Grove Park Special School Claim the Borough of Brent: Documentary Film, 2008

20 students between the ages of 10 and 14 from Grove Park Special School in Brent explored and challenged community perceptions of the school in a series of visits and interviews with leading figures in the local community. The students, teachers, learning support assistants and Michael Szpakowski worked collaboratively in small groups to make a documentary film about the Borough of Brent, and the people who live and work there. Visits were made to 3 locations over 10 weeks: Brent Town Hall, Fryent Country Park and the nearby IKEA superstore. They were chosen because of their significance as providers of essential local community services. During these visits and interviews the students were encouraged to look outward and find their voices in the local community and throughout this process students and staff had the opportunity to learn valuable filmmaking and editing skills. The project has culminated in a DVD film, for distribution to all participants. Lead Artist: Michael Szpakowski (video artist, composer and facilitator) Partners: Creative Partnerships, Grove Park Special School

Mayfield Maths Madness: 9 short films, 2007

The aim of this project was to promote an enthusiasm for maths within the school. In a series of workshops with a class of children aged 8-9 years old, a drama in 9 parts was constructed and filmed in which the children crack a series of knotty maths problems that they encounter during a school day. Pupils puzzle and ponder over how many minutes they have before they have to leave for school, how to organise rows and columns for school assembly, how it feels to crack a hard Maths problem. These short films, where we see the pupils trying to work out maths problems together, continue to serve as playful teaching tools within the school. View films (wmv) online here Lead Artist: Michael Szpakowski (video artist, composer and facilitator) Partners: Creative Partnerships, Mayfield Primary School Top

Collaborative Online Mixing with Young People

Between 2005 and '07 we ran a series of projects with young people within VisitorsStudio (Furtherfield.org's artware for live collaborative remixing). These workshops were developed with Graziano Milano. CoMix Workshops for 15 young people from Tottenham were lead by artists Graziano Milano and Michael Szpakowski in February 2007. Participants created image and audio files inspired by their locality and then performed their mixes to a live audience of approximately 200 friends, family and community and an online audience of 20 people to celebrate the official opening of the Bruce Grove Media Centre for Young People. Lead Artists: Graziano Milano and Michael Szpakowski Partners: Haringey Youth Services, Bruce Grove Media Centre for Young People As part of our Game/Play exhibition we ran summer workshops at HTTP Gallery in July 2006, in which young people from Wood Green Playstation connected online and mixed their audiovisual files with young people from Q-Arts in Derby. Their performances were watched by audiences at Q-Arts. Lead Artists: Ruth Catlow and Melissa Bliss Partners: Q-Arts (now Quad), Haringey Youth Services, Wood Green Playstation Furthernoise.org (our sister organisation) facilitated a series of collaborative workshops, within VisitorsStudio, between 25 young people in The Basement, Bristol and The Point, in the Bronx, New York. Participants gave a performance of their work at The Watershed in Bristol in March 2006. Lead Artists: Roger Mills, Neil Jenkins Partners: The Basement, Bristol and The Point, NY. Top

Upcoming Projects 2008-09  Artists' Residency Programme

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Ideas in Progress: Wii Knitting in very early stages Work in Progress: knitting machine knitting zoetrope strip of knitting

Residencies will provide media artists from around the world with well-resourced live-work space in London as well as time, conversation and access to Furtherfield.org's extended networks of practitioners; to develop and share their practice. Longer term residencies will be attached to commissions of new work and exhibitions, talks and workshops at HTTP Gallery. This programme will build on the April 2008 pilot residency with artist Rachel Beth Egenhoefer (through Distributed South) and a longer-term informal residency with local artist Richard Wright (Mongrel), to culminate in an exhibition in July 2008. We are intending to formalise our residency programme by September 2008- Watch this space! Residency Development team: Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, Lauren Wright Partner: Distributed South Rachel Beth Egenhoefer - Artist in Residence (pilot) May 2008 Egenhoefer's residency, a Distributed South initiative, consisted of several key parts- experimental studio time to create new work at the University of Brighton, presenting workshops and lectures across the south of England, a commissioned exhibition at Lighthouse Brighton, all culminating with time spent in residence at Furtherfield.org. Rachel Beth compares tactile knitting to intangible computer code and how the body interacts and moves with both. In addition to building a knit zoetrope, casting the space between body and machine in candy, she had also been tracking the motion of knitting needles in both physical and virtual space and knitting with the Nintendo Wii. Her time at Furtherfield.org was used to continue exploring these ideas while connecting with Furtherfield.org's networks, online and out and about in London.

