Destinations, in Partnership with Teesside University have been successful in securing funds to extend Digital Village activity. Through the UK Online Nominet Trust “Community Outreach” program new activity affectionately known as “Four Libraries and a Pub” will take place. Below is a piece of media recorded and geo-located live during the startup meeting with Paul Davies and Steve Thompson.
|
|
||
|
Now the concept is once again heading North to County Durham. Bearpark, Bowburn, Brandon, Cassop, Esh Winning, Kelloe, Ludworth, New Brancepeth, Quarington Hill, Sherburn Hill, Ushaw Moor & West Rainton are together a Community Network in County Durham. There are more details at this new website www.12villages.co.uk. The purpose of the site and the enterprises that will evolve from it is to add digital, community media, social media activities to physical activities of the network. The villages concerned are considered to be the most deprived in County Durham. The ultimate aim is to create a ”Village Hub” that is effectively a “Digital Village Network” The intention is to use technology to provide services and development for a group of very rural villages and settlements where physically networking is very difficult. The work will begin with the 5 Westerly villages and will eventually roll out to all 12. The 5 Westerly villages are Bearpark, Brandon, Esh Winning, New Brancepeth and Ushaw Moor.
 As part of our (postponed) Animex event in Saltburn, artist collective Hirvitalo from Finand are offering a workshops for schools and community groups as set out below. Our Finish visitors will arrive in time to deliver these on Feb 28th March 1st and we hope to film them and show highlights in Saltburn on March 3rd at Saltburn Community Theatre. Workshops so far are 28th Feb 1.15pm Whitecliffe Primary, Carlin How 4.30pm St Cuthberts Centre Crook (Juniors) 7.00pm St Cuthberts Centre Crook (Seniors) 1st March 7.00pm Destinations, Saltburn (Upstairs) 7.00pm JUNIORS – Pirates and Vikings (15-30 min) SENIORS – The Post Industrial World – Dystopia to Utopia (30-45min) Emptied factories and no jobs. Finland and England have this in common. Paper, steel, coal and other mass industries are history and are being replaced with??? A workshop will give participants an empty factory building and we will try and build a future with it. A new paradigm – a commons industry is the aim and an animation will be made of the process. NOTE ’The commons are resources that are collectively owned or shared between or among people and can include everything from natural resources and land to software.’ About the artists Finnish artist collective Hirvitalo initiated last year a project Second Forest which explores the cultural change of globalizing boreal forest in the age of social media by various artistic means including discussions and workshops in both virtual and real world environments. This year the Second Forest project is focusing on the concept of Everyman’s Rights, a Scandinavian version of Common Rights which has profoundly shaped the relationship between Nordic people and the forest. This concept is currently in a crisis, which is caused by the globalizing industry based on forest products. Also the whole concept of Commons is changing due the growing distrust to privatizing of natural resources and development of the Peer-to-Peer culture in the online world. Second Forest project team, Markus Petz, Ismo Torvinen and Mikko Lipiäinen are now organizing workshops and discussions in which the past, present and the future of the Everyman’s Rights and the Commons is explored so that we gain a better understanding of the global importance of these concepts. For more info or to host a workshop contact: Steve Thompson, M – 07795 826953 Production has begun again after the Christmas break on “Tommy and Barry Go Back”. We lost a lot of production days before Christmas to weather condition and ill health so we have postponed the world premiere to March 3rd. It’s the same venue, Saltburn Community Theatre at 7.30pm. We moved our production location to Destinations in Saltburn as a more convenient location. Yesterday we got some very tricky shots in the can including Zeppelin flying and Chilean rescue pod maneuvering! Next production day is Friday 21st (Destinations Again) when we hope to finish the 1945 Jetty scene. Below are some stills from scene 6. 
Smith and Bluster
Tommy and Barry in 1945 
On Thursday 18th November children at Whitcliffe Primary School will re-enact a famous event from their Schools history. Actually the story relates to Skinningrove school but both schools have been amalgamated and children of Skinningrove and Carlin How all attend Whitecliffe. Whitecliffe has the logbooks of both schools going back over 140 years and one entry states; “school evacuated on the occasion of a Zeppelin sighted overhead. The children will re-enact this momentous event and Inspector Charlie Bell of Cleveland Police will play the part of the calm voice of authority leading the children to shelter in the mines (this actually took place too – many Skinningrovers took shelter in the mines during both world wars. This will form the audio track of an animated film “Tommy and Barry Go Back” to be premiered at Saltburn Community Theatre, Animex Fringe on February 10th 2011. 
Last weekend saw a fantastic event at Loftus Town Hall. As part of Heritage Open Days the Town Hall played host to a range of exhibits from community history groups downstairs and the fabulous Octorama was housed upstairs. In the Council Chamber there was a presentation of the wonderful image archive from Loftus Digital Village. Overall the event had over 500 visitors with the public on Saturday and schools visits on Monday. The eight screens featured content from East Cleveland communities and 8 speakers delivered sounds and stories from local people recorded by Skinningrove History Group. On screen were images from the Skinningrove, Carlin How, Margrove Park, Moorsholme, Brotton, Loftus and Marske Digital Villages. This had been a culmination of over two months work by volunteers including most of Loftus Town Council to build a portable Octorama. You can see video and images of the whole development here: http://tvcm.co.uk/ironage/development-blog/ Or follow the weekend event in this order http://tvcm.co.uk/ironage/elected-volunteers/ http://tvcm.co.uk/ironage/the-build/ http://tvcm.co.uk/ironage/the-event/ http://tvcm.co.uk/ironage/schools-visits/ http://tvcm.co.uk/ironage/the-end/ Or Follow the entire story from start to finish http://tvcm.co.uk/ironage/development-blog/?order=ASC  Directly following the exhibition the Octorama featured again at the “Inspiring Digital Engagement Festival” in Sheffield. See below. Inspiring Digital Engagement
View more presentations from Steve Thompson.
A very interesting evening was had at Loftus Library this week hearing the story of the East Cleveland Image Archive and seeing some wonderful old pictures. For anyone who doesn’t know, the project began as Loftus Digital Village but grew so big that is seemed highly appropriate to rename it the East Cleveland Image Archive. You can see for your self the wealth of images by clicking here. Many of us have seen these pictures but the story came alive in the hands of Librarian John Hannah. John described linkages between people and places, past and present in a way that was fascinating. Others with an interest in history and heritage such a the Skinningrove History Group and the Mulgrave Community Research Project were present and we discussed ways of knowledge and resource sharing. The community archives is here in it’s infancy – www.thedigitalvillages.com The presentation from the evening is below and you can view the images along with their descriptions and comments here East cleveland image archive
View more presentations from Steve Thompson.
You can see evidence of both theory and practice in the development of the “Iron Age to Digital Age” event Theory here and Practice here. |
||
|
Copyright © 2012 The Digital Villages Research Network - All Rights Reserved |
||
