Expanded Dance & Public Space Lab – in the lab, working with the Measuring Room & Lean-To structures. CiCi Blumstein 2011. [video screen-grab]

Saturday 30th July: Expanded Dance Space Workshop – Lab II. With Alan Thompson, CiCi Blumstein & guests @ BLANK Studios & Gallery.

Bookings & further info: email cici@ciciblumstein.com [pre-booking is essential, as spaces are limited and we will be out & about on field trips during the Lab]

The Expanded Dance & Public Space program takes Contact Improvisation and related forms of movement as an approach to the built environment and its design. In this in-depth 2-day workshop, we will examine the relationship between choreography & architecture, movement arts & urban planning, and how these diverse fields could work together to directly impact on the development and shaping of both public and dance space. The program aims to open up a dialogue between architects, urban planners and movement artists, including performers and artists with an interest in site-specific art and the built environment.

We will explore these questions through presentations, talks & discussions, practical movement & design exercises, as well as construction & installation.

The labs will take place in BLANK’s large, flexible project/gallery space and we will also have access to a movement studio, kitchen, projector & other working materials, all set within the strange and wonderful, semi-industrial/urban/harbour/edge of the downs landscape that is Portslade.

Day one of the workshop focussed on how dance space and urban/public space is currently defined and how it could be expanded.

Day two will focus on creating a temporary dance space to reflect and incorporate the findings of the workshops and week-long residency at BLANK Gallery. The day will end with a public showing / inhabiting of the temporary dance space in action.

Alan Thompson is a Senior Design Review Advisor at CABE / The Design Council and the Chairman of Art & Architecture – http://artandarchitecture/. co.uk/

CiCi Blumstein is a choreographer, filmmaker, installation & performance artist -

http://ciciblumstein.wordpress.com/ [current projects]

http://www.ciciblumstein.com/ [archive 1989-2009]

http://www.movement12.org/

http://www.blankstudiosgallery.org/

http://involuntarypark.wordpress.com/

Info:

Labs I & II can be attended separately.

Cost: £30, or £50 for both labs. Lunch included.

Students / unwaged: 50% off = £15 per lab day.

Bookings & further info: email cici@ciciblumstein.com [pre-booking is essential, as spaces are limited and we will be out & about on field trips during the lab]

Times: Sat 30 July, 11:00am – 5:00pm

Venue: BLANK Studios & Gallery, 108 North St, Portslade, BN41 1DG.

Map: http://www.blankstudios.org/contact.php

BLANK is located in Portslade, just 15 mins from Brighton centre and very easy to reach by frequent bus services [no. 1, 49, 700] or by train directly to Portslade station.

Presenters

Arrive early! This event often sells out. Door Sales only

July 6, 2011 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm (please note door sales only – opens 7:30pm) £5.00/£3.00

Mapping journeys through urban space. Photo: CiCi Blumstein

Urban Deerstalking in Portslade. Map by Johanna Berger, Involuntary Park 2011

Peter Chrisp took part in the Involuntary Park stalk last week and has written about the experience in his blog for Artist Open Houses:

What is Art Worth? A short symposium about value, art and exchange

As part of THE EXCHANGE at BLANK, Involuntary Park present a 90 minute symposium on the value of art in the age of austerity. Three short presentations looking at value and art from a personal and political perspective will stimulate debate and conversation as we unpick how art and artists operate in the global marketplace; look at alternative models of exchange as an art form in an historical context; and how improvisation in art acts as a model for equal exchange, posing a challenge to current value and power structures.

Presenters: Johanna Berger, CiCi Blumstein and Joseph Young.

Saturday 21 May, 18:00 – 19:30

£5 / £3 concs (including a complimentary glass of wine or juice).

Tickets available from:

http://brightonticketshop.com/events.aspx?p=v&v=BGS

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“The places where we live are continuously imposed on us. In reality the space in which we operate can only exist as a mental model that is continuously modified through experience. It is necessary to find the form that is born out of our experience instead of by imposed schemes.” – Ugo La Pietra, artist, architect, designer & theoretician, in Instructions for the use of the city, 1978

Urban Bluescreen: Levitation #1, Portslade industrial area, Brighton.

