Following on from the Bristol Street Subway, Harry Palmer’s next Site of Social Special Interest is Spencer House by the now demolished Digbeth Coach Station.
The launch of this year long show (subject to demolition) is at 12 noon on Thursday 21st Feb. I highly recommend you try to attend.
Kem. Click for bigger.
First off, go check out UKGraffiti.com, specifically the Birmingham section. This is a massive archive of photos of graffiti art done in the city over the years organized by artist. It’s not the most advanced site by any stretch but it’s the closest I’ve seen to a documented history of the scene in Birmingham and that makes me very happy indeed. So much so I’d dotted them around this post.
I found out about this site at Martin Mullaney’s Graffiti – Art or Vandalism meeting tonight in Moseley which was very interesting indeed and I’m going to tell you all about it.
Taking place in the not-terribly-hip environs of the Community Development Trust building, graffiti artist Mohammed Ali gave a talk on the history of graffiti and tagging while the guys from In A City Arts talked about the history of graffiti in Birmingham and introduced the new “managed” graffiti zone in Kings Heath which they’re running with support from Mullaney.
Neus
Mohammed’s talk started with the New York 70s scene using the seminal book Subway Art, explaining how tagging evolved into painting trains that would travel around the city like public art galleries. He also was keen to emphasise the importance of the words, making a personal connection with Islamic script. Another key point was the scale of the commercial graffiti art scene, from graffiti styles being used in design to the sums paid for graffiti canvases on the international market. One particularly enlightening point was that there were people in the room who came up on the streets of Birmingham who were selling their work to movie stars, which in itself isn’t the only marker of “success” but did indicate that there’s more to graffiti than painting walls and teaching kids. This is a global industry.
Jim, aka Mekz, from In A City talked a bit about their shop but his main thrust was how to get kids who are tagging to move on to more constructive things, be it graffiti art, hip hop or anything else, and to do this by teaching them about the history of the art. The park behind Aldi in Selly Oak was discussed – during the 90s it was a managed graffiti zone where the resident youth workers (both graffiti practitioners) laid down rules about tagging and it became internationally renowned attracting artists from around the world to paint there. Developing this sense of community and history meant the place was safe and the surrounding area clean. The workers moved on after allegedly getting no support and falling out with the council to develop their careers and the place is now a mess and overflows in the surrounding areas.
Esart
But rather than inaccurately repeat the entire event (it was videoed so hopefully that will emerge online) here’s some observations I had.
Birmingham’s graffiti scene is a big part of what some call the creative industries, not just artistically but financially. Artists living here sell their work around the world and bring in vast sums of money. I couldn’t get a rough figure but I’d guess it to be in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. They probably get classified under Fine Artists or Designers or something but they come from the graffiti scene. (An example you might know is Temper and, I discovered, he’s not alone.) This tax paying base struck me as an excellent weapon to wield in getting respect from the bean counters for graffiti and hip hop culture. Maybe Punch Records are already on this, I don’t know.
There’s a history of graffiti and hip hop culture in Birmingham that has great artistic and historical significance stretching back 30 years or more. It struck me that there’s an academic imperative to start archiving and understanding this and making it part of the Birmingham story. A project like Connecting Histories would be a good model. However, in order for this to happen work need to start within the scene to show there is material worth studying here, which is why I found UKGraffiti.com so exciting.
Rome
There are roughly three generations of graf artists in the city. The older guys from the 80s who are now trading as Artists, the 20-something guys like those running In A City and the new kids starting out. What amazed me during the event was how even though they knew each other they didn’t seem to be talking to each other about the issues that so obviously concerned them and their art. I’d assumed the event would be Them explaining what they did to Us but it really felt like this was the first time they’d come together in a vaguely formal way. Obviously I’m in no place to make specific recommendations but some kind of regular meeting – say once a month in a cafe – with no agenda other than to talk and share ideas would do wonders. I also, obviously, think some kind of Created in Birmingham-style blog that simply says what’s happening in the city would be invaluable. Henry Chalfant, the author of the Subway Art book, was in Birmingham last year and some in the audience were horrified they’d not heard about it. On a more local level, two guys who were working with kids in Small Heath realised they were doing so five minutes away from each other in total ignorance. There’s a problem here. (Yes, I’ve offered my services (pro-bono, natch) to help In A City set up a blog and see how it goes.)
