Plant girls, a perfectly-timed craft/photography activity that costs very little, and can be done by all ages…
And, on a grander scale of making pictures with flowers, locally we’re heading into the Peak District well-dressing season (Flickr search)…
A few interesting figures from the new Regional Trends report…
Students and employment:
61.5% of undergraduate students are both studying and from/living in the West Midlands. It seems we’re unique in the UK in staying close to home when we go to university.
“The West Midlands had the highest level [ of graduates who combine employment and further study ], at 10.1 per cent.”
And it seems we have the UK’s second-lowest rate of “not available for employment” after graduation, at 3.8%.
Manufacturing still “employed around 25 per cent of total male employees” in the West Midlands.
Internet access:
Only 50% of households have “internet access” in the West Midlands [ Chapter 8, figure 8.14, drawing on the Expenditure and Food Survey ] , compared to 53% in England as a whole. No figures in the report on how/when/if it’s used, or who in the household uses it.
Travel:
25% of West Midlands households “do not have access to” a car.
“The West Midlands was the only region that saw a reduction in the distance people travelled by rail - of nearly 37 per cent.” [ during the period 2003/04 to 2005/06, for all trips ]
The Bob Dylan show has opened at Birmingham’s Snap Galleries, and runs until 28th June 08. And there’s a tasty offer:— the first-edition photobook + a never-before-seen signed 8″x10″ print, for £200.
But don’t worry if Gordon’s pinched your last spare £200, there’s still a free 3Mb PDF exhibition catalogue to download from the site…
Channel 4 are creating a West Midlands supplier database for interactive media, serious games, social networks, mobile and web services, to feed into the ‘4 Innovation for the Public’ (4IP) investment fund…
“Although we do not want to place any restraints on what 4IP can invest in, there are expectations that the projects in computer-aided social networks, peer-to-peer technologies, mobile media, collaborative knowledge networks, user-generated content and platforms, global to local online journalism or broadcasting, imagined and alternative life networks, interactive learning & leisure etc. We envisage 4IP to be fully operational by autumn 2008. If you would like to be on the database please respond with your company name, contact. email/tel., website and a short description about your company to:— c4commissioning _at_ channel4.co.uk
The UK Writers Guild has just issued guidelines on online pay-rates…
“The guidelines suggest daily rates of £250 to £350 for writers creating online copy, or hourly rates of £40 to £50. However, MacDonald said members could negotiate upwards of these figures.”
This apparently only relates to writers of online dramas, but it strikes me that other types of online creative writers might like to quote these figures to clients?
There are early reports that protesters today burned valuable vintage first-edition photography books on the steps of the British Library, including Madonna’s Sex (worth £700+) and books by Robert Mapplethorpe, in protest at the government’s ‘Extreme Images’ bill.
Update: Index on Censorship reports.
The English Buildings blog appreciates Birmingham’s Waterstones bookshop…
“in the centre of Birmingham, which occupies the former Midland Bank, a building of the late-1860s designed by Edward Holmes. The style is a grand, confident Classicism.”
It seems Edward Holmes was a home-grown talent. If you’re interested in such things, you probably want to pop along to the Victorian Provincial Architects conference (University of Liverpool, 28th Nov 08).
The English seaside resort of Bournmouth is lining the sewers with ‘dark’ fibre-optic cables, to enable 100mb/s internet connections to the city’s living rooms and offices. It’s apparently funded entirely by private enterprise, for just £30m, the price of a modest arts centre. I remember I suggested this idea for Birmingham circa 1999, when one or another of the many ill-fated ‘digital strategies’ were being consulted on.
I think we have the plot for the next St. Trinians film…
“Emotion-detecting robot cars will face off against eavesdropping flying saucers in the English countryside when boffins, academics and schoolgirls compete later this year to design the next generation of military equipment.
…a set of tiny helicopters that fly in formation into a village and record images and audio tracks to beam back to headquarters. … a self-propelled, remote-controlled camera. … Bruton School for Girls in Somerset [have] an unmanned buggy that can analyze gunmen’s movements to determine whether they are angry or nervous.
Finalists will take part in a mock battle in August in Copehill Down, a village built near Stonehenge for military training during the Cold War. The contestants will have their machines search for pretend gunmen and mock bombs, earning points for each find and losing points for hitting civilians or transmitting data too slowly. The contest’s winner gets a trophy made from the recycled metal recovered from a WWII fighter jet.”
Interesting. Canon’s consumer digicams get an unofficial firmware upgrade that unlocks all sorts of new options. Lifehacker has a good article on the Canon Hacker’s Development Kit.
Basically, it seems the firmware upgrade adds:— RAW files / Histogram / longer exposure times / faster shutter speeds / time-lapse / longer videos / motion detection / and it’s all scriptable through loadable scripts. It seems there’s even a script for creating stereo pairs (i.e.: pseudo-3D photos).
Personally I run a Fuji pocket camera, but scriptable software like this is an interesting development for consumer digicams, which are usually locked down tighter than Gordon Brown’s wallet.
