The programme of workshops comprises of four segment projects, one of which is ours BROWSE Video Specs. It is both stimulating and quite a task as our project will be paving the way for a two year programme with AAK, and we want it to be GOOD!

For ‘Designing OurSpace’ we have decided to look at highlightingurban factors that influence public safety and/or crime. Our aim is to work with young people who have found themselves in sensitive situations and ask them to contribute their opinions and suggestions on the topic. We want the outcome to be informative and dynamic to be credible when presented to decision makers, so that future development sees the involvement of the people who will be using the development in questions, and the streets tomorrow.

BROWSE Video Specs is Creative City’s current project, and it is a method of engagement using the discreet POV Video Specs technology.

How will we do this? We will facilitate 5 days of workshops and training sessions, with a group of young people, aged 12 – 24 years-old, over the course of half-term in October.

• For the first two days, we are introducing the Video Specs to spark creative thinking, and give a comment on the streets as they are.
• For 3 days, practical editing workshops will guide young poeple in using software and present the content gathered in days 1 & 2 into quality videos that will highlight issues, bring out opinions, and suggest solutions.

On this blog, we will keep on posting updates on developments to give you an idea of how BROWSE Video Specs has achieved its target, and how it can work with other groups and organisations.

To contribute or to find out more, drop us an email karen[at]creative-city.co.uk

Browse Video Specs took part in the festival by having the Hippodrome Bloggers documenting the events with a pair of Video Specs. Browse Video Specs attended Snow in the City on 6th August, asking members of the public to wear our Video Specs while having fun in the snow, and commenting on their experience.

Sarah Allen, Creative Programme Manager said :
“BROWSE is appealing to Six Summer Saturdays as a new innovative way to empower audiences, putting them right at the heart of the performance and enabling us to gain valuable feedback, commentary and content for our social media channels.

There are plenty more video snapshots of the wonderful day on Creative City’s Youtube Channel.

If you are interested in more information on SpecAudience and/or Browse Video Specs, you can download the pdf here.

More Browse events will be announced soon… It looks like we’ll be doing an Urban Planning workshop and feedback for a photographic exhibition. Fingers’ crossed, and more news soon!

Ruskin Gallery exhibitions at the Working Men’s College, NW1  (image courtesy of Harjeet Kaur)

Artists such as Cesar Gonzales Serpa, Gillian McIver, Photodreaming and Harjeet Kaur were exhibited at the Ruskin Gallery.
www.creativecitylondon.blogspot.com

Studio 75

Studio 75 is a working studio and an artist space, located on the ground floor of a block of flats in Haggerston, East London. It is the studio of film-makers Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Gillian McIver, photographer Lasse Johansson and painter Nazir Tanbouli, who have founded the studio as an artist-run space.
www.studio75.org.uk

SpecAudience is an innovative evaluation and review method using a fresh and discreet technology which is far more appealing than more traditional forms of canvassing opinion. This is geared towards organisations holding events and who want to know what their audience is ‘seeing and thinking’

No more filling form! SpecAudience is an innovative way for institutions and special events to collect feedback for their visitors and members of the audience.

SpecAudience uses Video Specs. They allow the wearers to record a unique insight; capturing their thoughts as they say them, and what they are looking at as they see it. Rather than being on camera or interviewed, participants are active in the process. Remaining anonymous can allow them to give a more honest account of their thoughts.

How does it work?
There are no special expertise required in using the Video Specs, no intermediary, no camera shyness or performance. For these reasons, SpecAudience can attract people whose opinion might not otherwise be recorded or heard.

SpecAudience has recently completed two projects. One with Friends of Arnold Circus and one with Birmingham Hippodrome.

BROWSE is appealing to Six Summer Saturdays as a new innovative way to empower audiences, putting them right at the heart of the performance and enabling us to gain valuable feedback, commentary and content for our social media channels.

- Sarah Allen, Creative Programme Manager, Birmingham Hippodrome

Download the PDF

Watch the Birmingham Hippodrome ‘Six Summer Saturdays’ video.
This was shot by participants and members of the audience.

Watch the FOAC Swap & Share picnic, shot by participants and members of the audience.

Video Specs are ordinary looking eye-wear containing a video and audio recording device. They allow the wearer to record a unique insight; capturing their thoughts as they say them and what they are looking at as they see it. Rather than being on camera or interviewed, participants are active in the process. Participants may remain anonymous to allow them to give a truly honest account of their thoughts.

There are no special skills required in using the Video Specs, no intermediary, no camera shyness or performance. For these reasons, Browse will attract people whose opinion might not otherwise be recorded or heard.

USpec is undertaking a pilot project called ‘Browse East’ that collate a collective narrative of Shoreditch, East London. Browse East asks residents can comment on their local surroundings, narrate personal stories, share the local history or myths relating to this area; voice an opinion on a topic, what gives the place its character, what they would like to see changing or what they feel is enhancing or threatening the community.

Read more here, and watch the project videos to date
http://www.browseast.co.uk

The Newspaper House was created in London’s Gillett Square, in March 2008, transforming over 85,000 used newspapers into a thought provoking artwork, attracting a wide range of people and press coverage internationally.

The installation continued its journey to Liverpool, at the Black-E, during Cultural Capital of Europe 2008 and during the 5th Liverpool Biennial of contemporary arts. It now counts over 100,000 newspapers.

Artists, residents, visitors, community organisations and schools were invited to participate by donating newspapers collected in and around the public realm and rolling them into sticks to build the house. The action of rolling the newspaper returns it to an almost natural state, close to its natural origin. Newspapers are then placed in a prescriptive order to create the foundation of the “House”. At each occasion, a new community, whose members become engaged in the process of creation, forms temporarily.

Sumer Erek first built a shell-like structure, and then filled it from the inside. Lastly, Erek removed the mould to reveal a beautiful House made of newspapers.

“If we re-read Walter Benjamin’s aphorismatic warning: “The work is the mask of its conception”, we may believe that Erek is trying to turn this process around in his Newspaper House project. He first builds the mask, then places the ideas within it. He fills it up from inside to make it visible.”
- Metin Senerguc (critic)

The Newspaper House is available for exhibitions as an artwork.
Please contact karen[at]creative-city.co.uk

The Newspaper House, Liverpool BBC Big Screen from Janody on Vimeo.

For more of an in depth look at the Newspaper House, please read http://newspaperhouse.blogspot.com

Partners & funders: The Newspaper House has received kind support from the following partners and funders

In London

London Borough of Hackney Cultural Team
Gillett Squared Partnership
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
UnLtd
Arts Council UK
West Hackney Parish

In Liverpool

L1 Partnership
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Liverpool City Council City North Neighbourhood
Liverpool City Council Environmental Department
Plus Dane Group, LHT, NMS,
Merseytravel

The Newspaper House was widely covered in the press, such as:

Guardian, Metro, Building Design, Time Out ‘Critics Choice’, Hackney Today, Big Issue, A-N Magazine.

“Newspaper House set to hit the headlines”
- Evening Standard

For all press, please read http://www.newspaperhouse.blogspot.com/