Mapping Perception Redux
March 20, 2012 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Mapping Perception Redux
Ten years ago, in 2002, we completed a major 5 year collaboration between myself, filmmaker and artist Andrew Kötting and the neurologist Dr Mark Lythgoe. The project, Mapping Perception, had been an extraordinary journey for us exploring the membrane between our perceptions of ability and disability, through the prism of impaired brain function. Andrew’s daughter, Eden, who was born with a congenital syndrome called Joubert’s (which causes the cerebellum to remain underdeveloped) was both the inspiration for this project and its heart. For the project we produced a major site-specific installation, a 35mm 37 minute film and a publication and CD-Rom.
On Monday 19th March the BFI is to release a new DVD (which includes the Mapping Perception film as a special feature) of Andrew’s latest film, This Our Still Life – a portrait of Eden now grown into a young woman. We’re really excited that MP is present on the DVD as it will mean a whole new audience for the work and are teaming up with the BFI to provide 50 free copies of the Mapping Perception Book & CD-Rom for people ordering the DVD (more details / link to come).
City As Material 2 with Professor Starling of DodoLab
February 28, 2012 by Giles Lane · 3 Comments
Once again we have been collaborating with our esteemed colleagues Andrew Hunter and Lisa Hirmer at DodoLab on a discursive exploration of place and knowledge as part of our ongoing investigations and collaborative publishing project, City As Material. This time we have been undertaking a research expedition with Professor William Starling into the decline of the European Starling in Britain, seeking stories and evidence to explain their rapid disappearance in three towns : Thetford (in Norfolk), London and Oxford. Alongside Proboscis and DodoLab, we were accompanied by expedition members Dr Josie Mills, Curator of the Art Gallery at the University of Lethbridge, Canada and artist Leila Armstrong.
Haz has posted reports for each of the journeys and visitations which we undertook in Thetford, London and Oxford over on our bookleteer blog and we are now collaborating to produce a series of eBooks charting the expedition’s activities and findings – blending together questions, observations, musings, photos, drawings, rubbings and other things collected. As before, we’ll print up a limited edition of the books as well as placing downloadable PDFs in the online Diffusion Library for handmade versions and enabling bookreader versions for reading online.
COIL journal – last few sets special offer
February 8, 2012 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on COIL journal – last few sets special offer
Over the past few weeks we’ve been re-arranging the studio to create new work spaces (such as the fabbing corner for the Public Goods Lab) and have been sifting through our archive to make space. We’ve been culling the number of archive copies we keep of various publications, especially of our older works which means we can release them for sale. As such, we are now making the last 15 complete sets of COIL journal of the moving image available for sale at the super low price of £25 plus shipping.
COIL journal was a 10 issue part-work commissioning new writing, critique as well as artists projects about experimental film, video and the emerging electronic/digital art field between 1995 and 2000. Over 130 filmmakers, artists, writers, critics and others were commissioned for the series – each one invited to make their own intervention in the journal about moving image culture (rather than respond to editorial themes). The journal deliberately eschewed featuring the then-current ‘YBA’ group of artists, focusing on a mix of younger emerging talent with older mid-career artists – many of whom we’re less visible at the time. COIL is thus a snapshot of a fecund period during which the shift from analogue to digital technologies gathered pace and the changes in creative practices associated with these became more pronounced.
Material Conditions 1
November 29, 2011 by Giles Lane · 2 Comments
On December 15th 2011 we will be launching a new series of Diffusion commissions called Material Conditions. This series asks professional creative practitioners to reflect on what the material conditions for their own practice are, especially now in relation to the climate of change and uncertainty brought about by the recession and public sector cuts.
The contributors are : Active Ingredient (Rachel Jacobs et al); Karla Brunet; Sarah Butler, Desperate Optimists (Jo Lawlor & Christine Molloy); London Fieldworks (Bruce Gilchrist & Jo Joelson); Ruth Maclennan; Jules Rochielle & Janet Owen Driggs; and Jane Prophet.
The first set of 8 contributions will be published as Diffusion eBooks (made with bookleteer) and available as downloadable PDFs for handmade books, online via bookreader versions and in a limited edition (50) of professionally printed and bound copies which will be available for sale (at £20 per set plus P&P).
Material Conditions is part of Proboscis’ Public Goods programme – seeking to create a library of responses to these urgent questions that can inspire others in the process of developing their own everyday practices of creativity; that can guide those seeking meaning for their choices; that can set out positions for action around which people can rally.
