Graffito at Vintage Festival
August 25, 2010 by hazemtagiuri · Comments Off on Graffito at Vintage Festival
Last week, I got a chance to help out the Graffito crew with their installation at the Vintage at Goodwood festival, in Chichester. This was the festivals first year, set up by Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway, along with other curators, to celebrate five decades of British music and culture. The Graffito installation was in the 80s Warehouse area, a mock abandoned industrial Warehouse; an ode to the 80s rave and acid house scene. A huge digital LED screen was linked to a handful of iPhones with the Graffito app installed, (the app was also available to download for free from the Apple apps store, the first taker being a very persistent and enthusiastic kid) which we handed out to various people to try out, their collaborative doodles instantly appearing on the screen.
The effect was amazing, and it took me a while to actually surrender the iPhones in my care to eager festival goers. When night beckoned, and the music from the amazing sound-system became more intense, the screen became trance inducing, and people got really involved. After capturing some of the more interesting screen shots, we compiled them in a blank eBook sketchbook, handily designed and provided by Giles, to chronicle the event. We also made StoryCubes with the Graffito logo and instructions on how to download the app, and left them around the arena. The Graffito crew are looking to do similar events in the future, so keep an eye out – hopefully I’ll be there hogging the iPhones once again.
Gallery: (click to enlarge)
Karine Dorset : Placement Report 2010
August 13, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Karine Dorset : Placement Report 2010
Communications Assistant, bookleteer
(5 Month Placement, Future Jobs Fund March-August 2010)
I first heard about Proboscis through the Islington Council. It was part of a job search placement by the Job Centre called FJF (Future Jobs Fund). I believed I was applying for an admin position and was happy to get a Communications Assistant position instead. I previously went to college to study for Professional Chef Certificates and left with the NVQs. Generally I worked in that field for a while.
Originally my interests in Proboscis was to try a change of career choice, but quickly it became about being creative, wanting to work on projects and workshops and generally communicating with the public. Working at Proboscis I was involved in a workshop once a week for a period of 8 weeks with a women named Sally Labern on a project called the drawing shed. I was asked to take part in this workshop to show the community of Walthamstow’s YMCA how to use Proboscis’ Bookleteer website and create their own eBooks. There was a project I worked on called 7 Dials in 7 Days, based in the heart of Covent Garden. I spent 5 days researching, collecting and observing the main area. At the end of the project, I produces an eBook called ‘The Alternative Whistle-stop West End Culture Quarter Tour’ on the experience and the cultural attractions. I also brainstormed, designed and created my own series of eBooks and StoryCubes.
Working at Proboscis, I have learned how to use new types of software and applications like NeoOffice and a Sketch light. I have gained more experience in communicating and designing. After six months at Proboscis I have got in touch with my creative side. Throughout this placement I’ve always felt comfortable and able to express my self, which made the job easier and more inviting. Working here has made me realise that I want to pursue a career that involves working more with people, mainly children/teenagers. I now have more confidence in myself and my abilities to learn new things and follow my own initiative.
Karine Dorset, August 2010
Seven days in Seven Dials, Books
August 6, 2010 by aliceangus · 1 Comment
Mandy Tang : Working At Proboscis – First Impressions
August 5, 2010 by mandytang · Comments Off on Mandy Tang : Working At Proboscis – First Impressions
Hi all! I am Mandy, one of the creative assistants who just joined recently. I am a junior concept artist who have previously worked on iPhone games and is seeking new challenges in the field of creative arts as I work on my portfolio. With my artistic background, I’ve been assisting in the Sensory Threads project so far and have had a go at creating my own storycube and ebook with Bookleteer.
From the first two weeks of working with Proboscis I can confidently say that it has been very enjoyable. When I first stepped into the building I questioned the dark lighting and the long flights of stairs, but the studio proved otherwise. As a junior artist, being surrounded by art equipment and technology can easily be compared to taking a child to the toy store.
The studio located in the attic of the building had great lighting, the angled ceilings and structure of the room gave off a unique feeling. Everywhere you look you will find assets used for previous projects and interesting objects hidden away to save space. It may look like organised mess to others, but I find that each object no matter the size has a story – what it was used for, where did it come from, how long its been there. Every day I find myself noticing something new and just wonder about the story behind it.
The working environment in Proboscis is very laid back and comfortable, I get to do what I enjoy most and with people who are very friendly and are creative themselves. I am particularly inspired by the work in which Giles and Alice do, and admire them in creating an organisation which keeps growing and reaching out to others. The number of clients that come to the studio for meetings makes me realise how much they take part in various projects and it makes me nervous thinking I will be assisting Giles and Alice with these projects.
Giles and Alice as my boss give good guidance and I believe working with them will really help me to define myself as a junior artist, I hope after this placement I will gain valuable experience and participated in various projects. I hope to have explored a different side to creative arts and use this knowledge to refine my own work and portfolio.
I also discovered the source of everyone’s energy in the studio is alot of coffee… or tea *grin* I look forward to the upcoming projects in which I will be assisting with, and will do my best to be a team player.
