One Saturday morning 12 years ago, I plucked up the courage to shuffle into the Sunderland Youth Music Workshops.
At 16, I was obsessed with music but technically hopeless. I was desperately searching for a creative outlet.What I found that day was a safe, welcoming, buzzing hub. Or what workshop founder and leader Dave Murray calls “a dreamland.”
I was elated to find a place like this existed outside of my imagination. The project then was very rough around the edges, run from the run down ‘Bunker’ rehearsal studios in the city centre.
The place has since been gentrified but former youth workers at the project inform me that they would often have to sweep the place for needles before the its participants arrived.
Regardless of the insalubrious surroundings, the workshops were incredible. I would emerge into the afternoon light blinking, ears ringing and throat red raw from screaming my lungs out.
The thing that really blew my mind was the level of acceptance and inclusion. In a city that often seemed deeply cruel, it was the incredibly liberating.
The project started in 1994 with the aim of giving young people a chance to learn to play instruments, write songs, form bands and improve their social skills in an informal, free, peer driven setting.
The project played a huge part in establishing many an aspiring Sunderland Musician and the Project is not without its high profile success stories.
The workshops were a launch pad for such internationally renowned acts such as The Futureheads, Field Music and The Casino Brawl.
And while these names help raise the profile of the project and draw extra funding they are a footnote in the legacy of the award winning institution.
Thousands of young people have came through the door and been welcomed by Dave and I there are very few who didn’t gain something positive from the workshops.
One of which is Anna McKeown, now 25, attended the project when still in her early teens and the experience has left an indelible impression on her.
“I think the project shaped who I am, it provided me with an interest in music, it inspired me, gave me ambition, a sense of purpose and a lot of friends.” She said.
Anna was so inspired by the ethos of the workshops that she now runs her own youth groups teaching broadcast journalism to young people in Sunderland.
She believes that the music projects have an important function in the community, “It's so important that projects like this exist because at the most basic level it provides an opportunity for young people to socialise outside of school, the drinking green or the x-box.” She said, adding, “they can develop skills and a sense of independence and self-worth.”
The project is still going strong as it enters its 16th year. While it has been scrubbed up with a new venue and state of the art gear, it still retains its grassroots, underdog spirit.
This is largely due to project leader Dave Murray. Dave is a no-nonsense type of bloke but he is also incredibly kind, warm hearted and likeable. Dave will do anything he can for these kids.
Been kicked out by your parents? Dave will find you a room. Need help wallpapering that room? Dave will give you a hand. No telly in the room? Dave saw one in the skip out back; he’ll get it fixed up for you.
His one passion in life is the youth music workshops and the young people who go there. Dave loves to talk about the project so much that my 20 minute interview with him nearly lasted 3 hours.
Yet hearing him talking about something he is hugely proud of is inspiring rather than indulgent.
Dave is, however, reluctant to take credit for the success of the project even though he has devoted his whole life to it.
Sat in his office surrounded by photographs from the workshops he told me, “The success of the workshops is nothing to do with me or the workers, it’s due to the young people who come, all we do is believe in them.”
The magic of the project is driven by the young people who attend, through them supporting and encouraging each other because they are so glad to have the outlet. As Dave says, “the need for the project was much bigger than the project itself.”
Chatting to Dave about the project, while thinking of the impact it had on so many other people like Anna and Stephen, I find myself wishing I was on the TV show Secret Millionaire.
I imagine myself as a wealthy philanthropist, presenting Dave with a big cheque to help out the project.
But as Dave says, “It has never, ever been about money.” Besides I probably wouldn’t get a chance, Dave wouldn’t let me get a word in edgeways.
Monday 25 January 2010
Mementos and Memories: An Online Art Project
Dragging the box out from the shed, I’m hit by a musty waft of nostalgia as a vague, familiar smell leaks from it.
Later I examine the boxes contents. Among old books, records and pin badges is a torn blue paper folder. Spilling from it are piles of notebooks and scrappy bits of paper covered in manic scribbles.
The folder contains mix tapes, made by girlfriends past, Photographs of the women I had loved many years ago, leaflets for the exhibitions we went to.
Looking through this archive of my thoughts, feelings, mistakes and triumphs makes me feel both elated and forlorn.
I teeter vicariously between laughter and tears throughout the experience of sifting through over 10 years of personal history.
The reason for this foray into my past is because I have agreed to contribute to University of Sunderland student Michelle Wall’s ‘Mementos and Memories’ art project.
Michelle hopes to exhibit the treasured and everyday items we hide away in our homes which remind us of a special memory or experience.
