Ian from 7 Inch Cinema correctly guessed that this video might be up my street – a collection of images they’ve compiled for Birmingham Seen which opens at BMAG today and runs until 3 January 2010.
Ian also sent over a biog of Derek Fairbrother (1931-99), whose images they are. The following is an extended copy and paste job:
In the 1960s and 70s research chemist and amateur photographer, Derek Fairbrother, made over 20 photographic time-lapse sequences showing the demolition of old buildings and their replacement by new buildings and new road systems in Birmingham city centre.
The completed sequences, often running to some fifty images taken over a period of five or more years, were then connected together in a narrative sequence in the form of a strip of postcard sized prints. Fairbrother intended to use a cine camera to photograph each sequence, thereby compressing years of work into a series of short films. However this ambition was not realised in his lifetime.
After his death in 1999, his widow Gaynor gifted his prints and negatives to the photography collections at Birmingham Library.
These short films, which will be shown for the first time in the exhibition Birmingham Seen (Gas Hall, 31st October 2009 – 3rd January 2010) have finally enabled Fairbrother’s work to be seen in the way he intended.
The situation regarding Newman Brothers is unfortunate to say the least – AWM (having bought the building) have recently pulled funding, leaving a sensible-sounding project in the lurch and the Birmingham Conservation Trust in a very sticky situation. Here’s hoping a solution is found.
Flash wakes up to a phone call from Angel announcing that he’s being released from prison and wants the £500k he’d left with Flash for safekeeping. Short of the full amount and pushed for time, Flash is forced to strike a deal with Evil who more than lives up to his name. 1 Day follows Flash’s race against the clock as he’s pursued by a rival gang, the police, his three irate babymothers and his granny
And here’s the trailer (warning, contains gratuitous, kinda-cool overhead shot of Spaghetti Junction):
1 Day, which is due for national release on 6th November has caused quite some controversy with the Birmingham Post reporting that it has been criticised for “encouraging impressionable youngsters to join violent criminal gangs” and “glamorising gun crime“ and BBC have reported that at least 2 of the big Birmingham cinemas, Cineworld and Odeon are not going to be screening it
with local artists and Johannesburg Art Gallery to create a series of interventions examining the areas cultural, environmental and bio diversity
They’ve been blogging regularly and it’s been fascinating keeping up with what they’re up to. Plus the most recent post features bonus photos of giraffes, rhinos and elephants.
Regeneration of Birmingham city centre’s Dale End on hold for five years
“Independent clothing store the Oasis has been given a reprieve after signing a five-year lease for its Corporation Street premises”. Very glad to hear it. New leases are being offered on units in there now, if you’re interested
Crowning of the City’s Stylish | Style Birmingham
Here’s the list of winners from the recent Style Awards 2009 – ‘the places and people keeping the city at the height of the fashion game’. Congrats to Disorder for picking up the Token Local Shop Award
Brumcast 134 ‘Oxjam Brum Special’
The most recent episode (scrap that, a newer one just arrived) of the must-listen podcast/radio show featured bands appearing on the Oxjam Brum bill over the weekend
Cut-Out — CiB Charity T-shirt
Apparently there’s only about 7 of the ‘small’ t-shirts left now. Thanks to everyone who bought one – the money has been going to Acorns Childrens’ Hospice
For me, arts funding is an area that’s shrouded in mystery and confusion. But then I’ve never applied for any, so maybe it’s not such a big deal.
Anyway, two folks who have recently shed some light on the situation are Pete Ashton and Clare Edwards.
Pete went along to the Arts Council yesterday to chat about the Digital Content Development (DCD) fund. In a lovely, comprehensive post he’s found out what the fund’s for, what organisations have been doing wrong in their applications to date and what Anna Douglas and Steve Manthorp (the fund’s administrators) are looking for in applications.
Pete would also like to make it clear he’s available to help organisations (RFO’s only I’m afraid) who are trying to figure out what to use the fund for.
Clare was recently asked for advice on finding funding for a creative project. She was happy to help and thought it’d be useful to put her tips in a blog post, so here are Clare’s tips for finding funding for a creative project.
A couple of things with a national scope, born out of Birmingham have been launched recently.
First up, Theatricalia is the work of the ever-impressive Matthew Somerville. It’s ‘a database of past and future theatre productions’ which makes it no less than IMDB for theatre.
Already it contains archives of plays and performers from the RSC, Bristol University Archive, the Royal National Theatre and Birmingham Rep (1913-1971). You can search by play, person or place and edit entries yourself to help the archive grow.
The potential for Theatricalia is a little mind-boggling.
Black Routes is a new UK wide touring network for African and Caribbean music, with Punch Records as one of the founding partners and chair.
Punch’s Ammo Talwar wrote an article in the Birmingham Post explaining the context for the project, particularly how it fits in with what’s happening in Birmingham at the moment.
The Event is a contemporary arts festival in Eastside, Birmingham to showcase the best in artist-led activity. Bringing together artists, curators and artist-led projects, visitors are encouraged to immerse themselves in challenging artworks indoors and out.
The Event will be delivered by some of the city’s key artist-led groups to explore a range of contemporary arts activity including visual arts, performance, live art, film, video, web-based, installation, intervention and sound, all demonstrating the diversity of the thriving arts community in the city.
