On returning...

After a long walk roaming around, I am back to pop my head up and see what's going on here in Birmingham again. Energised by not watching the clock, inspired by fresh air, I wonder what countercultural 'developments' are happening in Birmingham as we head towards June 2009?

Cultural Industrialisation - cause and effect.

The following article referenced below, concerned the growing difficulties on respect pf art making/makers (certainly here in the UK). Below is a brief excerpt taken from a blog article by Anthony J Hughes http://anthonyjhughes.vox.com/library/post/mad-as-a-march-hare-march-madness-beware-the-eyes-of-march.html


.....What am I saying?

Funding procedures and practice and the funding and economic redevelopment projects aimed at supporting ‘creative industries’ has actually become a system supporting government ‘intervention[1]’ and policy. That policy has either intentionally or inadvertently become a controlling factor in the human act of creativity and now acts in a legislative, often excluding manner and is often damaging for the industries it claims to ‘support’[2].
The funding system has led to: -

1 A skewed artificial view of the creative industries in both nature, practice, shape, scope and for the purposes of counting economic value attached to it.

2 A new industry[3] which originated as a parasite on the back of creativity – and has now been extremely manipulative in reversing the role. This new ‘industry’ is policed by civil servants, accountants, admin paper pushers and is predominantly made up of those who are not from a creative background and have little or no understanding of the nature of either creativity or indeed commercial practice.

My reply to his blog is as follows:

A refreshing thought on the damage that the cultural industrialisation has become. Business as manipulation it certainly is and I agree that civil servants are proudly pushing government policy as art of course. Intervention into the artistic fabric of the day to day is a tragic development. Indeed, cultural industry was a term which was fiercely derided and debated in the early to mid 1990s. Now its accepted common language and way of being for many people (and artists).

As a strategy to this, I continue to disengage from this persuasive financial and political process. Anonymity as hoax and prank work for example, humiliating the art mainstream at times, ad hoc and unpredictable manifestations, mean that I'm less involved in cultural tourism/governance, service led cultural activity (simply helping the needy (which I don’t deride by the way)) and the attack on intelligent human beings (who are of course, innately creative).

In the late 1990s, I was increasingly aware of the dangers of a mediated art making culture and the mechanism in adopting the coercion of money lead creativity. In the 2000's it is clear that many so called artists are robots to a system other than their own autonomy as makers. This has not only dumbed down any potential artist as extraordinary and experimental, but on the contrary, become a way of moronisation of the said individual. Its all about what fits in, with who and how.....the artist is political despite the guessing games that are encouraged to make the quick and continued £1 sale!

I do believe that we are living in a culturally pitiful time (I refer to the UK), devoid of the extension of ideas that foster the superb evolution as humans (worse now than the 1990s which is saying something!). I am lucky to know and work with some great people fortunately, who resist and push forward art-as-ideas in ways that I and others would not expect, hence limit the insistence that I should become involved in the tragic tale of New Labour! I didn't believe it for one minute of course!

It's been great to read this article. Thankyou.

- Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms B.

Don’t fuck with the jesus

Well, I got a polite and affirmative message from Russell (thankyou) and I am obliging the Birmingham countercultural activity in return of course. Who knows what this event might be like, but here's the information. I took a look at their myspace site and read 'bad drunken sex with qwerty keyboards' which was a good sign for something less (or more than) the ordinary. I'm unsure if this event as advertised below costs anything to enter, but I'm sure you would find out if you took to more research c/o the link etc...

On with the show! Good luck!

- Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms B

Don’t fuck with the jesus.


Featuring Live Performances From:

The New Jerusalem...

Kramer Vs Kramer Vs Gosdzilla...

DJ Space...


And a special DJ Set from Brumcast...



8pm - 11 Thurs 6th Nov


@ Flapper & Firkin, B'ham.


please find me at www.myspace.com/kvkvg2 where you can find more details and insights into the nature and meaning of this event!

A countercultural trip in Birmingham.....

