Created in Birmingham

My friends can’t understand why I live in Birmingham. My friends live in places like London, San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong; to them, Birmingham might as well be Accrington. It’s a place they won’t think about for the rest of the month.

As a writer on the subject of contemporary art, to me Birmingham is perfectly placed in the centre of contemporary art resources that Londoners would have difficulty discovering, never mind paying attention to. West Midlanders are less than an hour and a half by train from most of the country’s leading contemporary galleries, while a comfortable distance away from the marketing hype of London. Visiting galleries and museums outside the capital is like finding bands that haven’t yet hit the mainstream.

Thankfully our own art gem, the IKON Gallery – Birmingham’s saviour for contemporary art – spoils us with international scope and creative use of venues. It’s a great home base for those of us who thrive on visual art. From here, our options further afield are as easy as starting at New Street Station.

For example, currently touring Britain, pausing at London’s Hayward Gallery for stop number two, is British Art Show 7. BAS 7 made its debut in 2010 in Nottingham, a little more than an hour from New Street Station. Spanning October, November, and December, the Nottingham programme had more exhibition space than the Hayward Gallery provides, which means the wicked-cool Londoners are likely to see a mere survey of what was shown at The Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham Castle, and Nottingham’s New Art Exchange . If you had gone to Nottingham to see BAS7, you’d have been made aware of Haroon Mirza, who subsequently has won the Northern Art Prize and is featured in ArtReview’s March 2011 issue.

Liverpool. I know what you’re thinking; you’re not driving to Liverpool to watch your car get jacked. Luckily, transportation comes to you, thereby avoiding any contact with the more entrepreneural of the Scouse population. Only 1 hour 30 minutes by train from New Street, Liverpool Lime street itself is only 20 minutes away by foot from international contemporary art: Tate Liverpool. You’ll pass plenty of serious looking pubs and shiny shop fronts before you get there (note to self: when walking back to train, make frequent rest breaks at said points of interest). Tate Liverpool, along with FACT, Blue Coat, the Baltic Triangle and pretty much any empty building in town, showed off international artists at last year’s Liverpool Biennial. All of the venues have currently ongoing exhibits, and each has a cafe with free WiFi for your nimble, micro-blogging, twitter fingers. Also in Liverpool is the John Moores Painting Prize , announced every two years, with finalists presented at The Walker Art Gallery. The Walker is a stone’s throw away from the train station. Keith Coventry’s “Spectrum Jesus” was the winner for 2010, which had to be seen up close to be effective. The Moores Painting Prize also allows for a visitors favourite award, which is historically never the same as the jury’s prize winner.

Oxford, the city with what is the northern version of the British Museum, the Ashmolean, is about an hour by train from New Street. For contemporary art fans, Modern Art Oxford is about a 15 minute walk from the station. Like Birmingham’s IKON Gallery, the MAO changes shows more often than footballers change their team allegiances.

Sheffield: land of silverware. Where would our dinners be without it. Sheffield’s S1 Art Space is only 1 hour 15 minutes away by train, and while not as active as IKON or MAO in their programmes, there is a centre of contemporary art activity. The even number years feature the Sheffield Biennial, while opposite years fill in with S1/Salon, usually a film and video exhibition.

Closer to home, Walsall’s New Art Gallery is less than 25 minutes away. Bob and Roberta Smith, a name more tied to London these days, is currently being exhibited until 20 March. Plus, the building itself deserves respect and recognition. It’s not often a town of just 170,000 people agree to a cubist, modern design in their city planning.

And if you’re really stuck for fun, London is only an hour twenty away by Virgin Train. You’ll have to chance the lively viruses on The Underground, but you’re never far from either of the Tates, or any of the East London galleries that exhibit the more interesting international artists. The good news is that you’ll be back in Birmingham by dinner time.

For international contemporary art, being in the middle is much better than being on the ends.

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By David Green

From California, lives and works in Birmingham, writes for Contemporary Monkey.

Last year I was lucky enough to be selected by the Cultural Leadership Programme to spend a year on a professional development and work placement down in Bristol. So I put my usual job of making new theatre performances on the back-burner and headed down the M5.

My year was spent working as part of the small but highly effective iShed team, which is based at the Pervasive Media Studio, and is a part of the larger organisation and venue Watershed.

My task was to help shape and then produce the first year of Theatre Sandbox – a national commissioning scheme for theatre companies to engage with emerging technologies in their practice.

