The Pecha Kucha Birmingham team have announced the next five dates. These include events in partnership with International Dance Festival Birmingham and Flatpack Film Festival.

Tuesday night sees the return of Pecha Kucha Birmingham, as part of Rethink Media festival, which in turn is part of The Digital Cities Birmingham 2016 (events activities and collaborations across the city from 14-20th March.)

There are eight speakers booked to talk in the 20×20 format on Tues, covering topics from operatic sopranos, disability, refugees, theatre and more:

• Zoe Partington is a disabled artist who uses her practice to challenge stereotypical thinking in visual art. Her talk is on re-framing visual media so you don’t exclude the excluded. How do we transfer iconic images and visual information into descriptive words so they have meaning for all?
• Frank Golding is a former Director at Google where he worked on product, sponsorship and creative strategies. He now leads Golding Media Ventures, LLC and Run or Pass, Inc. His talk will be on the 50 year career of operatic soprano Lily Pons.
• Rocio Carvajal, a Pecha Kucha veteran from Mexico, is an author, educator, blogger, baker and researcher of gastronomic heritage. Her talk is titled “The language of food: Bread stamping in colonial Mexico” and will look at how the codes embedded in and on food tell a story of the moral, economic, ethical, religious and even political views of its time.
• Amrit Singh is the founder of NowHumanity and Rebel Creatives. He’s talk, “Refugees are Human too”, features powerful photographs from his recent trip to Lesvos, Greece helping refugees, visiting camps, volunteering and showing the power of live broadcasting on the ground.
• Caroline Nash is an actress and producer of local theatre in the Midlands and a recent Come Dine With Me winner. She will be talking about the challenge of producing a theatre with interactive elements.
• Mark Steadman is a web developer, the organiser of Ignite Brum and, from June, a freelancer. He’s talking about the medium of podcasting, about making media without asking permission, how amazing stories can be told and minds changed, and how it’s not all about Serial.
• Tim Stimpson is representing Bold Text Playwrights, a collective of 8 playwrights from the West Midlands region. He also writes for The Archers. He’ll be talking about how they got together to connect with our regional audience and give them new and exciting theatre and how there’s still lots more to do.
• Pete Ashton is an artist who works with cameras, and occasionally makes photographs with them. He’s a Birmingham Open Media fellow and is current developing “What If..? Cameras”, image-capturing devices which might exist in alternative realities where the DSLR and cameraphone don’t dominate.

Tickets for Pecha Kucha Birmingham at Rethink Media are £5 (and include a complementary drink and snacks.) More information / tickets via their website!

Flyer illustration Sigourney O’Brien.

This morning I enjoyed listening to Badego’s Small Talk podcast, with guest speaker Matthew Nation from Provide. 

Badego is a bi-weekly meet-up for those in the creative industry / design industry which takes place in Birmingham. Small Talk is a sub-brand of that, with events and now, podcasts.

Every week Small Talk invites a guest speaker to join in the conversation about their chosen topics. This week – their sixth edition – the subjects were subscription services, Ai Wei Wei’s lego/China fiasco and the Steve Jobs film.

I was really interested in hearing the chat / mixed views on subscription-based services. How much is too much? I personally pay for several subscription-based services both for my work and personal life to include Dropbox, Squarespace, Spotify, Sky, Adobe Creative Cloud and Headspace. The speakers on the podcast were discussing pay-per-click content, what you can get for your money (sometimes physical copies cost only a marginal amount more than digital copies of say, games, for example), record ownership and sharing and the passing down through generations of music, and how generationally everything is continually changing and what will happen in the future. Matthew Nation brought up that some people will happily pay for content, and some will balk at the price – whether it’s digital or analogue. A lot of people will pay up to £20 for magazines if they value their content – which they then get to keep, something you don’t get with stream services.

Anyway, I found myself wanting to ask loads of questions and take part*! One day I hope there’s a live show of Small Talk Podcast with a Q&A at the end. I’d certainly go.

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes and follow @wearebadego on twitter to find out about their meet-ups, events and other stuff.

*Luckily I work with Dan at AVFC, so that was possible! 

THIS IS HAPPENING TONIGHT:

With the proliferation of social media platforms, the ability to write effectively about one’s own work is more important than ever before.

Join Paul Squires, founder of online arts, technology and media magazine, Imperica, as he leads an interactive workshop for Black Hole Club at Vivid Projects to address the following issues:

* what writing means in 2015
* who should care about what you write?
* how to maintain interest amidst a sea of content
* developing your writing style
* reader feedback – help or hindrance?

In this workshop you will develop your critical writing skills, learn how to write about other work, and think critically about your own work. Participants should bring a previous piece of writing, or a topic/ piece they would like to write about.

This workshop is presented as a Black Hole Club member event and is also open to non-members. Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-workshop-with-paul-squires-tickets-18839928734

https://www.imperica.com/

Calling anyone who works at and across the edges of traditional disciplines; anyone who makes their own tools, because nobody else has made them already; anyone who seeks out unconventional collaborators; anyone who typically Rs & Ds atypically.

Gets a bit lonely sometimes, doesn’t it?

Many & Varied are running a series of 5 Salons to help make things a bit more linked-up and sociable.

