This is the public blog of What They Could Do, They Did a loose collective of artists rooted in South London. We'll be writing about the cultural, creative and miscellaneous happenings that are relevant to us, particularly those surrounding Herne Hill, Tulse Hill, Peckham, New Cross, Dulwich and beyond...
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What They Could Do, They Did
Arts, events and culture in South London and beyond...
Creative masterclasses at 198 Gallery
tags: 198, events, southlondon
198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, Herne Hill, are offering a series of free development masterclasses for emerging artists, curators and gallerists. Beginning in mid October and running until early 2010, with repeats of each class, they cover the whole gamut of artworld topics:
Fundraising and Finance
14th October 2009 & 2nd February 2010
Evaluating your Project
20th October 2009 & 8th February 2010
Artist Run Spaces
12th October 2009 & 25th January 2010
Contracts and Copyright
26th October 2009 & 18th February 2010
Becoming Freelance
12th November 2009 & 21st January 2010
Gallery Education
10th November 2009 & 10th February 2010
Curating Exhibitions and Projects
25th November 2009 & 27th January 2010
23rd November 2009 & 19th January 2010
Socially Engaged and Participatory Practice
18th October 2009 & Thursday 4th February 2010
10th December 2009 & 25th February 2010
All classes are free but require a £10 refundable deposit.
For more info, there's a full PDF available on the 198 website.
The Dream Machine fathers' day record fair
tags: dreammachine, events, southlondon, hernehill
http://www.dreammachinerecords.co.uk/?p=240
Where does the apostrophe go in "fathers' day"? This, and many other questions, answered this Fathering Sunday at the Dream Machine record fair, a newly beloved regular event at the Half Moon. Dad-centric events include 10% fathers' discounts and an open-mic for musically doting paternal types to perform odes to their offspring.
However, they do advise: Please do not kidnap any children to try and claim your discount.
More info on The Dream Machine website.
What They Could Do 'zining it up at the Albany, Deptford
tags: southlondon, deptford, magazine
Tomorrow night is the second edition of OOXXOO's fine nights at the Albany, Deptford. We'll be there manning a stall with current and past editions of They Did magazine and other publications, plus all manner of other WTCD trinkets.
The lineup looks awesome, and it's also made some waves in the Guardian and Time Out's hot lists. Come down, say hi, buy stuff.
David Tudor's Rainforest IV at Area 10, Peckham
tags: events, music, london, southlondon, peckham
David Tudor's environmental sound piece Rainforest IV is to be performed at Area 10 Project Space, Peckham, from July 3-4. It's a monumental piece, in size, scope and time, making use of the resonant properties of physically installed objects to create a strongly immersive and collaborative work.
Tudor himself describes it thus:
"In 1973 I made 'Rainforest IV' where the objects that the sounds are
sent through are very large so that they have their own presence in
space. I mean, they actually sound locally in the space where they are
hanging as well as being supplemented by a loudspeaker system. The
idea is that if you send sound through materials, the resonant nodes
of the materials are released and those can be picked up by contact
microphones or phono cartridges and those have a different kind of
sound than the object does when you listen to it very close where it's
hanging. It becomes like a reflection and it makes, I thought, quite a
harmonious and beautiful atmosphere, because wherever you move in the
room, you have reminiscences of something you have heard at some other
point in the space. It's (can be) a large group piece actually, any
number of people can participate in it. It's important that each
person makes their own sculpture, decides how to program it, and
performs it themselves. Very little instruction is necessary for the
piece. I've found it to be almost self-teaching because you discover
how to program the devices by seeing what they like to accept. Its
been a very rewarding type of activity for me. It's been done by as
large a group as 14 people. So that was how our Rainforest was done."
-- David Tudor
The performance features several luminaries of the London DIY/noise scene.
Read more on the Area 10 website.
Reclaim The Beach 09
on 14 may 2009
tags: events, southlondon, southbank, music, beach
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101326940848
As the good weather continues to tease London, you know it's time to hit that disconcertingly-hued stretch of River Thames sand for the first Reclaim The Beach party of 2009.
It's this Saturday, May 16, 10pm - 4am, featuring Speakers Quartet live plus "funk, cuban, brazilian, african and every other kind of breaks they can find aswell as a massive healthy dose of Roots Reggae, Mash Up, Bashment & Dancehall Vibrations to keep the party rocking til' the tide comes in..".