Except the thing was, I didn’t know anything about these technologies myself… yet. But this is why I’d applied for this placement – to learn. And learn I did.

… RFID … wifi beacons … interaction design … augmented reality … QR codes … arduino … bio feedback sensors … these words floated around me, and eventually began to settle as I saw and experienced concrete examples of them being used in practice.

I learned most things through a kind of Pervasive Media Studio osmosis. Just overhearing people’s conversations, lectures, lunchtime talks and workshops introduced me to a slew of new vocabulary, possibilities, hardware and software.

And just a few short months after my own first introduction to Pervasive Media (here’s some definitions of this diverse field) I started to lead our six commissioned Theatre Sandbox theatre companies into how they might incorporate these technologies into their own projects and practice.

It was incredibly exciting to see how experimental theatre practice could have a dialogue with experimental technologies – each one’s processes, restrictions, affordances and modus operandi affecting and influencing the other.

I found it interesting to observe how different the usual process of theatre making: end goal make-or-break

(idea ? develop content ? refine, perfect, edit ? assemble acting, design, sound elements ? performance of finished show in front of audience ? reviews)

was to the process of technology development: iterative

(idea ? sketch version ? test with users/audience ? integrate feedback, create prototype ? test with users/audience ? integrate feedback, refine product ? release finished product).

Sometimes during Theatre Sandbox these two processes seemed directly at odds with each other, and it will take more than just this one pilot project to re-educate both communities in how to contextualise and best offer feedback to these kind of projects whilst in development. It felt daunting and precarious for the theatre artists to test their work at such early stages in its development, but such testing was essential for the development of the technologies and the experience as a whole.

I was pleased to discover that some of the core skills of theatre artists were particularly valuable within the sphere of technology development. Where some technology developers may be guilty of getting caught up with how cool their new tech is without much thought for their users, how it actually is to use, whether its useful or fun. Theatre’s focus on the audience and on their experience of what is presented to them dovetailed neatly with technology’s system of user interaction design. Theatre artists naturally considered their user/audience’s interaction with the technologies and the work, often finding cunning and ingenious ways to make the hardware and interactions part of the fictional and aesthetic world of the performance.

Theatre artists are also adept at weaving stories, and creating meaning from potentially disparate incidents and experiences. The Theatre Sandbox projects successfully integrated technologies but never became obsessed by the tech for its own sake – the story and audience experience always remained the focus, and this is what ensured that the projects were genuinely engaging for their audiences.

Please do watch this short overview video of the scheme featuring extracts from all six projects, narrated by myself, and shot and edited by Birmingham’s own Chris Keenan.

I completed my placement in December 2010, and am now back in Birmingham eager to start using my new-found skills in this region: helping others develop projects; brokering arts and technology partnerships; and creating new theatre productions that integrate pervasive media with my own company The Other Way Works.

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By Katie Day

Katie Day is the Artistic Director of Birmingham-based theatre company The Other Way Works who have been pushing the boundaries of theatre practice for around eight years now, and produce site-specific audience-interactive performances like our hotel-based thriller ‘Black Tonic‘.
www.theotherwayworks.co.uk

On April the 1^st this year I will be embarking on a yearlong sabbatical from the company I co-run, Stereographic, in order to concentrate on my music and arts projects. I have my personal reasons for taking this step now but many of the broader reasons are valid for anyone deciding to undertake a sabbatical. The benefits to the creative-minded can be immense, so where better to highlight them than here?

First, let’s start by defining the term sabbatical. I’m with Wikipedia on this and would simply define it as “a rest from work, a hiatus, lasting from two months to a year”. I wouldn’t elaborate on this myself, as the key to a sabbatical is simply to have a break from work, from the everyday. For me, these are some of the major benefits of doing so:

Freshness

Our brains are great at organising stuff and providing near instant, ingrained responses. That’s a really important ability to help us function as human beings. Clearly you don’t want to think “what’s that noise?” every time your phone rings, or spend ages assessing the options for dodging that bus.

The more we do the same things the more ingrained our responses become. This is a real killer where creativity is concerned. If you make a concerted effort to regularly change stuff around in your life then you can guarantee greater freshness of ideas, but in all honesty, how many of you have deliberately done something that scares you recently?

Ponder o’clock

This one is simple; time to think about nothing in particular aids creativity. “Aha! moments” require a wandering mind.

