Kate Chapman & Charlotte Goodwin - Amplifying the Map

I have to admit to be SUPER excited about the impending re-opening of the mac.  So ANY news, or any work linked to the opening, in turn excites me too.  In addition, my personal interests are deeply rooted in events which involve an element of participation – and with that in mind, I’m particularly excited to touch upon ‘Site and Sounds’.

“Site and Sounds offers a taste of the activities planned for mac’s re-opening in 2010 including workshops, walks and the premiere of a specially composed anthem for mac. mac’s Associate Artists Stan’s Cafe and Motionhouse Dance Theatre will also be presenting work as part of the summer programme including an adventure in the dark and some in-your-face dancing.”

There’s a substantial programme of events leading up to the re-opening – details of which can be found on the macartists website, as well as information on how to book for workshop places.  I was excited to see a screen-printing workshop advertised, then realised I am sadly 16 years too old to take part. Sniffle.  If you DO fit into that age category however, I think it’ll be a lot of fun!

I’m also curious about the recent theme of ‘mapping’ which keeps cropping up in projects and artist’s works of late.  This time, artists Kate Chapman and Charlotte Goodwin are exploring the mapping theme by inviting people who live, work or play close to mac to re-discover familiar places and explore places they have never visited before, sharing their thoughts and observations to create an audio map of the changing landscape.  All of these recordings will feed into an audio map – a web of downloadable audio tracks focusing on different locations in a mile radius of Cannon Hill Park.  I’m wondering if any CiB readers have experienced any other map-themed artworks/projects of late – if so, send me an email or leave a comment.

I will also be interested to see ‘Underground’,  performed by four dancers from Motionhouse Dance Theatre.

“Set within a rocking tubular structure, using physical dance, poignant imagery and surprising aerial encounters, ‘Underground’, explores the reality of train travel.”

Considering the title of the performance, I imagine it would originally by inspired by the experience of underground travel as opposed to regular trains.  How this will translate both to regular train travel as well as the open space of Cannon Hill Park will remain a mystery until the performance itself, which is happening Saturday 18th July at Cannon Hill Park at 11.30am, 1pm and 3pm.

Motionhouse Dance Theatre - Underground

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Friday, 05/06/09, 19:00

Ten high-backed chairs, some seating elderly people and some seating younger people, spanned the back of the stage area at The Door, the studio theatre at Birmingham Rep. Above this seating arrangement was a large screen, showing slow panoramics of the Birmingham skyline. In front of them, a gently-lit bed with a man lying down, a wheeled trolley next to him and a fan pointed at him.

A short film entitled “Hats” began. The first shot panned out to show a woman, with coarse patchy hair and a massive grin cackling as she tried on the most extravagant yellow hat with massive straw brim. She looked into the camera and said, “Yes. This is me.”

At this point, I have to admit to no longer being able to see very well due to the large amounts of tears gushing down my face – so if my descriptions fall short somehow, I apologise.

Rosetta Life is a charity dedicated to working with people who have life-threatening illnesses.  “The Magical Glow of the Co Op” was a rehearsed reading as part of the Rosetta Live celebrations that featured the work of two hospices; Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice in Selly Park and St Giles Hospice Whittington, near Lichfield. Working together, more than 30 hospice users generated a performance script that looked at the choices people face when dying and the difficulties they face when making these choices.  In the 10 chairs sat 3 professional actors (the fourth was lying on the bed), 6 hospice users and one care professional.  Throughout the reading hospice users took to the stage to perform alongside the professional actors which really added weight and poignancy (as well as some unexpected laughs) to the evening.

The performance finished with an aftershow discussion called ‘The Big Conversation – Let’s Talk About Living’.  The audience were invited to ask questions of the panel of hospice users who had taken part in the perfomance, health care practitioners and the actors who were still in character.  Until then, I had kept my eyes focused on the stage, hoping to hide anonymously at the edge of a row.  However once the lights went up, I really looked at the audience – at those people who had chosen to spend a night in the company of such a taboo subject.   The audience consisted of every economic/social/cultural background you can imagine, all sat in one small venue watching their loved ones perform, or the words of their lost loved one performed by their peers.  And there were no dry eyes.  Not one.

I feel excited that Birmingham East and North PCT were brave enough not only to fund this project, but also to enable Birmingham to become the first UK city that is making steps to talk openly about how it’s citizens positively approach life as it draws to a close, as well as how they want to be remembered. Created in Birmingham has always highlighted exciting and relevant creative ventures linked to the city, and I can’t think of a more perfect project to write about in my first post proper.  Actors, hospice users, venue and funders are all citizens of Birmingham, breaking new and important (if at times uncomfortable) ground.  This was a performance that anyone touched by illness should see, not just the friends and families of those performing.

