Latest News... Lizard Artist Residency Call...
initiJoin us from 28 – 31st March 2018 (arrival on 27th) for a unique residency at YHA Lizard Point, Cornwall, the most southerly point in the UK.
This residency is set up to help like-minded artists from multi-disciplines develop their practice in a relaxed, yet productive environment. Lizard Point, overlooking the atlantic, benefits from natural darkness, natural beauty and is a great spot for viewing the Moon, stars and meteor showers. Staying on site, next door to the famous Lizard Lighthouse, artists will have the opportunity to create works responding to the variety of astronomical sights found there, to be showcased in exhibitions in Cornwall and London. Our initial call is now closed, but we will be announcing exciting opportunities for local artists to get involved in the residency. Follow us for details. Click here for more information and how to apply here This is the first part of our new Lizard Beacons Project for 2019, kindly supported by Heritage Lottery Fund and Feast. More info about our plans to follow! The Meteor film pod landed on Falmouth Moor!
We were very excited to be giving our film pod it's first outing, at Cornwall Film Festival last month! Our initial concept of a dry space to share films from our Deep Time Film Call has been expanded into an amazing sculpture, created by artists Andrew Bird and Christina Romero-Cross, which lends the idea of a meteor coming to earth. Artist Jo Mayes and creative technologist Ben Chew have been working on extending our mini cosmic ray detector into being able to control video and sound, creating a dynamic installation which responds to the presence of cosmic rays as they hit our atmosphere! The Rays were with us and successfully controlled the film and sound, with excellent feedback about the way in which we managed to work across art and science in an engaging way. Success! Thanks to all involved for making this a reality - including everyone who helped move the pod in and out of position (including the police escort but that's another story!!).
More about the amazing film pod here! Inside the pod we screen our 100ft of Deep Time films, created by artists Aoife Desmond, James Holcombe, Melanie King, Rob Gawthrop & Jo Millett , Michael Eddy, Rachael Allain, Karen Abadie and Stuart Moore. Details here.
The playback of the films is controlled by our new cosmic ray detector, changing the playback from single screen to triptych and activating a different musical loop each time (created by Michelson Morley as part of our Deep Space project). We are planning further outings - more info here or join our mailing list/follow on social media for details. We were delighted to offer these exciting FREE events in both St Ives and Penzance libraries, starting with Laura's fabulous bird migration-inspired creative workshop in Penzance & St Ives Libraries having now been completed. All helping us to learn about the story of astronomy in Cornwall whilst having side-splitting fun!
Deep Space Gallery of artist images now online!
As part of our 'Deep Space' research and performance project, artist Andrea Carr is invited artists, makers and enthusiasts to contribute images which then transformed into costumes to be worn by our professional dancers as part of our Deep Space performance at Sterts on 21st April.
Images from our call can be viewed in our Deep Space gallery - click here to view - and we will soon be adding images of the costumes to which they contributed.... Amazing Goonhilly event!
 Image Credit: Paula Bolton; Goonhilly Artist in Residence
We were delighted to partner with Goonhilly and CAST/Groundwork to offer a special event earlier this year. It was a wonderful chance to learn more about how artists work with science and to have a hands on experience of working with the Raspberry Pi mini-computer, followed by a chance to see the wonderful Groundwork film screenings of work by SemiConductor and Simon Starling. Goonhilly Artist in Residence Paula Bolton shared her experience of making work at the site, with an intro to Goonhilly & cosmic rays (the inspiration for Mayes Creative's latest project) by Dr Kat Hickey, Business Development & Training Manager for Goonhilly & Robert Wiltshire, astronomer and Software Cornwall tutor. Thanks to our funders Arts Council England and Feast for helping to make this happen with support from Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd, CAST and Software Cornwall. Click here for more info
100ft of Deep Time: Filmmakers' screenings - ongoing
Films commissioned as part of our Deep Time Film Call are now being shown in our sculptural Film Pod which had its first outing at the Cornwall Film Festival in November (see above). Currently on show at Helston Museum of Cornish Life. Future screenings to follow.
