Out of the ashes of the Digbeth media arts centre that was VIVID (which closed in March 2012), a new venture has been born with VIVID Projects opening a new space and exciting plans out of the thriving eastside artists allotment Warwick Bar. This all comes as a result of receiving an Arts Council grant for a two year development programme of local Birmingham based work – great news.

Vivid Projects will be setting up shop on the February 22nd with a launch party in the space, check out the details on their Facebook event, and also launching 33 Revolutions, with the first of their projects with Revolution 01, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, How Long Will They Last?” starting at 7pm on their opening night.

Here’s a few more details about 33 Revolutions lifted from Vivid Project’s Facebook:

The opening multi-media season 33 REVOLUTIONS will be a dynamic and sometimes challenging 8-month programme that asks the question; can art and culture be a catalyst for social change? Thought provoking encounters between new works and archive from 1960s to the present will addresses the ways in which film makers and artists from a diverse range of cultural situations and societies have protested. 

33 REVOLUTIONS takes the audience on a journey through film, print, performance and song, celebrating personal acts of protest and resistance from the dance floors of 70’s NYC to the anti-institutional spirit of 1960s – 70s Britain right up to the simmering Arab Spring and Occupy!. 

Keep an eye on Vivid Project’s Facebook for more details.

Via VIVID:

The Board of Directors have been working closely with Yasmeen Baig Clifford, the company’s Director, to decide how best to move forward following the news in March 2011 that VIVID would be one of the 206 organisations to have their funding cut completely by Arts Council England from April 2012 as a result of the new national portfolio review process. After an extensive Feasibility Study, which consulted a number of key stakeholders, the decision has been taken that Birmingham Centre for Media Arts, which trades as VIVID, will close this spring.

BYOB Birmingham is a one-night exhibition where artists are invited to bring their own digital projectors (the beamer of the title) and explore the medium of projection by creating a collaborative happening of moving light, sound and performance.

Antonio Roberts and Pete Ashton are organising things and it’ll be presented by VIVID as part of the Flatpack Festival on Friday 16 March 2012.

If you’d like to get involved then details are on the website.

Pretty sure this is the first .gif on CiB too.

VIVID is inviting people from Birmingham to take part in a collective recitation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with artist Monica Ross. Take this chance to learn a small part of the Declaration of Human Rights and recite it in public, in your own language, as part of this unique performance.

More detail and contact info is available via Vivid’s Facebook page.

There’s even more info about the project on Monica Ross’s website.

a one day festival showcasing contemporary artists who misuse and abuse computer hardware and software to striking effect.

The main GLI.TC/H website is here. Good luck getting anything useful out of that one. Best to head over to Vivid’s website to see the programme of screenings, performances, workshops and lectures.

It’s all happening on 19 November. For more info, Antonio Roberts has been running previews on his blog for the past week or so.

an experimental season of sonics, moving image, installation and construction stimulated by the vision of J.G. Ballard.

I quite like that image above. It’s from Kibwe Tavares‘ Robots of Brixton.

Not part of that, but also coming up soon at Vivid, is Trevor Pitt’s Bang Bang:

the final in a trilogy of explosive art-parties-cum-club-nights curated by Trevor Pitt and played out at VIVID

With DJ sets from mini moderns, Brian Duffy, Mazzy (Chicks Dig Jerks) and THIS IS TMRW and experimental performance installations from Joey Vivo and Roseanna Velin, Vincent Gould, John Napier and Aby Duffty. That’s on 12 November.

On the last Wednesday of each month, VIVID hosts The Neighbourhood Watch, an open submission film night devised and developed by The Neighbourhood

Which makes the next one Weds 29 June.

With thanks to the 7 Inch Cinema mailing list (which you should definitely sign up to – in the sidebar on the left-hand side of their site) for flagging this up.

Yesterday morning I headed over to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, for a visit unlike any other. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Symphony of a Missing Room by Lundahl & Seitl, feeling slightly apprehensive as I was given a pair of wireless headphones, blindfolded and led cautiously around the museum by sounds, voices and a mysterious hand. The whole experience was what I can only describe as dream like, and had me leaving feeling like I’d been awoken from a deep, disorienting sleep.

So far it’s been receiving plenty of rave reviews on Twitter, who all seem to be able to put the experience into words so much better than I can. If you want to check it out for yourself, book via the Fierce website, it’s definitely one to give a go.

Last night also saw the launch of both Flatpack and Fierce, at VIVID, which has been transformed into The Dirty End. Along with live music from Juneau Projects, they had a few tasty treats and cocktails on offer which will apparently be sticking around for most of the festival.

The Vintage Mobile Cinema had it’s first Flatpack outing this afternoon in Victoria Square, where it gathered quite a few admirers. The 22 seater restored mobile cinema, originally toured British factories from 1967, promoting modern production methods. As one of only seven made, this gem is the last standing after being brought back to life to tour the country once again.

With it’s cosy little interior, complete with red cinema seats, it feels rather like a mini Electric. I was also treated to a clip of Buster Keaton’s silent film Sherlock Junior (1924), which is being screening tomorrow night at the Town Hall, accompanied by live organ and piano.

If you fancy hopping aboard, the vintage mobile cinema will be at Handsworth Library on Thursday, Birmingham Markets on Saturday, and Cannon Hill Park on Sunday. Take a look at whats on across the weekend over on the Flatpack site.

I’ll try and update this post with other Flatpack & Fierce adventures, but in the meantime let us know which events you’ve made it to and what should be on our ‘must see’ lists.