“The Magical Glow of the Co-op” was just one small part of the Rosetta Live celebration running throughout June. It culminates in a film premiere at The Electric Cinema on 29th June commencing at 6.00pm.  To book, please contact bookings@rosettalive.org – I know I’m going to be there.

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Performances will take place in five of the reputedly most haunted heritage properties across the Midlands: Highbury Hall in Moseley, Birmingham; The Molineux Hotel in Wolverhampton; Tutbury Castle in Burton-on-Trent; The Old Guildhall in Leicester; and Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire. Only 20 seats are available at some venues and the maximum capacity at the larger venues is 40.

Tickets are available from Oxboffice.

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At long last The Drum is launching “Young Gifted Brum“, a free and continuous program of performing and digital arts for Children and Young People.

The launch will take place on Thursday, 6th November at 5.30pm – 7.30pm at The Drum, Aston and all Young People aged 8-18yrs are welcome to come along if they are interested in Singing, Dance, Music, Digital Art, Acting and Spoken Word to find out what will be on offer in the coming months. They do not have to have any experience and it is not just open to people who want to perform. There will be an opportunity to showcase your talents at two annual events, whether your talents lie in producing, writing, directing, delivering events or performing in them.

There will also be a free “Taster Session” that will take place at The Drum on Saturday, 8th November between 12pm and 4pm.

For more information please contact Dee on (0121) 333 2431

Taken from the Arts Council’s free mailing list, which is free and worth making use of.  I imagine it goes to quite a lot of people nationwide and it’d be great to have plenty of Birmingham (and other West Mids) stuff on it.

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The Society of Futopia has been developed by four final year students at BIAD, Birmingham City University and will take place during the New Generation Arts Festival. One of the artists, Gareth Burnett did have a blog he was using as a diary – there’s some interesting stuff there but that seems to have petered out. According to the artists:

The performance is rooted in Futurist Theatre and mixes live performance with film and animation; at its core it is an exploration of the human condition. There is a level of interaction with the audience; instead of conventional lighting the audience will be given torches to discover the characters themselves.

Or, rather more excitingly:

In violence we worship beauty. Destroy. Destroy. Destroy. This is the truth according to the Society of Futopia.

The performance will also be filmed and exhibited alongside a set of photographs based around science and genetics in the future, religious structures and the human condition. This exhibition runs from 17th June – 20th June. On the subject of filming, here’s a trailer they prepared earlier:

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The video has generated a great deal of coverage and no small amount of controversy. You can see it for yourself here:

Jiva is giving a talk at BIAD on 14 May and will be performing a piece called ‘The Terror Of Living‘ at Warwick Arts Centre on 21 May, both as part of the Fierce Festival.

His own website is at www.jivajiva.com.

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The International Dance Festival Birmingham started today and continues until Sunday 25 May at venues all over the city. Pete mentioned this back in January and pointed out how truly international the line-up is, with performers from Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, Cuba and Russia, as well as “rising star” Rosie Kay from Birmingham.

The full line-up for this week (and indeed the other weeks) can be seen on their events page.

Pulling out highlights would be a fool’s errand but for those looking to sample the impressive wares without parting with their hard-earned, there are a few free events to catch:

• Performances in shop windows around the city centre are taking place daily from midday all this week – head for Oasis, the Puma Store, Bathstore and Chamberlain Square. More details here.
• In Victoria Square on Friday night, 9pm and on Saturday at 4pm and 9pm you can see Watch This Space which I have very high hopes for indeed.

Lastly, the festival has a blog, although I see this hasn’t been updated in the past week. I’m hoping they use it to collect together all the photos, videos and reviews that will be spun out by visitors to the events, similar to the Collective Memories that Pete did here (and that I’ll be continuing to do).

Photo by Brian Slater.

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The opening party will be held at The Vaults on 16 May and promises burlesque cabaret from Miss High Leg Kick and Fierce’s favourite DJ Joe Egg. Entry is free but you’ll need to RSVP as capacity is limited.