A small display of the work I've been doing recently
Hazem Tagiuri : First experiences at Proboscis
August 4, 2010 by hazemtagiuri · 1 Comment
Hello, Haz here. I’ve been asked by Giles and Alice to write about my first impressions of Proboscis and my experience of working here as a Creative Assistant for the last fortnight, under the Future Job Funds placement scheme. I was fortunate enough to get a placement just as the scheme was ending, and it’s a welcome opportunity after an otherwise unproductive year for me, an opportunity where creativity is a crucial part of my role, and something to be celebrated, rather than suppressed, as in previous job experiences.
As would be the case for many other young people in Future Job Fund placements like this, I have no prior education or experience in the arts, only a recreational passion. Any initial trepidation has been eased by the focus on existing strengths and interests (for me, literary) and a comfortable, relaxed environment to get familiar with Bookleteer, by creating eBooks and StoryCubes of my own. The studio, and the surrounding architecture of Clerkenwell, with its rich history, is inspiring. This was the basis for my first StoryCube, a simple photocube of historic buildings. Simple, because my initial idea, a 3D model of Smithfield market made using multiple StoryCubes, was a tad too ambitious for my first attempt, alas.
My eBook was a very slight portfolio of poems, which led me to start thinking about how Bookleteer could be a useful tool when creating zines (small circulation publications) and inspiring people to create their own through its simplicity. I’ll be exploring this during my time at Proboscis and sharing any interesting ideas and creations I’ve found from the zine scene on the Bookleteer blog, hopefully even attending some zine fair’s with a on-site Bookleteer workshop and writing about the experience.
Haz and Mandy in the studio
Seven Days in Seven Dials; a week in the life of London’s Culture Quarters
July 28, 2010 by aliceangus · 2 Comments
For a week in early July Proboscis worked on Seven Days in Seven Dials a project by artistsandmakers.com and the West End Cultural Quarter to create an exhibition in one week with 30 young people on the Culture Quarter Programme of placements.
Proboscis currently has a scheme of placements funded by the Future Jobs Fund and the first two in the scheme, Shalene Barnett and Karine Dorset, joined Seven Days in Seven Dials to create download, print and makeup publications using bookleteer.com to accompany the exhibition. Here are their thoughts on the week:
“My role was to put together and produce a publication of the walking tour that took place… First we mapped out the places we were going to go and the route that we were going to take then we set out on the journey. By the end of the day we had taken pictures, collected facts and had most of the content for the eBook. On the Wednesday I spent my time at the shop in Covent Garden, editing photos and text, rearranging the eBook template I had already done and actually start putting in some content.
Friday we were in the studio. I began to finish the book, did some editing and rearranging just to make sure that the eBook was correct., printed off copies and ran them down to the shop in Convent Garden for display for the opening show on the project. It was a great experience and I had great fun working with a big range of different groups of people, I would love to do it again in the near future.” KD
“Seven Days in Seven Dials for me was a lovely experience. I spent seven days in an area called Seven Dials which is located in Covent Garden. I spent the seven days documenting different groups of people as they gathered various information about seven dials….All in all I highly enjoyed my time at Seven Dials. It was nice to meet young people that are on the same FJF scheme as myself and are trying something new and out of the box. I think the Empty Shops project is very creative and I would gladly do it again. At times it was hard work but the hard work most definitely paid off.” SB
You can see images here
and read more on the artistsandmakers website.
Out to sea Seaside
July 27, 2010 by aliceangus · Comments Off on Out to sea Seaside
Alice has been invited by Revolutionary Arts in Worthing to create a new series of works inspired by Worthing Pier for Worthing Pier Day on the 12 Sept 2010 and the Made in Worthing Festival 17 – 19 Sept 2010. This is currently involving her in blustery days filming from a kayak, drawing on and under the pier, talking to people on the pier, wading on the beach, falling over the groynes and tripping over the shingle and researching history in an effort to understand the allure (and engineering) of the pier, the seaside and this particular aspect of the British seafaring relationship to water. The project links to Alice’s ongoing body of work At The Waters Edge, about our human relationship to water, land and traditional knowledge of water.
Rijeka with Dodolab
July 25, 2010 by aliceangus · Comments Off on Rijeka with Dodolab
Dodolab with the Rijeka Puppet Theatre
In June Alice Angus joined our partners Dodolab in Rijeka Croatia to join in the lab’s activities and public events and to research a new video installation and series of works on paper about Rijeka City Market, its place in the community and its many traders.
Dodolab have been working in Rijeka in 2009 and 2010 with the city authorities and local groups to explore perceptions of Rijeka, collaboratively examining ideas about the city and its future, thinking about resilience and sustainability. Alice worked with Lea Perinic to speak with market traders traders about the market and some of the issues facing it and observe the flows and uses of the market space through the day and at night. The market is contained in three large art nouveau halls and the streets between them, the fish market building features reliefs by Venetian sculptor Urbano Bottasso. There are buildings dedicated to fish and meat with traders selling all kinds of produce including fruit, vegetables, dairy, bread, nuts, dried fruit, honey, flowers and clothes. The resulting work will be a series of works on paper, some publications and an installation that will be shown in Rijeka City Market, as well as in the UK, to spark new discussions on the value and future of traditional markets.
