WORLD URBAN FORUM V - The Right to the City - Bridging the Urban Divide: 22nd - 26th March

With half of humanity already living in towns and cities, it is projected that in the next 50 years, two-thirds of us will be living in towns and cities. A major challenge is to minimize burgeoning poverty in cities, improve access of the urban poor to basic facilities such as shelter, clean water and sanitation and to achieve environmentally friendly, sustainable urban growth and development.

UN-HABITAT and the Government of Brazil have started preparations for the fifth session scheduled in Rio de Janeiro 22 - 26 March 2010. The Forum is one of the most open and inclusive gatherings of its kind on the international stage. It brings together government leaders, ministers, mayors, diplomats, members of national, regional and international associations of local governments, non-governmental and community organizations, professionals, academics, grassroots women’s organizations, youth and slum dwellers groups as partners working for better cities. The fifth session in Rio builds on the lessons and successes of the previous four events.

World Urban Youth Assembly
As in previous years, the World Urban Youth Assembly will be held from the 19 - 20 March 2010, three days prior to the main Forum. This format provides youth with the opportunity to discuss and debate issues important to them, particularly, so that they are able to make meaningful contributions to the larger forum.

How culture and media can play a role to reduce poverty and increase social cohesion in cities?

In 2009 the founder and director of Big Bang Lab, Sergio López Figueroa, received an award from the British Council, part of the Cultural Leadership Programme.  He worked in Delhi with Prayas an NGO supporting  underprivileged children in Delhi. Other partners involved were the Public TV channel, Media training facilities, cultural venues and music organizations.  The output was Delhi City Symphony, a contemporary silent film  produced  with the children with a live music performance. They also participated in the creation of a documentary about social and environmental issues in the city. This project engaged underprivileged children through music and digital media, with their own musical heritage in an imaginative solution to urban challenges.

Delhi City Symphony  had many positive outcomes achieved in a very short time, breaking preconceptions and encouraging Sergio to continue further  to bring a solid framework of Cultural Social Resonsibility and a the programme Global City Symphony, looking at culture heritage and the intangibles in the regeneration of cities and community cohesion.

What is the city by the people?  (William Shakespeare)

Global City Symphony is a network of multiple stakeholders that can be replicated in cities around the world putting communities and people at the centre of a process, aiming to transform deprived communities to changemakers in their own environment. Sergio is introducing this concept in platforms internationally  such as the CityStreet conference in Beirut in November 2009 where he interacted with young students about the role of creative-social entrepreneurs in society interested in real outcomes and not just outputs.

FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

World Urban Forum -  deadline 17th March
Website fundraising  -  deadline 30th April

He is now appealing to friends and genuine supporters to  help him  to cover the costs of crossing the  Atlantic to participate at the World Urban Forum.  He expects to connect with agencies and individuals that can bring his vision to the next stage. Sergio will be introducing the concept of Cultural Social Responsibility in the context of the cities with the programme Global City Symphony. This Forum is a crucial step towards the development of this project and the implementation of the first City Symphony programme in Delhi for the Commonwealth Games in October 2010.

Resonance FM - Big Bang Lab retrospective, interview to Sergio López Figueroa

DELHI CITY SYMPHONY AND THE MEDIA

“A sound vision” The Hindu
“Tughlakabad fortissimo” Time Out, Delhi
“We are creating Heritage right now” Kamalini Dutt, Doordarshan TV archives Resurgence magazine

We have been in this locality for so long but we never thought about the kind of issues like water and sanitation. Now we feel the issues alive and breathing around us.

The value of music

How much effort is needed to create, produce and record  1 min of orchestral music?  Sergio is offering the sale of the limited edition of the music for 9 strings, piano and percussion written for the silent film by Buñuel and Dalí Un Chien Andalou (1929). The music was written whilst studying at the National Film & Television School back in 1997, completed in 2000 as a part-time non commissioned score.

The first performance took place in Barcelona by the prestigious  ensemble Barcelona 216. The recording of that music won a special award at Rimusicazioni Film Festival in 2006, a festival dedicated to the creation of new music for silent films and the outcome was the release of a limited edition of the music on CD. This work has been performed in prestigious venues and festivals in London (Tate modern) and Berlinale with a live performance to the silent film.

“live music set to film can be a joy”, The Guardian review

SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION CD FOR Un Chien Andalou (1929) HARLOCK AWARD 2006

The recording of Clonic Mutations, the original music score for Un Chien Andalou is 15′18″ long. With a rate of £2 per minute, our request of support is £30.60 per CD of this limited designed edition.

Website and expenses We are looking for sponsors to support Global City Symphony. The funds will cover the costs and expenses of promotion of Global City Symphony at the World Urban Forum in Rio and the design of a specific microsite and a social network for Global City Symphony project.

