tag: Birmingham

In this final part of this three-part series I’ll be going over installing Xuan Ye’s work in the Bcc exhibition. This work posed a similar challenge to Scott Benesiinaabandan’s work. I needed to automatically load a web page except this time I needed to allow for user interaction via the mouse and keyboard.

The artwork isn’t online so I’ll again go over the basic premise. A web page is loaded that features a tiled graphic with faded captcha text on top of it. The user is asked to input the text and upon doing so is presented with a new tiled background image and new captcha. This process is repeated until the user decides to stop.

On 8th December I gave a talk at Pecha Kucha Birmingham. This talk was critical of the one-way system of cultural reappropriation by corporations. The whole video is available below.

Ctrl + C

If you can at all relate to the issues being discussed in this presentation you can read more about it in this great article about How Corporations Profit From Black Teens’ Viral Content

The internet used by the Birmingham Central Library and the rest of the council’s system has blocked my website. Apparently my “Spam URL” presents a “Medium Risk”. I feel so proud :-)

Maybe it’s just a glitch in their system ;-)

Myself and Pete Ashton are curating the first BYOB event in Birmingham. After lots of chin-stroking decision making we can finally announce the lineup of artists and musicians taking part!

Exhibiting Artists

Alan Brooker, Ewa Mos, Daisy Hogan, Antonio Roberts, Chris Plant, Modulate, James Warrier, Sarah Rose Allen, URRRGH, Paul Harrison, Kate Spence, Elizabeth Howell, Soraya Fatha, Leon Trimble, Michael Lightborne, Matt Murtagh, Pete Ashton, AAS

Music provided by

Arcade, Bobby Bird (Modulate) and 8bit Pete

BYOB is presented by VIVID and Flatpack Festival and takes place at VIVID on 16th March 2012 7-10pm and is completely FREE to attend! Check out the event listing on Facebook and last.fm.

GLI.TC/H happened in Chicago, Amsterdam and Birmingham last year but I’ve only just gotten around to making this short video of the event in Birmignham, using footage captured by Pete Ashton

Enjoy!

(I had previously made an overview video for GLI.TC/H 2010)

GLI.TC/H Birmingham happened on 19th November at VIVID and I’ve only just had time to recover from it.

As the curator of GLI.TC/H Birmingham I’d like to give my own set of thanks:

• Arts Council England for supporting GLI.TC/H Birmingham.

• Birmingham City University, in particular two staff members:

  • Gregory Sporton, for supporting the event, even if he doesn’t quite get what it all is!
  • Lorna Hards, whose course, Methods and Models of Curatorial Practice, gave me the confidence to curate GLI.TC/H Birmingham

• VIVID, for accepting the proposal for GLI.TC/H Birmingham to be part of their “The Garage Presents…” programme and for providing an amazing space to hold this event in as well as technical and programming assistance

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Realtime A/V: Jon Satrom

Jon Satrom presents a prepared desktop performance, where he uses the operating system itself as an instrument:

Bio

Satrom spends his days fixing things and making things work. He spends his evenings breaking things and searching for unique blips inherent to the systems he explores and exploits. Satrom teaches a course on Glitch Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, runs a creative web and video studio called Studio Thread, performs real-time audio/video, creates colorful glitch-ware, and is involved in various collective online and offline new-media efforts.    

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Realtime A/V: Art of Failure

Nicolas Maigret of Art of Failure will perform 8 Silences, which is a completely audio-only performance:

8 silences offers a sensible representation of Internet by broadcasting audio streams that travel and reverberate trough the web. Initially silents, the streams progressively incorporate an infinity of transformations or “errors” that modify the sound as it circulates on the network. These alterations are comparable to a form of erosion caused by the network space - they are a key to allow different mental representations of this digital topography. Presented as a live performance, 8 silences is a sound immersion in the heart of data flows. 8 silences is a live piece made from mixing together several silent ogg and mp3 stream loops with different quality settings (error corrections are bypassed). Each loop is going to a different location on the globe, and then coming back to the location of the concert venue. Performers stand with a laptop in different parts of the venue (non scenic performance). The audio streamloops are exchanged in wifi around the public.

