A statistical sculpture-map of the police-recorded crime-rate in East London… An interesting idea but, given the rather dodgy nature of police crime statistics, it might be more interesting to run a search on a year’s archives from a local newspaper with excellent coverage (Wolverhampton Express & Star is the sort of ‘nothing escapes us’ newspaper […]
Archive for April, 2008
Mount Fear, London
30 Apr 2008 at 18:55
David Haden
Artist(s), Mapping, Regeneration, Zeitgeist
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Urban Encounters: Photography, Ethnography and the City
30 Apr 2008 at 18:12
David Haden
Mapping, Photographers, Regeneration, Teaching
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There’s to be a two-day conference on Urban Encounters: Photography, Ethnography and the City, in London. It’s on 16th-17th May 08, at Goldsmiths in London… “six panels will explore the nature of past and contemporary photographic approaches to the representation and evocation of city life […] an associated exhibition, photographic workshop and curated urban walks […]
Towpath Tidy
It’s Towpath Tidy time. Canal towpath + a roll of heavy-duty binbags + gloves = clean towpath. I did my patch last week, and took away a packed-full binbag from about three-quarters of a mile — the worst stretch in Stoke for litter, after Middleport/Longport.
Eastside Projects launch delay, Gay Pride Parade cancelled
30 Apr 2008 at 09:01
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Birmingham
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Gavin Wade commented on D’log today… “Unfortunatley due to circumstances beyond our control the May Launch of Eastside Projects has been delayed. Please check our website for further information for opening dates. thankyou GAVIN WADE Director Eastside Projects” However, Terry Grimley reported yesterday that the opening date may now be… “tentatively set for June 20.” […]
‘Re-picturing the picturesque’
29 Apr 2008 at 17:51
David Haden
Artist(s), Birmingham, Photographers
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Re-picturing the picturesque is a website that documents Darryl Baird’s three-day retracing of Gilpin’s famous 1770 tour up the River Wye valley, on the western borders of the West Midlands… “On a sunny day in the summer of 1770 a vicar and a few traveling companions departed Ross-On-Wye (Wales) towards Monmouth in a covered boat, […]
Summer 08 BIAD shows
The summer BIAD third-year exhibitions schedule (PDF link, 35kb)… … and the second-year B.A. (Hons.) Fine Art show (Works Gallery, from 29th April)…
Surfing the coast of Devon
Friend Pete writes from sunny Devon… “… also took my 3G ‘3 network’ dongle and laptop as well – surfing at 3.6MB/s from a tiny fisherman’s cottage on the seashore”
“I haz a meme”
So why are LOLcats funny, exactly? Some of the world’s finest minds gathered at MIT to find out…
What if the Situationists came from Brum?
You can make your own version of the above idea (although perhaps not so elegantly, unless you use a scalpel on a paper map as I have here) since OpenStreetMap has just launched vector export so you can easily edit Birmingham in Photoshop or Illustrator. Data too, as XML. Jon Bounds has already had a […]
Public Catalogue Foundation: Birmingham
26 Apr 2008 at 17:23
David Haden
Artist(s), Birmingham, Reading
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One of my hopes for 2008 has come true already. The Public Catalogue Foundation has just published the Birmingham volume, right after the recent Staffordshire volume. £20 gets you the… “304-page volume [ that ] brings together over 2,000 paintings from 12 collections in the city of Birmingham. World-famous paintings at Birmingham Museums and Art […]
Starlings
Flocks of starlings, showing Proce55ing a thing or two…
Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain
26 Apr 2008 at 09:16
David Haden
Artist(s), Comic art, Nerds, Reading
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Dan Dare was a British comics hero from long before my childhood, so has almost no emotional resonance for me. But the Science Museum has a new free exhibition about him opening on 30th April: Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain (runs until Oct 08, so no need to rush). It links the […]
Plant a wildflower meadow
25 Apr 2008 at 13:16
David Haden
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A nice idea, and a nice way of doing it — the owners of Bournes Bank will make the land safe and allow planting of a wildflower meadow — if 500 people help raise the £1,500 and volunteer to plant seeds… It’s a hillside on the southern slope of Burslem town, Stoke-on-Trent, at the back […]
New Facebook group for Brum
25 Apr 2008 at 08:40
David Haden
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A new Facebook group: “I want people to stop smoking on Travel West Midlands buses”. Created by Lia, who writes… “I catch 8 buses a week to and from Uni, and about half would contain a smoker. That’s 120 buses over 3 semesters…” And talking of public transport: the 2008/9 inter-city train routes/timetable document (PDF […]
Children in Virtual Worlds conference
Those hoping to get some of the 4 innovation funding to create interactive products, ones that target the potentially very lucrative tween market, might want to go to the BBC and AHRC-sponsored conference Children in Virtual Worlds (22nd May 2008, University of Westminster, London)… “BBC Children’s and the University of Westminster invite you to the […]
Python loose in Birmingham
24 Apr 2008 at 08:45
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative software, Gaming, Techie
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Dates for the 2nd UK Python Conference in Birmingham — 12th – 14th Sept 08. Nothing to do with big snakes, though; this is the Python programming language that runs everything from NASA space shuttles, to open source RPG games, to plug-ins for creative software such as Photoshop and Poser. It seems to me that […]
Posemaniacs in English
24 Apr 2008 at 08:10
David Haden
Artist(s), Comic art, Creative software
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If you’re a comics artist, the free Posemaniacs human-figure art-reference website is now available in English (having previously been only in Japanese).
Georgle
Google gave Brits a little St. George’s Day logo yesterday. In case you missed it, here it is…
Living Streets
Living Streets (formerly The Pedestrians Association) is holding a Community Engagement Masterclass in Birmingham, 15th May 08.
CGAMES 08 in Wolverhampton
23 Apr 2008 at 08:56
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Gaming, Techie
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CGAMES 08 sounds like a useful international event on our doorstep — especially if you’re someone who’s working in videogames, or perhaps are hoping to get ‘4 Innovation’ funding to make something character-based for the web or phones. It’s at Wolverhampton’s Light House, 3rd-5th Nov 08… “13th International Conference on Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, […]