Barbad unlikely to make Sligo Symposium due to the situation in Iran

A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi shouts slogans during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner by a landslide in Iran's hotly-disputed presidential vote, triggering riots by opposition supporters and furious complaints of cheating from his defeated rivals. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)

Medium Religion artist Barbad Golshiri, who was in Sligo for the installation of his work mAmi and the Exhibition opening on May 23rd, is unlikely to make a planned return visit to Sligo this weekend to participate in the Medium Religion Symposium: Religious Challenges, Challenging Religions, due to the current political situation in Tehran. We are looking at ways to involve Barbad remotely, or his work, in Saturdays Symposium and we’ll keep you posted on what might be possible.

Until today many emails and websites were blocked in Iran so international correspondents found it hard to file reports.  Email, blogs and twitter were, and still are, the best methods to communicate information, and twitter is still the most immediate way to follow what is happening just employ the hashtag #iranelection or follow one of the tweeters idenitified by channel 4 here>

There is so much coverage right now on the leading news sites like the BBC and Channel 4 that  there is no shortage of information avialable, but we wanted to share with you the links Barbad has emailed to us so far so you can get a sense his perspective.

We received an email from Barbad on Sunday morning with a link to this iranian blog page and the comment:

Dear Friends

Please ask your governments not to recognize the newly “selected” president of the Islamic Republic or Iran.

We then received a number of links to the following sites this morning with the subject line:

“Yesterday at least 8 people were killed near my house”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8102224.stm

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009615204230704188.html
this is the YouTube that appears above

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=26415347001
this is not a great host site and the video stalls- best to go straight to channel 4 who have excellent coverage

Naturally communication with Barbad is difficult at the present time but we’ll keep you posted on any developments he sends through and how we might involve him in Saturdays Symposium.  This iranian blog is also an excellent collator of on the ground info and reports.

BBC update on unconfirmed reports of today’s march

new media, new audience?

The Arts Council ran a conference on new media today entitled new media, new audience? (question mark their own) in Dublin which I’m just back from.  As with most conferences it was a mixed bag with some excellent contributions (from panelists and audience members alike) and some less so….

The opening keynotes from Andrew Keen and Charles Leadbeater were excellent, if divisive! Both experienced and engaging speakers with very different styles they represented two almost opposite viewpoints on the opportunities and challenges to culture that new media (web 2.0) presents and they certainly stimulated discussion into the coffee break. I think most people felt an argument that sat somewhere between the two was the way forward.  Charles’ metaphor of boulders (large, established media organisations) vs pebbles (small independent new media by way of blogs or youtube etc) was a particularly visual one that was picked up by others throughout the day.

The parallel sessions that ran all afternoon were a mixed bunch, always the case when you are subject to a somewhat blind choice.  Thankfully all the sessions are to be podcasted for free in due course so it will be possible to listen in on ones that were missed, or by anyone not in a position to attend at all. I’d highlight in particular the discussion session around the title “What would you recommend?” which was a passionate one from the panel and from the room, and well worth a listen once it’s podcasted.

One key question that arose was why there is so little blogging and online commentary on the arts in Ireland and I do wonder if it has a lot to do with the size of the pool and the confidence level of the arts consumer/producer in stating a personal opinion?

From the sessions I attended there was little discussed on the audience? of the title, and more on the commentator or the producer/artist which I can’t help but think was an opportunity missed.  On the whole, however,  the day was a great starting point. It was encouraging to see the initiative taken by the arts council, the uptake from participants and the interest in the room. Despite a varied level of awareness and familiarity with new media tools the vast majority of attendees were keen to engage and learn. As Andrew Taylor (from the Boltz Centre for Arts Administration in the US) commented the size of the irish online market and our relatively small pool of arts organisations and makers could create a fascinating greenhouse for the development of new media in culture. Watch this space.

conference slideshows and podcasts will be posted online and one of the bloggers in attendance today was live blogging which you can read here>

Hulk unveiled as new Relay artist

 

Thomas Haugh aka Hulk - the newest Relay contributor

The newest installment of the Relay project comes from irish music artist Thomas Haugh aka Hulk, and has just gone up on our relay site.  

A beautiful response to Loscil’s The Sleep Machine Thomas says of his peice; ‘As a continuation of the subject of sleep I tried to create something which represents the process of dreaming, a kind of release to the tension Jimmy and Scott created. If their music focused on the sound of places where we sleep or the transition into sleep from a conscious state then my piece is roughly intended as a kind of musical visitation, something which happens in the mind after we fall to sleep, – like a distant radio transmission rising out of silence and filling the void for just a short time.’

> Read Thomas’ full text and download the piece here

Thomas Haugh records under the name Hulk. He has produced two albums for OSAKA records (Silver thread of ghosts – 2005 and Rise of a Mystery Tide – 2008) as well as producing materials for labels such as Melodic, Static Caravan and Expanding Records. He has also remixed works by other artists, most notable Efterklang from their most recent album.

Commssioned by the Model Arts and Niland Gallery as part of model::offsite, Relay is an online music project devised and curated by musician John Lambert (aka Chequerboard).