Here an now you can listen to samples of the music

You can donate a fix amount of £30.60 and get the CD or donate the amount you wish to contribute with. Please select the right button. Thanks! To visit the temporary website of Delhi City Symphony click here   

if you have any query contact info@bigbang-lab.com

CD Un Chien Andalou

To watch other videos showing the work of Big Bang Lab in action, check this video channel. Building Fragments, the making of the Delhi City Symphony 2009 project.

Global City Symphony from Big Bang Lab on Vimeo.

Speech of the founder of El Sistema, Mr Jose Antonio Abreu, a source of inspiration for my work.

Booking   http://globalcitysymphony.eventbrite.com

• Why is culture outside of CSR or under represented by social enterprises?
• Are cultural enterprises committed to social change?
• What is the common language of CSR, Cultural and Social Enterprises?

Come and join us for an open discussion and watch the premiere in London of the film Delhi City Symphony, the documentary of the process behind the project and the development of CSR as Cultural Social Responsibility.

Background

In 2009 a group of underprivileged children living in shelter homes in Delhi participated in the creation of a documentary about the city shooting around their neighbourhoods, the streets and a Heritage site, coming up with their conclusions about social and environmental issues affecting the city. As a result of this participatory creative process they also engaged with their own musical heritage by producing new music for the film. The live performance took place on World Heritage Day at one of the central cultural venues in the city.

After the project finished we were left with the big question:
What next?  How this model will benefit communities in the UK?

 
Organizer
 Big Bang Lab
 event@bigbang-lab.com
For more information and tickets http://globalcitysymphony.eventbrite.com

We will be questioning the issues of local communities involvement in contributing to the design of their cities  and the creative use of audio visual heritage for learning purposes. This event is an open discussion with the audience and a network opportunity.

Lab for culture is a platform for cultural cooperation between Europe and the rest of the world representing 50 countries and 6 languages, working with artists, arts and culture organisations and cultural professionals.

Big Bang Lab’s director Sergio López Figueroa talks about his vision of culture for social change, innovation with heritage and the development of CSR as Cultural Social Responsibility in this interview

¨Heritage is not only about the past, but in definition the most genuine form of Social Responsibility as a legacy for a future sustainble living¨ 

Response of the Citizens’ Coalition for Public Service Broadcasting (CCPSB )

The Coalition was formed in the summer of 2009 and is made up of a broad mix of civil society groups, charities, arts and community organizations, together with other concerned individuals.  We believe that public service broadcasting is a public good, and that plurality, quality and  diversity in this sector must be maintained in the digital age. We consider public service broadcasting (PSB) to be a cultural as well as an economic asset to the United Kingdom and believe that the government must take decisive steps to ensure that we have a regulatory and investment environment which allows this sector to prosper.

Nearby: East End Docks Programme Listen: A Soundtrack of Shared Memories Friday 4th September, 1200 - 13.30  Free screening and Q&A Museum of London Docklands, Wilbeforce Theatre 

To book a free place for the screening and event programme, click here
For more information about the Canary Wharf Film Festival visit  http://www.cwff.org.uk
To download the flyer click here

Continuing with the line of work of Big Bang Lab in the creative use of film archives, this two day project will help a group of old and young participants to interact with each other in order to bring the memories back and contribute with their stories and dreams to a new dimension of the Docklands of the past, present and future.

The group of retired members of PLA will share their passion  and their knowledge of the river and life. Their narratives are going to be recorded and use them on day 2 as the base to create a new soundtrack to City of Ships, one of the films  from  the PLA archives.

Listen is a project beyond oral history, as the narratives are used in a experimental way, creating new work out of old assets and putting forward the positive  contribution of old generations in a two way process. This intergenerational project aims to  bring  a hidden heritage alive and making it relevant to new audiences

By using the film without its original soundtrack and adding a new one that has been created together in a studio, not only skills and knowledge has been transferred but also a new dimension to heritage as a living legacy in present time. Corporate archives are used in a community environment and Big Bang Lab has created a platform for debate and discussion, a learning programme for the Film Festival hosted by the Museum of London Docklands.

The final screening will take place this Friday the 4th. The programme includes other iconic films that have used real-life soundtracks and innovative use of sound on film to finish with  the presentation of the outcome of this project, City of Ships with the new soundtrack followed by a Q&A session with the participants.

Listen: A Soundtrack of Shared Memories’ was developed to provide a learning exchange between communities, laying down a foundation for engagement and heritage participation. Playing on the themes of picture, sound, and memories, the group has worked together to record oral histories, understand sound editing and create a living soundtrack to silent film from the extensive PLA archive.  At the Nearby screening you can see the finished product and indulge in an open discussion about it with the group.