The inspiration for the project comes from Michelle finding an ornate suitcase in her loft. The suitcase belonged to the houses previous tenants, who had lived there for three generations.
It contained bundles of correspondence between a married couple forced to live apart during the 1940’s and 50’s. Unable to see each other they shared their lives together on paper.
“The fact these letters had been kept, treasured and survived all that time was inspiring to me,” Michelle said. “I wanted to celebrate this as a legacy to their relationship by exploring the treasured memories of others.” She says of her inspiration for the project.
Michelle, who is in the final year of her fine art degree, initialised the project by collecting and displaying her own mementos. Hers were memories of adolescence and early relationships through to recent marriage and motherhood.
She has now begun collecting the mementos of others with the aim of putting together a exhibition and book that will become a collective memento of its own because, she said, “I want us all to acknowledge and appreciate the otherwise fleeting and forgotten moments in our past.”
On the things Michelle is most interested in is the way these items are stored. “These keepsakes are often tucked away, they are too precious or personal to display,” she told me.
“To anyone else a ticket stub or a melted candle would mean nothing. Yet given its history and connection to its owner it takes on a new identity.”
The memory then begins to transcend the realm of the mind. It is transformed into a tangible, physical thing, what Michelle describes as “a vessel of sentiment.”
This is why I find myself sifting through my own mementos and memories. Reading through my old notebooks it strikes me, for better or worse, how much I’ve changed and the ways in which I’ve stayed the same.
All the bittersweet experiences of life are documented in the yellowing pages. I am thankful to Michelle for dredging it all up. I can only suggest you do the same as it was horrible and wonderful.
Later I examine the boxes contents. Among old books, records and pin badges is a torn blue paper folder. Spilling from it are piles of notebooks and scrappy bits of paper covered in manic scribbles.
The folder contains mix tapes, made by girlfriends past, Photographs of the women I had loved many years ago, leaflets for the exhibitions we went to.
Looking through this archive of my thoughts, feelings, mistakes and triumphs makes me feel both elated and forlorn.
I teeter vicariously between laughter and tears throughout the experience of sifting through over 10 years of personal history.
The reason for this foray into my past is because I have agreed to contribute to University of Sunderland student Michelle Wall’s ‘Mementos and Memories’ art project.
Michelle hopes to exhibit the treasured and everyday items we hide away in our homes which remind us of a special memory or experience.
The inspiration for the project comes from Michelle finding an ornate suitcase in her loft. The suitcase belonged to the houses previous tenants, who had lived there for three generations.
It contained bundles of correspondence between a married couple forced to live apart during the 1940’s and 50’s. Unable to see each other they shared their lives together on paper.
“The fact these letters had been kept, treasured and survived all that time was inspiring to me,” Michelle said. “I wanted to celebrate this as a legacy to their relationship by exploring the treasured memories of others.” She says of her inspiration for the project.
Michelle, who is in the final year of her fine art degree, initialised the project by collecting and displaying her own mementos. Hers were memories of adolescence and early relationships through to recent marriage and motherhood.
She has now begun collecting the mementos of others with the aim of putting together a exhibition and book that will become a collective memento of its own because, she said, “I want us all to acknowledge and appreciate the otherwise fleeting and forgotten moments in our past.”
On the things Michelle is most interested in is the way these items are stored. “These keepsakes are often tucked away, they are too precious or personal to display,” she told me.
“To anyone else a ticket stub or a melted candle would mean nothing. Yet given its history and connection to its owner it takes on a new identity.”
The memory then begins to transcend the realm of the mind. It is transformed into a tangible, physical thing, what Michelle describes as “a vessel of sentiment.”
This is why I find myself sifting through my own mementos and memories. Reading through my old notebooks it strikes me, for better or worse, how much I’ve changed and the ways in which I’ve stayed the same.
All the bittersweet experiences of life are documented in the yellowing pages. I am thankful to Michelle for dredging it all up. I can only suggest you do the same as it was horrible and wonderful.
A very long article on the future of magazines
For me, magazines have always been something more than the words contained within them. As a culture starved teenager, the mile walk to the nearest suitable newsagent was so exiting, a thing of ritual. I would stand and devour all of the covers, wide eyed.
What I saw was possibility, other worlds, whether via an impossibly beautiful woman or a dangerous looking rock band. These objects were the antithesis of the town I lived in, they gave me a momentary, imaginary way out.
I began to fetishise the whole process, taking a perverse pleasure in not allowing myself to sneak a look between the pages. The titles themselves were incongruous; Melody Maker, Kerrang, The Face.
