Rollerprinting workshop today

 

‘Inspired by Brion Gysin’s use of adapted rollers, join artist Stephen Fowler in his collaborative experimental printing workshop, learn how to adapt paint rollers to be utilised as a repeat patterned printing medium and contribute to a series of large relief printed patterned grid prints.’

Stephen Fowler’s workshop is free, all welcome from 12noon in the Cafe Mezz of the library.

The Fair is open til 5pm today, Footprint are here making a zine in a day, and there’s a series of free panels, including the Paperless Stack with figures from major libraries talking about the impact digital tech has on the role of the library.

 

 

 

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Volume opening events tomorrow – feat. Bill Drummond

Bill Drummond, the co-founder of eighties avant-garde band The KLF, will deliver the keynote speech and present a talk on Thursday 5th December, Books: 12 Years, 25 Paintings, 100 Questions, & The 17, as part of a three-day event celebrating independent publishing – Volume: Birmingham’s Art, Book & Print Fair.

The event starts at 7pm at the Library of Birmingham and also features Morag Myerscough (designer of the Pavilion) and the Highliners, a punk rock design performance! Tickets are still available for £8/£10 from www.birmingham-box.co.uk

And tomorrow afternoon we’ll begin proceedings at 1pm at the library with a fascinating afternoon delving into the opportunities that new technologies bring to publishing and writing, this will include a Writing for Digital platforms workshop and a panel featuring Clare Reddington, Director of the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, with Dave Addey, Managing Director of leading app development studio Agant; Tom Abba, lecturer in narrative theory at UWE, Bristol and member of artist collective Circumstance; Charlotte Quickenden, Managing Director of digital agency Bow Software; Laura Kriefman, Founder and Choreographer with innovative dance company Guerilla Dance Project.

It’s only £3 for the workshop and panel from www.birmingham-box.co.uk, or if you have a ticket for the Bill Drummond event this entitles you to free entry – just email [email protected] with your ticket confirmation.

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Copy Rights panel / Sat 7th Dec

Active and Passive Love of Books

This blogpost was written by Cheryl Jones of Grand Union, they present Copy Rights panel discussion on Saturday 7th December at Library of Birmingham, part of Volume.

This panel brings together artists Eva Weinmayr and Andrea Francke, creators of the Piracy Project, with artist and researcher Cornelia Sollfrank, to discuss the legal frameworks that we engage with when dealing with each others’ work.

Artists, writers and publishers are asking ‘What are the different ideologies behind these systems and what are their implications?’

The speakers will explore the political and social implications of cultural piracy through examples from The Piracy Project collection.

Andrea Francke and Eva Weinmayr jointly run The Piracy Project as part of AND Publishing’s research programme.

The Piracy Project is an international publishing and exhibition project exploring the philosophical, legal and practical implications of book piracy and creative modes of reproduction. Through research and an international call for submissions, The Piracy Project has gathered a collection of more than 150 modified, appropriated and copied books from all over the world.

The collection, which is catalogued online at www.andpublishing.org, is the starting point for talks and work groups around the concept of originality, notions authorship and the politics of copyright.

The Piracy Project is not about stealing or forgery. It is about creating a platform to innovatively explore the spectrum of copying, re-editing, translating, paraphrasing, imitating, re-organising and manipulating of existing works. Here creativity and originality sit not in the borrowed material itself, but in the way it is handled.

Cornelia Sollfrank, Ph.D., is an artist and researcher working at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, Scotland. Since the mid 1990s her main interest lies in the exploration of the challenges art has to face under digital networked conditions. Her experiments with the basic principles of aesthetic modernism implied conflicts with its institutional and legal framework.

Sollfrank is currently undertaking an artistic research project into copyright-critical practice titled Giving What You Don’t Have. She has filmed interviews with individuals Kenneth Goldsmith, Marcell Mars, Sean Dockray and Dmitry Kleiner, discussing their projects and ideas on peer-to-peer production and distribution as art practice. It includes the projects  www.ubu.com or  www.aaaaarg.org, which combine social, technical and aesthetic innovation; they promote open access to information and knowledge and make creative contributions to the advancement and the reinvention of the idea of the commons. You can see these video interviews at  www.postmedialab.org/GWYDH

AND Publishing’s Piracy Collection will be on display at Grand Union from 7 December to 9 February. More details.

