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Wombling along - Russell Davies on world-building

But the number one reason is the combination of great songs and brilliant world-building. The best bands are almost always fictional constructs. They make little myths out of themselves; through music, interviews and performance, the best bands have a story as well as music. And this gives them a constructed world their songs can spring from - meaning they can be about more than Boy Meets Girl, or can at least approach it in a different way. For The Smiths it was a literary melancholia. For ABC it was sarcastic glamour. For The Wombles it was the importance of tidying up.

From "Wombling along" by Russell Davies.

Filed under  //   art   music  
Posted September 25, 2009
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Cybraphon - bloody genius "autonomous emotional robot band" thing

It's so good, I hope this lives forever. Just to explain what this mad device is  - it's the Cybraphon - a sort of band-in-a-box, patterned after 19th Century mechanical bands, which responds to what people say about it on the internet. The happier it gets, the more happy the music it plays, and vice versa.

I hope it inspires other artists to play around with what I'm guessing it's based on, which is the Arduino - an "open-source electronics prototyping platform" - essentially a circuitboard you plug into your computer over USB, with digital outs and analogue ins, meaning that you can attach all kinds of sensors and output devices.

I've got a couple of these from when I was intending to build a 128 sized Arduinome - and I will get round to it eventually, honest. I got one
of them out the other day and managed to make a couple of LEDs attached to the digital outs flash on and off, such geeky fun.

I should say that the Cybraphon is by the Edinburgh-based art collective FOUND and you can see it at the Inspace Gallery (Google Map link) as part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival, until 5th September 2009.

Filed under  //   arduino   art   diy   electronics   music   video  
Posted August 13, 2009
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It Felt Like A Kiss - Adam Curtis' experimental film now online

Rewatched most of the Parallax View the other night - unfortunately it finished past my bedtime - and when "the incredible montage" came on half-way through I was reminded of Adam Curtis' films. His new experimental film It Felt Like A Kiss, which was the basis of a recent installation in Manchester, is now up over on his blog for a limited time.

Filed under  //   adamcurtis   art   film  
Posted August 3, 2009
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New art gallery in Coventry - The Fishbone Gallery


Blimey. Came across this flyer in Browns last night for The Fishbone Gallery, a new gallery based in a red brick Victorian chapel in Longford in Coventry. Here's what they say about their first exhibition:

Fishbone Gallery are proud to announce that - ENTRANCE - our inaugural exhibition, opens to the public on Saturday 29th November 2008. The show presents a diverse selection of art works by Coventry and West Midlands artists practicing in a wide range of media, from photography and video, to print, sculpture and installation.

Coventry is a major city that has, up till now, suffered from the singular lack of a gallery that answers the needs and promotes the work of new and experimental artists. Fishbone Gallery is that gallery and ENTRANCE the show that will set the standard for future exhibitions in Coventry.

The arts in Coventry really are on the mend, and we want you to be instrumental in the enterprise. We do hope you will find the time to come along and make this exhibition the success that we all , for so many and varied reasons, need it to be. 

Good luck to everyone involved, I'll be along as soon as I've worked out my Christmas shopping.

Filed under  //   art   coventry   exhibition   gallery  
Posted December 6, 2008
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Something That I'll Never Really See: photography exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry

Really enjoyed this exhibition of photography  at the freshly re-launched Herbert Art Gallery  in Coventry, with pictures from the V&A's collection, along with a surprisingly great selection of photos made by secondary school kids. 

Lots to recommend, if only I could remember, dammit - but this one above stuck out, Vik Muniz 's wonderful shiny sugar syrup painting of Jackson Pollock, apparently done from memory. Vik sounds like a bit of character, he's also done the Mona Lisa out of jelly, and also peanut butter. Mmm.

We had a quick look at Kinopixel's "Exploding the image " installation, which I'll hold judgement on for a bit: the quiet bit that we saw looked nothing special, Norman Mclaren was doing way more fun stuff in 1940,  but I promise I'll go back and give it more of a chance.

You can now wander around the downstairs new bit of the Herbert, and the History Gallery is open - here's a pic below. I know there are those who aren't keen (hello Neil ) on the new building, but I've got to say that I like what I've seen so far.


update : Wolfiewolf has all the photos you could ever need of the new Herbert and the collection.

Filed under  //   art   coventry   exhibition   photography  
Posted November 1, 2008
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Back to the future - Sir Basil Spence exhibition

We can fully recommend the current exhibition at the Herbert in Coventry, celebrating the career of the prolific architect Sir Basil Spence. The Herbert is a perfect setting for the exhibition, walk out of the doors and along the building and you can see what is arguably Sir Baz's masterwork, Coventry Cathedral. Makes me feel better about the place every time I see it.

I'll be going again before it closes at the end of August so I can write something better up. 

The exhibition mentions that Spence designed three other churches in Coventry, but didn't seem to name them. Doing a quick search on Flickr brings them up, all rather more brutalist and economically built than the humanistic modernism of the Cathedral - St. Oswald in Tile Hill, St. John in Willenhall, and St. Chad in Wood End.

Filed under  //   art   coventry   design   exhibition   herbert  
Posted August 3, 2008
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