DodoLab were working with a number of people and organisations in the community including Hartera Music Festival, Rijeka City Puppet Theatre and artist Tomislav Brajnovic on a number of site and locally specific projects including surveys, poster campaigns and performances.
Dodolab is a dynamic and experimental project exploring issues of resilience in places undergoing change and urban regeneration. The lab creates performances, artworks, interventions, events and education projects through an engagement with sites and communities.
Pictures of the market and Dodolabs activities in Rijeka can be seen here.
You can see images of Dodolabs work in Rijeka here.
A series of publications have been created by Dodolab using bookleteer.com Proboscis’ free self publishing system. They are available here.
Shoptalk
July 25, 2010 by aliceangus · Comments Off on Shoptalk
Alice has been commissioned by Mid Pennine Arts to undertake a new commission in their Arts Talking Shop programme. The commission is to explore the issues and history surrounding independent shopkeepers and retail in Lancaster and it draws on Alice’s interest in markets, shops, common spaces and the way communities define the identity of a place.
The issues of local distinctiveness and the idea of ‘creative city’ have recurred in Proboscis work across commissions in both the regeneration and art sectors. Independent shopkeepers play an important role in shaping the notion of ‘creative city’ as a shared, flexible space; using the street and pavement a selling space, a meeting space, a space of exchange. The project will be exploring the inherent creativity of shopkeepers; how the presence of shops affects life on the street and the way informal things can happen around local shops and markets. Local shops sometimes foster a very human scale of vibrant life on streets that have not been sucked dry by a shopping centre and often its the less regulated more informal spaces like markets that draw their communities together.
The project is a Mid Pennine Arts Arts Talking Shop project, delivered in partnership with Lancaster District Chamber of Commerce, Storey Gallery and Lancaster University.
Graffito
July 23, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Graffito
Inspired by the underground 80s hip hop scene, Graffito pays homage to guerilla street art and turns it into a celebration of pop culture on a massive scale. Graffito hands over the VJs canvas to the hips, fingers, hands and creative minds of the audience.
Graffito is an experiment in massive crowd-made graffiti. Anyone in a festival crowd can join in to paint on a giant canvas with digital paint using their iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Crowds of people can paint at the same time, on the same canvas by using their screen like a spraycan.
Graffito is a collaborative effort between several UK partners who are experimenting with next gen digital live art. Graffito is supported by Horizon Digital Economy Research (Research Councils UK grant EP/G065802/1).
Project Partners: BigDog Interactive (Lead); Interactional Sound and Music Group (Queen Mary University of London); The University of Nottingham; University of Glasgow; Proboscis.
Download the Free App for iPhone & iPad
The first live test of the system as a collaborative drawing/ VJ tool will be in the Warehouse Tent at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival, August 13-15 2010.
Bookleteer at Art of Digital London
May 27, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Bookleteer at Art of Digital London
Yesterday Giles presented bookleteer and the Diffusion eBook & StoryCube formats at the Art of Digital London Salon, “Publishing – The Digital Word and the Arts’. The event (held at the Free Word Centre) was organised and chaired by Simon Worthington of OpenMute, with Caroline Heron and was aimed at Arts Council England RFOs (Regular Funded Organisations) interested in developing digital publishing strategies.
We presented bookleteer alongside Chris Meade of if:book, Ben Terrett of Newspaperclub, Stefan Tobler of And Other Stories as well as Simon himself presenting OpenMute’s Progressive Publishing Service concept. As part of OpenMute’s research they have created a wiki page exploring many digital publishing projects and services.
May Newsletter
May 20, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on May Newsletter
Welcome to our latest newsletter, its been about 6 months since our last one so this is a catch up across a range of projects and activities.
NOW & UPCOMING
New Features & Publish & Print On Demand with bookleteer
We’ve been busy improving http://bookleteer.com over the past few months, adding new features and services :
– New Sizes : create larger eBooks & StoryCubes from A3/Ledger sheets
– New Designs : create your own customised front covers
– Publish & Print On Demand : an affordable service allowing users to order professionally printed and bound versions of their eBooks in short runs (from 50 copies or more). eBooks are digitally printed on high-quality 100% recycled papers as A6 or A5 saddle-stitched books. StoryCubes (min order 250 cubes)
Find out more here: http://bookleteer.com/blog/ppod
more bookleteer test accounts available
We’re making more test accounts available for people who’d like to create their own Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes, and test out our PPOD service. Email us at bookleteer@proboscis.org.uk to request an invitation.
Pitch Up & Publish Events
Proboscis has been collaborating with Artists & Makers to run PU&P events as part of the Empty Shops Network Tour in Shoreham-by-Sea, Carlisle & Coventry during March. We’ve also run several PU&P events at our studio in London, for illustrators/cartoonists and for teachers/educationalists, with more in the pipeline over the next few months. May sees us begin a new collaboration with The Drawing Shed (tds) to introduce bookleteer to residents in Waltham Forest as part of their Be Creative Be Well project.