Perspective

Building processes to “keep it real” into your daily routine is a start but I believe a truer perception of what you do and aim to achieve is only possible through a sustained period of time off work. The perspective gained through this can only be trumped by one thing in life, trauma…and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Time to make THOSE ideas happen

The 99% are right in their slogan “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making them happen.” Creative people tend to have lots of ideas for lots of great projects they could bring to fruition, if only they had the time. Have a quick think about your ideas that fit this description. The world would be a better place if they saw the light of day, right?

New opportunities & relationships

Less time in the office / studio means more time meeting new people. Unless you decide to lock yourself in a box for the entirety of your sabbatical this is pretty much a given and good things will come of it!

Financial reward

As an artist/creative you are rewarded for the quality of your ideas and your passion to make them happen. If you are passionate about what you do, you’ll come back to it – only bigger, better and with renewed ideas and drive!

Life is (very) short!

Take two minutes to think about what you are doing with your life. Let’s assume you broadly like it. OK, why not get better at it? Or, if in the end you find there’s something out there you’d rather be doing instead then that’s cool too. The key is to give yourself the space to consider this properly.

After all that…just watch this

Still not convinced? Think it’s unworkable? Think the financial reward bit is just a red herring? Then, please spend 17.5 minutes watching a lecture delivered by the designer Stefan Sagmeister, at TED in 2009. Says it all…

http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html

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By Sam Underwood

Having set myself up for a fall by talking so enthusiastically about sabbaticals, why not keep an eye on how I get on at: http://sabbatical.mrunderwood.co.uk. Oh, and for a quick overview of some of my plans here’s my recent Pecha Kucha 20×20 presentation on the subject: http://www.vimeo.com/19477253
Stereographic will continue to be run by cofounder George Benson.

Since Birmingham lost the City of Culture bid, it’s fair to say there’s been a bit of naval gazing going on. Why did it happen? What’s Derry got that we haven’t? Where has all this belly button fluff come from??

But maybe we’ve been looking at this all wrong. Maybe, we should be looking at why we missed out. And maybe the answer is because, in actual fact, we’re doing okay thanks very much. We’re not so down on our luck! Birmingham’s got a lot to offer after all, and particularly from its creative industries.

It seems though, that the message isn’t quite getting out there. And we’re not the first city to be in this dilemma …

Dublin for many years was really missing a hardcore creative design scene. Pockets of creativity subtly hammered away, keeping Irish design afloat with an understated presence. Thanks to the initiative of a few bright sparks however, things slowly started to change, and the results for Dublin were phenomenal.

First, Ireland stopped looking for answers externally and started looking inwards, for homegrown talent. With this change in perspective came a new attitude, and a common goal – If They Can Do It We Can Too! Eventually, a design community that was once scattered became insular. It only took a few steps to change the whole dynamic — a few small steps which snowballed and resulted in Dublin as it is today, a hub of design creativity.

The biggest change, yet arguably the smallest step, came with the introduction of CANDY magazine. Launched in 2005, its intention was to showcase Irish creativity to a worldwide audience. Using its own contributions while simultaneously drawing on the creative expertise and skills of new members, growth was rapid. Before long a vast creative community emerged, a cohesive powerhouse of talent and with it, an unprecedented level of global awareness. And that wasn’t all…

More creative events and forums followed: Sweettalk initiated seminars where heroes of the design industry shared their inspirations, their experiences and their expertise. Moving forward to collaborate with major brands such as Sony, Habitat and other retail goliaths, Sweettalk supported the design industry and encouraged creatives to get involved. Synth Eastwood, 50×50, Shock’d, and talks at Electric Picnic followed, offering a huge variety of opportunities for creatives to meet, relax, drink, socialize and learn, in a friendly, supportive environment. The result of all this? Dublin, creatively speaking, is on the map.

Ireland has always been known for its unique vibe, with live bands in traditional pubs creating the atmosphere it’s become famous for. A short walk along the River Liffey and through Temple Bar with its street performers and musicians will leave you with the sense that it truly is a creative place to be. But now, alongside that traditional creative essence, it’s achieved status as a hotbed of design creativity. Take Offset for example — a weekend attracting inspirational speakers every year, bringing together the creative community through knowledge, open debate and inspiring stories of success. With an annual calendar of events that would make industry giants like London and Manchester blush, Dublin it seems has stamped its presence on the global creative industry. So what can Birmingham learn from that success, if anything?

