Prospero’s Books
July 4th, 2009 by Creative
Even the BBC are picking up on the current “We think” trend in the cultural world.
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Urban Anthropology
July 3rd, 2009 by Creative
Creature Comforts goes Urban…love it
via SwissMiss
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Walk the Line with Iain Sinclair
July 3rd, 2009 by Host
Leaving his familiar London surroundings for a sojourn in Manchester, the writer and psychogeographer Iain Sinclair has penned a walk through the city. This is less Manchester Orbital and more Manchester Diagonal as Sinclair cuts a path from Urbis and the Cathedral to Northenden via Deansgate, Castlefield, Old Trafford and the Mersey.
The walk, as read by Swen Steinhauser, is available as a podcast to download from the Urbis website or by borrowing an MP3 player from the Urbis information desk. The latter includes a set of pencil crayons for children (or adults) to colour in the accompanying map.
The podcast was kindly provided by Corridor 8 magazine who will be launching their first issue on July 16th, 2009.
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Manchester International Festival
July 1st, 2009 by Creative
All ready for the second Manchester International Festival Launch tomorrow?
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Let’s Talk About Sex
July 1st, 2009 by Host
The average sixteen year old male might bring to a Suffragette City Tour an expectation of tales of protest and bra burning, so it was time to challenge expectations, reveal the truth and widen the eyes of ten young men to the shock events which scarred the streets of Manchester during the fight for women’s suffrage. These women risked a great deal, and consequently have enabled the likes of me to even be able to share our history with others. My challenge for the duration of this tour was to reveal all, rampages, manslaughter, gangs and the odd protest; to bring to life these histories of the often overlooked women of Manchester.
Despite the sniggering over Repertory Theatre pioneer Annie Horniman’s surname, this group of teenagers responded in an inquisitive and intelligent manner to all I threw at them, even declaring themselves as “Gentlemen” when approaching the use of the Cucking Stool in late eighteenth century Manchester. The ceremonious humiliation of prostitutes, women with illegitimate children or those who practiced the art of back-chatting to their husbands seemed to bring an air of silence and unanswerable questions to my group of startled “Gentlemen”. I left them pondering what they deemed as an unimaginable event and was reassured by their mature approach.
It’s always refreshing to deliver a tour such as this which attracts a varied array of interests, with individuals who happily share their personal stories of sofa-blockading during a Reclaim the Streets Protest or women storming political buildings in the 60s. For a group of male teenagers their involvement in such events I presume to be nil, and their understanding of women to extend as far as their mum, or else not for me to consider… For this reason I think their efforts to understand certain events were pushed further than the average. A discussion of the lack of statues of women in Manchester led to a never ending game of “There must be one in St. Ann’s Square,” “What about the Town Hall?” “How about Queen Victoria?” I felt for their teachers on the train home listening to the continuing game I started, but can at least myself grin at filling their minds with contemplation.
With their prior knowledge on the subject of Women’s Suffrage only in the recognition of the name ‘Suffragettes’ it seems apparent that the shocking nature of the treatment of women, and the radical approach which many have taken in the fight for Women’s Suffrage, did most certainly open up their eyes. Much like the statue debate, I was asked why there are no plaques around the city to recall events such as a rampage in Manchester Art Gallery? Unfortunately for them this is a response I myself cannot set in stone, and something else to add to their list for classroom discussion.
I am certain this will not be the last all male Suffragette City group I come across but I hope that any future groups consider these incidents as much as this group have done. Their shocked responses to stories of gangs and manslaughter were as expected, the mention of bra burning simply resulting in some rolling eyes, but their additional responses were refreshing, and have added to my newfound understanding of this subject matter from the point of view of a ‘Young Gentleman’.
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RepRap
June 30th, 2009 by Creative
Image from http://tinyurl.com/antaphid
Weird connections sometimes happen… Gardening to We Think in a simple leap and bound… bear with me on this…
Having put together the Urban Gardening exhibition for Urbis last year I have taken to gardening in a big way. Now in my second year I saw that my nicely maturing redcurrant bushes were covered in what I learnt to be aphid eggs. When I investigated closer I was attacked by soldier ants, my hands getting covered in the little blighters protecting the pests munching away on my bushes.
So I set about finding out what was going on…turns out ants and aphids have a symbiotic relationship whereby ants love for honeydew (greenfly poo) leads them to farm aphids who produce the stuff to sate their sugary appetites.
I was intrigued by this idea of symbiosis between species and insects and insects and plants which led me to this…the RepRap…watch the video below for the connection.
Now, getting back on the 2.0 train of thought, here’s an idea that has implication for Urbis blogs recent thinking about social networking, free software and community led creativity and takes Charles Leadbeater’s notion of we think to a whole new level – we manufacture, anyone?
(and yes I know this got a load of press in 2005 but it’s finally coming to fruition having rightly made it to the finals of the SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards in the “Most Likely to Change the Way You Do Everything” category)
RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo. Posted in Urbis
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Think Like a Network – John Ippolito
June 29th, 2009 by Creative
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/rofi/2647699204/ (not John Ippolito)
Meanwhile back on the We Think seminar…
By far the most interesting and relevant presenter of the day, for me at least, was Jon Ippolito. The man who describes himself as “a footsoldier in the battle between network and hierarchic cultures” presented a range of his network projects from Stillwater – the New Media program of the University of Maine at Orono which use the semantic web as a means of actually creating the linkages that everyone else seemed, at best, to be hinting at.
I’m going to have a play with The Pool and Thoughtmesh to see if they really can break the habit of hierarchical cultures and, as John has it, make me think more like a network.
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BBC Blast
June 29th, 2009 by Creative
Urbis blogs met BBC Blast last week to discuss how our projects are crossing over in October. While Urbis have the Homegrown: The Story of UK Hip Hop launch to look forward to BBC Blast are preparing for their production of Othello in association with Akala’s Hip Hop Shakespeare company being staged at The Lowry as part of Blast on tour from the 14th-17th October.
An additional strand to Blast on Tour will give 50 young people the opportunity to get involved in a two week workshop covering a range of creative practices from dance to drama to visual arts, culminating in the staging of Othello.
Having had Akala in action at Urbis last month this event promises to be of the highest quality and an amazing opportunity for a select group of young people to work closely with one of the UKs leading experimenters in hip hop.
Keep an eye out on Urbis blogs for more info on how we might be working together and the BBC Blast site for more details of how to get involved – the full programme to be announced in August.
Thanks to Blast Urbis will be allocating 8 places on the Blast Tour to young people already involved in our youth programmes here. At present these projects are in their infancy and only open to targeted groups but we’ll be rolling things out to a wider audience over the next year. To find out more about how you can get involved with Urbis’ youth programmes keep an eye on Urbis blogs by signing up to our RSS feed.
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Pop Culture Post…Michael Jackson IS dead, or is he?
June 25th, 2009 by Creative
Iceland News!
Having just posted about the role of the internet in cultural institutions came across an interesting example of those that lead and those that follow…or perhaps not…we’ll see later.
Icelandic Newspapers are reporting “Michael Jackson is dead” while the major news outlets are still claiming he’s only being hospitalised following cardiac arrest.
Tune in tomorrow for more tangental posts…
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