Creative Midlands East

Creative Midlands East

Students get Interactive with Arduino

Posted: 07 Dec 2012 03:25 AM PST


BA (Hons) Interactive Design were delighted to welcome back two of their recent graduates, John Revel (pictured below) and  Joan Planas, who came back from their native Spain to deliver a fascinating workshop in Arduino.


The workshop was given to level 2 and 3 current students, and was designed as an introduction to this exciting and innovative hardware, covering basic programming in Arduino and processing code.


Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.  It's intended for artists and designers and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments (Arduino website), which is intrinsic to Interactive Design.


During the course of the 2 day workshop, students produced mini synthesizers and sound reactive lights, as well as pressure pads to detect weight, and motion sensors. All of this will feed directly into the projects of levels 2 and 3.


As the workshop took place during November, the above image shows Programme Leader Clive McCarthy's Arduino take on Movember!


So successful was this workshop, the first of the current season of visiting lecturers from industry, that John and Joan will be returning to continue the workshop in the new year.


Interactive Design will be exhibiting work with Arduino at next year's Kinetica Arts Fair in London 27 Feb - 3 March 2013.

Creative Christmas in Nottingham

Posted: 06 Dec 2012 09:47 AM PST

christmas baublesI love Christmas. I always have. I can't help it and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm like Buddy the Elf. Since about… ooh, October, I've basically been bouncing off the walls with excitement and counting down the days until I get to listen to Wham, Mariah, Slade et al, and open the first door on my Advent calendar. Well, now it's here, and, as my boyfriend would probably attest, I've become almost insufferable. There's only so many times you can hear someone squeaking about how pretty a Christmas tree is before you want to force feed her chocolate just so she'll shut up. At any rate, I think it's fair to say that Nottingham's looking pretty Christmassy by now, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Here are some of the highlights of what's happening:

12 Windows of Christmas Cheer

12 windows of empty shops dotted around Nottingham have been given a festive facelift this month, by some of Nottingham's creatives. The project is a joint initiative between Nottingham Business Improvement District and Nottingham City Council, playing on the theme of – what else? – the 12 Days of Christmas and is part of a wider project aimed at attracting people to Nottingham for Christmas shopping and entertainment .

The windows will be decorated througout the Christmas period, and visitors can also play a part by voting for their favourite by scanning its QR code. Voting closes on 20th December, so get your votes in to win £500 to spend at any of the businesses who have taken part.

A very Contemporary Christmas

Last year, I ended up buying most of my Christmas pressies for family and friends at Nottingham Contemporary's shop. If you're looking for unique and fun gifts, or something for that one person who's insanely difficult to buy for, you really need to drop in. And throughout December, the Contemporary are running loads of Christmassy events and activities. There are discounts available for both students and City Card holders, special offers on food and drinks, and kids can build a Haitian Christmas grotto and meet Santa Zebra (15th & 16th Dec).

Christmas craft fairs and markets

As Sue mentioned in our previous post, Christmas shopping can tend to bring out the odd homicidal rage in people. So, if you want to avoid the madness of the Christmas high street (and who wouldn't? *shudders*), head out to a craft fair instead.

Wollaton Hall is holding a Christmas craft fair in the Courtyards each weekend in December.

Sherwood's Christmas market runs until 15th December.

Craft in the City is back for its second year, in the Sillitoe Room at Waterstones this coming weekend (and other dates in December – different stalls every time – more info here), with over 70 of the city's creatives selling their wares.

Also this weekend, Newstead Abbey is hosting a craft fair, alongside the house being decorated for Christmas. And if you're looking to pick up some fabulous, locally-produced food for the festive season, the Fine Food market is in the Old Market Sqaure on 21st-22nd December.

And for the kiddywinks, Nottingham Arts Theatre present Puss in Boots, following the adventures of John Miller and his pet cat, er… Puss. Puss in Boots runs from 8th-16th December. Afternoon and evening performances are available, depending on day. Tickets are £14 (£12 concessions) and group discounts are available.

Thinking of applying to one of our undergraduate Art and Design courses? If you...

Posted: 06 Dec 2012 03:07 AM PST

Thinking of applying to one of our undergraduate Art and Design courses? If you've got any questions then register to join us for a live chat on Friday 14 December, 3 pm - 5 pm.


Nottingham Trent University, School of Art & Design | Live Chats
The School of Art & Design at Nottingham Trent University is one of the most established and prestigious in the UK, with a world-renowned reputation for creative excellence. If you're looking for a challenging, creative educational experience, this is the place for you!

