AND FESTIVAL 2011 – mind bending art, film and digital culture

What makes a good arts festival? What makes a unique and new cultural experience? What does a regional festival of new cinema; digital culture and art in the Northwest have to do with a major sporting event hosted by London 2012 and about elite sport? Answer: Diversity, difference and debate around the human condition and human potential framed within a platform that celebrates both innovation and excellence and promotes the best examples in their category.

The third edition of AND was like no other arts festival I have ever experienced in over twenty years internationally. Its focus on taking a curatorial journey into the outer limits of belief gave the festival a fulcrum from which to spin out to the past and back to the future, with each event carefully chosen and sited to explore and expand perspectives on the theme. Our experience and understanding of festivals are often linear and programmed within a genre and with a community of partners and artists recognised as belonging to a field or sector. This year’s AND festival transgressed this rule. It did not constrain itself to art or film, to digital culture or new media, live performance or theatre, sport, science, politics or history, psychology, biology, tattoo culture, electronics or religion. Neither did it constrain itself to working only with institutions or independents or only with international artists or regional artists or local communities – it connected them all and more in as near an integrated platform as is possible. We need radical interdisciplinary thinking and partnership working across all levels and arenas in order to understand and advance our society and this edition of the AND festival  showed us how festivals can  operate across different geographical, social and cultural structures, processes and territories. By exploring the theme of belief, AND engaged with multiple perspectives on human expression and offered us a study in human play and its relationship to art, experimentation and development, locally, regionally, nationally and globally.

My journey into the AND programme began with the drive in screening of Nic Roeg’s film, ‘The Man who Fell to Earth’ in Preston’s market. Still insanely topical, this seminal film remains a dispiriting vision of humanity, illuminating the part of humanity capable of overriding compassion in the name of advancement. The film’s sociological approach to science was only enhanced by the setting of the film in Preston’s market and the drive in experience – a truly sociological approach to play.

My next engagement with AND festival was some five days later at the performance of ‘The Modes of Al- Ikseer’ by Harminder Singh Judge on the Festival launch night in Liverpool. My jaw dropped when I entered into the performance space at The Black-E and was flooded in a visual feast of ancient religious imagery. At its centre the lone body performer slowly turned 360 degrees evoking a techno pagan landscape in which the body was a canvas for visual trickery and the digital age. Mesmerising for a while, the performance told the story of a Hindu myth and portrayed the body as a networked display board for global communications. The performance was earthy, spiritual and digital. It utilised the body as an object and offered another dispiriting vision of humanity.

Around the corner from the Black-E, the Chinese arch provided a really rather regal site for A Small Cinema in Chinatown – a collaboration between AND and Re Dock. This outdoor film event beneath Liverpool’s famous Chinatown arch complete with velvet seats, suited ushers and popcorn manufactured by people, cycling two bikes was a cinematic feast and temporary gathering place for a diverse community that night. Packed out on a very hot evening, it screened Chinese classics voted for my members of the community together with a selection of local and internationally shorts that looked at Eastern Perspectives on belief. I did my share of popcorn making with a companion from the Legacy Trust UK and it felt fitting that we should both be cycling for art as people involved in the cultural programme for London 2012. It was enjoyable to participate in an experience reminiscent of the old days of old cinema and then have my AND journey take a swift about turn into the future and to ‘Atalonia’ – a theatrical tour and ‘descent into the centre of the Earth’ at Pilkington’s Warehouse.

The brainchild of the Kazimier creators of extraordinary club nights, this was a beautifully human and handcrafted Dr Who experience. The journey into subterranean realms was a visual feast with dance, music, operatic interventions and craft. Inviting the suspension of disbelief, Atalonia Tours was a play space for adults and a unique, original and impressive creative experience. It was also a major achievement and labour of love, hand build by people from Liverpool, constructed out of found materials and honest in intent. With Atalonia, Kazimier rise to the challenge of producing something large scale, extending their very successful party nights formula into a new and higher realm of fiction and theatre. I departed the event dizzy from being spun round and around in a time capsule with a real sense that I had truly travelled through time.

My journey of discovery into concepts, research and experimentation in art and science continued on with a visit to The Game of Life at Makeart Studio which was a talk led by a group of Damanhurian’s and about their collective dream and how they hope it can contribute to the growth of humanity as a whole. Damanhur is laboratory for the future founded in 1975 and a world authority on time travel. I visited their community in February 2011 and it was good to see their secret mission being debated as part of the AND festival before moving on to visit the shop hosting Pigs Bladder Workshop on Bold Street.