Historically, Birmingham was at the helm of a global industrial revolution, a world leader of industry and technology. Perhaps that’s why Birmingham is sometimes overlooked for other cities — because the word isn’t quite out that we’ve evolved, that we’ve moved with the times. Birmingham is at the forefront of digital media, creative design, branding, social media — you name it, we can do it. And what’s more, we do it well.

The fact is, Birmingham is the city of choice for hundreds of creative agencies. In a highly competitive industry, Birmingham design agencies have honed into a slick movement of cutting edge creatives, offering commercially viable solutions that satisfy demand and exceed expectations, locally, nationally and globally.

Word is spreading. But how do we speed up the drumbeat on that grapevine? And is that what we can learn from places like Dublin? Interestingly, social media sites are seeing a new movement from Irish creatives — a red and white badge added to individual profiles simply stating in icons ‘love Irish arts’. It’s a small action, but the symbolic gesture is much more significant.

It would be good to see a stronger community here in the Midlands. Perhaps a merging of two well-known creative centres — the Jewellery Quarter and the Custard Factory — could really raise the flag for Birmingham’s creative industry. The opportunities are limitless.

We didn’t win the City of Culture bid because we’re already too advanced, we’ve got too much going for us! Now we just need to put those small steps in place that will make us become the big creative presence we know we can be.

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By Milo McGuinness and Liz Hoare

Milo McGuinness and Liz Hoare are owners of Stripeyhorse Creative, a graphic design agency based in Zellig, Birmingham. http://www.stripeyhorsecreative.com

Stirchley Village, St Irchley, Stirchville … Stirchley. It’s quite a hard word to type, but don’t let that put you off. This hitherto un(der)heralded little corner of Birmingham is undergoing something of a renaissance. Largely untouched by the nationals and multi-nationals, Stirchley has become the centre of a grassroots movement with a community focus.

Leading the way is Stirchley Community Market, a monthly gathering of independent food producers and artist/makers from within a 3-mile radius of B30, alongside representatives from high street businesses. Founded by three local organisations – arts group Stirchley Happenings, community bakery Loaf and South Birmingham Food Co-op, with help from Birmingham Town Centre Partnerships – the event has become established as a place to meet and browse, and comes guaranteed with a friendly vibe. The market takes place on the first Tuesday of every month and you can learn more about the story here: www.stirchleycommunitymarket.wordpress.com

As Stirchley Happenings, we have also been doing our bit for the local arts scene with a series of projects including the Travelling Bug House, which (as the name suggests) is a travelling (as the name doesn’t quite suggest) cinema. With the aims of revitalising underused spaces and bringing the moving image back to the area, films are being shown in different locations every couple of months. Check out our blog here: www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com

The most recent Bug House took place at Hybrid’s pop-up art tea shop, which rather incongruously landed on the corner of Ivy Road during January this year. Part of Inhabit, a wider project designed to breathe life back into Birmingham’s high streets, the shop has seen a flurry of activity over the past couple of months, which will culminate in promenade performances along the Pershore Road from Fri 11^th to Sun 13^th March (www.hybridconsulting.org.uk). And, as if one tea shop isn’t enough, Cakes4Life have taken their first steps towards establishing a community café, with the next event scheduled for Saturday 12 March.

If this post has piqued your interest about Stirchleyness, then you can find a list of links here – www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com/links – and you can keep abreast of curious occurrences here – www.fuckyeahstirchley.tumblr.com. And don’t forget, Jack Wooley was a Stirchley boy: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-archers/timeline/jack-woolley-at-90

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By Tom Cahill-Jones

Blog: www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com

Twitter: @stirchleyhaps

Being a classical musician, I have often found that contemporary music is met with extreme unnecessary prejudice from most audiences, and even from the musicians themselves. However, we have come a long way since Arnold Schoenberg and his band of merry Serialist pranksters.

We are lucky to live in city so diverse that there is music and art of all types so readily available to us. In the music scene, some artists aren’t just available, they are begging for audiences to experience their music. I have sourced some excellent music that is being performed in Birmingham in the next month, alone. This is just a tiny snapshot into the world of music and performance that is not achieving quite the audience members that it rightly deserves.

With the news of the cuts happening in the next few years in Birmingham, it is now that we should be celebrating what we, as artists, have to offer. The best way, I feel, to do this, is to see everything. Go to concerts and experience what has been provided to us, show the people in charge of money in this city what, we, as music fans need.