CiCi Blumstein 2010. Photo: Sara Popowa

Call for presenters for the next PKN / Wednesday 6th July 2011

Pecha-Kucha Night Brighton are proud to be collaborating with Movement 12. Movement 12 are a group of independent dance artists who curate an international programme of artist–led professional development opportunities & events. For their 2010-11 program, each of Movement 12’s 9 artists is curating a month-long series of events and activities reflecting the practice, research, interests and inspirations of each artist – for further information: www.movement12.org

PKN Call for presenters under the theme: Expanded Dance Space & the Private Choreography of Public Space

How do we inhabit these different realms? Could urban planning rules and architectural design, mediated through our personal movement experience, directly inform and shape the design of the built environment, and expand dance-able space further into the public architecture of the city?

CiCi Blumstein of Movement 12 welcomes you to consider the moving body as the smallest architectural unit in the built & natural environment. Working across diverse artistic fields, applying urban planning and architectural design directly to the body, CiCi’s recent practice explores movement behaviour within private and public space, and the notion of ‘oddness’ in the public realm.

***

If you are a choreographer, urban planner, artist or architect, or someone who is simply interested in presenting on this theme please contact us, we’d love to hear from you!

Important dates:

Deadline to apply _____Thursday 26 May Pecha Kucha Brighton – Vol 12 Application form. Please return the Vol 12 Application Form by 26^th May 2011, to pknbrighton@gmail.com

We will contact you by _____ Monday 29 May to let you know if you have or haven’t been selected for this PKN

Deadline for 20 visual power point slides to be sent to us for formatting ____Thursday 9 June

PKN Night Wed 6 July 2011

19:30 for a 20:00 start

Venue:

The Basement, 24 Kensington Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4AJ

This Thursday 12th May at 6pm, come on a short trip with us here at Involuntary Park in Portslade, as we take you on a stalk to try and catch sight of the  legendary Portslade Deer.

Meet at BLANK Studios & Gallery, 108 North St Portslade. BN41 1DG

Tickets available from http://www.brightonticketshop.com £5 / £3 concs (inc a complimentary glass of wine)

Part of HOUSE festival, more details here.

THE EXCHANGE – poster design by the wonderful

Parliament of Feathers

Involuntary Park has curated THE EXCHANGE at BLANK Gallery & Studios in Portslade. Take advantage of the FREE workshops on offer and swap them for something you can offer in return. Just browse the list, choose a workshop, put your name down on the list and come to BLANK to register your exchange. THE EXCHANGE is open every weekend in May from 11 to 5 at BLANK, 108 North Street, Portslade, BN411DG

FOR A LIST OF WORKSHOPS ON OFFER SO FAR, DATES AND TIMES PLEASE FOLLOW THIS LINK: List of Workshops at THE EXCHANGE . More workshops are being added every day, so please check back frequently for the most up-to-date information. For further details on how to take part, please click here.

BLANK Studios & Gallery in Portslade

THE EXCHANGE is part of HOUSE Festival, Brighton’s annual contemporary visual arts festival, which will go live online on 29th April 2011. In the meantime you can preview the HOUSE 2011 festival programme by clicking here - it’s looking fabulous!

From the HOUSE Festival website:

HOUSE takes place in small galleries and domestic sites throughout Brighton and Hove. Drawing together contemporary, experimental artists and curators from the city, the region and beyond, HOUSE brings a new cultural experience to the city during May, offering the best that the contemporary visual arts have to offer.

This year’s festival will cover the four weekends of May:

May 7th & 8th, 14th & 15th, 21st & 22nd and 28th & 29th

Brochures will be available from 28th April at designated brochure pick-up points, including the Dome box office, Brighton and Hove libraries, stations and tourist centers, as well as all HOUSE and AOH festival venues.

Look out for HOUSE / AOH leaflet maps available citywide from the middle of April.

HOUSE brings a rich mix of diverse and innovative new work to the Brighton Festival season and may challenge your preconceptions of what visual art can be.

If you would like to book tickets for any of the HOUSE 2011 Artists Talks and events events, please click on this link www.brightonticketshop.com, or phone at 01273 709709, or buy tickets in person at the Dome Box Office, 29 New Road, Brighton BN1 1UG.