Brum Blog #2
Originally published here on 15/11/06
ARTS NEWS
Artist Mark McGowan has begun a week long performance piece entitled "Dead Soldier" where he's lying on the ground on the corner of New St and Needless Alley (clever...) dressed in uniform for 10 hours a day to "raise questions about the horrific nature of conflict". Or at least he was. Possibly because of inevitable outrage from The Sun, or maybe just because of "safety" reasons, the police have asked him not to continue, according to the BBC. Naturally he's rather annoyed about this. "What am I supposed to paint, pictures about nice things? Well, things right now are not very nice." There's a long interview with him here, a catalogue of his recent stunts and a retrospective of his work is on display in the International Project Space at the Bournville Centre for Visual Arts from November 16th to December 16th.
Congratulations to Stuart Whipps who has won first prize in the Observer Hodge Photographic Awards for his documentary photographs of the deserted MG Rover plant in Longbridge. He receives £5,000, a camera kit from Olympus and an assignment from The Observer. You can the series on his site, one of which a reproduced below, and an exhibit of the winning photographers' work is at the Guardian/Observer's Newsroom on Faringdon Road, London, until 19th January. (via Ten4)
(© Stuart Whipps)
Brilliantly Birmingham, running from November 16th to December 23rd, is an international festival of contemporary jewellery with exhibitions, workshops and fairs taking place in venues across Birmingham and the West Midlands, with an emphasis, naturally, on the Jewellery Quarter itself.
MUSIC
Podcasts come and go, the initial enthusiasm weakened by the inevitable drudge of producing the darn things on a regular basis, but Birmingham based music promoters ColdRice have gotten off to a good start with weekly half hour shows containing the kind fo eclectic mix you'd expect from the people who once brought Guitar Fucker to the Birmingham stage. Drag this link into iTunes or whathaveyou and enjoy.
TECH NEWS
Apparently there's going to be a square mile of WiFi in Birmingham city centre next spring, offering access to council services and run in conjunction with BT and Digital Birmingham. According to the press release (PDF) "the portal will give... free access to information on health, transport, events and schools. People will also be able to buy vouchers or subscribe to services such as BT Openzone." Interestingly the signal will be transmitted via existing lamp posts and will stretch from Brindley Place to Millennium Point. I'm not sure this is quite the "groudbreaking innovation" they claim but it's a notable development. It'll be interesting to see exactly what they charge for normal internet access and whether there'll be any content filters in place.
ARTS NEWS
Artist Mark McGowan has begun a week long performance piece entitled "Dead Soldier" where he's lying on the ground on the corner of New St and Needless Alley (clever...) dressed in uniform for 10 hours a day to "raise questions about the horrific nature of conflict". Or at least he was. Possibly because of inevitable outrage from The Sun, or maybe just because of "safety" reasons, the police have asked him not to continue, according to the BBC. Naturally he's rather annoyed about this. "What am I supposed to paint, pictures about nice things? Well, things right now are not very nice." There's a long interview with him here, a catalogue of his recent stunts and a retrospective of his work is on display in the International Project Space at the Bournville Centre for Visual Arts from November 16th to December 16th.Congratulations to Stuart Whipps who has won first prize in the Observer Hodge Photographic Awards for his documentary photographs of the deserted MG Rover plant in Longbridge. He receives £5,000, a camera kit from Olympus and an assignment from The Observer. You can the series on his site, one of which a reproduced below, and an exhibit of the winning photographers' work is at the Guardian/Observer's Newsroom on Faringdon Road, London, until 19th January. (via Ten4)
(© Stuart Whipps)
Brilliantly Birmingham, running from November 16th to December 23rd, is an international festival of contemporary jewellery with exhibitions, workshops and fairs taking place in venues across Birmingham and the West Midlands, with an emphasis, naturally, on the Jewellery Quarter itself.
MUSIC
Podcasts come and go, the initial enthusiasm weakened by the inevitable drudge of producing the darn things on a regular basis, but Birmingham based music promoters ColdRice have gotten off to a good start with weekly half hour shows containing the kind fo eclectic mix you'd expect from the people who once brought Guitar Fucker to the Birmingham stage. Drag this link into iTunes or whathaveyou and enjoy.
TECH NEWS
Apparently there's going to be a square mile of WiFi in Birmingham city centre next spring, offering access to council services and run in conjunction with BT and Digital Birmingham. According to the press release (PDF) "the portal will give... free access to information on health, transport, events and schools. People will also be able to buy vouchers or subscribe to services such as BT Openzone." Interestingly the signal will be transmitted via existing lamp posts and will stretch from Brindley Place to Millennium Point. I'm not sure this is quite the "groudbreaking innovation" they claim but it's a notable development. It'll be interesting to see exactly what they charge for normal internet access and whether there'll be any content filters in place.
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