Fancy a trip to visit an alternative cultural place in Birmingham where creative countercultural activity continues to take place? Pop along to Bournbrook Recreation Ground in Selly Oak. Here, you’ll see a place littered with graffiti. It’s overwhelming. I was delighted to come across such a large public space that is decorated and dedicated with so much (ongoing) graffiti. All parts of this small park are up for spray-can grabs: walls, sides of houses and offices, graffiti on paving stones, lamp posts and railings - all make for a superbly creative individual place here in Birmingham.

There seems little to literally read, and whilst personalised tagging is triumphantly marking people’s designs, what is fascinating is the saturation of colour when you spin around on the spot. It’s a living organism! The paint has taken-over, slowly and surely creeping like veins across fences and doors, bricks, along pathways etc…

Birmingham counterculture salutes those individuals that have made Bournbrook Recreation Ground a special place in Birmingham!

Flickr link I came across:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newfolder/2764341625/

Location:

Between Selly Oak library and Lidl supermarket.

Transport:

Buses:

Travel West Midlands (0121 254 7272) - Route Numbers 11A, 11C, 21, 44, 61, 62, 63, 69

Major Roads

A38 Bristol Road (N) / A441 Pershore Road (N) - Northbound towards Birmingham centre, M6
A38 Bristol Road (S) - Southbound towards M5, M42, Northfield, Rubery, Bromsgrove
A441 Pershore Road (S) - Southbound towards M42
A4040 Oaktree Lane / Harborne Lane - Outer Ring Road

I have a (counter) cultural dream.

I have a dream that one day Birmingham and surrounding areas will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all creativity are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red bricks of Birmingham, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of culturehood. I have a dream that one day all parts of Birmingham, a fragile city, sweltering with the heat of cultural injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of creative freedom, justice and equality. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a city where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their creative character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day Birmingham, whose cultural industrial corporate and government lips who are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little creative black boys and creative black girls will be able to join hands with little creative white boys and creative white girls and walk together as creative sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the cultural emancipation shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the North, East, South and West. With this creative faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of creative hope. With this creative faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our city into a beautiful symphony of creative sister and brotherhood. With this creativity we will be able to work together, to creatively struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for creative freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day – each and everyone of us, young, old, the healthly and the infirm. That all creative ideas, the radical and the (in)sane, can be given an equal place.

This will be the day when all of creative children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My creativity, 'tis of thee, sweet land of create liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let creative freedom ring." And if Birmingham is to be a great city (and the surrounding areas), this must become true. So let creative freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Birmingham and beyond!. Let creative freedom ring from the mighty tollpaths of Smethwick! Let freedom ring from the heightening inner city locations such as Highbury! Let creative freedom ring from the low river waters of Deritend! Let creative freedom ring from the Rae valley pathways of Brum! But not only that; let creative freedom ring from the bells of St Martins! Let freedom ring from lookout of Camp Hill! Let creative freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Birmingham and surrounding areas. From every part of this splendid city of Birmingham and beyond, let creative cultural freedom ring!

Birmingham Countercultural. A comment.

This site, whilst I ramble in my own way, aims to promote counterculture (as well as demote mainstream culture where I think it seems fitting. I will indeed do both!). So if there is anything countercultural happening in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, I am willing to promote! Whilst it does seem that I have pointed the finger at this point in time, I certainly don't want this blogsite to just be about pointing fingers and moaning per se. I am keen, for example, to champion bygone countercultural material as well as contemporary countercultural activity here in Birmingham and surrounding areas (is there an archive about past countercultural activity to date here in Birmingham?). I think there are some great things that have gone on here in Brum and I intend this blog to essentially be affirmative, allowing and adding to the city's development c/o debate/promotion/demotion. For this reason, for the blog to be an additional and alternative voice and perspective. Interestingly, not all my blogs are simply personally opinionated as such....I like to open a can of worms every now and then. It's good to see what's inside!

Artsfest or cultural bankruptcy?

