Nottingham

Deadline for ‘Internet of Growing Things’, Nov 11

15 October 2013

As a source of invention and geo-political conflict, the power and influence of food on the world should not be underestimated. That’s why Nottingham’s Near Now gallery is launching a collaborative commission and six-month residency programme, Internet of Growing Things, for two selected UK-based applicants -working across art, design, writing, ecology, technology and beyond -to develop new work based on “food and future-agriculture”.

Applications close November 11 and the commission aims to analogise these systems of food production and industrial agriculture as part of a complex network of “animals, vegetables, minerals and other unclassifiable typologies”. In recognising the significance of this basic human need, this is a part of Near Now’s ongoing exploration into art, design, technology, food cultures and natural systems.

See the Near Now website for more details.

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‘Golden Sunrise’ @ Antenna Media Centre, Sep 26

23 September 2013

Following last week’s eight-hour PAMI & artist Josephine Callaghan’s Sleeping Upright website takeovers, online exhibition Golden Sunrise –named after a corporate party cruise ship -will tour to Nottingham on September 26. Each artist will transfer the online into the (semi-)IRL by commandeering a screen each at Antenna Media Centre‘s cafe bar for the launch of Candice Jacobs’ Pleasure Voyage solo exhibition at SYSON.

Inspired by the gendered “nowhere voyages” of these feminised leisure spaces, Golden Sunrise features artists Laura Aldrige, Gabriele Beveridge, Kitty Clark, Mel Nguyen and Zoe Williams, as well as Jacobs and Callaghan, and will loop back to the online domain by becoming available to view on the Sleeping Upright website until November 23.

See the Sleeping Upright website for more details. **


Header image: Candice Jacobs, ‘The Measure of Genius’ (2013). Video Still.

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Candice Jacobs @ Syson, Sep 26 – Nov 23

11 September 2013

Nottingham-based artist and recipient of October Standpoint Residency, Candice Jacobs will present her solo exhibition Pleasure Voyage at Nottingham’s new SYSON Gallery, running September 26 to November 23.

Exploring ideas of a gendered paradise, Jacobs takes the show title from the cruise voyages that blur the lines between leisure and labour, class and capital, within a femininised nowhere-space of the female-named ships and their ‘travelling hospitality suites’, emblematic of her preoccupation with meaningless aspiration and corporate value systems. The exhibition will look at the role of gender across work and play, escape and Capitalism, across film, performance and installation while coming accompanied by this calming blurb to meditate over the “scalloped bikinis” and “Ibiza Chill Out albums”:

“Relax… sit back… take care that you can be as comfortable as possible so that
it’s easy for you to let go of the events of the day.
I will accompany you, offering ideas and suggestions.
There is nothing you need to do.
The more relaxed you become, the more powerful your experience will be.
Allow yourself to grow soft, supple, and relax.
You can lavish in abundance right now, just imagine it.
You can create prosperity in an easy and relaxed manner.
Just relax.
Release a sigh of relief… a big deep sigh of relief that you might feel at the end of
a long hard day… that’s it.
Indulge in that beautiful feeling of total and utter relief, just imagine it spreading all
over your body.
Melt.
Just let it go.
Expand your sense of self and radiate your power out into the world.
Open up so you can be seen, valued and appreciated.
Imagine… this is… your new… reality.”

See the Pleasure Voyage website for more details. **

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‘On the Rocks’ @ Attic

8 August 2013

For those in Nottingham, Attic at One Thoresby Street studio and gallery complex is hosting On the Rocks, from August 23 to September 14. A group exhibition featuring Tristan Hessing, Andrew Palmer, Joey Villemont and Stuart Whipps.

There’s not much in terms of information on what to expect but we do like the artists featured and there’s this little blurb caught up in its own masculinity to draw from (below), which would explain the percievably (but one should never assume) all-male line-up:

“Be decisive.

A man should know what he wants from the start.

Decisiveness is an important characteristic that can take you far in life. Be it in the area of work, money or just going on a date, your decisiveness shows confidence and your ability to take charge of situations.
Be firm and fluent.

A real man states what he wants with authority.
Relax.

A real man doesn’t throw his weight around.
Be considered yet confident.”

See the One Thoresby Street website  for more details. **

 

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Game City Nights

7 March 2012

It’s been a looooong time since I last recommended a website. Sort of… January, when Portals was about to go live, ok not that long ago. Today is one of those little jewels that make the blogging community and always auto-refreshing source of invaluable publications: Game City Nights, one of the best indie-game blogs around (not the best WordPress theme around but…. the content is what matters).

GCNblog is pretty much the summary of evenings, talks & laughs that Game City Nights represents and the weekly summary of that educational and enjoyable philosophy that the big, huge, massive GameCity Nottingham festival has spread since the N. Trent University created it back in 2006.

A lot has rained since (especially in Nottingham), but a couple of years ago the after-dark monthly gatherings started to happen, because 1 event a year wasn’t good enough, then the blog came to life with the second season, and the movement is now hyping global. Next Thursday 29th Dan Pinchbeck (from Dear Esther, one of this year’s IGF finalists btw) will be conducting the evening, taking about his game, about games development and share his knowledge with the crowd, from launching a start-up to bringing a game to market….

from last month's GCN
from last month's GCN

Enough GCN advertising! (because if you’re around the UK or Nottingham that day, or any other last Thursday of each month then you should go), what counts is the website, which like the GCN journal itself, is probably the best way to follow the indie game movement… with a British accent… and a great source for new game creators profiling, interviews, game previews…. and blablabla. Just visit it, will ya?

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