Labyrinth: Dance Magic Dance (again!)
Posted Thursday 02 Sep 2010
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Labyrinth - It's a classic, it's magical and it's got David Bowie in it. What's not to love?
Any of you who had the good fortune to grow up in the Eighties will surely remember this classic, most of you probably for David Bowie's impressive cod piece, perhaps ever so slightly inappropriate seeing as this was actually aimed at children. But it is the fantastic visuals and puppetry that make this what it is. Freaky pink things with detachable limbs, a fox that rides a sheepdog, a bog of eternal stench and an M. C. Escher inspired finale. Let us put it this way: David Bowie chasing a young Jennifer Connelly. Enough said.
FACT are offering another chance to see the amazing Labyrinth on the big screen this Saturday and Sunday, and this time, you're probably old enough to drink a beer while you watch it!
As expected, tickets are selling fast so make sure you book ahead.
Book tickets for Saturday 6.30pm here
Book tickets for Sunday 3.00pm here
Here's the 1986 trailer, and a couple of our favourite Labyrinth moments.
Which ones do you love? Tell us on Twitter or Facebook!
FACT's School Trip to the Big Apple!: Final Thoughts
Posted Thursday 02 Sep 2010
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Well we've been back in Liverpool a week now and have had time to reflect on the trip. we have a lot of work ahead: editing the film and thinking about future plans for the NET Team. We are sad to lose some of the students as they go on to their sixth form schools and colleges but wish them well and congratulate them on their successes'. FACT staff and Teachers from the Academy are busy developing building on this years experience and developing this years NET team.
Watch this space to check our progress and for news of the film screening...
The NET team tell us about their trip
"It was a brilliant, life 'changing' trip and my favorite part was the brunch at B.B Kings diner and watching the Harlem Gospel Choir"
"What I enjoyed most was the sightseeing. The breath-taking architecture of the buildings. The atmosphere. The people."
"I mostly enjoyed meeting all the wonderful new yorkers, including our american counterparts whom i've stayed in contact with"
"I thought that the trip was really enjoyable and was certainly a 'change' (get it change for change) from the usual summer holiday stuff."
"I thought it was really interesting to meet young people at the Highline park who were also concerned about their local environment. I really hope that the students at Bishop Loughlin enjoyed learning about what we have been doing here in the UK and are inspired to take on the project and to raise the money to visit us and help us with community projects in Liverpool. Please be inspired guys! You can do it"
A word from our new friends in New York
"My favorite part was going to the top of The Rock with you guys. It was something that made me feel as if I was just like one of you, a tourist, and the fact that we got to share that experience that together was amazing"
FACT's Ed Pink sums up the experience
"This has been a very successful project for FACT on many levels, starting new relationships and strengthening some of our exsiting ones. Linking with the School's in Kensington and Brooklyn, working across departments in FACT and with Eyebeam in NewYork, linking our partners in Arena Housing with St Francis and gaining massive support form LMH and other local businesses. I look forward to the next NET team starting and building on their amazing work."
Check out two more pledges gathered by the NET team below
Watch this space to check our progress and for news of the film screening...
The NET team tell us about their trip
"It was a brilliant, life 'changing' trip and my favorite part was the brunch at B.B Kings diner and watching the Harlem Gospel Choir"
"What I enjoyed most was the sightseeing. The breath-taking architecture of the buildings. The atmosphere. The people."
"I mostly enjoyed meeting all the wonderful new yorkers, including our american counterparts whom i've stayed in contact with"
"I thought that the trip was really enjoyable and was certainly a 'change' (get it change for change) from the usual summer holiday stuff."
"I thought it was really interesting to meet young people at the Highline park who were also concerned about their local environment. I really hope that the students at Bishop Loughlin enjoyed learning about what we have been doing here in the UK and are inspired to take on the project and to raise the money to visit us and help us with community projects in Liverpool. Please be inspired guys! You can do it"
A word from our new friends in New York
"My favorite part was going to the top of The Rock with you guys. It was something that made me feel as if I was just like one of you, a tourist, and the fact that we got to share that experience that together was amazing"
FACT's Ed Pink sums up the experience
"This has been a very successful project for FACT on many levels, starting new relationships and strengthening some of our exsiting ones. Linking with the School's in Kensington and Brooklyn, working across departments in FACT and with Eyebeam in NewYork, linking our partners in Arena Housing with St Francis and gaining massive support form LMH and other local businesses. I look forward to the next NET team starting and building on their amazing work."