I loved, and still love the look and feel of magazines. For those hardy enough to hunt them down there are a wealth of beautiful magazines out there. Small publishers are throwing budgetary caution to the wind and creating innovative magazines filled with beautiful design and insightful writing.
Leafing through the impeccable selection of Magazines at Manchester’s Magma Books it’s clear I’m not alone in my obsession. Graphic Designer Mickey Devine is a member of the same clandestine club. “I just love the touch and the feel of magazines, to feel the different stocks of paper between my fingers” he says, adding “I enjoy everything down to the way the magazine folds.”
Some it would seem are a little less precious about how they consume their magazines and newspapers. In December 2009 global powerhouse publishers Condé Nast, Time Inc., News Corp. Hearst, and Meredith announced a joint venture to create industry standards for digital magazines to be read on e-readers, tablets and smartphones.
Perhaps for a generation raised on laptops and IPods this will cause little concern. The young people of today grew up with constantly changing, increasingly sophisticated digital technology; we just worried about how to program the video recorder.
Speaking of this digital generation, The Guardians Blake Morrison says, “They’ve eyes only for the luminous screen, ears only for the music in their headphones.” In the digital age the days of passing round a dog-eared copy of Razzle on a school lunch break are long gone, now they Bluetooth each other porn clips or stream hardcore videos live to their Iphone’s.
“Adults have always been worried about children’s playthings: television, computer games, loud music. Now the new worry is connectivity. A generation of young people is growing up with no concept of life without a screen and a keypad. Wherever they are, they’re plugged in and hooked up,” states Morrison.
These are young people who, as photographer Evan Baden puts it, are constantly “bathed in a silent, soft and heavenly blue glow.” They are not troubled by the fact their music has no physical format. As a result the music becomes more disposable.
For example, you can illegally download the entire Beatles back catalogue in about an hour then delete it if on first listen it’s not to your taste. Imagine as a teenager returning home with a seven-inch you had bought that day from Our-Price, then smashing it to pieces upon discovering that the chorus wasn’t instantly catchy enough.
With MP3 based music, and of magazine content on the web, the product or publication ceases to be a complete package. It is no longer a document. The album becomes obsolete, hit singles are retained, the rest disposed of. The same is true with Web based magazine content. The consumer is constantly fed new information. A reader’s attention is continually disrupted by links taking them away from the source, the boundaries between one site and the next blurred are irrecoverably.
There are very few people who are unaware of the increasing popularity of book style e-readers and the ability to read novels and other non-design based literature via Smartphones. This experience remains a straight up aping of the traditional book format because of course, why would we want anything else from a book other than to be able to read it? This is not the case however, with the magazine readers and tablets. Developers plan to re-invent the magazine wheel with an all singing, all interactive multi-media experience.
Amazon’s relatively successful kindle reader has silenced many of its critics by providing a comfortable and innovative means of reading and obtaining material. While the kindle has the ability to display magazine material such as electronic editions of publications, it allows limited interactivity mainly because magazines are not its core focus and also because largely the technology to make interactivity possible is largely still in development.
While the joint venture to create standards for magazine reader’s is shrouded in secrecy. Many of the parties involved have slowly came forward and revealed their own individual take on what the tablets and readers are going to be like. The first to do so was Time Inc. Time released a video showcasing their concept of the reader via their Sports Illustrated publication. While the video showed a product that certainly seemed interesting, there was an overall uncertainty to the whole thing. The video seemed rushed, the content muddled and confusing. And perhaps most importantly, the concept just didn’t seem to flow. It has all the bravado you would expect from a large American publisher like Time but it’s unconvincingly executed. I believe for the concept of magazine readers and tablets to succeed they must give a immersive, linear, traditional magazine style reading experience while bringing something new to the table that traditional print magazines and digital editions of magazines don’t have.
Hearst, who signed up for the magazine standards joint venture have been first out of the starting blocks in terms of showcasing a physical working product. They unveiled the Skiff reader at the January 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The product is developed within Hearst by the company, Skiff. Skiff president Gilbert Fuchsberg stated at the show, "The Skiff Reader's big screen will showcase print media in compelling new ways. This is consistent with Skiff's focus on delivering enhanced reading experiences that engage consumers, publishers and advertisers.” The unit itself is desirable enough to have gadget fans salivating yet one thing we are yet to find out about the Skiff, and indeed its developmental counterparts, is its price, how much the content will cost and how much content will be available. The company hope to commercially release the product mid-2010.
