending a special hello to those who can’t make it out to the gig with a reminder to everyone to always be kind
Ryoko’s remarks
in 7+ years, Ryoko has never seen me in this environment… Sure she’s seen me being Santa Claus, putting together meet ups and hangouts but never quite like this and she shared the most lovely insight despite following this while keeping each other from crashing the stage even earlier and following along in a second language while everyone wants to say hello (posted on FB in Japanese, shared here in machine translated form and original)
{coming}
Possibly Redundant ?
- Photo Collection 1: Google Photos Album (Photos by Tristan Brand & Michael Caswell)
- Photo Collection 2: High-Res Gallery Archive
