Bones, Outsider Art & Aerospace

Now that Spring is nearly springing we thought we should probably do a little news post to let people know that we’re still here. We had a manic January doing some video & animation pieces for the Great North Museum’s current exhibition, Bones, which is open to the public for free until May and is well worth a look. As with all our previous work for the museum creating the content for the Bones exhibition was an education and we’d encourage everyone to go and see the exhibition while it lasts, before all the bones on display disappear back from whence they came… namely back into the museum’s underground archives. The exhibition is largely aimed at children but should prove interesting for anyone curious about how animals are built. And also fossils. Lots of fossils.

The second thing that we’d like to mention here is our recent work with Chilli Studios, an amazing organisation based at the top of the Ouseburn Valley above the St. Vincent Community Centre. True to their mission statement (‘Creatively Improving Mental Health’), Chilli Studios provides art and music studio space to individuals with mental health issues from across Newcastle and has established a close-knit community of artists who express themselves to great effect across a huge range of mediums. Now, to add to their offering, Chilli Studios have opened the Chilli Bizarre, their recently refurbished ethical Art Café, and we were happy to make an animation to help them spread the good word! They’ve long needed a public space to display what they themselves refer to as ‘Outsider Art’ produced by their incredibly talented service users. All of the work on display is available to buy with all monies going back into Chilli Studios to help them further their community objectives. Please head along to Chilli Bizarre and feast your eyes on their wares over coffee and cake… delicious hot food is also available.

Lastly, it seems noteworthy that for Christmas we got a surprise in the post in the form of a rather weighty letter from the lawyers of global aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin regarding a trademark infringement. I’d describe the tone of the letter as firm but fair, and it was composed with all the thoroughness and precision you might expect from the lawyers of a company which designs and builds laser-guided missile systems. Needless to say, we didn’t really fancy entering into a legal battle so we did the sensible thing and complied with their requests. As such, all work on the Roots & Wings spaceship has been halted until further notice and we’ll have to wait a bit longer to take our multimedia design mission intergalactic.