4am Project vs Project Brutal… The Event
April 25th, 2011
I think I’ve finally overcome my 4am Project, Brutal Library tour jet lag enough to pull together a blog post. Wow what an event, and if I do say so myself it was a resounding success.
Photo Credit: Bounder
At 4am on Sunday April 24th, Project Brutal joined forces with the 4am Project to curate a 4am photography tour of the library. Whilst the tour gave those already won round by the library’s Brutalist charm a chance to explore the building in a new way, others have proclaimed a new found appreciation of the building since the event.
Photo Credit: Nikki Pugh
Even though this was a one off event for a select group of photographers the legacy of this is a lasting one that is currently spreading across flickr, blogs and social networks as people share the images they captured.
I am truly astounded by the quality and breadth of the images I’ve seen so far. I’ve posted a sample of them here, but urge you to take a gander at the recent 4amproject tagged images on Flickr.
Photo Credit: Nick Lockey
But then it doesn’t stop at photographs as people collected video and most interestingly sounds. To be honest archiving the sounds of the library isn’t something which occurred to me until Sam Underwood utilised the 4am tour to do so. But of course sound is so important in defining an environment and one which could easily be overlooked and lost especially when dealing with such a visually dominating space.
Photo Credit: Nikki Pugh
I’m still a little overwhelmed by all that has come out of the event, but even now it feels a little wasteful leaving the visuals, videos and soundscapes dotted and isolated across the internet, and am thinking what can happen next. So if anyone has any thoughts of ideas on what we can do with these outputs (either digitally, or even IRL) then please get in touch.
Photo Credit: Nick Lockey
Many thanks to Karen Strunks for joining forces with Project Brutal for this event and all her hard work in making it a reality. Many thanks to all those at the library who were amazingly well organised, eager and willing to make this event happen from Keith, Arthur and Danny (our security guard guides during the tour), to Lee, Barry, Brian and Teresa. And finally thanks to everyone who made the wake up call to join us and help make the event such a success.
Photo Credit: 4am Project
1 Week to Go
April 17th, 2011
1 week from now I’ll probably be asleep on the sofa as just under a week from now is the 4am Project Meets Project Brutal at Birmingham Central Library. Amazingly spaces sold out in just over an hour, but we have got a waiting list for those who didn’t manage to get a space.
If you’ve got a ticket and don’t think your going to be able to make it, then please please please let us know as it would be a real shame for us to have empty spaces when there is so much interest in spaces.
Twentieth Century Arhchitect – John Madin Video
March 21st, 2011
As mentioned a few posts below, last week saw the launch of the latest book in RIBA‘s Twentieth Century Architects series John Madin, complete with a visit from the man himself.
If like me you were sadly unable to attend the event then fear not, as Lorna Parsons (Practice Manager at Bryant Priest Newman) headed down with camera in hand to capture the event as well as providing a live blog on the night for MADE.
You can view Lorna’s video of the evening below, and also read her live blog over on the MADE site,
Twentieth Century Architects – John Madin from lorna parsons on Vimeo.
Project Brutal vs The 4am Project
March 18th, 2011
After months of planning I’m so pleased to finally announce the first official Project Brutal event in collaboration with the 4am Project.
For the uninitiated the 4am Project is a worldwide photography event founded by Karen Strunks that sees photographers get out and about at 4am to capture the world. This year the 4am Project will be taking place on Sunday April 24th and alongside the global event is a Project Tour, which is where Project Brutal and the library come into the equation.
On April 24th at 4am you are invited to join us as we enter the library to capture the building at this truly magical hour as part of the 4am Project Tour in collaboration with Project Brutal. Not only will you be welcomed into the main library but also taken into some fantastic parts of the library not usually open to the public.
Tickets for this event are free but also limited, so you’ll need to register asap. Full event details are available at the eventbrite link below and tickets will be made available on Thursday March 24th at 11am so bookmark the link and set your reminders!
http://4amprojectbirmingham.eventbrite.com/
Image c/o Birmingham Library by Vladimir Morozov
John Madin Book Launch
March 17th, 2011
Tonight sees the book launch of the latest in RIBA Publishing’s ‘Twentieth Century Architects’ series ‘John Madin‘. Author Alan Clawley, a trained achitect and founder of the group ‘Friends of Central Library’ said
“Although Madin was and is well-known as Birmingham’s leading Modernist architect no account was published of the large body of work his firm did between 1957 and 1975. As well as drawing attention to buildings that face an uncertain future, the book along with the others in the series, sets out to challenge the negative perception most people have of post-war architecture and to encourage a new appreciation of its qualities.”
The event takes place at Birmingham’s Chamber of Commerce from 6:30-8:30pm, and speakers include the man himself John Madin. RSVP is essential to attend (if spaces are still available) via riba.westmidlands@inst.riba.org
The book is available to buy now and costs £20 so those interested in buying or finding our more visit http://www.ribabookshops.com
Minecraft Central Library
March 14th, 2011
Even with the vast amounts of insanely epic builds undertaken in Minecraft, I’m still in awe of maniacyak who has reconstructed the ‘inverted ziggarat’ facade of Central Library. I’m not sure from this shot how far back it goes but it would be awesome to see a video of the space.
New Website
March 13th, 2011
Finally after a month of down time I’ve shifted the Project Brutal up a notch from a tumblr to a wordpress and will be adding extra pages, recourse links over the coming weeks. The move is also womething which comes just ahead of our first event announcement which is coming soon. So come back soon or e-mail projectbrutal *at* gmail *dot* com to be added to the mailing list.