Pigs Bladder Workshop is a year long programme of artistic enquiry by artist John O’Shea’ and a Wellcome Trust funded project exploring the medieval origins of our national game. One for the sports fans at the festival and lovers of art and science, the project is engaging with cutting edge scientific processes along the way and will culminate at AND 2012 in the cultivation of a uniquely captivating sculptural object, a football made out of living cells. In the shop, the public could have a go at making a football out of Pigs Bladders, see the film made of the game of football using a pigs bladder which AND hosted at Egremont Crab and Sports Fair the week prior and behave like a proper sports fan and buy some Pigs Bladder Football memorabilia. Contextualising this project and the AND focus on belief was the accompanying AND Salon on Fanaticism. This panel discussion chaired by Dr Andy Miah took a look at what it means to be a fan in the 21st Century and joining John O Shea in conversation was James McKenna of Spirit of Shankly, a Liverpool supporters union that since its inception in 2008 has tried to close the gap between supporter and club. For an arts festival engaging with sport, the most interesting question arising from the debate was the idea that supporters should decide what happens to their clubs. Looking at this from the arts venue view point is food for thought indeed. If arts audiences ran our venues, what art would we get?

As a committed AND fester, I participated in most of its programme over the weekend and there were way too many events to comment on here but some special experiences worth commenting on include the ‘Zee’ Exhibition at FACT – an immersive experience that leaves your physically and mentally altered, out of body and out of mind. All I will say is that they give you a tissue at the end and you need it.

‘Primate Cinema’ at the TAO art Gallery was cinema at its most sublime. An Arts Catalyst project made by Los Angeles based video artist, Rachel Mayeri, it was the result of years of working with Primates and studying how they respond to different types of media and what genres interest them. Billed as the first movie made for chimps, it made a great contribution to the new cinema programme. Included as part of the experience was another AND Salon, Simian Safari conducted on a bus touring around Knowsley Safari Park amongst Lions and Baboons. By the end of it I could scarcely see the difference between me and the chimps.

Dopplereffekt’s ‘Neutrino’ is also worth a mention for its fabulously comprehensive lecture on experimental physics, enhancing my understanding of the farther reaches of science. Using astrophysics lectures as the basis for an audio visual experience, it was a cooperation with AND Festival and the Max Planck Institute of Astrophysics. I had the joy of being there with the Damanhurian’s and our discussion added a layer of significance and meaning to the theories performed through Neutrino.

The screening of Finisterrae by director Sergio Caballero was a pilgrimage par excellence – hypnotic, absurd and visually captivating. A cinematic marvel of performance art on screen, it was a meditation on the end of the world, the end of life and the land of the living.

Likewise, the AND Salon on Reality Management was very inspiring with Author of Mirage Men, Mark Pilkington presenting a superb overview of a labyrinthine story of deception and paranoia during the cold war and how governments may have encouraged cults and fringe beliefs to distract from issues of real importance. He was joined by cultural theorist Mark Fisher in a feisty debate chaired by Roland Denning.

~media2012 also had an outing at AND, the festival providing a networking and gathering place for this ever increasing community of bloggers and citizen journalists who are interested in reporting on the London 2012 Games. I also interacted with the journalists, hacks and hackers who took part in the Media2012 and Scraperwiki workshop exploring the new tools which help ambitious newshounds break new ground. The challenge they had was not with the new tools but with finding their way through the labryinth of  2012 web sites to understand what was going on in the cultural programme for London 2012.

And, last but by no means least, a tiny little piece tucked away in a porn booth inside a sex shop. You go inside the shop, enter into one of the booths, put 2o pence in the slot and see something you would not expect – a short video piece of disaster porn, with buildings going up and down in frenzied sexual excitement. Titillating, surprising and no need for tissues – which you get at Zee.

I don’t recall going to a festival like this ever and I enjoyed the visionary intersection of craft, content and context – evidently the best art mix. The partnerships AND generated made such a marvel of a festival possible and must be commended – they resolutely illustrated the value of crossing boundaries and of forming collaborations between institutions and independents and of having wild cards amongst safe bets in a programme of work. As a result, the AND audience was broad and diverse, mixing specialists and generalists, uniting small scale communities into a bigger AND community – an audience defined by its interest in going to things that happen in the city and in different and diverse disciplines, modern ideas and topical mind bending art and debates.

