Open call for British Library Sounds Commission

To be premiered at the Supersonic Festival

Deadline for applications: 5pm Friday 27 March 2015

Commission dates: April – June 2015

Performance/installation:

Supersonic Festival, Birmingham, June 11 – 14 2015

Supersonic Festival are delighted to be partnering with the British Library to offer an opportunity for an artist to develop a new work as part of the festival programme in June 2015. The successful artist will have the opportunity to work with selected material and their associated documentation in the Library’s archive to create a new work culminating in a performance or an installation at the festival, as well as being archived within the British Library’s sound collection.

This commission will be presented at the Supersonic Festival, 11 – 14 June, the UK’s premier experimental music and arts festival. Its international reputation and multidisciplinary programme draws audience, artists and industry professionals from across the globe ensuring a great showcase for this new work. For more information on the festival visit www.supersonicfestival.com

The British Library is home to the nation’s sound archive, an extraordinary collection of over 6.5 million recordings of speech, music, wildlife and the environment, from the 1880s to the present day. It has recently launched the Save our Sounds programme which is a major digitisation project to preserve the nation’s sound heritage www.bl.uk/projects/save-our-sounds.

For this commission, selection of wildlife and environmental recordings from the collection will be made available and will include, among other things, the songs & calls of British birds, the soundscapes of natural habitats such as woodland, marshland and the British coastline, and a range of environmental recordings covering weather, waves, streams, rivers and more. Additonal content from other curatorial areas may also be available, subject to availability and rights clearance
More information on the collections can be found at http://sounds.bl.uk

The selected applicant will receive a £750 fee for the development and performance of the commission. They will receive mentoring from the Supersonic team and an introduction to the collections from the British Library’s Curator, Wildlife and Environmental Sounds.

How to Apply:

To apply please send a proposal that includes all of the following:

Your name, contact details and website address.

A short statement explaining why you want to undertake the commission and what you hope to gain by working in this context (300 words max). Also tell us about two pieces of recent work that you are most proud of (200 words max) please save these documents together as a PDF or .doc file.

Evidence of your current work in the following form:

2 x links to your work uploaded to Soundcloud or You Tube/Vimeo.

Please send to [email protected] with ‘BL_SS commission’ in the title
Email attachments must not be larger than 5MB. Application is by email only.

Deadline for applications: 27 March 2015

This week sees the pavilion house its final residency of the Discovery season. A suitcase and a sense of adventure go hand in hand, whether it is a box of memories, exploits, danger or just the everyday, it has the potential to be filled with a sense of wonder. Playing on this intriguing atmosphere, Scottish theatre maker Eric MacLennan has invented an installation that is both performance and art.

The creator of many bold, audience based works over the last twenty-eight years, MacLennan uses entertainment to encourage his spectators to think. Inspired by the writing of Xavier De Maistre, who was devoted to uncovering the interesting in everyday life, MacLennan wishes to encourage an audience to discover the exciting aspects in their own world. In his realm, you’ll learn that the norm can become extraordinary and new.

Come and take part all this week.

Trading Post is an exhibition of art ‘for trade’, a cornucopia of work made by artists from Birmingham and beyond. Taking a cue from the TV classic Multi Coloured Swap Shop, all the artworks in the exhibition will be available to swap. Visit the Pavilion in the Library foyer, peruse their wares and make an offer.

Offers can include time, skills, things or expertise – anything except money of any currency – ‘art for a haircut’, ‘art for cake’, ‘art for life coaching’ ‘art for welding’ for example. Once an offer has been made it
will be made public and if the contributing artist decides to take up the offered trade the swap will be arranged. Bartering and negotiation is welcome, and encouraged. .

Trading Post is presented by ESP (Extra Special People). This project is an extension of  ‘Trade Show’, a group exhibition at Eastside Projects that runs from 7 December 2013 – 22 February 2014.  ESP is Eastside Projects’ associate members scheme.

Events:
Thursday 12 December 2013, 6.30-7.30pm
Matthew Raine will give a talk on Marxist Economics during which artist Faith Pearson will make a series of small sculptures available for exchange to those attending.

Saturday 14 December 2013, 2-4pm
ESP members will present a series of conversations and performances.

List of artists:

Stuart Barnes / Leah Carless / Carruthers & Cresswell / Mateus Domingos / Freya Dooley / Mathew Ferguson / Bob Gelsthorpe / Andrew Gillespie / Calum Greaney / Amanda Grist / Aly Grimes / Maya Darrell Hewins / Kurt Hickson / Jim Howieson / Sarah Isaacs / Sam Jones / Ayse Kolu / Lucy McAllister / Kat Newman / Dan Newso / Susie Olczak / Faith Pearson / Sarah Silverwood / Laura Reeves

The Library Project at the Pavilion

In residence this week is Haworth + Hayhoe with The Library Project, running til 8th December in the Pavilion.