Click here for more details Funded by Arts Council England, Feast & Cornwall Industrial Trust with support from LUX, Cinestar and Plymouth University Stars and Stones: Sound & Film Jams May 2,3,4
Ancient Light: Mel King
Artists and musicians signed up for a half day session with us on the Weds 2nd or Thurs 3rd May, working with sound and film practitioners in the beautiful settings of the Penwith stone circles; the Merry Maidens, Nine Maidens and Boscawen Un. Artists had a chance to work alongside Paper Cinema’s Chris Reed recording environmental sound, with Robin Tyndale-Biscoe on sonic testing of ancient sites and handmadefilm.org’s Robert Schaller on site-specific analogue filming and hand processing. An open editing day followed at Lands End YHA where we processed/looked at what we had created.
Bring your own skills and practice along to see how this work might inform your own approaches to work in the ancient sites of West Penwith. Click here for further details |
MAYES CREATIVE produces creative engagement opportunities for the communities of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. In partnership with heritage, science and technology partners, our aim is to bring exciting events, activities and experiences to local communities, whilst continually seeking new ways to share inspiring ideas through creative collaboration.
Shipwreck Invention Challenge!We have been delighted by the response to our summer Shipwreck Inventions Challenge, produced in partnership with the wonderful Kids Invent Stuff youtube channel! The video below lets us know which crazy invention will be created....watch this space to hear how the team got on with building the winning invention!
Dark Skies Activities on Scilly
Reg Payn worked with Five Islands School last year, with 5 days of puppetry fun for junior aged children resulting in a wonderful showing of all their work at the end of last term. Reg visited St Agnes and Tresco, alongside the main school at St Mary's. Craig from Squashbox Theatre also made a flying visit to the school (well in fact the plane had engineering trouble so we took the ferry, but that's another story.....!) and was very well received by the children and staff. Thanks to Reg, Craig and the school staff and children for making both events a great success. We are now planning to return in May with our exciting Lizard Beacons wireless communications project!
Navigation Heritage learning for Penwith Choirs
Pip Wright started her Navigation heritage songwriting project by leading an exciting navigation heritage workshop with people from the Penwith area, at Marazion Village Hall. 84 people turned out to learn about heritage navigation from local speakers and enjoy a cream tea!
Deep Space at Sterts Theatre
Thanks to everyone involved in putting on our amazing Deep Space performance event! It was a wonderful end to a really interesting and enjoyable research process, which involved music, choreography and live visuals practitioners all working with scientists and computer engineers to understand more about Deep Space and cosmic rays. Many thanks to Mike and Robert from Software Cornwall and Ben Chew for helping to make our cosmic ray (muon) detector dreams into interactive reality!
A taster of our music and visuals for our Deep Space performance this Saturday at Sterts theatre... A unique collaboration between jazz music, film and professional dance. We hope to see you there!
Dark Skies: Bright Stars - Astronomy Heritage ProjectMayes Creative is now completing our exciting project series, inspired by the Bodmin Moor Dark Skies bid. Our first phase, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Feast, involved looking at the heritage of astronomy in Cornwall, working with Brian Sheen of the Roseland Observatory & Caroline Kennett of South West Astronomy Heritage and our team of artists. This was followed by work in Penwith and Isles of Scilly, which we are now completing.
Darite school pupils visit The Hurlers site as research for our puppetry project. Travel support kindly supplied by Cornwall Heritage Trust
Dark Skies: Bright Stars and Deep Space...
WE ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO LEARN MORE about the world we live in, through creative exploration. Our next phase moves into the exciting territory of deep space astronomy and Cosmic Rays....
Phase 2 We have been working with ideas inspired by Deep Space and Cosmic Rays in particular, with funding support from Arts Council England, Cornwall Industrial Trust and Feast. Software Cornwall are partnering with us to deliver exciting science and technology engagement opportunities for artists which will be announced shortly! Watch out for these amazing opportunities in your area. Our Deep Space activities are now well under way, where we are extending our focus out into space, through learning about the presence of particles from Deep Space, know as Cosmic Rays, on earth. We have worked with Ian Falconer to develop the project and Software Cornwall have partnered with us to develop a simple cosmic ray detector, using a Raspberry Pi to process the information which we receive from the detectors, helping us to sift through the background radiation and spot the particles which have amazingly made it from the tumultuous activity in Deep Space all the way to earth!
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Headline image credit: Meteor: Film Pod (Andrew Bird, 2018)