Agencies of Engagement
November 17, 2011 by Giles Lane · 2 Comments
Agencies of Engagement is a new 4 volume publication created by Proboscis as part of a research collaboration with the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technology and the Crucible Network at the University of Cambridge. The project explored the nature of groups and group behaviours within the context of the university’s communities and the design of software platforms for collaboration.
The books are designed to act as a creative thinking and doing tool – documenting and sharing the processes, tools, methods, insights, observations and recommendations from the project. They are offered as a ‘public good’ for others to learn from, adopt and adapt.
Download, print out and make up the set for yourself on Diffusion or read the online versions.
Xmas 2011 Special Offers
November 7, 2011 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Xmas 2011 Special Offers
This year we have 3 special offers for the festive season :
- Special Offer 1 – only £10 + shipping for a batch of our past publications : Social Tapestries Case of Perpectives + Endless Landscape Magnet Set + COIL 9/10 + Mapping Perception + Pavel Buchler’s Ghost Stories. Offer ends 14th December.
- Special Offer 2 – Reduced Prices on StoryCube packs of 27, 64 & 125 cubes. Offer ends 14th December.
- 10% discount on all bookleteer Short Run Printing (can’t be combined with other offers) :
Last Printing Date for StoryCubes will be 5th December
Last Printing Date for eBooks will be 8th December
Please use the discount code – BKLTRXMAS11
bridging the digital/physical divide
October 14, 2011 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
A few days ago we deployed a simple but exciting design change to bookleteer.com, namely we have added QR Codes and Short URL links to every Diffusion eBook’s back page. These link directly to the online bookreader version of the eBook – a web-based version that makes it possible to read the eBooks directly on mobile devices such as smartphones (Android, iPhone, Blackberry etc), tablets (iPad, Galaxy tab etc) or any computer.
What’s so exciting about that you may ask? Well, we have been thinking about ‘tangible souvenirs‘ for a few years now – exploring ways of capturing and sharing aspects of ‘digital experiences’ into physical forms such as the Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes. This might be data visualisations or digital assets such as photos, tweets etc arranged to act as mementoes of ephemeral experiences which are primarily mediated through digital technologies. Conversely we have also been thinking about how to share these ‘tangible souvenirs’ digitally as well as physically. This thinking originated in a small project we helped take place between schoolchildren in a village in rural Nigeria making and sharing eBooks with schoolchildren in Watford, north London. In parts of Africa computers, printers, paper and internet access were (and remain) scarce – yet mobile phones were proliferating fast. If people who had never before had access to low cost publishing technologies through the simple tools we had created (Diffusion eBook format and bookleteer.com) could use these to publish their own knowledge and experiences how then would they share them when the means of production (computers, printers, paper etc) which we take for granted in the industrialised world, were still scarce?
The answer was to find another bridge between the digital and the physical – enabling people to share their Diffusion eBooks not only through the PDF files and printed formats, but also via mobile phones. In 2007 I wrote a post on diffusion.org.uk (our free library of eBooks and StoryCubes) speculating on how we might in future use visual barcodes to make sharing the eBooks simpler. At that time we didn’t have the online bookreader format, so there was still the problem of how someone with a mobile phone could print out and read the book. However, with the implementation of bookreader (a fantastic piece of open source software created by the Internet Archive) we have been able to realise this in a remarkably simple but potentially crucial way. If someone has a printed or handmade copy of a Diffusion eBook then they can share its content with anyone else simply by letting them use their mobile device to scan the QR code (there are multiple free QR readers for most types of phone or tablet device). Or they can take a photo of the back page and email it or send it via MMS to someone who can then scan it in themselves.
By placing the Short URL link alongside the QR code we have also provided a human-readable alternative to the QR code. This way anyone can simply type the URL into a web browser on any internet-connected device to begin reading the eBook. The URLs are also short enough to send via SMS, Twitter or any other social messaging system.
Over the years we have described the concept behind the hybrid digital/physical nature of Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes as being about creating ‘Shareables‘ – things which can float between these states, which can exist in more than one place at a time as both physical and digital objects. We have collaborated with friends, colleagues and partners to explore the affordances of capturing unique handwritten and handmade books and StoryCubes and being able to share them directly with others, almost without restriction. This simple addition linking the physical PDF/printed versions to their online bookreader versions amplifies this rippling effect between the physical and the digital in ways we can only begin to imagine.
We think this could be a step change in the uses and usefulness of bookleteer.com and the Diffusion eBook format – we’d love to hear what other people think too.