One of most convincing concepts being developed is the Mag+, designed by London based company BERG and developed by Swedish product developers Bonnier R&D. Again, the product is still in the development stage but their presentation at least seems in the keeping with the fundamental pleasures of reading magazines. The developers behind Mag+ realise they are going to face scepticism towards their product and the concept in general. They acknowledge this stating, “Magazines have articles you can curl up with and lose yourself in, luscious photography that draws the eye. They’re easy and enjoyable to read.” They hope to, “marry what’s best about magazines with the always connected, portable tablet e-reader.” Plus they appear to have put a lot of thought into making the product user friendly and cohesive while being aesthetically pleasing. It is presented as a much more slick and subtle effort than its all-guns-blazing Sports Illustrated counterpart. The Mag+ flows like a conventional magazine with pages scrolling horizontally with the added touch of making the text easier to read by having it scroll down the page. This is much more innovative than many of the current methods used by digital editions of magazines. As stated earlier, if the concept is to be a success, developers and publishers must create a product which takes magazines to the next level, rather than presenting a poor imitation or faddy embellishment of existing print media. If the Mag+ can deliver on its promises then it may be the first real contender to the print throne.
While there have been means of reading magazines paper free for a number of years, none have really taken off. In the U.S, Playboy issues editions of their magazines in pdf form but it makes for a pretty uninspiring reading experience. You may find yourself squinting at a flickering computer screen, having to zoom in and scroll to read the articles then zoom out and scroll to look at a nubile models breasts. Plus, let’s be honest, probably the only reason Playboy is available in this format is to save the blushes of a 16-year-old trying to buy his first porn mag in a local newsagents.
In July 2009, newsagent John Menzies closed their Magazines On Demand service due to lack of demand. The service allowed consumers to buy digital editions of over 140 titles downloaded directly to their computer or smartphone. A statement on the services website stated, “Digital magazines have not proved as popular as we had hoped for and in this difficult economic climate it was not possible for us to continue trading.”
I feel that the service itself was fundamentally flawed. To me, the Magazines On Demand service was ill founded on the premise that the company saw there was a viable digital future in publishing but they didn’t develop their idea enough to make it succeed, as if they were clutching at digital straws hoping that everything worked out. We live in an age of tech-savvy, cynical consumers, consumers who want a fully realised vision, product and service.
One of the potentially key problems of readers and tablets is that once the race is over to get the hardware out there, there will be a number of different models out there, all potentially using different file formats. And there is no guarantee that there will be longevity in the devices or formats. For proof, ask anyone who bought a HD DVD Player rather than its rival, the now widespread Bluray.
The HD DVD Format became commercially available in March 2008 with players costing upwards of £400. By the following February, player and format manufacturers Toshiba announced that production of players and movie discs would be abandoned.
It must sting to know you have paid £400 to watch a limited selection of movies a handful of times in less than a year and there would be no more coming, ever. This is a key concern when it comes to the emergence of magazine readers and tablets especially when you consider that rumour has it the readers could cost over $2000 when launched in the U.S.
Another concern is the financial cost of developing the ‘future of magazines’. The publishing industry of recent years has experienced lean times. 2009 saw a number of magazines close their doors (Arena, Maxim, Portfolio) and very few (Conde Naste’s Love being an exception) open theirs. This technology costs hundreds, millions even to develop just a concept. Couldn’t even a fraction of this be spent on fixing the leaky vessel that is the Magazine industry by putting some time and money into delivering quality content and finding out what consumers really want rather than jumping on a bandwagon.
As a Journalist, I want my work to be read. The format doesn’t matter to me so much in that regard. I don’t have a huge problem with this technology becoming prevalent. My biggest fear is that the content will suffer, that flashy graphics and gimmicky features to show off the capabilities of the devices will dominate.
Graphic designer Mickey Devine is concerned also, “It’s a bit like when web-based content boomed, the design suffered because only web designers could contribute to the design directly. For me, a lot of the artfulness of design was lost.” Mickey also told me he is worried at potential job losses for designers who are not willing to retrain in order to get to grips with the emerging technology at a risk that the technology may be obsolete in a few years.
On the plus side, Magazines delivered digitally would be great space savers, much like swapping your records for MP3 files and crossing your fingers in the hope your laptop doesn’t get a virus and you lose a lifetime of music.
These developments may prove to be innovative, thrilling, and revolutionary even, but for those who love magazines for their tangibility, their collectability, and their gorgeousness this will mean very little.
They will simply look around their houses piled high with books, magazines and records and just sigh thinking, if you don’t understand, then you probably never will.
What I saw was possibility, other worlds, whether via an impossibly beautiful woman or a dangerous looking rock band. These objects were the antithesis of the town I lived in, they gave me a momentary, imaginary way out.
