Birmingham Counterculture

Nice Post bus bus service bus route bus tickets bu...

2009-10-12T08:35:55.404+01:00

Nice Post
bus
bus service
bus route
bus tickets
bus routes
bus services
best bus
bus station
travel bus
coaches
bus travel
bus timetable
bus transport
online bus tickets
busses
bus india
bus time table
bus terminal
tour bus
local bus
airport buses
bus fares
bus journey
bus stops
buses to airport
bus coach
bus operators
bus price
transport buses
travel by bus
bus tours
bus information
bus rental
buses timetable
indian buses
local buses
bus times
bus operator
bus timetables
cheap bus tickets
bus travel tickets
Vaishnavi Travels
Shree Vijay Travels
Vikas Travels
Aditya Tours And Travels
Shree Sahjanand Travels
Punjab Travels
Shree Hari Travels
Ashwamegh Travels Agency
Intercity Travels
Neeta Tours And Travels
Mahasagar Travels Ltd
Jamnagar Travels Pvt Ltd
Shree Parshwanath Travels
Patel Tours And Travels
Shree Khurana Tours And Travels
HK Travels
Rishabh Travels
Raj Travels
Buses To Virpur
Bus tickets

I have seen lots of creative activity that would n...

2009-05-21T18:04:50.197+01:00

I have seen lots of creative activity that would not be identified as art. Folk musicians, folk poets and less concerned 'money making art makers' with ambition and sophistication, inactual fact keep maintain/ reinforce the status quo. Money drags many good intentioned and less selfish people down.

Thank you for your comments.It's interesting that ...

2008-10-31T23:58:00.000Z

Thank you for your comments.

It's interesting that 8 months after posting and 12 months after the original piece- it has appeared on CIB. Not really sure why it’s been picked up now – but it’s of little relevance as any dialogue around these issues will not be discussed openly within the current climate.

Unfortunately, nothing much has changed and my views remain the same.

My piece refers specifically to the human act of creation and the processes which have been lessoned in value by having this type of tangible financial value placed upon them.

I am not against funding of arts, that is an essential patronage that should be encouraged. I make comment on the current funding strategy, system and implementation together with those entrusted with it's management. This is not limited to the Midlands and as my own work is much wider both geographically and culturally, the microcosm of it's impact in a smaller space like the Midlands only serves to illustrate the impact in a magnified way.

Unfortunately these issues cannot be separated from politics. Politics, that is, in social terms rather than political parties - who have little or no relevance today.

Whether by design or stupidity, we have central government policy delivered by Civil Servants. This initiates a generic roll out for regional policies to be ‘interpreted’ by Civil Servants as economic strategies through local government and RDA’s and/ or those who are either tasked with or are self appointed to also ‘interpret’ through their ‘experience’ of creativity, arts and culture. Added to this are the accountants and business graduates who, if you have ever spent any degree of time with, live vicariously through their client base and as such arrive at ‘opinion’ based of the financial concerns of their clients.

In effect, in the words of Oscar, they know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Would any other ‘industry’ entrust their future to those who know least about it?

Unfortunately the effect of such conditions placed on patronage are not to encourage creativity or individual comment, but to encourage work after their own likeness. It's a God complex.

Creativity has ceased to engage, speak for or portray the social, political or human climate we live in and has failed to challenge, provoke or detach itself from the short leash that a cap in hand approach has led to.

We are throwing bad money after bad money, often avoiding the root cause of a failing in creative practice. Often the root cause is the money itself.

I see little art that challenges and I see a lot of faker’s. Creativity is about questioning and arriving at another place as a result of it not being directed by those only interest is self promotion. If creative’s don’t question the remit, knowledge and appropriateness of those deriving substantial income from their having engaged with these schemes, they are selling themselves short.

Creativity is the nucleus of these parasite agencies, advisers, funds and property developers who use creativity as a brand by which to profit not the reverse – Only my opinion, but with the current creative climate, any honest opinion seems rare.

Interestingly, Mr/Ms B, the first poster chose not...

2008-10-09T12:57:00.000+01:00

Interestingly, Mr/Ms B, the first poster chose not to leave their real name, despite challenging your anonymity. He/She also seems to have a problem with free speech. Sometimes I despair about the attitudes people seem to have, saying one thing and doing another - a very familiar approach in the arts 'scene' unfortunately.

Lee (Griffiths) - I have no fear of 'creative' numpties, they tend to be pussies! Fisticuffs anyone?

Hi. Thankyou for your comment. Indeed, points wer...

2008-10-07T11:22:00.000+01:00

Hi. Thankyou for your comment. Indeed, points were made, one that excited me personally about Birmingham countercultural history and archiving. I see no reason in adding thoughts about the blog of course. It is easy just to become a demoter!
It has been great to have had so many comments so quickly.

- Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms B

Why are you anonymous and what do you hope to achi...

2008-09-29T12:16:00.000+01:00

Why are you anonymous and what do you hope to achieve by blogging a message like this?
Are there any other outlets you are promoting your thoughts or are you too afraid?

What is the aim of this blog and will it leave the web world ever?

Just asking

Thanks

xren_xren@hotmail.com

The Eastside Projects invites went out by mail and...

2008-09-27T18:05:00.000+01:00

The Eastside Projects invites went out by mail and email to as wide a range of people as possible and last night over 300 people came through the doors - if thats an elitist, closed circle its a pretty big one. It is not run by 'the old self service group' (who selfishly put on a series of public events which again were open to anyone who wanted to come) though two of the Eastside founders were involved in that project too. Call me conventional but maybe you should actually see what it is before you start slagging it off and if its not something you are interested in go do something that you are yourself.

I do believe many people will now be enjoying a ve...

2008-09-26T22:20:00.000+01:00

I do believe many people will now be enjoying a very nice glass of bubbly at the opening of Eastside Projects. I trust that they will be ushering in a confident cultural era to aid Birmingham in the new mellenia and that this will be satisfactory. Post hangovers, we shall see!

Oh yes, publicity wise, I wonder who got an invite? Was it those that I might suspect? I'm reminded of the clever opening of Tate Modern many years ago, when they got black cab drivers to attend. It not only meant that they all knew where the gallery was, but that they were extremely satisfied to have been guests of honour and spoke very highly of the place of course. That's good promotion. Anything like that happened at Eastside projects? By the way, where is it exactly?

And no, I'm not upset about attending.

Hiya - I'm back again. I notice that the chair of...

2008-09-25T00:55:00.000+01:00

Hiya - I'm back again. I notice that the chair of Creative Republic has posted a bit of a challenge to you Mr/Mrs B on CIB. Are you going to go for it? I'm pretty horrified by Creative Republic, I got involved in the early days of setting it up but pulled out after I saw where it was going. Firstly, what is a purpotedly creative company doing with a lawyer as it's chair, rather than someone with a real creative or cultural background? Secondly why did they get 80K of cultural money (from ACE) for an obviously commercially oriented venture? This is a problemn with Arts Council really, I get sick of seeing artists struggle to find funding when commercial companies such as this get huge chunks of public money that could be better spent on raising the cultural game in the city. Perhaps that's one of the reasons there is little real suppport for grassroots culture in Birmingham and a lot of very corporate projects with a lot of very bland results. As for Creative Republic the only real thing they've achieved over the last two years, other than a lot of self-promotion is the (grudgingly and admittedly excellent) CIB blog. If they were just funded with business money, such as from Business Link, I wouldn't have a problem, but that 80 grand could have helped a lot of struggling artists. (Forgive me if I have the figures wrong - it may well be more by now).

Actually, it doesn't matter how much or how little...

2008-09-23T16:18:00.000+01:00

Actually, it doesn't matter how much or how little money you get, it's what you do that matters. As far as Eastside projects go, I'm willing to wait and see, give them a chance and then kick their asses if they don't put their mouths where their money is. Interestingly it seems to be run by the old 'self service' group, who were aptly and not at all ironically named, so I suspect I'd better polish my boots in preperation. Let's keep a watching brief for now.
I'm more concerned with the general way that art and artists have been lumped in with the 'creative' industries, which for me devalues the whole cultural and philosophical aspects of the arts and seems to be all about cash money, which is where I think you guys at BCC (nice acronym - needs a logo, I know where there's one going secondhand)could possibly get the conversation going. Power to your slightly incoherent elbows!

There is a wider cultural issue here around the wa...

2008-09-23T16:08:00.000+01:00

There is a wider cultural issue here around the way arts and culture are valued. Yes, if you have 'product' there are ways you can sell it at Artsfest, but many artists create work that doesn't have an obvious monetary value - so how do we support them? I'm all for supporting culture in the city and I understand that Artsfest is an attempt to showcase work, which it does well, allowing many citizens to access art for free that they might not in the normal run of things. But it is often at the cost (financial, physical and often emotional) of the artists they exploit to do this. I'm sure some kind of happy medium could be come to, where contributors could at least have their expenses sorted, or at least get bought a pint by the Artsfest team! Whilst larger cultural institutions absolutely should open their doors to the public (after all, many of them are in receipt of large subsidies that we pay for), why should unsupported artists and organisations do the same?

a fing i dont like is having my email address pass...

