Today's idea - 'Beyond Practice' Degree Show

We're always banging on with praise about the latest Brighton Photography/Art/Digital production, but today we recommend Sussex's Media Practice and Theory Degree show which finishes Wednesday. It encompasses all the practical media courses (long list) and having seen some of the work, they're all really fantastic and I can't recommend them enough.



Made up of photography, screen drama, radio, digital media, and video documentary; I've had a peek at the trailer for one of the films, which acts as an indicator better than I can say.



I've had the pleasure this year of watching a couple of the projects come together and grow, and it's been a challenging sort of 'journey' and everyone's done fantastically. I've been in classes with a couple of the guys behind the excellent work, and it's sounded harrowing, rewarding and they've got no end of excitement for their projects. Especially Bob who shoots some of our gig photos and whose project sounds fantastically odd and wonderful. (Short plug over)

You can find the Facebook event here. I urge you to go. Sussex's main focus of academia is rooted mostly in books but when they do go practical, they do it brilliantly.

It's running until Wednesday June the 2nd, so I'm popping up to Falmer today before the week properly starts. It's open between 10am-5pm, and it's right by Stamner park which a gorgeous place for a walk.

Map: here

If you're hungering for more art after this, then perhaps check out Brighton's latest offering that we'll be featuring tomorrow (probably).

Today's idea - Glimpse into the Dream Home labyrinth

Today the Phoenix Gallery is doing something a bit cool. Whilst the description initially makes it sound like either an open homes show, or a Through the Keyhole, it sounds far more interesting.

A "voyeuristic tour of a home which has been inserted into a public gallery space. Moving through a labyrinth of hallways, rooms, wardrobes and hidden spaces, visitors can catch glimpses of the private lives of its inhabitants," they say. Now, here's the bit we like:

"Sculptor Ben Thomson has designed a floor plan into which he and other artists have poured their dreams and fantasies in the form of installations, photographs, paintings, drawings, film, sculpture and animation. Rather than replicating a literal domestic interior, the spaces evoke a range of memories and qualities associated with notions of ‘home’ -- comfort, vulnerability, ambition, nostalgia, secrets and discovery." Secrets! we heard. The way that stories develop through the revealing of facts can be fascinating, intriguing. I'll cite An Inspector Calls and Jonathan Creek as two disputably good examples.

"Glimpsed through windows and heard through the walls, a cast of characters begins to reveal itself. From adolescent dreamers and nuclear families to time travellers and transients, the protagonists appear through the objects they gather and the environments they create. Visitors will encounter the house’s diverse occupants through the work of Gary Barber, Alvaro Collar, Fox & Gammidge, Jonathan Gilhooly, Caitlin Heffernan, Rona Innes, Kim L Pace, Natalie Papamichael, Jim Sanders, and Ben Thomson."

You can find a list of events here, and below is a video of the making which gives a good idea of how big the porject is but with admittedly has some painful narrating.



Times: Tue - Sun, 11am - 5pm.
Map: here.
Continues until June 6.


Today we also adore Steampunk's Gentlemen's Relish which we accidentally wrote on Wednesday. It's taking place today.

ALSO! We love the free sampling of sausages and 'sausage games' which makes me giggle, including a sausage and cider treasure hunt, sausage bobbing, sausage snap, and pin the tail on the piggy. This is happening at Sussex Yeoman Pub. I'm going to spend today recreating my own sausage games in the back garden.

Today's idea - Cream12 at the Crane Kalman Gallery

If you've recently wandered down Kensington Gardens past the Crane Kalman Gallery, a place that looks suspiciously too much like an expensive photography store than a gallery to warrant a visit, you may have noticed a change in display. Until the 4th of April the gallery will be displaying a Showcase of Graduate Photography Talent, titled Cream12. It follows last year's display with BA photography graduates of 2008, and they seem keen and excited to feature more interesting, diverse, and people-pulling photographs on their mass of white walls.

"The exhibition includes graduates from the most prestigious universities and colleges the length and breadth of the country from Westminster to Glasgow; Derby to Newport" with work from Tigran Asatrjans, Laura Ruutel-Ball, Leah Bartczak, Berenice Bassett, William Edward Head, Shiho Kito, Yngvild Mehren, Arthur Molyneux, Ceridwen Olofson, Josh Pollen, Carole Suety, and Jayne Taylor.

From a short walk past, the picture in the windows, as all good window pictures should be, looks intriguing and lovely and the free area definitely worth a pop into, fulfilling an arty category during a stroll into town.

The gallery's open Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, and Sun 10.30am-4.30pm.

Today's idea - The Moving Image Exhibiton

Today, "See movement and time unfold" at Hove Museum in their new exhibition which opened last week. The exhibition, The Moving Image, contrasts how movement is shown in both photography and art, and whilst aimed at families, children, and students, it looks set to be interesting for all human beings.

