Created in Birmingham

The new site and programme is up for this year’s Flatpack Festival (23-27 March). Hoorah!

I’ve had a brief skim through and, as with previous years, would recommend ignoring the titles (which tend to leave me going ‘Eh? Never heard of it’) and read through the descriptions (which tend to leave me going ‘nice, I reckon I’ll go to that too’).

Of the things I’d already heard of, I’m looking forward to:

• Shorts on Walls featuring a screening of Man in a Cat
• Rubber
• Shadow Shows (with after party)

And this lot looks good too:

• Kinshasa Symphony
• Too Much Information
• Los Angeles Plays Itself
• and plenty others besides. Take a look at the programme.

There’s also a Paper Party (as a kind of progression from last year’s Plasticine Party), a vintage mobile cinema and all sorts of other goodness. It’ll be great buy tickets and don’t forget to see the free stuff too.

‘Doing it the hard way: Setting up an Animation Studio Outside the Capital‘ is the follow-up to Animation Forum WM and BSeen‘s last event back in January.

The event is taking place tomorrow, 1 March, at The Studio, and is being presented bu Niel Bushnell, who runs award-winning Newcastle-based animation and VFX studio Qurios.

Niel will be sharing his experiences of establishing an animation business with practical tips on how to set up an animation studio from scratch.

There’ll be opportunity to ask questions at the end of the talk, plus the chance to chat with fellow animators in the fantastic surroundings of the The Studio’s city centre bar and restaurant.Directions to the venue can be found here.

For more information, take a look at the Facebook event page, or sign up via Eventbrite – it’s also free to attend, open to animators and designers of all levels, or anyone interested in establishing a studio-based business, and includes free drinks.

On 3 March, two films by Creative Leap artists will be screened from 5.30pm – 7pm at Ward End Library.

The Door by Benjamin Pinnock – a live action and animation drama short set in Erdington and Aston shown through the eyes of a lead character who discovers he has the ability to alter time.

Experimental Urban Morris Dance by Mark Essen explores the similarities and connections between urban street dance and British folk dance.

There will also be a Q & A session with film-makers Benjamin Pinnock and Mark Essen, along with advice from industry practitioners Katy Woods and Tas Bashir.

The event is free admission.

I’ve just been noseying around the Red Bull-sponsored Street Art View. It’s a little like the Google Art Project thing that launched a few weeks back, only it takes a collaborative approach to building a map of street art that can be seen on Google’s Street View.

There’s not a lot in Birmingham (yet?), but someone’s added three views of this:

RoguePlay members Kim Charnock and Lorna Meehan are bringing the trials and tribulations of working as an actress to the stage, taking ‘Portrait of An Actress…‘ on tour around Birmingham.

Portrait of An Actress As… explores the relentless struggle between artistic integrity and agreeing to underpaid roles just to add to the CV through a shamelessly bitchy collection of comedy sketches.

Along with the three date schedule, they’re also hosting a comedy improvisation workshop in conjunction with the show, with a session of ‘whose line is it anyway’ type games, providing hints and tips for great comic performances.

Follow the links below to book tickets for the following dates and for more information;

• 3 March- Portrait of an Actress As… At The Station.
• 4 March – Portrait of an Actress As… At The Old Joint Stock.
• 4 March – Comedy Improvisation Workshop.
• 12 March – Portrait of an Actress As… At The Lamp Tavern.

• Where does everyone go for classes and craft-based socialising?
  …asks Kate from the Birmingham Bead Shop
• Paul Hamlyn Award for Capsule « We Are Eastside | Birmingham
  Capsule have had £60k from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. “The award will be used toward capacity and organisational development in particular the successful delivery of forthcoming projects Home of Metal and Supersonic 2011, and the development of a five year plan”
• collaborationx2011
  “The aim of Collaboration X is to create a collection of music that will go on to be sold at online music stores, iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Amazon, and more. This will be produced by six musicians who have never met before and will only meet once the collaboration has ended. The whole production process will take place over the internet on kompoz.com. All proceeds will be donated to Sound It Out Community Music”
• Dizzy heights of Spring cleaning | Flickr
  Spring cleaning at the Hippodrome
• Creative fund supports Birmingham arts firm
  Artbrand Publishing (who supply retailers with prints, paintings, etc) have received £150,000 investment from the Creative Advantage Fund
• Judge wins arts award – Audiences Central
  “Birmingham-based artist Harminder Judge has won the Arts Foundation Fellowship Award in Performance and Live Art 2011″
• Media Trust’s Youth Mentor Training
  “Media Trust’s Youth Mentoring scheme enables media professionals to share practical skills with disadvantaged 13-25 year olds working on media projects”. Want to be a mentor? Info’s here
• Marketing Birmingham funding cut by more than £500k – News – THE DRUM
  “A Marketing Birmingham spokesperson confirmed: “Marketing Birmingham has received an 11% cut in funding from Birmingham City Council for 2011/12, which is equal to 6% of its total annual budget of £8.5 million”
• Say It Online
  “The Say it Online project will see 6 Birmingham families immerse themselves in arts and culture for 4 weeks and review their experiences using digital media”
• design and innovation west midlands
  “A blog to uncover the wealth of design excellence and innovation in products and services produced across the West Midlands and Heart of England referencing the inspirational from around the world”