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – contemporary, classical, dance, technology

One of the the CBSO’s (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) biggest projects of the 2010/2011 is it’s performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. A formidable and excellent piece in it’s own right, the creators at the CBSO and Symphony Hall have fused together music, dance and technology :

Experience an astonishing interplay between reality and fantasy as dancer Julia Mach’s extraordinary live performance interacts, through the magic of digital wizardry, with real-time, computer generated stereoscopic projections, translated into a virtual reality space with the aid of 3D spectacles for the audience.

- THSH

The 30-minutes piece is preceded by Varese’s Tuning Up and Ligeti’s Lontano for large orchestra, a distant and warm piece which plays with with the make-up of unconventional diatonic harmony.

For more info and for the special Rite of Spring micro-site, please visit http://riteofspring3d.thsh.co.uk

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group – contemporary, classical

The BCMG is the city’s orchestra dedicated entirely to the performance of contemporary and new music. Made up of players from the CBSO, the flexible organisation has grown in the one of the world’s most fore-thinking ensembles of new music. They play regular concerts at the CBSO Centre on Berkley Street, B1, as well as touring all over the city.

The percussion players are performing what promises to be an excellent concert of Varese and Xenakis on the 25th March at Yardley Old Church as well as this Sunday (13th March).

Oliver Knussen conducts his own memorial work Requiem – Songs for Sue as well as pieces by Morton Feldman and Harrison Birtwistle

Steve Reich and Thomas Ades. – contemporary, classical

This week, Friday 11th March, Symphony Hall have also included another excellent performance of contemporary. The London Sinfonietta, one of the world’s leading orchestra for contemporary classical music are visiting Birmingham, performing Steve
Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, complete with 4 grand pianos and 5 marimbas. The minimalist style of Steve Reich is used in many sources of media, films, adverts and television, purely for the fact it is accessible to both musician and audience alike. Conductor Thomas Ades? starts the concert with his own In Seven Days, a collaborative project with filmmaker Tal Rosner and is based on the Creation.

Tickets start from £10 (or £5 on the day for U25s)

The Irrepressibles: Mirror Mirror – contemporary pop, performance art, collaboration, crossover

Another gig at the heart of Birmingham, the Town Hall, The Irrepressibles are a 10-piece orchestra committed to stretching the boundaries of conventional performance. Lead by singer, Jamie McDermot, they perform hearty indie music with a set up of orchestral musicians as accompaniment.

This show is in conjunction with Fierce Festival and is at Town Hall, 22nd March, £15

SOUNDkitchen – contemporary, sound, experimental, collaboration

SOUNDkitchen is a new group made up of music graduates from the University of Birmingham. Their “STONEsoup” concert at the MAC was met with rave reviews and are following up with a collaborative event with Balkanic Eruption, promoters of Klezmer and Balkan music within the city. Playing at the Hare and Hounds, B14, the concert focuses on expanding sound using technology and live instruments, it will be followed by a live laptop performance from Garfield Benjamin.

Birmingham Conservatoire – classical contemporary, premieres, fusion

Like the Uni of Birmingham, the Conservatoire has one of the most developed composition departments in the country. The students are exceptionally talented and lucky for us the concerts are generally very cheap and on a regular basis. This month as well as a student showcase of new music (held on the 18th March and conducted by the great Edwin Roxburgh) we see the Frontiers department of Conservatoire play host to world-renowned electronic violinist, Barbara Luneberg. This young talent has worked with some of the world’s best contemporary composers. On the 14th March, Luneberg is to perform works written for her by young composers from all over Europe, this will also include a premiere of work by VT of the Conservatoire, Ed Bennett.

For more info on any of the above please visit
www.thsh.co.uk
www.bcmg.org.uk
www.soundkitchenuk.org
www.theirrepressibles.com
www.bcu.ac.uk/pme/conservatoire/events-calendar

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As a musician, I love reading autobiographies and biographies of rock stars. As an unsigned musician, I’m always left disappointed that there isn’t more in these books about their time before they were famous.

