Posted by Nixon
21 October, 2014

The other week we climbed aboard Stranger Collective’s Raft event for a Friday afternoon that was just ever so slightly out of the ordinary.

Tempted away from our desks, a healthy mixture of curious people amassed aboard the ‘vessel of ideas’, all as perplexed and intrigued as each other about the upcoming events that proved hard to define.

Sipping on our cups of Yallah Coffee, the proceedings began by hearing from Kyra Maya Philips about the benefits of being a bit more like a pirate. Kyra is one of the founders of The Misfit Economy and has carried out research and interviews with some of the world’s most notorious hackers, pirates, black marketeers and criminals, with the aim of discovering new ways for businesses and economies to function. But for us it was more about how we can stand on the shoulders of giants by taking influence from those we admire most.

We heard about pirates’ strictly democratic customs; in fact, facing far more benefits from operating as a pirate than working legitimately as a merchant sailor. They only ever followed an elected leader during battle and all decisions were feverishly debated with all opinions equal.

After some time to stretch our legs (the majority of us were sat on deck) and quell some mild sea-sickness with our provided Fisherman’s Friends, we heard from writers Molly Naylor and John Osborne about the conception of their first sitcom; After Hours. The two long-time friends told us how their labour of love, which they had started writing just for fun, blossomed and was picked up by Sky. They have since been closely involved with Sky and director Craig Cash to produce the six-episode series, which will hit the screens of all those with a Sky subscription in spring 2015.

After another short break admiring the surroundings as we meandered up the waters of the Carrick Roads, flirting with the mouth of the River Fal, we headed back inside to have our minds blown by research magician Stuart Nolan.

Stuart’s talk opened by helping us to swing a paperclip on the end of a string using just the power of our minds through concentration. Nolan afterwards explained how this was no mystery but actually down to our bodies subconsciously channeling our concentration into the minute cognitive muscle movements in the tips of our fingers. An interesting exercise possibly best attempted on dry land…

Stuart also showed us what had inspired him and his work in the first place by demonstrating the best trick his dad never did. A trick that as a child he had always thought his dad had shown him, but was in fact his uncle’s — the power of a determined mind perhaps?

Before we knew it we had already moored back on Falmouth’s Prince of Wales pier and were heading to Hand bar for Sipsmith cocktails and complimentary seaweed-based snacks from The Cornish Seaweed Company. It wasn’t long before we were gathering back at the pier for the start of Bullsh*t London’s fantastically fictitious frolic across Falmouth. We heard of promiscuous adulterers that congregated on ‘staircases to heaven’, and how Falmouth was in fact very much in the middle of a war in which bunting that at first appears friendly can easily be transformed into deadly tools of battle.

The day was rounded off in spectacular fashion with an evening at The Falmouth Townhouse. We watched the first public viewing of Finisterre’s amazing new film Edges of Sanity, directed by Chris McClean and narrated by Charles Dance. The evening was topped off by Dave Waller and his journey to bring a little bit of Brooklyn to Bodmin through the creation of hip hop made using Cornish vinyl.

Read Stranger’s more succinct and eloquent write-up of the day, including pictures, here.