Arrived in New Haven yesterday for the ‘Walls and Fences’ conference after several great days in and around the GSD. Neil was a great host, and some good conversations with him, his colleagues at the GSD and visitors. Got to meet Lukasz Stanek for the first time, and David Madden and David Wachsmuth came in the last couple of days to be part of Neil’s Planetary Urbanization seminar. Spent Easter Day walking around Providence. Also made good progress on the ‘Outside Territory’ paper for Paris and Nottingham in May.

I’m the first panellist on the first panel. The paper is basically a version of the ‘Territory without Borders’ piece I published last year in the Harvard International Review, though there is a little extra on the relation between biometrics and geometrics. Only 15 minutes, so have cut it down and practiced aloud a few times to try to keep it focussed. Last night was a welcome dinner and got to meet some interesting people. I’m quite glad to be the first speaker. Not only is it over and I can be more relaxed for the rest of the conference, there is no temptation to rewrite it in response to the other papers. Although the talks are short, there is lots of time for discussion, and there are a range of disciplines and perspectives on show here. Should be good.