Taking place on the first Friday of the month, each co-curated with a local organisation, these events are specially put together for the people who don’t fit comfortably into the usual pigeon holes. We don’t mind if you identify as an artist, scientist, craftsperson, researcher, musician, maker, curator, academic, technologist […the list goes on…] – if you’re pushing at the edges of what that can mean then we’d like to hang out with you!

There’ll be invited speakers, a chance for practitioners to talk about / demo / playtest their work in progress to get constructive feedback, a chance to discuss opportunities for change and plenty of chances to chat to interesting people and seek out potential collaborators.

Find out more about the M&V salons on eventbrite, there are a few places left, book yours for free!

Workshop Birmingham aims to enable artists, designers, architects, makers and others to explore practical processes, develop skills, innovate and make work.

Through projects, proposals and collaborations we hope to unlock some of the incredible resources and expertise which exist in the city; create substantial new facilities which position Birmingham as a national centre for the production of art, design and craft; and connect and inspire a diverse community of individuals, companies and organisations able to support and contribute to this vision.

They put a call-out on twitter which caught my eye:

Artists, designers, architects, makers. Which B’ham based manufacturers/workshops/materials suppliers do you use?

— Workshop Birmingham (@WshopBirmingham) August 12, 2015

From Many & Varied:

We’re running a series of 5 Salons to help make things a bit more linked-up and sociable.

Taking place on the first Friday of the month, each co-curated with a local organisation, these events are specially put together for the people who don’t fit comfortably into the usual pigeon holes. We don’t mind if you identify as an artist, scientist, craftsperson, researcher, musician, maker, curator, academic, technologist […the list goes on…] – if you’re pushing at the edges of what that can mean then we’d like to hang out with you!

There’ll be invited speakers, a chance for practitioners to talk about / demo / play-test their work in progress to get constructive feedback, a chance to discuss opportunities for change and plenty of chances to chat to interesting people and seek out potential collaborators.

The first one is a week on Friday and I’ll be there.

Register / read more about it here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/many-varied-salon-july-registration-17210693648

PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and the speaker talks along to the images. 

The event will be taking place at Cherry Reds John Bright Street, Weds 29th July 6-8pm (6:30 start), and you’d be welcome to join us for drinks afterwards.

If you’d be interested in talking at PKB, then email us at createdinbirmingham@gmail.com with I <3 PK in the subject line. There’s a Pecha Kucha FAQ here.

TICKETS AVAILABLE ON EVENTBRITE HERE.

Info about BOM’s Spring Programme:

“Birmingham’s newest creative collaborative workspace will be turned into a pop up laboratory this spring as BOM (Birmingham Open Media) launches its second major programme, Live: R&D.

Following the success of BOM’s launch programme with the Chaos Computer Club, Europe’s largest network of hackers, the Live: R&D programme will showcase the work of BOM’s ten inaugural Fellows who will be in residence throughout the year.

From artists innovating with darkroom chemicals to a biochemist’s re-invention of a failed project with NASA, the BOM Fellows bring a diverse set of skills and practices blurring the boundaries between art, technology and science.

Between 9 March – 30 April BOM’s Gallery & Events Space will become a hub of DIY-biology and adventures with creative technologies. The Fellows will test out ideas in development in front of a public audience, sharing their current research in talks and workshops as well as live Skype sessions with international creative practitioners to develop future collaborations.

Legendary electro-musician and producer DMX Krew will be performing with the Fellows on Easter Friday (3 April) in a spectacular live music and visuals event.

More on the BOM website.

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How can Birmingham shout louder about culture?

A group of young people who are part of the Creative Agency project at mac birmingham are asking the creative community to come together for The Welcome Party to try and find out how we can do better. Organised by The Icing Agency and cultural website Polaroids & Polar Bears, the event looks to bring together like-minded creative people who are passionate about culture within Birmingham.

As anyone who has been to Birmingham knows it is a place full of arts and culture. But unlike cities such as Manchester and Liverpool it has not yet found a way to truly shout out about itself. The Welcome Party gives the people of Birmingham a chance to discuss and debate how we can improve our national image.

The event is open to all who are passionate about Birmingham’s culture, whether it be creative communicators, arts marketers, web developers, filmmakers, bloggers, artists, musicians, photographers, or journalists.

The event is on Monday 9th March and you can book your free place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-welcome-party-tickets-15786982289

Find out more about The Icing Agency group here: www.icingagency.org

“For one night only, nabokov Arts Club comes to Birmingham for the first time ever with a late night party like no other. Live acts combine with interactive performances and installations for a raucous and ghoulish night out. Featuring music by Misty’s Big Adventure, Arthur Darvil, known for his roles in Doctor Who and Broadchurch, Freelance Mourners, a DJ set from Birmingham legends Hot Wax.

There will also be a performance of My Thoughts On Leaving You, a short comedy musical by one of the UK’s hottest writers. Nick Payne, who twice been nominated for an Olivier award.The nabokov Arts Club have previously featured in The Guardian, Time Out’s Hot Picks and Critics’ Choice, and The Independent’s ‘Best Nights Out’.”

More information and tickets via THE BOX.