Martin Mullaney has a fight on his hands. There are councilors who want him to fail. He admitted a couple of years ago he would have wanted him to fail too and that he’s had a Road To Damascus experience but the fact remains a lot is riding on this managed graffiti zone in Kings Heath. If it goes wrong then it’s probably the end of such experiments, at least for now. That said, Jim talked about a discussion he’d had with Chris Dyer (the Community Safety Lead Officer who liaises between the council and the police) who is looking at establishing a larger graffiti zone in the city centre under Lancaster Circus, so it’s probably fair to say that at a civil servant level there are people who get it but that our elected councillors are, with few exceptions, hopelessly out of touch here. This is why I think they need to be talked to in their own language – financial benefit to the city, the fact that many graffiti artists are voters and, more prosaically, the artistic and cultural value this brings to the city. These might not be things that concern the graffiti / hip hop community but the knock-on effect of making them clear should benefit them.
At the end of the day I’m just an impartial observer looking at this from the outside so it’s up to the people who have an interest in this from all areas to work out how they’re going to take this forward, if at all. The general point – that by recognising Birmingham’s graffiti heritage you can make inroads into stopping kids tagging indiscriminately – is a tough one to buy but having listened to the arguments I think there’s something in it. Get to it, people.
Andy at Substrakt wonders, what’s up with Eastiside? Considering he works there and has friends who live there he’s surprised to realise he doesn’t know exactly what’s going to happen with the redevelopment. So he digs around online and finds… not much really.
On the one hand this isn’t too surprising. The Eastside development is a pretty massive project with loads of companies and government departments involved so tying it all together at a granular level would be a nightmare. But if you’re just interested in the broader strokes it would be handy to have some kind of website that brings together all the developer sketches and so on into one place.
Something like, say, Manchester’s New Islington site, as suggested by Andy. Only a little less c-r-a-z-y please.
I can’t think of anything for Eastside. Does it exist? Should the council (or whatever body is overseeing the whole project) do one? Is that an unreasonable request? If it is, does anyone want to start a blog on it? I suspect the AdSense revenue would be pretty good on something like that… Let me know if you need a hand setting it up.
Photo by Dr King Bertt. Click on it for details.
Another very handy post from Autumn Store Dunc on putting posters up for gigs in Birmingham in which he goes through the methodology (“If you’ve got blu-tac then offer to put it up there and then and save them a bit of time, I say this because there have been times when I’ve handed posters over and they’ve vanished”) and rules of engagement (“please please please never take someone else’s poster down unlss the event has passed”) finishing up with a piece of wishful thinking:
I do wish there was cross-pollination of posters between venues, so that as much information as possible is available to people. I’m partially thinking of that massive wall in the Academy as you go in, that would be a brilliant wall to give over to local promoters and have it filled with posters (for aesthetic reasons as well as local music reasons). After all Academy size bands don’t just pop up over night, they play gigs in local pubs first, put on by local promoters, and watched by local people and supporting this whole system is essential if anyone wants to fill a large venue like The Academy with gig goers.
He then starts to list his current fave places for putting up posters and invites others to help pad it out, specifically for Harborne, Bearwood and the Aston / BCU areas.
The notion of breaking this protectionist attitude that promoters seem to have is a good one. At the end of they day they’re not really in competition with each other and cross-promotion of gigs can only be a good thing as it helps create the impression that there’s lots going on. I particularly love the idea of venues like Barfly and Academy having an all-comers poster wall. Be part of the community, people.
Finally, if I might stick my neck out, it’d be great if what Dunc’s doing could turn into some sort of online community for small promoters in the city to share knowledge. Check out Ning as a possible tool in this regard.
Sure, CiB got the award thing and that’s all lovely and stuff, but no blog is an island, especially one like this which employs the via credit liberally. So here’s a quick run down in no particular order of some of the Birmingham blogs I like to think of as Rather Good.
(Not a comprehensive list, inclusion based on arbitrary factors, won’t be relevant in a week’s time as everything changes, etc…)
Andrew Dubber is someone I’d consider a peer and while his New Music Strategies blog has an international reach his being based in Birmingham makes it essential reading. Together with online journalism guru Paul Bradshaw it’s nice to have experts on hand as they help focus my thinking about these unchartered waters.