2008-09-23T11:34:00.000+01:00

a fing i dont like is having my email address passed on without my permission when the passer had previously agreed not to do so
yers
jzponaijq, ..., which is i name i use to help prevent spam on this site

To the anonymouse below - many artists are quite h...

2008-09-23T10:43:00.000+01:00

To the anonymouse below - many artists are quite happy to be involved in Artsfest for free however should that be the expectation? Should many of the artists be expected to get involved for gratis?

Artfest and the city makes a lot of money on the back of the free participation of the many artists. Having spoke with many artists they had an issue of getting no funding for their project within the festival. They also became disheartened when their event was poorly attended because it was so badly promoted.

So where is the money going if not on the artists... or on decent festival promotion?

Nice generalisation by the way - and you talk about immaturity.

Well done to this site for actually questioning the cities funding and exposing those who live off the funding.

In my opinion Artsfest was a cultural black hole let down by seriously poor promotion.

Wow this is thoughtful stuff. Such arrogance that ...

2008-09-23T08:30:00.000+01:00

Wow this is thoughtful stuff. Such arrogance that the council thinks artists need their help? Such arrogance to suggest that artists (probably yourself, I sense there is a chip on your shoulder) deserve payment for their contribution more like. Going on your writing I suspect your conribution at artsfest is as about was about as valuable as the opinions presented in your blog. Has it occurred to you that not all creative groups involved in Artsfest are there for financial gain? Many are pleased to be able to show their work or promote their group in a busy city centre environment. There is ample opportunity for those who wish to make money for themselves at Artfest too eg paintings on the railings and the designer maker fair. Basically artists, musicians and groups make artsfest choose how artsfest can work for them. Some make money and are appreciative of the opportunity, some take on new members, some are just happy to have an audience. There is money to be made in creative industries in Birmingham, but as a (struggling) professional creative I am sick of hearing people complain they are undervalued. If you really want financial rewards for your efforts, try doing something that people want or need, as you won't get them by being 'counterculture' and slapping the mainstream in the face. Really it's time many of your lot realised your ideas aren't based on counterculture but on immaturity. By 'your lot' I'm imagining a bunch of naive skater, hip hop, graffiti types who never actually set foot in any arts education establishment and thus overestimating their own abilities and ideas whilst patting eachother on the back down the custard factory. Grow up.

Actually, I that that back. There were plenty of s...

2008-09-23T01:21:00.000+01:00

Actually, I that that back. There were plenty of screaming paranoid loons around back in the day. God, I remember the zines of closely typed block capital letters. Rose-tinted spectacles of hindsight and all that.

Well, let's see. Having been involved in a fair bi...

2008-09-23T01:18:00.000+01:00

Well, let's see. Having been involved in a fair bit of counterculture activity over the years I think I can safely say that securing substantial government money to open a large gallery isn't really very counter-cultural. It sounds more to me like it's cultural and therefore something for the counterculture to be, as it were, counter to.

In other words you need this. Without Gavin's work you'd just have Ikon to kick against. Now you've got at least two establishments with more on the way. That can only be a good thing for the counterculture.

What worries me, however, is the level of articulation this particular branch of the age old counterculture tree appears to have. Along with our typewriters and photocopiers we used to have standards back in the day. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Les?Comrade Blimey?

2008-09-23T00:31:00.000+01:00

Les?
Comrade Blimey?

Good idea! I'll email them and ask them what they ...

2008-09-22T20:04:00.000+01:00

Good idea! I'll email them and ask them what they are REALLY upto (other can as well...more the merrier). I've visited the much invested project website (a few days before the opening I believe) - that has little up at present (do you know that over three years they are getting over £300K of investment from ACE WM and partnership funding alongside?). In actual fact, money aside, I look with much interest with the cultural confidence they bring to the city!? In my opinion you can have as much or as little money as is required when it comes to countercultural activities. I wonder if this project will be one? They have made a great claim to be instilling cultural confidence in Birmingham. Wow..I'll ask them about this too. I will indeed email my questions. Good idea! Thanks.

I'm going to try and get in to eastside's opening ...

2008-09-22T19:30:00.000+01:00

I'm going to try and get in to eastside's opening on friday - it seems to have taken ages to open - i will leave some uninvited art.

Eastside Projects already has a goodly collection of logos.

Art gallery as crisp packet. Probably this one like most is ready salted - pre-seasoned.

I shall be searching the space for that blue twist of paper with salt in it

luther blissett

"What are the Eastside Projects REALLY upto? What ...

2008-09-22T19:17:00.000+01:00

"What are the Eastside Projects REALLY upto? What are the folks at Creative Republic REALLY up to? Let’s dig a little deeper folks!"

I guess you could ask them. That might be a start.