Public Goods Update
September 23, 2011 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Public Goods Update
Over the summer we’ve been beavering away in the background exploring new partnerships and planning project ideas and proposals for our emerging Public Goods programme. Although its too early to reveal the projects and partners we’re engaging with just now, we are excited that our aspirations for the programme are beginning to cohere around some specific topics and themes. As the projects and partnerships take shape over the next few months we’ll be posting more about them as well as the experiments and activities we’re developing alongside them.
We’ve also welcomed two new members into the Proboscis team : Gary Stewart and Stefan Kueppers, both of whom have collaborated with Proboscis in different capacities before. Gary is an artist and researcher, currently an Artist in Residence/Research Associate at Queen Mary University of London; Stefan is a designer and technologist who has most recently been a Design & Collaboration Technology Specialist for the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London.
Meanwhile, since the Spring we have been working on a collaborative research project with the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) and Crucible at the University of Cambridge which is now in its final stage. The public output of the project will be a set of books made with bookleteer that explore the methods we used; an account of the project’s process, the insights and observations that resulted and the outcome of our reflections. We’re hoping to launch these publications at an event in Cambridge in November this year and will post details nearer the time.
Bookleteer’s new web bookreader
June 11, 2011 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Bookleteer’s new web bookreader
This year’s seen several major milestones achieved in developing our bookleteer platform. At the beginning of the year we launched a User API (Application Programming Interface) allowing people to create and share eBooks and StoryCubes directly from their own projects, applications and websites.
In February we unveiled a new price estimator to help people calculate the costs of printing and shipping (all over the world) eBooks and StoryCubes through our Short Run Printing Service. We combined this with new pricing structures that make both the eBooks and StoryCubes cheaper and easier to order in small quantities (from 50 copies)
This month we’ve launched what we think is our most exciting new feature : an online bookreader allowing users to read and share their eBooks via standard web browsers. We have also re-vamped the user interface for creating and editing eBooks which should make it simpler and more intuitive. Below is an example of an embedded ‘mini reader’ showing an eBook created by Caroline Maclennan as part of Alice’s As It Comes project in Lancaster:
You can also find plenty more (and growing) over on our Diffusion website.
Hot Science, Global Citizens Symposium
April 27, 2011 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Hot Science, Global Citizens Symposium
Next week I’m travelling to Sydney to participate, as a ‘provocateur’ in the Hot Science, Global Citizens Symposium, held at the Powerhouse Museum. I’m taking part in a session called Creative Agency and Programming in Museums and Science Centres with Seb Chan, Wayne LaBar, Tara Morelos & Declan Kuch. I’m also hoping to do one or more City As Material/Anarchaeology events whilst I’m there – more on that soon.
My talk is called Oblique Devices :
In Proboscis’ work we rarely address problems like ‘Climate Change’ head-on. As artists we feel empowered to raise questions but cannot claim to have definitive answers or solutions. Our practice is to entice, provoke, humour and challenge, not to preach or claim authority. However, change is a constant feature of history and how humans respond to it reflects our social and cultural adaptability, the dynamism and resilience of our cultures and civilisations. By creating projects that provoke dialogue within and across communities we hope to challenge some of the powerful, and often misleading, nostrums of our age; to pause and reflect before we commit ourselves to unequivocal outcomes. What we offer is critical dissent; what we hope is that people are inspired and empowered to shape their own responses, to weave their own patterns within the changes that surround them.
About the session :
Panelists will address key aspects of creative thinking and creative practices about climate change, discussing their own projects and visions on climate change in response to some of the key themes being addresses by the HSGC ARC Research Linkage Project in order to stimulate debate around climate change. Possible themes may include: climate change and citizen engagement; artist-led projects on creative mitigation and environmental education; creative strategies for audience engagement and civic participation; developing awareness campaigns and critical consciousness on climate change action; the role of interactive and pervasive technologies for collaborative initiatives and local community engagement on climate change, such as sensor technologies, alternate reality games, social media, smart phone apps, GIS mapping, etc. Speakers are invited to present ideas for museums/science centres creative programming design and to offer their views on opportunities of transdisciplinary and collaborative research.
More information about the symposium :
HOT SCIENCE, GLOBAL CITIZENS: the agency of the museum and science centre sector in climate change interventions Symposium,
Sydney, Australia, 5-6 May 2011Climate change is an environmental, cultural and political phenomenon that is reshaping the way we think about ourselves, our societies and humanity’s place on Earth. This symposium presents the research findings of the Australian Research Council international Linkage project, Hot Science, Global Citizens: the agency of the museum sector in climate change interventions along with other leading research to develop new knowledge about what constitutes effective action around climate change, the critical roles that institutions can play and visions for the future of museums and science centres. The second day will feature an ‘unconference’ session to tease out innovative programming ideas and engage participants in discussions.
