Roundhouse Returns
January 31, 2006
The Roundhouse is an historic engine shed in Camden that became a legendary venue in the 1960s and 70s. Hosting gigs by The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Doors. The building closed in 1983 and remained empty for many years but in 1998 the Roundhouse Trust was set up to lead its redevelopment. This Spring sees the culmination of that work and it's re-opening.
At the heart of the Roundhouse will be a unique Creative Centre for young people, with state-of-the-art facilities for music, TV, radio, new media, design and performance production. Up to 10,000 young people a year will have the opportunity to explore their creative talents and develop interests, skills and career opportunities in every aspect of the arts. Check out the website for more details.
There is a bit more about the Roundhouse at Derelict London - Where, coincidentally [as I mentioned Pink Floyd above] you can also read a bit about an iconic building soon to be lost forever. Battersea Power Station , which once appeared in an episode of Doctor Who [spookily linking to Tom Baker - below!] in 1964.
Hyperscore is a Free MIT download to create your own ringtones - Apparently cell phone users [there were 810 million mobile phones sold in 2005!!!] have spent $4 billion on ringtones - Create the next bloody "Crazy Frog" and incur the wrath of entire Continents!
Talking of phones... If you live in the UK and use BT's text-to-voice system to get your SMS messages delivered to your landline, you'll be hearing a familiar voice at the other end of the line for the next few months. BT has scrapped the computerized voice it had been using and replaced it with the voice of Tom Baker of Dr. Who and Little Britain fame.
Baker spent 11 days recording nearly 12,000 words and sounds, which were then processed by BT engineers for five months in order to be usable by the text-to-speech system. It has also been programmed to recognise abbreviations and even text speak such as gr8, cu l8r and “smilies” like :-) or you can even get Tom to blow kisses to your loved one on Valentine’s Day. Text “xx” and Tom Baker’s voice will say “kiss, kiss” or four or more x’s and he will say “lots of kisses”. I wonder how many people are going to call just to get him saying Little Britain-esque phrases? I know I am!
BT has said that Tom was chosen as the voice of BT Text for his instantly recognisable voice. In a recent poll of celebrity voices, Tom was voted the fourth most recognisable voice in the UK, behind only the Queen, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher!!!
Fancy defacing your 'Hood? Do it in style with these stencils
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Ryoji Ikeda
January 29, 2006
 Japan's leading electronic composer/artist, Ryoji Ikeda, focuses on the minutiae of ultrasonics, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound itself.
Music, time and space shaped by mathematical methods, sound as sensation, pulling apart its physical properties to reveal its relationship with human perception.
Ikeda has developed an aesthetic of 'ultra minimalism. And he is going to be back in London after an absence of 6 years. Since 1995, Ryoji Ikeda has been intensely active in sound art through concerts, installations, and recordings. He has been hailed by critics as one of the most radical and innovative contemporary composers. His albums +/- [1996], 0°C [1998] and matrix [2000] pioneered a minimal world of electronic music, employing sine waves, electronic "glitch" sounds, and white noise. These minute yet dynamic sound constructions have established him as one of the key figures of contemporary music.
C4I will be performed at the AV Festival in The Sage, Gateshead on 3rd March. Also, C4I and formula will be at London's Barbican on 20th March.
With production by Forma. Forma is one of Europe's leading agencies for contemporary, cross-artform projects. Working with artists, venues and festivals worldwide, they produce, publish and tour programmes of hybrid forms of music, visual art, film, new media, dance, theatre and live art [also responsible for the recent Her Noise catalogue].
Either event promises to be a unique experience.
Two very different photographers - Catherine Chalmers and Steve McCurry
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Warholian Occurences
January 28, 2006
 There's a bit of an Andy Warhol thing going on in London at the moment, lasting considerably longer than 15 minutes. Hauser and Wirth are showing Warhol's World and the National Portrait Gallery has his Ten Portraits Of Jews Of The 20th Century running until 2nd July... and it's free!
Some entertaining audio can be found at Radio Free Polygon, Spam Radio - An aural equivalent of Spam Poetry - and Dot Matrix Synth.
I can't get my head around Rate Your Music - There are no tunes posted there, so unless you have heard a tune/album elsewhere, what is the point of having unknown artists work there for reviewing/tagging?
When I find the time I'm going to try putting together a collection of Digitalia prints in one of the books available through Lulu Publishing.
Ooh Yeah! Part Chimp - part Melvins as well I reckon... Lethargic noise from Glasgow's Rock Action Records - How have I missed them for the past 3 years? Last album, I Am Come was released last July! South London boys too...
As is Plastician, soon to be heard on Radio One's The Residency playing Dubstep and Grime.
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Guerilla Art And A Neon Night
January 27, 2006
Can just about squeeze another post in - What a busy month! Still, I found some stuff of interest... If you are quick [ie: today], you can catch Graham Coxon at the Vice Gallery, London, EC2A 4QS What's been going on with Blogger? - It's taken so long to publish this I've had to change the date!