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Realtime A/V: Minuek and Chromatouch

The second of our Realtime A/V performances comes from UK-based VJs Minuek and Chromatouch. Here they are as a part of the VJ collective Freecode earlier in the year:

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Screening: Andrew Benson - Click on it

Bio

Andrew Benson is a visual artist and performer based in San Francisco. His multi-disciplinary and experimental work is a playful engagement with interconnected systems and feedback, and is the result of complex technological or physical processes. ÊWithin the technical abstract spaces, a clumsy or self-conscious human presence challenges the purely analytical and synthetic nature of digital representation. As an extension to studio work, Andrew Benson has worked as Video Designer/Director for a number of high profile touring musical acts. He has been teaching electronic media courses at San Francisco Art Institute since 2008 and creates online content for Cycling ‘74 Software.

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Screening: Jon Satrom - Too Many Cats

Bio

Satrom spends his days fixing things and making things work. He spends his evenings breaking things and searching for unique blips inherent to the systems he explores and exploits. Satrom teaches a course on Glitch Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, runs a creative web and video studio called Studio Thread, performs real-time audio/video, creates colorful glitch-ware, and is involved in various collective online and offline new-media efforts.    

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Screening: Jeff Donaldson - Pin 1/12 effect

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Bio

Jeff Donaldson is a multimedia artist, guitarist and composer of electronic and acoustic sound. An active member internationally in micromusic as the audio/visual project Notendo, solo work and collaborations as Odea Duo Vii, HD and Wzt Hearts, JeffÕs work encompasses a broad spectrum of audio/visual composition and improvisation. In 2001, with the intent to create animation entirely with his own hardware modifications, Jeff began creatively short-circuiting NES consoles. There is no new code involved, only raw, machine logic. This work has led to international recognition in new media art and has inspired people world-wide to pursue similar expressions.

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Lecture: Blind Optics

Gabriel Menotti presents his paper entitled “Blind Optics:”

In order to investigate the relation between cinema and technology, it seems necessary to escape the medium’s own parameters of analysis. Taking a step in this direction, one might adopt Friedrich Kittler’s notion of “optical media,” a classification based not on the morphological effects of cinema, but on the operational principles of its apparatus. However, while Kittler’s framework discloses the mechanisms of figurative representation, it casts an even darker shadow over the constitution of technique. To analyse the cinematographic apparatus as purely optical is to ignore that its technical underpinnings are also mechanical and chemical, electromagnetic and computational. In order to bring these material aspects to the surface of the medium, one could borrow a strategy that has been largely employed with aesthetic ends: that of blinding or disrupting the camera eye. A vast tradition of video art and experimental cinema, recently joined by practices such as generative programming, presents visuals that are not produced by clear lenses, but that mostly result from celluloid film, electric circuits and digital codification. This paper calls attention to the ways in which this sort of blind optics produces images not by the means of abstracting the world, but through the abstraction of the bare apparatus. Thus, it sheds some light in the processes of inscription and transmission that ultimately constitute audiovisual media, allowing us to grasp some of their particularities.

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Lecture: GLTI.CH Karaoke

Continuing their events at GLI.TC/H in Chicago and Amsterdam GLTI.CH Karaoke will be presenting their work, followed by a live performance!

Our aim is simple: to bring together people & collaborate on Karaoke duets. This desire, of course, is not innovative in itself; karaoke is one of the world’s favorite pastimes. Where GLTI.CH is different is its scope of our ‘bringing together’. So far, we have hooked up London with Kumamoto City, Japan & Seoul, South Korea. As a project that seeks to set up unnecessarily-elaborate portals of amateur singing, GLTI.CH Karaoke posits that there is discernible value & joy in 1) the collective stumbling & frustrations met in the face of tech limits, language barriers & time zone differences 2) oblique experimentation & 3) embracing & folding in “errors” in future iterations versus seeking to “overcome” or eradicate them. GLTI.CH Karaoke is not a solitary affair. At its simplest each event is the manifestation of sophisticated levels of collaboration & coordination between GLTI.CH & the attendees of each event, as well as the development teams of Livestream, Google+ & divX, & the individuals who selflessly hash together & upload karaoke videos to YouTube. Using the universal grammar of karaoke we posit the glitch as a site of artistic autonomy.

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Workshop: Glitch Codec Tutorial

Nick Briz presents a tutorial in creating glitch art by hacking video codecs:

This workshop/lecture is titled the Glitch Codec Tutorial. Here I demonstrate how to create the “glitch codec” a hacked piece of software I use to make intentional glitches. The Glitch Codec Tutorial is one way to experience glitch art. The Glitch Codec Tutorial can be used to make glitch art, but it is not a tool in and of itself. Rather, it is a means to a tool or, more appropriately, a means to a method[ology] of production.

GLI.TC/H has started and on Saturday November 19th it’ll be making its way to VIVID in Birmingham, UK! The full programme is available here, and as a PDF. Over the week I’ll be providing a bitesized overview of the upcoming events.