In the lead up to the festival there are a few events being held on Wednesdays at 2pm at BIAD:

• On 30 April Breathe will be creating “sensory performative experiences in interactive environmments” with The Other Way Works “daring and remarkable theatre that draws the audience into the very heart of the experience.
• On Wednesday 7 May at the same time and place it’s the turn of Harminder Singh Judge and Hancock & Kelly Live.
• Finally, on 14 May it’s the conceptual artist Yara El-Shirbini and trans-disciplinary artist Jiva Parthipan who will take the stage.

I’ll go into the specifics of this year’s festival a little nearer the time but the main programme runs from 21 to 31 May, with a bewildering array of shows and events in that time.

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Here’s the winners of the My Fierce Festival public vote competition thingy:

Theatres
Whisper (Proto-type Theater)
Playing The Victim (Switch)
I Told It To A Mannequin (Francesca Millican Slater & Lindsey Price)

Public Spaces
The Fête Encounter (Various Artists)
B1 Labyrinths (Needless Allies)
It Sank With The Shape Of Us (Victoria Pratt)

Unconventional Spaces
The Moment Before We Kiss (Michael David Jones)
The Divine Edgar (Scott Johnston/Film Ficciones)
Foot Washing Foor The Sole (Adrian Howells)

These will take place over the May Bank Holiday weekend, 23 to 26 May, as part of the Fierce Festival.

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I’ve been criminally negligent in reporting on the My Fierce Festival shenanigans this last week but have raised myself from my ineptitude, or something, to inform you that today is the final day to vote on which acts will appear as part of Fierce this year. Get to it!

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Artstalking Ana reports on Wunderkammer which opened on Wednesday at BIAD with a live performance, which I’ll let Ana describe:

David Miller and Edward Wakefield were lying inside perspex cabinets as characters drawn from when they were students at Margaret Street. Ed was lying in state, with audio playing (unfortunately you couldn’t hear this very well with all the noise) and David was writhing ineffectually in his white ribbon bondage.

Photo also by Ana with more in her blog post. The show continues (presumably without the live bodies in cabinets) until the 16th, 10am-5pm, not weekends, in the Foyer of BIAD, Margaret St. There’s then a “critique” on the 16th at 6pm.

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After a decade of stop-you-in-your-tracks live art events and performances FIERCE is trailblazing once more giving you, the audience, the power to program your own festival!

We’ve reserved a range of spaces from theatres to pavements, broom cupboards and dressing rooms. You decide what goes in them.

* Read the artist pitches
* Choose your top three performances and vote!
* Come back to build your festival line up and use the leader board to help you.

Shows with the least votes will be eliminated; the most popular shows will be performed LIVE during Fierce Festival at venues across the West Midlands 23rd – 26th May.

They has a blog too :)

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Go read!

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 2 comments |

The company’s work encompasses a professional theatre group, organising a regular live music event ‘The Live Box’, literature in the shape of ‘Wired Up’ magazine and a broad range of education work, from jazz workshops, to youth theatre and group trips as far a field as South Africa and the United States.

Given Birmingham’s location within the United Kingdom and the breadth of talent within the city, Nu Century Arts has maintained that its artists should not be marginal, but play a central role in the cultural direction of the country; have access to the fullest possible range of skills; and produce the highest quality work. Moreover, it seeks to provide a consistent base and a framework promoting new African Caribbean work, irrespective of political/ cultural trends and fashions.

The do work in a variety of venues including The Drum and The Rep and the artists listed on their site include Soweto Kinch, Julie Dexter, Eska Mtungwazi and Shabaka Hutchins.

Awareness came to me from Osahon Orchard who is running a free 10 week acting course for over 19 year olds as a “way to regain confidence as well as get back into performing” at 16 Grosevenor Road B20 3NP. Contact him on osahon.orchard [at] ntlworld.com for details.

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The big press release of the day appears to be for the International Dance Festival Birmingham coming out of DanceXchange and the Hippodrome with events happening at the Rep, Town Hall, Ikon and the Mailbox from 28th April to 24th May.

Here’s the press release and programme highlights (PDFs).

Quote from the festival co-directors:

David Massingham, Artistic Director of DanceXchange: “In great cities all around the world, I see arts festivals creating passion and energy, adding spirit and excitement, galvanising local communities, celebrating identities. Birmingham’s new International Dance Festival is about bringing one of the most human and accessible artforms into our everyday lives.”

Stuart Griffiths, Chief Executive of Birmingham Hippodrome: “This truly will be a festival with an international reach. We’ve managed to secure the involvement of some of the world’s most prominent dance companies and the programme looks set to help establish Birmingham as a major cultural player within the UK, and across the world.”