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| | B.O.O.K.A.R.T - The book design repair agency is a free service offered by the Old Four Legs Design Co. The Brotherhood Of Originality, Kreativity And Relevant Themes was formed by artists Steve Lowe and Billy Childish in response to the general uselessness of ‘design’ on the covers of otherwise great novels. Fantastic! Guerilla book design! |
| Went to see the Dan Flavin Retrospective at the Hayward Gallery last week. Timed it brilliantly. There were hardly any people there at 8.00pm on Friday and you need to have the space around the pieces I think. Bathed in a neon glow each room is filled with the haunting hum of the bulbs. There's an interesting interactive area where we created our own virtual installation.
Didn't get one of the iPods they have available to listen to the accompanying pieces by Greyworld - I don't think they had run out - we just forgot! You can download them and put them on your own Pod, if you're so inclined, to avoid disappointment. LEFT
Kes Richardson
Pixie 33
Acrylic on canvas
71 x 71 cm
2005
£1500 + delivery
Click to Buy
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Sporadic Posts This Month!
January 16, 2006
Things I've got to try and see this week...
PITTURA 70. THEN AND NOW
Following the Institute's recent exhibitions of movements such as Arte Povera and Transavanguardia, this exhibition explores various aspects of the art movement known as Analytic Painting, proposing a return to painting with regard to its basic and primary elements: canvas, form, base, surface, colour... Paintings from the 70s are on show until 11 February. I think it's open 10.00 - 5.00.
Italian Cultural Institute
39 Belgrave Square
London SW1X 8NX
LONDON LIGHTS
THE ART OF ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING
Until 21 January 2006
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Wasps, Wolves and Walsall
January 06, 2006
There was a bloody wasp in my bedroom this morning! What the hell is that doing there at this time of year? The temperature is forecast to reach a maximum of 4 degrees centigrade today - Admittedly it's warmer than that indoors... but still... where did it come from? It's not as though the window is open.. It's not right!
Found a couple of galleries I'd like to visit next time I'm in the Midlands. The Eagle Works, in Wolverhampton, don't have any exhibitions listed for ths year yet and is mainly a collection of studios.
The New Art Gallery in Walsall houses some intersting works by Modigliani and Jacob Epstein amongst other things. Walsall is also the birthplace of Jerome K. Jerome
Talking of art... This piece in the Independent reports how we are all becoming art collectors these days. It mentions Newcastle's Biscuit Factory, Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery and the Arts Council's Own Art scheme. No mention for Britart though!
I'm trying to find time to read all of Dan Hill's piece on The Future Of Music - particularly like the link to this BBC piece about John Ousby spotting the iPod's similarity to the Regency TR-1. A small transistor radio, released in 1954, which came in several different pastel colours and was marketed with the incredibly contemporary-sounding mantra, "See It! Hear It! Get It!". Importantly, it meant the newly emerging teenagers could take their music out of the parentally-controlled living room too.
Hyperdrive: New Nick Frost [Spaced etc] comedy on BBC2 from 11th Jan. I just want to know why their ship is called the Camden Lock?
Give It Up is a collection of nine paranoid tales by Franz Kafka adapted to stark, black-and-white comics by Peter Kuper. More than just straight adaptations, these clever interpretations of Kafka's tales bring out the dark humor latent in Kafka's work, better known for its despair and somberness.
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First Post Of 2006
January 04, 2006
 At last - Finally got a post together for the New year!
Found this Tube Map by Jonathon Stott which is pretty cool. I didn't get a GPS for Christmas so I haven't got round to mapping anything yet but I hope to get started before Easter. I'm thinking of either a Garmin eTrex Personal Navigator or a Forerunner 201.
Mark over at Boing Boing posted this link on Mark Ryden whose work reminds me of Ray Caesar's. Ray has a solo show at the...
Jonathan Levine Gallery
Sweet Victory
The Project Room
January 7th - February 4th
529 West 20th Street
9E New York
NY 10011.
[Above] Madre © Ray Caesar
So I won't be going! As I said before... Ray's work is entirely digital, from its creation to its method of printing. Three dimensional models are digitally painted and manipulated photographic textures, that wrap around them, are added. After the models are posed, digital lights and cameras are added, with shadows and reflections simulating the real world. Nah! I can't get my head round it either.
What an amazing Flickr tool Retreivr is... I'm not sure what it would be useful for but it's quite remarkable! Via the ever useful TechCrunch.
Apparently London, amongst other cities, is to get total Wi-Fi coverage provided by The Cloud - Three London boroughs, Islington, Kensington and Camden, will be in the first phase, as well as hotzones in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford and Cambridge - With more cities expected to be announced during 2006. More over at the BBC.
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