 Zero Dollar Laptop Station

Planned as a proof-of-concept of the Zero Dollar Laptop manifesto, as proposed by artist and free technology activist James Wallbank, the Zero Dollar Laptop Station at HTTP Gallery will allow local people to spend a couple of hours working with a friendly technician to build their own recycled laptop with free open-source software. At the end of the session they will walk away with a free laptopthat suits their needs. The project will promote recycling,creativity, communication, learning andaccess to free media technologies.
Developed by: Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett
Project Technician: Giles Pender
Partner: Access Space

 Peckham Street Training

A collaboration with the artist Lottie Child for the Peckham Space's artistic programme. Culminating in an experiential tour of Peckam Square which will be developed through workshops with local young women. These will challenge conventional uses of public space and social norms, inviting participants to consider how behavior can determine the (physical and virtual) built environment.
Collaborating Artists: Lottie Child (Street Training) Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield.org)
Partner: Peckham Space

 The Drake London Season

Art-direction and coordination of the Drake London Season towards a multi-media masque or opera in March 2008, working with disabled and mixed ability artists and musicians in partnership with Drake Music.
A Drake Music project: CEO Carien Meijer
Art Direction: Ruth Catlow
Project Management: Miranda Peak

 Seeing Ourselves Connected

Participation in Seeing Ourselves Connected, a project for young people at the Science Museum during Autumn half term 2008.
Lead Artists: Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow
Partner: Science Museum

 Games Art conference planned for January 2009

Lead Curator: Corrado Morgana
Conference team: Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett and Lauren Wright
Partner: Chelsea College of Art and Design

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 Ongoing: Talks, gatherings and networking events at HTTP Gallery

We host an ongoing programme of public talks, gatherings and networking events at HTTP Gallery.
Whilst these are designed primarily for artists and HE students, we welcome anyone interested in the themes and approaches under discussion. Since 2006 we have hosted student groups from: Birkbeck, Chelsea, Goldsmiths, St Martins, North London, London Metropolitan, Greenwich Uni, UEL and SBU.
Some past events at HTTP Gallery include: -

Configurations: Technology and Textiles Networking Event, May 2008 - with Distributed South

Don't just Do It Yourself (DIY) Do It With Others (DIWO)! Networking Party, Oct 2007

Node.London Subscriber Meeting, July 2007

Softly from the Ruins 2005 - with IDrunners and Media Art Projects a weekend of sharing and discussion with 27 international participants

 Past speakers

including Saul Albert (The People Speak), Ghislaine Boddington (bodydataspace), boredomresearch, Ele Carpenter, Lottie Child (Street Training), Aileen Derieg, Anna Dumitriu, Emily Druiff, Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Julie Freeman, Adnan Hadzi (Deptford TV), Nicola Naismith, Hannah Redler

For information about future events check the HTTP Gallery website or contact marc.garrettATfurtherfield.org

 Partners

The Basement, Bruce Grove Youth Media Centre, Chelsea College of Art and Design, Creative Partnerships, Distributed South, Drake Music, Furthernoise.org, Haringey Youth Services, MARCEL Networks, Peckham Space, The Point, Science Museum, Solar Associates

 The Team

Ruth Catlow: Education and outreach management, continuity girl
Michael Spakowski: Lead artist and film maker for education and outreach projects
Marc Garrett and Lauren Wright: Co-ordinators, HTTP Gallery educational events
Roger Mills, Furthernoise.org: Lead artist/ musician and facilitator of VisitorsStudio workshops with young people
Corrado Morgana: Games Art Curator for HTTP Gallery
Miranda Peake: Project management for Drake Music's London Season.
Graziano Milano: Creative Producer for VisitorsStudio workshops with young people

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