Rhubarb Rhubarb‘s one day artist development event, The Crossing, is being brought to Birmingham, after the success of it’s London event back in October.

The Crossing: WM will be taking place in The Theatre at The Custard Factory on 26 March, and asks photographers one question – “Are you going to stay where you are, live in the past, or cross over into the new world offered to you through technology, tenacity and a mind shift around money, dependency, what is possible and how it can be achieved?”

With speakers including London based agent David Birkitt, mobile media maker Christian Payne, photographers Ed Clark and Michael Donald, and Benjamin Chesterton & David White of DuckRabbit, the event will cover sessions on ‘Cashing In…Not Selling Out’, ‘Shifting Terrain’ and ‘Photography Still Moving’.

Tickets can be booked online, and are £10 for West Midlands attendees, with transport provided if you’re traveling from Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry, Stoke and Hereford. For outside attendees it’s £20.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at The Public for the showcase event of the DCD Programme. In case you’d not heard of it:

Arts Council England West Midlands’ Digital Content Development (DCD) Programme is a three year programme of investment which aims to catalyse the creation and creative use of digital content platforms for arts organisations across the West Midlands region

The website went up recently and the map on the homepage shows some of the projects, along with how much money they received. Further information is due on the website at some point, but if you look at the page source then you can glean a little more. On the basis that you probably don’t want to ruin your eyes, here’s what I found:

• Birmingham Repertory Theatre – Towards the development of an online multi-user playwriting resource (£27,884)
• Pesky People – Development of a multiplatform approach to venue access information (£25,000)
• Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum – PostCart: creative digital access of art gallery and museum collections (£24,750)
• Library of Birmingham – Development of an Alternate Reality Game for young people (£23,750)
• Talking Birds Theatre Company – Development of The Difference Engine – a multiplatform real time access tool. Some mention of it here (£1,500 + £20,860)
• The Play House – Develop an online resource to match the company’s participatory ethos (£22,349)
• Eastside Projects and Birmingham City University – Piloting a 3D online art gallery (£22,000)
• The MAC – Playground: exploring the use of digital technologies in a new-built art centre (£20,500)
• Royal Shakespeare Company – Creation of a new digital arena for the creativity of the RSC. Pretty sure this was Such Tweet Sorrow (£20,000)
• Audiences Central – To develop a web platform and plug-in for cross regional arts marketing (£18,000)
• B Arts – Development of a new form of arts centre/collaboration (£17,380)
• Rhubarb Rhubarb – To create an online evaluation tool (£17,000)
• Shropshire County Council – Citizen Journalism (£15,612)
• Rideout – To explore the production of creative digital content engaging youth crime statistics (£15,000)
• Radio To Go – A collaboration with the British Library to pilot an online music archive. Called The Pilot Project (£13,750)
• Rosie Kay Dance Company – To create an online version of the touring production, 5 Soldiers (£12,500)
• Indigo Ltd – The development of a pilot online platform exploring new forms of crowd-source fundraising in the arts (launching soon and called Angel Shares) (£11,750)
• Wolverhampton Arts & Museums / Black Country Museums – Research and Development of a collaborative online resource for the Black Country Museums (£10,550)
• Black Country Touring – Exploration of enhancing a site specific, theatrical experience through live streaming (£10,348)
• Multistory – To create a new media platform for celebrating local stories as part of place-making (£10,235)
• Fierce Festival – Towards a Viral Online research game (£8,253)
• Birmingham Opera – Exploring new models of ownership and sales of published works (£6,737)
• Borderlines Film Festival Ltd – Experimenting with mScapes technologies (£5,600)
• Orchestra of the Swan – Research and development towards a strategic plan (£5,000)
• Capsule – To support digitally enhanced new marketing and distribution opportunities (£4,880)
• Welsh National Opera – research and development of phase one of iMaestro. To allow Welsh National Opera to research digital copyright law and the possibility of exploiting full-length opera samples under the Creative Commons license (info about that here) (£4,600)
• Ikon Gallery – Towards the development of a social media project (£3,500)
• The Other Way Works – Professional development around Augmented Reality and Transmedia (£2,575)
• Ex Cathedra – Market development, engaging an online music aggregator (£1,323)
• Dance Consortium – Exploring social media in relation to contemporary dance marketing (£1,000)
• MADE – To explore the use of digital platforms in placing making (£1,000)