Saturday 7th December, 11am.
Grand Union presents Copy Rights
Library of Birmingham
Free, booking via www.birmingham-box.co.uk

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Volume – The Fair / 6-7 December

Alex Brady’s comics will be on sale

On Friday 6th and Saturday 7th December, Volume: Birmingham’s Art, Book and Print Fair will be open to the public at Library of Birmingham. This selling fair will feature artist books, limited edition prints, rare books, zines and ephemera from a diverse range of publishers, distributors, artists, illustrators and bookmakers.

The fair will be situated in the Studio Theatre of the library, Friday 11-5 and Saturday 10-5.

Read more about the Volume activity taking place at Library of Birmingham, including workshops, performances and panel discussions and see the list of stallholders below.

Adam Bolton – Having painted thousands of square feet of murals at attractions such as Blackpool Zoo he has recently turned his attentions towards illustration.

Afterschool Club – comprised of four friends, proud of their individuality but with a common love for illustration as a means to learn about and comment on the world around them.

Alex Brady – printmaker, illustrator and comic maker. “Former Beano Club member and winner of the Ladybird comic competition 1994.”

Andrew Law – Studied at Wimbledon School of Art and Liverpool Polytechnic. I live and work in South Wast London.

BIAD Illustration students – Students from the Illustration subject area of the School of Visual Communication, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Birmingham City University, present an abundance of personal side projects produced alongside course-work.

Belly Kids – releasing books, prints, tapes and all sorts of odd accessories. We love collaborating with positive people and working on exhibitions and shows!

Birmingham Printmakers– Set up in 1982, we have regular workshops in all types of printmaking and take part in exhibitions throughout the country and abroad.

The Cassowary Press – a niche publishing house based in California. “The world’s most dangerous books”

Impact Press – part of the Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE, Bristol, specialising in artists’ books. We publish reference materials on the book arts, organise exhibitions and events, workshops and courses on artists’ books.

Inspired Comics – a diverse range of styles and stories, from the gritty and dark to the downright adorable. Inspired currently has eleven members, with a combined age of over 210 years.

Dan Berry – Illustrator, designer, cartoonist and lecturer based somewhere around the middle of the UK. The act of drawing pleases him. He travels a lot giving lectures and workshops on comics all over the place.

Dent-De-Leone – simply the misheard, misspelt, misunderstood flower know as the dandelion, or pissenlit in French. You can eat it in a salad. In this instance it is a publishing company based in London making books and other objects with artists, designers and dead people.

Dewi Lewis Publishing – Showcasing accessible but challenging contemporary photography. The company has a worldwide distribution network and is recognised as one of the leading photographic publishers in the world

Different Skies – In the face of cynicism, Different Skies champions sincerity and rejects the crude separation of form and content.

Elizabeth Willow – Elizabeth’s books are old-fashioned and new-fangled, limited editions and unique books; and made using various materials and techniques including collage, handwriting and printing, increasingly letterpress.

Ephemera Society– Established in 1975, the Society is today internationally recognised as the authority in the field of ephemera.

Essence Press – primarily publishes works by Julie Johnstone. Her works and installations concern perception, distillation, and contemplative experience.

Exitstencil – Where Alice’s ‘curiouser and curiouser’ blends with Sartre’s ‘useless passion’ into a heady mix of image, word and action. Books, Prints, CDs.

ESP (Extra Special People) – Presenting a range of zines, publications and prints that have been designed, written and printed by its members. ESP is Eastside Projects’ associate members scheme. It supports a membership of artists, designers, curators and art-writers.

Flarestack Press – Publishing grass-roots poetry pamphlets since 1995. Strong poetry collections in a no-frills format with bags of style.

Gemma Lacey – My work is concerned with the body and its environment. I primarily work with drawing, book forms and printing processes including etching, relief and screen.

HG Makes – Hazel Grainger’s practice has a focus on reconfiguring collected ephemera, and exploring the materiality of objects.