Follow us on Twitter for updates: http://twitter.com/bookleteer
or check the bookleteer blog: http://bookleteer.com/blog
bookleteer virtual residencies
James Bridle and Simon Pope are our first two ‘virtual residents’ for bookleteer – exploring the API as a creative way of automatically generating ebooks and StoryCubes from their own projects and sites. James has already created some ‘Bookcubes’ from his Bkkeepr project, whilst Simon is working on a StoryCube walking/cairn building project. We look forward to some more experiments emerging throughout the year.
http://bookleteer.com/blog/tag/residency/
Landscapes in Dialogue on Tour
A set of Alice Angus’ works on paper are off on tour to the northern Canadian arctic towns of Inuvik, Churchill and Yellowknife as part of a touring show during the the 25 year anniversary of Ivvavik National Park.
http://proboscis.org.uk/1551/landscapes-in-dialogue/
In Good Heart on Exhibition
A new series of Alice Angus’ works on paper from her In Good Heart project are being exhibited as part of the group show Dig Up My Heart: Artistic Practice in the Field curated by Shauna McCabe at the Confederation Centre Gallery, Charlottetown, PEI Canada. In Good Heart began during Proboscis’ collaboration with DodoLab in Charlottetown in August 2009, focusing on the Experimental Farm there, and has continued as an ongoing investigation into the perception of ‘farm’ through conversations, interviews, historical and folklore research.
http://proboscis.org.uk/1649/in-good-heart/
Empty Shops Drawing Commission
Alice Angus has been working on commission from http://artistsandmakers.com to draw some the places that the Empty Shops Network is visiting including Granville Arcade in Brixton, Coventry Market and later this year Worthing seafront.
http://proboscis.org.uk/tag/emptyshops/
Professional Development Commissions
Our first two commissions have been completed and the results published on our website. Niharika Hariharan and Holly Clarke were each commissioned to develop small projects that connect with our work and themes. Niharika created an education workshop which she delivered in a secondary school in Delhi, India; Holly researched into ‘neighbourhood radio’ using web streaming and low-power broadcasting.
http://proboscis.org.uk/tag/professional-development-commissions/
RECENT ACTIVITY
Sensory Threads at CHI, Atlanta USA
Proboscis collaborators, Nick Bryan-Kins (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London) and Joe Marshall (Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham) demonstrated the latest version of Sensory Threads at the CHI conference in Atlanta, USA in April 2010.
http://proboscis.org.uk/tag/sensory-threads/
Birmingham Total Place
Proboscis was commissioned to create some illustrated storycubes for Birmingham Total Place summit about the Early Intervention Project being undertaken as part of the Total Place Initiative. We made the cubes in response to our conversations with people about the ups and downs of accessing local services and support for their children and families.
http://proboscis.org.uk/tag/total-place/
With Our Ears To The Ground
We have recently completed our publication for With Our Ears to the Ground; a project commissioned by Green Heart Partnership and Hertfordshire County Council to explore peoples’ ideas about community and notions of community cohesion.
http://proboscis.org.uk/1516/with-our-ears-to-the-ground-book/
NEW DIFFUSION EBOOKS & STORYCUBES
A Sort of Autobiography by Warren Craghead http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1977
Cemetery Litmus Test by Andrew Hunter http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1999
iPhone App Sketchbook by Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1996
Rijeka Site StoryCubes by Lisa Hirmer http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1969
Travelling through Layers by Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1962
Coventry Market: public spaces, meeting places by Alice Angus http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1959
Icons of Rijeka StoryCubes by Andrew Hunter http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1935
Family eBooks by Karine Dorset http://diffusion.org.uk/?cat=9
Icons of Rijeka by Andrew Hunter http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1913
Coventry Empty Shop by Dan Thompson http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1897
eBook Observer by Frederik Lesage http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1892
Carlisle Empty Shop by Dan Thompson http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1880
Landscapes In Dialogue: reflections by Alice Angus http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1865
Cummerbundery Volume 1: The Collected Tweets of Brandon Cummerbund by Russ Bravo http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1870
Granville Arcade: empty spaces and meeting places by Alice Angus http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1857
StoryCubes by Karine Dorset http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1851
Shoreham-by-Sea Empty Shop by Dan Thompson http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1847
Canto: a collection of wishes Book 1; Whitehorse, Yukon Canada by Joyce Majiski http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1843
Welcome to the Imagination Age by Rita J. King http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1830
Empty Shops Workbook by Dan Thompson http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1825
Birmingham Total Place StoryCubes by Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1798
Modern Romance StoryCube by We Are Words & Pictures http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1795
A Short Film About War by Lisa LeFeuvre http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1785
Carnet du Bibliexplorateur par J. Thomas Maillioux http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1773
With Our Ears to the Ground by Proboscis http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1758
A History of Municipal Housing by Owen Hatherley http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1751
8 Ideas for using bookleteer in schools by Kati Rynne http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1745
I Feel Different by LACE http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1730
State of the Union by Robert Ransick http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1722
Waiting For Crisis by William Davies http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1713
Expeditions in Paper Science + Unguided by Matthew Sheret http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1700
City As Material Student Project eBooks http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1693
Creative Methodologies for the Creative Industries by Lorraine Warren & Ted Fuller http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1679
Articulating Futures Workshop eNotebooks by Niharika Hariharan http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1668
Trail Song by Julie Myers http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1642
Blakewalk 3 by Tim Wright http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1639
From an outer suburban life by Linda Carroli http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1628
Belo Horizonte Anarchaeology by Giles Lane http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1615
all made with http://bookleteer.com !