I began to fetishise the whole process, taking a perverse pleasure in not allowing myself to sneak a look between the pages. The titles themselves were incongruous; Melody Maker, Kerrang, The Face.
I loved, and still love the look and feel of magazines. For those hardy enough to hunt them down there are a wealth of beautiful magazines out there. Small publishers are throwing budgetary caution to the wind and creating innovative magazines filled with beautiful design and insightful writing.
Leafing through the impeccable selection of Magazines at Manchester’s Magma Books it’s clear I’m not alone in my obsession. Graphic Designer Mickey Devine is a member of the same clandestine club. “I just love the touch and the feel of magazines, to feel the different stocks of paper between my fingers” he says, adding “I enjoy everything down to the way the magazine folds.”
Some it would seem are a little less precious about how they consume their magazines and newspapers. In December 2009 global powerhouse publishers Condé Nast, Time Inc., News Corp. Hearst, and Meredith announced a joint venture to create industry standards for digital magazines to be read on e-readers, tablets and smartphones.
Perhaps for a generation raised on laptops and IPods this will cause little concern. The young people of today grew up with constantly changing, increasingly sophisticated digital technology; we just worried about how to program the video recorder.
Speaking of this digital generation, The Guardians Blake Morrison says, “They’ve eyes only for the luminous screen, ears only for the music in their headphones.” In the digital age the days of passing round a dog-eared copy of Razzle on a school lunch break are long gone, now they Bluetooth each other porn clips or stream hardcore videos live to their Iphone’s.
“Adults have always been worried about children’s playthings: television, computer games, loud music. Now the new worry is connectivity. A generation of young people is growing up with no concept of life without a screen and a keypad. Wherever they are, they’re plugged in and hooked up,” states Morrison.
These are young people who, as photographer Evan Baden puts it, are constantly “bathed in a silent, soft and heavenly blue glow.” They are not troubled by the fact their music has no physical format. As a result the music becomes more disposable.
For example, you can illegally download the entire Beatles back catalogue in about an hour then delete it if on first listen it’s not to your taste. Imagine as a teenager returning home with a seven-inch you had bought that day from Our-Price, then smashing it to pieces upon discovering that the chorus wasn’t instantly catchy enough.
With MP3 based music, and of magazine content on the web, the product or publication ceases to be a complete package. It is no longer a document. The album becomes obsolete, hit singles are retained, the rest disposed of. The same is true with Web based magazine content. The consumer is constantly fed new information. A reader’s attention is continually disrupted by links taking them away from the source, the boundaries between one site and the next blurred are irrecoverably.
There are very few people who are unaware of the increasing popularity of book style e-readers and the ability to read novels and other non-design based literature via Smartphones. This experience remains a straight up aping of the traditional book format because of course, why would we want anything else from a book other than to be able to read it? This is not the case however, with the magazine readers and tablets. Developers plan to re-invent the magazine wheel with an all singing, all interactive multi-media experience.
Amazon’s relatively successful kindle reader has silenced many of its critics by providing a comfortable and innovative means of reading and obtaining material. While the kindle has the ability to display magazine material such as electronic editions of publications, it allows limited interactivity mainly because magazines are not its core focus and also because largely the technology to make interactivity possible is largely still in development.
While the joint venture to create standards for magazine reader’s is shrouded in secrecy. Many of the parties involved have slowly came forward and revealed their own individual take on what the tablets and readers are going to be like. The first to do so was Time Inc. Time released a video showcasing their concept of the reader via their Sports Illustrated publication. While the video showed a product that certainly seemed interesting, there was an overall uncertainty to the whole thing. The video seemed rushed, the content muddled and confusing. And perhaps most importantly, the concept just didn’t seem to flow. It has all the bravado you would expect from a large American publisher like Time but it’s unconvincingly executed. I believe for the concept of magazine readers and tablets to succeed they must give a immersive, linear, traditional magazine style reading experience while bringing something new to the table that traditional print magazines and digital editions of magazines don’t have.
Hearst, who signed up for the magazine standards joint venture have been first out of the starting blocks in terms of showcasing a physical working product. They unveiled the Skiff reader at the January 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The product is developed within Hearst by the company, Skiff. Skiff president Gilbert Fuchsberg stated at the show, "The Skiff Reader's big screen will showcase print media in compelling new ways. This is consistent with Skiff's focus on delivering enhanced reading experiences that engage consumers, publishers and advertisers.” The unit itself is desirable enough to have gadget fans salivating yet one thing we are yet to find out about the Skiff, and indeed its developmental counterparts, is its price, how much the content will cost and how much content will be available. The company hope to commercially release the product mid-2010.
