SOUNDkitchen launches their first series of concerts with the Opening Banquet at the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham on 17th February 2011. Here is the flyer with info on all the gigs. More info, artist bios, audio etc on the website.
I’ve started doing some work with Get On The Radio. They are a team of experienced and enthusiastic creatives who have come together through a shared passion for creative education and the exceptional teaching and learning potential of radio broadcasting.
They’re currently working in schools across the Midlands setting up pupil led radio stations. They have a great team that provide everything from technial advice, installation and training to setting up a school radio station with production teams for a variety of radio programmes.
They have strong links with radio professionals and programme makers who can deliver specific masterclasses. I’m working with them as a producer, helping pupils to generate content for their shows such as theme tunes, jingles, features and sound effects.
It’s a fantastic method for encouraging independent, cross-curricular learning in an exciting and creative way.
Find our more and listen to some of the results on their website - www.getontheradio.co.uk
Creativity Culture & Education (CCE), the charity that run Creative Partnerships, have a number of ‘Legacy of Creative Partnerships’ videos amongst other things on their vimeo page.
“The abolition of a flagship scheme to improve the teaching of the arts in English schools has been condemned by teachers and leading names in British culture as a “foolhardy” move that threatens the education of the most vulnerable children.”
Read more from this article in the Observer here.
For an example of the kind of impact and legacy Creative Partnerships has had in one Black Country school watch this video from Trinity CofE Primary school:
View the video in context on Creative Partnerships website.
I’ve recently joined SOUNDkitchen. We are a collective of composers and sound artists with backgrounds in electroacoustic and experimental music. The organisation is the brainchild of Annie Mahtani, ex BEAST, and is dedicated to promoting the work of composers and sound artists working in the field of sound.
We’re kicking off with a pilot series of gigs at the Hare & Hounds in Birmingham and one at mac (Midlands Arts Centre) over the coming months. We’ve been busy putting together a programme of emerging and more established electronic music acts from Birmingham and beyond, mixing up current and ex BEAST composers with the likes of modulate, Nic Bullen and Simon Whetham.
I’ll be performing a live laptop set with Antti Saario as Anvil & Stirrup in the April gig and contributing to a new, collaborative composition for the gig at mac in March.
More details at soundkitchenuk.org
The Kings Cross or KX Collective are a group of young musicians (12-19) interested in contemporary music making who come together under the guidance of the London Sinfonietta. I recently led a workshop for the collective alongside animateur Jackie Walduck and three players from the London Sinfonietta.
The workshop was inspired by the work of Matthew Herbert whose new work ‘One Day’ was commissioned and performed by the London Sinfonietta during the workshop weekend. Herbert’s work incorporates field recordings, found objects, live sampling and live performers. The video below features Herbert talking about his approach to writing ‘One Day’:
Taking inspiration from Herbert’s work, in particular his P.C.C.O.M. - Personal Contract For The Composition Of Music [Incorporating the Manifesto Of Mistakes], the KX Collective explored experimental approaches to making music including improvisation, recording and sampling sounds, composing with sound, responding to recorded sounds using instruments and the voice and combining this material into a new musical composition.
The workshop was part of an ongoing programme of opportunities for young people in the Kings Cross area of London to take part in a diverse range of music making activities, working with professional musicians and expanding their musical horizons.
I’ve just recently finished a film project working with Ian McCormick at ICFILM. The film is called ‘Creative Change: The Governors’ Perspective’ and looks at the benefits and challenges of developing a creative curriculum in two contrasting primary schools from the perspective of the school governors. The two schools we worked with are Change Schools on the Creative Partnerships programme.
The project followed an action research model using film as the medium. We interviewed the headteachers and a number of governors from each school about their experiences of developing a more creative curriculum. Despite the two schools being quite different in their demographic (one in rural Herefordshire the other in North Birmingham) the challenges and concerns were similar, but the overwhelming response to the impact of the changes were positive. Both schools talked about the increased level of enagagement and motivation in their pupils and governors commented on the relevance of developing creative thinking skills for the wider world and work.
The film was commissioned by Bright Space who deliver the CP programme in Birmingham, Herefordshire and Worcestershire and the film is now being distributed to schools they are currently working with. It is intended to promote increased understanding and engagement from governors in schools who are undergoing changes towards a more creative approach to teaching and learning.
For more information or copies of the film please contact Bright Space.
This recording was made during a brief visit to Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, China. I stumbled upon a small market with some caged birds just off one of the main central shopping areas. However this is not the large flower and bird market recommended in the travel guides.
Kunming is a fine example of the modernization and development happening in many Chinese cities. You can still find occasional remenants of the old city jostling against the shiny high rises and contemporary city landscaping.
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© Iain Armstrong
Image from Wikipedia
The Khaen (also Khene, Kaen, Khen) is a musical instrument indigenous to the poeple of Laos and north eastern Thailand. It is a free-reed, mouth organ made from bamboo pipes. In this recording the instrument was being played by a blind busker who was being led through the narrow confines of Sampeng Lane in Bangkok.
Located in the Chinatown area of Bangkok, Sampeng Lane is essentially a wholesale market, lined on both sides with a range of shops selling shoes, fabric, haberdashery, clothes, beads, handbags etc. While closed to cars, you will find the ocassional motor bike trying to weave its way through the slow moving throng of people that stretch its 1km length.
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© Iain Armstrong
A recent report highlighting the positive impacts of Creative Partnerships may have come too late as, unsurprisingly in the current political and financial climate, funding is likely to be withdrawn with the programme ending after this academic year.
The independent research from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) reveals the Creative Partnerships programme will generate the equivalent of £15.30 of economic benefits for every £1 of investment. This equates to nearly £4 billion net positive benefit for the UK economy.
More info on the CP website.
Phonoscope Phonography