"Eadweard Muybridge was a 19th century photographer who was the first to develop photographic sequences of moving objects. Placing studies in his famous series Animal Locomotion alongside paintings, engravings and drawings selected from Brighton & Hove Museums’ Fine Art Collection, reveals how artists can represent movement even within a static image.

Muybridge’s studies – including cats, horses and elephants – show his understanding of motion as an event taking place in a sequence of phases. Traditionally in fine art, however, movement is communicated through a single significant moment. The Moving Image illustrates the many ways in which we can ‘see’ movement and time unfold."

The Moving Image will be accompanied by activities for families, such as the creation of flicker-books and optical toys.

Moving Images is free and runs until September the 1st. Find it on the top floor of the Hove Museum, and find it on the map here.

Today's idea - Rock Archive 2010 Collection

Keeping to a worldwide tradition of staring at rock celebrities, a Rock Archive 2010 exhibition is currently posted at the Crane Kalman Gallery with classic photos of 'music's greatest names' which can be briefly summarised as such: Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, The Clash, and Jimi Hendrix. The exhibiton's made up of a mix of photos from various esteemed practitioners including David Corlo, Storm Thorgerson, Jill Furmanovsky, Gerard Mankowitx, and Sheila Rock. In non-art terms this means some lovely massive black and white shots.

The project began with Jill Furmanovsky's selection of 30 shots from her 30 year archive (quite appropriate) to be made into an edition of 30 darkroom prints. The project's expanded to more than 50 photographers and art-directors amassing 500 photos amongst themselves.

The rock array brings a collection of live shows, photos from collaborations with the musicians (i.e. they pose directly for the camera), and documentary images. The Crane Kalman Gallery resembles a photography store more than a gallery (perhaps essentially the same thing) nestled into Kensington Gardens. Photos tend to be good, massive things, worth a look at.

Times: 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, 10:30am-4:30 Sundays.

Today's idea - The Polyarnye Nochi (Polar Nights) Exhibition

Ah yes, another exhibition. There's alternatives today such as the happy-sounding Motown Dancing In The Streets at the Theatre Royal, but this costs from £14-28.50 and we thought we'd recommend something cheaper.

Similarly to yesterday's exhibition, this one by Simon Roberts focuses on cold-sounding places. This time though it's all photo based and some are really rather nice. It's held at the Crane Kalman Gallery, big on local artists and contemporary good stuff. In fact the pr blurb covers it all really quite well.

"So you think you’ve got it tough? Take your chilblains down to the Crane Kalman Gallery to see what it really means to shiver. Polyarnye Nochi focuses on winter in northern Russia, finding a region shrouded in darkness nearly 24 hours a day, a phenomenon known as Polyarnye Nochi (Polar Nights). Throughout December until mid-January, the sun remains below the horizon and there is only a faint glow of light visible around midday. One third of Russia's population live and work in these inhospitable climatic conditions. It is perhaps miraculous that factories, apartment blocks, towns and entire cities have been constructed in what should be a deserted, Arctic wasteland."

The Crane Kalman Gallery can be found on Kensington Gardens of the North Laine variety (Google Map link here) and the exhibition runs until the 7th of February.

Visit the Xuma Gallery for the 'Dreamland-by-the-sea & Eastern Soul' Photography Exhibition

The Xuma gallery is an interesting one. Hyped as a small-bar-gallery, many of which can potentially just turn out to the awkwardly busy sofa-filled places to view art, this is more of a gallery. It's a nice haunt with a warm atmosphere and a mass of comfy red velvet seats, and is running a romantically titled 'Dreamland-by-the-Sea & Eastern Soul' photography exhibition.

Photos by Kit Fordham 'technicolour reclamation of our love affair with the English seaside and 'Eastern Soul: Russia & The Balkans', a soulful black and white odyssey of life and church life in post-Communist Christian Orthodox Europe.'

Xuma is definitely hyped as a unique little place and can get a little busy with 30-somethings at weekends, located on the corner of Seven Dials. It's split over two levels and serves real ale (which, not being an ale fan, I believe is a good thing).

Oh and wifi, without being a Starbucks. Horray.


The exhibition runs until January 14th.

Here, on the map:


View Larger Map

Moonlighting Photography Exhibition and drinks

Today we're advising a pub not only for drinking but also under the guise of something vaguely arty. The Eagle in the North Laines has an exhibition on called 'Moonlighting' currently on display with a collection organised by Alex Bamford of moonlit photos taken in and around Brighton. Do pop in if you're around.

Not only the exhibition, but if you fancy a drink or such to accompany your eye-fest, the pub's a laid back sort of place with good food that's most definitely above average (meaty and vegetarian) and is tucked away just off Sydney Street in the heart of the North Laines. It's just off the main road so not the most obvious, but enough people know about it for it to be kept busy. A good crowd and decent music we're assured=, although perhaps a little pricey.

Investigate art with a drink - something we're always keen on.

Find a map here (it's not hard to find). The show's running until the 31st of December.