In the Northwest the cultural programme for London 2012 has a focus on experimentation, participation and collaboration and the AND festival courtesy of funding from Legacy Trust UK is one of its gems. It seeks to engage people in the best art, exciting topical debates and in experience that is beyond the usual, normal and every day. In every way AND was ‘Olympian’ and a credit to the ingenuity of the North West and the imagination and vision of artists everywhere. As a platform for experimentation in both art and the festival format, AND has, in its 3rd year, found its feet and proves that it is possible to combine innovation with excellence and deliver a diverse programme that is coherent to a broad audience. AND is a hybrid product for the 21st century – a community connected spectacle for the mind of international standard and significance. I imagine there will be more than a few complaints if there is no AND 2013 in Liverpool.

Pics courtesy of Dr Andy Miah – thank you, my camera is bust – and a couple of web sites!

Groupo Pujal a hit in Maryport

On Monday 29^th August, I went to see the Lakes Alive presentation of K@osmos by Groupo Puja, a group from Spain/Argentina who presented a high-octane Ariel show in Maryport harbour followed by fireworks from pa-Boom. This was the third Lakes Alive spectacle event for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad in this town and all of them have been world-class. The firework display on this night was particularly special and enchanting, helped by the wind to create a painting in the sky which drifted in a horizontal direction across the dark night sky, The whole experience was enchanting, enriching and well received by the audience.

Pre show, I walked the full length of the site where the audience were standing in anticipation and although the event was very well attended, the audiences seemed lower than last year and there was plenty room for more. Given that I had just arrived from Solfest – an annual music festival 8km away which attracts a Cumbrian, wider regional and national audience of 5000 + including the local community for Maryport and a crew and free tickets, bringing the audience up to 8000, I wondered if more than a few of the Maryport locals were just too exhausted to come out for the Lakes Alive event  after three days of magnificent fun and mayhem at Solfest.

This got me thinking about the development potential in this part of Cumbria and the potential for partnership between Lakes Alive and Solfest that remain unexplored but which could support a greater 2012 legacy for Maryport and the Cultural Olympiad.

The annual Solfest,is a music festival with  a strong family focus – there was probably at least 1000 people under the age of 14. As part of the summer season of festivals around the UK that cater to our human need to play and be free from everyday reality, this festival includes street arts activity:– strollers, small-scale acts and workshops from the street arts sector are all in the Solfest mix, revealing its interest in programming and supporting the outdoor and street arts sector. What it lacked was anything spectacular and of international quality in the street arts strand. This evidences an opportunity for collaboration with Lakes Alive. Solfest is not a free event which is the Lakes Alive ethos and this may be one of the reasons as no doubt is that they engage with the same audience to some extent, but I did wonder why Lakes Alive were not at the very least running workshops there by the artists they were presenting the day after Solfest finishes.  Flying  8 plus international artists into Maryport for less than 24 hours seems extravagant when there is a real opportunity close by for the artists to come in a day or two earlier and do some skills development work with both a local, regional and national audience. Individuals, communities and families who live in Maryport go to both Lakes Alive and Solfest so it would have made sense. No doubt more investment by the Allerdale Council or the Arts Council would have been required to cover the costs but it would have been a small investment to enable Lakes Alive to reach both a wider audience with their programming and make a deeper and more lasting legacy from London 2012 within the local community.

The K’osmos performance was amazing and awe-inspiring but I did feel that the people of Maryport deserve more than a 45 minute piece of spectacle once a year. Inspiring social change in the local community needs development activity as well as major events. Community Engagement is a local authority priority and I hope that one of the legacies of Lakes Alive working in places like Maryport will be the ongoing development of projects which connect participation to spectacle and support cross sector working between the public and commercial sectors – an annual collaboration  between international events producers like Lakes Alive and a commercial festival like Solfest is something Allerdale Council could embrace and enable with the support of the Arts Council. It’s a Big Society model for arts development and programming in the UK. We need projects like this and Maryport is fortunate to have this potential on its doorstep.