Pop into the pop up!

Posted: 06 Dec 2012 04:34 AM PST

Now with the best will in the world, Christmas shopping can bring out the worst in people. After a couple of hours on the high street the season of goodwill turns into the season of "please let me go home before I bludgeon someone." So what if I can offer you a place where you can buy your Christmas tree, gifts to put underneath it (from a range to please ALL the family) and have a good soul reviving alcholic drink (or a cup of tea) at the same time? Did I mention it's away from the centre of town? Did I also mention there's easy parking and it's on a bus route?

It's not too good to be true, it's the new pop up boutique at Bartons in Chilwell. Run by the Bluebird Tea Company, the boutique will be open from Wednesdays to Sundays each week from now till Christmas Eve. Creative Nottingham went down to the launch last night to find out more.

"Before I got into this tea lark I used to work in a bar" says Mike from Bluebird as he dips the rim of a mug into pomegranate juice mixed with sugar and fills said mug with a delicious ginger tea cocktail. "It's nice to do something vaguely bar-ish!" Bluebird have three tea cocktails on the menu and Creative Nottingham can confirm the ginger one is excellent. For our next visit we're planning on the Rudolph's Red Nose cocktail (slow gin and Christmas cake tea with amaretto – served hot). To please our designated driver readers we did also try a cup of Bluebird's ginger chai and that gets a thumbs up too. But before I get carried away with the drinks, perhaps I should talk to Krisi Smith, Chief Teabird, and the force behind the boutique.

"We set up Bluebird in June," she says. "We spent the summer doing market research at events, markets and pop ups like this. It gave us the chance to test the products and see what worked well without having many overheads. As we're a young company we were selected for the Mary Portas pop up scheme in London and since that gave us a lot of help, we decided to do the same thing in my home town of Nottingham. It's great to be able to help showcase other businesses."

"We're really pleased to have the pop up here at Barton's" says Simon of Barton's. "Let's face it, if it worked well in London, it's bound to be better in Chilwell."

The pop up houses 15 local businesses hand picked by Krisi and her Bluebird team, many of them in their infancy as well. Feeling suitable refreshed from the tea and a slice of Hartland Pie's pork pie (to die for – and I never thought I'd say that about a pork pie) I wander about to talk to the other stall holders.

Sumeer Kalyani from Pickle and Spice tells me that he's a pretty new company too. "We knew Bluebird from the regular indoor market at Barton's and thought this would be a good way to test out more products. We want to encourage people to cook more curries at home – it's pretty easy and can taste great so we offer a wide range of spices to help make it as good as possible." The prime product on Sumeer's table is a traditional Indian tin of seven spices that comes in a free jute bag with recipe cards. It couldn't get easier.

From India to France as we move onto the stall from Aubrey's creperie. Creative Nottingham is slightly embarrassed to admit that, despite many recommendations, we haven't yet sampled the delights of Aubrey's. Luckily this doesn't stop Meg Hale from Aubrey's talking to us and showing us her wares – a delectable range of Breton ciders ("suitable for accompanying all our food"), biscuits and salted caramels as well as British spreads that they use to fill the crepes. "We use independent producers," she says. "I really like the idea of this market, and it's nice to get out of the shop for a while!"

Helen and Gaynor from Handmade for Little Rascals are another brand spanking new business. "We had the idea about a year ago," says Helen. "We've been going from about June time though." Little Rascals make lovely children's clothes and the idea for the business came after Helen's daughter's first birthday. "I made her a dress and then realised that I could do that for other people. I used to work with Gaynor in the textile business and we got together to start Handmade for Little Rascals."

"We only have a limited amount of each print," said Gaynor. "So we can only make a limited number of clothes from each one which helps to make each garment even more special. But we also wanted to make sure that we priced things reasonably."

As a yarn fan, I can't help but spend some time looking at Millykins' stall and the range of crocheted items from Quirky Purple (including Tardis themed kindle covers for the special geek in your life) but the range of stalls also includes cosmetics, children's costumes, toys, jewellery and cards. And finally, Nottingham's Magpie brewery are on hand for a trusty pint.

Music for the evening is provided by My First Band and quite lovely it is too. But don't rush to download it – he's a vinyl only artist on Mesters label who have a range of records available to buy at the boutique. As I said, there's something for everyone. 

For a full list of stockists at the pop up boutique check out the pop up's page on Bluebird's website. And get yourself down to Chilwell before Christmas to make the most of this excellent and very welcome shopping experience!
Posted by Creative Midlands at 12/07/2012 11:52:00 am

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