digital:works trustee David Rogers and Joe Stevens, a digital:works member are exhibiting work at Countertext.

Countertext is a collection of multimedia installations and events that will include sculpture, sound, video, and performances that will be happening from Friday 7 November to Monday 10 November, across 18 venues in Bridport, West Bay and Beaminster.

This is a fantastic new cultural event for the South West region.

Joe is exhibiting a sound work, “with the window wide open”, in Bridport Old Books. This work aims to evoke memories of a particular time and place, using field recordings along with treated sounds.”

Countertext is a complementary to the Bridport Literary Prize and an opportunity to extend the language of the visual arts in relation to the written and spoken word.

countertext08 pdf brochure

From the community’s words, thoughts, dreams and feelings, digital:works have created a giant artwork, on the hoarding of BBC Media Village.

digital:works have just completed their latest project ‘My Future City’, working closely with Artswest and the BBC. This work, which involves a website (www.greatwhitecity.com), a 30meter banner around the BBC and supporting publicity. This was launched today with the help of pupils from St Stephens School and Cllr Anthony Lillis, Cabinet Minister for Children from Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

Pupils from St Stephens School, Shepherds Bush attended the launch told us how, “The project made me feel like I have some responsibility over the way things might be in the neighbourhood.”

They said, “digital:works let us express what we think about the neighborhood.” Going on to say, “I like the way our thoughts are displayed in a different way and how the imagery on the hoarding came from our ideas.”

The work is about how the area of West London, ‘White City’, has developed over the last 100 years. In 1908, the Franco-British Exhibition transformed this part of West London. In fact, it gave the area its name: ‘White City’, taken from the fantastical, white stucco exhibition palaces created for the event. One hundred years later, we are on the brink of another major transformation of White City, so we asked local children and young people to say what they wanted their future city to be.

Robert Seatter, Head of BBC History, said, “We really wanted this community hoarding project to capture the thoughts, feelings and dreams of the children and young people of White City. The design from digital:works perfectly matched this aspiration, creating a dramatic and colourful artwork, with a contemporary, urban feel, which I’m sure will get the whole community thinking about what they want their future city to be.”

Sav Kyriacou, a digital:works member, said, “After visiting the site at the BBC it was clear the images had to be on a human scale as you can’t stand very far back from it. We felt the young people’s words needed to be read but not in a linear fashion and new things had to be seen when walking past for the second, third or fourth time.” Sav added how “This was a challenging brief and the fact we’ve had very glowing responses from everyone involved has been very pleasing.”

Clare Burnett, a member from the Artswest organization said, “I think it looks fantastic and is really fun and interesting to look at and read.”

You can see the hoarding artwork here.