The Secret Life of Cumbria

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online and by SMS now!

 

mobile phonefolly has commissioned creative technology agency Blink to allow members of the public to collectively write the story of “the Secret Life of Cumbria”, one text message at a time.
 
The new Secret Life of Cumbria project centres around what will become a year-long communal diary on the website www.secretlife.org.uk, written by each of the people who take part, using text messages or the website itself. Funded by Cumbria County Council to research into people’s attitudes to culture in the county, the Secret Life of Cumbria is at once an art project, a website, and a collective expression of the views, feelings, thoughts and memories of Cumbria’s residents and visitors.

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folly's Portable Pixel Playground progresses apace

News release: 14th May 2008

 

 Clare Gannaway appointed as Project Manager

Progress on a ground-breaking £100,000 new portable playground for Lancashire and Cumbria was given a boost this week as Lancaster-based digital arts charity "folly" confirmed the appointment of Clare Gannaway as the Project Manager. Clare will oversee the development of the "Portable Pixel Playground", which will tour to venues across Lancashire and Cumbria from this summer. The playground is funded by the Big Lottery Fund's "Playful Ideas" programme.
 
  follyplay credit_Connexions_Cumbria and beanphoto.co.ukDescribed as "part artwork, part computer game, part adventure playground", the dynamic playground’s appeal is that all the pieces of play equipment will themselves be original pieces of digital art built by artists from all over the world. Clare brings a wealth of experience working in the arts, having organised numerous exhibitions, commissions and projects, as well as arts programmes for young people and families. She also works as Exhibitions Curator at Manchester Art Gallery and on other freelance projects.  
 
 
 
 Key partner venues in Lancashire and Cumbria confirmed
 
folly has also confirmed the key venues for the playground up until Christmas 2008, across .......

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ArtCast in association with moves08

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online now

 

still from Human Cosmic by Jessica Curry & Monica Fernandez. Image credit: Monica Fernandezfolly brings you ArtCast, an ongoing series of podcasting programmes - a platform for public access to new, innovative sound & video art.

For the Spring 2008 programme folly worked with moves to select sound and video art relating to the moves08 festival theme of “the interaction of choreographed movement and sound”.

Selected from an international open call for submissions, ArtCast Spring 2008 includes four audio and four video podcasts, released weekly throughout April. Click here to access ArtCast now.

Image: still from Human Cosmic by Jessica Curry & Monica Fernandez. Image credit: Monica Fernandez

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folly moving forwards

News Release: 13th March 2008

 

A virtual beacon of creative excellence:  North West digital organisation’s drive for artistic leadership

folly logoEmbracing the challenge of a digital future, folly - the North West's leading organisation for digital culture - will set about making 2008 a significant year of change. folly are in the process of ‘putting into place far sighted plans that will contribute towards transformational change for the region’, says Chief Executive Taylor Nuttall.

At a time when the Lancaster-based charity is alive with ideas, and fresh from the success of VELOCITY – its festival of digital culture set in Morecambe Bay last autumn - folly has gathered audience statistics that reveal the extent of its success: an overall 250% rise from 2006. Successful projects such as What’s Cooking, Grandma?, the highly acclaimed ‘digi_club’ for the under-16’s, the virtual wishing tree ‘f.wish’, and the ‘Digital Artists Handbook’ saw 74% of folly's audience participation taking place online.

Chief Executive, Taylor Nuttall says: “This is a very exciting period for us".

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Residency Programme is a Dream Ticket for Digital Artists

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News Release: 6th March 2008

 

work from Ananta by Sumit SarkarA contemporary take on the pantheon of Hindu gods is launching a new international digital artist residency programme at the national Creation Centre in Cumbria.

Manchester-based, Sumit Sarkar (whose work is pictured), is the first artist to benefit from the pioneering programme created by one of the UK’s leading digital arts agencies, folly, and groundbreaking arts events company, Lanternhouse International.

The latter is based at the Creation Centre in Ulverston in picturesque South Lakeland and forged a dynamic partnership with folly, its near neighbour in Lancaster, to encourage and foster the development of internationally significant digital artists via the residency scheme.

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folly and the Big Lottery Fund announce ground-breaking "Portable Pixel Playground"

News release: 7th January 2008

 

Portable Pixel PlaygroundA children's playground for the 21st century

folly has announced an important and ground-breaking new project, which is set to have national - possibly international - significance: the Portable Pixel Playground.

The project has succeeded in gaining funding from the Big Lottery Fund, and folly is the only North West organisation to have won a bid under this round of the Big Lottery Fund's "Playful Ideas" programme.

folly's Portable Pixel Playground is an innovative and physical new play space that is intrinsically digital. By connecting children's experiences of technology with play and creativity, folly hopes to unleash and re-energise childen's ability to express themselves in the ever-more-important digital world.

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VELOCITY festival “a wonderful initiative”

News release: 17th December 2007

 

VELOCITY on trackYou’ve experienced the art, now for the stats.

We’ve been collecting and collating feedback from all our audience members, artists and partners for this autumn’s VELOCITY festival of digital culture, and we’ve got some things we’re glad to shout about.

Comments from audience members about VELOCITY have included "wonderful opportunity to see arts here in the North West" and "superb".

In total, over 20 000 people visited and took part in VELOCITY’s events, exhibitions and activities, and over 6000 people have engaged with VELOCITY’s online projects to date, with that figure rising every day. You can check out the VELOCITY microsite at www.folly.co.uk/velocity

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An interactive look back at folly's year

News Release: 5th September 2007

 


annual report coverBefore folly's annual festival VELOCITY launches this autumn, folly is taking a look back at the year of work with an interactive pdf Annual Report.

 folly's 2006-2007 annual review is available only online - in line with folly's ethic of environmental sustainability and online participation, and is available for download here.

As well as the bare facts - for example that folly reached 37 000 audience members last year - there are images of the art, embedded links and even a video. And you can learn how folly managed to provide 1068 days of digital art experience in last year's 365.

Click on the link below and download the annual report today to peruse at your leisure.

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