By Stewart Redwine
By Stewart Redwine
Posted on December 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Last Sunday the Ilkley flickr group met up for the on the spot challenge. This came from the idea that creativity is enhanced by constraints. Another way of looking at it is that we tend to go for the obvious choices unless disrupted in some way. And so the on the spot challenge was designed to take the participants along a different path.
We randomly chose 7 spots on a map around Ilkley which Ian published as a route map. Each participant had to stand in the spot for a maximum of five minutes and take the most interesting shots they could find.
I wasn't sure whether it would work or not but in the event it was fun and very rewarding. To make it less lonely we did the challenge in pairs which was very sociable and worked well.
See the the flickr photos herePosted on December 09, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted on December 05, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Round here cairns often mark the way, reassuring you that you're on the right path or at the summit. This one is at the top of Beamsley Beacon not far from where we live. The triangulation point in this photo marks the highest point of the hill, but as the walkers leave their stones, the highest point in fact becomes higher than the official record.
Posted on December 04, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted on December 02, 2009 in Art, Creativity, Online, video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Advent exhibition at Leftbank last Friday was was one of those thrilling 'glad we came' evenings. Everything about it was glorious - the magnificent building, the friendly ambiance, the red sofas, live music and of course the art works. I won't go into the details here, much better to visit the blog or the website , but it was great to see such a wide variety of artists celebrating the advent theme in different ways. The photos of the inn signs and the incense jar. I also liked the inclusion of the lovely work by the primary school children. Here are some grabbed stills and video, doesn't do it justice but will give you an idea.
Posted on November 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
The film making process is quite good at connecting with young people and helping them to work through their own skills preferences. I met one girl who has consistently said she wants to be an artist and I'm pretty sure she has it in her to succeed, and a couple of chunky lads who wanted to be rugby players. When I was their age I wanted to be a vicar, I'm not sure why, and then at ten or eleven I decided radio, TV or the theatre was going to be my thing.
Getting the kids to use the space and to assemble the pieces of equipment and look like a crew worked extremely well. I'm only sorry I don't have any photos because they looked great. Many thanks to Raynville, you're all brilliant.
more thinking on the workshops
Posted on November 19, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
It was for these reasons that I'd hoped that ITV could be a people channel through services like ITV Local, offering points of contact and engagement. I'd thought that it could offer an open door to its audiences and be a place where people could really meet one another and have a bit of fun. That does sound a bit like Britain's Got Talent and X Factor doesn't it, but perhaps not much else. It would be great if participatory thinking could permeate through to other areas of the output even to the regions.
Posted on November 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Love this. such a simple idea.
Posted on November 12, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tomorrow night sees the continuation of Ilkley's alternative worship services - yes it's true, even respectable ilkley folk are rocking the liturgical boat.
A small group are committed to meeting once as month to grow ideas for creative worship. The group is made up of people who are involved Churches Together in Ilkley and so it's supported not by just one church but nine churches in the town. Can't believe that there are that many.
There are many such groups around the country but each of them is quite different - the styles of worship grow around the creative talents, needs and inspiration of those involved rather than being imposed.
Tomorrow's service is called Ascending/Descending and responds to the space in which we are holding the event. Because we haven't settled a permanent venue we decided to hold the service in entrance hall of our house and use the stairwell as a vertical labyrinth.
The stations of activity will include - personal preparation for the journey, sustenance, difficult decisions, sanctuary, companionship, the top and the return. The stations will include video, music, projected images and ritual.
If you would like to visit us tomorrow or join the mailing list please drop me a note and I will give you more details markwadd1@googlemail.com
Posted on November 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I spend quite a lot of time in either Leeds or Bradford. One thing I've noticed is that people in Bradford go round in groups or couples much more than they do in Leeds. Usally there is a lot more interaction between people - smiling, laughing, joking, arguing, fighting.
In Bradfoird there seems to be quite a lot of alternative and interesting people - much less uniform and much more individual.
