creativity – The Cultural Exposé

Quirky pop-up We Built This City returns to Carnaby Street

Matilda — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 08:30:48 +0000

I stumbled across We Built This City a few months ago. It was a Friday evening and I found myself in that awkward position of needing to kill a bit of time, but couldn’t be bothered to drag myself to the nearest Starbucks for an extra hot chai latte and the wi-fi. So I strolled along Carnaby Street, popping briefly into Monki for a pair of new earrings, and eventually found myself gravitating toward’s WBTC’s chaotic graphic display, all the more intriguing because of the bold, creative references to London:

Just discovered this wonderful, alternative souvenir store on Carnaby Street. Seriously funky fresh.

A photo posted by Matilda (@megerecooper) on Aug 28, 2015 at 10:35am PDT

It didn’t even dawn on me that the pop-up, which sells city-inspired gifts and souvenirs from over 300 home-grown designers and artists, wasn’t a permanent shop – so I was pleased to hear that it’s recently returned for the festive season.

Along with their usual fun stuff, they’ve now set up a Christmas shop offering cards, decorations and a Christmas jumper printing service in collaboration with London design duo RUDE (they’re ace) – and if you’re feeling creative, you can sign up to one of their creative workshops that include jewellery-making, the art of wrapping and even how to make a Christmas piñata.

How cute are these? We Built This City staff rock the Christmas jumpers you can design yourself

The shop is currently open and can be found at 56 Carnaby Street, but for more details, visit www.webuilt-thiscity.com

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Somewhere you should go… Digital Revolution at Barbican

Matilda — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 10:00:17 +0000

It’s fair to say that the world’s digital explosion in the last 40 years has been something like a phenomenon. Rapid, progressive and artistic all at the same time, we’ve seen it stretch across many facets of life and industries – and this generous show at the Barbican does its best to present as much of this under one roof. Visitors are first met by retro games and inventions in the Digital Archaeology section. As the unmistakable ching-ching-ching of Sonic the Hedgehog collecting coins in the legendary platform game resonates around the room, there’s a chance to play Pong and Super Mario Bros and see the first website by Tim Berners-Lee. Walk further into the exhibition and you notice greater nods to technology in music (musos can feast their eyes on a Linn LM-1 drum machine), education (remember Speak & Spell?) film (Inception and Gravity get a look-in) and home computing, with screens showcasing old-school browsers like Netscape while you can see the development of Apple computers back when the corporation had a rainbow logo, and later spread some colour to the bulbous iMac G3.

Chris Milk’s The Treachery of Sanctuary at Digital Revolution

And that’s just the beginning. You’ll spend hours admiring and playing with creative art as you experience commissioned works from a range of digital filmmakers, technicians, artists, fashion designers and musicians including willi.am. A graphic of the pop star towers over visitors like a modern day Pharoah in the State of Play section, watching you as you move and belting out a new track – autotuned, naturally – that he penned exclusively for the show. It’s kind of freaky but still impressive, like the rest of this mighty project that presents digital technology to creative extremes you simply couldn’t make up. And yet incredibly, some very clever people did. On until 14^th September. For tickets, visit the website. Digital Revolution Trailer from Barbican Centre on Vimeo.

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Somewhere you should go… Dance Umbrella 2012

Laura Thornley — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:00:08 +0000

Dance Umbrella was one of the many organisations to feel the de-stabilising wrench of the funding rug being pulled from under them during the Arts Council cuts. But rather than fading into the national statistics of failed-art organisations-at-the-hands-of-the-Tories, The 34-year-old company have decided to respond in a creative and gung-ho way. Betsy Gregory and Jonathan Burrows have opted to celebrate a very particular kind of dance: the kind that demands a small venue, small audience – and it’s an intimate experience.

The festival usually takes place in the high profile spaces at the Southbank or Barbican, this time the festival will be housed in and around the Platform Theatre at Central Saint Martin’s new Kings Cross site. It may not have quite the same name-dropping ring to it, but believe me, the towering warehouse that CSM now calls home is one of the most impressive buildings I have seen in a long time. It will no doubt serve the festival admirably.

As always, the festival will include performances – both on and off site – installations, talks and film screenings. Despite adversity, Dance Umbrella has come up with a fascinating programme that seeks to open up dance to a wider audience. Following the attention that the Pina Bausch documentary, the Olympics opening ceremony and the recent Turbine Hall performance art has demanded, dance is well and truly in the spotlight; this can only help with their cause.

Dance Umbrella takes place on October 5th – 14th. For more info, www.danceumbrella.co.uk

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Somewhere you should go… London Design Festival

Jane Duru — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 10:00:28 +0000

After the brilliant spectacle of London 2012, Londoners can battle their post-Olympic comedown by surfing the crest of the creative wave that’s about to hit. This week sees the stylish crowds strutting in for the start of London Fashion Week but while people-watching can be a diverting pastime, mere mortals should look beyond the stiletto-clad denizens of Somerset House and onwards to the restored warehouse of Central St Martins in King’s Cross, the public space of Trafalgar Square, and the hallowed halls of the V&A. Here’s where you’ll find the various events making up the 10th London Design Festival, and a rather more democratic celebration of the city’s design talent.

With a packed schedule of over 200 events throughout the week – many of them free – visitors looking to orient themselves should start off at the V&A, the festival hub. Here, Keiichi Matsuda’s PRISM exhibition, will present viewers with an alternative London, one informed by drawing upon various data flows that are the life blood of the city – traffic flow, environmental data and the like. Housed in a part of the museum that’s usually off-limits to visitors, it’s a rare chance to see the city in virtual terms. Down on Southbank on September 20th, collective Designersblock will be presenting their stable of designers. Look out for furniture makers Hendzel+Hunt, who’ll be debuting the results of their 24 Hour Challenge – a task issued to five teams of engineers, architects and creatives, to make a themed pinball machine out of materials foraged around Peckham, in a single day. With themes ranging from King Kong to Charlie Chaplin, it only goes to prove: necessity is the mother of all invention.

The London Design Festival runs from September 14 – 23. For more info, visit www.londondesignfestival.com

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Something you should do…The Midnight Run, September 3rd

Matilda — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0000

“What started as a ‘walk to the next bus stop’ whim, became some neo urban nomadic journey freestyled from the wind, philosophising on everything, dissing anything, eat-about, portable ho down shindig,” say poet and performer Inua Ellams of The Midnight Run, his annual after-hours jaunt across London.

Since 2005, groups of curious Londoners have joined Ellams – who drew inspiration from political revolutionaries The Situationists for the event – to re-discover the capital from 6pm to 6am, using art to capture the experience and ending to see the sunrise on Waterloo Bridge. The aim of the night is to also meet new people and prove peace and tranquility is possible in such a bustling capital – or as Ellams puts it “living the magic of the space of the city with its inhabitants”. It’s an unlikely sightseeing adventure game that’s growing year-on-year, so if you think you’re up for the challenge, e-mail themidnightrun@googlemail.com.

For more info, visit phaze05.com/themidnightrun.

[stextbox id=”custom”]Click here to watch a video about The Midnight Run[/stextbox]

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