Ana Milgram, aka Art Stalking Ana, and Nikki Pugh are a couple of practicing artists who really get the blogging thing, giving coverage to stuff they’re involved with and a bit of criticism to complement their practices. Useful models for artists to look at, especially given they’re usually isolated in their studios. A blogging network of artists would be a good thing.
Some of the city’s design agencies provide me with a river of cool stuff which they collect as inspiration and post on their blogs. It’s rarely Birmingham centric but it goes to illustrate the global thinking of these folks. Or something. Substrakt, Boxer, Clusta, Surely and TAK! spring to mind.
Actually, TAK! deserve a second mention as I’m always impressed by how Dom uses that blog to share his knowledge in a way that promotes his business, alongside having some fun, of course. Definitely a blog people can learn from.
Antonio Gould consults in the world of social media these days and when he blogs it’s usually interesting and thought provoking. He helps me put a real world spin on my more fantastical ideas.
Duncan of The Autumn Store‘s blog has become somewhat invaluable of late. Rather than just plug his gig nights he uses his blog to spread the knowledge he’s garnered putting on bands and talking about stuff he likes the look of. A great model for a local arts blog.
Birmingham: It’s Not Shit‘s Jon Bounds is like a blogging brother to me, coming at this stuff with the same spirit yet from different directions. Jon really should be running the local tourist board and no mistake.
Anthony Herron of new-ish record label Boy Wonder has embraced the blogging thing with gusto, using it to get his opinions out there and start to join a bigger debate. Early days still but I have high hopes.
There are a number of podcasters in the city but none have quite the level of passion, dedication and consistency as Little Chris and his Brumcast where he manages to fill a hour every week with new Birmingham music. Give the guy a medal.
Bunny Bissoux became one of my favourite blogs this autumn as she single handedly became the best advertisement for the Custard Factory’s Sunday Flea Market where she had a stall. Hard to describe exactly what maker her blog so good other than it’s a joy to read.
Charlotte Carey gets the whole blogging thing, though she’s a little schizophrenic about it. She’s got a personal blog and a main blog on Creative Enterprise but I like to treat them as one thing. Again, hard to pin down but that’s a good thing.
Leon Trimble’s Chromatouch blog is a great example of a digital notebook. He’s a VJ and experimental film maker by trade and uses this blog to record stuff he finds along those lines. As such it gives a good picture of where he’s coming from and what he’s thinking about.
Clare Edwards of Gigbeth fame is one of the people I’ve been wanting to get blogging properly for a while now. She’s nearly there.
The Crowded Gallery blog from photographer Craig Holmes is a nice example of how you can add a small amount of informal chat and revolutionise your web presence.
Related to this, photographer Steve Gerrard’s blog is a fantastic example of using a blog to promote the photographer as a person. I’d hire Steve not only because I like his photos but because I feel like I know him. It helps that he’s a lovely guy as this really comes out in his blog.
And also on the “lovely people” tip, Friends of the Stars blog well because their souls are pure. What started off as a jokey diary of how rubbish they were at getting their album out has turned into a savvy promotional tool for their music and the scene they operate in, though I suspect a lot of this savvy was accidental.
Andy Pryke is one of Birmingham’s original bloggers (so much so he wrote his own blogging software) so he deserves a mention out of respect, but also because he’s a regular face at arts events with his curly hair and big grin. A lovely man whose enthusiasm for the local arts and music scene is infectious.
I’m intrigued by what Fused are going to do with their slowly growing network of blogs after dipping a toe into fashion. It seems they’ve got all the tools ready and are just waiting for the right moment to launch. If they get it right, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t, Fused could become a rather powerful force online.
It’s safe to say D’log makes my job a hell of a lot easier. I don’t know where he finds half the stuff he does but I’m happy to just sit back and let him do it. Everyone in the Midlands should be following this blog.
The aforementioned Andrew Dubber explained the social internet to Mark Badger and he dove in head first without water wings or a snorkel. The resulting Iron Man Records blog can be rather disorienting but it’s a pretty accurate representation of the stuff that comes Mark’s way. Part of me wants him to calm it down but the sensible part of me knows it’s better the way it is, a reflection of the chaos that is Mark’s life.
