Upcoming Events...

FIX 07 - 7TH INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL

14 NOVEMBER - 07 DECEMBER 2007

On 28th and 29th November 2007, 7 MA students and 2 members of staff will participate in FIX, the 7th International Performance Biennial hosted by Catalyst Arts in Belfast. On Ormeauary Road, between the Library/Bridge/Annadale Embankment and Haywood Avenue, the artists will make both individual and collective interventions using performances or tempor installations. The interventions/performanes will take place between 3-7 pm. On 30th November 2007, there will be a public round table talk at Catalyst with the participants of the event at 6 pm. Title: creative dynamic social?

The participants are:

Chrissie Cadmann
Kris Gillen
Eleanor Philips
Sarah McAvera
Acitore Artezione
Wendy Nicole Keys
Michelle Nolan
Soirse Higgins
Susanne Bosch
Sinead McKeever
Ann Marie Dillon

FIX07, the oldest live art biennial in the UK, presents a programme of performances, interventions, discussions and workshops illustrating creative strategies for a dynamic engagement with the praxis of live art. Established since 1994 FIX has an international reputation for presenting emerging and established national and international artists. The seventh edition of this festival has evolved its programme to over three weeks with focus on expanding collaborative, investigative artworks that engages with the notions of what is public and live. FIX07 seeks to engage audiences with challenging performances and interventions to explore new approaches and open dialogues.

LANDSCAPE'S FIRST LECTURE: 'OLYMPIC MASTERPLANNING 2012'

You are cordially invited to the first lecture in the play THE Landscape programme. This is the first in a series of four lectures on people, play, recreation, design and the landscape. 'Play THE Landscape’s' first lecture: ‘Olympic Masterplanning 2012’ will be presented by Jason Prior, Managing Director of EDAW.

TOWARDS A BETTER FUTURE: DIALOGUE, NEGOTIATION, COLLABORATION, PARTICIPATION

Half Day workshop
Dates: 6th December 2007
Venue: Interface, Level E, School of Art and Design,
Board Room 82 E04, York Street, Belfast.
Opening Times: 10-2 pm

The MA Art in Public is being established as result of the identification of fundamental challenges to the model of art and the hierarchies of value in contemporary civil society under the influence of globalisation and digitalisation. It responds proactively to the pressing need for the development of advanced, up-to-date transferable and subject-specific skills, applicable knowledge and professional experience that promote a sustained as well as pioneering commitment to interactive, socially and politically engaged creative practices. It recognises the importance of the location of art in the public territory, its cultural and historical as well as social and economical, political and psychological situatedness. A crucial factor for this innovative postgraduate programme is its focus on art practices that centres on templates of practice, which give primacy to the creative process, to dialogue, negotiation, collaboration and participation. It scrutinizes the ways in which those practices produce values and publics, and empower citizens to articulate their interests and actively undertake responsibility in civil society. To do so, the MA programme centres on collaborations with external partners, i.e. NGO’s – community and voluntary art organisations, cultural agencies and art organisations in Belfast and Ireland.
In this first of three half day workshop (the other 2 will be in 2008) partners and students of the MA Art in Public will introduce their organisations and projects. They will have been working together for a number of weeks at this stage, they negotiated roles and contracts. The emphasis is of this workshop is to look at the negotiation process and the defined roles of the artists and the organisation. Organisations from the South and North of Ireland will be present. The role of creative practices as core methods of ‘society empowerment’ will be debated. This workshop and debate is open to the public as it challenges also university structures. It is funded by the Cultural Development Scheme of the UU.

Views of Belfast

'Park and Ride'

I saw this bus passing me in the city yesterday evening, named 'Park and Ride'. Wikipedia's definition is 'Park and ride' facilities are public transport stations that allow commuters to leave their personal vehicles in a car park and transfer to a bus, rail system (rapid transit, light rail or commuter rail) or carpool for the rest of their trip. The vehicle is stored in the lot during the day and retrieved when the commuter returns. Park and rides are generally located in the suburbs of metropolitan areas or on the outer edges of large cities. I took the colloquial meaning from the words 'Park and Ride' and imagined that this busy was owned by a Swinger's organisation. Customers leave their vehicles in a car park and transfers to a bus. 'Park and Ride' would be located in urban areas and transport to various rural locations in the later parts of the evenings or weekends. The 'get to know each other' time on the bus would could come to a close at destination point - adventures in suburbia! This play on words could have endless meaning for people. More innocently, play and take a trip on the big wheel, or drive you car on to a contraption that converters it into a boat and take a trip down the river. You have park and ride site all over the country at vacant car parks, look out points, beaches etc. So I hear!

Hilariously also on the Wikipedia page I found the 'Kiss and Ride'. The photograph is a drop off point at Alewife (MBTA station), Cambridge, Massachusetts. Many train stations and airports with good road connections

include a separate area where cars can discharge passengers in the morning and pick them up in the evening, allowing the driver (most often a spouse and possibly after a kiss, hence the name) to quickly return to the highway. Some of high-speed railway stations in Taiwan has signs outside stations reading Kiss and Ride in English, with Chinese characters above the words that read "temporary pick up and drop off zone". Most people in Taiwan have no idea what the colloquialism means.

