Reflections and Thoughts

A Solid Blue Portal

| Charlie

Jaz Morrison reflects on her Nest Residency in association with MAIA

I haven’t been on many residencies, so I wasn’t sure what to expect during my time at the Nest. I remember asking if Talking Birds had any expectations of me, despite reading that this was about using the time as I felt best. The commute was surprisingly long – around 90 minutes from door to door – but it allowed me time to read books I’d put off, and the walk from the station familiarised me with the city centre. I even ran into an old colleague in my final week.

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In search of magical capabilites

| vornster

This spring Talking Birds has been working with colleagues at the University of Warwick on the ‘AI in the Street‘ project, which is researching communities’ perspectives on, and feelings about, the AI-enabling infrastructure that lines our streets. The project aims to add citizen-voices into discussions about future infrastructure installation and invisible data gathering projects, whilst questioning how open and responsible the current processes are. The project has collaborative teams working in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Coventry, with the site of the Coventry Observatory being the Holyhead Road – which marks the border between Lower Coundon and Spon End.

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Reporting on The Future Works Event

| vornster

As followers of this blog will know, the F13 network – a broad coalition of independent artists and arts organisations, freelance creative practitioners and other interested parties convened by Talking Birds – was commissioned (on the back of its ‘Creating the Conditions for Creation‘ draft action plan) to develop and produce an event (The Future Works) to bring the creative sector back together, to move forwards after the turbulence of the last few years. (This process has been pretty extensively blogged, so if you need a catch up, maybe best to start here.)

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Time to find out if the future works

| vornster

A Cultural Strategy sounds boring. And sometimes it is boring. But a good Cultural Strategy can tell a compelling story of a place – of its values and ambitions. Of its hopes and dreams. Of its direction of travel.

Some people think that our city has stalled. But we don’t think that’s true – and so we’ve invited artists and decision-makers to gather and re-set: let’s collectively re-imagine our story and work out how we want to tell it.

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I might want to go ‘off-piste’…

| Charlie

Rachel Bunce reflects on her Hatching residency

After spending 10 days on a relaxed retreat-style Swedish residency, I almost had some ideas. I was given space to play with the tools that I normally use to earn money and create with others. It was brilliant, fun and terrifying (in equal measure) to have total creative freedom without a brief! Chatting with Janet and realising I wanted to take one of my almost-ideas further gave me the impetus to apply for a Nest Residency. I’m so glad I did, and not just for my creativity and idea-forming but for my sense of community, my physical and my mental health. 

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Swimming against the current

| Charlie

Po-Shin Chao reflects on her Hatching Residency

As an artist, for my residency my project focussed heavily on exploring and experimenting with ways I could reflect and display my own identity and internal struggles through the world of fish and marine life. An aspect I wanted to include was my cultural heritage; with the use of fish surrounding Taiwan included in my artwork, art styles and choosing fish that symbolized particular meanings. Many of the fish I wanted to paint were heavily inspired by hierarchies and societal roles in everyday life. I worked primarily in paints and inks related to traditional artworks such as gouache and calligraphy ink and spent the full ten days at the nest, popping in and out over the course of two months.

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Arts Covolution

| vornster

Guest post by Stella Backhouse, a writer based in Coventry. This post was originally published in issue #6 of Action Rayz zine, curated by Jazz Moreton & Alan Van Wijgerden. Details of Action Rayz’ regular film club screenings can be found here.

After the very public collapse of City of Culture Trust and the promised ‘legacy’ of Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture well and truly on the scrapheap, where does the city’s arts scene go from here?

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a beautiful place to begin your ideas

| Charlie

Kemi Awoyemi reflects on her Talking Birds Residency

I had just arrived in the country and was in search of a job. Back in Lagos, Nigeria, I promised myself that moving to the UK meant I would fully explore my art any possible way I could. In a bid to escape idleness and overthinking I felt the need to create, the only question was how? I had no resources or contacts, let alone a suitable space to create. Google comforted me by leading me to the Nest residency. I discovered Talking Birds at the best time; actively chasing healing, seeking an outlet to express my fears and concerns creatively and most importantly a safe space. I did my research on them, sent in my application and within a period of time I got selected to be a part of the Nest residency. 

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