I like watching journalists experiment with blogging. They’re a bit like web nerds in that they’re really keen to figure out how it all works and what it’s all for. Two Birmingham journos who really seem to get it are Joanna Geary and Tom Scotney, both of the Birmingham Post. Their blogs are as different as their personalities and might not be of interest to those outside the journalistic bubble, but as the media landscape in Birmingham changes watching how these two figure it all out is fascinating.
Marc Reck’s blog was pretty invaluable last year for both Project X Presents and La Traviata, not to mention his presence as a Birmingham DJ. He’s gone a bit quiet of late but I understand there’s a bit project a’coming regarding an elephant.
Who is Nunovo? What exactly does he/she/it do? And why? And, ultimately, does it matter is these questions are never answered? What I can say is Nunovo has pointed me to stuff in varying degrees of note over the last year and I’m very grateful for the existence of the various blogs.
If blogging is like pontificating in a crowded pub then Russ L is the guy at the bar keeping order with judiciously placed glances. Or something. His blog is essential, not just for putting us in our places but for his monthly roundups of Things To Do and extensive reviews of gigs and events. And he’s a reliable haunter of the comment boxes.
Nick Booth of Podnosh is an interesting case. Ostensibly we’re doing the same thing – using new technologies to encourage communities in Birmingham to use new technologies – yet we very rarely seem to blog about much in common. I’ve decided to see this as a good thing implying we’re both on the right track and that the future of Birmingham’s social internet is more varied and vibrant.
Adrian Goldberg’s Stirrer is another odd one (and not strictly a blog if you can define such things). Adrian’s a lovely chap but the tone of his site irritates the hell out of me and the attached forum is too often a nightmare of idiocy. Still, he’s carved out a niche for himself and that I have little desire to go there could be seen as a success in that regard. I include him here as he does cover arts stuff and his video interviews with local authors have been very nice to see.
Here’s a nice example of why you should take blogging seriously when designing a website. When Chris Keenan’s Prime Objective website was built the blog was tacked on and buried under the Flash interface as an afterthought. It’s since become one of the best arts blogs in the region, but it’s still buried under that Flash interface with no permalinks to the posts. Aargh! But the RSS feed works and it’s well worth keeping tabs on, even if it’s impossible to link to, because Chris is a fascinating chap who does interesting work, keeping his eyes and ears open to to the world.
Rich Batsford is currently off the radar a bit on his 6 month sabbatical in Australia but he’s been an essential figure on the Birmingham blog scene, tying together his personal perspectives on life with his heavy involvement in stuff. Hurry back, Rich!
Thomas Moronic was one of my favourite finds of last year. Ostensibly a creative writing blog where our hero plays about with words and ideas, he also uses it to profile and interview the people who likes and admires. Analogous to an old-school zine in many ways, it oozes attitude and character.
There are a number of bloggers who do gig reviews but the most consistent has to be The Hearing Aid. The coverage is mostly, but not exclusively, of the indie variety and The Baron covers that niche well, regularly haunting the Rainbow and Barfly.
Finally, my man Stef Lewandowski whose uses his blog to rant and rave about stuff, rubbing folk in power the wrong way at times but usually getting away with it. And when he’s not venting about how things should be done he’s offering handy tutorials on setting up blogs and websites and evangelizing the good word.
That’s your lot. As you’d expect there’s an emphasis on the arts and creative blogs and I’ve missed out loads in order to make this a vaguely manageable list, so apologies to those who didn’t make it. You’re all doing good work and I still loves ya.
And if any journalists want to use this post when writing an article, say one on mapping the UK’s blogosphere, feel free to pinch and plunder.
A press release through from Marketing Birmingham tells us that TAK! have gotten the tender for the new Visit Birmingham website. I wouldn’t normally blog about such things but this is, I feel, pretty interesting.
1) TAK! is a relatively small web design company, not the sort of operation you’d expect a major City project to go to (unless I’m mistaken).
2) TAK!, in my opinion, really understand the internet and should be able to provide all the “Web 2.0″ stuff required without bolloxing it up. That MB were able to see this in their application is a credit to them.
3) TAK! come, if you’ll excuse the expression, “from the street” as evidenced by their Stickernation project so understand there’s more to Birmingham than the usual tourist stuff (as important as that is). Whether they can get this through to the content of the site is debatable, but their branding of the site should be interesting.
