What They Could Do, They Did

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

Using the Internet
28th October 2009 & 16th February 2010

Curating Exhibitions and Projects
25th November 2009 & 27th January 2010

Marketing
23rd November 2009 & 19th January 2010

Socially Engaged and Participatory Practice
18th October 2009 & Thursday 4th February 2010

Networking Event
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lineup:

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.

Two thrilling events featuring WTCD cohorts appearing around central London this week:

Heavy Pencil (ICA)
Thursday 7 May | FREE
info

Mimi Leung is taking a break from drawing landscapes and recording dingo songs in the Outback in order to visit the ICA with her cohorts, visual and sound artists Tom Moore and Ad Hoc. They will be drawing in response to music produced by each other, plus better-known songs remixed live by Ad Hoc, and they might even play a live song or two.

Transformations (National Gallery)
Friday 8 May | FREE
info

Princes, showgirls, painted ladies and dazzling gentlemen descend on the Gallery in May to take part in a series of live art events and costume parades.

Models wearing costumes designed and interpreted by students from Wimbledon College of Art – and inspired by paintings in the National Gallery Collection – perform outside the Gallery between 5.30pm and 6pm (weather permitting).

After the parade outside, the Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing Theatre stage becomes a catwalk for a special free show. Here, the costume designers and makers will talk about their creations.

In T-minus one week, it's the second edition of our new monthly night of cosmic sounds at 93 Feat East, Signals From The Cosmos.

This month we have joined forces with London record label Thisisnotanexit (responsible for records from artists such as Hatchback, Detachments, Brain Machine and Spectral Empire) to celebrate their latest release, the new Ultralight EP from soon to be massive Canadian duo Parallels. Unfortunately we can't afford to get Parallels to London to play for us, but we do have TINAE label boss Simon A. Carr performing a rare DJ set. Expect future music of the highest order.

In addition we will be giving away a copy of this awesome record to one lucky winner. Best of all, entry is free.

Featuring:

Simon A. Carr (Thisisnotanexit)
http://www.thisisnotanexit.net

and your regular hosts:

Urlaubshits
http://www.urlaubshits.co.uk

Ad Hoc
http://www.adhoc.fm

Also find us on Facebook or last.fm.

Our good friends from beyond Hadrian's Wall, Edinburgh's marvellous Forest Publications, are embarking on a Europe-wide tour of their poetry, prose and songsmithing. The Golden Hour passes through London tonight, appearing at The Camden Head for an evening's varied entertainment.

Entry a meagre £3, including a free copy of their Stolen Stories book.

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.

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.

In advance of the forthcoming 'Introducing Alice Saint' EP, The Capsized Smiles are playing their B-movie cabaret at Barden's monthly film night, The Pictures.

Featuring:

film!
KISSING ON THE MOUTH
Joe Swanberg's (Hannah Takes The Stairs, Alexander The Last, one of the founders of the so-called 'mumblecore' movement) feature debut, starring Kate Winterich, Kevin Pittman, Kris Williams and Swanberg. A confrontational and startling film exploring issues of sex and infedility within post-college relationships. Ellen (Winterich) is caught between guiltily sleeping with her ex-boyfriend, who is looking for more than sex, and appeasing her jealous and secretive flatmate. The film is an innovative mix of drama and verite interviews.

"The most important film about a young generation since Slacker" - File Thirteen

live music!
THE CAPSIZED SMILES
(B-movie tales of horror, woe and wild wild joy. They're not coming for your pop music)
HOLLY AND JESSIKA
(influences: pathetic tv losers. mainly dawson o'leary, followed by ally mcbeal. and rock'n'roll)

performance! CONSTANTINOPLEX perform a live soundtrack to their video production.

DJs! BORING GIRLS bringing the party

plus FREE BINGO, FREE POPCORN
Performance, Art Stars, Happy Hour all night,
DJs and Live Music til late.
7pm-2am, Bardens Boudoir, Stoke Newington High Street N16.

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.

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.

Lineup includes:

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
The Marlborough
67 Sedgmoor Place, Camberwell, SE5 7SE

More on the facebook group...

As our doomed country continues to dovetail with the Great Depression of the 1920s, we can't help but cast our minds back to those halcyon days of prohibition America -- and so it is that, this Saturday, What They Could Do bring to your our very own take on smokey subterranean vaudeville and sleaze with THE FREAKEASY...

Taking place within the underground tunnels of SHUNT VAULTS, we'll be featuring the spooky B-movie cabaret of THE CAPSIZED SMILES, the molasses blues of KARDY, other-wordly refrains from THE TEA AND TOAST BAND, the lunatic country of THE LONESOME COWBOYS FROM HELL, and the
fruit-based titillation of MADAME MARIE.... plus, as always, much more.

Read about it here:

www.theydid.org.uk/2009/shunt/

The Freakeasy is also just one part of the four-day Allfours festival
curated by Brighton's Beatabet collective. Access to the whole night is
included in the ticket price; info here:

www.beatabet.net/Microsites/all_fours/allfours.html

GETTING HERE...
Shunt Vaults, London Bridge
Saturday 7 March
8pm - 3am
Entry £10 pounds, photo ID mandatory!

see you all underground...

South London's most numerous forest-dwellers The Mentalist Association this week pull themselves temporarily from their late-winter hibernations, joining forces with Supine Studios for an evening of masquerade and phizogs at Barden's Boudoir.

Face Value features such jungle idols as Shimmy Rivers And Canal and the Tea and Toast Band (whose new material we were lucky enough to recently catch at this, and we can vouch that it's reeeaalllly good).

Doors 8pm, £3 in if you're wearing a mask...

Full lineup:

LIVE:
Shimmy Rivers And And Canal
Team B
Chevy Chase
The Tea and Toast Band

Troop Foonooch (A Dance Troop from Peckham)

DJs:
Anchorman Kentish
Little Oh!
Baboarran Khorash
The Mentalists Association DJs
The Supines