Self-Portrait with Toothache - Michael, HM Prison Grendon, Buckinghamshire. Kalyx Highly Commended Award for Portraits

21 October – 6 December 2009
Spirit Level, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London SE1 8XX
Open daily 10am – 11pm. Admission free.

This exhibition showcases artworks created by serving prisoners. It is also curated by currently serving female prisoners from HMPs Downview and Send, two women’s prisons in Surrey.

Carefully selected, vetted and supervised, the 6 to 8 women will be released each day under special licence to undertake the intensive 9-week educational project.

The women will be trained in all aspects of mounting an exhibition. Their central task will be to select the 150-or-so exhibits from the 4,000-or-so visual arts entries at the Koestler Arts Centre. They will also design and help build the displays at the Royal Festival Hall, and then give talks and tours to the public.

Please note the deadline for applications is Thursday 3 December 2009.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity.

Apply NOW!

Contact help@junction49.co.uk for a application pack.

London Youth is an ABC Awards Approved Centre.

To celebrate the new legal year we are holding a demonstration on behalf of the 229 Guantanamo detainees to show that much still needs to be done to free them from illegal detention.

Please join us and hold one of the 229 placards to show your solidarity for the detainees. There will also be speechs by lawyers and human rights campaigners on Guantanamo Bay and also the far-reaching influence that Guantanamo has had on international law. So let’s try and stop the spread of Guantanamitis on 3 October.

Speakers include;

• Louise Christian from Christian Khan Solicitors
• Imran Khan from Imran Khan Solicitors
• Kevin Laue from Redress
• Amnesty Representative
• Sunny Hundal from Pickled Politics
• Representative from Reprieve
• Helen Bamber from Helen Bamber Foundation
• Andy Worthington journalist and author of ‘The Guantanamo Files’

Organisations in support include;

• Redress
• London Guantanamo Campaign
• Cage prisoners
• Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?ID=1341

On the course you will:

Look at your area from an urban design perspective, visit inspiring projects, develop creative skills through model making and drawing explore methods of communication and also work up an action plan to take back to your neighbourhood.

Upcoming design training sessions will be held during the October Half term in London and Bristol.

http://www.theglasshouse.org.uk/index.php?pg_id=97&dm_i=6JL,1XQJ,MZ96G,67EU,1

New research suggests, however, that unless serious and continued action is taken to tackle carbon emissions we could see a rise of 4C  from pre-industrial levels by the year 2060. To put this into perspective it would threaten the water supply of half the world’s population, cause the extinction of up to half of all species of animal and plant species as well as devastating all low-lying coasts.

One of the countries that would be affected most by such an increase in temperature is the Maldive Islands. The Maldives consist of 1192 islets that lie an average of 1.5 metres above sea level. Recent UN forecasts predicted that sea levels would rise 57cm by 2100, which would obviously have an extraordinarily harmful impact on the Maldives. In an attempt to raise people’s awareness of the looming problems the president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, is planning to host a cabinet meeting underwater on October 24th.

Climate change is an issue that is considered hugely important at TrueTube and we have made numerous videos on the subject. Recently a group of young people visited our offices to make a one minute film for the competition One Minute to Save the World entitled Crossing That Bridge. Have a look at it and why not get involved in the competition and possibly have your film shown at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

Other films that we’ve been involved in include the following:

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=99

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=1096

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=510

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=1143

Choose What You Read essentially offers a book swap service. You can pick up a book to read on your journey to work and then, once it is finished, you can return it and pick up a new one. The program works to both protect the environment and improve the quality of material read by Londoners.  

The next day to look out for in terms of getting hold of a book is Monday 5th October when there will be ‘librarians’ at major London stations.

http://www.choosewhatyouread.com/

Deptford X 2009, presents
FLUX
25 September – 4 October

Now in its 11^th year, Deptford X arts festival is back, and once again taking over the area hailed as “ London ’s Wild West” by the New York Times.
Comprising 28 shows, 14 outdoor installations, 8 open studio events (in over 100 artists’ studios) and 5 events’, the Deptford X 2009 programme features a hugely exciting range of exhibitions, temporary projects & installations, artist awards, open studios, and fringe events.

Follow this link for the full program:

http://www.deptfordx.org/downloads/Programme_Final.pdf

Best thing about it is that it’s free…

Terence Kealey wrote a segment for a Times Higher Education piece entitled The seven deadly sins of the academy. The 500-word article looked at the dangers for male academics of lusting over young female students. Kealey describes attractive female students as “a perk” of the job and asserts that it is acceptable to “look but not touch.” Obviously this article was individually authored but for a publication such as Times Higher Education to publish these views goes someway to validating the objectification of women.

Kealey has argued that the article was meant to be humourous and that while “sex between staff and students is not funny and is not a legitimate source of humour … it is legitimate to use humour to illuminate the ways that people finesse the dissonance between what is publicly acceptable and what is sometimes privately desired.” His excuse that the article has been mis-understood has not been accepted by Olivia Bailey, the women’s officer at the National Union of Students who said “I am appalled that a university vice chancellor should display such an astounding lack of respect for women. Regardless of whether this was an attempt at humour, it is completely unacceptable for someone in Terence Kealey’s position to compare a lecture theatre to a lapdancing club, and I expect that many women studying at Buckingham University will be feeling extremely angry and insulted at these comments.”