More info on the Facebook event.
Beyond Signal #4 at Area 10, Peckham
tags: events, experimental, noise, peckham, area10, beyondsignal, southlondon
Bit short notice but tomorrow night is the fourth in the now-almost-veteran series of DIY noise and hacked-up electronics, Beyond Signal. Expect devastating volumes of digital viscera in the makeshift surrounds of Area 10 Project Space.
J MILO TAYLOR (real time A/V 3D)
DAWN SCARFE & MEL GOUGH (live radio tuning and resonant soundscape)
JOHN RICHARDS (Diy electronics & power noise)
MARIE VERRY (A/V punk noise)
SZ,BERLIN (Extreme industrial electronic music)
THENOISER aka JULIEN OTTAVI (audio freak & oscillators battle)
RYAN JORDAN / LUKE JORDAN / PATRICK TRESSET (Diy electronics, home built instruments and python)
ODDSCENE & MAGMA (ICED video noise installation)
Our tip is the Jordan/Jordan/Tresset combo, featuring ritualistic strobe fx, light sensors, and generative visuals driven by live facial recognition software. Bring earplugs.
Swine flu closes down Dulwich school
tags: health, southlondon, dulwich
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/.../article6221290.ece
The Times reports that a Dulwich independent school has been shut down due to cases of swine flu. SE London, don your surgical masks...
WTCD: Escape, April 2009
on 29 april 2009
tags: events, escape, music, london, southlondon
Tomorrow! This month curated by by Tom Moore, and featuring Organised Violence, AEO, The Ethical Debating Society, Dire Euphorrhea and more...
In one month's time, it's the first birthday of the Escape series, so watch this space for an exciting megamix of a lineup. In the meantime, we're thrilled and slightly perplexed to be involved in events at the ICA and National Gallery over the next two weeks. Details very very shortly.
OOXXOO presents... A Stolen Recordings and Germs of Youth Showcase
tags: ooxxoo, events, southlondon, deptford, albany, dj, music
The great people at OOXXOO are launching the first of a series of nights at Deptford's chronically underexposed Albany arts complex, next Thursday (23 April). Features Pete and the Pirates, Your Twenties, No Pain In Pop + Offmodern DJs plus much more...
More info on the Facebook event, and get tickets from Ticketweb.
Greenwich Village Market to close, Brixton Market gets reprieve...
tags: shopping, market, london, history, development, brixton, greenwich, southlondon
I was devastated to discover that Greenwich Village Market is to cease trading after this weekend (21/22 March) — to make way for a housing development which is no longer to take place. As the Evening Standard reports:
The land was originally earmarked for housing but the recession stopped that. The developers have pulled out. Yet the owners of the site, Capital and Counties, have still given the market notice to quit.
There is talk of Greenwich University buying the land but even if it happened, the site would be vacant for years while a proposal is worked up and taken through the planning process.
For those who aren't familiar with the Greenwich markets, the Village Market is the slightly scruffy outdoors part towards the station, open on weekends with myriad antiques, record and bric-a-brac stalls of the type that can be eminently rooted through for a full afternoon. It's adjacent to the fantastically nichey Old Bottle Shop, and has long been my favourite of London's markets, nestling between the overpriced tourist-magnets of Portobello and Spitalfields and the glorious rock-bottom junk hoard of Deptford.
And yes, it's being turfed out to remain derelict for the foreseeable future. Thanks, developers. This weekend is the last weekend that they will be trading, and I urge people to make a swift visit before it's gone.
There's also news that the venerable Brixton Market almost befell the same fate, with London Associated Properties attempting to steamroller it into a "West End-style shopping precinct", but it has received a temporary reprieve thanks to the onset of recession and protests from local traders. There's a current attempt to get the site listed to make this arrangement permanent - here's hoping...
Lucky PDF Warehouse Party
tags: events, warehouse, party, southlondon, luckypdf, club
http://pecknam.com/.../lucky-pdf-warehouse-party/
Pecknam writes about one of those all-too-rare things, an upcoming South London warehouse party. It's run by Lucky PDF (link down at time of writing), an arts collective based in Camberwell/Peckham who have recently taken over Peckham High Street's UNITY centre as a space for exhibitions and events.