Speakers include:
Professor Mike Hulme School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK
Elaine Heumann Gurian International Museum Consultant
Dr Emlyn Koster CEO Liberty Science Center, USA
Professor David Karoly Climate scientist and public commentator
Dr Saffron O’Neill Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Melbourne
Giles Lane Director, Proboscis, London, UK
Dr Dawn Casey Director, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Frank Howarth Director, Australian Museum, Sydney
Professor Graham Durant Director, Questacon, Canberra
Tara Morelos d/Lux/MediaArts
Wayne LaBar Vice President, Exhibitions and Programs, Liberty Science Center, USA
Seb Chan Head of Digital, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Declan Kuch Australian Youth Climate Change CoalitionProject researchers Academic team: Dr Fiona Cameron (Lead Chief Investigator); Professor Robert Hodge; Associate Professor Brett Neilson and Dr Juan Salazar from the Centre for Cultural Research, with Professor Jann Conroy from the Centre for Plant and Food Science and Professor David Karoly from the University of Melbourne, Dr Ben Dibley, Dr Anne Newstead, Dr Ann Deslandes, Dr Carol Farbotko
Partner organisations and researchers: Museum Victoria, Melbourne; Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; Australian Museum, Sydney; Questacon, Canberra; Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, US with the University of Melbourne, Earth Sciences and the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, UK.
City As Material Launch & DodoLab Talk
March 28, 2011 by Giles Lane · 2 Comments
This Thursday 31st March 2011 we’re hosting an evening at our studio in Clerkenwell to launch our first limited edition slipcase set of books published and printed using bookleteer‘s Short Run Printing Service. The set in question contains the 10 books commissioned and produced as part of last Autumn’s City As Material series of urban explorations and collaborative bookmaking.
We will also have a special guest, Andrew Hunter of DodoLab who’ll be introducing their recent project The Thetford Travelling Menagerie, which was staged last week in Thetford, Norfolk.
If you’d like to come please email us info at proboscis.org.uk – we’ll have drinks as well as offering a 20% discount off all publications. Or sign up on the Facebook event page.
January 2011 on diffusion.org.uk
February 7, 2011 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
Last month saw just two eBooks published on diffusion.org.uk, but great ones nonetheless. John’s book is the latest commission in our Transformations series, and Ben’s is a commission for our City As Material series :
Towards Psychonutrition by John Hartley
River Gap by Ben Eastop
Public Goods : a survey of the common wealth
February 2, 2011 by Giles Lane · 3 Comments
This year we will begin a major new programme of projects exploring the intangible things we value most about the people, places and communities we live in : Public Goods. Through a series of projects over a 5 year period we’ll be making artworks, films, events, exhibitions and publications in places across the nation (and hopefully abroad too) working in collaboration with both other creative practitioners and local people.
In this first year we’re planning a series of smaller research projects to help us meet and engage with collaborators, identify places and communities, themes and activities. We’ll be using our City As Material format for collaborative urban exploration and zine-making as a method of investigating new places with local people, and also focused projects, like Alice’s As It Comes, in both urban and rural settings exploring other knowledges and experiences that are often overlooked or are being swept away by the fast pace of social change. We also plan to continue our research collaborations into new technologies for public authoring, play and sensing the world around us (such as Urban Tapestries, bookleteer and Sensory Threads).
Our aim is to build up an archive, or archives, of the intangible goods that people most value and want to share – transmitting hope and belief through artistic practice to others in the present and for the future. In the teeth of a radical onslaught against the tangible public assets we are familiar with (libraries, forests, education etc), Public Goods seeks to celebrate and champion a re-valuation of those public assets which don’t readily fit within the budget lines of an accountant’s spreadsheet.
We’d love to hear from communities, practitioners or organisations who’d like us to work with them around this theme – do get in touch.