As well as these projects, the programme supported a range of other activities including workshops, innovation labs and other events.

I’ve heard of one or two of these projects, but the vast majority are new to me so it’ll be interesting to hear a little more. I should probably also add that I’m involved in the Rosie Kay Dance Company project – that’ll launch next week so I’ll blab a bit more about it then.

Dee Patel‘s photographic series ‘Land of Hope & Glory‘, is a non-political piece aiming to remind us that immigration is not a 21st century phenomenon, it’s been occurring for hundreds of years, bringing with it opportunity and diversity.

Behind each immigration statistic lies a story and with it, a human being. Throughout the series, Dee photographed and listened to stories from the people in Handsworth communities, where 170 of the world’s countries are represented.

I sat down with each individual asking questions to get an idea of their roots. I laughed with them and we shared coffee. This opportunity enabled me to look into their lives, into their histories, listen to their hopes and fears and to share a moment at some deeper level.

‘Land of Hope & Glory’ is currently on display at Handsworth Library until 18 March. From there it will join Anna Fields in the Creative Leap Exhibition at The Drum , opening 25 March until 14 April.

Handsworth Library is open Mon/Tues/Sat 9am – 5pm; Thursday 12 noon – 7pm.

‘The Woods’ is a performance project currently on at mac, created by Jane Packman Company and developed locally at Highbury Park and mac.

It’s been on for a few weeks already, and has attracted over 4000 visitors so far, with a free installation exhibition open throughout the day, along with a performance which tuns until 27 February.

The installation allows visitors to explore the sensory space of The Woods, influenced by woodland and the architecture of the gallery. With its provocative nature, the space offers space to invert or project your own narratives or scenarios.

Influenced by an autumn spent under the trees, nature writing and personal stories of letting go, this brave and moving performance tells a story of loss and transformation.

The Woods is intense and poetic – using narrative and gentle audience engagement to create an immersive experience which takes you deep into the richly textured world of the woods and the imagination.

Performances run daily until 27 February, tickets can be booked online via mac’s website.

Take a look at the trailer, filmed by Chris Keenen.

The Woods Trailer from Jane Packman on Vimeo.

In the last of Grand Union‘s Live Acts and Sound programme, artist duos chris+keir and Melville Mitchell will present an evening of live, alternating performance challenges on Fri 25 February.

The duos both use ‘forced performance’ as a working method, meaning their performances go off structures, tasks, systems, rules, formulas and instructions.

‘What performs? Air fresheners, roofing insulation, bicycles, carpets and rugs, powerboats, wallcoverings, drain panels, cleansing towels, car-stereo equipment, bakeware, aquarium filters, tires, fabric, window film, woodworking knives, automotive timing chains, foil containers, audio antennae, deep fat fryers, embossing tools, mop handles, music synthesizers, casement windows’

- Jon Mckenzie, Perform Or Else (2001)

Through a combination of classic performance work, formulaic jokes and wooden contraptions, chris+keir will be searching for a punchline to ‘What is the difference between Bruce Nauman’s Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square and Monty Python’s The Ministry of Silly Walks?‘

Melville Mitchel on the other hand, will be utilising the paraphernalia of British drinking culture, by undertaking a series of formidable tasks which place them in both conflict and coalition, together with a set of complex rules encouraging a unified thirst toward a common goal.

Doors open at 7.30pm, performance starts at 8pm

On 5 March it’s World Book Night, and as the nation prepare to give away 1 million books, Birmingham Central Library and The Birmingham Poetry Ultras are holding a couple of celebratory events, with a line up of writers, storytellers and poets.