In Good Heart
May 19, 2010 by aliceangus · 4 Comments
I have just sent off some new works on paper, that are the first part of my project In Good Heart, off to Confederation Centre Gallery in Prince Edward Island, Canda for the show Dig Up My Heart: Artistic Practice in the Field curated by Shauna McCabe which opens on Saturday till September 22. The show; brings together a group of practitioners who start from the same impulse – a visceral connection to the land and to place, and the transformative potential of that attachment in response to issues of landscape change…
In 2009 I was invited by our partners Dodolab to visit the Charlottetown Experimental Farm on Prince Edward island and spend some time researching its history, exploring the site and the island. The Charlottetown farm was one of a network of Experimental Farms created in the 1880’s to research and improve farming methods and production, the network hub was the Central Experimental farm in Ottowa.
The visit to PEI which triggered many questions about farming and the factors that impact on this most ancient of skills. The works bring together several strands of research, conversations, interviews, historical and folklore research to explore the perception of “Farm”, its origins, what it means to people now and the way in which the disappearance of traditional skills and distance from the sources of our food serve to disconnect people from their link with land and nature. It is part of my ongoing series, At The Waters Edge looking at peoples local and personal relationship to land and environment.
There will be a publication with the series of works and stories published in June. You can see the works on flickr.
Thanks
I am grateful to all at Dodolab, Confederation Centre and the Public Archives and Records Office for helping with my research. A huge thanks to the people who kindly sent me their thoughts on the word “farm” and I would like to thank; Andrew, Angela, Adriana, Barb, Chick, Deborah, Danny, Dan, Frank, Gillian, Joyce, Joe, Kei, Mervin, Niharika, Tarin and Sarah. This work was commissioned by Dodolab who invited me to PEI in 2009 as part of an ongoing partnership with Proboscis.
Professional Development Commission: Neighbourhood Radio by Holly Clarke
May 11, 2010 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
Neighbourhood radio is a project aimed at opening lines of communication amongst neighbours and form community connections by breaking down social distance and barriers.
New digital media and online culture is now widely accepted as the norm however it is still restricted by on age and price. Analogue radio use spans generations and affluence, making it the perfect medium to bridge these gaps. In this digital age, radio is fast becoming old media. Considering the changes that have happened to broadcasting over the recent years, such as digital and satellite communications, it’s important to look at the way we use older technologies and re-evaluate their purposes.
The every expanding digital presence has also heralded the way for new communication ideologies. Open source and hacktivist culture was born out of a global information gift economy, made possible through internet connection. This has given power to the people, creating a social need to make, repurpose and share technology.
This project seeks to repurpose current technologies to make them more socially relevant and to do so through an open source, easy to use model.
Radio is also a highly regulated system and to challenge this would deservingly called into question broadcast laws opening the way for new creative thinking and activity within the medium.
I undertook research into how Proboscis might create an online/off line ‘radio’ station as part of professional development commission. The commission was a way of me working with Proboscis in a professional manner to enable me to develop my individual artistic practice and freelance work as a recent graduate.
This project has helped me understand the depth of research required before undertaking artistic interaction design projects as a part of a functioning arts company. It has led me to develop my freelance work and helped me understand project management in the arts world. I have also been able to advance my understanding of technology, leading me to courses in programming to help me further my understanding of this subject area.
I hope to develop the project into a working prototype with the help of the Proboscis team and technology partners as I believe the project would be of great social benefit to community projects.
Holly Clarke
May 2010
Download the Project Report PDF 3.3Mb
Publish & Print on Demand with bookleteer
April 21, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Publish & Print on Demand with bookleteer
We are very excited that bookleteer now offers a service for users to order their eBooks professionally printed and bound as A6 saddle-stitched books on high-quality 100% recycled paper in short runs of 50 copies or more. StoryCubes can also be printed on die-cut card in runs of 200 cubes or more.
We are making more test accounts available for people wanting to create their own eBooks and StoryCubes and try out the PPOD service – email us at bookleteer@proboscis.org.uk to receive an invite.
Public spaces, meeting places… and privatisation
April 12, 2010 by aliceangus · 1 Comment
At the end of March I headed up to draw Coventry indoor Market to spend a few days on the next leg of the artistsandmakers.com Empty Shops Network Tour created by artist Dan Thompson (and involving Jan Williams (Caravan Gallery), Steve Bomford Natasha Middleton and podcaster Richard Vobes.) I’ve been commissioned to draw some of the spaces (and their occupants) the tour is visiting and Coventry Market follows from my drawings in Granville Arcade in Brixton.