Details: Friday 20th March, till 4am, entry around £6 or cheaper with a flyer (which, they assure us on the facebook event, will be lying around outside the venue on the night).
Lineup includes:
» MY PANDA SHALL FLY (WILDLIFE)
» BUDAKAN (FABRIC, MATTER)
» DEAN TYNAN (UNIVERSAL)
» STR8 NECKLIN ALLSTARZ (MATTER)
» BOOGALOO CREW (TROUBLE VISION)
» OFF MODERN DJS
» JEAN GENIE (XFM)
» ONLYJOE (DJ SET)
» THE KIDS (PO PO PUNK)
» JULIETS (PUSH DJS)
» HAPPY SCHOOL DJS (WONDERLAND FESTIVAL)
» CONCEPT (BUKKAKE)
» ELUSIVE (BUKKAKE)
» IDEALIST
» BEZOOMYAZURE (BUKKAKE)
More info: Facebook.
Rock Your Frocks Off at the Marlborough tomorrow
tags: wimbledon, events, southlondon, camberwell, fashion
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=57208952553
Tomorrow night at the Marlborough (SE5), Wimbledon College's costume kids are running a degree show fundraiser which promises to be packed with costume parades, dancing and plentiful music.
Black Tongues www.myspace.com/blacktonguesband
Super Tennis www.myspace.com/ilovesupertennis
Sound of Rum www.myspace.com/soundofrumband
Bogus Gasman www.myspace.com/bogusgasman
plus DJs Mr Hovis and Popcorn Charlie.
Saturday 14 March
7.30pm - 1.30am
67 Sedgmoor Place, Camberwell, SE5 7SE
More on the facebook group...
Nuclear weapon thermal damage maplet
tags: southlondon, nuclear
http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16
Continuing our nuclear season, H pointed me to this Google mapplet which estimates the range of thermal damage caused by a hypothetical nuclear attack.
Following this, I keyed in the postcode for Peckham Rye station, and was told that the fallout from a modern 340 kiloton B61 bomb would stretch from London Bridge to Clapham on the west, Crystal Palace in the south, and beyond Catford to the east. Zoiks.
(disclaimer: notwithstanding the fact that these figures are for a primed nuclear weapon at optimal detonation altitude, rather than a dirty bomb with the non-weapons-grade material on board these transport services)
Wycinanki and Japanese fairy tales at The Horniman
tags: horniman, art, southlondon, japan, poland, craft, folk, web
For March, Londonist has selected the Horniman Museum as its Museum of the Month. And it's well-deserved: the Horniman has that magical aura of a secret trove, with its lovingly-preserved menagerie of stuffed beasts, musical instruments museum, and beautiful gardens.
As the author comments,
What is charmingly old-fashioned is the odd mix of topics covered, with one wing dedicated to the (stuffed and mounted) animal world, one to human artefacts, and a delightful aquarium in the basement. The museum doesn't try for completeness in any one area, but instead reflects the whims of its founder, indiscriminate of nature and culture. It's this hodgepodge approach that endears the Horniman to so many Londoners.
The latest article draws attention to the Horniman's overlooked but extensive library, via some beautiful excerpts from a 19th century Japanese book of illustrated fairy tales.
The Horniman is also currently hosting an exhibition of Polish wycinanki or paper cuts. In conjunction with the Polish cultural institute.
Wycinanki originated as an inexpensive means of decorating the homes of Polish peasants and were popular from the mid 19th century. They were generally made by women using sheep-shearing scissors and any readily available paper and replaced each spring when homes were whitewashed. With the advent of communism, Wycinanki were promoted by the new administration as an example of non-bourgeois art and enjoyed enormous popularity along with other forms of folk art.
On till September 2009, this makes for an essential spring/summer trip.
Shunt to inhabit former cigar warehouse in Bermondsey
tags: shunt, london, southlondon, theatre, spaces
http://www.thestage.co.uk/.../...
It's with a mixture of delight and sadness that we are to be one of the last tenants of the current incarnation of Shunt Vaults, a landmark of London's cultural landscape.
However, fear not for the future of this inveterate venue: it has recently been announced that they have been granted permission to inhabit a former cigar warehouse just down the road in Bermondsey, with a three-year lease, opening with "a large-scale, site-specific Shunt theatre production". Image of the building here.
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