Released yesterday by the British Film Institute, a 4-DVD set of short films, Land Of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950. This follows the two main DVDs of the crucial Humphrey Jennings films, the two DVD volumes of the The General Post Office Film Unit Collection, and (although more transpotter-ish) the nine DVD volumes of […]
Archive for April, 2009
British Documentary Movement 1930-1950
29 Apr 2009 at 09:57
David Haden
Comments Off on British Documentary Movement 1930-1950
MIT6 papers and presentations
29 Apr 2009 at 08:13
David Haden
Creative industries, Reading, Teaching
Comments Off on MIT6 papers and presentations
Lots of juicy papers and some videos are now online from the latest MIT6 conference. Including: “The Scholarship of Sound and Image: Producing Media Criticism in the Digital Age”; “Do Mainstream Games Exist? : Reflections on Independent Game Culture”; “Video Games and Transmedia Storytelling”, and “Digital Cartographical Interfaces as Transformative Material Practices”, among others. And, […]
Screen WM – Innovation and New Markets
29 Apr 2009 at 07:31
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries
Comments Off on Screen WM – Innovation and New Markets
Screen West Midlands has a tasty new job on offer, although the salary is not so tasty. The ‘Innovation and New Markets Executive’ will deliver… “a programme of support for digital projects and companies in the region including events, project development and production funding and identifying new trends in digital media, technology and emerging business […]
Louviere+Vanessa
28 Apr 2009 at 08:09
David Haden
Artist(s), neu-real, Photographers
Comments Off on Louviere+Vanessa
Two new sets of pictures from Louviere+Vanessa. “If X, then why?”. Louviere+Vanessa.
£44.5m boost to UK arts funding
26 Apr 2009 at 08:35
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Creative industries
Comments Off on £44.5m boost to UK arts funding
Created in Birmingham has welcome news of a temporary £44.5m boost to UK arts funding. It should just about mop up the severe and ongoing decline in business/trust sponsorship of the arts, caused by the recession and the ruinous decline in interest earned on bank deposits. At least for this year. So far as I […]
Brum on the Windows 7 desktop
Birmingham makes the cut, as an official desktop wallpaper in Windows 7 RC1… There’s also this wallpaper, which is certainly a departure from earlier Windows wallpapers… Download them all here (they’re all 1920 x 1200-pixels widescreen). Not sure if they’ll all make it to the final retail versions, or not — but let’s hope so. […]
Aspies in Public?
There’s nothing about this on the website of The Public but — according to a 17th April blog post at The Telegraph newspaper — the embattled West Bromwich arts centre currently has an exhibition of… “…riveting stories in comic-book form by young people with Asperger’s syndrome, explaining their lives, under the guidance of local artists.” […]
Screen WM Investment Fund now open
24 Apr 2009 at 09:59
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries
Comments Off on Screen WM Investment Fund now open
The Screen West Midlands Investment Fund for 2009/10 is now inviting online applications for grants for film-related projects in the West Midlands. Deadline: 30th April 09. But don’t worry, there are also two more deadlines, on 29th May and 28th August 09.
Captain 3D
Complete scans of Jack Kirby’s Captain 3D, a one-shot 1953 comic book that, despite its age and the poor-quality of the printing, still works perfectly with a standard pair of red-blue ‘3D’ glasses. The s-3D effect really suits Kirby’s dynamic artwork. Talking of comics, the excellent PhD Comics webcomic is now free to syndicate in […]
Wired UK
The new Wired UK magazine has a website. Although, judging by the paper issue I perused at the newsagents, I give it six months before it goes the same way as the early 90s Wired UK edition.
Favorite Typefaces of 2008
Typographica blog — which once sported a nameplate I designed for them, hem hem — chooses “Our Favorite Typefaces of 2008“.
In the Bank
Fancy a two-week work placement with the Media Talent Bank blog/directory, based in Digbeth, Birmingham? Send your up-to-date C.V. with a covering letter and a short article you’re written for print or online (no more than 500 words) to Lauren Davies at: lauren.davies _at_ bcu.ac.uk
In the Works
My second-year B.A. Fine Art students have a large whole-class show at The Works gallery in Birmingham, opening on 5th May at 5.30 for 6pm. The venue (map) can be found by walking right down to the bottom of Hurst St., and then turning left around the corner. Entry is via an entryphone system, so […]
Future shockers
First Showing has a nice round-up of the last remaining sci-fi films of the 2000s, due for release between now and Christmas. Not mentioned is the British film Franklyn — which looks (judging from the rather unimpressive trailer) like V for Vendetta meets Dark City. There’s also a lot of indie sci-fi out there: see […]
Saint George’s Day via Flickr
Saint George’s Day around the country, as seen on Flickr.
Art of Genetics
As part of the Disability Film Festival in nearby Wolverhampton, there’s to be be a free talk about genetics, art and sci-art. “The Art of Genetics” is at Wolverhampton Art Gallery on Friday 24th April 09, from 6pm. Admission free. Featuring Simon McKeown (producer of the artwork Motion Disabled), Professor Rob Bunton, and Dr Paul […]
Planet Tokyo
Planet Tokyo… “At Tega-Numa Pond. It’s stereographic projection of this equirectangular panorama.”
‘Calling interplanetary craft…’
22 Apr 2009 at 07:01
David Haden
Comments Off on ‘Calling interplanetary craft…’
“We’re going to illuminate Spaghetti Junction — you’ll be able to see it from space!”. Wasn’t Birmingham supposed to be breaking free of its obsession with a city-poisoning energy-guzzling car culture, rather than (literally) highlighting it in this way?
Google Search responsiveness
A few Firefox users may be finding problems persuading the main U.S. Google Search to respond. Nothing happens when you add search keywords and hit the return key. My problem started about 48 hours ago, and wasn’t cured by updating to the latest Firefox (3.0.8 to 3.0.9). It’s probably happening because I’m blocking the annoying […]
Sim Images
Google has added a “Similar Images” option to the Google Images search.