Artsfest in Birmingham happened 12-14th September 2008. Yes indeed – the free festival where freeness is greatness (according to Birmingham City Council!). What can be a negative when you have a city council promoting the arts in Birmingham (and surrounding areas)…..It all seems such a good idea! Birmingham City Council provide the stalls (not sure if they are free?), the marketing and promotion, pay the technicians, logistically managers, security, PA, mainstage, no doubt, some venues and special things..etc…It all sounds great, really good. So good…..Just one thing folks…..Artists come along to promote themselves, all their good work, all their community activity….and NO FEES are ISSUED to the majority of the local artistic citizens that come art in hand! I REPEAT – no money as fees go the artists that promote THE CITY OF (aspiring)CULTURE (as previously shortlisted…and Liverpool got it as we all know…). Question, what messages does this send out to the artistic community in Birmingham? Perhaps it means that artists are not (financially) valued, that they need Birmingham City Council’s help!? Such arrogance. We are equal citizens in this city and we are to be equally treated. It’s OK for BCC to look for the every emerging touting of a cultural city – a tourist destination of art and artists under one big festival (sounds a little like the last blog doesn’t it!???) – to promote greatness and diversity of culture. Sure, many with logos attached to their organisation or company feel oblidged to attend and partake (incase the purse strings get pulled)….a soft form of coercion and not necessarily about mutuality…??

So I thought it would be fitting to have a little revised promo for the Artsfest, changing Artsfest to ArtsFeast – You cook it! We’ll eat it! Mainstream culture never had it so good!

Love to hear you comments…ones that aren’t all in favour…I’ve heard all of them c/o the arts departments and spammers etc….

The New Bohemia – A looming cultural crisis in Birmingham!?

For those who don’t know the free tabloid paper, Variant ( http://www.variant.org.uk/ ) their summer issue 2008 published a detailed cultural survey concerning Glasgow, entitled The New Bohemia by Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt. The paper opened-up a can of worms, examining and exposing the people and mechanisms behind a cultural industry set on tourism, festival culture and a move away from the heart and sole of Glaswegian artists’ practice and culture. Here are some highly pertinent quotes taken from the article. Recognise this in Birmingham as well? What are you thoughts? Who are the people responsible for mainstream commercialisation and policing of culture in Birmingham? Please expose, debate and pray tell!

‘As we have seen, Bridget McConnell is fully conversant with the potential of culture and sport to increase the revenue of a city through tourism, and her ambitions for Glasgow…..Emphasis on cultural tourism has led to a ‘festival mentality’, whereby the city’s support is concentrated on attracting temporary tourists than on supporting Glasgow’s creative practitioners directly.’

The concluding paragraph:

More then the sum of its parts, the creation of Culture and Sport Glasgow represents the wholesale takeover of culture by business interests. It posits a strategy for economic regeneration that depends on the whims of elite tourism and its pace of consumption in a period of economic crisis. It demonstrates an ethos that is smothering the city and others like it, regarding culture solely in terms of its value, stripped of any emancipatory potential. Far from being considered in terms of the universal creativity to which every citizen has a right, culture in Glasgow is framed in terms of passive participation and money making potential……It remains to be seen how this approach will affect the creativity of future generations as Glasgow’s cultural communities are rendered impoverished and complicit in the new Bohemia.’

Birmingham and surrounding areas are undervaluing its grassroots communities of practitioners whereby many, if not most, activities are compromised or compromising practitionership for the sake of elite moneymaking art-as-business concerns and this does not exclude many so called art galleries and centres - new and old, that are functioning as disguised closed-shop clubs...Don't believe the veneer of scams and coercion that offers a service of 'helping the city' – or ‘bringing pride into the city’ etc....Many of these who announce this are lining their own cultural financed pockets at the expense and contradictions of what they claim!? Does this sound familiar? What are the Eastside Projects REALLY upto? What are the folks at Creative Republic REALLY up to? Let’s dig a little deeper folks! Please feel free to continue the debate! The time is now!