This incident and the larger problem it is part of has a lot in common with the problem of ageism. Yesterday I highlighted the removal of Arlene Phillips from Strictly Come Dancing and Moira Stuart from the BBC news team because of their age. Age cannot be seen as the only factor, however, as at 81 Bruce Forsyth continues to present Strictly Come Dancing. If ageism were the only thing deciding whether or not people were suitable for working in television then he would undoubtedly have already been replaced with someone younger. But he has not. In an interview in the Guardian Fiona Bruce expressed her view that “Well, what I actually think is you can’t look like the back end of a bus, and you do have to scrub up quite well. But do you have to be a beauty? No. Do you have to pay more attention to your appearance than the blokes do? Yes. If you look like the back end of the bus, as a woman you won’t get the job. If you look like the back end of a bus as a bloke, you might get the job.”

It is clear that there are double standards at work within British society. Articles regularly appear in newspapers about the disparity in wages between men and women doing the same jobs and these tend to be met with anger. Little changes, however, and it is still possible for people in highly influential postions such as Terence Kealey to seemingly declare that it is perfectly alright for men to objectify women.

Sexism and gender are topics that have been dealt with in a large number of the TrueTube films and here are a small selection:

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=695

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=314

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=294

If you are down around London Bridge and Tower Bridge in the evenings between Wednesdays and Fridays over the next two weeks then why not check out the free film screenings that are being put on. There are some great films coming up over the next couple of weeks:

The Wizard of Oz
Wednesday 23 September
The classic tale of Dorothy, who is swept away to a magical land and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard, who can help her return home.  Starring Judy Garland.
(1939 101mins US Cert U)

Local Hero
Thursday 24 September
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up and entire village where they want to build a refinery.  Things don’t go as expected.  Music by Mark Knopfler.
(1983 111mins  UK  Cert PG)

The Usual Suspects
Friday 25 September
The story of five criminals (the usual suspects) agreeing to one last job – but they’re not the ones in control.   Starring Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey and Pete Postlethwaite
(1995 108 mins  USA Cert 18)

Strictly Ballroom
Wednesday 30 September
A romantic comedy telling the story of an Australian ballroom dancer, Scott Hastings, who flouts the rules and dances his own steps.
(1992 94 mins Aust Cert PG)

La Vie en Rose
Thursday 1 October
The Oscar winning film that tells the extraordinary life story of French singer Edith Piaf.
(2007 140 mins Fr/UK/Cz   Cert 12)

Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
Friday 2 October
Cohen brothers film where Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” is set in the deep south during the 1930′s.  Three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.  Starring George Clooney.
(2000  107 mins  UK/Fr/US Cert 12)

For more details check:

http://www.morelondon.co.uk/events_details.asp?ID=52

There was widespread uproar when Arlene Phillips was replaced as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing by Alesha Dixon, formerly of Mis-Teeq. At 66 Phillips was seemingly considered too old and the producers of the popular Saturday night program decided that it was better to replicate the approach of X-Factor and add some younger talent to the judging pannel in the form of the thirty year old Dixon. The move prompted Ben Bradshaw, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to urge the BBC to avoid falling into the clutches of the ‘cult of youth.’ 

This incident is not alone as one could point to the removal of Moira Stuart from the BBC news team as another example of ageism within the BBC. While theses are cases where it seems advancing years have been used as reason enough to remove clearly capable people from their position it is important to keep in mind that simultaneously young people are not being properly represented in mainstream media.

The image of young people generally propogated by many journalists is almost entirely negative. One of the most commonly-used words employed when describing young people is ‘hoodies.’ Menacing hoodie-wearing youngsters roam the streets looking for trouble or so many lazy journalists would have you believe. There are obviously lots of young people for whom this description would not be unfair although the majority clearly do not fit into this categorisation. Rather than looking for the causes and solutions for the problem many people seem content instead to simply criticise.

The removal of ageing tv personalities in favour of younger models would appear, on the face of it, to be a promotion of youth but the reality is somewhat more complicated. One of the things that characterises Britain is the diversity within its population and this tends to be higher in younger generations. This, however, is not reflected in the people chosen by tv producers to represent and attract young viewers in programs such as Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor. Instead those chosen are generally ‘safe’ and to a certain extent can be described as symbolising ‘middle England’. 

It appears that in terms of age there is a band at which people are considered relevant, safe and attractive in the media. If you are either too young or too old then it seems you are considered irrelevant, unsafe and unattractive. One of the ways that it is possible to combat this problem is through the interaction of  different age groups so that the distinction between them becomes less of a factor in people’s assessments of each other.

Earlier during the project we visited the Beaumont Estate in Leyton and made a couple of short films with some of the young people who live there. The project was organised through a woman called Ebony Vincent who was featured in The Daily Mirror today as an example of someone striving to break down the barriers of age by bringing young and old people together.

There are a number of films on the TrueTube website that deal with the issue of age, hoodies and inter-generational relationships and here are a few of them for you to have a quick look at:

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=1358

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=324

http://www.truetube.co.uk/media.php?do=detail&mediaid=1354