It's suddenly spring, which took us slightly by surprise. The days are longer and the sun is shinier and it's perfect for some camera obscura action.
The good news is we have a deadline and we're very likely to meet it. If all goes to plan we'll be out on the streets by the end of April. We'll let you know where and when nearer the time!
Between now and then we have a few final things to do. Matt will be delivering the finished camera on Saturday 25th and we'll be working on the finishing touches during the week of the 26th at BOM. You're all very welcome to join us. Check the Twitter to see when we'll be in.
And then, from May, Birmingham will have a camera obscura.
Yay!
We did have some bad news. We were turned down twice in our application for an Arts Council grant due, it seems, to there being too much competition for grant money at the moment. As such our ambitious plans to tour the camera have been put on hold. We will be taking it out as much as possible over the summer but won't be able to invest as much time as we'd like behind the scenes.
This also curtails our ability to earn a wage from the camera (the application was to fund development of a sustainable business serving the community) so we're going to change our focus a bit for 2015.
Our main objective for the year is to learn how our new camera works by taking it to local festivals and events,
and to experiment with other ways of building camera obscuras, large and small. We're still thrashing out how we'll do the latter but expect stuff like a DIY camera workshop or a giant camera made out of the fabric of the city itself.
In the meantime we hope to see you during the week of the 27th. Exciting!