August 21, 2009 by ICEcubes
Thurs 10th September 11.00 am – 5.00pm
F2 Digital Creative Development Programme is a 6 month project for established creative professionals, based in the West Midlands, who want to investigate the opportunities offered by digital media, form new collaborative partnerships and develop new ideas. The programme will offer artists, producers, writers, developers and practitioners from a range of backgrounds an opportunity to explore new forms of practice and challenge them to develop innovative, interdisciplinary projects.
F2 will explore the new possibilities for creative practice in the digital age and equip its participants with the knowledge and skills to work with new media, taking advantage of digitisation and the emergence of new tools for production, marketing and distribution.
To launch the new F2 Digital Creative Development programme, the Institute for Creative Enterprise at Coventry University is hosting an introductory workshop for potential participants to find out more about this exciting new initiative.
F2 Future Forum will be led by F2 delivery partners, Frank Boyd and Andre Ktori from Unexpected Media, a media development agency with an extensive track record of supporting innovation and creative research in the digital media. They will be joined by Chris Bennewith from Squidsoup who will be presenting some of this international interactive design group’s current projects about to be premiered at ISEA, Ireland and onedotzero festival, London.
This one day recruitment event aims to provide potential participants with an opportunity to find out more about the F2 goals, explore the programme’s themes with the delivery team and network with peers and potential collaborators.
To book a place on the F2 Future Forum
send an email to Rebecca Owen rebecca@smithowen.demon.co.uk
You should include your name and, if applicable, the name of your company and your address.
For more information, see ICE website www.coventry.ac.uk/ice
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The reason I was not at the Tom Hingley seminar was because I was at the Warwick Arts Centre watching this documentary shown as part of a Burning Issues series curated by John Gore, the WAC film programmer. Comedian Arthur Smith was the guest speaker – who is always entertaining – but the film was too American-centric and the discussion afterwards veered too-often towards opinionated waffle (where was the informed, cultural studies or linguist expert?). For me, a debate about the c-word would have been more relevant for our culture, at this time, and how its use seems to be creeping back as a result of Amercian TV.
Posted in Culture, Seminars | 2 Comments »
April 21, 2009 by markrhancock
Introduced by Nick, talking about Tom’s ability to talk about the craft of being a musician.
Tom introduced himself by talking about being creative. Asked the audience about what it means to be creative in music industry. The same level of professionalism as being a plumber. Summary: in essence,marketing a non product is no guarantee of success. Hard work and hard work and hard work is the key to achieving something in the creative industries.
Selling your creative endevours
Role of managers.
Sometimes knowing what your against, is as important as knowing what you’re about. White Stripes as an example.
Overall, Toms’ talk was interesting, particularly for the group of younger musicians gathered to here what he had too say. If there was one thing that I thought throughout his talk, it was that musicians could learn a lot from other creative performers. For example, street theatre and engaging with audiences in diverse unexpected locations. The similarities between publishing and music with the changing connection with audiences. And finding unusual and creative ways to reach audiences. Stop thinking in terms of the traditional rock and roll templates of how to be a band and come up with something new, even if it isn’t ‘cool’ or what you’ve read in all those other biographies etc.
Posted in ICE guests | 2 Comments »
April 6, 2009 by markrhancock
The ICEcubes team will be attending MediaCampNottingham in May to mix it up and connect with other folks thinking about all things social media and digital.
MediaCampNottingham – Saturday 9th May and Sunday 10th May, 2009
NOT a BARCAMP – we plan a little before hand.
What is MediaCampNottingham?
An innovative UnConference exploring the latest digital trends in:
* Web design and development
* Communications, branding, advertising and PR
* Arts, media and culture
* Games and virtual worlds
* Digital media, blogging and social media.
It’s FREE and anyone can get involved.
Themes:
1. Technology: Web Development / Design / Accessibility / SEO / Social Media
2. Media: Business / Communication / PR / Advertising / Marketing
3. Culture: Digital Arts / Media / Culture / Games / Education
Posted in Convergence, blogs, unconferences | Leave a Comment »
April 2, 2009 by markrhancock
I’ve been reading Second-Shift, Media Aesthetics by John T Caldwell in the book New media : theories and practices of digitextuality. In his essay, Caldwell draws on examples from the early part of the 21st Century, where several American networks were experimenting with what has come to be called convergence. The cross-media spread of a narrative that takes place within a program or film is probably the most simplified explanation of it. The term second-shift aesthetics is coined by Caldwell in reference to the program Homicide, aired on HBO (I think?) where the program focussed on the characters who worked one of the homicide shifts, and the Internet presence was all about the second-shift characters, who followed up many of the leads and clues uncovered by the first shift. So the web stuff would include short episodes, as well as content such as the video clips that the first-shift team had been looking through for clues in the case, as well as additional material.This type of cross-media hybrid has become ever more popular with certain programs (America seems to do it best, for some reason and I’m not convinced it’s about budget either). Lost did it and Mad Men does it with characters even having Twitter accounts now. So, it’s a natural flow and a way for production companies to reach their audiences through the many different channels that viewers are now multi-tasking through in the course of an evening (or day, at work!). Rather than desperately panicking about where to find advertising revenue for TV, companies can now sell a bundled package of revenue streams (not sure if that is the right phrase for what I’m think of?) to advertisers. It’s the long tail in action, basically.
So, does this have any relevance for the live performance arts, visual artists or other non-moving image artists? Possibly, is the ambivalent answer! For a start, the advertising revenues might not be something that people are interested in pursuing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth considering in some context. The other point is that of capturing the ongoing interest of audiences who may have that niggled to find out more about a show after having seen it, or even before seeing it, if they don’t mind spoilers. A street performance that has an experimental approach may become clearer when postcards handed out at the performance, lead people to blogs and video interviews. Rehearsals of RSC plays might help students deconstruct the text of a play they are studying, after having seen the live show.
But these are all extras. In some ways the model for them already exists in the DVD market with additional material, outtakes, interviews etcetera. Also, I noticed that the J.G. Ballard book I recently read, Cocaine Nights, came with links to websites and interviews and an extra short story, as part of a P.S. strategy, so publishers are gradually doing it (but that leads to discussions of The Kindle and e books, a whole other post). So it’s not original, but worth keeping in mind. The other option is for performers to consider how there own work might exist across different platforms. Like the Homicide example above, how would web material extend the narrative arc? Also importantly, is how does this become a natural part of the work and not just a gimmick? Maybe that’s just a matter of how deeply embedded in our lives the digital is, until it becomes transparent.
Posted in Convergence, Narratives, creativity | Leave a Comment »
