Photographs from the screening are viewable here
For two-weeks, sixteen Level 2 students from the BA (Hons) Contemporary Creative Practice course at Leeds Metropolitan University, worked in five groups to create an ambitious body of work in the form of written, visual and verbal proposals for content to be presented on the BBC Big Screen. Taking the theme of "22nd Century Portraits", each group were asked to consider the screen, Millennium Square and the city of Leeds as subjects to form the basis of the collaborative work. During the project, each group gained valuable experience in pacing their working methods, learning to share authorship, sourcing information and support, reporting in on a daily basis and working to a deadline. On the last day of the project, each group presented their ideas and visuals to the BBC Leeds Big Screen Manager Chris Nriapia and entered into detailed practical, ethical and theoretical discussions in the process. The final works will be premiered on the Big Screen on Thursday 15th March 2007.
Warhol claimed his static real-time films to be portraits. Gilbert & George similarly pointed movie cameras at still lives and landscapes. With Gordon/Parreno claiming "Zidane" to be a 21st Century portrait, we are being asked to re-consider what a portrait can be. Or more importantly, what it will be in future.
As the BBC roll out Big Screens across the UK we are also looking at a situation in which every citizen can see themselves reflected in the media. The previously untouchable realms of radio, television and cinema are no longer out of bounds. The media revolution must be taken on board by anyone dealing with conceptual and visual concerns.
"22nd Century Portraits" will be a series of moving image works to be presented on the BBC Big Screen in Leeds in late March/early April 2007. Artist Alan Dunn (FACT/tenantspin) will run the 2-week project in conjunction with course staff, introducing points of reference (see project page on website) and contextual material.
David Motchman, Andrew Corlett and Ann Elkington
We intend to stage a malfunction of the BBC's big screen. News 24 will be interrupted with our CCTV footage of the area.
The footage will show a suspicious character running from the surrounding streets and then through Millennium square. The faced CCTV footage becomes more convincingly "live" when the character off the screen actually runs through Millennium square as he does so on screen.
The intention of the error is to grab the attention of the passers by abusing their inquisitive nature. The lack of conclusion allows the audience to create their own answers to what they've witnessed.
Aimee Richardson and Katie Coggan
Millennium Square is a busy, vibrant area of Leeds, in which a large variety of people pass through, and use, daily. With this in mind and the proposed theme of 22nd centaury portraits, we set about trying to bring the idea of peoples private actions into the public and to also bring people's attention to the private gestures that they do in public.
The intention of the film is to make people more aware of others around them and to view their surroundings with more care.
Claire Potter, Jay Walsh and Robert Sparkes
People are the character of a city and without them there are only buildings. We wanted to paint a picture of the people of Leeds using their thoughts and opinions - an audio portrait. The area we now know as Millennium Square has always been set aside for public recreation, whether it is used for ice rinks or simply public gardens. The BBC Big Screen now plays an integral role in this area in terms of contributing to the community vibe and sustaining it.
It was decided between Rob, Jay and myself that we would interview people from Leeds about the program of events in Millennium Square and the content of the Big Screen, to try to get them to dream a little and be involved to some degree in the content of the area. I had an impromptu darts match with Jay and using a map of Leeds and a marker pen we located areas where the three of us would later stop to interview people on our road trip around Leeds. Thank you to every body who took the trouble to take part and a big thank you to the chip shop owner for the free chips! - Claire, Rob and Jay.
Lucy Tucker, Danny McGuinness and Richard High
Lucy Tucker, Danny McGuinness and Richard High are three artists that have collaborated to produce three separate pieces that all have simple interactive and communicative elements in common. McGuinness addresses how he felt in the past walking across Millennium Square, and wanted to display the relationship between that and the screen content. Tucker explores the idea of taking the screen back to its simplest form of entertainment, and asks the audience to partake in a series of comical actions 'to do before you leave Millennium Square'. Both pieces use iconic imagery and music that reflect that of a 1930's slapstick silent movie. High works with the idea of the big screen being perceived by the public as a source of factual information. A series of obscure questions and answers leaves the public questioning what they have seen.