Video Jam / Slip Discs present: SPACES

Spaces will launch in April.

Events

 

We propose to co-curate a series of four events across the UK which will facilitate and nurture these collaborations over the course of the year. From September we intend to hold three separate events showcasing the commissioned ‘works in progress’ alongside a carefully-conceptualised accompanying programme, culminating in a final showcase of the completed work at the end of the year that celebrates the outcomes of the project.

The focus of this project is centered on supporting emerging artists and the production of new work. As its name indicates, Spaces aims to provide filmmakers and musicians with the artistic freedom, facilities and environments necessary to realise their proposed projects and to fully nurture their creative development.

Slip Discs

Slip Discs is an experimental record label based in the UK releasing music which negotiates the fringes of instrumental and contemporary electronic music in extremely limited, handmade runs.

Since 2012, the label has focused on rallying a growing community of idiosyncratic artists, curating live performances ranging from intimate instrumental settings to basement clubs. Showcases play with the implications of the spaces they occupy in a sincere attempt to expand their basic function.

Video Jam

Described as “one of Manchester’s most innovative nights” (Manchester Wire), Video Jam is an ongoing series of unique experimental events that seek to explore and re-consider the relationship between moving image and live sound.

Our programmes feature a wide variety of short, silent films of all genres, from amateur and professional artists alike. For each of these films we commission a different musical act to compose an original soundtrack of their own interpretation to be performed as a live accompaniment, resulting in what we call a ‘blind collaboration’. Our long term goals are to be able to commission new work made specifically for our events: to provide the resources, circumstances and environment necessary to support both emerging and established artists of outstanding talent.

Since our first event in January 2012 we have worked with over 280 artists, adapting ourselves to fit a variety of spaces across Manchester and beyond, including residencies in Ibiza and Falmouth, and our initial event of 2014, a special programme at Manchester Art Gallery which responded to Jeremy Deller’s touring exhibition All that is Solid Melts into Air at Manchester Art Gallery.

Video Jam’s objective is to create events which stimulate thought and discussion, forge new creative partnerships and challenge an audience’s understanding of these two mediums.

Video Jam at Concourse Arts Festival, Falmouth University

• A unique, challenging and focused project to be exposed to working with a specific medium i.e. sound
• Becoming part of a new network of artists within Video Jam/Slip Discs
• Working in a way that is potentially new to you and gaining exposure to new ideas
• Platform to showcase new work to a wide audience over a substantial period of time
• Facilitation and promotion from Video Jam and Slip Discs in terms of resources and opportunities; ongoing support in terms of online presence and exposing your ‘work in progress’
• Artists can utilise the skills and expertise of all Video Jam and Slip Discs curators
• Creative freedom within a tightly conceptualised framework i.e. timescale
• Event to support each artist alongside an accompanying programme with opportunity for creative input
• Further opportunities beyond the timescales of the collaboration