Photos from the day. Unfortunately these are only from the 3rd floor room where myself and cybersonica were stationed. We didn’t really get chance to look at all the other stuff going on, but it was, by all accounts, a great day. Really interesting to be part of a group of musicians, artists and makers with varied approaches to making sound. And great to work within a family friendly space such as the museum.
These pictures mainly show museum assistants and families exploring my interactive wooden xylophone (or ‘balafon’ as it is natively called). Also a couple of Lewis Sykes of Cybersonica and his table of noise toys. Will post video soon.
Families wonder what that noise was
the museum assistants from the ministry of silly walks
Cybersonica table is full of toys for noise
Lewis shows kids his arduino whilst dad beast the drum kit
Video of me testing a piece I have developed in Isadora for the DIY Music Day tomorrow. I will be able to calibrate it a bit better once I’m in the space, but for now its look good and should work really well once its displayed 10ft wide.
The day has been organised by Ross Dalziel (soundnetwork) and has loads of live music and activities taking place, including thumb piano workshops, arduino, and Octopus in the aquarium.
Photo documentation of the Moves 10 launch in April where I performed a VJ set alongside sound scientist Tom Rea Smith (Amos) and TV Lux man Tristan Brady-Jacobs. It’s really nice to see how it looked to the audience, especially the Tangram-making section, which I couldn’t see at all due to my wrestling with those darn puzzles. Photos by Garth of safetycatch.net
The closing words of a screening seen by a tiny audience of 28 in a packed out shop-space turned movie house. Once again A Small Cinema took over my life recently, this time in Widnes. Not just my life I suppose but also the lives of a few others, namely volunteers Karl, Steve and Mena who took on the roles of cinema staff with gusto. They brought a great perosnal character that made this cinema event unique – Karl with his local connections and natural authority; Steve with his own history and experience in working in a Widnes cinema (the Empire), along with his wife Mena who, having met Steve whilst working as an usherette back in the day, brought a sense of style to the presentation. We put on 12 screenings over two days – quite a marathon.
It was a really great weekend and we showed a hell of a lot of short films to a lot of people, young and old, from Widnes. Working to find the shop-space and get in ready for the event was intense, but worth it. I felt quite sad to pack it all up afterwards. More pictures (there are some crackers) can be seen on the A Small Cinema blog, along with Tim Brunsden’s film of Steve and Mena which was made specially for the event, plus a video document of the day.
A Small Cinema in Widnes was another project developed by Re-Dock. Thanks to Halton Borough Council for its financial support.
This Friday and Saturday, every hour from 11 till 5, Re-Dock presents:
A Small Cinema in WIDNES!
For the first time since 1983, Widnes will have it’s own movie theatre.
A family-friendly short film event in the guise of a traditional cinema experience.
A temporary picture-house installation in a small shop in Widnes town centre.
Each show lasts just over half an hour.
Kid’s Matinée - 11 and 12 o’clock
Classic cartoons and new shorts for kids. All adults must be accompanied by a child!
Eye Widnes - 2 and 3 o’clock
Archive films, new animations, familiar faces – Widnes as you’ve never seen it before.
Featuring new work by Owain Bentley and Tim Brunsden
Scrambled Eggs - 4 and 5 o’clock
An eclectic selection of bizarre short films for an Easter Saturday at the movies.
PLUS!
advertisements for local shops!
local memories of cinema!
classic trailers for films you love!
Local heroes – films by local film-makers!
Ushers to show you to your seat!
popcorn and ice-cream!
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64 Albert Road, Widnes
(just next to Barclays bank, opposite the Imperial pub)
Artist Thomas Shephard gives a performance exploring public / private space in the city centre. ‘Walking Tour of Liverpool One’ navigates the public circumference of the privately owned Liverpool One shopping development. I was interested to document Thomas’ take on this issue, having already done some work in relation to Liverpool One, both in theThe Model CityandMake Your Own Liverpool projects. I will also be working one a project later this year researching the history of the site prior to it’s re-development.