Workshop: Easy Circuit Bending

Nikki Pugh presents a workshop exploring the basics of circuit bending. Add a light sensor to a desk toy in order to distort the sounds it makes by waving your hand over it. A bit like this:

GLI.TC/H 20111 programme

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Download PDF

—————————————– [Chicago, US] —————————————– THU: Nov 3 @7pm – GLI.TC/H Gallery Opening @MBLABS

Alma Alloro [IL], Anthony Antonellis [DE], Melissa Barron [US], Mark Beasley [US], Sophia Brueckner [US], ffd8 (Ted Davis) [CH], Jeff Donaldson && Daniel Temkin [US], Leanne Eisen [CA + US], Noah Eisenbruch [US], Gijs Gieskes [NL], jimpunk [www], Jeff Kolar [US], Harvey Moon [US], aandnota (Alex Myers) [US], Osada Genki [JP], Chelsea Arden Parker [US], Rob Ray [US], Pox Party (Jon Satrom && Ben Syverson) [US], Ant Scott [UK], Phillip Stearns [US], Party Time! Hexcellent! (Rachel Weil) [US], youpy [JP], Recyclism™ And all the bumper artists!

DO iT TO_GATHER!

GLI.TC/H was a simple idea that was hatched upon the notion of folks gathering together and engaging/chatting/debating the issues/theories/concerns of failure, systems, art, && glitches.

We were able to realize this gathering last year in Chicago. GLI.TC/H 2010 brought people together for five days of glitchy art, hacking/coding workshops, discussions, screenings, lectures, and realtime audio/video performances. All events were free & open to the public and ended up exposing an extremely diverse, amazingly deep, somewhat quirky community.

On Thursday 16th September I’ll be giving a talk at Birmingham Linux User Group about the issues affecting artists who adopt open source and free culture into their practice.

I have done a talk about open source and art once before at the LUG, which was well received despite the audience being mostly techies (maybe they’re artists at heart!). This talk extends greatly on what was said and goes into issues of copyright and what experiences I’ve had as an artist in the open source world

For the last six months or so I’ve been a regular guest on the Lost in The Wood radio show. Myself and the shows host, Nancy Bennie, have been hard at work to bring you the the first issue of the Lost in the Wood zine!

You can also view individual pages on flickr.

The first issue features an interview with the awesome Stinky Wizzleteat and articles and illustrations from Birmingham’s finest.

Printed copies will become available soon, as will details of how to get involved with the next one. Keep an eye on the blog for more updates.

The production of Othello is going really well. We’re four performances in and have already received positive reviews from the Guardian, Telegraph and Times and generally positive reviews from friends and attendees.

Unless you have bought a ticket unfortunately there’s no way to see it as all of the tickets have now sold out, but that only reiterates the popularity of the productions by the Birmingham Opera Company.

You may have noticed that in my previous post there was a nice little image of the Bull Ring Bull. I did that! Before I go on, it’s not an image that will be used for Birmingham’s City of Culture bid (though if you really like it monies plz). It’s more an image just to represent the work that we’re doing to collect opinions of Birmingham.

Although not a completely original concept (Andy Warhol anyone?) I have utilised a few newly found techniques to create it. Whilst the results, and indeed databending as a whole looks cool I have yet to use it in any real world situations. Until now that is.

On Thursday 5th November I was once again part of The Family for The Event. There’s something I really like about dressing in dungarees - which I haven’t done since I was about 10 - and marching around Digbeth! Other highlights include dropping in on an event about saftey in the community where we rescued some puppets and eating blue food, which tastes loads better than its plain counterpart

Tomorrow I’ll be joining The Family at Birmingham Backpackers in Digbeth to take part in the activities as part of The Event. Ana summarises it all rather nicely:

…we’ll be spending the next 5 days changing our name every 6 hours, wearing hand decorated dungarees, playing thought-stopping games, eating brightly coloured food, asking questions, strengthening our Dantien, collective dreaming, strumming red, yellow, green and blue ukuleles, finding portals, calling rainbows, going to the top, chanting punk meditation, making friends, sleeping in pods, giving out flowers, love-bombing, and having all the fun we can cram into the day.

On Thursday night there was a whole host of cultural events going on in Birmingham. The one that I spent most of my time at was the All You Can Eat Zine event at the Sunflower Lounge hosted by Gallery Of Owls.