Check out two more pledges gathered by the NET team below
How your old Nintendo DS could join a band!
Posted Wednesday 01 Sep 2010
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Has Mario been long forgotten and the brain training come to a stop? Here's a great way to let your DS become loved again - and make music at the same time!
Cast your minds back to February and the Space Invaders exhibition...FACT hosted the first chip-tune Samba Band! This family workshop was developed and delivered by internationally renowned chip tune musician Pixelh8. Participating families were in for a treat as they got to experiment with Pixelh8's specially created software on there Nintendo DS's.
See a short film from the workshop and find out how donating unused DS's can make Pixelh8's latest adventures happen.
Cast your minds back to February and the Space Invaders exhibition...FACT hosted the first chip-tune Samba Band! This family workshop was developed and delivered by internationally renowned chip tune musician Pixelh8. Participating families were in for a treat as they got to experiment with Pixelh8's specially created software on there Nintendo DS's.
See a short film from the workshop and find out how donating unused DS's can make Pixelh8's latest adventures happen.
Live coding hits FACT THIS Friday!
Posted Tuesday 31 Aug 2010
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Following the brilliant SMS Slingshot last week, we're offering another evening of international jiggery-pokery with screens and performances!
Slub, a band of computer programmers will be making electronic music from text-based code, live in Arthouse Square. Slub have performed widely including at Netaudio, Sonar, Sonic Acts, Ars Electronica, STRP, Club Transmediale, Ultrasound and the Secret Garden Party. The code will be projected onto the back off FACT's rear facade and played out of FACT's sound system.
See this video for an idea of what to expect ...
***AND***
VJING WITH ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL - VENYA KRUTIKOV
This will be followed by a live radio stream from Austria’s Ars Electronica, the world’s biggest new media festival, accompanied by video projections created by Liverpool-based artist Venya Krutikov (The Kazimier, Dogshow).
JULIUS POPP - COMMISSION FOR A NEW OUTDOOR SCREEN AT FACT
Launching a brand new permanent screen on the front of the FACT building, artist/technologist Julius Popp has been commissioned to create a new piece that uses‘falling’ text. We'll be blogging more about this later in the week.
Slub, a band of computer programmers will be making electronic music from text-based code, live in Arthouse Square. Slub have performed widely including at Netaudio, Sonar, Sonic Acts, Ars Electronica, STRP, Club Transmediale, Ultrasound and the Secret Garden Party. The code will be projected onto the back off FACT's rear facade and played out of FACT's sound system.
See this video for an idea of what to expect ...
***AND***
VJING WITH ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL - VENYA KRUTIKOV
This will be followed by a live radio stream from Austria’s Ars Electronica, the world’s biggest new media festival, accompanied by video projections created by Liverpool-based artist Venya Krutikov (The Kazimier, Dogshow).
***AND***
JULIUS POPP - COMMISSION FOR A NEW OUTDOOR SCREEN AT FACT
Launching a brand new permanent screen on the front of the FACT building, artist/technologist Julius Popp has been commissioned to create a new piece that uses‘falling’ text. We'll be blogging more about this later in the week.
tenantspin Film Helsinki Premiere
Posted Friday 27 Aug 2010
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The European wide Media Facades Festival has already kicked off and I'm delighted to say that my project is premiering in Helsinki on the big screen this evening. Based around the themes of identity, normality and citizenship I worked with two groups of residents, one based in Kontula, Helsinki, and the other in Anfield, Liverpool.
Over four days we discussed the themes and structured them into a visual format and a story, shooting on the third day, then editing on the fourth. Both workshops were quite intense and it was incredibly interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two communities. Although the films appear to be very different, the underlining themes are apparent throughout. Another common ground the films share is humour; the residents of Helsinki and Liverpool share a black and self-deprecating (although also proud) outlook on life, which I think is displayed in each of the films.