When they say international they’re not kidding and it’s great to see a Birmingham festival that lives up to that tagline with dancers from Taiwan, Cuba, China, South Africa, Russia, India, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, USA, Portugal and more. But there’s also local talent involved. Quickly scanning through the PDFs I spotted the phrase “Birmingham-based rising star Rosie Kay” and did some digging. Here’s her pretty well stocked website which has plenty to dig through along with a link to her Flickr stream containing a mix of press shots and informal behind the scenes photos. Nice. Here’s one from her company’s production of The Wild Party:

Rosie appears to have had a pretty good 2007. This interview goes through some of the highlights and covers the Birmingham connection.

What bought you back to the UK – and Birmingham, where you’re based?
I’d almost given up dancing – I knew I wanted to be a choreographer, but I couldn’t be abroad, I needed my own language, and I’d have to start again. I saw the Dance Artist in Residence post at DanceXchange in Birmingham. I’d taught a huge amount but this kind of gave me my choreographic stripes. It was great experience working with a massive range of people – and it just got me back into the UK scene.

I had a good look at the funding system and around then (2003) it was becoming more regional. I thought if I could survive in Birmingham – with beautiful studios and real support, I could really invent my own world here. And I’ve had dancers from Korea, Hawaaii, Brazil, people come and work with me. I don’t feel the pressure of a big scene – and I don’t feel lonely, because there’s DanceXchange.

[Later: I just discovered her company did the wonderful Ballet on the Buses one of the highlights of last year's Fierce Festival.]

Expect more coverage of this event over the forthcoming months…

via Audiences Central

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The second is a slideshow of the feedback tickets left in the Five Ways roundabout:

My for-what-it’s-worth review is here.

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Best viewed as a slideshow I reckon.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | 5 comments |

More here.

If you’ve got your Gigbeth wristband you can get into the dress rehersal tonight and some tickets are still available on the door tomorrow for the show proper. A year in the making, by all accounts. Should be good.

If you’re not sure, the Rainbow Warehouse is just along from the Rainbow pub itself on Adderley St. Should be fairly obvious.

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Well done to Lee and Sandra and the huge team involved. A magnificent achievement on so many levels. Birmingham should be proud.

Those three photos are by myself. More are trickling onto Flickr and given the number of cameras around I’m sure videos will be appearing on the Reality Estate site once everyone’s recovered.

Most importantly I understand this is just the start of a whole year of work with the Five Ways estate. The organizers are keen that this isn’t just a blink and you miss it community arts project. They’re in the for the long haul.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | 3 comments |

As part of Project X Presents m’chum Matt Murtagh will be accompanying Einstellung’s set with a series of photos based on Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire. He’s posted three of them on Flickr.

Project X Presents takes place on Saturday 3rd November and tickets are £15/20 from here.

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Previously on CiB

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What we mean by the word omnimedia, is that there is no type of media, or creative endeavour that we leave out of our thinking when planning our events. Music has so far been the principal ingredient (in a wide variety of styles), along with spoken word, physical theatre, visual projections, dance, set design and even aroma.

What we aim to do is take all these many disparate and diverse strands and weave them together into one seamless, holistic whole, so the many effectively become one. Hence omnimedia seems the best fit.

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Project X blog about not getting funding from the Arts Council:

“It is simply an unfortunate situation that out of the 9 applications from organisations recommended, only 2 made it through to receiving funding.” And there’s the rub – only two out of recommended 9 applications are to get any money – 22%. The Olympics are apparently playing a role in this having diverted a great deal of lottery money – in the past the Arts Council has been able to grant 40 – 50% of the successful applications they receive.

Project X Presents, which brings together a while swathe of performing arts people from Birmingham in one six hour show, will still take place on November 3rd despite the likelihood of the participants being suitable renumerated so if you’re umming and ahing about going this should tip you towards a yes. And if you can afford to, go for the £20 ticket.

(Disclaimer – I like Project X)

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | One comment |

Do you remember KR-36, the “urban adventure game” that took place as part of The Event back in April? It’s good to learn it wasn’t just a one-off and has been fed into an exhibition titled DY-66 at the Five Years gallery in that London.

There’s also a report on the game, from which the above notebook is taken, and I think I recognise a few faces in there.

Artstalking Ana is involved and writes about it on her blog.

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Art by Jinpow.

Tickets available from here.

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Woo!

You can get a copy of the festival brochure from Audiences Central and download a PDF version.

© pete for Created in Birmingham, 2007. | 5 comments |

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