Archive for February, 2007

The Digital Aesthetic 2

The Digital Aesthetic 2 conference and expo will happen on 16th-17th March 07, in Lancashire, England, and will… “… bring together some of the most significant visual artists, theorists and academics working in the international field of new media and digital imaging.”

Matchbox labels

Old Eastern European and Soviet matchbox labels.

In the frame

MIT Technology Review does the rounds of the trade shows, and profiles the latest consumer-level digital pictureframes. It seems we’re still a few years away from a UK photography gallery being able to equip its walls with fifty 8″ x 10″ digiframes for less than £5,000, but we’re getting there.

Fabjectory

Made or own an object in Second Life (or any other virtual space)? Get it fabricated as a physical real-life object, and delivered to your door by the postman. Do I hear the sound of a new industry being born? We could even get a neat little table-top Birmingham model; when Birmingham has the vision […]

Prospecting for the future

Prospect asks 100 thinkers what might replace the right/left split in politics?

Colleen Philippi

Interesting Joseph Cornell-influenced assembled boxes, from artist Colleen Philippi.

19th century photographically illustrated books

Over 1,400 ‘tipped in’ original pictures from 19th century photographically illustrated books, courtesy of the British Library. [ Hat-tip: GMT+9 ]

Kurland interview

The New York Crimes has a profile/interview with photographer Justine Kurland. (I get the full-text, but some visitors may get asked for a NYT password ). Large images from her new show are on the Mitchell-Innes & Nash site (Flash-only site).

A bit ruff

You know, I think this Nicolas Pickenoy (1590-1656) picture at BM&AG might just be a fake… (large version, 190kb)

A thousand cuts

There’s a new DEMOS report; Local Authorities: a change in the cultural climate. The report looks at the crisis that public-sector funding for culture is facing at the local level, as many local authorities are squeezed between central government cuts and their own prejudices against the arts and artists. Of course, there are exceptions.

The Event

It seems that a Birmingham visual artists’ expo is rather like a bus. You wait ages for one, and then along come five at once. As well as the Birmingham Open, New Art Birmingham, Fused‘s LTD Edition art fair, and New Generation, now Birmingham has… The Event. Which is… “A series of artist-run activities in […]

Birmingham Open

I went down to the Birmingham Open today. The range of work was wide, but all too often one saw a superb technique applied to humdrum subject matter. Yet there was enough that caught my eye to make it worth visiting: Gillian Lockwood (giant ceramic conkers); Pamina Stewart (seashell trolls); Peter Shread (masterly woodcut landscapes […]

Drawing Research Network

A UK-based Drawing Research Network.

Baskerville’s Birmingham

Guided walking tours of John Baskerville’s Birmingham, during March and April 07. Baskerville was the creator of one of my favorite fonts, Baskerville Handcut.

Eccentric City No.1

Andy Pryke blogs about the new Birmingham-based Eccentric City magazine, which I have duly PayPal’d a couple of quid for. Soon I shall know how to navigate in fog, collect sticks, and electroplate the dead. Ah yes; you may have thought genuine eccentricity (rather than faux BritArt-style buffoonery) was on its last legs in the […]

Embraced by Craven Arms

The First Post arts critic putters up to Craven Arms (“one of Shropshire’s ugliest spots”) to visit the National Museum of British Popular Culture… “What a labyrinth of expressionist tableaux, anarchic heaps, and weird perspectives, and oh the litany of resonant names: Pepsodent, Izal, Rinso, … The place is huge and the layout overwhelming, with […]

Amazon using couriers again

Grrr. Amazon UK has sent a normal book by a bl**dy courier again. This is the second time it’s happened in about nine months, and this time it’s some two-bit operation called Parcelnet, who seem to have subcontracted it to a local man-with-a-van. It’s due for a re-delivery tomorrow, perhaps. Great; I’ll just wait in […]

Serious Games Institute for Coventry

Coventry’s Technocentre is to get a £7m Serious Games Institute (although the Coventry Telegraph says it’s only costing £3.3m), setting itself up as a technology-transfer unit that will attempt to sell the benefits of using serious games to local small businesses. There’s to be an event on the 20th March (a “workshops for senior executives”, […]

“and here’s a gigapixel panorama that my robot took…”

For most people, creating a panorama image is as simple as installing PTgui, waving the camera around without much regard for exposure or exact rotation around the base of the lens, and then simply gaping in awe at the magic that PTgui automatically creates. For others who need something more precise, there’s to be a […]

English Coastal Path

This looks good. As someone who once did the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path (before I got into photography, though), I’d be all for… “a great footpath, 2,500 miles long and ten yards wide, snaking and wriggling its way around the coast of England, along cliff and shore, through shingle and sand, across dunes and around inlets. […]