Archive for August, 2007
September sees the On Song Festival take over the Academy for a month.
‘On Song’ will celebrate and showcase the finest song writers and artists, alongside local emerging talent. The month long series will focus on the whole process of writing, crafting and giving life to songs. ‘On Song’ will include established genres such as rock and rhythm and blues, as well as newer, contemporary urban styles which reflect the increasingly young and diverse populations of the major cities across the UK. The festival will be tailored to reflect the unique flavour and strong musical legacy of the Midlands.
Each festival has an integrated education and outreach programme – including higher education institutions, national music industry bodies and local arts organisations – where established songwriters work with emerging local talent. ‘On Song’ will also schedule symposiums, workshops and showcases in Birmingham to discuss current song writing and broader industry issues. These discussions are an integral part in the development of the ‘On Song’ infrastructure and to encourage communications between the commercial music industry and public sectors. Full details and line-up to be announced in due course.
No sign of the education and outreach stuff yet but the Line-up is online and, allowing for the fact that most of these acts you’d expect to see at the Academy at some point, it’s a pretty good one. Nice to see they’ve included links to most of the acts, though some integration with the Academy site itself would be handy for times and tickets.
via an article on Fused.
The regular spotlighting of UCE Fashion graduates by Fused Magazine
is online.
Featured this time are (from left to right) Nadine Aljandali, Emily Crump, Rowena Parsons and Eleanor Crutchley. Photos are by Eleanor Gibbons.
Ctrl-copy is an online exhibition that features downloadable art by Juneau Projects, Caitlin Griffiths, Chris Hodson, Yoke and Zoom, Cheap Machines and Mike Cassidy via the Internet. Artists have submitted new work or adapted an existing work for the online environment that can be freely downloaded from the virtual space of the web into tangible and personal objects.
Ctrl-copy allows free access to download an edition of original artwork to personal computers, mobile phones, ipods, burn on to CD or print out. The site will eventually becoming a sharing site for art, as users are asked to upload mashed up versions of the art or their own art that will be available to download by others. This reflects the many-to many- broadcasting that is so common currently on the net. This availability also questions issues surrounding copyright and ownership of images on the internet.
The last bit explains the “control copy” title which as a keystroke is pretty meaningless but as a concept is quite pertinent. You see this a lot with photographers who want to embrace online distribution but are wary of people “stealing” their work, let alone using it to create new work. If this project takes off the debate around it should be pretty interesting.
There’s nothing on the site yet save a countdown with seven days to go until all is revealed on Friday 31st August. There’s a launch at The Orange Studio on Canon Street (map) on that Friday from 6-9pm, which indicates it’s a Birmingham-related projects, which is why I’m posting about it here.
Details via Midwest
The artist known as Carp has been leaving his paintings around the city centre for people to find. BBC Birmingham picked up on this and tracked him down for an interview (second of the RealAudio links).
Here’s one of his pieces:
And here’s what he’s got to say for himself:
I must say I like the idea of leaving art for people to find.
- Here’s another review of Catherine O’Flynn’s What Was Lost.
- Live lunchtime music at BBC Birmingham in the Mailbox between 12.45pm and 1.15pm next week.
- Review of Shoot the Freak, the new album from The Big Bang.
- Birminghamusic.com announce the winners of their Music Photography competition: Steve Gerrard, Kirk Harrington, James Harrison and Jenny Tolley made the grade. Their work will be displayed at the St Paul’s Gallery from August 31st through to October 6th.
The Birmingham angle coincidental really but it’s worth posting. The Wall Street Journal reports that UB40, who record in Birmingham still, have gotten private equity money to fund their new album rather than try to get a major record label to release it. It appears that while they can sell out gigs their new material, while breaking even, doesn’t sell as well making it a poor investment for a label but an attractive proposition for investors. More info in the story but it strikes me this is the same model that Birmingham-based Ditto Music are using for upcoming unsigned artists, providing financial and marketing expertise and letting the bands get on with the music stuff. Which of course begs the question, with the new and old talent going elsewhere, who do the major record labels have left? ta
In related news, UB40 are not suing Paris Hilton. Which is a relief.
Bearded Magazine, the new publication for music and such coming out of Birmingham, was released this week at selected venues. You can pick it up for free from Swordfish, Tempest, the Bulls Head, Island Bar and the Sunflower Lounge with more outlets to come. (Anyone wanting to stock it should get in touch.)
Alternatively you can download the whole thing as a PDF by right-clicking on that link there.
