Yesterday it was an Invisible City, today it’s a Hidden one:
The Hidden City’s aim is to create a database of stories that have helped shape the community we live and work in today
It’s basically a map with some nicely produced audio slideshows and very nice it is too. You can subscribe to updates via Twitter, the Tumblr or iTunes. Have an explore around. This one’s about The Drum:
Not yer usual call for artists this one. The Hippodrome are getting Smile to make an iPhone app that’ll be used to showcase live art around the city.
They’re looking to commission regional artists and designers to devise and produce a piece of live art that will be featured inside the iPhone app. It says here that inter-disciplinary collaboration is favourable.
The full brief is here. If you’re interested, you need to submit your idea by 8 Feb (that’s tomorrow). They’re only looking for 200 words and your contact details though, so it’s not too bad.
In 2010, Birmingham was due to become a leading digital city. I’ve no reason to assume that didn’t happen on schedule, although I’ve been flicking through The Drum’s list of Top 100 Digital Agencies (by fee income) and they don’t seem to have got the memo.
The Midlands (east and west) only have three agencies listed. Those are:
The good news is we beat Wales (one agency listed) and the North East (also one agency, although their fee income easily outstrips the combined Midlands ones). Hurrah, I suppose.
Well done to 383 Project for their mention in the ones to watch for 2012 list.
Storebeez is
a virtual mall focused on helping small businesses and artisans take their offline business online
It’s been put together by a team at the Oxygen Accelerator tech startup programme at Birmingham Science Park.
It’s just gone live, giving people the option to set up their own online shops. I know there are a few big plans in the works and this is just stage one but, for starters, the option for shoppers to search across all stores (which I always thought was strangely absent from the likes of Big Cartel and Shopify) is there.
If you’re after an online shop then you might want to give this one a look. It’s free to set up a store, instead there’s a 10% transaction cost on sales. Because the team’s local they’re probably very receptive to feedback for improving the service too.
Whack-a-Cake is a game that was built by:
volunteers from the UK tech community as part of the “Children in Need Tech Challenge” hosted at The Oxygen Accelerator in Birmingham.
600 schoolchildren in the Birmingham area were asked to come up with a game idea and the characters that they saw being part of it. The best entries were shortlisted and asked to come to Oxygen and face a “Dragons Den” panel of game developers, designers and local businessmen
It was built in a 48-hour flurry over the weekend. Here’s the full list of people who made it happen.
GLI.TC/H is:
a one day festival showcasing contemporary artists who misuse and abuse computer hardware and software to striking effect.
The main GLI.TC/H website is here. Good luck getting anything useful out of that one. Best to head over to Vivid’s website to see the programme of screenings, performances, workshops and lectures.
It’s all happening on 19 November. For more info, Antonio Roberts has been running previews on his blog for the past week or so.
This evening I’m at Fazeley Studios for the BOA Digital Partners Forum event, hosted by Birmingham Ormiston Academy (which is due to open later in September).
There’s information about the event here although the highlight of the evening will be:
a panel debate with some high-profile industry figures including; Chris Deering, former President of Sony Entertainment Europe, Kim Blake, Education Liason Manager of Blitz Games, Leigh Thomas, CEO of First Light and Mike Nutley, former Editor and Chief of New Media Age. The topic will be Nurturing the Digital Talent of the Future.
If you’re quick you might still be able to register here. Otherwise I’ll be liveblogging from 6pm and you can follow along with that here:
This will either make sense to you or it won’t – I have a feeling an explanation might take a while.
Inverted Ziggurat by maniacyak.
Today, Alex and I are at the City As A Platform event, organised by Screen WM and taking place at Aston University Business School and Conference Centre.
Building on the City as a Platform event that took place during the Conservative Party Conference 2010, this full day of panels and breakout sessions will explore these issues and opportunities, presenting case studies including Maverick Digital’s groundbreaking NHS Local project and the Screen WM/Channel 4 supported ChromaRoma, which uses the London Underground Oyster Card system as a playing piece in a city-wide social game.
The pair of us are running the liveblog there. If you’re on Twitter you can follow along on the #caap2011 hashtag or by following the liveblog below. Comments, thoughts and so on are all welcome.
The Public are hosting two open exhibitions in 2011, and have pushed back the deadline for submissions to Friday 31 December 2010.
TOUCHINTERACTIVE 2011 is to be the UK’s first open exhibition specifically for digital interactive artwork, and SCREENING 2011 will offer film and video artists a chance to exhibit work.