From the press release (Word doc):
“They are clearly experts in their field and had thought about the long term development of the site, not just a quick fix. They incorporated Web 2.0 technologies in their proposals as it is an important way of facilitating user generated content but did not overload on gimmicks just for the sake of it. They also proposed future extensions of their ideas to really add value and ensure that the website will be flexible enough to keep evolving.”
The Visit Birmingham website was created to encourage people to come to the city, make it easy for them to do so and ensure they make the most of what Birmingham has to offer while they’re here. The new design will aim to place Birmingham at the forefront of digital technology. It will be stylish yet simple and will incorporate a fresh look with an innovative content strategy to engage with, retain and guide users.
Best of luck to them!
In April 2007 Aerosolarabic, aka Mohammed Ali, travelled from Birmingham to Chicago, New York and Boston to paint murals with the aim of breaking down prejudices against British Muslims (amongst other things). The Chicago piece wasn’t completed but the New York one, a tribute to 9 children who’d recently died in a house fire, was. Here’s a documentary covering its creation and the reaction of the residents.
Ali has also written a long travel essay about the trip which is well worth reading.
I found about this project because Ali is appearing at an event in Moseley in Thursday 31st January along with the folks from Inacity Arts, a new-ish graffiti gallery in Kings Heath (which I’ll write more about later), on the subject “Graffiti – is it Art or Vandalism?” The event is chaired by councillor Martin Mullaney who, as you’ll probably know, has been active in tackling illegal tagging and promoting graffiti “managed zones” in the area. Here’s the blurb:
Residents complain about graffiti blighting their neighbourhood, but if we want to tackle this issue we need to understand the modern origins of graffiti, why teenagers graffiti tag, and how we can harness that energy and creativity and move it into something more positive and legal, namely graffiti art.
This will be an opportunity to meet and talk to Birmingham based graffiti artists (both teenagers and older) who want to help reduce the level of tagging by providing ‘managed’ legal graffiti art zones. This will explain what a ‘managed’ graffiti art zone is, in contrast to an ‘unmanaged’ zones.
Martin “will be presenting the findings of a Scrutiny Review into tackling nuisance graffiti in Birmingham to the City Council on Tuesday 5th February. The report will be made public on Tuesday 29th January. One of the recommendations in the report is controversial, since it recommends investigating the setting up of ‘managed’ legal graffiti zones. This meeting will describe what this is, how their creation could help reduce graffiti tagging long term and move teenagers into the legal side of graffiti art.”
The event takes place at the Moseley CDT, next to the Post Office on Alcester Road (map).
Here’s a selection of colour slide photographs of Birmingham in the 1960s taken by Phyllis Nicklin, then the Staff Tutor in Geography at the University of Birmingham. I picked out three but there are many more. Have a look before we get to the meat of the matter. (Click for bigger.)
Anderton Street terraces, Ladywood, 1968
Little Anne Street / Milk Street, 1953
Bull Ring, 1959
According to the site (and D’log‘s research), Nicklin died in 1969 leaving thousands of slides taken for her classes. 450 of these were scanned and released online in 2004/5 as part of the “Chrysalis” project from the West Midlands Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. This project, and the website, seems to be firmly defunct and offline. So the only record we have of these photos (which, you’ll note, were “kindly made available to down-load and redistribute for non-commercial research or private study purposes” by the University) is an unauthorised gallery from Keith Berry who was wise enough to take some copies.
So where are these photos? I’d imagine someone is working in some department where there’s a CD with them on. If they are licensed to be made available it shouldn’t be hard to throw them up on Flickr or similar. Hell, I’ll do it if you post me the disc. Or you could contact The Big Picture – they’re looking for old photos of Birmingham as well as contemporary ones.
[Update: Thanks to Dave Harte in the comments it looks like all 450-odd are here. Yay!]
Above all this is an important lesson about the sustainability of funded online projects, not just about the need to keep them online but that passion is an important part of the process. There must be a middle ground to be found here between those with the means and those with the will.
While Birmingham may criminally not have a photography museum or gallery of great substance we do, as of today, have a stupidly large and ambitious online photography project run, I’m pleased to say, by people who actually understand how these things should work.