The magazine itself is quite lovely with lots of white space and a keen sense of design from Kevin Summers of This Is Make Believe. There’s a nice batch of Birmingham-centric content – a quick scan reveals a Supersonic review with photos and an interview with Untitled Musical Project – but the magazine has a non-parochial feel, happy to stretch out across the country and and world, which is a pretty typical Birmingham trait really.
As so often happening when all the effort is, quite rightly, put into a magazine the website appears to have taken something of a backseat. That’s not a complaint, more a recognition of the inevitable and improvements in that department with come with time no doubt. Of coruse, with Bearded being a music-centric mag you could argue all they need right now is a MySpace page and you could well be right.
I’d consider this is a very impressive start. Along with Fused starting their new mag Blink and others in the city we’re seeing something of a resurgence of design-happy magazines in the region, and that can only be a good thing.
Here’s an interview with publisher Gareth Main where he describes how he came to publish Bearded and what his plans are for it.
The Festival and Xtreme Building is now 3/5 of the way through its run and with 6 weeks to go they’re put up a mid-term report:
What has become clear since we opened is that we have actually created a new public park in Birmingham city centre. The wonderful range of natural vegetation around the site has provided a lovely oasis where people can simply sit and relax.
The Festival of Xtreme Building (FXB) is a 4 month project launched on the 8th June until 30th September 2007. FXB occupies a high profile piece of land in Birmingham city centre. We challenged artists and architects to work together and produce experimental structures to be exhibited on this land, free for all to visit (an open air gallery of unusual structures). Some of these structures were built with the help of ordinary people; communities and school children gained a learning experience by working with design professionals. FXB created a visible platform for creatives to bring their installations and showcase them at the site. We also encouraged performers to use the site as a venue and have hosted many events free of charge, and helped to promote and market the events.
There follows a fascinating listing of the projects and events that have occured and are planned before concluding with an assurance that this was never conceived as a one-off:
This first year for the Festival of Extreme Building was very much about making partnerships with both private and public sector interests to ensure that we can sustain our activities into the second and third year. We wanted to demonstrate our ability to deliver a high quality event over several months. In future, we hope to increase the level of participation from members of the general public so that they begin to feel that there is a place in their city where they can be creative and express themselves through the built environment.
The next Out of Hours at Light House is on Monday 3rd September, 5.30-7.30pm and is all about funding. While it takes place in Wolverhampton a lot of these organisations are West Mids-wide so this is pretty relevant to Birmingham folks. (And Light House is a lovely place to visit.)
Guests at this informal chatting session include:
Marina Ibrahim: SP/ARK
Nigel Jordan: Wolverhampton University Creative Media Technology project.
Matt Stocker: Advantage Creative Fund
Chris Adams: Creative and Knowledge Industries Business Adviser for Business Link West Midlands.
Dave Taylor: TIC
Dave Roberts: Creative Launchpad
Sarah Bell: Music for Media Project
Peter McLuskie: PLOT
They’ll all spend five minutes of so explaining what they do and who they can help and then there’ll be a chance to mingle and ask them stuff.
On the Artsfest front page is their listing of the top ten attractions over the weekend of 14th -16th September. Bearing in mind this is just the big tent events and doesn’t include all the smaller but just as interesting things, but it gives something of a taste of what the festival is trying to achieve this year.
Full details at the link but here’s the summary with links where I could find them:
- Classical Fantasia
CBSO and BRB in Centenary Square with fireworks - Blast
Taking place on the concrete wasteland behind Curzon St Station (the old Parcelforce Depot) this looks to be pretty incredible. “Fire and water combine, creating an explosive mixture of steam, sound, fire and pyrotechnic marvels. Come and experience the awe-inspiring Large Hot Pipe Organ, the unforgettable Orchestrated Steam Whistles, and the Fire Horns, the Percussion Engine, Pyrotechnic Whistles, Flying Rockets, Pyrophones and Balls of Fire. Immerse yourselves in sounds, sights, smells and raw energy.” - Paintings on the Railings
An art market on the railings around Centenary Square and Broad Street. - Town Hall Tours
What it says really. Tours around the Town Hall. - The Luminarium – Architects of Air installation
Located on Eastside Green outside Curzon St Station. Previously blogged here. - Beachside Comedy Stage
Comedy on the “beach” outside the Library. - Indie Invasion
Looks to be the big Friday evening event this year. A bunch of bands playing in Centenary Square including Murdoch, Misty’s Big Adventure and Mexicolas. “Headline acts to be confirmed.” - Discovery Day Treasure Trail
For the kids, a trail around 14 venues that takes you behind the scenes of galleries, theatres and the like. - Peter Pan’s Neverland
Last year this was the Secret Garden. Same park on Cambridge St off Centenary Square. For the kiddies and those with wild imaginations. - Ticket Booth
Um, is this an attraction? While everything at Artsfest is free you can buy cheaper-than-usual tickets for events that take place afterwards.