One of most convincing concepts being developed is the Mag+, designed by London based company BERG and developed by Swedish product developers Bonnier R&D. Again, the product is still in the development stage but their presentation at least seems in the keeping with the fundamental pleasures of reading magazines. The developers behind Mag+ realise they are going to face scepticism towards their product and the concept in general. They acknowledge this stating, “Magazines have articles you can curl up with and lose yourself in, luscious photography that draws the eye. They’re easy and enjoyable to read.” They hope to, “marry what’s best about magazines with the always connected, portable tablet e-reader.” Plus they appear to have put a lot of thought into making the product user friendly and cohesive while being aesthetically pleasing. It is presented as a much more slick and subtle effort than its all-guns-blazing Sports Illustrated counterpart. The Mag+ flows like a conventional magazine with pages scrolling horizontally with the added touch of making the text easier to read by having it scroll down the page. This is much more innovative than many of the current methods used by digital editions of magazines. As stated earlier, if the concept is to be a success, developers and publishers must create a product which takes magazines to the next level, rather than presenting a poor imitation or faddy embellishment of existing print media. If the Mag+ can deliver on its promises then it may be the first real contender to the print throne.
While there have been means of reading magazines paper free for a number of years, none have really taken off. In the U.S, Playboy issues editions of their magazines in pdf form but it makes for a pretty uninspiring reading experience. You may find yourself squinting at a flickering computer screen, having to zoom in and scroll to read the articles then zoom out and scroll to look at a nubile models breasts. Plus, let’s be honest, probably the only reason Playboy is available in this format is to save the blushes of a 16-year-old trying to buy his first porn mag in a local newsagents.
In July 2009, newsagent John Menzies closed their Magazines On Demand service due to lack of demand. The service allowed consumers to buy digital editions of over 140 titles downloaded directly to their computer or smartphone. A statement on the services website stated, “Digital magazines have not proved as popular as we had hoped for and in this difficult economic climate it was not possible for us to continue trading.”
I feel that the service itself was fundamentally flawed. To me, the Magazines On Demand service was ill founded on the premise that the company saw there was a viable digital future in publishing but they didn’t develop their idea enough to make it succeed, as if they were clutching at digital straws hoping that everything worked out. We live in an age of tech-savvy, cynical consumers, consumers who want a fully realised vision, product and service.
One of the potentially key problems of readers and tablets is that once the race is over to get the hardware out there, there will be a number of different models out there, all potentially using different file formats. And there is no guarantee that there will be longevity in the devices or formats. For proof, ask anyone who bought a HD DVD Player rather than its rival, the now widespread Bluray.
The HD DVD Format became commercially available in March 2008 with players costing upwards of £400. By the following February, player and format manufacturers Toshiba announced that production of players and movie discs would be abandoned.
It must sting to know you have paid £400 to watch a limited selection of movies a handful of times in less than a year and there would be no more coming, ever. This is a key concern when it comes to the emergence of magazine readers and tablets especially when you consider that rumour has it the readers could cost over $2000 when launched in the U.S.
Another concern is the financial cost of developing the ‘future of magazines’. The publishing industry of recent years has experienced lean times. 2009 saw a number of magazines close their doors (Arena, Maxim, Portfolio) and very few (Conde Naste’s Love being an exception) open theirs. This technology costs hundreds, millions even to develop just a concept. Couldn’t even a fraction of this be spent on fixing the leaky vessel that is the Magazine industry by putting some time and money into delivering quality content and finding out what consumers really want rather than jumping on a bandwagon.
As a Journalist, I want my work to be read. The format doesn’t matter to me so much in that regard. I don’t have a huge problem with this technology becoming prevalent. My biggest fear is that the content will suffer, that flashy graphics and gimmicky features to show off the capabilities of the devices will dominate.
Graphic designer Mickey Devine is concerned also, “It’s a bit like when web-based content boomed, the design suffered because only web designers could contribute to the design directly. For me, a lot of the artfulness of design was lost.” Mickey also told me he is worried at potential job losses for designers who are not willing to retrain in order to get to grips with the emerging technology at a risk that the technology may be obsolete in a few years.
On the plus side, Magazines delivered digitally would be great space savers, much like swapping your records for MP3 files and crossing your fingers in the hope your laptop doesn’t get a virus and you lose a lifetime of music.
These developments may prove to be innovative, thrilling, and revolutionary even, but for those who love magazines for their tangibility, their collectability, and their gorgeousness this will mean very little.
They will simply look around their houses piled high with books, magazines and records and just sigh thinking, if you don’t understand, then you probably never will.
