Here’s a little film of Mr Underwood at the end of a very busy Theremin Day at The Edge last Saturday, looking tired but happy. He’d teamed up with the fizzPOP crew to help people build their own optical theremins during the day, a selection of which are here:
The star of the day was most definitely Julia Gilbert’s big apple:
I didn’t make the theremin-making workshop but there’s a great write-up by genzai·chi (Nikki Pugh), who also talks about the concert later that evening, which I did go along to. As Nikki says, it started off with ‘a selection of short films exploring the historical, technical and fun sides of the theremin’ including this brilliant one of Super Mario Bros. theme tune.
Then we got a set from from 8bit Pete and his Thingamagoops, of which Antonio Roberts took some nice photos:
8bit Pete by hellocatfood
I particularly liked the fact that it was as much a light show as a music set of bleepy-bloppiness. Pete managed to capture on film the performance that followed his – what Nikki describes as ‘Mr Underwood’s performance of Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music for optical theremin’ actually seemed to be a giant Newton’s Cradle office toy made out of torches, that emitted an increasingly intense hum which reverberated inside your ears. It was pretty amazing.
Last but by no means least was Ms Hypnotique playing her live theremin set, giving us nice informative introductions to the instrument, its history and the pieces she performed. It was great when she told us how Simon Cowell described her theremin playing as, “Who would buy this shit?…He kind of missed the point of what makes the theremin special.” I’ll bet he did.
Entry is free, but we really need you to bring some random stuff to help make the contraption truly great….Whatever evolves out of this crazy idea, the end results will be highly influenced by your contributions. Bring random stuff and a willingness to tinker with things until they work. All are welcome. We might also try and sell you cake.
On Monday 7th December I went to see Birmingham Opera Company’s production of Othello at the Argyll warehouse on Great Barr Street street. I would have written about it immediately afterwards urging everyone go to see it if it wasn’t already completely sold out for the rest of the run. And it was easy to see why – BOC’s productions are always unusual, often taking over disused places to create a really immersive performance that the audience become players within.
This was no exception – looking for the entrance to the old industrial unit in a pretty deserted part of Digbeth reminded me of looking for illegal parties as a youngster. As I walked into the warehouse, past the Morris dancers into the performance space, I soon noticed that some of the people milling around appeared to be praying. After a quick discussion with one about the meaning of his rosary beads, they soon burst into song and started the show around us, getting us all involved in some strange, operatic hokey-cokey. And it all went wonderfully on from there.
Dancing in Othello, photo by Katchooo
During the interval, a friend remarked it was the first non-conventional opera he’d been to, which made me realise Birmingham Opera Company are the only operas I’ve ever been to. That’s what makes them so great – the sheer, all consuming experience that are their productions attract much more than the traditional opera audience. I must mention the fantastic dancing in the second half – I never thought Morris dancing could be sinister until I saw it performed by people in white hooded jumpsuits and black balaclavas. And, of course, the singing was perfect – Stephanie Corley as the put-upon Desdemona seemed to do something special for me.
Anyway, here’s some links:
Index of Reviews from the likes of The Observer, The Times, Birmingham Post, etc. compiled by Pete Ashton
Created in Birmingham’s Chris Unitt thinks we should parade BOC Artistic Director Graham Vick through the Birmingham streets in triumph. He’s not wrong.
Nikki Pugh was struck by how successfully the audience were herded around the space, making her think of a ‘massively multi-player installation.’
There are some interesting photography sets on Flickr from chorus members Pete Ashton, Fiona Cullinan and Antonio Roberts, with some insightful backstage shots.
I don’t know what Birmingham Opera Company are up to next, but you can bet it will be something equally mind-blowing. If there’s a chance of becoming a part of the performance, grab it with both hands.
Here’s some happy hackers at the Howduino day in VIVID on Saturday, arranged by fizzPOP. Don’t ask me what they’re doing, because I really don’t know. Soldering summin, I think. All day the gallery was full of people tinkering to make normal things act oddly – like teddy bears turning evil, bubble-blowers responding to Twitter updates and, in Antonio Roberts’ case, a cardboard tube that noisily responds to light (a bit like a Thingamagoop):
To get the low-down from someone who seriously paid attention in class, read Arvydas’ account of hacking a toy car, which he successfully did to make it do this:
The shape of Digbeth – Tom Martin at Substrakt Design creates an outline of the area using photos geo-tagged ‘Digbeth’ on Flickr:
‘Flickr recently made a loads of interesting geo information available, by plotting the outside edge of geotagged photos they’ve managed to roughly show where a ‘place’ is according to people that have taken photos in that area.
‘Interestingly it looks like our new home on Fazeley Street, doesn’t quite qualitfy as ‘Digbeth’ yet. If you’ve got some photos of Digbeth on Flickr, why not spend a few minutes adding them to the map so we can represent where we the true shape of Digbeth.’
It seems my flat also falls just outside of the border, but that’s probably my own stupid fault. You see, I must admit to having my own Flickr account but have been far too embarrassed by the poor quality of my photos to tag them in order for them appear in others’ searches.
But now it seems Flickr are not only storing and showing photos but using them to map areas. So I’d better swallow my pride and do my civic duty by tagging and geotagging my photos, using the instructions Tom’s linked to, to help build a more accurate shape of Digbeth.
However, Antonio Roberts has pointed out that the current shape looks kind of like a goofy cat, which I like lots.
