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Following on from 2012's Festival of the Mind, sponsored by Sheffield University, which included the 'Do It Thissen' week long event that eine and I put together, we gave some thought as to what to do for 2014's Festival of the Mind.
One idea which we worked on revolved around taking 'historic' spaces (in Sheffield post-punk terms), which had been re-purposed as something else, and perform some artistic event there, filming it, and presenting a short film at the Festival. Such spaces under consideration included 'Studio Electrophonique', at Ken Patten's suburban semi, the garage in Doncaster which was home to the 'Future Earth' label, and Cabaret Voltaire's 'Western Works' studio in Sheffield, demolished in the late 80s, with a University building now occupying the site.
We got quotes for filming three events and turning the footage into a film: pricey, and I was unsure that we'd get the backing. In the event, we missed the submission deadline, so no Festival of the Mind event for the 'Do It Thissen' crew.
BUT
The University also runs another festival called 'In the City', which, in their own words is: "a celebration and exploration of urban existence, heritage, and experience, with a variety of themes including modernist housing, forgotten places, activism, musical heritage and personal narratives".
We were keen to do something with the Western Works theme, so - to cut a long story short - and due to very hard work by eine and Nick, an intern at the university responsible for putting the festival together (and also a member of Sheffield's premier DIY collective 'The Audacious Art Experiment'), there's an event planned for Friday May 16th to be held at the John Pemberton Lecture theatre, which is the closest usable space to the location of the original Western Works studio.
"No Lectures... aims to explore the space that remains in 2014. Contemporary musicians will draw on the material recorded here while writers and academics will discuss some of the ideas that travel around the place. Join residents and workers past, present and future in experimenting with art and Sheffield, music and technology, health and disease".
There'll be a mix of talk/panel/discussion and music/poetry/video mashup, all to do with some aspect of Western Works, present & past (it was originally home to a number of cutlers back in the day)
Musical content will be provided by local bands BloodSport, Juxtavoices (an 'anti-choir'), BHS (techno/drone), Ron Wright (ex-Hula), and a Sheffield post-punk 'supergroup' IBBERSON.
IBBERSON are Stephen Mallinder (Voice) Simon Elliott-Kemp (Electronics / guitar), Charlie Collins (Percussion), Michael Somerset Ward (Electric woodwinds / electronics), Nigel Humberstone (Bass guitar).
Tickets are free, and went 'on sale' last night. They all went within a very few hours .... But there's a distinct possibility of a few more tickets being released nearer the date, if anyone fancies travelling over for this. Watch this space...
No Lectures from Western Works
One idea which we worked on revolved around taking 'historic' spaces (in Sheffield post-punk terms), which had been re-purposed as something else, and perform some artistic event there, filming it, and presenting a short film at the Festival. Such spaces under consideration included 'Studio Electrophonique', at Ken Patten's suburban semi, the garage in Doncaster which was home to the 'Future Earth' label, and Cabaret Voltaire's 'Western Works' studio in Sheffield, demolished in the late 80s, with a University building now occupying the site.
We got quotes for filming three events and turning the footage into a film: pricey, and I was unsure that we'd get the backing. In the event, we missed the submission deadline, so no Festival of the Mind event for the 'Do It Thissen' crew.
BUT
The University also runs another festival called 'In the City', which, in their own words is: "a celebration and exploration of urban existence, heritage, and experience, with a variety of themes including modernist housing, forgotten places, activism, musical heritage and personal narratives".
We were keen to do something with the Western Works theme, so - to cut a long story short - and due to very hard work by eine and Nick, an intern at the university responsible for putting the festival together (and also a member of Sheffield's premier DIY collective 'The Audacious Art Experiment'), there's an event planned for Friday May 16th to be held at the John Pemberton Lecture theatre, which is the closest usable space to the location of the original Western Works studio.
"No Lectures... aims to explore the space that remains in 2014. Contemporary musicians will draw on the material recorded here while writers and academics will discuss some of the ideas that travel around the place. Join residents and workers past, present and future in experimenting with art and Sheffield, music and technology, health and disease".
There'll be a mix of talk/panel/discussion and music/poetry/video mashup, all to do with some aspect of Western Works, present & past (it was originally home to a number of cutlers back in the day)
Musical content will be provided by local bands BloodSport, Juxtavoices (an 'anti-choir'), BHS (techno/drone), Ron Wright (ex-Hula), and a Sheffield post-punk 'supergroup' IBBERSON.
IBBERSON are Stephen Mallinder (Voice) Simon Elliott-Kemp (Electronics / guitar), Charlie Collins (Percussion), Michael Somerset Ward (Electric woodwinds / electronics), Nigel Humberstone (Bass guitar).
Tickets are free, and went 'on sale' last night. They all went within a very few hours .... But there's a distinct possibility of a few more tickets being released nearer the date, if anyone fancies travelling over for this. Watch this space...
No Lectures from Western Works
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