TRANS EXPRESS WOWED CROWDS IN WHITEHAVEN FOR YEAR TO GO

Lakes Alive drew a diverse community of 6000 people plus to Whitehaven Harbour on Saturday night for an aerial concert by French Group, Trans Express.  The event was beyond magical and world-class. This large scale and free event called Maudit Sonnets was presented by Lakes Alive to mark one year before the start of the 2012 Olympic Games. There could not have been a more suitable and proper cultural event for the annual countdown as it was truly Olympian – in imagination and at the physical level.  Superbly choreographed, we watched in awe as musicians played and bodies danced in a structure which hang from the night sky as a musical human chandelier – a feat of mechanical engineering which was simply awe-inspiring and treat for lovers of the surreal   The concert ended with a fireworks display from pyrotechnic experts Pa-Boom which incited enthusiastic shouting and clapping from what was quite clearly a fully satisfied and star stuck audience. ‘I have no idea what it was about but it was good wasn’t it’. We all know what excellence looks like.  I wonder if Whitehaven realise how lucky and how rare it is to have something this good and this well produced. If you were not a fan of outdoor spectacles before the show, you would be now. Lakes Alive is quite incredible – they just keep going from strength to strength and developing the skill of placement – they know exactly what work to place in what site and how to reach and develop a non regular and non arts going audience. This was an elite event for the community and (to quote the Arts Council’s mantra)   great art for everyone. So, it can be done…..

 

Pigs Bladder Football – 2012 Open Weekend workshop

Today I was among a group of twenty or so Cumbrian locals who turned up to the Pigs Bladder Football workshop run by artist John O Shea as part of the London 2012 Open Weekend.  We made history in Egremont today as we were the first people in the 21st century to make a pigs bladder football in the traditional way. Modern balls are designed by teams of engineers to exacting specifications yet in the past, crude balls made of materials such as inflated pig bladders were used. This unusual experimental workshop forms part of a longer term art project and it used the London 2012 platform to launch.

As a prelude to the hands-on activity, the workshop began with a special advance preview of a new short film “Uppies and Downies” (by Tim Brunsden and John O’Shea) which documents the Workington mob football tradition. The film was introduced by Joe Clark – Uppies and Downies stalwart and 2011 player of the series. The film is a graphic portrayal of a community happening and traditional game where thousands of men gather for a scrum with a ball in an event which can only be described as a frenzy of free expression. Joe Clark informs us that each ball  has a story to tell and travels a pitch that is mile and half long for a game that lasts as long as it needs too. The Workington game ran for over 6 hours and into the night.  Joe feels that ‘Allerdale Council should be embracing the game and keeping the tradition’. It used to be a festival event.

The hands on activity began with a live demonstration by artist John O Shea and an explanation of the types of pigs bladders and materials we could work with. The task was to turn these natural organic balloons into bespoke, customised footballs.  John had collected 3 types of Pigs Bladders from an abattoir and materials of wool, straw and helium to work with. We were all given plastic aprons, gloves and a face mask to wear and asked to work in pairs and groups of three. Each group then selected the type of pigs bladder and materials they wanted to use and then we all proceeded to try to make a ball.

The bladder has a small hole which you have to try to get the materials in too. We struggled with ours and cut a couple of inches off it to make a larger opening. We then stuffed straw in to ours and lots of it, over and over as we wanted to make the largest ball we could. Apparently they keep on stretching. Ours split at the neck so we ended up stitching it with string like you would an arm that was cut open and needed stiches.The bladders stink and feel rather disgusting but after a couple of minutes, you get over that and lost in the excitement and interest of making a ball. It feels rather gynecological at first and the territory ripe for ‘hairy ball’ jokes but as the bladder starts taking shape, and a football shaped object emerges, you just feel pride at making something, which in our case scored 10 out of 10 for function. We could actually use our specimen as a ball and we kicked it around and had a bit of a footie game.

When we had all finished making our balls, they were displayed on a line, strung up together on the line which was hung against an iron stained red wall. We have made an impressive art exhibition . Our ball was the largest and looked the most like a football.One group had sprayed their bladder gold to look and it like a xmas decoration (in the spirit of the olympics and going for gold?!). Another group put red and blue ribbons around theirs. There was a purple ribbon placed around one which looked like a turnip, a ball dipped in iron ore powder so it was red and a tiny little brown ball which looked like something you would use for table tennis. The specimens were different shapes, sizes and colours and most had function ie we could name a game that they might be good for.

John asked the group to give marks out of 10 for each ball and in three categories – function, creativity and presentation. The group judged each ball and my group’s ball scored the highest marks for function with 10 out of 10 but overall came in 3rd. Each participant was then given a London 2012 Open Weekend certificate for taking part.