An ancient city, Coventry’s medieval buildings were almost all destroyed during the second world war blitz that devastated the city. Its rich history is crossed by stories of King Canute and Lady Godiva. Today Coventry now has a maze of traffic free precincts and modern buildings built in the postwar period and it is far from what the medieval city must have been.
These precincts are watched over by many surveillance cameras and again on this project I to the issue of private and public space that has come up so often for Proboscis in the last 2 years as we find ourselves prevented from taking photos in shopping malls and public squares. PD Smith writes about this issue in an interesting blog post about Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21st-century City, Anna Mintons Book looking at control, fear and the city.
Coventry’s indoor market is a circular space in which you can get lost, dizzy and a bit confused about which door you came in but in the process find everything from a cup of tea to 5 kinds of sweet potato, dog biscuits, birthday cards, fake flowers, fresh rolls, loose cake mix, baking tins and graph paper. Its got a real sense or people mingling from different communities and backgrounds and ages using it to meet, chat and hang out, not just shop. They once celebrated it in a musical.
In many of our recent projects people tell us its less regulated more informal spaces that draw their communities together, Watford Market, Coventry Market, Brixton Market…But these more informal spaces are on the decline it seems and everywhere we see what Paul Kingsnorth wrote in In “Cities for Sale” : From parks to pedestrian streets, squares to market places, public spaces are being bought up and closed down, often with little consultation or publicity. In towns and cities all over England, what was once public is now private. It is effectively owned by corporations, which set the standards of behaviour. These standards are the standards that are most congenial to their aim – getting you to buy things. … There will be no busking, and often there will be no sitting either, except in designated areas. You will eat and drink where you are told to. You will not skateboard or cycle or behave “inappropriately”.
The Empty Shops Network is aiming to celebrate the kind of local distinctiveness that gets lost in these developments and it is working with communities to use empty shops for projects in the spaces and times inbetween other uses. The Network’s projects involve public meetings, informal training for local artists, and showcase the tools needed to run empty shops projects. See artistandmakers.com for details.
You can see more images from Coventry here.
Empty Shops Pitch Up & Publish
March 17, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Empty Shops Pitch Up & Publish
Proboscis is collaborating with Dan Thompson of artistsandmakers.com to run a series of bookleteer Pitch Up & Publish events alongside his Empty Shops Network Tour. Last week we were in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex and this week (Friday 19th March) we’ll be in Carlisle, Cumbria, with future visits planned for Coventry and Margate.
Join us to get an intro to creating your own eBooks and StoryCubes with bookleteer. Follow bookleteer on twitter or the bookleteer blog for more information.
Browse eBooks and StoryCubes made with bookleteer.com
Future Jobs Fund Placements: Karine & Shalene
March 15, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Future Jobs Fund Placements: Karine & Shalene
We’re very pleased to welcome Karine Dorset & Shalene Barnett who have started recently at Proboscis on six month placements through the government’s Future Jobs Fund. They will be working primarily on bookleteer.com, helping us explore ways to bridge across to people in the 18-30 age group.
Proboscis is currently part of two FJF schemes; one through our local authority, Islington Council, and the other with New Deal of the Mind. We will have more openings for placements through NDotM in the coming months – if you are eligible for an FJF placement (age 18-24 and unemployed for more than 6 months) and would like to know more about a placement with Proboscis, please get in touch.
Professional Development Commission: Articulating Futures by Niharika Hariharan
February 26, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Professional Development Commission: Articulating Futures by Niharika Hariharan
Articulating Futures was a 4 day workshop held at Chinmaya Mission Vidyalaya in New Delhi between the 17th – 20th November, 2009. As a collaboration between narrative designer Niharika Hariharan and Proboscis, the workshop investigated how through innovative thinking young students could be mobilized to voice issues that are important to them.
I had the opportunity of working as an intern and project assistant at Proboscis while I was pursuing my Masters at Central Saint Martins, London in 2008-09. Needless to say, the experience at Proboscis was invaluable, giving me important insights into the various processes of design thinking as well as management.
On completing my course, Proboscis offered me a professional development commission. The commission is granted to emerging young artists and designers to help them kick start a project of their own interest giving them an opportunity to showcase their capabilities to the ‘real world’.
Giles Lane and the Proboscis team worked with me through the entire process of my project Articulating Futures right from ideation up until the execution. Proboscis was an important member of the think tank that helped shape this commissioned project. They not only provided me with the required materials to execute the project but also a platform to share and discuss my work with creative practitioners at a global level.
Articulating Futures has been an extremely satisfying project to me as a designer and a thinker. It has allowed me to explore and share my ideas as an emerging professional in the field of art and design. And finally, it has given me the confidence to further pursue, lead and manage projects and ideas. Needless to say these are all desired and necessary skills for a future creative practitioner working in the industry.