The roll call of artists involved is fantastic; drawn largely from the committee behind the Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum (giving things a nice, artist-driven feel) with another five commissioned projects on top.
The Event runs from 4-8 November, with exhibitions open 12-5pm and events taking place daily. For more info, here’s the timetable.
Birmingham Post – Creative industries’ major role in Birmingham economy
Anna Blackaby runs through the provisional findings of a new report commissioned by the Creative Birmingham Partnership Board. It’ll apparently conclude that “small firms operating in digital media, music and computer software and those in the design and architecture areas should be the focus of support”
Take it away from Arts Council England
“Take it away is an Arts Council initiative designed to help more people get involved in learning and playing music. The scheme allows individuals to apply for a loan of up to £2,000 for the purchase of any kind of musical instrument, and pay it back in nine monthly instalments, completely interest free”
Best Believe – Vintage Style
“a round up of all the places in Birmingham that you can get yourself fully hooked up on a purely vintage tip”
Built On Sand: A Birmingham Sampler ’78-’86
“The mix concerns itself with Birmingham’s vibrant but infamously fragmented and undervalued punk and post-punk scene of the late 70s and early 80s” Not sure who spotted this first, so apologies, but I’m seeing this everywhere at the moment
Yet another 10th birthday to add to the pile – Jibbering, the multi-faceted music/art promoters, are heading into double figures and will be celebrating that fact at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath on 14 November.
Over the years, as they say:
we have staged over 150 concerts and parties presenting the finest music Birmingham has to offer and hosting some of the most exciting live bands from further afield
Details of the night (who’s playing, etc) are on Jibbering‘s website and the Hare & Hounds‘ one too.
So big congrats to them. I’ll try and grab them for an interview at some point – if you’ve got any questions for them then please throw them in the comments below.
I picked up a flyer for Moda Jewellery the other day – they’ve got a jewellery sale going on at the Bond Cafe in Digbeth tomorrow (Thursday 29 October) from 10am to 2pm.
According to their blog, they were profiled in the Birmingham Mail a couple of months ago, where it was revealed that Julie and Mike, based in Hollywood, set up the company selling jewellery at parties at people’s homes. They’ve now also moved online and into the wedding, gifts and corporate events markets.
Browsing their website, they make the non-too-idle boast that they have:
Culture Jam, now in its third year, is a cultural event that takes place in November in Birmingham. Not only will there be a photogrpahy exhibiton and a number of live bands, there is also going to be a screening of short films from Lithuania and England. We are looking for short films that focus on the cultural revolution that has taken place in Birmingham and the West Midlands since the war. If you have a short film which you would like to sumit, then please send it to:
Sam Groves
129 Northfield Rd
Kings Norton
Birmingham
B30 1EA
Here’s the Culture Jam website, but for more information specifically about this call for films, email sam.groves@hotmail.co.uk. If you do, can you ask him to turn the music off on the website – I’m sure it’s very nice, but auto-playing music on websites is really irritating.
The short films will be shown as part of an exhibition at Moor Street Station Wine Bar on 14 November, from 3-7pm. That’ll be followed by a gig at the Volt Warehouse in Digbeth, featuring Rasa Basom, Black Diamond Bay and DJ Maxwell. Tickets for the gig here.
There seems to be a lot of theatre to talk about at the moment. Must be the time of year or something. This looks like being a bit more than theatre though – “a performance that invites the audience to literally eat the story”.
Kindle Theatre’s ‘Eat Your Heart Out’ will be at the AE Harris Building from 29 October to 8 November. I’m not quite sure how to explain this so I’m going to do the sensible thing – quote the promo blurb, post the flyer and suggest you grab a ticket.
In the last remaining corner of the human world, three cooks are summoned to create a celebratory meal using only the carcass of their once great kitchen.
…the set will be an apocalyptic junkyard made from Birmingham’s own rubbish and installed by designers Tony Appleby and Claire Wearn. Multimedia design company filmcafe will be creating photographs and lighting inspired by the work of Caravaggio, whilst regional composer-musician Phill Ward will work with Kindle performer-musicians to create a score that reinvents the decadence of the Baroque era. The company are also working food designers Blanch & Shock, to design what promises to be an unforgettable menu
At first glance the casual observer may think the tickets quite dear but there is an insane amount of stuff in the plus, live music and food plus they’ve been working manically hard for ages on it, so essentially it’s three nights out in one go and thus good value I would imagine
You will never look at them in the same way again: Networking at the Fire Station Open Day
“There has been a massive decline in dumped burnt out cars here in Birmingham which is a great success story for the local council and the brigade but it does nothing for the state of the local culture and art scene not to mention my livelihood”. John, in case you’re not aware, takes close-up photos of the scorched paintwork on burnt out cars
Grass Roots – a set on Flickr
If nothing else, the Birmingham World Cup Bid thing has provided an excuse for photographer Ravi Deepres to pick up where his football-themed ‘Patriots’ exhibition left off. Maybe I’m missing not playing Sunday league this season, but I’m liking the ‘Grass Roots’ set from his latest ‘Football in Harmony’ project