Haworth + Hayhoe are installing a miniature interactive library and hosting daily bookbinding workshops. Your completed book will be shelved and catalogued as part of our library, after which your book will join a growing collection that will travel the world as part of The Library Project. Paper Stand – LTC Office Supplies provides the best newspaper, magazine, flip chart stand  for the library use.

You can book yourself onto a special book binding workshop every day this week, they’re totally free but advance booking is definitely recommended. There’ll also be other free, drop in activity in the Pavilion throughout their residency.
Each workshop has a theme, and you can book via www.birmingham-box.co.uk

Hardback book

Wed 4th Dec – 3pm-5pm: Hardback book

Thurs 5th Dec – 11am -12.30pm: Japanese book –

Sat 7th Dec – 2pm-4pm: Hardback book

Sun 8th Dec – 2pm-3.30pm: Japanese book –

Suitable for ages 16+

Japanese book

An extended residency in our Pavilion series, the Library of Lost Books is here til 24th November. The project was the brainchild of Birmingham based artist Susan Kruse in 2011 as a way to celebrate the move from the old Central library to the new Library of Birmingham in 2013. She assembled a collection of the library’s unwanted, damaged books and sent them to more than 40 artists and printmakers from around the UK to re-work, breathing new life into them through their interactions and interventions. Because many of the books are old, or obscure, this was a unique opportunity for artists to work with books, manuscripts, papers, typefaces and bindings that they might not otherwise have an opportunity so to do. www.thelibraryoflostbooks.blogspot.co.uk

Images by Katja Ogrin.

Library of Lost Books is accompanied by a three day conference, Resurrecting The Book 15-17 November.

Sound artist Sarah Farmer has spent a number of months working and researching intensively at the Lapworth Museum of Geology  and the Winterbourne botanical collection. Farmer has explored the collections, spent time with the curators and staff, and has created a number of sound based works, as well as screenprints, in response to her time there.

The exhibition is now at Lapworth Museum of Geology from Thursday 7th November until Sunday 24th November. Come and explore the university’s collections in a way you would never imagine.

Lapworth Museum / 9.00am – 5.00pm weekdays 12.00pm – 5.00pm weekends / University of Birmingham, Aston Webb building, Edgbaston Campus

This project is supported through Connected – a University of Birmingham Cultural Engagement initiative.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/culture

Last week was a fantastic week for the Discovery season with both Bring To Light and Box Of Light providing weird and wonderful sounds and visuals throughout the library, including a magnificent residency from Film Ficciones where artist Scott Johnson explored early techniques of creating moving image.

Girls Who Draw in the Pavilion. Photo by Gush Sohal.

For half term week Girls Who Draw are in residency with their Museum of Mythical Creatures. The museum is a collection of magical characters, fabulous beasts and imaginary beings inspired by myths, legends and folklore from around the world. Created by illustrators Girls Who Draw, they have painted, printed, cut, drawn and even sewn an array of imaginative artwork, done wall murals from scratch and unusual objects to inspire, intrigue and entertain visitors of all ages. Over the last few years Girls Who Draw has evolved from a small group into a larger network including both emerging and established illustrators.

Rhys Chatham

And this Saturday, a magnificent show in the Library of Birmingham Studio Theatre sees two giants of contemporary composition perform a UK exclusive collaboration. Rhys Chatham and Charlemagne Palestine first met in the late 60s in New York, at the end of 2012, they decided to revisit their collaboration. Support comes from Ex Easter Island Head’s large guitar ensemble, utilising an ensemble of experienced local musicians the piece sees an ensemble of guitarists playing modified ‘third bridge’ guitars from a unique graphic score to create a unique shimmering soundworld, rich in heavenly drones, overtones and repetition.

Tickets are available via www.birmingham-box.co.uk

Thanks to all who came to visit The Outcrowd Collective in residency last week, with the House of Beorma Archive. A beautiful homage to the lost customs of Birmingham. Images by Katja Ogrin.

Creating offerings to the House of Beorma

One of the lost relics resdiscovered by the Outcrowd Collective

Carousel. Image by Keith Dodds

In partnership with Vivid Projects, the next Discovery season is Carousel. All this week the Pavilion will house Cathy Wade’s residency, she is creating an immersive environment that explores ownership, time, sound and image. Come and meet Cathy artist and work with hand held projectors or carousels, with original slides and mementos, to create ever changing projected environments. Catch this residency from Tuesday 15th October til Sunday 20th.