I don’t mean stuff like their Dad working in a factory and their cat being called Tiddles, or whatever. I mean that period of time between deciding they want to be a musician and starting a band, to the time when they get signed and start having commercial success. It always seems a bit vague, covered in a chapter or two, and makes getting signed look very, very easy. It reminds me of that South Park episode with Underpants Gnomes whose business plan is:

• Phase 1: Collect underpants
• Phase 2: ?
• Phase 3: Profit

It could be translated in this context to:

• Phase 1: Start band
• Phase 2: ?
• Phase 3: Profit

In reality, Phase 2 for musicians is a lot of work, a lot of expense, a lot of playing to eight people in a backstreet pub, and probably not making it as far as Phase 3. Personally, I could write a whole book of my time as an unsigned musician. It’s far from glamorous, there are no drugs or girls, but the banter is immense, and the characters you encounter can be surreal.

The consequence of this is that people who are not involved with music in any capacity beyond reading somebody’s autobiography or biography feel the need to tell unsigned musicians just how easy it is to get signed and what they need to do. They hear you are in a band and have no idea that you need them to get up off their behinds, come to your gigs, and buy your music and merchandise, just to see Phase 3 on the distant horizon. That’s not in the books.

There is of course the chance that I’m the one who has got it completely wrong. Maybe it’s not supposed to be as much fun? Maybe I’m not supposed to be enjoying my time as an unsigned musician so much, and enjoying reflecting on the stories that come out of it. Maybe I’m making a point of enjoying it and cherishing the adventures because of the high improbability of making it to Phase 3.

So why do successful musicians largely ignore their unsigned roots? Is it the lack of glamour and drugs and girls, or did they just not have enough fun to have anything to say about it?

Either way, it would be great to hear more unsigned stories from successful musicians. It could act as a beacon of hope for those in Phase 1 or at least clarify what Phase 2 actually is.

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By Ronan Fitzgerald

Ronan Fitzgerald plays in a band called Nerve Centre and has lots of opinions about unsigned music.

A contemporary creative practice needs to be a problem solver, fund raiser, facilitator and business collaborator. While anyone experienced in cultural and community based areas would be ignorant to ignore the realizations that the current economics demand better value for investments and any funding, do our creative industry graduates know what they need to do to succeed?

It’s not new that during times of economic austerity, graduates will take different routes into employment, finding work in areas that differ from their educational field. This coupled with the sometimes abstract services that the design industry provides, the intangible tasks a client needs to be convinced to pay for prior to seeing the end result; adds up to a tricky over-subscribed recruitment situation.
What’s different now is a cross-pollination of skills in creative industries, architects working in construction, product designers working in kitchen installation and design.

Graduates coming into the Built Environment industry for example are, with an ongoing complex, passionate politik. Fear for the industry’s survival, a whirlwind of legalities, employment ethics and pay rates have been news in the Built Environment for over 12months, especially within Architecture; whose students read for longer than a Doctor or Lawyer, but will rarely expect to earn the levels of their contemporaries, despite it’s regulation and representation by a chartered professional body, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
We are seeing a rule-change for established professions, supported only last week by RIBA, who said in in order to take advantage of opportunities, architects “need to develop greater financial nous and commercial acumen.”

Substitute the word Architect with Designer/Craftsperson/Art maker/Curator and most can see how this situation can be applied throughout the creative industries. Read more.

A multi-disciplinary practice allows for a flexible approach.

Collaborative collectives are emerging as necessary alternatives: A design practice isn’t going to have a whole project under their remit; a sharing mentality is an emerging theme for tackling cuts in a cold climate. Read more.

Rita Semedo, graduate of Interior Design from BCU has struck out entrepreneurially with partners Thomas Slack and Carla Imbimbo. Since setting up a studio at Zellig, Custard Factory in October 2010, projects have been steadily setting up for the trio of interior, product and graphics designers trading under the name Cubed3.

They didn’t consider basing their new creative business elsewhere; and it hasn’t proved a problem so far.

We know the West Midlands, are graduates of it’s universities and have connections that have helped us start out. While we understand there is risk in starting any business, we saw a gap in the design market to represent the region in enterprising, fresh product and interior design.

-Rita Semedo.

Rita told me they are building collaborative partnerships with fellow creatives in Digbeth, coming together with a graphic designer to complete a children’s nursery project most recently. Projects on Cubed3’s order books include work refurbishing a 75 bedroom hotel and bar, and work with Birmingham Community Healthcare, refurbishing a secure healthcare environment in one of her majesty’s prisons!