Post the completion of my education in London, this Professional Development Commission by Proboscis was an ideal platform for me to progress towards a career in the field of art and design.
Niharika Hariharan
February 2010
view/download the Hindi/English eNotebooks
download the Project Report PDF 2.1Mb
Landscapes in Dialogue
February 25, 2010 by aliceangus · 3 Comments
There are no fences here … when you go out of town there are no fences, but I wouldn’t call this a wilderness because peoples homes are here, people live here.
This week I’ve been packing up a set of drawings to send out to the Canadian arctic town of Inuvik for the first leg of a touring show during the the 25 year anniversary of Ivvavik National Park in Canada which was created by a historic Aboriginal land claim settlement The Inuvialuit Final Agreement, signed in 1984. In it the Inuvialuit agreed to give up exclusive use of their ancestral lands in exchange for guaranteed rights from the Government of Canada. The rights came in three forms: land, wildlife management and money. (read more on the Inuvaliuit Regional Corporation). As a result Parks Canada and the Inuvialuit co-operatively manage Ivvavik National Park with the Inuvaluit Wisdom that the “The land will protect the people who support the protect the land“. Parks Canada has organised a touring exhibition of work from their Artist in The Park programme which I was invited to be part of by artist Joyce Majiski, in 2003 with whom Ive been working with since them on projects such as Topographies and Tales.
Middle of Nowhere?
Bordered on the north by the Beaufort Sea and Alaska on the West, Ivvavik sits at the north western tip of Canada. A highly biodiverse region of the Western Arctic, its Inuvaluktun name ‘Ivvavik’ means nursery or place of giving birth. It is a portion of the calving grounds and migration route of the Porcupine caribou herd and forms a part of the Beringia Refugium; an area untouched by the last glaciation where an ice-free bridge allowed humans and animals to migrate from Asia into North America over twenty thousand years ago.
In summer 2003 I met up with artists Joyce Majiski Ron Felix, Audrea Wulf and James Ruben, guide Mervyn Joe and elder Sarah Dillon and flew out of Inuvik, across the Mackenzie Delta towards Sheep Creek. From the air (and in the imaginations of the temperate zone) the arctic taiga and tundra, is a frozen desert. But landing at the junction of Sheep Creek and the Firth River we saw tussocks of wild flowers, embroidered cushions with succulent jewel like plants, luminescent mosses and ferns; miniature gardens of Babylon. Out on the land there were larger traces of life and stories of trappers, miners, hunters and travelers. The language of the north I grew up with paints an image of bleakness, but there the myths of desolation fell away.
“Have good time miles from nowhere!” someone had said before I set off. In the world’s ‘wildernesses’ like Ivvavik it is easy for a visitor to be lost in such a reverie of wonder at landscape that you miss the lives and culture that are part of it. There is a disjuncture between the notion of wilderness as barren, by definition disconnected from the social, and the view of land as homeland, a social place of culture, food and everyday life. To many outside the north the Arctic is still shrouded in an aura of romanticism portrayed, as it has been through the history of polar exploration, as a landscape of sublime desolation. To some, I expect, it’s not a place but an imaginary landscape far away from their everyday lives. I wonder what is the global consequence of this enduring vision of the land?
One day we see five caribou. Pregnant cows lead the herd from Ivvavik into the calving grounds in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); an area rich in oil reserves. So important are the grounds the Gwitchin people refer to them as the “sacred place where life begins”. If the ANWR is opened for drilling many people believe it will result in untold damage to the herd and the people whose lives and traditions depend on it.
You can read more in Landscapes in Dialogue and in the Diffusion eBook series, Topographies and Tales.
Sensory Threads: new developments
February 15, 2010 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Sensory Threads: new developments
Over the past few months we have been developing new wearables and improvements to the Rumbler for Sensory Threads, which we successfully tested working together last week. The new wearables are based on Arduino and use XBee for communication, and the Rumbler now has multiple map selection, replay and printing (on the Rumbler’s attached micro-printer) of specific expeditions.
In the coming months we are planning to conduct a series of experimental expeditions through London to test the platform and build up a repertoire of expeditions for the Rumbler to replay. We will also be exploring building more portable versions of the Rumbler to make it easier to present at conferences and festivals.
Opportunity to listen at Total Place
February 9, 2010 by aliceangus · 3 Comments
I went to the Birmingham Total Place summit last week with the specially commissioned cubes and illustrations Orlagh and I had made for the Early Intervention Project, in response to conversations with parents, carers and workers. They revealed some of the difficulties faced by children and their families and the often very intense frustrations they have in accessing support or working with local services. Proboscis was commissioned through educator and organisational consultant Lesley Cramman, who was facilitating the strand on Early Intervention and we were all driven, in making these, to bring the everyday voices of families, parents and carers into the event. Total Place is a government initiative to look at how a ‘whole area’ approach to public services can lead to better services at less cost.