The participants aged from around 10 to 70 and were all from the local area. I wondered why they came. They were not footballers it seemed but neither were they media art goers. Most definitely a new audience for the arts and for Abandon Normal Devices festival of  digital culture who are its producers.

It was a really fun and unique way to spend an afternoon and a well run workshop and excellent example of how artists can engage the public in their creative process. John O Shea is experimenting and searching for the best process for making a Pigs bladder football. He could have done this preparatory work on his own at home or in his studio but decided to involve others in his process which is a lot more fun for him and much more fun for us. I look forward to seeing how this project evolves.

Pigs Bladder Football is a serious arts project and certainly supports the London 2012 vision of like never before. The Northwest is fortunate to have a project like this as part of its programme for London 2012. Doubt any other region has anything like it or anywhere as unique a response to London 2012 as this.

The De Coubertin vision of the modern games as a marriage between art and sport was seen here in Egremont Today.

Photographs of what we made and the specimens themselves will travel to liverpool and be presented in a Pigs Bladder Exhibition as part of the 2011 edition of the Abandon Normal Devices Festival in Liverpool. Though the workshop and the project, the origins of our national game are considered from multiple perspectives and our 21st century attitudes to sport and art discussed. The organisers and artist hope that, through consideration of these “organic bladder balls” new games can be invented, proposed and tested.

Heavenly Harmonic Fields ……

Harmonic Fields., Birkrigg Common, 3 – 5 June 2011

Entering into the musical environment of Harmonic Fields in the glorious landscape of Birkrigg Common in Ulverston, Cumbria was like entering a conceptual visceral bath, which gave the experience of sensory floating and magical elevation of the body and the mind. This installation wrapped you inside of its mystery and softly entered your consciousness, taking you on a journey into the immersive capacity of sound and our natural environment – the two beautifully entwined and holding hands.

The set out of its various elements was sublime, beautifully orchestrated and well produced. 500 instruments including cellos, strings, flutes, sirens, gongs, harps and organs were installed. The intricacies and simplicities of its elements, the hours of construction that you could imagine went in to it, the elegant and the industrial, the used and the worn all joined to present a vision for recycling that only an artist could imagine and realise. I loved this sound space, it was really enticing and mesmerizing, a meditative and contemplative experience. Things like this can never be permanent installations but I can dream. I also loved the fun and playful cartoon graphics that were scattered around the feet of the instruments, providing context and information to what was going on. Clever and useful – perfect.

I did not get the chance to meet Pierre Sauvegeot, the director of Lieux publics and Harmonic Fields, and I’m not quite sure why as I hung out in the production tent with the Lakes Alive team for some time. Maybe he was in there, maybe he was not, but I hope you get to read my blog. As an artist your work is impressive and it’s the unique, one off and immersive that engages me and your work certainly fits this category.

Its relationship to the environment and to people makes as stunning a contribution to the genres of environmental music and sound art as it does to our concept of outdoor performance and street arts. This is a work of art that changes perceptions and says something new about the landscape we inhabit and the world of the mind that we live with. It quieted the chatter of my conscious mind – and it’s an interesting observation of synchronicity that I travelled some of the distance through Harmonic Fields  with a local Buddhist. We engaged in conversation around the work conversing on the Buddhist concept of non attachment and jointly gave an interview to a local journalist as through we were a couple. Bizarre happenings  inside the field of play in Harmonic Fields.

I saw the article that the journalist wrote and I was extensively quoted as an audience member and local from Carlisle!.  It makes me wonder – is it dishonest not to show my status and relationship to Lakes Alive to the press?. I must confess that I rather enjoy the anonymity. At least the press printed information from someone who is informed and the right messages get out around our intent and vision for Lakes Alive in Cumbria.  Very glad to say this work gets into my best art experiences  – the criteria for which are those events which take me over before I have had the chance to decide whether I want to be. Rare but not impossible. Thank you Pierre – we will meet someday.

London 2012 as a research arena for artists

It is my view that London 2012 is more than  just spectacle and has a role and value beyond being a catalyst for cultural tourism. I believe that it has value as a cross disciplinary research environment for artists and cultural producers and  I wish to find a way in which I can use our regional programme WE PLAY  as a case study to investigate this proposition.

Im interested to explore the cultural use of London 2012 as a research framework for inspiring innovation – i.e. developing new contexts for presentation and participation and new modes of expression, interaction and play

To outline the role and value of major events as arenas for experimentation and research and how mainstream events can be used to enable cross sector development.