Posted on November 06, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted on November 05, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I came across Realising Wildness on Vimeo today. The videos are refreshingly simple and underproduced, but the quality of the photography and the subtle inclusion of movement and sounds makes them very powerful. How often do we think that a video has to have jaunty camera angles, effects and music. In these films you feel transported to the location and connected with the mood of each place. Here's the blurb from the project:
REALISING WILDNESS is a film project hoping to reach and inspire anyone (via the internet) who is perhaps spending too much of their life working on projects, or on the internet.And it is really about something so much clearer than all of this...
THAW from REALISING WILDNESS on Vimeo.
Posted on October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
A few people have asked me about converting video files to other types and codecs, and about resizing. It's not a particularly exciting aspect of video production and can be very frustrating so I thought I'd try my hand at making a video demo. This one is for Mpeg Streamclip, a small piece of free software that has become very valuable. It is simple to use an offers a way of preparing clips for both for editing and for compressing them ready for output to the internet.
Posted on October 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Having been part of the branding and marketing world I have come to appreciate the way advertising, brand and 'spin' often have very little to do with actual content and much to do with perceived value. I have also been aware many people in advertising see their world as having a close association with art; the changing or challenging of perceptions.
"Poetry is when you make new things familiar and familiar things new", "we are perishing for want of wonder not for want of wonders" These are a couple of GKC quotes picked up by advertising man Rory Sutherland in his TED talk. He has some interesting things to say about the way value is subjective and has some great illustrations from history.
He says that if you live in a world of fewer material goods, intangible value can be a pretty decent substitute. "when you place value on love, health, sex and other things, and learn to place a material value on what you have previously discounted for being intangible - a thing not seen - you realise you are much, much wealthier than you ever imagined".
He says we should spend more time appreciating what already exists and less time agonising over what else we can do.
Watch it here:
Posted on October 19, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
At the Ilkley Flickr group we have occasionally discussed the way constraints can often lead to creativity.
When you have a free reign originality is often more difficult to find than when there are limitations; somehow a constraint sets us off on a different path and we see things differently.
There's also the idea of using what we have in front of us. Sometimes we feel that we wish we had more than we've got. We might wish for better tools, a better viewpoint and so on. There is something quite refreshing about seeing what is in front of us and making the best of it.
These two thoughts about embracing constraints and looking at that resources we have (rather than those we don't have) can be very constructive.
At the ilkley flickr meet-up in November we have in mind to take photos on a pre-designated spot. The challenge will be to make the best photo we can with the given situation.
Posted on October 14, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Last night we held the first of what we hope will be a monthly alternative worship services in Ilkley (as yet un-named). The theme was "the door".
The Door seemed a good place to start as this kind of service represents a new entrance for the church here. There were some good ideas and we had a very interesting discussion on what worship actually is.
My questions was, using the idea that "less is more" what would be the minimum you could get away with in an act of worship. We discussed the Quaker silence and whether that really constituted worship, or whether it required something more elaborate. We also considered whether or not the worship was the starting point - as one said, the life of the church is like a jam dough-nut with Christ encountered in the worship at the centre from which everything else grows.
One particularly good idea to come from Stuart Jenkins was a small cardboard door held open by a rubber band. You could choose whether to keep the door open or to close it - but if you closed it the door could not be opened again. A confession, or something you wanted to close the door on, can be written inside and then you can decide if or when you want to close the door.
This was very pleasing as a gift for everyone to take away and more meaningful as Stuart had made them himself.
The next service will be on Thursday November the 12th at our house. We have the title "ascending-descending" and were going to use the stairwell with the three or four different levels as stations. As yet we have no name for the group.
If you want to follow our progress you can visit the Fresh Expressions section of the Churches Together Ilkley website. The site itself is new and so a bit sparse at the moment, but I hope will blossom.
Of course you're welcome to join us.
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Posted on October 08, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)