Programme

In this installation, artificial intelligence is used to reveal another place to the audience, creating an indelible link between Leicester and Dubai.
Cities Tango : Leicester+Dubai displays images of and from each location. Images are dynamically revealed within an otherwise abstract structure. A set of local photographs are interlaced with colour stripes and shown in the other city. Each city, and the people in them, interact with one another across time zones. The colours, stripes and timings used are driven by movements at each location. Immediate responses to rapid movement are seen by the audience in each location. In each place there is a screen which is interactive, using a computer and camera, showing an ever-changing blend of colour bands and images from the other city (connected over the Internet). A second, urban, screen in each city shows that location’s Cities Tango images.

What is seen depends on the movement of people in front of the display and on what is happening in the twin city. In each location the work reacts to detected motion. At the same time, analysed image information is sent over the internet to the other location to further influence the work’s behaviour. Cities Tango also evolves over time as a result of the detected movement of people. It uses AI in two respects. Pattern recognition drives its direct responses to movement and a rule-based system drives the evolution of the colours and behaviour. The evolution develops as a result of the history of the movement of the audiences in both cities. Dubai influences Leicester and Leicester influences Dubai in a tango danced between the two cities.

Part of Leicester’s Art AI Festival 2021

A free virtual talk featuring one of the latest and most exciting technology platforms for visualising 3D creative processes and accurately simulating product and human behaviour in real-time. NVIDIA Omniverse has gained considerable attention since its earlier-than-planned-launch in May 2020, not just because of the pandemic but because of its collaborative workflow potentials, made possible through its use of open standards.

This event will be chaired by Tracy Harwood, Professor of Digital Culture at the Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University, Leicester, and features George Matos, senior product manager of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector for the NVIDIA Omniverse platform.

The event will be live-streamed 4-5pm on Thursday 28 October, with an opportunity for audience Q&A; and will then be available to watch on YouTube – see link below.

How has the design workforce’s productivity and collaboration been impacted by the pandemic?

The Create Leicester team interviewed their community supporters on their thoughts on how the digital design workplace has evolved during the pandemic and their predictions for the future.

Two of the Art AI Festival exhibiting artists, Ernest Edmonds and Fabrizio Poltronieri, discuss their co-located artworks being shown simultaneously at the Dubai Expo and venues in Leicester.

Watch the talk on YouTube (1 hr 5 m)

Part of Leicester’s Art AI Festival May 2021 to March 2022

This year Design Season has asked the city’s designers and design networks to takeover 4 spaces across the city and create 4 pop up exhibition, workshop and demonstration spaces across the city. Supported by Leicester’s High Street Heritage Action Zone. We invite visitors and residents in to learn skills, view exhibits and experience demonstrations from some of the city’s creative design talent.

Design-Nation is the leading portfolio for designer-makers, artists and craftspeople based in the UK. A selection of makers from Design Nation’s Leicestershire Hub have come together to bring you an exciting pop up exhibition showcasing their latest creations.

The exhibition features pieces made using a variety of different materials and techniques including ceramics, felt making, metal work, weaving and paper sculpture. As part of the event the makers will be giving live talks and demonstrations, including felting, weaving and carving ceramics, giving a unique insight into how the wonderful works on display were created.

This pop-up exhibition/showcase is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4.30pm, and Sundays 10am-3pm, free entry, with demos on Tuesdays, Saturdays & Sundays during Design Season (see below)

Book your place at a Design Nation demonstration via the links below:

Designer Weaver – Sarah Johnson   Tuesdays 19 & 26 October 10am-4pm, free

Ceramics carving – Elle Maxwell of Speckled Grey Design demonstrates ceramic carving   Saturdays 23 & 30 October  10am-4pm, free

Felt Sculpture – Rachel Morley of Feltyrach demonstrates her practice of sculptural felt working   Sundays 24 & 31 October 10am-4pm, free

Window lettering in photo above : Lorna Dunn of @lesser_than_three

From Nupur Arts – Design and Heritage exhibition at Newarke Houses social history and regimental museum. Real stories from real people of how Gujaratis settled and made their home in Leicester – told through design – traditional costumes, old toys, traditional utensils, photographs, jewellery and textiles.

Newarke Houses is open Monday to Saturday 10am-4pm, Sunday 11am-4pm. Entry is free except on event days.

This exhibition finishes on 28 November 2021.

This year Design Season has asked the city’s designers and design networks to take over 4 spaces across the city and create 4 pop-up exhibition, workshop and demonstration spaces across the city. Supported by Leicester’s High Street Heritage Action Zone. We invite visitors and residents in to learn skills, view exhibits and experience demonstrations from some of the city’s creative design talent.

We invite you to pay a visit to the beautiful ISKCON centre on Granby Street (Monday to Friday noon to 5pm,) for two exhibitions created by new design talent, children and professional designers.

