Posts filed under 'Urbis'
And another one. Issue 2 of the Urbis Research Forum Review is now available to download from our website. “Science and the City” brings together the highlights of the Cyber City and Science of the City research forum sessions that were held in October 2009. The issue features articles by Prof. Greg Keeffe and Martin Dodge.
In his article “Synergetic Cities” Prof. Keeffe presents a ‘utopian vision of a Free Energy City set in Liverpool’ while Martin Dodge examines the prevalence of software codes in our everday urban lives.
January 29th, 2010
It’s out. The first issue of the Urbis Research Forum Review is now available to download from the Urbis website. The Review is the online publication of the Urbis Research Forum and this first issue features articles by Julian Holloway and Maureen Ward. The articles are based on presentations given during the “Mancunian Way: The Alchemy of Concrete” panel discussion held on 26 August, 2009.
In the Review Julian and Maureen explore the layered experience of the Mancunian Way – Manchester’s elevated post-war motorway – and its impact on the places and people of the city.
November 3rd, 2009
Ready for egg rockets and solar systems? Manchester Science Festival launches in just over a week’s time. Urbis will be running family activities, Science Festival tours and hosting two panel sessions – Science of the City and Cyber City.
Of course, these are only a small part of the events and activities going on throughout the city. For more info about what’s on at the Manchester Science Festival just click on this link: MSF What’s On
October 15th, 2009
The archaeological dig in Miller Street is winding up this week. However, there will be a public open day this Saturday, 10th October. Members of the public are invited to visit the site between 10.00 am – 4.00 pm and take a glimpse into what the BBC recently described as Manchester’s Hell. It should be a remarkable insight into early industrial Manchester. The site itself is making way for a new Co-operative Development.
October 6th, 2009
Poet and novelist, Sophie Hannah, will be leading a workshop at Urbis on 12 October, 2009. Sophie is the author of works including, Hurting Distance, Little Face and The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets.
The event will be taking place in the Modern on Level 6 of Urbis from 11.00am to 1.00pm. Tickets can be purchased at the information desk in the Urbis foyer or by calling 0161-605-8200. Tickets are £5 and places are limited.
September 29th, 2009
Panelists have been confirmed for the next session of the Urbis Research Forum. The Science of the City session is running in conjunction with the Manchester Science Festival and explores themes including architecture, mapping, communication and urban geography. The three panelists taking part are Greg Keeffe (Leeds Metropolitan University), Jon Porter (Technical Director, Countryscape) and Prof. Trevor Cox (University of Salford).
The panel dicsussion will take place on 26 October at 6.00pm. It is free of charge and there is no need to book.
September 23rd, 2009
The Modern, the cosy, intimate bar and restaurant nestled at the top of Urbis, has been honoured in the prestigious Which? Good Food Guide 2010, which lists a careful selection of just 1,200 establishments throughout Great Britain and features as one of just 11 Manchester restaurants given a full listing!
The team at Urbis, who run The Modern, are understandably delighted, and with a listing which speaks of The Modern offering ‘verve, cocktails and cooking with intent’ with drinks in the Bar ‘some of the finest in the city’, who wouldn’t be? It’s a great addition to a year which has brought a number of awards and nominations including Tourism Bar of the Year and the Taste of Manchester awards, and is an indication of just how hard they’ve worked since its opening in 2007.
Thom Hetherington, (Managing director of Moorfield Media, responsible for the Northern Restaurant & Bar and Northern Hospitality Awards) said it was “A big success for a very Mancunian, local and regional dining experience.”
And Vaughan Allen, Chief Executive at Urbis, expressed his thoughts on getting into the guide, “Our presence in the guide…shows we have achieved a place in the hearts, minds and stomachs of the restaurant-goers of the city and the north-west.”
Visit The Modern, on the 5th&6th floors of Urbis and sample the fantastic cocktails and new Taste of Manchester menu!
And with the results of the Manchester Food and Drink Festival being announced on Monday 12 October watch this space to see whether we collect the prestigious Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year Awards.
www.themodernmcr.co.uk
September 15th, 2009
Through conversation with the BBC FM&T team regarding our ‘Manchester on Screen’ show I have come across the Knowledge Exchange Programme (KEP), a collaboration between the AHRC and BBC R&D staff. In a recent newspaper style piece of print they have published 8 studies covering everything from how the BBC works with user generated content and how older users use digital services to the development of a 3D online world designed for children.
What caught my eye particularly was the suggestion that we should move beyond using the term ‘user generated content’ (ugc) when describing ways audiences interact with the media.
Instead the term ‘audience material’ is proposed – and this in turn covers five main types of interaction:
1. Audience content – audience footage, experiences and stories
2. Audience comments -opinions shard in response to a call for action.
3. Collaborative content – produced by the audience with support and sometimes training from professionals
4. Networked journalism – professionals and amateurs working together to get a story
5. Non-news content – eg photos of weather or wildlife.
Although this is in the context of the BBC and broadcast media, I think it can equally apply to how we at Urbis might define the different types of interaction we want to encourage from our visitors and audience, and lead to better planning of high quality activities and events as part of our exhibitions.
August 4th, 2009
It was my birthday last week. A belated gift arrived and it was this. Considering Tristram Hunt delivered the 2007 Engels Memorial Lecture at Urbis, I’m looking forward to reading it. Engels’ figure is an important one for Manchester, and we tour guides meet him every time we deliver our Radical City, Medieval Manchester and Suffragette City tours. Yes, even Suffragette City. It was the Burns sisters who gave the young Engels access to the slum districts of Manchester – areas that a well-to-do German businessman (or any outsider) would enter at their peril. During the years 1843-4, when Engels was writing the Condition of the Working Class in England, Mary Burns escorted Engels through the working districts of the city. This was the material fuel for his writing. Without this first-hand experience and insight into the horrific living conditions of the working class it is unlikely Engels’ writing and theory would carry the same weight. As Hunt writes, “Mary helped to provide Engels with the material reality for his communist theory”.
Yet, the Burns sisters are largely forgotten. There is little historic documentation relating to them and they are left uncredited by Engels despite their influence. Engels, of course, wanted to keep his “free union” with both Lizzie and Mary as low-key as possible. Our Suffragette City tour begins with the Burns sisters as examples of politically active and influential women in Manchester who have been historically neglected. A biography as extensive as Hunt’s on Engels, should shed some further light on them.
July 20th, 2009
“Born in Kent in the summer of ‘79, Jehst spent his childhood in Sussex before moving to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire as a teenager. Fueled by the bleak reality of smack infested post-industrial North he re-located to London, making his vinyl debut in 1999 with the highly acclaimed “Premonitions” EP, launching the self-financed YNR Productions label from his University halls of residence. From this point on there was no turning back.”
Thanks to Jehst today for spending so long seriously helping out on the development of some of the main themes of Home Grown and immediately getting what we’re trying to do and why.
July 16th, 2009
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