Ikon book shop – a Contemporary Art Gallery. We have created over 140 publications over the last 10 years for both up and coming artists to retrospectives of major artists of our time.

Inpress – Committed to delivering hidden gems from the world of fiction, poetry and non-fiction to book lovers everywhere.

Jane McGuiness – Scottish illustrator who enjoys making books by hand, drawing in charcoal, painting and screenprinting.

Karen Joyce – Most of my work derives in one way or another from landscape. I investigate ideas that snag my interest through printmaking and bookarts.

Karoline Rerrie – Karoline is an illustrator who creates images by hand using drawing, painting and screen printing. She sees her work as a craft and strives to maintain a handmade element which is what initially lead her to explore printmaking.

Katie Green – I’m an
feel… So tinidazole over the counter Great makeup purchased http://pyramidautomation.com/fadr/inhouse-pharmacy-biz.html clear that Personally.

author & illustrator, and this year my first two published books have been released: Lighter Than My Shadow published by Jonathan Cape and The Crystal Mirror published by Vala.

KLANK – Collaborative work that addresses issues of sustainability and environmental concerns are addressed through the use of recycled and found materials and a a range of traditional & contemporary print processes,

Krystyna Bacynski – Illustrator, comic book artist and designer of Yorkshire tongue and Ukrainian blood. I specialise in illustration, comics, typography, print and design.

Lizz Lunney – Comic illustrator from Birmingham and founder of the Birmingham Zine Festival.

Mark Pawson – self-published books that fit somewhere along the spectrum between artists books and zines, these are presented alongside print curiosities such as badges and cards most of which are handmade/handprinted in his living room.

Milque & Muhle – provides adventurous, underground vinyl and cassette, you will also find music fanzines, comics, presses and occasional art prints

Nine Arches Press Founded in 2008, emerging from an awareness of the literary landscape and a desire to provide a platform for new and emerging poets.

Old Bear Press – Formed by a group of three artists,Kathryn Poole, Deborah Neely, and Heather Chou, based in the North West of England who share a common passion for fine art printmaking and bookbinding.

Pet Galerie Press – Angie Butler works predominantly in artists’ books, often using letterpress as a method of production, publishing under the press name, Pet Galerie Press.

Phillippa Rice – Philippia experiments beyond the bounds of paper limitation, using different materials as means to storytelling

Pink Parrot Press – An exclusive range of illustrated books, artist’s books and greetings cards.

R A Yardley Books – Specialising in out of print books and exhibition catalogues on art, artists, design, applied arts, collecting and architecture.

Sonda Editores – Richard Schofield started Sonda Editores as a means to realise projects that would exist only within the book form, but via accesible mass-print media rather than artisan production.

Roger J Knowles – Professional historian & archivist specialising in manuscript and printed historical documents as well as rare books and early newspapers.

Ryan Taylor – an illustrator from Wolverhampton working in the field of independent comics. He has contributed to numerous titles and anthologies over the years but is best known for his own on-going horror series ‘The Grinning Mask’.

Stephanie Turnbull – Documentation, discovery, collection, interaction and collaboration have become key elements within Stephanie’s work, inspired by her experiences and memories of travelling.

Stephen Fowler – An illustrator and printmaker based in London. He runs printmaking and bookbinding workshops and teaches drawing. check out his Rollerprinting workshop throughout the day on Sat 7th.

Sidney Nolan Trust – Supporting a group of book artists who work and exhibit The Rodd, a set of medieval buildings and 250 acres of farmland in the Border Marches.

Thomas Tomassaka – I specialise in bespoke books, combining traditional techniques such as collage, photography and drawing with digital processes.

Timothy Winchester – My name is Timothy and I love drawing… I love drawing dinosaurs, wizards and monsters. I can’t draw hands though. I hope that isn’t too much of a problem for you.
I make a web and print comic called People I Know.

Tombstone Press – A radical publishing house dedicated to exploring themes around architecture and committed to the physicality of print.

Werkplaats Typographie – Part of the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Werkplaats Typographie is a two-year graphic design masters programme founded in 1998 by Karel Martens and Wigger Bierma based in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

WhnicPRESS

WhnicPRESS – An imprint formed by an international collective of book artists who were brought together during postgraduate studies in London and are now scattered across the globe.