'CitiPlay'

CitiGolf bringing outdoor sport inside, situated in the heart of Belfast city. It appeals to corporate golf parties and client entertainment. Is this facility better that your golf course? It offers professional Golf swing analysis, video analysis and instruction available on site from top PGA professionals. It boasts three state of the art golf simulators with over 57 word famous golf courses to choose from and more than 20 different setups for games and competitions. Extras include Karaoke, Black Jack Table, Photographer who will email pictures of guests to the organiser after the event, Champagne reception and results, prize giving 7 award ceremony at the end. That's pretty impressive! Needless to say Citigolf is opening up several new locations.
How about more indoor play facilities for outdoor sports? So what hasn't been done? What about a facility that wasn't for the elitists, free of charge, run by the community. Who most needs an indoor play facility. The weather getting too cold to be hanging around outside. Teenagers are reverting to locate in any hallway that they can get access to. Where would it be? Who would facility it?

Natural Architecture

This is an emerging art movement that is exploring mankind's desire to reconnect to the earth, through the built environment. Referred to as 'natural architecture', it aims to create a new, more harmonious, relationship between man and nature by exploring what it means to design with nature in mind.

The roots of this movement can be found in earlier artistic shifts like the 'land art' movement of the late nineteen sixties. Although this movement was focused on protesting the austerity of the gallery and the commercialization of art, it managed to expand the formal link between art and nature. This has helped develop a new appreciation of nature in all forms of art and design.

Natural Architecture is a movement that is characterized by the work of a number of artists, designers and architects that express these principles in their work. the pieces are simple, humble and built using the most basic materials and skills. because of this, the results often resemble indigenous architecture, reflecting the desire to return to a less technological world. the forms are stripped down to their essence, expressing the natural beauty inherent in the materials and location. the movement has many forms of expression that range from location-based interventions to structures built from living materials. However all of the works in the movement share a central ethos that demonstrates a respect and appreciation for nature. These works are meant to comment on architecture and provide a new framework to approach buildings and structures. They aim to infuse new ideas into architecture be subverting the idea that architecture should shelter nature. instead, the structures deliberately expose the natural materials used in the building process. we see the branches, the rocks and

all the materials for what they are. we understand that these structures won't exist forever. The materials will evolve over time, slowly decomposing until no evidence remains.

The adult craddle of the shaker community is an interesting idea from being rocked as a baby and child, we seem to never loose this sensitivity to rocking motion. Whether by the gentle

lapping of waves on a boat, a swing in a playground, or hammock in the garden most of us would be able to find relaxation and comfort.

Interestingly rocking also helps stimulate our ability of balance, by activating the system within our inner ear. this also goes some way to help us be alert and attentive. The spiritual society of the ‘shakers’ has the most impressive rocking tradition. Rockers are part of all life stages - a craddle for the new born; a rocking horse toy; a rocking stool for work in the household of the community; a rocking chair for leisure time, social meeting and reading of spiritual texts;an adult-size craddle for ill, weak or aged invalids. The gentle rocking movement helps to calm their spirit and prevent from bedsores. The rocking motion closes the circle of life, from birth to death!

By Artist Simon Thomas

iTrek

iTrek a project I was involved with at Computer ClubHouse when in Dublin last year. This idea was run as part of the summer program for the children in the area. This Carbon Conscience program got the kids out exploring the city in an educational and creative way. Trek is a physical and mental challenge taking place both virtually and in reality across Dublin city and countryside. The activity has been organised by SWICN Computer Clubhouse and The Digital Hub Learning Initiative. The gauntlet has been thrown down to 16 young people who will form 4 opposing team. Each team faces the task of completing three missions before taking part in the away mission for the Final Countdown mission.

The challenge is to help prevent environmental disaster through gathering evidence and building up knowledge skills. Technology will play an essential part of the challenge, facilitating faster communication and sophisticated transfer of information. Each mission will focus on a particular aspect of humanity’s impact on the environment. The teams will work against the clock on many tasks but must remember that speed is balanced against their need to reduce their carbon footprint. The first three missions will take place across the city centre in various locations. The Final Countdown will be an away mission which will take place on Larch Hill. An fully interactive website has been created to facilitate this project. The teams will use this website to co-ordinate tasks for the day and document their success.

Each player will set up a personal profile with an Eco Hero avator and teams will upload photos, video status reports and mission evidence. This will ensure that all the teams have access to the whole iTrek experience during and after the event, in addition to allowing parents and supporters to pay tribute to their success. The winners of the overall challenge will have the opportunity to take part in a summer course where the iTrek story will be transformed into a video game. This game will become the crowning glory of the project.

Dan Shipsides

I called into Dan Shipsides's studio at Orchid Gallery (beside FlaxArt studios) to see what he was up to. I had a preview into Dan's work at his presentation at the Pecka Kucks night at Catalyst Arts in October. It made me consider climbers at playgrounds and how I could construct more interested devices? On the Elastic Frontiers project Dan worked with six children from the Oldbury Court Primary School in Bristol initiated by Creative Partnerships and Arnolfini. During this time the children learnt to climb. they explored ways of moving through space and making art using the classroom, school buildings, surrounding areas, local climbing centre and places out in the landscape as their learning environments. The equipment they used ranged from traditional art materials, tables and chairs to specialised climbing equipment. An exhibition was held at the school and Golden Thread Gallery. It included Dan's new climbable sculpture, The Big Cheese, an almost vertical 'slab' wall made of school tables, with holes cut to act as hand and feet holes.