December 2010 on diffusion.org.uk
January 13, 2011 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on December 2010 on diffusion.org.uk
eBooks and StoryCubes published on diffusion.org.uk in December 2010 :
Deep City by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
Layered – a collaborative eBook produced by the participants of the City As Material : Underside event
Ancient Lights, City Shadows – a collaborative eBook produced by the participants of the City As Material : Skylines event
City As Material : Sonic Geographies – a collaborative eBook produced by the participants of the City As Material : Sonic Geographies event
City As Material : Sonic Geographies eNotebook
A New Workers’ SongBook Song Writing Work Book for New Songs by Tiny Bill Cody & DodoLab
A Sketchbook of Lancaster by Caroline Maclennan
November on diffusion.org.uk
December 18, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on November on diffusion.org.uk
A handy list of eBooks and StoryCubes published on diffusion.org.uk in November :
City As Material Underside eNotebook
The Tournament of Beasts by DodoLab
As It Comes eBook & StoryCubes by Alice Angus
City As Material : Skyline eNotebook
Ebb and Flow – a collaborative eBook produced by the participants of the City As Material : river event
City As Material : River eNotebook by Proboscis
Education Research & Outreach for bookleteer
December 14, 2010 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
At the beginning this year I started planning how we could begin to introduce bookleteer into education and learning contexts and programmes – not just in formal settings such as schools, colleges and universities, but also in other spaces and places where learning takes place : museums, community centres, libraries, archives and grassroots groups.
We began this journey with a Pitch Up & Publish workshop in February co-hosted by former teacher, writer and digital evangelist at TeachersTV, Kati Rynne which was aimed at teachers and creative people who work in education settings. Among the participants who took part was Ruth from Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination who have ended up creating around a dozen eBooks for workshops and projects they’ve been running with people of all age groups. Others have also used bookleteer in their own projects and for creating teaching and learning outcomes – workbooks, notebooks, documentation and course materials – and not just in English, but Hindi and Arabic so far too.
Our own City As Material event series has also outlined a simple model to bring a group of people together to explore an idea, place or theme and then collaboratively produce eBooks (you can follow the development of the series over at diffusion.org.uk). In these events we’ve shared lots of local knowledge and experience within the group of participants, and found creative ways to share and explore themes of common interest with other people. Its very much in the informal/non-formal learning space (one of the participants was Fred Garnett, a former policy advisor at Becta who’s written on and worked extensively in this area) and I think it suggests exciting ways in which hyper-local groups can come together to explore or pool knowledge and experience, capture and share it in a rapid and very easy way not only among themselves but with wider communities too.
More recently we’ve been joined by an Education Assistant on a 6-month placement whose role is to help extend and focus our efforts on working both in formal and informal learning. We’ve begun a collaboration with Soho Parish Primary School, where she’ll be spending 1 day a week from January til Easter – helping both teachers and students use bookleteer to create tangible outcomes from curriculum based projects. We’re also using this project to understand more about the specific needs of schools in using online platforms like bookleteer; potentially to build a separate schools version that suits the context of authoring and sharing by children and the need for oversight by staff around issues such as child protection.
bookleteer is about helping people make and share beautiful publications of their own – whether they handmake the results or choose the PPOD professional printing service. We want to help people find new and dynamic ways to record and share the ideas, stories, knowledge and experiences they have – learning and exchanging things of value as they go. bookleteer has enormous potential to enable people to make and share things of their own, books and storycubes; things which they can share with people all around the world, without the problem of shipping physical objects. Hand-written eBooks can be scanned in and made available online in the same way as ‘born digital’ ones and can also be turned into professionally printed books too.
We’d love to hear from other people in education and learning contexts who see the potential of using bookleteer in their own work and play, want to try it out and share their ideas, experiences and templates with others. We’d like to see bookleteer evolve into more than just a tool – into a community of practitioners creating and sharing across many languages, geographies, interests and outcomes. In the new year we’ll be launching new functionality which will open it up even further. Watch this space.
Mandy’s guest post on NDotM blog
December 6, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Mandy’s guest post on NDotM blog
Mandy recently had a guest post published on New Deal of the Mind’s blog where she discusses her experiences of the first few months and the GOALS programme which is offered as part of the placements run through NDotM.
welcoming another new placement
December 6, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on welcoming another new placement
We’re very happy to welcome Moin Ahmed to the Proboscis team on a six month placement funded through the FutureJobs Fund, in partnership with the London Borough of Islington.
Moin has joined us as a coder/web development assistant and will be working primarily on bookleteer.com as well as other online projects we have running. He recently completed a degree in Computer Science and Informations Systems at Goldsmiths College, University of London and has been volunteering for non-profits and working on his own projects since then.
With DodoLab & Broken City Lab in Windsor, ON
November 24, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on With DodoLab & Broken City Lab in Windsor, ON
From Windsor to Detroit (McKee Park)
I’ve just returned from a research trip to Ontario, Canada with DodoLab where we spent a week planning new projects and doing a site visit to Windsor, Ontario for a batch of projects next Autumn with local artist-led group, Broken City Lab. Windsor is on the south side of the Detroit river from Detroit itself and, whilst being one of the earliest settlements in Canada, owes much of its former prosperity to Detroit’s auto industry. Today it is a town with serious industrial decline, urban blight and heavy pollution from the surrounding heavy industry and the vast numbers of trucks rolling across the Ambassador Bridge from the US into Canada.
