Created in Birmingham

• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2008
  Russ L’s ever-useful round-up with loads of stuff happening this month. I’d like to add my own Film Dash 48-hour film challenge to the list (happening 17-19 Oct short film fans!)
• Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource | TAK! Design & Art Direction. Birmingham. UK. +44 (0) 121 288 2528
  The nice folk at Tak! are “very excited to announce a new working partnership with the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to design & develop an online educational resource for public, students and professionals”
• Wheatley Fellowship 2008/09
  News from BIAD – Juneau Projects have been selected as the Wheatley Fellow based in the School of Art 2008/09
• Support the Castle Vale Community Awards – aCtiVe arts
  “Castle Vale will proudly celebrate the achievements of a number of its residents at the second annual Community Awards on Friday 24th October”
• It’s fun to play at the M A C E | Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
  Jon Bounds has found the Media Archive for Central England and does some delving around
• Birmingham Conservation Trust – new futures for Birmingham’s historic buildings
  “Birmingham Conservation Trust is a charity created ‘to preserve and enhance Birmingham’s threatened architectural heritage” and it has a shiny new website

I mentioned this in passing as part of the round-up of Hello Digital-related events but here’s a little more info:

Baskerville the Animated Movie celebrates John Baskerville, the man, the typeface and his future legacy. The film will be complemented by the development of a site-specific installation

It’s being headed up at BIAD but from what I hear there are all sorts of collaborations going on.

A new version of the website will officially launch on 22 September but for the time being there’s a good amount of information on the script, scenes and so on but no shots from the film itself yet.

The film will get a showing at Hello Digital (where and when TBC) and you can follow the link for the current Baskerville Project website.

BIAD’s MA students will be showing their work at the School of Art on Margaret Street from 29 August to 7 September.  There’s a delightfully hectic website (or tumblr for those who’re fussed) featuring many examples of the work that’ll (presumably) be on show.  To see that just click this link – Margaret Street MA Show 2008.

Meanwhile, this excellently succinct description/call to arms for the launch party:

PLEASE come to the annual Margaret Street MA show (Fine Art etc) Private View. Free Booze.

appears on the Facebook event.  The private view is on Friday 29 August from 6-9pm.  There’s also this ‘tacky retro animation’ (the MA Publicity peeps’ words, not mine):

Additionally, Creative Republic have arranged to jump on the RSA Fellows‘ trip to the show on Tuesday 2 September at 5.30pm which will include a welcome talk from Prof John Butler, a tour of the building and a look around the exhibition.  Have a look on the Creative Republic website for more info.

• First day nerves – My Fierce Placement…
  Gemma has just started a placement with Fierce and it looks like she’ll be blogging about it. This could be a good chance to see what Fierce do all year round, when not concentrating on their festival.
• AFWM – Local Animator Wins Watch Film Award
  More award-winning – “last week’s Shooting People Watch Film winner was none other than West Midlands-based animator Joe Butcher”.
• Fused Magazine – read Issue 35 online
  “It is the VERY first time Fused has been available to browse through in this way”.
• Clare Edwards wins UK Young Music Entrepreneur 2008
  “The board of Gigbeth would like to congratulate Clare on winning the UK Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008″. As would I – congrats Clare!
• BIAD’s BA(Hons) Fine Art graduates
  BIAD’s gradutating students of 2008. Hopefully I’ll have a reason to bog about their creative exploits in the future. For now congrats to the lot of em.
• The Triangle Cinema – Gosta Green, Birmingham | Dave Harte
  Dave says “After much searching I have at last found the video I made in about 1988 about the Triangle Cinema in Gosta Green, Birmingham”.

A free, one-off performance will take place at Ikon Eastside at 10pm on Tuesday 3 June.

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:

The line-up for this year’s Fierce! Festival, the international performing arts festival, has been announced and can be seen on the events page of their newly updated website. You may recall that a significant number of acts were chosen via a public vote and these have now been programmed into the wider festival too.

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.