At the Interiors show, Birmingham earlier this year, Cubed3 exhibited their furniture range in a stand of their own design. ‘Stack’, which was designed by to utilize off-cuts from the timber trade; by using multiples of the same section shape. The stool has a brightly printed cushion and by applying graphics to the ends, the piece becomes more than a typical birch plywood piece. Exhibiting was collaborative; Cubed3 invited students from BCU to exhibit work from an elective textile design module; accessorizing the space with printed and embroidered t-shirts.

Certainly with such a variety of projects underway, it will be interesting to see this team develop; after exhibiting at the Interiors show in January at NEC, where the designer’s were invited to attend both Grand Designs Live and Tent London (part of London Design Week), it’s going to be a busy 2011.

Read the rest of this entry »

To your right, you see glorious Cheapside. Factories and warehouses to let with flexible terms.They say that this area will eventually be regenerated, and this street, being closer to the main drag may be ripe for the pickings. Already, the café at the post office hosts storytelling and poetry evenings, serving drinks, snacks and light refreshments; further up the road is the Edge, for arts and artists to congregate and further on, The Fountain, open to the residents and the workers within the area. A cosy pub, no nonsense. Trespassers arrive and the doors shut behind them. The regulars turn and observe, and the trespasser can cheerfully order a pint of lager and some cheese and onion crisps. You begin to walk up the hill in wonderment, but decide to stop and sit on a bollard to roll a fag. The building to your left looks like a possible bathhouse. A swimming pool in Cheapside maybe not, but a Turkish Baths? Rather like the Ford Meteor Garage in Moseley or the disused dance hall in King’s Heath, both possible venues, cinemas, gig venues, arts centers? Up Cheapside there’s already plenty of offices and warehouses, it more recently boasts a Costcutter, a chippy and a cornershop. No need for another Tescos or more flats. No. There needs to be something new, something different, something for the residents and the outsiders to get their teeth into. Maybe even they’ll get used to the diagetic sounds that come from the quiet area. As you start walking again, a skipyard belches smoke. Wooden pallets ablaze, its firestarters stand around, warming themselves against the chill February afternoon. A half demolished building cries from your right, the smoke and soot cry out, face torn in two, locked in perpetual agony. Else Francis Bacon is alive and full of distemper and living in Cheapside.

Bacon would have been proud of the free art gallery on Bradford Street. Take a look…

Artists unknown but the quality speaks for itself. A cyber-lady, face obscured, pvc legs akimbo. Super-cool. Is that meant to be Corey Feldman as Golden Boy? Resplendent in spectacles and monochrome? So good it speaks for itself twice. An alien baldhead? And a Judge Great helmet, together with a motif that has been placed there by the forthcoming robot destructors, ready to obliterate Birmingham’s human populace. All there. A few tags screaming for recognition amongst poetry and quotations make you think of the putter-therer; ‘Keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds’ and better still;

But one of the finest free art collections in the city obviously is. The Kid dangled himself about for a bit in his ill-fitting school uniform that looked crap anyway. He knew it, the teachers knew it, his peers knew it, and his parents knew it. Everybody knew it. He got his fags out, and stood on for a while on Bradford Street, swigging his energy drink. Observing all around him, the creator of his own destiny, for the while. Blowing smoke out. Tomorrow, another day, back to face the consequences. He got his marker pen out and created. ‘Classroom’s not for me’. He’s a bright lad, the apostrophe is in its right place, as if that matters in the Great Scheme of Things. No, The Kid knew. Looking down the road, at the White Swan and beyond, The Anchor. Up the road, The Adam and Eve. Another swig. This city’s mine, he thought. He knew it. ‘Classroom’s not for me.’ In his few years, he’d seen it all. Nothing they could teach him. Ducking round the corner, he saw the prime minister’s face staring up at him.

Weather-beaten and worn, slashed with knives, torn from side to side. The Kid wondered; ‘Is this what I’m here for? Is this all there is?’ ‘Stop the cuts’ the poster pleaded. The Kid drank, and soaked in the image for a minute. He chucked his milkshake on the floor, spat, and got the 50 back into Balsall Heath. But the journey doesn’t stop there.

