Heard And Not Seen

Heard and Not Seen is brought to you by Sandra Hall and Mitra Memarzia, working in association with Friction Arts. The project is a response to the Governement’s Pathfinder initiative and was commissioned by Birmingham City Council.

Sandra Hall

Sandra has been making participatory arts projects in the region since 1992.  As director of Friction Arts she has worked with all kinds of communities from offenders to allotment gardners, from the US to Australia.  Sandra is an acknowledged expert in the field of participatory arts and regularly delivers projects and seminars internationally, including regular appearances at Arnhem’s Popkunst and IETM.  Sandra first trained with Geese Theatre Company to confront offending behaviour using drama techniques and has taught on a range of courses for artists working in social contexts. Sandra is also a founder member of West Midlands Creative Alliance and also designs and mentors on a number of the independant training company’s programmes. This year she represented Friction Arts in the Birmingham Post’s ‘Power 50′ list and received Edgbaston Foundation’s Community Award for Friction’s ‘Curio City Shop’ project. She is an honourary member of Handsworth Uplands Allotments Domino Club and shares her own allotment in Balsall Heath.

Mitra Memarzia

Mitra works with a variety of media including photography, film, installation, sculpture, performance and socially engaged practices and has exhibited internationally.  With a combined theory and practice PhD in Fine Art on Contemporary Iranian Women Artists, her specialism and creative inspiration is the construction and representation of identities. Although her work is diverse, she often explores the notion of displacement, boundaries and power often resulting in work that has an interactive element to it. The relationship of the public with her work is central to her practice and viewers are often invited to engage with the work. Her main artistic aim is to be a catalyst for inspirational dialoge and exchange through a variety of creative practices and productions. Mitra is also an associate lecturer in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University and on the board of directors for AN- The Artist Information Company. For examples of her work visit her Website.

Friction Arts

Friction make ‘Art Where You Live’ – an approach that has led them to create projects in all the ‘wrong’ places for the last sixteen years.  Last year saw over three hundred people singing and performing on an inner city estate in ‘Reality Estate‘, a culmination of their three-year ‘Curio City Shop’ intervention in FiveWays, Birmingham. Friciton have produced hundreds of projects with a range of communities and are committed to placing quality contemporary art at the heart of everyday life.  Currently they are producing ‘Echoes From The Edge‘, a three-year collaboration with US partners Touchable Stories, where they will document and reflect the changing face of the city surrounding their headquarters in Digbeth Birmingham to create an interactive archive for the future.

Other Artists and Creatives we are working with on ‘Heard and Not Seen’:

Babis Alexiadis

Babis is an animation and media artist.  His work has been exhibited Nationally and Internationally and he recently received the Public’s Choice Award.  Working and engaging with the public is integral to his artistic practice. For more examples of Babis’s work visit: www.babis-alexiadis.com

Nicola Shipley

Nicola Shipley is a freelance Arts Project Manager, Producer and Creative Industry Consultant. She has worked in the Midlands Arts Sector for over the past 15 years and has experience in working with a wide range of public and private sector clients within a visual arts context. She project manages ‘Virtual’, supporting artists to access new markets through an intranet gallery, exhibition programme, commissioning scheme and mentoring/training.  She has worked on a range of projects including Testbed, Creative Prison and Lift for Architecture week.  Nicola is supporting ‘Heard and Not Seen’ liaising with galleries and press.

Darren Joyce

Darren is a sound artist who’s work is usually site specific. In collaboration with us, Darren created the immersive surround sound part of the installation using, taking visitors through an aural journey of our collective daily rituals.  For examples of his work with Dreams of Tall Buildings visit: www.dreamsoftallbuildings.com

Steve Carson

Steve is a freelance interactive media technician who works with a wide range of creative individuals and organisations to make their ideas into a reality! For Heard And Not Seen, Steve designed the interactive platforms that enabled the artworks to respond to the movement and sound of visitors.

We gratefully acknowledge support from Birmingham City Council. A big thank you to Zubeda Limbada our commissioner and our steering group Izzy Mohammed, Nikki Bi and Helen Tomkins.

The project has been supported by….

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