I’m thinking Blast is the big thing this year, assuming it can live up to expectations, along with the Luminarium. And of course the CBSO and BRB are always good value. Be interesting to see how much more is going on on the fringes though.
This email did the rounds a while back and I thought it might be useful to repost it here as it helped clear up a few things for me:
The following two services are managed by the Creative Development Team at Birmingham City Council and are open to creative businesses in West Midlands Objective Two areas. This innovative programme brings together a strong regional partnership to ensure a seamless provision across the region. If you are interested in knowing more about this programme or want to submit an application, please contact your local regional partner to arrange an initial meeting:
Birmingham
Contact Shasta Rashid @ Birmingham City Council, shasta.rashid@birmingham.gov.uk; t. 0121 303 2462
[non-Birmingham contacts removed]
A brief summary of the elements of the programme are as follows:
- Up to £2500 for a feasibility study to assess the market for a new product or service. via research, video, CD Rom etc to show case portfolio of services available, in a format suitable to showcase your skills and work to develop new markets.
- Up to £5000 for creative space- set up or expansion of business premises [This is not available to businesses who have been trading for less than 12 months] These services are managed by Business Link West Midlands (Creative and Knowledge Industries Sector Manager- Lara Ratnaraja ) [The provision is supposed to emphasise the cohesiveness of the support so emphasising them as split elements is counter productive]
These services are managed by Business Link West Midlands (Creative and Knowledge Industries Sector Manager – Lara Ratnaraja)
- Core Offer – Business Review and Action Plan (one day): all Creative Industries businesses (irrespective of objective two status) are entitled to one-day with one of our dedicated Creative Industries business advisers.
- Creative City/Region offer for businesses in objective two areas including: Consultancy – Up to 50% funding available (42% net) for specialised consultancy packages i.e. website development, marketing, PR using business link accredited consultants.
More information can be accessed via birmingham.gov.uk/creative.
Tim Wilson | Creative Industries Programme Co-Ordinator | Business Link West Midlands
t: 01384 360754 | m: 07929 012292
timwilson@businesslinkwm.co.uk
- Artstalking is a blog run by Ana Milgram who goes to arts events and writes about them. As you can imagine seeing this makes me very happy indeed! She also sticks photos on Flickr.
- Simon Peplow interviewed on the blog ELvis IN hawaii.
- Julian Cope was at Supersonic and writes a lovely review in his August Address Drudion: “Everything about the general stature, body language and overall look of the audience at Supersonic reminded me that there are gonna always be feisty refuseniks here in the West who are more than willing to Fight For Their Right To Party!”
- Speaking of which, Capsule are back from their summer break with a hefty lineup for the Autumn.
- Midwest has news of Come & Gone: Design for Change, a community art project by Thai artist, Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch and local communities from the Old Snow Hill Canal area. It takes place at the UCE’s Margaret Street Building from 1-9 September and there’s an open Private View on August 31st from 6-9pm. Full details of the project and exhibition at that link.
- The guys at Birmingham-based Johnny Two Shoes released a Flash game, High Speed Chase onto the web last week which got picked up by social bookmarking service Digg and was so popular it took their site offline for a while, the true mark of success in this internet age.
- The next Creative Networks event is on August 31st and is on “Legal Matters”. Creative Wolverhampton has a handy summary.
- The Baron went to the Moseley Festival and wrote a review with links to the acts he saw.
- Marc Reck on writing music for his DJ sets. I don’t tend to cover DJs here as it’s just playing records, innt? I am wrong.
A course for contemporary artists is “a 12 week, 60 hours practice led mentoring programme for fine artists” run by Lara Ratnaraja and Nicola Shipley at Creative Alliance with guest mentoring from Helen Legg and Melissa Nisbett (from the Ikon gallery), Dom Murphy (from TAK!) and Matt Price (possibly from BIAD?).
Previous artists have developed tools to identify galleries and curators and increased their confidence in their practice. In addition, they have developed a catalogue to use as part of their professional portfolio and learnt how to present their work to galleries and commissioners.
Previous participants have gone on to show work at: Ideas Factory V & A Event, New Art Birmingham, The Event, Virtual, Ten4 Magazine, The Out Crowd, Fused Magazine, Rhubarb-Rhubarb International Festival of the Image.
The deadline for applicants is Monday 27th August and you should send a CV, personal statement and representative images of your work to annie@creativealliance.org.uk.
Here’s the flyer and full details of what the the Creative Alliance Out Of Hours schemes are about is on their site.