The event, hosted by BeBirmingham drew a much more varied crowd than I had expected and most people I spoke to expressed real concern and care about their communities and neighbourhoods. However its hard not to be just a little bit skeptical about the ability of Local Government to open up to new ways of thinking and working, despite the obvious commitment, imagination, skills and passions of many of the people I met who work in it. I had some moving and inspiring conversations with a group discussing how to make meaningful connections between the Local Authority and neighbourhoods and how to improve democratic engagement. I hope that the ideas of these people are present in the decisions that come out of Total Place and that the “better services” can lead before the “reduced costs”. I’d love to see staff being allowed to take risks to effect changes and be supported to have more time to talk with and listen to the people and communities they work with and for.
With Our Ears to the Ground book
February 8, 2010 by aliceangus · 2 Comments
We have just received the first bound copy of our publication for With Our Ears to the Ground; a project by Proboscis commissioned by Green Heart Partnership with Hertfordshire County Council to explore peoples ideas about community. The project focused on four very different types of community in order to get a broad range of opinions across the county.
I’m really excited to see the final version and especially happy with the middle tracing paper insert of scenes and people Orlagh and I encountered during the project. The book draws together the multiple layers of ideas and experiences we found across the different communities we met in Watford, Stevenage, North Herts and Broxbourne and it is designed to reflect the many ideas and voices we encountered. It is organised in the six themes of Transport, Movement, Listening, Community, Getting Involved and Perceptions the emerged during the project. The book contains drawings, photographs, quotes and writings. It can be read in any direction and you can interweave the pages of the three sections as you read, to find new perspectives.
The With Our Ears to the Ground book, will go to selected libraries in Hertfordshire. The publication draws together the multiple layers of ideas and experiences we found across different communities and it is designed to reflect those ideas and voices.
We have a small number of copies please contact us if you would like to acquire one.
We have also published the main chapters as Diffusion eBooks – books to download print and make up published using Bookleteer. Booklets to make, carry in your pocket, browse in your own time, rather than read on screen. You can download them here.
With artistsandmakers.com in Brixton Village
February 7, 2010 by aliceangus · 4 Comments
Last week I was lucky enough to be asked to spend a few days drawing Granville Arcade/Brixton Village, on the first leg of artistsandmakers.com Empty Shops Network Tour to six towns across England, created by artist Dan Thompson.
I joined Dan, Jan Williams (Caravan Gallery), Steve Bomford and podcaster Richard Vobes, for lively discussion and to create new work on site for an all day event on the Saturday, you can hear Richard Vobes podcasts of about the project here.
Its been a while since I had the chance to stay in one place for a few days drawing, talking to stallholders and getting to scratch a little below the surface, seeing the flows of life. This year we’ve (Proboscis) been involved in several projects that have looked at the issue of common space and how its changing alongside the implications of huge shopping malls, department stores and the privatisation of public space. It was a real pleasure to be in a place where the character of it is created by the people using it to trade and to socialise. There was an almost constant sound of conversation, laughter and music and the smells of all the food being cooked or sold.
Exploring empty shops is about celebrating local distinctiveness and the project will also show local communities how to use empty shops for meanwhile projects. Each project will last less than a week from start to finish and Dan makes a very open space for artists to follow their interests. Each week will involve public meetings, informal training for local artists, and showcase the tools needed to run empty shops projects.
The tour has been organised by the Empty Shops Network, with the first event happening just a week after the project was conceived at a meeting of organisations involved in bringing empty shops and spaces into meanwhile use.
The tour is supported by the Meanwhile Project, and the Brixton event is using a space provided by the Space Makers Agency. After Brixton, the Empty Shops Network project will visit five further towns, with dates in Shoreham by Sea, Coventry, Cumbria and Durham to be confirmed in coming weeks. See artistandmakers.com for details.
You can see more images from the Brixton week here.
Jan, Dan and Steve.
Steve and Terry – the butcher – in front of the pictures Steve and Jan took during the week.
Birmingham Total Place
January 29, 2010 by aliceangus · 3 Comments
A series of drawings as part of our work on a part of the Total Place initiative in Birmingham. In January and Feburary we were asked to undertake a small commission to produce some StoryCubes for the Total Place summit to provoke conversations about issues to do with childrens’ services, support for young people and parents in Birmingham. We were asked to work on the Early Intervention strand so Orlagh and I went to meet some parents and workers to understand a some of the issues facing them in terms of at how various services and networks come together to support families and children under 10. These drawings are based on the conversations. (Total Place is a new government initiative that looks at how a ‘whole area’ approach to public services can lead to better services).
Over the last year we have been involved in several projects where we’ve aimed to intervene creatively in the planning process, opening up avenues for the voices of individuals and communities to be heard. In this project several quotes and conversations will be represented on the cubes which are to be used to provoke conversations at the Be Birmingham summit will be taking place on 3 February where the main focus will be to generate new ways of thinking and collaboration. Anything to do with children can be an emotive, sometimes inspiring and sometimes heart wrenching area and in the short time we worked on this it was so clear that so many lives are affected by the availability of support, whether intervention becomes interference and how if people are not heard or listened to it can have a huge impact on their lives.