Birmingham Central Library

From 6.30pm – 8.45pm, at Birmingham Library Theatre, three of the city’s best-selling writers RJ Ellory, Mike Gayle and Catherine O’Flynn will be joining readers and book givers to celebrate books, libraries and reading.

Free tickets for this are available from the Box Office on (0121) 303 2323 or from Central Library reception.

Saturday Night Reader then takes outside Central Library place from 9 – 10pm, as literary fans are invited to join Birmingham Poet Laureate, Roy McFarlane, former Young Poet Laureate Matt Windle, storyteller Katrice Horsley, and local writer Paul McDonald for an hour of rambunctious storytelling, poetry, laughs and free books.

Birmingham Poetry Ultras

Hosting an evening of poetry appreciation and discussion, Birmingham Poetry Ultras will be in The Old Moseley Arms, Balsall Heath, from 8pm.

They’ll also be giving out free copies of their selected book, Seamus Heaney’s “New Selected Poems 1966-1987”, on a first come first served basis.

Following on from Alex’s post about Ikon Eastside closing, let me pile on the joy by presenting a few other things that aren’t going to be around so much.

Birmingham City Council

At least not as we know it.

More Canals Than Venice

Annabel has said that, needing to prioritise paying work, she’s changing her approach to running the site:

I intend to discover the new in the city, but at a more leisurely pace and in more depth

Which doesn’t sound all that bad really.

The Yam Yam

However, The Yam Yam, a Walsall-based aggregator of local news, is shutting up shop completely. Here’s a fuller explanation of what that’s all about. I was aware of the site but, not living in Walsall, had no particular reason for following it very closely – the number and content of the comments tell you how much the site was appreciated though.

Next?

In a few weeks time we’re going to hear about which of the established arts organisations and council services aren’t going to be supported any more. That’s not going to be pleasant. There’ll still be plenty of good stuff for us to write about on CiB, and plenty of individuals doing good things, but we won’t know what we’re missing.

On the web side of things, it’s worth remembering that most of the genuinely interesting websites around are actually quite fragile things and, if they’re run for personal enjoyment, it’s probably best not to assume they’ll be around forever either. See also Jon Bounds’ comments last month when the harmless bit of fun that was Brummie of the Year turned nasty on BiNS:

I’ll continue to ruminate as to whether the site does its job or is best closed.

On the other hand, I’m all for a bit of a shake-up, some new voices and some new ways of doing things. We’ll see how things pan out over the next little while.

UPDATE

I forgot to end this post with some bunnies:

After settling at 183 Fazeley Street back in 2008, Ikon have confirmed that as of April 2011, Ikon Eastside will be closing up for the final time, due to public funding cuts.

The large exhibition space at the heart of Digbeth, has provided the perfect setting for large-scale work, video and events over the past few years. It’s hosted work by internationally recognised artists, including Andy Warhol, Damián Ortega, Józef Robakowski and Siobhan Davies Dance.

Rites of Spring, a three day music festival featuring Turner Prize winner Martin Creed, Modified Toy Orchestra and Epic45 will be the last event held at Ikon Eastside, from 7 – 9 April.

We are extremely saddened to be losing Ikon Eastside, but our commitment to bringing internationally recognised art to the city is unwavering. Looking to the future, our goal remains to create a permanent museum of contemporary art for Birmingham.

- Jonathan Watkins, Ikon Director

It’s not all sad news though, since Ikon are intending to keep up their involvement with the Eastside district, focusing instead on site-specific events and promoting cultural regeneration through their membership of the Eastside Contemporary Art Consortium. Their current study into the feasibility of this permanent museum, (‘Ikon Two’) also remains unaffected.

Stan’s Cafe present ‘The Cleansing of Constance Brown’, opening 1 March at their now permanent home, A E Harris.

Conceived whilst performing It’s Your Film across Europe, its themes embody power and cleansing, and is performed in a 14m long corridor, without words to an extraordinary soundtrack.

The corridor itself with its shifting configuration becomes the 73rd character, blank, often menacing and unpredictable. Scenes intercut and morph into one each other making connections across time and space.

7 PERFORMERS
68 CHARACTERS
70 MINUTES
6 WORDS
10 TONS OF KIT
A SET 2M WIDE AND 14M DEEP
45 AUDIENCE MEMBERS…
…WILL YOU BE ONE OF THEM?

You can catch the performance from 1 – 19 March (except Sunday / Monday), booking is via mac Box Office.