Welcome to my abode and thank you for visiting!

"Let's do things differently"

About Nik

Technologist, Musician, Artist, Computer Scientist, Actor, Eco-dude, Photographer, Writer, Gadget Lover, Engineer, Whisky Connoisseur, Skoda Driver, Problem Solver, Film-maker, Data Colllector, Rohan Wearer, Aspiring Chef, and so it goes on.

Fundamentally I am defined by creativity. I'm custodian to a non-stop flow of ideas and visions, many of which I bring to reality through my work, gadgetry, photography, writing, music, cookery etc. Others just keep me awake at night. Such is the lot of an "imagineer"!

I'm not sure if I'm a scientist trapped in an artist's body. Or an artist trapped in a scientist's body. Or perhaps - with passing reference to Schroedinger - both when nobody's looking. 

Musical Inclination

I write, sing, play and record in my own home studio. Classically-trained Oboist and Pianist by upbringing, I now tend to play (probably to the disgust of all my teachers) keyboards, drums, guitar and wind-controller. Some of my musical output is captured at stingsandthings.com and my most recent album is at strange-ink.com.

Visual Indicators 

I'm a very visual person (I exist in 3D and everything!) For me, a picture speaks a thousand words, and conveniently it's also 999 fewer things to remember.

I love art and design and I consider the digital camera an essential outlet - from the inklings of a visual conception, the technique of perfect capture and composition, to the final finesse in the digital workflow.

I'm also passionate about visualisation - representing and presenting data in rich, meaningful and intuitive ways - bye bye spreadsheet, hello understanding.

Universal Order

I love numbers - they are everywhere - especially their elegance in Nature. Take the fact that 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321. How cool is that?

I love paradoxes, the abstract, the mysterious - so would rather read a book on the origins of the universe or the workings of the human mind than, well almost anything. On a Kindle, obviously.

And on the subject of books, I'm writing my first. That's because I also adore words - and that fantastic feeling found from finangling with them.

When I get time, I like to dabble in writing web applications (a hangover from my early Sinclair ZX81 exposure). My most successful web app is the anagram engine, with well over 1 Billion results now served.  

Square Pegs, Round Holes

While I am fascinated by psychology and the inner workings (and indeed malfunctions) of the human mind, I have limited time for Keirsey/Myers-Briggs personality tests: I think that quantising people into one of sixteen types is only a slight extension of astrology, which already does it admirably for twelve.

But if you're curious, I suppose I'm an ESFP (Entertainer), ISFP (Artist), ENTP (Originator), INTP (Engineer), INTJ (Strategist), ENFJ (Mentor) or INFP (Dreamer) depending on which day it is or which task is in hand. Apparently you're only meant to be one. See why I hate these tests?

I've served time as a governor for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust - with a passion for mental health and anti-stigma initiatives. I continue to be independently involved in this important work.

Quirks

I don't like cheese. When I order a pizza without cheese, people say "You don't know what you're missing". Exactly.

I'm not scared of flying per se - I'm scared of falling from a great height. And it's not that I don't trust the plane or the physics - they seem pretty reliable. No, I worry about the distracted mechanic who gets home and realises he left his spanner somewhere.

Bucket List

• Perform some kind of comedy/standup or readings at Edinburgh Fringe Festival
• Get my book published
• Discover something new and get some bumblebee research published
• Create an iPhone app
• Photography trip to Iceland

Academic and Professional history

I read at Durham University and thence slipped serendipitously into Telecommunications - where, ever since, I have been developing my passions for User interfaces and interactions, Customer Service excellence, Telco 2.0 concepts, Networked Applications, Social Media, and all things technologically ‘disruptive’.

About niksargent.com

I seem to have accumulated sites, domains and various bits of web-debris all over the place throughout the years, so I'm using niksargent.com as a means to pull it together. My content doesn't (and won't) all exist in one place - but at least you should be able to get to it all from here.