“Walking Tour of Liverpool One’ was performed as part of the Bluecoats ‘View From the Grassy Knoll’ event on 27th Feb 2010. An unedited video of the full 20 minute walk can be seen here.
Today I ran the final Small Cinema of 2009, this time in a small school in Everton. Our guide was Tony Keating, who seemed excited to be having the event there. He was keen to help set up, as was Ray the caretaker, who cleared the space in a jiffy and then brought his power tools to help assemble the screen. Tony had prepared film posters for the event, and gladly distributed memory tickets to the staff and children. He also volunteered to be an usher, sporting a bow tie along with Mr Byrne, who fetched torches from the science department.
All in all, staff at the Primary Education Centre couldn’t have been more helpful or more positive about the event. All the staff and the children filled out memory tickets in order to attend the event and a range of memories were discovered, including some kids who had never been to the cinema. All the children attended the event, and most of the school staff, and their was an air of excitement but kids seemed well behaved. During the screening there was some noise and lots of laughter from all ages, but most talking was in reference to events happening in the films (though Charlie Chaplin was mistaken for Hitler). Popcorn was brought out at have time by the staff / ushers and the chldren stayed in their places well behaved to receive it, enjoying the sense of novelty of being served my their teachers in bow ties. I think both sides bought into the theatrics and roles of the cinema, whether they had experienced it before or not.
After the screening, lots of kids said thankyou, and the teachers invited us for a cup of tea in the staffroom , where many stories of cinema experiences were swapped. The staff felt that the afternoon had been a good treat for kids, who had behaved better than expected. Tales of trying to take the kids on cinema trips that had been stressful (“never again”) made it more apparent the possibilities offered by bringing the cinema to the school.
All in all it was a terrific way to close the project for 2009, and another new approach discovered, this time, keeping it small and in some ways a surprise, but built on string support from the community.
My favourite lyric above from the title track from the album from which this event takes its name, ‘Wave If You’re Really There’ has become a kind of rallying call for creatives in Liverpool under the steering of Mercy Corps and their friends the Wave Machines. Their 4 events last year took place in St Brides church and gathered some of the best folk musicians, pop groups, performances artists, installation artists and poets to create a carefully orchestrated themed evening of delights for the audience, dutifully arranged in rows of pews (well, to begin with at least).
Last weekend was the first time the experiment had been exported, and saw a large group of collaborators and familiar faces transported down to London to install the the first of two capitol-based events (themed ‘marriage’) in St Leonards Church in Shoreditch. I went down to document the show, which its fair to say, turned out fantastic. Everyone worked really hard to set it up over 2 days, lending helping hands wherever needed; creativity abounded through the artistic direction of Scott Spencer and the Mercy crew and their collaborators, and all way lit in fantastic reactive colours by lighting guru known only as Guy. The performers (Karen McLeod, John Smith, Nathan Jones, Luke Kennard, Homework, Post War Years, and of course Wave Machines) all gave their best. It really felt very special indeed. Especially when John Smith did his folk cover of ‘Not Over Yet’.
More people than can be mentioned here contributed to the event, so I’ll simply leave these photos by John O’Shea to sum up the beauty of the evening. I’ll post the videos as they go through my patented topntail process.
Earlier this year I did some filming for Homotopia (Liverpool’s queer culture festival) and Light Factory (Liverpool’s most prolific documentarians) of an event to mark the death of murdered teenager Michael Causer. Michael was severely beaten in a homophobic attack in August 2008 and died of his injuries eight days later.
This event commemorated the memory of Michael and was part of the Pansy Project, an artwork developed by artist Paul Harfleet. Taking part in the remembereance alongside Michael’s family were representatives from the local council, Homotopia, and the Sigma Team, a specialist division of Merseyside Police setup to deal with Hate Crime.
Michael’s murder was not reported in national press (deemed to be of only ‘regional interest’ by the BBC) until there was an outcry in the gay press. ‘The Invisible Death of Michael Causer’, speaks to leading gay rights activists and media commentators to question why this was the case. The film was shot and edited by Tim Brunsden for Homotopia. Both films were shown last night at the Unity Theatre as part of Homotopia Festival.