The Abacus Apartments stand erect on Alcester Street. But you’d think they’d be proud of their position, facing the derelict building and the Spotted Dog pub, but they’re not. Instead, they stand ashamed. Abashed. The bricks and mortar know that the pub used to be a thriving epicenter of Irish tradition and punk rock in-the-garden, but a few of its inhabitants had better ideas. And the apartments looked on in horror, as noise-abatement orders were issued, and the street sang not no more, but a little quietly, like poor church mice. The apartments thought;

‘No, this is not what our intention was. We wanted our lot to be vibrant, sexy, hip to new ideas and existing avenues. Look at the building opposite, with its smashed in windows, and weed strewn floors. I told you we shouldn’t have mocked, as we were being loaded out of the pallets. I told you. Now look at us. Standing proud, but everybody hates us. We’re pariahs. It’s not our fault.’

If you listen carefully on a still day, you can hear the low cry of the Abacus apartments, wishing they could invert themselves like the house in Poltergeist, but they know they shouldn’t. They just stand there, doomed to mockery and snide comments, whilst the pub opposite proudly boasts the name of the landlord and the landlord’s mantra, ‘Licensed to sell all intoxicating liquors for consumption on and off the premises.’ The Abacus Apartments also look glumly over the road, at the Rainbow pub. Monday afternoon, the pub should be swarming with hipsters and haircuts, munching on fish finger ciabattas and posing about.

No such luck. A bare floor, well swept. The upmarket lights and fans dangle lifelessly, not really doing anything at all. Bare. There should be bare people in here. But there’s nothing. The games machine doesn’t even bleep. Nobody’s been in here today. The chairs cold, waiting despondantly for the snug warmth of bottoms. The room sighs. The Big Bulls Head down the road was doing a roaring trade today, the air thick with burly chatter and chip grease. Friends and family locked in garrulous chatter, the women swigging manfully from their pints of Carling Cold, and the debate of another one for the road is answered easily with money changing hands over the bar. For a moment, the front bar of the Rainbow feels irritated, and annoyed. But the feeling dissipates as it considers the love and attention that has been tattooed on the bricks of its swaggering cousin, the Rainbow Warehouse…

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By James Kennedy

James Kennedy is a multimedia artist living in Birmingham’s city centre. The below piece is adapted from his forthcoming full length project ‘The Wind’, about re-imagining the city centre as a place of utopia and beauty.
Blog – www.jameskennedycentral.wordpress.com // Links to all the photos taken for this project can be found at; www.flickr.com/photos/james1kennedy

Fairtrade fortnight starts 28th February, the theme’s cotton, and this year Fairtrade Association Birmingham (FAB) are putting on more events than ever!

This week will also witness binning of the last of my dubiously sourced Calvin Classic underwear. About the same time as I bought my last poor quality pants (and first of many fairtrade ones), I started hanging out with FAB, shortly after we had become a fairtrade city in 2005 and before behind the game, and other cotton and slavery related school projects I got involved in.

Team FAB united have outstanding qualities – captain John Boyle (see image), a great all-rounder and cooperative man, never without an anecdote or chocolate, sweeper Paul Birch from Revolver, always there to support, safe hands Lorraine Cookson from the council, never let’s a good promotion opportunity slip by.

Then there’s the likes of Gill, Jane and Sylvia, always there, distributing the goods, academics, international stars who check fairtrade out abroad, me and Sushan making occasional runs down the wing, feeding play to the real stars, the folk who just do fairtrade, and those who want everyone else to. Which reminds me, a quick plea on behalf of small local charity LUCIA (FAB members) – they are looking for school uniforms and a possible school partnership with a school in Ethiopia. It’s a great opportunity and anyone any ideas, contact LUCIA directly.

This year marks an increase in our support for young people campaigning for fairtrade in Birmingham. Co-op are working hard with children across the city and Kit on for fairtrade events are going on with adults and children. We are organising a network evening to launch our young people’s forum for Fairtrade, and throughout Fairtrade Fortnight the whole of year 8 (around 100 12-13 yr olds) at Holy Trinity Catholic Media College explore ‘Should all trade be fair?’

For Holy Trinity, most of ‘FAB united’ are playing a part on a project of scope and depth I’ve not heard of before. We will run a Fair Dragon’s Den at end of Fairtrade Fortnight, hearing the ideas and concepts of young people which I hope FAB can support and develop.  Holy Trinity are looking to be our first Fairtrade school in Birmingham, and together with our other projects with young people, we will be looking to our future to make fair and ethical trade the norm across our great trading city!

At FAB, we like to think we’re all in it together.  Why not join us?

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By Marcus Belben

For all things Fairtrade please contact FAB, contact me, Marcus Belben, or visit my blog.