Created in Birmingham

Photos from Wings of Desire

Chris Unitt — Mon, 21 May 2012 07:24:45 +0000

It was a close run thing but, having been excited about it for a while, I finally got the chance to get down to Victoria Sq on Saturday night for the final performance of Wings of Desire, the big, public, outdoor show as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012.

It was good too – the bit where the Town Hall crumbled was pretty spectacular and I’m a big fan of Circa from when they performed as part of the 2010 festival. Of the videos on YouTube, this one of the building projections is alright and gives you an idea at least. In fact it makes it look darker than it was – Birmingham has a serious light pollution problem.

Katja Ogrin probably has the best collection of photos from the event that I’ve seen so definitely check those out. The IDFB blog has collected together some of the various reactions and photos from audience members. I’ve just been trawling Flickr for some more pics – here are some choice ones:

Wings of Desire // Victoria Square Preparation by IDFB

Wings of Desire. Birmingham. by Imagine Bill

Wings of Desire by Imagine Bill

Wings of Desire by Peter Reynolds3636

Angel by fatedsnowfox

Wings of Desire by Peter Reynolds3636

Wings of Desire by fatedsnowfox

Links for 18 May 2012

Chris Unitt — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:46:53 +0000

Birmingham-made film NFA to premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival – News
“not only was it filmed on location but also stars Birmingham-born actor Patrick Baladi, who played Ricky Gervais’s boss in The Office, and was produced by 104 Films, a production company co-founded by acclaimed Sutton Coldfield filmmaker Justin Edgar”
Cultural Entrepreneurship
Annette Naudin’s students have been interviewing James Yarker (Stan’s Cafe), Rosie Kay, Dorothy Wilson (MAC), Emma Chetcuti (Multistory) and many others
The Chamberlain Files = Sport and culture to “take centre stage” under Labour
“Giving details about how the new cabinet system would work, Sir Albert explained that deputy council leader Ian Ward will oversee the city’s arts, culture and sport budget, with the cabinet Member for Commissioning, Contracting & Improvement, Stewart Stacey, ensuring that the arts and sport budget is effectively used by organisations receiving council grants.”

Eastside Projects User’s Manual

Chris Unitt — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:32:33 +0000

подаръци

I’ve been sent a copy of the user’s manual for Eastside Projects. It’s the fifth one they’ve produced and it’s quite a lovely thing – part guide to the gallery, part document of their work and part choose-your-own-adventure book.

My favourite bit is an explanation of what they call ‘dog-whistling’:

As a contribution to the exhibition ‘This is the Gallery and the Gallery is Many Things’ (September to November 2008), Kelly Large instigated a perverse social ritual in the gallery. Each morning, following the opening of the building, the alarm was left to sound until a passerby or neighbour entered the building to complain. This process forced our immediate neighbours – a taxi repair workshop and a limousine hire company – to enter the gallery, where they were prompted to look around.

Town Hall test card

Chris Unitt — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:12:54 +0000

Via a tweet from Shaun McLernon.

It’s part of the preparations for Wings of Desire, the big outdoor dance/visual spectacular as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham. Happening in Victoria Sq tonight and running until Saturday. It’s free and I bet it’ll be ace.

Dear Birmingham

Chris Unitt — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:01:50 +0000

Dear Birmingham allows:

one person per day to send a letter to everyone else; a unique opportunity to share something with Birmingham.

“The Cabinet post of Leisure, Sport and Culture is to be discontinued”

Chris Unitt — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:12:29 +0000

Hold tight – this is a post about local politics. The Birmingham Press has posted some news about Labour’s planned changes to how Birmingham City Council will now be run (since they’re in charge now). There’s discussion about it on the Restirred forum too. Martin Mullaney, the previous Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture explained:

The all powerful Cabinet Committee has been completely reconstructed, with previously centralised powers devolved down to District Committees

You’ll have twigged from the title of this post that there’ll no longer be a Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture. Who will have responsibility for those areas and what will happen if there’s nobody pushing the arts and culture agenda at the council? Will we really notice much difference?

There’s been some Twitter-based wailing and gnashing of teeth about the lack of an elected figurehead for the arts but, to be perfectly honest, I’m struggling to muster any real interest in this. Thought I should mention it though.

Links for 14 May 2012

Chris Unitt — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:41:47 +0000

Is Digbeth the new clubbing capital of Britain? | Digbeth is Good
Interesting. Also, seeing as how I’ve mentioned LAB11, Gibb Street Warehouse and Air on here recently, there might even be a small chance I’ve got my finger somewhere near the pulse after all
A destination wedding in Sierra Leone with Lee Allen photography | Rock My Wedding
Rock My Wedding features Lee Allen’s trip to Sierra Leone to photograph a wedding with 1,100 guests
Supersonic ) Info ) Jobs
This could be good – Capsule are looking for a new design illustration person/team to give the Supersonic Festival a new look
Pictures in the News | May 1, 2012 – Los Angeles Times
A peek at The Voyage, coming to Birmingham soon…

100m Sprint

Chris Unitt — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:41:57 +0000

100m is a film project from Talking Birds:

At the time of writing, the world record for the 100 metres is 9.58 seconds and is held by the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. In March 2012 we will be screening 8 very short films at the Fierce Festival in Birmingham, where each film will be 9.58 seconds long

The screening at the MAC was recorded so you can watch the films all together here.

Tamperine

Chris Unitt — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:13:17 +0000

Ah, the joys of a decent description on a video. Cue some copy/pasting:

—-

A-list stars spanning the UK’s entertainment industry are flocking to support the Tamperine Project, a quirky fundraising initiative dreamt up by Birmingham-based music charity Sound It Out.

Celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Ricky Gervais, Sir Tom Jones, Kate Moss, Robbie Coltrane and Kylie Minogue have been unleashing their creative side by “tampering” with a tambourine’s canvas, creating mini works of art that will be featured in an exhibition and online auction from 16-26 May 2012.

The Tamperine exhibition runs from 17 to 26 May 2012 at EC Arts Space, The Mailbox, Birmingham B1 1XL.

Bid online on eBay for tamperines from 16 to 26 May 2012 at http://www.worldebay.co.uk/sound_it_out

For more information about Sound It Out, visit http://www.sounditout.co.uk

Videos from Papergirl Birmingham and 48 Sheet

Chris Unitt — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:08:38 +0000

A couple of nice vids from Craig Bush. First up, here’s one from the launch of Papergirl Birmingham.

Antonio Roberts has blogged about how the distribution ride went.

And this one’s from the 48 Sheet screenprinting workshop with Jim O’Raw.