I believe it is possible for our work in the Northwest to open a window onto a new way of looking at major events and artistic engagement in spectacle contexts and  uncover and highlighting their potential as creators of new and alternative mainstream culture.

Im going to try and commission a film about how WE PLAY (artists and cultural producers) utilized London 2012 to innovate, experiment and expand the cultural mainstream in the Northwest and significantly, to uncover  the potential of major events as cross disciplinary research environment s  for new expression, interaction, thought and play.

If anyone has any thoughts on this and the proposition, Id love to know and hear from you

Creating the Legacy- call for input

Last night I met up with my 2012 regional colleagues and we got round to talking about London 2012 and creating the Legacy. With a small team and less than 15 months to go, we pondered over matters of legacy and what we should all now  focus on to ensure our roles make a difference.

A key legacy lies in the domain of participation  and people and one of the major work areas for our team is to ensure that as many people as possible  feel  part and proud of  the Games.  However, there is a nut to crack in terms of the cultural programme ie  making the Association. Most people have no idea that the cultural event they are involved in is part of 2012. E.g. How do we make sure than when somone goes up to Cumbria for a Lakes Alive event, they see that as taking part in London 2012?

Well I am going to be writing up 10 commandments for Association to share with key delivery partners as a way to maximise association and I would love to get your views and input into what these commandements might be

E.g. commandment one – though shall include a picture of your creative programmer and/or quote on your event publicity/brochure etc. to make link to cultural olympiad….

Please share your thoughts and comment back into this blog.

On  a wider note….. securing the legacy for the Cultural Olympiad will require a number of different partners that agree to a series of objectives and work together in order to achieve them. Do help us shape our legacy ambitions for the cultural olympiad in the Northwest by letting me know what you think legacy is and how we can help catalyst this in the final year to go – what should the work plan be of the regional team?

I will collate all your responses into a paper that wil feed into our team awayday in mid august and planning for this years 2012 conference (July 2011).

I welcome your responses by 31st June  2011.

2012 Year Programme

If you are interested to find out  how our plans for the Cultural Olympiad in 2012 are shaping up, visit my blog and the new page I have just set up (Regional Programme – 2012 Year) . This gives summaries of 10 special projects planned. They are not all confirmed or even funded yet but take a peak…

These activities plus the annual events and activities of WE PLAY programmes, Abandon Normal Devices, Blaze and Lakes Alive will form the core regional programme which looks likely to make a unique and inspirational contribution to the London 2012 Games in 2012

There will also be a whole host of  Inspire projects taking place across the region, the London 2012 Major National Projects including Projected Column by Anthony McCall in Merseyside and London 2012 Festival activity.

Make sure you plan to be in the Northwest in 2012 and particularly between May and September. Its looking grand!

Linking the North West and the North East via Hadrian’s Wall

Its Tuesday April 12th and im on a train from Manchester to Carlisle to meet up with my north-east colleague, Lorna Fulton. We are doing a road trip reccie of Hadrian’s Wall, scouting for performance sites. Im personally hoping to find a hobbit house to stay in on route this evening but it will probably be a pub lunch and a sleep over at Lorna’s in  Newcastle. Going beyond boundaries, both geographical and cultural is the remit of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the boundaries which separate the north west and north-east are transgressed by Hadrian’s Wall. It has been used for a couple of major events over the last two years, by Culture 10 in Newcastle and by Lakes Alive in the North east. Lorna and I have ambitions to take delivery along this site to a new level of vision and distinction so today is where that journey towards that goal begins. For two days we get the joy of playing with space

April 12th – Back blogging and data visualisation

Thanks to Stephen Feber’s ping back, im back blogging, having left my regular ruminations and reflections dormant over the winter, and thats not because there have not been any, but to honour winter as space and time for hibernation of minds.

The North West is developing a global data visualisation project  for London 2012  and working with their new media department and a group of exciting regional and national partners – curators, artists, academics, coders etc – to develop something beautiful and useful. Emerging out of the telepresence workshop that I ran last october was an idea from Drew Hemment of Future Everthing for connecting the world globally and locally through data, open data, and some more data – this has subsequently moved forward into a commission to Future Everthing for the NW programme, supported by a R and D grant from the Arts Council and a partnership with London 2012. The work begins with concept development and  engaging partners  !