I am looking for people who would like to help me document Cardiff’s Victorian Arcades. This could be done in a number of ways, for example a series of photo’s, a film made on your mobile, a series of lists made in the arcade one afternoon, a collection of  arcade memorabilia (e.g paper bags/ till recipts/ notes/ etc), some writing or oral history recordings, historical research…. All contributions gratefully received!

Sign up (via the contact button) to meet me and Garry on one of the dates/ places below specifying a preferred time if you have one.

Wednesday 22 October between,  6 - 9.30 pm Dempseys Pub, Cardiff Centre
Thursday 23rd October between, 10 – 5 pm The Plan, Morgan Arcade.
Monday 27th October between, 6-9.30 Shot in the Dark Café City Rd.

The individual meetings will be 30 minutes long. During this time we can talk about your interests and ideas in relation to the arcades (perhaps you already have a project in mind which we can help you with?) and the different ways in which you could contribute something to the Museum of the Moment Archive.

All projects submitted to the archive will be credited to you and you will retain the rites to your work to show/ publish in other forms etc.

For more information and ideas as to how you might take part read the post below.

P.s It may take me a little while to get back to you please be patient!

The first Museum of the Moment workshop took place at the Old Library in Cardiff in July. Fantastic sessions were led by Angela Morgan Cutler, Richard Page, Rib Davis, Pratap Rughani and Vic and Nic, here are a couple of pics from that event.

Pratap Rughani’s session on “Photographing People”

Vic and Nic’s “How to make a film on your mobile Phone”

Rib Davis talks people through recording Oral History

Richard Page’s session “Photographing Place”

10am-5.15, Sunday 29th June
1st floor of the Old Library, Central Cardiff.

The Museum Of The Moment workshop is a 1 day event which will give you the opportunity to work with top practitioners, and to explore the city through a range of media. The workshop is designed to help you to develop existing skills or to try out something new. You don’t need any prior experience to take part.

The event is free but you will need to book a place. Please email me via the contact page on this site stating which 2 workshops you would like to take from the schedule below.

For more details about the content of each workshop scroll down to the bottom of this page.

The Aim of the project: This project is part of a larger project that I am making about Cardiff’s Arcades. Part of that is “The Museum of the Moment’ an archive about the area which will be launched in 2009 and shown on touch screen TV’s across the Hayes. To make this project I am building a research team of volunteers who would like to help out with the construction of the archive and have their work exhibited as part of the project. In order to make this representative of lots of different viewpoints I need lots of people with a variety of skills and interests to get involved.

The Museum Of The Moment workshop is the first stage of that project and aims to give people a taste of lots of different ways in which to work. Primarily my interest is the ways in which we see, explore and represent the city so the workshops that are taking place on the 29th focus on doing that. (have a look at www.starradio.org to see my previous project)

Do I have to Join the research team to take part? NO!! this day is just to explore ideas and techniques, you might just want to take better pictures on holiday… but of course if you would like to join that would be great!

About the Workshops & facilitators:

Introduction to recording Oral History/ Rib Davis

The workshop will briefly deal with:
Why we do oral history
How to prepare for an effective interview
Use of equipment
The major legal and ethical issues
Possible outcomes

Rib Davis is a freelance oral historian, playwright and community artist, and has been for over 25 years. As an oral historian he has worked on dozens of projects all over the country, culminating in documentary plays for stage and radio, exhibitions, books and a variety of community events. He regularly runs training courses on behalf of the British Library and the Oral History Society. At present he is overseeing the oral history programme for The Lightbox in Woking, and in the same town am working on a recently commissioned oral history-based large-scale community play.

Participants need only bring pen and paper

Making & Editing Films on Your mobile phone/ Nic Finch & Victoria Tillotson

We will help people to make and edit short films on your mobile phones.The workshop will include ideas about planning your film; putting shots together; editing and saving video on your mobile phone; and transferring your finished work to a computer using bluetooth.

Nic Finch is a graphic designer specialising print, video and interactive media whose clients include artists, record labels, clubs and charity organisations. A regular performer at national art and music events, Finch creates unique live visuals both alone and with
the audio-visual collective S>A>A>B.
Victoria Tillotson is a digital media specialist, primarily working with film, photography and interactive media. Working as both an artist and gallery educator, Tillotson specialises in developing exciting participatory projects, online/offline events, and innovative learning programmes.