Over the next year we aim to participate in DodoLab’s ongoing, intermittent residency in Windsor culminating in a week-long anarchaeological exploration of the city and the history of its futures. Building on the process we are developing through our current series of events here in London, City As Material, we’ll aim to work with local people in and around Windsor to create a series of shareable publications with bookleteer that can begin not just to map out the imagined futures of the past as created by the City and corporations, but also to project new ones based on hopes and aspirations of the grassroots communities who live there now.
City As Material Series
November 3, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on City As Material Series
We’ve recently started a new series of events called City As Material. Between October and December 2010 we’re running 5 one-day urban exploration and collaborative publishing events which aim to bring diverse groups together around a number of topics to generate some fresh perspectives on urban space and experience. We will be coordinating the creation of a collaboration Diffusion eBook as the outcome of each event, which will be published on diffusion.org.uk and printedin a limited edition using bookleteer’s PPOD service. Each event will also have a special guest who will be invited to share their personal interests in the topic and who will also be commissioned to create their own eBook for the series:
- Streetscapes (15th October) – guest : Tim Wright
- River (29th October) – guest: Ben Eastop
- Skyline (12th November) – guest : Simon Pope
- Underside (26th November) – guest : Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
- Sonic Geographies (10th December) – guest : tbc
Book places for the events here : cityasmaterial.eventbrite.com
Download publications from the series here : diffusion.org.uk/?cat=976
Follow our reports on the events here : bookleteer.com/blog/tag/pitch-in-publish/
October Newsletter
October 27, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on October Newsletter
October 2010 Newsletter
A roundup of activities, projects, events, publications and other assorted good things/mischief which we’ve been up to recently.
NOW & UPCOMING
CITY AS MATERIAL EVENTS
Proboscis is hosting 5 fortnightly participatory publishing events at our studio from October 15th to December 10th 2010. Each event has a special guest and a topic serving as the focus for producing a collaborative publication/zine (using bookleteer.com) which will be printed in small editions using bookleteer’s PPOD service.
The first event on Streetscapes with guest Tim Wright took place on Oct 15;
The next event on River with guest Ben Eastop is on Friday 29th Oct;
The third event on Skylines with guest Simon Pope will be in November 12th.
http://cityasmaterial.eventbrite.com/
AUTUMN OFFER – 60% OFF SPECIAL SET
To help raise funds for a new security system at the studio (after our 2nd break in this year) we are offering a massive 60% discount on a special set of our previous bookworks : the Social Tapestries Case of Perspectives, Alice Angus’ Endless Landscape Magnets and the Being In Common: Catalogue of Ideas deck of cards.
http://proboscis.org.uk/store.html#offers
NEW STORYCUBE SIZES
We have recently introduced a new medium size StoryCube (82x82x82mm) that is available both as an option to design your own personalised StoryCubes with bookleteer.com and also in packs of blanks to buy for workshops, projects and activities.
http://storycubes.net
DODOLAB WINDSOR/DETROIT
Giles will be collaborating with DodoLab in Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan as part of their ongoing project with Broken City Lab in November.
http://proboscis.org.uk/projects/dodolab-collaboration/
AS IT COMES
Alice has been commissioned by Mid-Pennine Arts to create a new site-specific work in Lancaster in response to the history and future of local trade and independent shops which launches on 10 November and on 4th December there will be a talk and walk-round in the city.
http://lancasterasitcomes.wordpress.com/
TANGLED THREADS
Proboscis is developing a new film about our work with sensors, mapping, mobile technologies and community for an upcoming online exhibition curated by Jeremy Height of the MIT Locative Media Institute. Mandy Tang has created a storyboard for the film which has been published as a Diffusion eBook with pop-ups.
http://proboscis.org.uk/1927/tangled-threads/
NEW BOOKLETEER FEATURES
Over the summer we’ve made a number of changes and added some new features to make bookleteer easier and better to use. Its free to join and create your own Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes. You can also order professionally printed and bound versions via our exclusive PPOD service. We also have a supporters’ club which ‘crowdsources’ donations towards the costs of developing and maintaining the platform – members get benefits such as discounts on PPOD orders and other freebies.