DAY 1 -Recording day, Thames Clipper boat ride and creative writing
DAY 2 - Editing Sound to picture, creating the soundtrack
DAY 3 - Screening and Q&A - Canary Wharf Film Festival - Museum of London Docklands

We are very pleased to have found another hidden gem in London, a great  online resource of audio files (under creative commons license) representing the soundscape of the city in the present and in the past. We used some of the files available on  http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk

]]> http://www.bigbang-lab.com/wordpress/big-bang-lab-projects/listen-a-soundtrack-of-shared-memories-canary-wharf-film-festival.html/feed http://www.bigbang-lab.com/wordpress/big-bang-lab-projects/len-lye-chromosome-new-zealand.html http://www.bigbang-lab.com/wordpress/big-bang-lab-projects/len-lye-chromosome-new-zealand.html#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:01:27 +0000 admin http://www.bigbang-lab.com/wordpress/?p=1831 Len Lye Chronosome 6 December – 17 March at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. New Plymouth, New Zealand

The film Tusalava will be projected on a floating screen in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition and synched to three different soundtracks on a loop, including Mutantis, the score originally produced by Big Bang Lab for the Clonic Mutations programme at Tate Modern [ ...read more ]

In addition to the film, the show will feature few drawings by Lye from the 1930s and two large paintings from the 70s based on those drawings and Tusalava. One of Lye’s kinetic sculptures, called Universe, will also be included in the show.

Eugene Goosens Rhythmic Dance for two pianos (an alternative proposed by Lye in the 70s)
Sergio López Figueroa, Mutantis for 9 string,  piano, percussion and soprano.
Alcyona Mick, piece for solo piano

“Yes, live music set to film can be a joy”. The Guardian

The scores for nine strings, piano, percussion, soprano and clockwork toys examine new contextual relationships between music, historical experimental film and art. The concert and screening featured the UK premiere of the 2004 restored print of the film Un Chien Andalou (1929). From devising the initial concept, through to composing, production and actual performance, Big Bang Lab created a complete event programme.

The music for Un Chien Andalou was performed live again at the 2008 Berlinale Film Festival as part of Buñuel’s retrospective. Future plans include a live tour in partnership with contemporary classical ensembles across Europe.

Premiere: Clarion Ensemble - Tim Murray, conductor with Maya Sapone, soprano and Kate Ryder,  piano

Events like this are ultimately worth going to because they create “cinema” out of a bunch of old films. Sure, you can now get restored DVDs of some of the best-known work in the avant-garde canon (which is fine for private study), and you can YouTube many of these clips, too. But sitting at home, watching scratchy black-and-white shorts on your PC or telly doesn’t always make for much of an experience. John L. Walters, The Guardian.

To download the media pack, click here
To download full programme click here
To read The Guardian review online click here

UN CHIEN ANDALOU Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, France 1929

(from Tate modern programme) Dalí and Buñuel wrote Un Chien Andalou in a matter of weeks in early 1929. It was shot in Paris and ready for viewing by June that year. Violent, funny, illogical and dynamic, it proved to be one of the most extraordinary films ever made. Disavowing all traditional ideas of narrative, the film courts the irrational to capture an unsettling vision of desire.

Buñuel originally chose recorded music by Wagner and popular tangos to accompany the screenings of the film. Clonic Mutations, Sergio López Figueroa’s  new score,  seeks to further articulate de non-narrative structure of the film and to dive into the internal world of the characters.  The couple featured in the film are treated much like animated characters, and the music includes a tango to underscore the chase scene leading to the famous climax of the film.

A surprise moment is deliberately created when the music and the film seem to be going in different directions, until gradually the flow of the nonsense starts to make sense. The score starts from a single short cell, developing and yet mutating continuously as the characters do. López Figueroa looked back at historical music references from the late 1920`s through expresionism. The final result is an eclectic mix of post-romanticism and Latin jazz elements integrated in a score full of black humour and decadent romanticism.

AWARDS

Harlock award to Clonic Mutations, score for Un Chien Andalou at Rimusicazioni Film Festival, Bolzano (Italy).

PERFORMANCES

2000 Premiere at Ribermusica Festival. Barcelona, Garoe ensemble
2003 Les 3 chiens, Mercat de les Flors. Barcelona, Barcelona 216
2007 Clonic Mutations, Dalí at Tate modern exhibition. London, Clarion ensemble
2008 Berlinale - Buñuel retrospective, Volksbühne. Berlin. Barcelona 216
2008 Invitation au Voyage, ICA. London (Tate live recording)

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