Category: Brighton

 

Back in April, I wtote a long post about delays to the i360 project. Brighton's i360 was originally supposed to open in Spring this year and it now looks as if the project has been delayed to the second half of 2012, at the earliest. Today's Brighton Argus includes a story headlined 'Brighton Eye to miss 2012 target' about the ongoing problems (no online version as yet). Marks-Barfield, the developers, are now trying to sell sponsorship of the tower's name "in a bid to close the funding gap".

Tony Mernagh of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership is quoted in the article saying "I would expect a business whose core market is young and trendy would be attracted to this, someone like a fashion label, or maybe an alcohol brand… We could be talking about the Smirnoff Tower in a few years' time." Nice.

The i360 is still no closer to completion. I'd still like to see it finished, preferably without a tacky name, but the continued delays and threats to the project make the vandalism of the West Pier seem even more shameful.

Chris Polymath and Kate Kamikaze:
 

 

 The last couple of shots are from the infamous Zoo Gun '91 incident.

 
    

On Saturday evening I arranged to meet a friend at Brighton's Phoenix Gallery for Wall Into Pieces, "a large scale art event featuring music, performance, collaborative art and the creation and production of a magazine in real time." The night featured some amazing performance art but I was most impressed by the clowns.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I'm fascinated by clowns. I was waiting for my friend to arrive when a group of blood-soaked clowns came outside for a cigarette. One of these looked very similar to Honour Mission, but these clowns spoke only a gibberish form of Spanish. I was soon caught up in their group.

 

Traditionally, clowning is about testing social limits and transgressing boundaries. This was the first time I'd been close to this sort of clown and it was fascinating (even if it was sometimes a little too close to my clown novel at points). The clowns pinched drinks and forced people to play cards with them, complaining when the civilians broke the rules. They offered people used chewing gum, or bought them drinks. At one point my friend and I were offered a purse; we had no idea whose it was. It was a fun, chaotic experience, one I really enjoyed.

Let sleeping clowns lie:

Me and a clown:

  

According to this clown, the drawing on the left is a picture of me:

Clowns playing cards:

    

Back home, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Looking in the mirror, I saw a huge lipstick kiss on my forehead left by one of the clowns.

 

I had an amazing weekend and wanted to blog some of my adventures. First up was dConstruct 2010. On Friday, I volunteered for dConstruct for the second time. The conference has a fantastic atmosphere and helping out is great fun. The mood on the reception desks is good, there is a team of fascinating people, and the registrats were all friendly and patient.

In return for helping out, volunteers are able to sit in on some of the presentations. I watched John Gruber, Hannah Donovan, James Bridle and Tom Coates.

John Gruber spoke on The Auteur Theory of Design. He underlined the importance of working out who had the ultimate say in a project. Gruber said it was vital to ensure that the person in charge was an expert and could distinguish between the results, otherwise their opinions were little more than guesses. I'm not sure how well the auteur model applies to web projects overall, but I can see the importance of working out who has Final Cut.

James Bridle's talk was fascinating, featuring the death of Geocities, the library of Alexandria and a 12 volume publication containing the complete history of wikipedia's Gulf War article – the photos of this are impressive. Bridle introduced me to the sport of wiki-racing, which involves finding the fastest route between two articles: "Human knowledge as game space". One idea I took away from this was that of cities as wikis, with multiple collaborators and a history.

My favourite talk of the day was from Hannah Donovan, Jam Session: What Improvisation Can Teach us About Design. This started with an improvised performance by three musicians and went on to discuss how musical improvisation works. Donovan suggested that improvisation had fewer inhibitions and was more expressive. She looked at what is needed for successful improvisation (ie technical skill, rules, communication and expression) and discussed 4Chan and twitter as improvisations. 

Of all the talks, Donovan's had the most relevance to me, particularly in relation to the Not for the Faint-Hearted sessions. When I next speak to Ellen, my co-host, I want to talk about introducing a collaborative/improvisational exercise to the next session.

dConstruct 2010 was a fantastic event. I've been following the responses online and am looking forward to hearing the podcasts of the sessions I missed. Thank you to Sophie and clearleft for inviting me to volunteer.

 

The photograph below was sent to me by Louise Halvardsson, who saw the shop on her recent holiday. Would you want a tattoo from a place called Clowntown?

 

On Saturday Lou was reading at the Wedding Present's At the Edge of the Sea Festival. The event was at the Concorde 2, and Lou was the first performer on the main stage. The readings, organised by Short Fuse, were stories based on Wedding Present songs, with Lou writing a piece based on I'm from Further North than you are. Lou has been writing some great stories lately, and it was exciting to see her performing at an unusual event. Lou has blogged about the event here.

It's been a busy weekend: swimming in the sea, revisions on the novel, visiting the tip, and moving my library from storage to my new room. I also visited Metrodeco, where I had Lapsang Souchang and a massive meringue. I'm loving being back in Brighton.

 

Postings from an edge has written a summary of Wednesday's writing event.

 I spent last weekend at the Blythe Power Ashes with Joh. We saw lots of bands, most of which seemed to feature our friend Deacon. A lovely weekend of camping, old friends, music and water shortages.

 
 

I'm also loving being back in Brighton. There are so many things to see walking around the town. I hope the person who lost their trike gets it back.
 

 


  

I'm missing some fantastic shows in this year's Brighton festival, but I'm most sad about missing The Cinderella Project. This is part of a "a year long series of Art/Theatre collaborative events… discussing the nature of art, love and mortality." Lucien, the project's first major output, is "a combination of gripping audio drama, an interactive, site specific experience and the opportunity to witness live painting in an intimate and engaging setting".

The play is performed in Jake Spicer 's studio in New England House (which recently hosted Alice in Wonderland themed life drawing). The story creates a fantastical version of Brighton, where an alchemist painter is imprisoned in the depths of New England House. The New England map below was part of a flyer and includes some great details, like a squid attacking the West Pier.

Jake is collaborating with Zoe Hinks, of Sabotage Theatre. Last year Sabotage performed the play Ravens at the Marlborough, a story of witchcraft set in Romney Marshes in the 1650s. The Cinderella Project is free, but tickets are starting to run out. There are three daily performances between the 15th and 22nd and tickets can be booked by emailing info@jakespicerart.co.uk

Having heard so much about the project it's a shame not to be seeing its first show. Hopefully someone will see this post, go along, and tell me all about it.