Since last year they’ve been regularly making atheir own zine, the GZEAN. Soon after An Endless Supply appeared and from the amount of zines available last night it seems like there is a small, but dedicated zine culture in Birmingham, which is definitely inspiring and reassuring for people looking to start their own.

From Friday 2nd to Sunday many Ubuntu, Linux and Open Source enthusiasts descended upon the Linux Emporium to take part in the Ubuntu Bug Jam. In the words of an Ubuntu blogger, the Ubuntu Bug Jam is:

…a world-wide online and face-to-face event to get people together to fix Ubuntu bugs - we want to get as many people online fixing bugs, having a great time doing so, and putting their brick in the wall for free software. This is not only a great opportunity to really help Ubuntu, but to also get together with other Ubuntu fans to make a difference together, either via your LoCo team, your LUG, other free software group, or just getting people together in your house/apartment to fix bugs and have a great time.

I’ve worked with a.a.s. group for nearly two years on various projects, most notably Insectoid. This Saturday I’ll be part of The Family for the Family Fun Day, curated by Charlie Levine

TROVE & a.a.s presents:

FAMILY FUN DAY

Sunday 13th September 2009 1-4pm, The Rea Gardens, Floodgate Street, Birmingham, B5 5SL (map)

Have you ever felt that there’s something missing in your life?

The Universal Family of Cosmic Xenogenesis invite you to Family Fun Day, where you can enjoy an exciting array of stalls and activities to learn more about their revolutionary way of life. You’ll be able to clean out your mind and fish for new thoughts; decorate cakes, T-shirts, balloons and your face with positive symbols; get in touch with your power animal in the Robot Petting Zoo; and of course sample the copious free Kool-Aid.

I mentioned in a previous post how I wanted to get more people doing social things that related to hacking, like going to the Micromouse event last Saturday. I thought it’d be a great opportunity for people to see what else is available to the community and to link different micro communities that would eventually encourage more discussion and collaboration between the groups. Well, it looks like I’m not the only one with that idea. Several members of the group have been rather vocal on making the meetings more than fortnightly. My only concern with a move like that is that there’s a risk of exhaustion and people may feel under too much pressure to come. This is why I liked the suggestion of one member to have social meets in between the hacking sessions. In this way discussion can still continue and it may be a great way for new members to get better acquainted to other members.

Whilst Nikki and Pete have been hacking their toys and gadgets to make all manner of noises I’ve gone the soldering-free option by making sweet noise on my laptop in Pure:Data. This originally started in the hack session at the Linux Emporium as an attempt to make a sort of theme tune for the hack space. By the end of the day I’d accomplished making fart-like noises that mess up your head a bit. At the next hack session I’d progressed a little bit further and made my farty noises a little bit more controllable with the use of sliders and buttons.

I’m looking for a social centre where people can meet and learn more about computers, such as a Hacklab. There is/was a hacklab collective down in London who usually occupy the rampART social centre. A new centre opened in Birmingham recently, but I wonder if there’s a hacklab there?

After over a year of talks with the Crescent Theatre I’ve finally got them blogging. Ok, that is a slight exaggeration as they have set up Wordpress and Blogger blogs before, but now they have one central blog which benefits from traffic from the main website as well as from services such as Google Blogsearch.

I also hooked the theatre up to Twitter. Since Twitter was forced to change how it operated in the UK many potential opportunities are going to be missed. Still, it’s up there to serve as an alert of new blog posts. Maybe there are other ways in which it can be used?

Tonight I, along with fellow arty bloggers Alex and Shona, were at Dr Sketchty’s Anti Art School in Birmingham. Don’t know what it is? The blurb form the official website tells more:

We combed New York to find the most beautiful burlesque dancers, the most bizarre circus freaks, and the most rippling hunks of man. Then, every other Saturday, we let you draw them for three hours. Interspersed with posing are comedy skits and ridiculous drawing contests (best left handed drawing? Best incorporation of a woodland animal?) where you can win booze or prizes

Birmingham Visual Arts Coalition has an exhibition coming up, and I’m making some new artwork for it. As a little experiment I’ll be showing you the progress shots from one of the pieces. Any comments or suggestions are welcome!

Achieved today in Illustrator. You can also look at the Sketchbook page for more of an idea of what I’m doing.

Two Antonio’s in one room. Never had this before. The other is Antonio Gould.

I’m sure all of you in Blogging land have read this already, but the Birmingham Bloogers Meet 2 is on tonight! Here’s the details, grabbed from the facebook group:

Date: Monday, February 18, 2008 Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: The Dragon Inn Street: Hurst Street B5 4TD City/Town: Birmingham

See you all there!