MY YEAR OF YES.

  "When I am hard at work, when I am deep in it, there is no other feeling," she says. She has a name for this feeling: The hum. The hum is a drug, the hum is music, the hum is God's whisper in her ear. But what happens when it stops?

https://www.ted.com/talks/shonda_rhimes_my_year_of_saying_yes_to_everything

...

"I Never Thought i was Shocking"

The avant-garde artist who bared her buttocks for Yoko Ono, filmed herself having sex when movies still couldn't say the word 'vagina', and made art out of meat long before Lady Gaga talks to Steve Rose as her first solo UK show opens 


http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/10/carole-schneemann-naked-art-performance

Carolee Schneemann reclaimed the female nude in works like Eye Body, 1963. Photograph: copyright Carolee Schneemann

In 1968, Carolee Schneemann caused outrage in Britain simply by giving a talk about art. "I wore farmers overalls," she says, "and I had lots of oranges stuffed everywhere. It was about Cézanne, so I showed slides and talked about his influence – and I kept undressing and dressing. I was naked under my overalls and I'd throw these oranges into the audience, like a still life escaping. Then I'd do my overalls back up and continue the lecture."


Schneemann wanted to be an artist before she even knew what an artist was, but her gender sent her down a very different career path. "I was always discouraged," she says. "Even when I had a fellowship for painting, some of my teachers were very hostile. 'You're taking this too seriously. You're only a girl. Don't set your heart on art.' My boyfriends in college stole my brushes and my books, like, 'We need this more than you do.'"

 

Interview for Buzzcut Festival

How 'typical' is this work compared to other pieces that you have made? Did the process follow a familiar or new pattern?

For me/us this work has blended working both in and out of my comfort zone through the creation process in a balanced way. With “OUT” being collaboration between me and Rachael, it has been a full 360 degree process as we lend ourselves to each other’s practice. I believe sometimes as artists and we go through that initial devising and creation process, questioning one’s self on the honesty of the work is vital to the delivery of the audience’s experience. However it is even more vital to ourselves as makers and creators as we are constantly considering the work or subject matter in hand whilst being conscious of the authenticity of what it is we were striving to develop.

Can you tell me a little bit about the work that you are bringing to Buzzcut?

“OUT” is collaboration between Rachael Young a theatre maker and writer and Dwayne Antony a choreographer and dance artist. Two creative souls of colour from Jamaican heritage joined in the space recalling and examining our own experiences of the works tittle. We examine and challenge the ideas that have been conditioned and indoctrinated into us as people through our heritage, through our Jamaica, through high heel, lots of sweat and at times even tears.

“Males and females are put into boxes of expectation when we are born. As we grow we start to realize the damages that those expectations cause to our spiritual and emotional understanding of ourselves and life”.

Buzzcut is concerned with the idea of 'community'. Does community have a special meaning for you, and what relationship do you feel your work has within wider communities?

The phrase community, honestly at times can feel like an affectionate hug to a mighty bitch slap at the same time. Loving and understanding with a huge sense of camaraderie and kinship. However my friend in order to have that everlasting feeling one must, toe the line, act right and remember not to bring shame to the family door. I remember during the creation process myself and Racheal discussing a topic very similar, we called it the “Black Mantra”. A mantra of long-lasting words and phrases we both recall hearing growing up. I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is, how much of the black mantra was/is good for shaping us into good well-mannered people? That played that vital part in shaping us through childhood into adulthood? And how much of that mantra we grew to hear so much, stopped us in our tracks of feeling free to know truly who we are and most importantly become who we are?

What are you hoping that the audience will experience?

I hope the audience come with an open heart and mind, and experience the notion of questioning and recalling which we bring to the space. Now we are not here to, as  the saying goes “burn our bra’s”, as you will see I don’t where a bra, however you will see two stories running simultaneously in space exploring what the word “OUT” means to us.

PUT THE SHACKLES ON AND TAKE THE LABLES OFF!!!

NEWS FLASH!!! A SOMETHING A FRIEND SHARED WITH ME TODAY.