Dave Harte muses on the Custard Factory, railway stations, footfall, and creative-quarter gentrification, in the Post’s Business Blog.
In terms of footfall (a.k.a. ‘passing trade’), I’m wondering if there could be a green off-road path between the new BIAD (largest art & design institute outside London, relocating to Curzon St. in Sept 2010, along with three new concert halls) and the Custard Factory. It could use the canal and the river thus…
Or we could take the tube…
Take your positions on the launchpad…
“Creative Launchpad are currently trying to find people to join the team in the West Midlands. There are three positions to fill and it would be fantastic if some of the newbies understood the importance of maintaining the blog…”
So it seems they must have found a way to re-start the countdown, since in April 08 they wrote…
“the Creative Launchpad business support project is coming to an end. My last day as a business advisor for Launchpad is April 29th so if your require any business support contact me before this date. Why is this valuable support coming to an end? Well the funding for the support has run out. We have yet to find a suitable organisation to put their hand in their pocket to help deliver this valuable support service.”
An invitation from the Writers’ Guild to an event in Birmingham on 18th June 08…
“The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain invites you to a meeting on 18th June to discuss the future of new writing in the West Midlands following the Arts Council’s decision to cut funding to Script, the agency for developing writers in the region. [ formerly Stagecoach, West Midlands, Ed. ]
[…] FREE event. Following the success of our first meeting in March, the West Midlands branch of the Writers’ Guild will be officially launched, and celebrated with a glass of wine. Venue: The Birmingham Rep theatre (St Paul’s suite), Wednesday 18th June 08, 7.30pm. Our last meeting was oversubscribed so please RSVP as soon as possible to WMWritersGuild _at_ aol.com
Have a short film you’d like to screen? The Short Cuts Film programmers for ArtsFest (September 08)…
“…are now seeking submissions from film makers based in the West Midlands […] 5-20 minutes in length but we are happy to consider longer ones if we feel they will fit […] all genres […] films are screened in the Library Theatre […] a tight deadline to see and agree films… Contact Kate Sullivan at: kate_sullivan _at_ birmingham.gov.uk
BINS brings news of a new website for a 2007 project, The Birmingham Photographic Grid…
“The Birmingham Photographic Grid […] is a systematic look at Birmingham within the Number 11 bus route [ the roughly circular ‘outer-circle’ route around the city ] . Rather than concentrate on the picturesque, the historic or the famous, we went out and photographed Birmingham systematically. Locations were shared-out between a team of ‘photographers’ (none of them are photographers) according to a grid imposed over the area. The photographers were free to capture whatever they wanted at their location, but it was the grid that determined the locations in the first place. […] Any intellectual rigor must be credited to Jerry Tew, lecturer at Birmingham University [ Institute of Applied Social Studies ] , who spent many hours debating the ideas and methods to be used.”
“Regional artists are invited to submit their work for the first Open West Midlands, taking place at Wolverhampton Art Gallery this summer. Deadline: 28th May 08.”
Yay — DVDs and CDs acceptable!
And, if you haven’t been to the gallery recently, the new extension-wing and re-fit is excellent.
Superheroes: Fashion & Fantasy opens tomorrow at MoMA’s Costume Institute in New York…
“The symbolic and metaphorical associations between fashion and the superhero are explored in this compelling exhibition. Featuring movie costumes, avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear, it reveals how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body.”
There’s an accompanying book, Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy from Yale University Press.
An interesting-sounding nu-real show, opening in London on Friday 9th May 08, “In the Absence of Colour ~ a Black & White Group Show”. It’s at the Strychnin Gallery.
An “i-House” has opened as a show-home in the Black Country…
“The most intelligent and sustainable house in Britain has been opened in the Black Country. Community regeneration agency BCHG (Black Country Housing Group) has transformed a derelict, terraced house in West Bromwich, into a home of the future” … “a keyless entry system and a memory aid which prompts daily activities and the taking of medication. Specialist software can monitor the resident’s health and instantly feed it back via a computer generated voice. … hands-free, scald-free taps that turn themselves off are all brought together under one home-intelligence computer system. … specialist insulation and ventilation, automated lighting and the latest in Air Source Heat Pump technology …”
Just don’t loose the remote-control.
The wobbly bits brigade are having a large UK expo at the NEC. The coyly named 2008 ETO Show will be at the NEC Pavilion, National Exhibition Centre, from 27th-28th July 08. Sadly, it’s “trade only”…
“The ETO Show is a dedicated trade event for the adult industry. The show will bring together around 80 of the biggest names in the industry under one roof, allowing trade visitors to meet up with a large number of both existing and new suppliers. The show will be trade only, with no consumer element to distract visitors and exhibitors from their primary purpose – doing business with each other. Admittance to the show will be entirely free of charge.”
Perhaps they could have a few panel discussions on ‘the future of sex on the web in the UK’ or suchlike, which could be podcast for the interested public?
