Space Now

13 June – 26 July 2008

mon- fri 10-6pm, sat 12-6pm

SPACE celebrates 40 years with an exhibition selected by Caroline Douglas, Head of Arts Council Collections.

Axel Antas, Josh Baum, Amanda Benson, Anne Bristow, Chila Kumari Burman, Leigh Clarke, Julie Cockburn, Ben Cove, Richard Crawford, Layla Curtis, Deborah Dawkin, Natalie Dower, Paul Eachus, Nigel Ellis, Julia Farrer, John Frankland, Peter Fraser, James P. Graham, Paul Green , Mark Harris, Peter Hawksby, Claude Heath, Mustafa Hulusi, Jim Jack, Rannva Kunoy, Ann-Marie LeQuesne, Hew Locke, Camilla Lyon, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Fiona Merchant, Natasha Morland, Jost Münster, Adriette Myburgh, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Laura Oldfield Ford, Peter Peri, Sarah Perritt, Joanna Price, Bridget Riley, Suzanne Roles, Pascal Rousson, Piers Secunda, Yinka Shonibare, Martin Shortis, DJ Simpson, Walid Siti, Aerial Sparks, Fergal Stapleton, Michael Stubbs, Anthony Sullivan, James Faure Walker, Mark Wallinger, Ben Washington, Jackson Webb, William Wright.

This selling show has been selected by Caroline Douglas who toured all our studios visiting 600 artists to select this rich and diverse group show. It celebrates the strength of London’s artistic & creative community, and demonstrates the value of studio provision to London’s competitive edge and position in the international art world. SPACE has played a key role in establishing this position and continues to underpin its success. SPACE NOW launches a fund-raising campaign to support future SPACE studio developments.

Location; Space triangle

Is it worth it?

Next week i’m talking at a seminar discussing ‘the value of creativity’:

Economies of Value: A Seminar interrogating the roles, levels and definitions of value in media arts practice and partnerships.

SPACE, 129-131 Mare Street, Hackney, London E8 3RH

Tuesday 5 February
2008 10.30 am – 5 pm

Distributed South invites you to join us in a seminar which will examine issues of value and its measurement, paying particular reference to Media Arts sector and partnership working. We will focus on resource exchange and the value of research conducted by artists and organisations, through the development of work, residencies and placements.

Contributions from key economists in the field of cultural and creative management will enable us to look at systems that are being modelled to measure value in networks and groups. Alongside these systems, projects designed to focus on measuring value and exchange through social networking and information/resource exchange will demonstrate new methods of measurement

Economies of Value will be of interest to those working in the media, media arts, ICT and business people looking at new models of working.Like all events related to Distributed South it aims to move and inform policy in the media arts sector to drive forward new approaches to working and developing the field.

Some years ago we put the entire Bourbonese Qualk back catalogue online for anyone to download for free and do what they like with it. This wasn’t a Radiohead style marketing exercise but a statement of value – something is worth much more if it is free. Music has always been ‘free’ until it became fixed as a commodity i.e. when the gramophone was invented which triggered the notion of ownership, control and IP. Releasing records for us wasn’t a commercial exercise but a way of distributing our ideas and we’re sold as cheaply as possible (Crass’s ‘steal this record’ analogue equivalent of mp3 downloads).

Someone sent me a link to a discussion about the Radiohead campaign that mentioned our ‘give-away’ (making me feel worthy and smug):

“…as a follow-up example, bourbonese qualk put their entire catalog online for free a while back. i was ecstatic, since their stuff was very hard to find anyway. i DL’d all of it, and got hold of them to see what i could do in return. they asked for a donation to Médecins Sans Frontières rather than any payment to them. a few minutes later, MSF had $50 from me.”

Help yourself from here: http://www.bourbonesequalk.net/

…or all the albums from this single torrent file: http://www.mininova.org/get/763559

The Malthouse Studio

This wednesday was the annual ‘away day’ for Space Studios trustees (of which i am one) board i.e. a 7 hour board meeting discussing Space Studios policy, strategy and future direction. The venue for the meeting was the newly acquired ‘Malthouse Studio’ in Barking which is intended to become the cultural hub for the Thames Gateway development in the east of London. In the near future Space will redevelop the adjacent ‘Icehouse’ building and build new premises to lead the creation of the ‘Thames Gateway Cultural Quarter’

“The Malthouse, Barking is a newly refurbished warehouse in Barking set in the heart of an ambitious creative industry regeneration scheme for East London. Situated on the river Roding, the local environment is visually rich in the industrial heritage of the East London river basin and canal network. It has excellent transport links being near A13 and Nth Circular jct and Barking underground (District and Hammersmith&City lines) and 10 minutes walk from the town centre.”

” About SPACE:
Founded in 1968, SPACE is an arts educational charity which produces dynamic environments where individuals and communities can engage in creative processes. SPACE supports the production of art through the provision of studio space, widens participation in visual arts & media and fosters creative potential of individuals and communities.

Our mission is to provide ‘space to create’: supporting the production of art through the provision of creative space; ‘space to engage’: widening engagement in artistic practices; and ‘space to develop’- supporting the development of creative individuals and communities.

SPACE fulfils its mission through the provision of affordable, accessible studios and production facilities to over 600 artists, designers and makers across London. And through delivering an innovative programme of Exhibitions, Media Arts commissions, community based collaborations, events, International Residencies, training & professional development courses.”

Excerpt from Space Studio press release.

LaunchLab

Yesterday Space Studios (of which i am a trustee) hosted a round table discussion to plan the future of Launchlab: Launchlab is a Space Studio project that aims to resolve issues of diversity amongst the creative community i.e. The digital media and communications industry is an extermely hermetic, homogeneous group controlled and run by mainly white middle class males (like me).

The Launchlab project is designed to give the same sort of access normally reserved for this privileged group to a much wider and diverse mass of untapped talent in East London. This is done by training, self organisation and industry connections (organising internships, talks, discussions, consultancy and so-on). The strategy is to create a kind of social contract between the established creative industry and Launchlab: The Creative Industries need new people, ideas, talent and access to and a dialogue with, (real) ‘Youth Culture’. In turn Launchlab needs access to and profile within these Creative Industries.

Launchlab will relaunch in January 2008 at Space Triangle, Mare street, Hackney.