X Marks the Bökship – ‘Like a bookshop but not.’ A project space for independent publishers, specialising in publishing works and projects by artists and designers.

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The Paperless Stack / Sat 7th Dec

This blogpost was written by Beth Bramich for Eastside Projects, they present The Paperless Stack panel discussion on Saturday 7th December at Library of Birmingham, part of Volume.
The new Library of Birmingham is a huge investment in a public resource for the city at a time when the future of libraries across the country is uncertain.


 Interior, the Library of Birmingham. When explaining her vision for the Library lead architect Francine Houben said, “We don’t know what the future of the library will be so we have designed space for change, to last over the next 100 years.”

The new Library is intended to act as a centre for the community. Aiming to transform lives through learning, knowledge and culture, its remit stretches far beyond what we might expect from a traditional library, offering spaces to socialise, access local history, develop a business plan, attend a theatrical performance, visit an exhibition and more. But as much as the new Library embraces its many roles and seamlessly incorporates new technology throughout, it puts books at its heart.

The Library has been built to house a collection of over a million physical books, including printed materials dating from the 17th Century housed in the Shakespeare Memorial Library, but it has also been shaped by the digital innovations that have developed over the last two decade in publishing.

New digital formats for books are revolutionising the way we read. Accessed both through computers, mobile phones, tablets and dedicated devices, e-books offer readers instant access to the books that they want, and additional features such as search functions and a networked reading experience. E-book sales surged during 2011-2012 (in the US surpassing sales of hardcover books for the first time in early 2012) and while they have levelled somewhat in 2013, demand remains high from those who have been completely converted to e-ink, to those who now happily read across many different formats.

Third generation Amazon Kindle, showing text from the novel Moby-Dick.

At the same time as all these books, both print and digital, are being read, whether downloaded, bought online or picked up in your local book store, library usage is down. This is putting libraries, particular small local libraries, under pressure, as cuts to funding for local authorities are causing all spending on public services to be scrutinised.

One potential area for attracting new library users is to offer e-books as part of regular lending services. E-lending, where e-books can be borrowed from a library in the same manner as a physical book for a limited period of time, has had several set backs as a number of models for providing access to books and protecting their copyright have been put in place and then had to be re-worked as technology develops. A sustainable model that benefits publishers, libraries, authors and readers is still very much desired.

In the context of the new Library, which has responded to the challenges facing libraries by re-imagining its purpose and function, putting great emphasis on diversifying what it can offer and improving access to digital facilities, it is important to ask how all libraries can be resilient and adapt to the changing needs of their users.


View of the King’s Library at the British Library. Photograph by Mike Peel.

Access to e-books is just one part of a larger conversation about what the public want and expect from library services today. Could a new breed of centralised super-library, offering online access to their resources, completely replace the local library? Do we even need physical libraries or would public money be better invested in, for example, offering greater access to the Internet?

The Paperless Stack will open up a debate about how new technologies used to translate and publish books in digital formats are affecting existing libraries and shaping the libraries of the future. With a panel of representatives from within the library sector, including Brian Gambles, Director of the Library of Birmingham and Lucie Burgess, Head of Content Strategy, Research and Operations at the British Library, the publishing industry and in the field of design this will be an in-depth discussion about what the library as an institution might become.

Saturday 7th December, 3pm.
Eastside Projects presents The Paperless Stack
Library of Birmingham
Free, booking via www.birmingham-box.co.uk

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Peter Bilak in conversation / Friday 6th Dec

Works That Work

This blog post is written by An Endless Supply who present ‘In Conversation with Peter Bilak’ on Friday 6th December at Library of Birmingham, part of Volume.

Works that Work is a new magazine that is something like the ‘National Geographic of design’. Its first two issues have travelled the globe for fascinating stories on far-ranging subjects including international food smugglers, the world’s biggest building, ad hoc chairs, and flies in urinals. Beyond great journalism it’s also thinking out loud about what a magazine can do in the 2010s.