NME Tour
Shockwaves NME Tour, O2 Academy, Newcastle
February 4, 7.00pm, £16
If you are the type of person who owns a Topman store card, describes things as ‘random’, and likes their jeans of the spray-on variety, then this may be the most un-missable event of your barely burgeoning year. Previous NME tours have showcased Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs and The Ting Tings. Don’t let that put you off as this year’s bill is one of the strongest ever, featuring the forlorn delights of The Macabees, the disturbingly sprightly Bombay Bicycle Club and the achingly trendy Drums. Here’s a tip for you, not to be missed are The Big Pink and their thrilling take on My Bloody Valentine-esque shoe-gaze.
February 4, 7.00pm, £16
If you are the type of person who owns a Topman store card, describes things as ‘random’, and likes their jeans of the spray-on variety, then this may be the most un-missable event of your barely burgeoning year. Previous NME tours have showcased Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs and The Ting Tings. Don’t let that put you off as this year’s bill is one of the strongest ever, featuring the forlorn delights of The Macabees, the disturbingly sprightly Bombay Bicycle Club and the achingly trendy Drums. Here’s a tip for you, not to be missed are The Big Pink and their thrilling take on My Bloody Valentine-esque shoe-gaze.
New NGCA Exhibition
National Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland
Semiconductor: 'Heliocentric'
5 March -1 May 2010
The NGCA continues its sterling work in delivering top quality contemporary art to the North East with new exhibition ‘Heliocentric’. Created by Arts duo Semiconductor (a.k.a, Brighton based Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) the work consists of a three screen installation tracking the course of the sun across a series of landscapes. The work promises to be both beautiful and thought provoking, and if further incentive were needed, it’s free.
Semiconductor: 'Heliocentric'
5 March -1 May 2010
The NGCA continues its sterling work in delivering top quality contemporary art to the North East with new exhibition ‘Heliocentric’. Created by Arts duo Semiconductor (a.k.a, Brighton based Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) the work consists of a three screen installation tracking the course of the sun across a series of landscapes. The work promises to be both beautiful and thought provoking, and if further incentive were needed, it’s free.
Desmond Church at the NCGA Sunderland
Artists are contrary Characters. I appear to have hit a nerve with Glasgow artist Desmond Church.
Church is currently enjoying his first UK solo exhibition at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland.
He doesn’t seem concerned I’ve just compared his work to that of TV funny man Vic Reeves surreal drawings. It’s that I’ve suggested that the style and execution of his work is similar to the mordant cartoonist David Shrigley.
Church is clearly irked by this, “I think it’s an obvious comparison, one that I have to expect in regards of what I do, but I think it’s a lazy comparison. There are plenty of people that create simple line drawings in their art. I don’t think I have the monopoly on this.”
So, I ask, who, if anyone, influences your work? “Artists who have influenced me most are probably Jiri Kovanda, Peter Liversidge, Martin Creed”.
Martin Creed is most famous for his 2001 Turner Prize winning, ‘Work No. 227, the lights going on and off’. The installation consisted of an empty gallery with the lights periodically switching on and off. It appears Church views his art as a much more high-brow concern than I have given credit. Like I said, artists are contrary characters.
The Majority of the pieces in the NGCA show are large scale line drawings depicting the artists ideas for possible ‘interventions’ and ideas for installations and sculptures. The drawings are applied directly to the gallery walls, like post modern cave paintings, crude signifiers of our cruel times.
The artist himself seems torn between the elevated and the everyday. He recently graduated from the prestigious Glasgow School of Art with a first in fine Art yet is inspired largely by city living and the strange things he sees around him. He says, “It sounds trite but my work is inspired by everything, and in a way nothing. I just make work about what’s around me and what I experience.”
“I guess when you make work about what you experience everyday, and you live in a city, pigeons are a close runner-up on the list after people, and maybe Greggs.”
The Ghost of Martin Creed looms large in one of the works that proposes the idea for an installation in which, ‘An interesting noise coming from a darkened room that stops when someone enters…then continues when they leave.’
Perhaps Church is not quite the pretentious artist type he initially comes across as. In fact, his work is infused with a sly, mocking humour. It makes us laugh but it teases and frustrates us with its ambiguity. In the world of Desmond Church, nothing is as it seems.
I was on the receiving end of this frustration on my visit to the NGCA when I was accosted by a furious pensioner. The lady careered towards me fists clenched and spitting feathers. She grabbed me by the arm and shook it with all the might her fragile body could manage. “EEH! It bloody puzzles me! It bloody puzzles me! The lack of intelligence in these people!” Mr Church’s work is also perhaps not to everyone’s taste.