Both exhibitions are free to enter and are open internationally to both early career and professional interactive, film and video artists, although priority will be given to those around the West Midlands or at early stages in their career.
Selected applicants will be exhibited in Febuary 2011. For more information and how to download the application form, see The Public’s website.
In conjunction with Culture Hack Day which is taking place in London over January, we want ideas to improve how we consume culture in Birmingham and the wider Midlands, or problems: gaps in our digital grid, that can be filled with the right data or the right amount of brainpower
10 to 12 December 2010 at Aquila TV’s offices. Sign up on the Birmingham Hackitude site.
They’re after coders, developers, designers, people with ideas (especially people from an artistic/cultural background), sponsors (cheaper than you think – get in touch with them) and anyone else who wants to get involved.
Sounds great. I’ll be there.
This may be of interest to anyone involved in storytelling, whether your platform is filmmaking, social media or gaming, Switchboard and Event with Me are teaming up with Power to the Pixel, to present A New Currency: Multiplatform storytelling and social capital.
The event is free to attend and takes place on 12 October, from 1 – 5pm at mac, hosted by The Producers Forum.
“Social capital” now has a very real value and multiplatform storytelling is increasingly the way to ensure that our projects are contemporary, compelling and wide reaching.
CiB’s Chris Unitt will be on one of the panels of guest speakers, along with Natasha Carlish, Nick Booth, Dave Harte, Julia Higinbottom, Pip & Lisa/Jenny and Helga Henry. They’ll be discussing how their experience in using social capital and multiplatform storytelling has lead to some exciting and innovative projects and new ways of working. The event will also feature a live and recorded web cast from the annual Power to the Pixel conference.
Book your place via their eventbrite page.
This may be appealing to those of you with a keen interest in games design or development. Gamer Camp begins in November and is backed by several major industry bodies, including Rare, Blitz Games, Sony and Codemasters, to provide exclusive courses which will leave participants fully equipped for a career in the games industry.
Set up as three intensive courses, Nano, Mini and Pro, the camps are staggered in terms of skill level, duration and start date. The first of which is the Nano Camp, running from 3 Novemeber – 3 December, and will provide the skills needed to produce games for the iPhone/ iPod Touch/ iPad.
The closing date for applications on the Nano Camp is 8 October.
Applications for the next set of camps are due to open in 2011, with the Mini starting in March and the Pro in September 2011. Keep an eye on the Gamer Camp website for further information and to apply for a course.
Antonio Roberts will be giving a talk on 16 September at Birmingham Linux User Group, presenting the issues affecting artists who adopt open source and free culture into their practice.
After his previously well received talk on the use of open source and art, Antonio is back to discuss issues of copyright and his own experiences as an artist in the world of open source.
Freedom in Creativity will be held at Aston Science Park at 7.30pm. If you can’t make it, the talk will also be broadcast online and made available for streaming shortly afterward.
Only 3 short months after their launch, Fazeley Studios are now hosting their own digital festival which aims to bring together the city’s creative businesses through a variety of events, including the usual seminars, debates and networking opportunities, but also including Fazeley’s own innovative slant of unconferences, swap shops and media mash-ups including Second Life, Twitter and live video streams.
The event which has most piqued my curioisity is entitled “My Dad’s on Twitter but he doesn’t know why”. More than just another opportunity to ‘talk shop’, this event promises to collate the ideas and input of attendees into a collaborative group mind map exploring how and why people use social media. In addition, after the event there will be an opportunity for an online audience to have input into the map as well. I’m keen to see how this will utilise Bubbl.us – something I stumbled across earlier this week, and which looks like another great free tool.
The event which has most piqued my TASTEBUDS however, is definitely the festival finale – a grand high tea for 300 creative workers in Fazeley Studio’s magnificently restored 19th century chapel reception. Fazeley currently provides a high tea for tenants every Thursday and have decided to build upon the success of this for the festival. I’ve been promised there are exciting and secretive things planned for this event which will be unveiled on the day, but if the promise of the tea alone isn’t enough of an incentive, there will also be a preview of the latest Ikon Eastside exhibition – an installation by an emerging Chinese artist called Xu Zhen.
For more details on all of the events taking place during the festival, the Fazeley Digital website will keep you in the loop, as well as provide opportunities to sign-up for certain events and provide feedback/interact with others.