Readers raised £29,000 to put its first issue into production and with the third issue the magazine intends to go ad-free. Works that Work is simultaneously published online and in print and has introduced a new model of ‘social distribution’, that pulls together a network of readers to promote and push the magazine, taking a share of the profits in the process. Reading groups have formed, and it has an exemplary blog, where posts have responded to reader’s feedback on the magazine’s binding, and, in Scritti Politti style, the costs of each issue have been made public.

Peter Bilak, editor of Works that Work, will speak at Volume about the magazine, and be joined by Eleanor Vonne Brown from X Marks the Bökship, to talk about reader relations, co-operatives, and different models of distribution. The talk takes place at Library of Birmingham, Friday 6th December, 3pm, and is free. You can book a place in advance via www.birmingham-box.co.uk
In the meantime you can watch a video of a talk given by Peter earlier in the year in Amsterdam, here:

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Books & Print Sandbox / 5th Dec

 

This blogpost is from Clare Reddington, Director, iShed (Bristol)and REACT Executive Producer. REACT present a day of exploration into the future of book and print on Thursday 5th December. Tickets are only £3 for a Writing for Digital workshop and a panel examining in the opportunities that new technology brings to writing and publishing.


No one thing can pick up where the book left off; instead it is everything, all of our networks, our services, our devices, the internet plus everything else, which will carry literature forward. James Bridle, Wired Magazine, April 2012

The continuing rise of cheap e-readers and tablets coupled with the prevalence of mobile and wifi networks means it is now easier than ever before to download and read whatever book you would like, whenever you would like to read it. This creates fantastic potential, but as yet the publishing industry hasn’t moved much further than simply aping the paper book in digital form.

Excited by the untapped creative and commercial opportunity of this area,  in January 2013 REACT launched Books & Print Sandbox to invest in new collaborations exploring the digital future of books & print publishing. Over a three month period eight partnerships of academics and creative businesses (and artists, choreographers, technologists, gamers, writers…) developed new product ideas to push at the edges of the possible and gather experience, insight and evidence in search of new commercial potential.

From the Secret Lives of Books, a beautiful interactive platform that visualizes the unexploited data of public libraries and bookshops, to ‘these pages fall like ash’, a digital-physical hybrid created where readers explore a city to discover (and write) the story, narrative remained very much at the projects’ heart, blending form and function to create entirely new types of book experience.

With opportunities to try stuff out, participate in a Books & Print workshop and hear about the projects, the event at The Library of Birmingham in December gives us a welcome opportunity to drop back in with the teams, eight months after the official end of their R&D period. Now in the process of taking their products to audiences, readers and customers, the project teams will tell their stories, reflect on the results and share insight with others seeking to create future book projects of their own.

Thursday 5th December 1pm- 5pm. Tickets for the panel and workshop are £3 via www.birmingham-box.co.uk
The panel will be made up of Clare Reddington, Director of the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, with Dave Addey, Managing Director of leading app development studio Agant; Tom Abba, lecturer in narrative theory at UWE, Bristol and member of artist collective Circumstance; Charlotte Quickenden, Managing Director of digital agency Bow Software; Laura Kriefman, Founder and Choreographer with innovative dance company Guerilla Dance Project.

Ticket holders for the Bill Drummond keynote event can access this afternoon event for free, please contact [email protected] with VOLUME in the subject line for more details.

 

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Volume / lino printing workshop / Sat 7th December

During a three day event celebrating books and print, you can learn how to make a two to three colour reduction lino print in a limited capacity workshop. One piece of lino is used multiple times in one print, as the lino plate is recut after each colour printed. You will be guided through the process by the Birmingham Printmakers.

All you need to bring is an A5 image of something that inspires you in Birmingham (could be anything!) and some kind of protective clothing, such as an apron.

Birmingham Printmakers are currently celebrating the history of their work with an exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham Printmakers: Thirty Years of Printmaking 1983-2013, showcases work by members of the group.

The workshop takes place at the Library of Birmingham from 10am to 5pm and costs only £3. Book now via www.birmingham-box.co.uk

This event is part of Volume: Birmingham’s Art, Book & Print Fair. 5-7 December.

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