http://bookleteer.com
http://bookleteer.com/blog/pod/
http://bookleteer.com/blog/alpha-club/
RECENT ACTIVITY
GRAFFITO AT VINTAGE & TENT DIGITAL
Graffito, a free collaborative drawing app for iPhones/iPads, was shown during the summer at the Vintage@Goodwood Festival and then at Tent Digital as part of the London Design Festival. Graffito is a collaboration between BigDog interactive, Queen Mary University of London, University of Nottingham, University of Glasgow and Proboscis, funded by the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute. Download it from the App Store and play on its global canvas today.
http://proboscis.org.uk/tag/graffito
100 VIEWS OF WORTHING PIER
Alice was commissioned by Artistsandmakers to create new work for Worthing Pier as part of Pier Day/Made in Worthing Festival in September.
http://proboscis.org.uk/1951/100-views-of-worthing-pier-tall-tales-ghosts-and-imaginings/
SEVEN DAYS IN SEVEN DIALS
Proboscis was one of several partners helping young placements in the Culture Quarter programme explore and create new works about the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden. Alice, and our own placements Karine & Shalene, worked with the other young people to create a series of Diffusion eBooks using bookleteer.com
http://proboscis.org.uk/1738/seven-days-in-seven-dials/
DODOLAB RIJEKA
Proboscis took part in DodoLab’s creative intervention in the city of Rijeka, Croatia in June, Alice is making a new animation about the role of the market in city life and Proboscis were helping create and print StoryCubes and Diffusion eBooks.
http://proboscis.org.uk/tag/dodolab/
CREATIVE PLACEMENT PROGRAMME
Proboscis has developed a new creative placement programme in partnership with New Deal of the Mind and the London Borough of Islington. During 2010-11 we will be hosting 7 placements (funded through the Future Jobs Fund). The roles include: communication assistant, creative assistant, marketing assistant, education assistant and web development assistant. Two people have now completed their placements with us, Karine Dorset and Shalene Barnett – you can read their reports on their experiences here:
http://proboscis.org.uk/tag/placement-report/
NEW DIFFUSION TITLES
Below is a list of new titles of downloadable Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes published on http://diffusion.org.uk since our last newsletter
The Stories So far… by Cartoon de Salvo http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2193
The UnBooklet of Diasappropriation: Situated Moments from the City http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2188
Passivhaus Field Trip eNotebook by Rob Annable http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2182
Streetscapes eNotebook by Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2175
Tangled Threads by Mandy Tang http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2171
Graffito by BigDog Interactive & Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2146
Topographies and Tales StoryCubes by Alice Angus & Joyce Majiski http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2140A StoryCube about bookleteer.com by Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2135
My Work at Proboscis by Karine Dorset http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2130
Bird Song by Melissa Bliss http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2122
Graffito Vintage Festival ScrapBook by Jennifer Sheridan http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2115
Ode to Dawson by Joyce Majiski & John Steins http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2111
Excavations in the Temple Precinct of Dangeil, Sudan by Julie Anderson & Salah Mohamed Ahmed http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2108
Seven Days in Seven Dials by Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2096
What Type Are You? A StoryCube Game by Mandy Tang http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2090
Scribbles by Hazem Tagiuri http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2087
Cosmo China 20th Anniversary Exhibition http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2081
Cocktail Recipes by Karine Dorset http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2076
Greenhill eBooks by Gillian Cowell http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2069
Rijeka Pier (RIBA RIBI GRIZE REP) by DodoLab http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2066
Kitchener African Canadian Workshop by DodoLab http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2054
Meet Us At Kont by DodoLab http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2060
Rijeka, City of Diversities by DodoLab http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2051
Rijeka Work Book by DodoLab http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2047
In-site Toronto by YZO http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2039
Schedulers by Alice Angus http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2023
My Thought Book & StoryCube by Shalene Barnett http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2019
Cook ‘N’ Colour by Karine Dorset http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2016
DodoLab: Island Stories Book 1 by Andrew Hunter & Paula Jean Cowan http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2011
The Coalition: our programme for government by HMG http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=2008
FJF Placement Opportunity: Marketing/Business Development Assistant
October 5, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on FJF Placement Opportunity: Marketing/Business Development Assistant
*** Update 22/10/2010 : this vacancy has been filled ***
Are you aged between 18-24 and receiving Job Seekers Allowance?
Want to gain experience working in a creative company?
Proboscis is recruiting for a new Future Jobs Fund Placement (6 months at 25 hours per week) to join our team. We’re looking for someone who has a keen eye for detail and strong communication skills, someone who’ll want to help us reach new audiences, engage new participants and help our projects have a bigger impact.
