Blog

Birmingham Open Media, the recently opened creative digital media space in Birmingham where I’ve also been a Fellow since 2014, recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to get one of its spaces renovated to allow more education and workshop events to happen. If you’d like to see more art and technology happen in Birmingham read on a give your money!

BOM (Birmingham Open Media) is a creative collaborative workspace for art, technology and science, less than one minute’s walk from Birmingham’s New Street Station.

We’re hoping to raise enough money through crowd funding to renovate studio 1 into an awesome education & community room. Where we can host workshops, lectures, small exhibitions, meetings and much more.

As a community driven non-profit organisation, BOM offers flexible co-working, production and shared studio spaces for artists, technologists and scientists and supports skills sharing through its active community of Fellows and R&D residencies. BOM’s gallery and events space hosts free exhibitions and events that result from creative collaborations and practice-based research with art, technology and science. But we’re running out of space.

This summer we’ve piloted the first few BOM education projects which are aimed at exploring ideas in art, science and technology with groups of young people, families children, artists, teachers and overseas students.

We think that this work is super important and we hope that these will be the first of many more activities, events, workshops, labs and hacks for kids, families and community groups at BOM. However in order to host work like this in the future and to attract partner organisations & funders we really need a dedicated education studio at BOM, which is accessible, safe and flexible enough to host the myriad of different activities that could be on offer.

Studio 1 (downstairs by the cafe) is perfect, but a hidden hole in the floor, crumbling plaster and exposed wires means there needs to be lots of work done to get this up to scratch.

This is where you come in, we’re putting it out there to the awesome folks of Birmingham, the Internet and beyond to help us to raise the money for the renovation.

With your help we could renovate the room into an awesome bespoke education studio, with a lovely safe clean floor, beautiful smooth white walls and cupboards/racking/storage for resources.

If you pledge to give £25 then I’ll even make you a gif!

Faith Holland’s GIFs to Have Sex By went live last week with a premier at TRANSFER and then an online release at Digital Sweat Gallery. If you haven’t caught it already check out my submissions below:

Also available in YouTube versions #1 #2 and lots of still shots. If you fancy having a great visual backdrop to for your Hump Day Faith Holland made this compilation of all of the GIFs:

Faith Holland’s solo exhibition at TRANSFER, TECHNOPHILIA, has already received a lot of attention, partly due to it’s use of *ahem* male produce in the Ookie Canvas’ abstractions “composed of collaged cum shots which Holland collects from pornography and her own open call for submitted photographs”.

On 11th July the exhibition will conclude with GIFs to Have Sex By, which is a “visual mixtape brought to you by the naughty minds of more than 40 artists”. I’m really pleased to be one of those arists, joining the likes of Lorna Mills, Yoshi Sodeoka, Sam Rolfes, Alma Alloro Adam Ferriss and Andrew Benson. Full list of artists here.

If you happen to be in New York check out the event at TRANSFER from 19:00 EDT. If you’re not then there will a premier from Digital Sweat Gallery on July 12th.

Stealth launched at Vivid Projects on 25th June and it was a great success! It’s the first time I have curated an exhibition or event that has lasted more than a few days, so I’m happy to see that there have been a steady flow of visitors.

Thanks again to James Bridle, Manu Luksch, Joseph DeLappe, Sang Mun, Ryan Hughes and Henry Driver for participating in the exhibition and to Dave Checkley for helping to draw the Drone Shadow piece. He certainly had a lot of fun unveilling the piece.

If you want to know more about the exhibition check out the interview with myself and several artists for Imperica.

Stealth runs until 11th July and is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12:00 until 17:00.

On 25th June I’ll be putting my curator hat back on for my first curatorial duties since my appointment as Associate Producer to present Stealth at Vivid Projects.

STEALTH presents recent work by UK and international artists critiquing surveillance culture and the invasive and pervasive technologies that shape our daily interactions.

Utilising a variety of media including installations, video, social media and software, the exhibition explores how technology affects and disrupts our perceptions of privacy.

Exhibition launches Thursday 25 June, 6.30 - 8.30pm, and continues to 11 July, open Thu - Sat, 12 - 5pm.

Artists: Manu Luksch, Sang Mun, Henry Driver, James Bridle, Joseph DeLappe, Ryan Hughes.