Wednesday 21^st July
Impressions Gallery
Centenary Square, Bradford
11:00am – 4:00pm

Further details: Patrick Allen, Urbanism and Visual Culture, Bradford Media School, University of Bradford, UK.
Email: p.t.allen@bradford.ac.uk

11:00 – 1:00

Patrick Allen, Bradford Media School: City of Tiny Lights

Robert Galeta, School of Art and Media, Bradford College: Deleuze  and the Builders

Dave Robison, Bradford Media School: AMICITIAS

1:00 – 1:30 break/lunch

1:30 – 2:30

Tina Richardson, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds:

From Nation-State to Excellence: negotiating the posthistoric University

Alex Bridger, Department of Psychology, Huddersfield University: Walking as Political Research

2:30 – 3:30

Kate Mellor, Artist: Homeworks and Streetworks: perceiving and imaging place

Simon Ford (School of Art and Media, Bradford College /The Bradford Grid Project introducing: City Walk Installation

4:00pm Preview: The Bradford Grid: City Walk Installation. Pop-Up Gallery, Centenary Square.

Architecture and Cinema

A one-day Symposium

Saturday 20th March 2010, 10am-6pm

‘On Location’, National Media Museum, Bradford

Programme

10.00- Welcome refreshments and Introduction

10.15

David B. Clarke (Swansea U) – ‘Betaville – or, whatever happened to utopia?’

11.00

Murray Grigor (filmmaker) – ‘Space in Time: Filming Architecture’

11.45 – Tea/Coffee Break

12.00

Patrick Allen (U of Bradford) – TBC

12.45 – Lunch (Provided)

13.45

Mark Tewdwr-Jones (UCL) – ‘John Betjeman and the use of Film as Architectural Propaganda’

14.30

Justin Jaeckle (Architecture Foundation) – TBC

15.15 – Tea/Coffee Break

15.30

Richard Gray (Cinema Theatre Association) – ‘Magic Lantern to Multiplex’

16.00- Speaker TBC

16.45- Closing Remarks

ADMISSION FREE

Lunch, Refreshments and Screenings provided

To reserve a place or to get more information on the TIMECODE series contact: Mark Goodall (m.goodall@bradford.ac.uk) Tel +44 (0)1274 236071

http://bms.brad.ac.uk/research/timecode.php

• The mediation of place and locality

• The distinction between the real and the virtual

• The body as a frame of information

The work presented here is based on a long-term study of the BBC’s Big Screen network, a unique network of connected screens across the UK. The case study that forms a central part of this paper is drawn from the analysis of content designed specifically for presentation on the BBC’s Big Screen in centre of Bradford. Whilst they key focus of the paper is the transformation in the experience of urban space as a consequence of the introduction of the screens into prominent city centres locations, many other issues come to light in respect of the management of media content designed with the locality in mind and the ways that key partnerships develop that means that the screens have a distinctively local quality. In addition, more general issues are discussed in relation to the rapid rise in augmented public space and the role played by the interaction of a number of media technologies. Finally, this paper will briefly consider some innovative ways in which large-scale LED screens have been combined with other technologies such as mobile gaming and social networking in ways that transform participant’s engagement with the locality.

This link goes to the latest draft of the paper submitted to Cyberworlds ‘09.

[7-11 September 2009, University of Bradford, UK, Sponsored by IEEE Computer Society and organised in-cooperation with ACM - link to conference website]

A one-day workshop, 26th June 2009

The National Media Museum

This link goes the presentation slides for the MeCCSA 2009 Conference (pdf format), hosted by the University of Bradford and the National Media Museum, January, 2009.

This is especially true when considering the evolution of the BBC’s network of screens. To date the BBC’s network of screens amounts to 18 across the UK all located in major city centres. The fact that they are networked makes them unique in that there is no such similar network elsewhere. What follows is a brief case study based on the consideration of the BBC’s screen in Centenary Square, Bradford and considers the site specific nature of the screen – its local context – and in the light of this the way in which place and locality are mediated via these screens as part of the overall experience of the cityscape.

Consideration of the actual physical context of these screens is critical and each one is unique in the sense that the physical location in each case is itself unique in its design, evolution and the variable nature of the local environmental context. Even relatively simple physical features such as the height of the screen can have an impact on its reception. Its position in the built environment and its relations to passers-by will also have an impact and will be determined by features in the landscape such as the position and direction of pedestrian walkways or the location of bars and cafes, as in the case of the Bradford screen.

Screen management and curatorial practices are also often determined by the local context. The BBC’s Big Screen network – aka “Public Space Broadcasting” – involves partnerships between the Broadcaster, local authorities, hardware developers. Programming of content is now managed centrally by Locog and supported by local content managed by individual screen managers across the network. In addition to this local partnerships for content providers and artist groups have enabled more informal and home grown content to be provided for these screens.

Site for video art

In addition, with the framing of content and it formal arrangement and composition on these screens clearly marks of the locality in each instance and there are, therefore, many cues to indicate location.

Framing location on screen

There are other ways of applying the concept of locality to Augmented Public Space. For example, as discussed in Allen (2008), the site specific nature of place and locality and the fixed and contextual nature of all media representations – as true of augmented public space as any other place – rests ultimately on the location of the body and the body will always be located in real space-time however much it might be in interaction with representations outside of the physical location. The body in many discourses, especially those generated largely across visual, spatial and tactile modalities, is the ultimate frame for information.

To add to this, “both the building upon which an urban screen is placed, and the space in which a building is located can be considered to be a form of multimodal text“, and the consequence of this is that it “leads to considering how only a blurred distinction seems tyo exist between space and information, as elements of space increasingly are powerful conveyers of information, whilst information – materialised into them – becomes more and more spatially related”.

Another important distinction here is that between the Real and the Virtual.

There has been a significant impact on the visual appearance and experience of the urban environment as a consequence of the emergence of augmented public space. What follows is an attempt to capture at least some of the reality of this transformation in the inherent structure of urban spaces, where the virtual forms inherent in the interaction with media content are experienced simultaneously with the real structure of the built environment. Such a transformation has occurred primarily through the integration of the built environment with the, so called, “media layer” in that a range of digital display technologies and communications media now coexists with architecture. At the most basic level, one key argument is that, due to the application of display technologies such as large LED screen displays into city centre environments and the pervasive use of personal mobile communications devices, the majority of city centres in the UK now fall into the category of augmented urban spaces rather than this being confined to major international and global cities as suggested elsewhere (Manovich 2006).

A Case Study on the site-specific nature of Urban Screens

Themes:

1. The Mediation of Place and Locality
2. The Distinction between the Real and the Virtual
3. The Body as a Frame of Information