To Apply : contact/visit a JobCentrePlus quoting reference CTE/154611
This placement is offered through our partnership with New Deal of the Mind
Marketing/Business Development Assistant Placement (NDotM FJF)
Role: Marketing/Business Development Assistant
Location: Central London (Clerkenwell)
Salary: £6.14 per hour
Job Type: Part-time 25 hours per week, 6 month placement
Person Specification
Are you interested in social media, art, creative technology and social engagement?
Can you communicate complex ideas in a simple and understandable way to different audiences?
Would you like to be part of a small dynamic creative artist studio which creates innovative projects?
The role of marketing assistant is for a highly motivated individual to help us communicate our work to diverse new audiences and to help us develop new business opportunities to promote growth, resilience and sustainability.
Duties
– support the creative team to communicate a range of projects to different audiences
– produce and disseminate marketing materials for different projects and activities using social and traditional media
– research & identify new business opportunities and markets for our projects, platforms and products
Requirements
– ability to work in a small team
– interest in arts, film, social media, design, culture and people
– experience of marketing, PR or business development
– familiarity with computers, the internet and social networking tools
– self-motivation
– willingness to learn new skills and take on personal challenges
Applications
All candidates should submit an up-to-date CV, with two references (where possible) and a covering letter explaining your interest and suitability for the job.
Eligibility
You must be aged 18-24, be unemployed and claiming Jobseekers Allowance for 6-12 months. Other JSA claimants aged 18-24 may also be eligible regardless of how long they’ve been claiming the benefit (please check with your Adviser).
FJF Placement Opportunity : Education Assistant
October 5, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on FJF Placement Opportunity : Education Assistant
*** Update 14/10/2010 : this vacancy now closed ***
Are you aged between 18-24 and receiving Job Seekers Allowance?
Want to gain experience working in a creative company?
Proboscis is recruiting for a new Future Jobs Fund Placement (6 months at 25 hours per week) to join our team. We’re looking for someone who is passionate about working with learners of different ages and engaging them in new creative experiences.
To Apply : contact/visit a JobCentrePlus quoting reference CTE/154610
This placement is offered through our partnership with New Deal of the Mind
Education Assistant Placement (NDotM FJF)
Role: Education Assistant
Location: Central London (Clerkenwell)
Salary: £6.14 per hour
Job Type: Part-time 25 hours per week, 6 month placement
Person Specification
Are you interested in working with children and young people on creative projects combining the internet, publishing, arts and design?
Would you like to be part of a small dynamic creative artist studio working with children and young people using our innovative bookleteer.com publishing platform?
The role of education assistant is for a highly motivated individual interested in creativity, art, film, social networking tools, internet, design, culture and people to work as an assistant on education projects in a school and with other young people using bookleteer.com to help young people create their own publications.
Duties
– be part of a creative team
– act as the key contact for education projects
– work with children and young people on creative projects in schools and other venues
– work with our partners (teachers, artists, writers etc) to design and deliver projects and workshops with children and young people
– research & identify opportunities for new partnerships and collaboration in education and learning
Requirements
– ability to work in a small team
– interest in arts, film, social media, design, culture and people
– experience of working with children or young people in an education or learning environment (school, youth group, etc)
– familiarity with computers, the internet and social networking tools
– self-motivation
– willingness to learn new skills and take on personal challenges
– CRB check required (can be obtained on appointment).
Applications
All candidates should submit an up-to-date CV, with two references (where possible) and a covering letter explaining your interest and suitability for the job.
Eligibility
You must be aged 18-24, be unemployed and claiming Jobseekers Allowance for 6-12 months. Other JSA claimants aged 18-24 may also be eligible regardless of how long they’ve been claiming the benefit (please check with your Adviser).
Autumn 2010 Special Offer/Fundraiser
October 1, 2010 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
Last weekend the Proboscis studio was burgled for the 2nd time this year. As a result we need to install a new alarm and security system (costing over £2k) so we’re hoping to raise funds for it with a special offer on some of our publications.
We’ve bundled together 100 copies of the Social Tapestries Case of Perspectives, Alice’s Endless Landscape Magnet Set & the Catalogue of Ideas from our Being In Common project – all for less than 50% of their combined usual price.
The magnets and cards make ideal gifts, while the Case of Perspectives is a limited edition artists bookwork created by Alice and me as part of the Urban Tapestries and Social Tapestries projects.
*** Buy your set here ***
10 Years of Diffusion
September 18, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on 10 Years of Diffusion
Its 10 years since we published the very first series of Diffusion eBooks – how time flies! Over on diffusion.org.uk we’ve written a short recap of what we’ve achieved with this project in the last decade and look ahead to what we’re planning to kick-off the next one. You can also read a more in depth post from 2007 on the history of Diffusion.
