Created in Birmingham

Vivid are part way through:

an experimental season of sonics, moving image, installation and construction stimulated by the vision of J.G. Ballard.

I quite like that image above. It’s from Kibwe Tavares‘ Robots of Brixton.

Not part of that, but also coming up soon at Vivid, is Trevor Pitt’s Bang Bang:

the final in a trilogy of explosive art-parties-cum-club-nights curated by Trevor Pitt and played out at VIVID

With DJ sets from mini moderns, Brian Duffy, Mazzy (Chicks Dig Jerks) and THIS IS TMRW and experimental performance installations from Joey Vivo and Roseanna Velin, Vincent Gould, John Napier and Aby Duffty. That’s on 12 November.

I don’t tend to cover gigs, but I liked the poster. Call me fickle.

The organisers of World Aids Day Birmingham are doing a T-shirt competition and are asking for submissions along the following themes:

• Reflection: Let us not forget those whom we have lost to AIDS.
• Education: Saving Lives “Get Tested” “22,000 people in the UK do not know they are infected with HIV”. Being tested and an early diagnosis can save your life.
• Celebration: Rejoice for the lives of those living with HIV & AIDS.

The deadline for entries is 1 November.

Incidentally, the site itself is oddly silent on the fact, but World Aids Day is 1 December.

A touch of grouchiness for a Monday morning.

Ammo reckons Birmingham’s arts scene is too safe and middle-aged, claiming that rather than providing art that appeals to Brummies, “a human tide of middle class professionals floods Birmingham each day from the suburban shanty towns that ring our city”:

Groomed by the local authority and a small elite of ‘tastemakers’, half-a-dozen ‘flagship’ venues and ventures in the city centre now hoover up most of the taxpayer and corporate cash. Just like the banks, they’ve become ‘too big to fail’.

More and more their programming reflects the tastes – and train timetables – of an alien clique.

Meanwhile, Stan’s Cafe remind us that, as of 1 October, city council funding for some of the smaller organisations ended (see my post with bonus hedgehog vid here):

last time I did the sums it appeared 50% of the City’s revenue funded portfolio was being cut by 100% to save 2.6% of the Arts Revenue budget. I can’t conceive how the city missed out on its last two bids to be crowned a Capital/City of Culture.

That last bit was sarcastic, btw.

Some good news from a couple of local digital/design agencies:

• 383 Project have been nominated for Dadi Digital Agency of the Year (and would appreciate you voting for them)
• Made Media (my employers, no less) have been nominated in the arts and culture category of the British Interactive Marketing Awards

• 7inch October listings
  “a list of interesting things happening around Birmingham over the next 31 days or so”. You should definitely sign up to their newsletter
• Turning Point West Midlands | Visual Art and Craft in the West Midlands
  A run-down of the venues, collections, festivals, schools and artist support programmes, as well as ways of buying the stuff
• Radio Birmingham audio slideshow
  This audio slideshow was produced by Pete Simpkin, and used when he gave talks about the work of Radio Birmingham in the 1970s
• K4 Architects designs £50m Birmingham fire station revamp | News | Building Design
  A big, average-looking tower. Splendid.
• Imperica – Celebrating imperfection
  Interview with Antonio Roberts
• Creative England opens for business
  Congrats to Maverick TV’s Jonnie Turpie on being among the first seven people appointed to the board
• Dub to Jungle Documentary – YouTube
  Video about Punch’s recent tour with an interview with Ammo Talwar (among others)
• Dear Mr Whitby – Raw Data Now : daveharte.com
  “What really got me irritated today is Councillor Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham City Council, bleating on about Birmingham getting marginalised when he could actually do something to help Birmingham become a thriving centre of digital creativity.” Everyone loves a rant
• Department for Culture Media and Sport – lottery grants search
  Related to the previous link (sort of). Oh look, a big list of National Lottery grants given to Birmingham arts projects over the years
• Bank of England to launch new £50 note
  “Inventor James Watt and his financial backer Matthew Boulton to feature on new £50 note, to be issued on 2 November”

FlixFixer launched at the Custard Factory last night. It’s been on my radar for a while but I’ve not had much chance to check it out. I’ve just had a look and I suspect it might be a genius idea.

It’s really quite simple:

• You pick a cinema (just the Custard Factory for now)
• You pick a date
• You pick a film (you can show what you like if you own the rights or you can pick something from Park Circus‘s list)
• You pay a minimum amount

Tickets for the screening then go on general sale, and if at least 20 random punters come along then you’ll break even. Any more and you could even earn a bit extra for some popcorn.

Most people would be surprised just how easy and affordable it is to hire a cinema. What FlixFixer does is simplify the whole process and, on top of that, it gives you a hand promoting the screening and helping you earn your money back.

It’ll be interesting to see if they can sign up some other venues, making it a kind of Newspaper Club for cinema.

For now though, there’s already a programme of interesting events coming together and people are being encouraged to get involved putting on their own screenings.

One to watch.

From p.13 of the BBC’s Delivering Quality First plan:

Factual programming for BBC television and Radio 4 would be moved out of Birmingham and consolidated largely to Bristol and Cardiff, though television production investment with independent producers in the Midlands would increase. Substantial network television drama (eg Doctors, Land Girls) and radio drama (The Archers) would continue in Birmingham alongside the BBC’s local and regional services

Someone’s going to need to spell this one out to me:

• What are the local and regional services that will be staying? (presumably Midlands Today, BBC WM… anything else?)
• Who/what will be moving to Bristol and Cardiff? (Asian Network… anything else?)

This from Andy Charrington at Jealous Designs:

I have the opportunity to start a new space where creatives can have a permanent base whilst having the opportunity to work with other like minded people. I’d like to tell you about it and see if you might be interested!

The space is in Fazeley Studios in Digbeth. There’s more information here and, if you’re interested, you should drop him an email on andycharrington@gmail.com.

He’s also got some ideas about collaborative efforts between the people in that space, which might be interesting – more co-op than coworking.

Town Hall Symphony Hall have released an animation created by Digbeth’s Second Home Studios about the workings of their famous organ.

The film was commissioned by THSH, with the support of the DMC McDonald Foundation, and was created by animator Chris Randall at Second Home Studios to a poem by Symphony Hall’s poet-in-residence Julie Boden.

The Mechanical Musical Marvel is currently being shown on Birmingham’s BBC Big Screen in Victoria Square, and has already been selected for the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival which runs 21 – 30 October.

Ballet in Birmingham is a nice little thing from Birmingham Royal Ballet and Richard Battye. Click the pic for info.

CommunityForce is

a platform that empowers local projects and charities to raise awareness of their work and make their plans a reality with the support of NatWest and their local community.

Local charities and projects stand to be awarded £6k if they accumulate enough votes. Of the local projects, the following would appreciate your click:

• Indigo Arts
• Infamous Community Arts
• Petty hate Productions
• Redditch Arts Centre Steering Group
• West Midland Crystaletts Marching band
• Women & Theatre