PRISON > FASHION> PRISON> FASHION> PRISON> FASHION........


http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2011/07/27/italian-prisoners-designer-suiting-ban


London College of Fashion Graduates put on another great show!

Talking Dance

Dance UK Launch Conference 2012 to be held in Leeds

Press release date 

Thu 25 Oct 2012

Speakers announced for Dance UK’s Launch in Leeds 2012
The professional development and networking day for professional dance students and recent graduates

• Date: Friday 9 November, 9.00am - 6pm
• Venue: Yorkshire Dance and Northern Ballet
• £25 Dance UK student member or £30 non-member (including lunch and refreshments and evening drinks networking reception)

Book your place at www.danceuk.org/shop/events or email info@danceuk.org
Dance UK's annual professional development and networking day for professional dance students and recent graduates who want to get ahead in their careers is taking place this year for the first time in Leeds, organised in partnership with Dance UK members Yorkshire Dance, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Northern Ballet, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Leeds Metropolitan University Dance Department. Launch is designed to help young dance professionals starting out in their careers to choose and pursue specific roles in the sector, including teacher, manager, company dancer, independent choreographer and everything in between.
The packed day provides seminars and hands-on practical advice from leading dance professionals, who have all had amazing careers both as dancers and in the other diverse roles the dance profession offers, including producers, dance scientists and educators.
The portfolio career is the reality for most dance artists and Launch will give an overview of the paths open to young dance professionals and how to access the variety of jobs on offer. Designed for dance students and recent graduates in the last two years Launch includes the chance for young dance professionals to make new contacts and collect information about how to get a job in dance. This day is set to inspire and empower a new generation of dancers and practitioners to better understand the nature of the dance sector in the UK.

Conference schedule

9am	Arrival, registration, tea and coffee
9.30 – 10am	Welcome and introduction: What you can expect from a career in dance given by co-chairs of the day Rachel Krische, independent dancer and Head of Dance, Leeds Metropolitan University and Beth Cassani, independent choreographer, teacher and senior lecturer in dance at Leeds Metropolitan University.
10 – 11.30am	Chat show, speakers include: Darren Pritchard, dancer, choreographer, teacher and Artistic Director of Company Fierce Academy Emma Gladstone, former dancer, co-founder of New Adventures, Artistic Programmer and Producer, Sadler’s Wells Tom Roden, co-director New Art Club Simon Harper, Media and PR Manager for Birmingham Royal Ballet and former West End dancer
11.30 – 11.50am	Tea and coffee break
11.50am – 12.30pm	‘Working as a Choreographer’ speakers Aletta Collins and Tom Roden
12.30 – 12.45pm	‘Working as a producer’ speaker Dave Edmunds
12.45 – 1pm	Questions, chaired by Beth Cassani
1 – 1.55pm	Lunch (provided) – information stalls and networking
2 – 2.35pm	‘Working in Education’ speakers Karen Knox, Dawn Holgate and Tracy Witney, Head of Education and Community programmes, Northern School of Contemporary Dance
2 – 2.35pm	‘Working in Education’ speakers Karen Knox, Dawn Holgate and Tracy Witney, Head of Education and Community programmes, Northern School of Contemporary Dance
2.35 – 2.50pm	Questions re working in education
2.50 – 3.30pm	‘Resources available to keep dancers’ healthy (including the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science) and working in health, wellbeing and dance medicine and science’ speakers Niamh Morrin, Dance UK's Healthier Dancer Programme manager, Msc Dance Science graduate and Howard Bird Visiting Professor in Performing Arts Medicine at University College London
3.30 – 3.45pm	Questions re health and working in health and wellbeing
3.45 – 4pm	Afternoon tea and cakes (included in ticket price)
4 – 5pm	Break out groups (2 x 30 minute sessions for smaller groups, both sessions will be run twice so that all delegates can attend both) Session A ‘How to approach an audition’ led by Sharon Watson, Artistic Director Phoenix Dance Theatre and Janet Smith, Principal, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and former Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre. Session B ‘Starting out – what to expect – a personal view from young dance artists’ Speakers Dwayne Simms, Hannah Buckley and Julius Ebreo
5 – 5.20pm	Round-up from Chairs
5.20 – 7pm	Networking drinks (provided as part of the ticket price)

Free information sheet – Launch delegates will also be provided with an information sheet about ‘money matters’ explaining how to manage your finances, invoicing and tax.