Little Inventors is an exhibition of 4 pieces of work created through collaboration between schools and professional designers. The Little Inventors film takes you through the project and process and as part of the season monster maker Tom Cleaver of Mr Cleavers Monsters will offer practical workshops which give you a flavour of his work in monster-making and puppetry.

Click the link below to book a puppet making workshop with Tom Cleaver on Wednesday 20th October 12-4pm or Saturday 23rd October 12-4pm, free.

The ISKCON centre is a Hindu temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

This year Design Season has asked the city’s designers and design networks to takeover 4 spaces across the city and create 4 pop up exhibition, workshop and demonstration spaces across the city. Supported by Leicester’s High Street Heritage Action Zone. We invite visitors and residents in to learn skills, view exhibits and experience demonstrations from some of the city’s creative design talent.

Interact Digital Arts presents a two week pop up installation at 58 Granby Street – Digital Arts or Digital Design? The former shop will feature artworks by local digital artists and art groups, as well as a programme of evening events and workshops.

Opening times

The pop-up gallery is also being used to launch Monobloc, a consortium of Leicester digital arts, music and digital heritage organisations who are working together to raise the profile of their work in the city. Monobloc’s longer-term goal is to establish a grass-roots digital media centre with a gallery, maker space and studios to support digital creativity in Leicester.

For full details of performances, exhibits and workshops please visit the Interact website – link below

Workshops

Interactive Light Workshop Learn how to control LED lights with the BBC Micro:bit and help to construct Sean Clark’s Colloquy artwork.  Saturday 23 October 2-4pm, free, drop-in

Electronic Music Workshop  Come and play with electronic instruments including synthesisers, drum machines and effects units. Hosted by R10 Electronic Music Studios. Saturday 30 October 2-4pm, free

Plus

Wednesday 20th October 5pm – 7pm. Zine Archive.

Friday 21st October 7:30pm – 9:30pm. Ping! Discs Showcase.

Tuesday 26th October VR Night

Wednesday 27th October
6pm – 8:30pm. “How to Destroy the Art World and Design Something Nicer” : three short talks about building communities of artists, problems, solutions and practical steps towards idealistic goals, by Phoenix Perry, Alan Lane, and Monobloc . Hosted by Sean Carroll.
7:30pm – 9pm. Monobloc Launch.

Thursday 28th October VJ Night

Friday 29th October – AT THE EXCHANGE BAR, RUTLAND STREET
Interact at the Exchange Bar. Entry by donation, you can book in advance on Eventbrite,
6pm – 8pm. Open Screen / 8pm – 10pm R10 Artists with Visuals / 10pm – 12:30am Ping! Artists with DACHHU Visuals
We are sorry that the venue is not wheelchair accessible. The event will be streamed online and we are working to find more accessible venues for future events.

Saturday 30th October
7pm – 10pm. CEREMONY ft. billion o’clock album launch. Limited tickets. Book on Eventbrite

This year Design Season has asked the city’s designers and design networks to takeover 4 spaces across the city and create 4 pop up exhibition, workshop and demonstration spaces across the city. Supported by Leicester’s High Street Heritage Action Zone. We invite visitors and residents in to learn skills, view exhibits and experience demonstrations from some of the city’s creative design talent.

Maker Village provides you with an opportunity to come and visit a complete designer-maker takeover with displays, workshops, demonstrations and shopping! You can buy stuff.

Our close friends and colleagues the super dynamic Churchgate Studios, home to a bursting-at-the-seams maker and artist community, and notable local maker selling brand We Are will be in residence with their friends and doing things their way in our Maker Village. See on display the totally bewildering array of maker styles from jewellery to metal to enamelling to working in textiles to upcycling to….

This pop-up exhibition/showcase is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm (tbc), free entry, with workshops on Saturdays 23 & 30 October.

Sign up at Eventbrite links for workshops:

Kristen Rollinson : Silver Ring Making  Sat 23 October 11am-3pm, free

Christine Pearson : Jewellery Enamelling  Sat 23 October 3-5pm, free

Wood Layering & Marquetry Workshops with Mohamad Aaqib and Adam Khalifa, Saturdays 23 & 30 October, five 3-hour slots on each date between 9.30am to 2.30pm, free

Leicester has undergone significant culture-led regeneration with areas transforming into new, vibrant and exciting places.
Discover more about Leicester’s Cultural Quarter by joining an informative, architect-led guided walk covering the history and recent transformation of the area from hosiery and boot making to today’s creative industries. Architect Nils Feldmann, on behalf of the Leicestershire and Rutland Society of Architects, will expertly guide visitors around the Cultural Quarter. The walk will include the LCB Depot, Curve, Maker’s Yard and the Phoenix. Not to be missed!
Meet at 10am in the Lightbox gallery in our local architecture exhibition at LCB Depot, then join us for a tour (10am-12pm) of the Cultural Quarter.

A Leicestershire & Rutland Society of Architects Love Architecture event.