Kontula News explores loneliness and media representation within Helsinki and also Finland, where as Four Bricks focuses and changing identities during a regeneration that is affecting every generation of the community. What will be interesting, during the time that both films are screened locally, will be to see the reactions and interpretations from the people of Kontula and Liverpool.
The films will be shown daily at 1pm on the BBC Big Screen, Clayton Square throughout September.
Kontula News
Four Bricks
Tonight - Catapult your text messages!
Posted Friday 27 Aug 2010
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SMS Slingshot, a project by VR Urban will be in RopeWalks Square (at the front of the FACT building) from 8.30pm tonight and will allow you to create digital graffiti.
Using a phone embedded into an over-sized slingshot, simply type a message and guided by a laser, splatter it on to the walls of RopeWalks Square. Don't miss out!
http://www.fact.co.uk/whats-on/media-facades-sms-slingshot?listing_id=1258
FACT's Artist in Residence heads to Venice!
Posted Thursday 26 Aug 2010
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Now well into my residency at FACT I have filmed in two fantastic cinemas, The Woolton Picture House and The Plaza in Stockport. Filming finally went ahead at the Woolton after the first shoot was delayed by a lightning storm that blew the projector at the cinema. Being one of the oldest cinemas in Liverpool, the Woolton also has a projector of a certain age which may be the original projector shipped in when the cinema changed from a silent picture palace to showing “talkies”. The Woolton is an intimate, cosy cinema with ashtrays still in the back of the seats.
The second cinema was The Plaza in Stockport, which is a 1930s deco cinema which has been restored to its former glory, including a café that feels like you are stepping back in time and a spectacular auditorium with a fully functioning Wurlizter organ still in situ.
Each film in the series is a single 360 degree shot that rotates from the centre of the space where the entire cinema appears animated by the light from the projection. The soundtrack for each of the films relates to the genre of film being shown at the time, along with recordings made in the projection booth being worked and processed to create this.
This series of films relates to ideas and concerns in my previous films and comes from an interest in the relationship between film and photography, the still and moving image. They use light to animate an environment, to make a portrait of a place. There has been a significant shift in the way we view the moving image, changes taking place in cinema, the struggle independent cinemas face with the advent of digital technologies and the fact that the back catalogue of older films are being digitally re-mastered makes this a timely document of the end of an era of 35mm film in cinema.
The films, now shot, will be mastered at FACT once the soundtracks are ready to be completed for the AND Festival in Manchester at the beginning of October. The first film in this series, shot in The Futurist cinema in Scarborough will be premiered at the Venice Film Festival
on 03 September 2010.
FACT project is put to good use at Alder Hey Hospital
Posted Wednesday 25 Aug 2010
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One of FACT's projects exploring the connections between arts and health hit the headlines yesterday. BAFTA winner Chris Watson's recording of dawn bird chorus is thought to relieve anxiety and needle phobia in patients and is proving to be a success with the children treated at Alder Hey hospital.
Now for the science bit!
Calming sounds work by soothing the amygdaloid region of the brain linked with a person's mental and emotional state. It is in essence a distraction technique and medical experts at the hospital think that Bird Song has had such a powerful healing effect which could even result in patients needing less pain relief – so less drugs used means money saved and even quicker recovery times. Scientific research will start this year to collate medical evidence on how Bird Song alleviates patient distress
Telegraph.co.uk: Bird song 'may calm' children receiving injections
Guardian.co.uk: Birdsong: The cure for all ills?
Now for the science bit!
Calming sounds work by soothing the amygdaloid region of the brain linked with a person's mental and emotional state. It is in essence a distraction technique and medical experts at the hospital think that Bird Song has had such a powerful healing effect which could even result in patients needing less pain relief – so less drugs used means money saved and even quicker recovery times. Scientific research will start this year to collate medical evidence on how Bird Song alleviates patient distress
Telegraph.co.uk: Bird song 'may calm' children receiving injections
Guardian.co.uk: Birdsong: The cure for all ills?