On the face of it The Big Picture is one of those juggernaut public service projects that try to cast as wide a net as possible over society in the hope of drawing some kind of representation of it – “The Nation’s Favourite X, Y or Z”. Or, because of it’s size, fails to see the details. This one, hopefully, should avoid that.
The aim is pretty simple. To get 100,000 to be added to a giant mosaic representing the West Midlands. The key is they have to be submitted. And that’s about it. This ever growing pool of photos then forms the basis for all manner of events but, crucially, also provides a new layer of connectivity for people.
The centre of the project is photo-sharing site Flickr. There’s a Big Picture group but you can add your photos by simply tagging them bigpicture2008, or if you’re not using Flickr, directly through the Big Picture site. And, thanks to the glory of Web 2.0, the data that surrounds these photos can be used all over the place. You’ll see examples on the Big Picture site but where it’ll get interesting is when others start taking this stuff and playing with it themselves.
So while the 100,000 photo mosaic might be cool, that’s just an excuse to develop a massive library of photos of the West Midlands, built by the people who live there, for anyone to create new works with. Nice.
Those behind it have blogged:
Jon Bounds is the Online Editor (Jon is also Mr BiNS)
Stef Lewandowski built the website out of twigs and rubber bands.
I’ve written about Silent UK on my own blog but coming across his/their Deviant Art profile (courtesy, as ever, of D’log) made me realise I’d not brought him/them to your attention.
What’s going on here is urban exploration where folks gain entry, usually illegally, into abandoned buildings, underground tunnels and other areas not usually visited and make a record. Silent UK in particular takes the most wonderful photos and a fair few of them are in Birmingham. Like this one.
At some point I’m going to get off my arse, get a pair of waders and start doing this myself, but in the meanwhile it’s great to see others recording our hidden architectural heritage (though, unlike that above ground, it’s unlikely to suffer the trials of regeneration.)
Jon Bounds of Birmingham: It’s Not Shit was on 6music this morning “bigging up” Birmingham to the digital radio masses. Always good value, that Jon.
Is there a term for news that might turn out to be something substantial or might turn out to be optimistic bluster? Schrödinger’s story? Anyway, news is bubbling up today that the council wants to make the Jewellery Quarter a World Heritage Site. B:INS and Adrian have more. [Later: and Tom]
The money quote: “Although the Quarter has two museums – one of the jewellery, the other celebrating the history of the pen, I’m not sure we’ve got enough to keep the tourists here.”
And if it happens, what will it mean? Less rapacious redevelopment, hopefully but other than that? Um…
Running until Sunday 6th of April the MAC’s Do You Remember The First Time? looks to be worth a visit.
This retrospective exhibition curated by Rob Hewitt and Simon Redgrave draws from reactions to more than 40 years of work at mac and explores memories from audiences, artists and staff, from past and present.
What began in 1962 as the Midlands Arts Centre for Young People, pioneering access to culture for thousands of families, mac has created decades of ‘first times’ which it’s now easy to take for granted. The form of mac has always been shifting; reflecting changes in society and in arts practice. As the building faces major redevelopment we invite you to consider mac’s legacy. This exhibition creates environments drawn from different periods of mac’s pioneering work. We pay tribute to unforgettable personalities and performances with unique archive images, unseen documents and film footage. Drink in some of the most memorable mac moments from thousands of plays, films, shows, concerts and exhibitions.
They’re still welcoming contributions of memories and memorabilia. Details here.
(I think my first time there was watching Leaving Las Vegas in the cinema and then heading straight for the bar afterwards.)
via everyone
The fifth of Digital Central’s Perspectives on the West Midlands Music Industry series of interviews with local figures has Matt and Lee Parsons of Ditto Music answering three questions at great length. Topics covered are the strengths and weaknesses in the region, best practices and the inevitable but essential “next steps”.
You’ll remember Ditto as being the pseudo-label who helped Koopa become the first “unsigned” band to break the top 40 last year. Dubber covered the details well on that one.
Missed it: Nikki Pugh posted up her notes from the Studio Space debate last month held at Vivid. In a trade off to get people talking the event wasn’t recorded for publication, which is a shame. I was hoping more blogging, etc would come out of this. Maybe Christmas got in the way?
