RIBA love architecture festival 2012 – Pecha Kucha Night

On Wednesday 20th June, I will be presenting my talk Makeshift Bodies & Improvised Spaces which takes a wide-roaming look at improvisation as a powerful process in architecture, choreography and performance art. This Pecha Kucha event takes place at the Threshold pop-up architecture centre in Brighton and is part of the RIBA love architecture festival.

Further details from Threshold:

“Threshold is a pop up architecture and built environment centre demonstrating how architects and associated creative professionals can adapt, reuse, transform and re-invent the spaces around us, presenting an exhibition and programme of public events on the theme of inhabiting un[der]-used space(s).

It will be curated to include work and activity inspired by the theme from the architectural and creative communities of Brighton and Hove and Sussex and will be open to the public daily within the Love Architecture festival. The programme will include site-specific installations, exhibitions, workshops, film, talks and events. 

Wearing the Downs – July 2012 residency & course at Foredown Tower

Coming up in July 2012: I am teaching a short course as part of an Involuntary Park residency at Foredown Tower & Camera Obscura, a unique water tower structure located on the edge of the South Downs. For bookings, please call Jayne Routley on 01273 422632.

Wearing the Downs – residency at Foredown Tower & Camera Obscura. CiCi Blumstein 2012

Involuntary Park @ White Night Brighton 2011: Where Fox & Hare say Goodnight to Each Other

Where Fox And Hare Say Good-Night to Each Other, White Night, Brighton. Involuntary Park 2011

Expanded Dance & Public Space Workshop – Lab II

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

Coming up this 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 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. 

Expanded Dance & Public Space – Open Residency at BLANK

Expanded Dance Space – Urban Solarium [film still]. CiCi Blumstein 2010

Coming up this Weds 27th to Fri 29th July: Expanded Dance Space Open Residency
A chance to view and directly interact with the results of part I of the Expanded Dance Space lab, including The Measuring Room and Urban Solarium installations.

Viewing, workshops & movement sessions by arrangement, email cici@ciciblumstein.com for details & bookings.

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.

Expanded Dance & Public Space Workshop – Lab I

Expanded Dance Space – Urban Roaming Workshop, Portslade. Photo: CiCi Blumstein 2011

Coming up on Saturday 23rd July: Expanded Dance Space Workshop – Lab I
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 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. 

From Edge to Edge – Urban roaming workshop with CiCi Blumstein

Expanded Dance Space – Urban Roaming Workshop. Photo: CiCi Blumstein 2011

Coming up this Saturday 16th July …

CiCi will lead an intensive movement exploration of Portslade’s unique, densely layered public spaces, and of the private choreographies that shape them. How do we experience these diverse urban environments, from working harbour & commercial wastelands, via semi-industrial streets & residential neighbourhoods, to the edge of the downs. From watching ships on the horizon to stalking deer on the hills.

Saturday, 16 July 2011
From 11:30 to 16:30
Starting at BLANK Studios & Gallery, 108 North Street, Portslade BN41 1DG
Cost: £15 – includes an all-day Brighton & Hove bus ticket
Bookings: contact CiCi at cici@ciciblumstein.com

Expanded Dance Space – radio interview on BHCR

Expanded Dance Space & the private choreography of public space – Public Grieving, Purley Train Station on 3 May 2011. Photo – CiCi Blumstein

Radio interview about Expanded Dance Space & the private choreography of public space on Caroline Waters’ Coastal Review program. Listen to the podcast here – interview starts at ca. 10 minutes in.

Expanded Dance Space at South East Dance – The Measuring Room

Expanded Dance Space – The Measuring Room @ South East Dance [installation view at BLB Chartered Surveyors & Engineers] CiCi Blumstein 2010. Photo: Joseph Young

Coming up next in my Expanded Dance Space program:

CiCi Blumstein is bringing her interactive installation The Measuring Room, to the South East Dance offices this week. Curated as part of CiCi’s Movement 12 month Expanded Dance Space & the private choreography of public space, she will invite audiences to reassess their relationship to space through the introduction of rules and boundaries. The Measuring Room utilizes a simple urban planning rule, the Floor Area Ratio, within the clearly defined space of a large measuring triangle. 

Expanded Dance Space – program launch at The Basement Brighton

Expanded Dance Space – Skateboarder at Brighton sea front. Photo: CiCi Blumstein 2011, from her Pecha Kucha presentation ‘Impossible Walls or you can’t shoot while you’re dancing’

My Expanded Dance Space program for Movement 12 got off to a great, buzzing start last night, with challenging and beautiful contributions by architects, choreographers, artists and urban planners. The image above is taken from my Pecha Kucha presentation on the night, entitled Impossible Walls or you can’t shoot while you’re dancing – an urban design challenge.