Monthly Archive for March, 2008

Feed Me!

Last night myself and the guff (that’s gf/girlfriend) went to the Moseley Creative Forum. Although we turned up a little bit late it was great to hear what each member of the panel and the audience had to say.

One particular part of the event that caught my attention was the talk on information and RSS Feeds.

Feed me information

As an artist I’ve found that displaying work in a blog format has really helped me promote my work. Sure, the amount of people that actually subscribe to my posts is relatively small, but those people are always notified when I post new work. For all I know one of the people subscribed to my feed might be my next employer!

For a business I think having an rss feed on your website is essential, especially if you constantly update your website. Paula Tew of Creative Launchpad noted that as a business that has so many other things to do a blog is not really on their priority list. Pete Ashton, who was also on the panel was quick to note that it only takes about 30 minutes to write a post and, to be honest, it’s just like sending out a notification e-mail to everyone.

One of the final points they mentioned regarding RSS Feeds is information overload, and that’s something I’ll touch on in my next post.

In summary I think people who have a business that is constantly evolving should at least use RSS to deliver content to their audience. It’s just easier.

Birmingham Visual Arts Coalition

It looks like I’m now part of/somewhat involved with Birmingham Visual Arts Coalition that was advertised this time last month. A couple of the artists had a bit of a meeting on Saturday and, well, lets just say I’m very interested in seeing where this is all going to go. It’s all very exciting, especially as I’m relatively new to collaborating with many artists at one time (although a.a.s. thrive on this)

I know, this is all vague, but once we’re all more involved I suspect you will be, if you know what I’m sayin’!

If You Go Down In The Woods Today

A followup to the last post. Here’s the blurb from the video caption:

Insectoid went to Earlswood and engaged in a silent, collaborative painting experiment.

We decided the basic plan beforehand, but no verbal communication took place during the 2.5 hours of painting.

The process of carrying back to the studio had an effect on some sections of the painting

Insectoid is now on last.fm, so get scrobbling!

Painting

2335152982_230a38a677 Painting

Painting, originally uploaded by hellocatfood.

Not much else to say on this one. More info on the painting coming later.

The Art That Never Will Be

I’ve been having a lot of problems with my computer recently. To add to the fact that it kept crashing my DVD writer wasn’t working, so I couldn’t back up anything! Oh noes! After a very lengthy process involving using my iPod to transfer 100GB to a computer with a working writer I thought I was in the clear to reinstall Windows. Or so I thought. I restarted my computer one day and, after checking for errors, it deleted my ‘Unfinished Projects’ folder, which included some collaboration work. Unfortunately for me this is the one folder I forgot to backup! D’oh!

So now I present to you unfinished versions of my collaborative work with Nahshon McPherson that will unfortunately never be finished.

Collaboration With Nahshon McPherson

Collaboration With Nahshon McPherson

Collaboration between Antonio Roberts and Nahshon McPherson

Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle & Dick

Sunday saw me, after snapping pictures of the demolition, cycling on to the Crescent Theatre to help with the set building for Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle & Dick. Here’s the blurb:

Carrying on in the great British comedy tradition , this play takes some familiar faces and gets a bit familiar with them. It premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 1998 starring Geoffrey Hutchings as Sid, Adam Godley as Kenneth and Samantha Spiro as Barbara and was produced on TV under the title ‘Cor Blimey!’

It’s the first time I’ve done set building but it really was enjoyable. All the pieces of the caravan , just like a game of Tetris, except they didn’t disappear once they were all in a line…

Demolition!

Demolition
I was on my way to the Crescent Theatre when I noticed a large group of people congregating just off of Five Ways Island. As I now know from looking at the Birmingham Flickr group a demolition was taking place. I hastily got out my camera and snapped a few shots of the demolition! It was a amazing, if slightly disturbing sight. Within about two seconds a whole building went from being there to not being there

Stephen Cooper has some better photos of the whole event.

Long Stem

Some newish artwork from me.

Long Stem

More images finally added to the traditional art gallery.

Graffiti Art Festival

Graffiti
There’s a Graffiti Festival going on in Kings Heath on 15-16th March from 12pm-6pm. Words from Matin Mullaney:

The Festival is part of a series of measures to move local teenagers from graffiti tagging, which upsets residents, to the legal form of graffiti art.

The tennis courts in Kings Heath Park will be filled with 75metres of 8foot high boards. The next door basketball court will have ramps for skateboarders and BMXers. There will also be food and music.

Seeing as some of my work is partly inspired by graffiti I think I’ll go along! Fancy it? Come along!

Creative Republic launch video

I, along with a host of others including Pete Ashton (who gave a speech), Stef Lewandowski, Danny Smith and Rill Marchant, went to the Creative Republic launch event on 21st Feb. Here’s the video footage from it.

I’m still a little bit confused as to whether this is for me, being an individual and all, but I’ve signed up anyways (note, get the FAQ section up and running!). Read the blurb below and sign the charter!

We are a group of people who make our living in the sector. We passionately believe that a new representative body is needed to support the creative and cultural industries in Birmingham and the region, which is why we’ve set up Creative Republic.