The work is funny, barbed and at times touching. There is a Woolworths sign which appears to be crying, as if mourning a loss of heritage while warning us against the dangers of consumerism.
Like the Woolworths piece, much of the work seems to serve a satirical purpose, a view that Church is keen to dispel, “I don’t have an agenda. Each individual work can have something interesting to say and together I aim to give a complete representation of my artistic practice.”
This sounds reasonable (if dull) but I can’t help feeling that given Church has just graduated and is only 23, he is holding his cards a little closer to his chest than I would like. Perhaps Church is so used to defending the simple aesthetic form of his work that he has found it easier to give a generic response when questioned rather than reveal the true nature of what he hopes to say with the work.
“While studying I’d be going into crits with ideas scribbled on A4 bits of paper, much of the time the conclusion I came to was that these works were often more successful when left in there propositional state” He says.
So what remains is the weird, the wonderful, the mundane and the laughable.
Perhaps one day Desmond Church will get to actually create some of his “little cuts into the world”. If I could suggest the first work from his sketch book, “cover plinth with laxative soaked bird seed. Display shitty plinth”. Coooo! Coooo!
Church is currently enjoying his first UK solo exhibition at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland.
He doesn’t seem concerned I’ve just compared his work to that of TV funny man Vic Reeves surreal drawings. It’s that I’ve suggested that the style and execution of his work is similar to the mordant cartoonist David Shrigley.
Church is clearly irked by this, “I think it’s an obvious comparison, one that I have to expect in regards of what I do, but I think it’s a lazy comparison. There are plenty of people that create simple line drawings in their art. I don’t think I have the monopoly on this.”
So, I ask, who, if anyone, influences your work? “Artists who have influenced me most are probably Jiri Kovanda, Peter Liversidge, Martin Creed”.
Martin Creed is most famous for his 2001 Turner Prize winning, ‘Work No. 227, the lights going on and off’. The installation consisted of an empty gallery with the lights periodically switching on and off. It appears Church views his art as a much more high-brow concern than I have given credit. Like I said, artists are contrary characters.
The Majority of the pieces in the NGCA show are large scale line drawings depicting the artists ideas for possible ‘interventions’ and ideas for installations and sculptures. The drawings are applied directly to the gallery walls, like post modern cave paintings, crude signifiers of our cruel times.
The artist himself seems torn between the elevated and the everyday. He recently graduated from the prestigious Glasgow School of Art with a first in fine Art yet is inspired largely by city living and the strange things he sees around him. He says, “It sounds trite but my work is inspired by everything, and in a way nothing. I just make work about what’s around me and what I experience.”
“I guess when you make work about what you experience everyday, and you live in a city, pigeons are a close runner-up on the list after people, and maybe Greggs.”
The Ghost of Martin Creed looms large in one of the works that proposes the idea for an installation in which, ‘An interesting noise coming from a darkened room that stops when someone enters…then continues when they leave.’
Perhaps Church is not quite the pretentious artist type he initially comes across as. In fact, his work is infused with a sly, mocking humour. It makes us laugh but it teases and frustrates us with its ambiguity. In the world of Desmond Church, nothing is as it seems.
I was on the receiving end of this frustration on my visit to the NGCA when I was accosted by a furious pensioner. The lady careered towards me fists clenched and spitting feathers. She grabbed me by the arm and shook it with all the might her fragile body could manage. “EEH! It bloody puzzles me! It bloody puzzles me! The lack of intelligence in these people!” Mr Church’s work is also perhaps not to everyone’s taste.
The work is funny, barbed and at times touching. There is a Woolworths sign which appears to be crying, as if mourning a loss of heritage while warning us against the dangers of consumerism.
Like the Woolworths piece, much of the work seems to serve a satirical purpose, a view that Church is keen to dispel, “I don’t have an agenda. Each individual work can have something interesting to say and together I aim to give a complete representation of my artistic practice.”
This sounds reasonable (if dull) but I can’t help feeling that given Church has just graduated and is only 23, he is holding his cards a little closer to his chest than I would like. Perhaps Church is so used to defending the simple aesthetic form of his work that he has found it easier to give a generic response when questioned rather than reveal the true nature of what he hopes to say with the work.
“While studying I’d be going into crits with ideas scribbled on A4 bits of paper, much of the time the conclusion I came to was that these works were often more successful when left in there propositional state” He says.
So what remains is the weird, the wonderful, the mundane and the laughable.
Perhaps one day Desmond Church will get to actually create some of his “little cuts into the world”. If I could suggest the first work from his sketch book, “cover plinth with laxative soaked bird seed. Display shitty plinth”. Coooo! Coooo!
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