The Oasis Radio has been up and running since Monday and is broadcasting until 27 January. It’s broadcasting from Birmingham City University and is being played out in the Oasis shopping centre and online.
It’s mainly music and such, but they’ve also put together quite a decent short documentary about the history of the place too:
Thanks to all who sent me info about what’s happening/happened where (especially Matt Murtagh). Here’s what I’ve been able to find. Looking at my calendar for this week, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get to anything which is a shame.
Also, if you could tell me the ones I’ve missed (head for the comments below) then that’d help a lot.
The shows
Exhibit This 2
8-9 June, 6-9pm
BCU 3rd Media Studies
Zellig
The Annual
13-19 June. Open 10-6 weekdays, 10-4 at the weekend
BA Art and Design
School of Art Bournville, Ruskin Hall, Linden Road
Birmingham School of Architecture
Gosta Green, Brum B4 7DX
Mon 13 to Tues 14 June – 10am to 6pm
Wed 15 -10am to 5pm
Thurs 16 to Sat 18 – 10am to 6pm
School of Vis Comms (Photography, Illustration, Graphic Design, Moving Image)
Gosta Green, Brum B4 7DX
Mon 13 to Tues 14 June – 10am to 6pm
Wed 15 -10am to 5pm
Thurs 16 to Sat 18 – 10am to 6pm
School of Art
Margaret St, Brum B3 3BX
Tues 14 to Sat 18 June – 10am to 6pm
Sun 19 June – 10am to 4pm
School of Jewellery
Vittoria St, Brum B4 7DX
Mon 13 to Tues 14 June – 10am to 6pm
Wed 15 -10am to 5pm
Thurs 16 to Sat 18 – 10am to 6pm
In other new, it’s nice to see that Art School Cliche Spotting is still online and seemingly updated.
Tomorrow, I’ll be at The Public for the showcase event of the DCD Programme. In case you’d not heard of it:
Arts Council England West Midlands’ Digital Content Development (DCD) Programme is a three year programme of investment which aims to catalyse the creation and creative use of digital content platforms for arts organisations across the West Midlands region
The website went up recently and the map on the homepage shows some of the projects, along with how much money they received. Further information is due on the website at some point, but if you look at the page source then you can glean a little more. On the basis that you probably don’t want to ruin your eyes, here’s what I found:
As well as these projects, the programme supported a range of other activities including workshops, innovation labs and other events.
I’ve heard of one or two of these projects, but the vast majority are new to me so it’ll be interesting to hear a little more. I should probably also add that I’m involved in the Rosie Kay Dance Company project – that’ll launch next week so I’ll blab a bit more about it then.
Screen West Midlands are hosting City As A Platform, at Aston University Business School and Conference Centre this Thursday, 17 Feb.
In an era of public sector cuts and greater emphasis on local engagement, what happens when a city opens out its public infrastructure, technologies, data and buildings to digital media content developers?
The event starts at 9.30, and contemplates ‘The future for the creative industries’, with a variety of sessions and speakers throughout the day, including keynote speaker Jon Kingsbury, Director, Creative Economy Programmes at NESTA.
Panellists will explore the contours of these emerging ‘urban operating systems’ and consider the implications for society and the built environment through sessions including:
- Open data: the challenges and opportunities
- Contracting: navigating the public sector procurement map
- Make it local: developing public services
- Library as a platform: opening up archives
- Transport: playing the daily commute
- Healthcare: bringing greater benefits through digital
Panellists and speakers come from across the public and private sectors, including the Greater London Authority, Rewired State, Rattle, University of Warwick, Maverick TV, Digital Birmingham, Mudlark, Podnosh, Birmingham City University and In Cahoots.
Limited places are available for this event. For more info, full list of speakers and to sign up, visit the Eventbrite page.
part of the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design at Birmingham City University; the Hub works to promote the history, theory and practice of typographic design
They organise an annual typographic symposium (16 March this year) and will be publishing a fair amount of typographically-related articles.
The website (built by Supercool) has had a fair amount of good attention from the likes of Hoefler+Frere-Jones (I’ve no idea who they are but 100,000+ followers on Twitter show’s they’re doing something right) and Gary Hustwit (who did the Helvetica and Objectified documentaries) among others.
The Conservative Party Conference starts tomorrow, so expect a fair amount of disruption around the city centre – especially the city end of Broad Street around the ICC and Symphony Hall.
Travel advice aside, arts and culture will be getting a foot in the door a few times over the duration, including this lot:
There’s probably more happening too, but those are the ones I’ve come across.
I’ve also been invited, with a bunch of other local bloggers, to go and meet Sayeeda Warsi (Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Cabinet Minister without portfolio) and Andrew Mitchell (MP for Sutton Coldfield and Secretary of State for International Development) later today.
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.
It’s nearly the end of term, and you know what that means… showcases! Birmingham City University are already on the case with Exhibit This by its final year Media and Communication students. And the plan is…
…to display their creative work to industry professionals and the general public while celebrating their achievements throughout their degree.
As you can see from the flyer, you can expect work from a range of media disciplines, from photography to web and new media, so if you want to check out some new talent in the field, it might be worth a poke around.
Exhibit This is at The Bond in Digbeth on 7th and 8th June, between 6pm and 8.30pm.
Photographer Jak Flash is embarking on a project to re-illustrate the 22 Major Arcana tarot cards as photographic images for exhibition. Jak explains a little more on his website:
My next project, based around the imagery of the 22 major Arcana Tarot cards, is funded by Birmingham City Council and supported by Birmingham City University Students’ Union. I’m going be creating 22 images for EXHIBITION in Birmingham. The aim is to create a collaborative experience where people interested in being involved with art in Birmingham can come together.
Jak’s looking for models of all shapes and sizes, make-up artists, stylists and costume designers to help with the project too, so if you’re interested in getting involved, drop him a line on info@flashyourjak.com. The shoots are going to be taking place from the end of January till the end of February.
Here’s one of the tarot cards that is set to be turned into a photograph:
For more information on Jak Flash and the project visit his website here, or join the Major Arcana project Facebook group here.
Another Birmingham institution makes it into double figures this month – Brilliantly Birmingham, the international contemporary jewellery festival, is celebrating its first decade from 21 November to 28 February.
There’ll be two exhibitions at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery:
The programme will also include:
More info on the Brilliantly Birmingham website.
