Some of the many Heritage Open Days in the West Midlands, happening between 11th -14th Sept 08, will be of interest to photographers. Also of interest is an event combining a contemporary film with historical footage… “Sandwell Archives and Community History Service and English Heritage are jointly staging a film event to showcase historic footage […]
Archive for August, 2008
Heritage Open Days in the West Midlands
30 Aug 2008 at 11:59
David Haden
Birmingham, Mapping, Photographers, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on Heritage Open Days in the West Midlands
C.H.B. and Marjorie Quennell
Bear Alley blog has a scholarly article and bibliography on the creators of the wonderful A History of Everyday Things in England series of books. An illustration of everyday life in medieval England, by Marjorie Quennell. It would be very pleasing if a few of these beautifully simple illustrations could be used in the forthcoming […]
Dreaming Methods
30 Aug 2008 at 11:35
David Haden
Artist(s), Entertainment, Photographers
Comments Off on Dreaming Methods
One of the most interesting British storytellers who uses interactive media has a fab new website, and new works to view…
Xia Hang
If Vaughn Bode were a steel-sculptor from China…
Canned pop
The fading 1960s receive another buff-up from several new Midlands exhibitions, this coming autumn. Wolverhampton Museum & Art Gallery puts on the fourth (and final?) of a series covering the history of pop art, drawing on their own excellent collection. From 13th September 08, “Supermarket Pop: Art & Consumerism“… “Discovers how British and American Pop […]
Portsmouth Vernacular Map
The Portsmouth Vernacular Map… “A mapping project that looks at the geography of the city in relation to the dialect and language that is used and has evolved in and around the city of Portsmouth. This street map of dialect is as phonetically close to the actual pronunciation as possible, which allows the viewer to […]
Turn off Google Suggest
[ Update, June 2009: new Firefox 3.5 solution here ] A simple way to turn off the new Google Suggest “feature”, now enabled by default… Instead of setting your homepage to the plain… http://www.google.com/ncr Change it to… http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0&hl=en That turns off ‘autocomplete’ and works for me in IE7. And it still gets you the Google.com […]
Birmingham Film & Media Festival: ‘Hello Digital’
28 Aug 2008 at 16:40
David Haden
Comments Off on Birmingham Film & Media Festival: ‘Hello Digital’
The 2008 Birmingham Film & Media Festival: ‘Hello Digital‘ has the website online. Not much detail yet, but apparently to include… “a digital film-making programme for schools and a “˜digital talent campus’ at higher education institutions” and more, with the aim that… “Birmingham will be leading the way in the 21st Century film festivals”. It […]
Michele Harris
Local illustrator and member of Birmingham Printmakers Michele Harris has her new “Stages” show on in Walsall, at the artist-run Chameleon Gallery (until 26th Sept 08). I like the work; gothic traceries of feathers, wings and bones… Michele is running two workshops, on 6th & 13th Sept 08 from 11am to 4pm… “We will be […]
Andrea Galvani
Beautiful frozen strangeness, in a photo series from Italian Andrea Galvani…
Book by Ben Westwood to be banned in UK
28 Aug 2008 at 11:15
David Haden
Comments Off on Book by Ben Westwood to be banned in UK
Our dismal government is to ban the book F**k Fashion, by Ben Westwood (son of the famous Vivienne) from 1st January 2009, and possession of it after that date could gain you a three-year jail sentence. It’s hard not to see the ban, and the highly symbolic timing of it, as a prudish political “shot […]
Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture
28 Aug 2008 at 07:08
David Haden
Artist(s), Photographers, Teaching
Comments Off on Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture
An unusual new UK academic/art e-journal, Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, with seven free full-text issues available for download as PDF files.
Landscape art in the West Midlands
28 Aug 2008 at 07:01
David Haden
Comments Off on Landscape art in the West Midlands
Bishops Wood in Worcestershire has an interesting-sounding two-day course on 9th/10th October 08. “Wooden Structures in the Landscape” is hosted by earth-artist Mick Petts, who seems to be based somewhere in the Welsh Marches, and … “This hands-on course looks at a range of techniques and approaches to woodland sculptures including: arbour sculpture, creative habitat […]
i haz a camewa!
Photo-blogging GPS pigeons in New York… I wonder if all the (non-blurry) photos would eventually build up to a comprehensive point-cloud of a city-centre, if loaded into Photosynth? Previously on D’log: Trees will have their own blogs.
Lightness of Being
Wolverhampton’s Initial Access gallery has a new show opening 6th September 08. Lightness of Being shows a range of recent light art… “Neon sculptures employ a technology that was originally developed for commercial signage. Sophisticated techniques such as sculpted neon strips, light boxes and plasma screens have extended possibilities for artists, and changed their relationship […]
Can the State Design Happiness?
Good question. The Royal Institute of British Architects is organising an interesting-sounding debate in Birmingham, one that might feed into some people’s thinking about the Big City Plan. “The Built Environment: Can the State Design Happiness?” is on 29th Sept 08. ‘It hasn’t had much success so far’ might be my first answer, pointing to […]
Hunt Emerson’s “The Owl and The Pussycat”, in full
Birmingham’s Hunt Emerson kindly treats us to a full online version of his “The Owl and The Pussycat” by Edward Lear, which recently appeared in The Beano.
2008 events list, flipped
The D’log West Midlands 2008 creative events list has been reversed, which makes it easier to use. There have probably been a few additions since you last looked at it. If you ever have a similar long list to ‘flip’ reverse, and MS Word’s crude ‘Sort’ function can’t see any obvious alphabetical or date ordering, […]
Fortune Frames
Coventry’s Fortune Frames has a fun and blissfully-quick Flash website… They’re working on a feature-length DV film for 2009 release, The Artifice… “join the members of Level 22 as they race to catch a twisted murderer who turns his victims into works of art.” There’s a full-length score by Hannah Moulden, and they’ve partnered with […]