Workshop requirements:
Everyone taking part will have to bring their own mobile phone that is capable of filming video. If you are interested in attending, when you book onto the workshop can you include details about the make and model of the you will be bringing to the workshop.

Photographing People/ Pratap Rughani

In the workshop we’ll shoot portraits in context and discuss with examples some of the practical and ethical issues raised in documentary photography, e.g choosing subject and location. We’ll be exploring ways of framing and photographing the city and our own relationship to visualising people and places.

Pratap Rughani is an award-winning documentary film-maker and photographer. His photographic work includes contributions to several publications for BBC books and photographic essays published by the Karuna Trust. He has a particular interest in the relationship of people to places. www.lotusfilms.co.uk

Students should bring their own digital camera. A simple ‘point & shoot’ is fine but if you have one, feel free to bring a digital SLR. Don’t forget to bring your connector lead so we can download some images to see on a computer screen for discussion. If you have a laptop & it’s easy for you to bring it then that’s even better but the camera & lead are the only essentials.

Introduction to writing fiction about place/ Angela Morgan Cutler:
For part of the workshop we’ll use the city’s arcades, writing directly inside the space of the arcade to look at how our sense of place, time, mood, desire, is altered when we enter the glass and iron work of these labyrinths. The arcades filled with windows: tableaus; reflections and refractions of shade, colour, kaleidoscopic light; small hidden balconies and stair cases; the seduction of cafes; shop fronts filled with wares; shop signs and displays of flower baskets that flood our senses and sense of wonder. After writing inside the arcades, we will return to The Old Library to share our writing responses and thoughts with one another, building on these initial fragments of words to look at what individual and shared memories, observations, sensual and imaginative journeys the arcades inspired; what in turn does this tell us about our sense of place.

Angela Morgan Cutler lives in Cardiff. She worked for ten years as a psychiatric nurse in St Albans, London and Cardiff, before training as a fine-artist she went on to complete an MA in The Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing in 1999; was awarded a Ph.D in Creative & Critical Writing from Cardiff University in February 2005. Angela has been running creative writing groups for women at Chapter since 2000. Her first novel: ‘Auschwitz’ was published in February this year by Two Ravens Press.

For more information: www.angelamorgancutler.com
You will need: adequate writing materials appropriate to working in the room and for outdoors.

Photographing Place: Richard Page

This workshop will ask participants to consider how they might photograph a place. Using Cardiff City Centre (specific ally the Arcades and St Davids 2 development), we will explore ways of photographing spaces, considering both new and more familiar places. The workshop will give a brief instruction on using cameras, but emphasis will be placed on aesthetic and communicative methods of photographing.

. Richard Page is a Cardiff based photographic artist, his photographic work considers how space is implicitly bound up with history, memory, and our psychological relationship with it. Richard was the recipient of the Jerwood Photography Award in 2004 and his work has been exhibited throughout Britain and abroad, including shows in London, Liverpool and Germany. His recent series, What We Already Know, was exhibited at Ffotogallery in Cardiff, with accompanying publication. Richard is currently a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Swansea Metropolitan University.

Students should bring their own digital camera. A simple ‘point & shoot’ is fine but if you have one, feel free to bring a digital SLR. Don’t forget to bring your connector lead so we can download some images to see on a computer screen for discussion. If you have a laptop & it’s easy for you to bring it then that’s even better but the camera & lead are the only essentials.

Exploring Architecture Through Drawing : A wide game organised by Richard Powell & Jennie Savage

Public spaces and architecture, city design and town planning; we all use these spaces but how often do you look up at what is above street level? How often do any of us notice the way that a place makes us feel or the way that different architectural spaces make us behave. Jennie & Richard will set you a series of tasks to do that invite you to your world in a new light. You will be asked to look at the city and use drawing as a way to focus what you are looking at. You don’t need to be good at drawing to see things!

Having lived in Cardiff over 20 years Richard Powell knows city well and is intrigued by its developments concerning private / public spaces. Through his work he explores the meaning of architectural spaces and their usage.
Richard is a visiting lecturer at The School Of Architecture, Cardiff & a practicing artist.
Working through a process that uses archiving and intervention Jennie seeks to map the other life of a place. Using methods associated with documentary practice, traditions of story telling, historical research, psycho geography and imagined other lives her work adopts a multifaceted approach to the discovery and representation of a place.

Please bring a pencil and pen with you.