Another week, Another week of great opportunities and happenings to report back on!, as I asked at the start of the last post, where do I start to report back on what I have been upto?
I'll start of with the basics, where I went and what I got upto. On Wednesday I made my very first visit to the great city of Liverpool. I was truly astonished at vibrant the city feels, as I said to a friend over the weekend who comes from Liverpool, I have only seen Liverpool's development at a distance and to see it up close and personal was incredibly intoxicating. Walking out of the train station, I was struck by how much winning the capital of culture prize has meant to Liverpool, culture is buzzing and culture is everywhere. I was in Liverpool to visit FACT Gallery and TATE Liverpool, on a personal level I now feel I have achieved something by visiting all the 3 TATE Galleries! (sorry to sound so lame....!). FACT has been a gallery I have wanting to visit for a long time, mainly because of its emphasis on technological development and innovation and its firm relationship it fosters with artists and technology. As I was walking around FACT, it made me feel really inspired due to its desire to really integrate different artistic forms such as film, video, projections, animation into a space and context which allowed the audience to view, and respond in a unique, unbiased, uncensored way. Which gave us the best possible experience of seeing the gallery, because it wasn't based on pre - ascribed and pre determined views we should obtain. TATE was a lovely gallery to visit but I don't think it gave me the same vibe as FACT, purely because FACT seems to me as the sort of the gallery that I could exhibit in rather than TATE, because of its visual arts domain, and I don't really seem myself as a visual artist.
Here's some pictures I took of my afternoon In Liverpool:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilleym/sets/72157625356761254/
On Thursday I had a meeting with Matt Fenton (My Masters Supervisor), to basically catch up with what has been happening over the course of the last week. It was a bit of a 6's and 7's meeting, for both of us. I hadn't done exactly as I had promised Matt, which was to show the full set of my 're - mapping Lancaster' photos (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilleym/sets/72157625356484962/) will full text and music to accompany it. I had got slightly sidetracked towards the end of last week and it was my own fault at loosing focus on what I was supposed to do, however I feel the text I have written has a bit of potential so I am working on it further this week and I have taken a few photos for the exercise so I can show Matt on Thursday the idea in full.
On Friday I was at the Hive in Manchester for the 'Leadership Lab Conference' co ordinated by PANDA (The Performing Arts and Development Agency Network). I was there in a capacity to help PANDA evaluate the event for them and there 1,200 members. The event was fascinating, because the event brought together a lot of arts leaders from across the region and the sector nationally to engage in a very thought provoking subject which is happening in the arts at the moment, how do we react to these tough times we are in?
I scribbled some notes down on my phone whilst taking some photos of some of the excellent points made in the Keynote address by Paul Roberts (Chair of Creativity, Culture and Education):
Innovation
Tentative Leadership (moving away from the heroic leadership model)
vision for the organisation
opportunism
The 2cm rule - Paul Roberts made the very important point on a number of occasions that arts organisations need to think and plan ahead but not so far ahead that they can't deal with the now, the 2cm rule is far enough ahead to excite and motivate your workforce but not so far that you are accused of not keeping abreast of what is happening now.
Finally on Saturday night (if your not bored enough!!...and yes I am so boring I was working on a Saturday night -fool) I attended an event called "Have you got what it takes to make it in the TV and film industry?" at the Storey Creative Industries Centre in Lancaster. An eclectic mix of people involved in Film and Television discussing the sector, their work schedules and how to make it in the sector. The event itself was interesting because there were a lot of second years who I got talking to and was really inspired hearing their stories and what they are upto at the moment and how driven they are and makes you realise how despite the cuts, recently outlined by George Osbourne, creativity and ambition is still rife among young creatives.
As I mentioned to someone on Saturday night, as artists I feel we need to constantly be asking what we don't know and setting out to answer these questions. If we are to be seen as the most innovative sector we need to show our determination to keep pushing forward and not be restricted to our old ways of doing things. I would advocate that Technology is one of the cornerstones of our evolution process. Not only artistically is it exciting but also we need to be aware as artists and part of the wider artistic community we need to realise that the world is changing. We are living in a time of spectacular growth in communications technology. Twitter and Facebook have changed the way we communicate and the artistic community must not see Technology as the threat but a help to drive forward and keep the arts as exciting as it will always be. The importance of relationships is something which has shown itself again, vital if you want to engage with the sector your passionate about. Networking and relationships for me are part of my day to activity, posting as much as I can on Twitter, Facebook, Emailing and interacting, its vital for me. Firstly to know what the sector is upto but also to get me out of the individual cloud I sometimes inhabit.
Whats happening this week for me? Well lots of ideas generating.
I've got ideas in the pipeline for working with web cams and mobile phone video but this idea is still in the pipeline and I will trying it out tomorrow (Tuesday and Wednesday). I'm really interested in seeing how I can ultise these technologies in order to produce film shorts, especially with the advent and dominance of YOUTUBE in the last few years where anyone with any device can upload anything on to the web.
A couple of other smaller ideas are brewing as well, but I will keep you updated!
Please Contact / Follow me!!:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilleym/ - My Flickr account which has pictures of events I've attended recently!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124476677586329 - Lancaster Creative Arts Network, an online social tool for Lancaster based creatives.
http://twitter.com/#!/MarcusLilley - My Twitter page.
Have a lovely week!
Marcus x
No comments:
Post a Comment