What students say about attending past Launch events

“A great opportunity to pick up essential information and network with each other and established professionals”

“It helped me decide what to do and how to get there”

“Very useful information, practical and realistic advice”

“It was great to meet other students in my position and to learn about pos

How Consumers Are Changing The Face Of Your Brand.

In May 2011, GigaOm founder, Om Malik, published an article entitled “The Democratization of Distribution,” which detailed how the rise of Twitter fundamentally changed the role of media companies who were once the gatekeepers of news and attention. Empowered by Twitter, anyone had the tools to become a journalist, introducing, impacting, and amplifying news in real-time. We saw just how powerful this news revolution was during the Arab Spring.

Power to the People

Now a new revolution is taking place, this time around visual social content. In the same way that Twitter profoundly changed the news, the exponential rise of user photos and videos has deeply altered the way consumers experience brands. For the first time, visual sharing platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Facebook and Snapchat are allowing customers to play a critical role in defining brand experience and identity. While the voice of the customer has always been one of the most powerful concepts in marketing, it was typically text driven and dictated or heavily moderated by brands. Now that has changed. Customers have the power to visually define brands, amplifying their experience and influencing their peers, all with a simple photo or video share.

Why Brands Should Care

According to Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends report, over 1.8 billion photos are uploaded per day to major social media platforms. That means by the time you finish reading this article, about 5 million photos will be shared on the internet. Clearly, there is no shortage of photos and the rate of photo sharing is still growing.

What’s less obvious is the cultural shift around social photos that makes them more useful to brands than ever before. Millennials have grown up armed with smartphones and are already accustomed to the world of social sharing. Today, photo and video sharing apps like Instagram and Snapchat are about communication—a visual blog for the people, places, and things that we love. As a result, today’s photos are much more likely to be brand affiliated. So why does this matter? What’s the value in a photo of new shoes shared to a few friends?

The answer is much more than you think. Each photo or video is an authentic visual endorsement for your brand. When someone tags a brand, they are actively sharing a positive experience with the world. Think the power of good consumer reviews (i.e., Yelp or TripAdvisor) but amplified 10, 100, even 1000 times (depending on your social network). For a brand, each piece of affiliated content is a unique opportunity to influence a purchasing decision.

I’m not alone in this mindset. At Pixlee, we've seen many of our customers use these photos as authentic visual reviews. E-commerce companies like Rent the Runway have used customer images to increase conversion up to 200%. And that effect is intensified when those photos come from friends and peers. The ultimate goal for most brands is to establish a loyal and strong community of buyers. User photos play a key role in this process because it is extremely difficult for brands to imitate this kind of authentic content.

Understand Consumers Like Never Before

For brands, there’s an added bonus to this behavior shift in consumers. Historically, marketing teams have had to rely on surveys, focus groups and projection models to understand their customers. In this new age of Big Data and mobile, the amount of customer information available to brands has exploded. Each post, picture, and video comes packed with metadata about the post and the user. This includes captions, hashtags, @tags, location data, demographic data and more. Brands can use this data to inform their marketing in a way that makes a real difference to their customers. They can celebrate die-hard fans and highlight evangelists, connecting with the buyers on a whole new level.

With Instagram and Twitter, I can post a training photo and 10 minutes later have Nike wish me luck on my next race. Does that make me feel closer to Nike? You bet it does. Not only do I feel connected, but Nike now understands more about me as a brand advocate.

What’s Next

In the same way that Twitter changed the news world, this visual revolution is changing the balance of power between people and brands. Smart brands know better than to fight the explosion of brand-attributed photos and videos. The most successful brands will evolve to take advantage of this behavior and use it in their favor. The very best will use it to convert customers into brand champions who love their brand even more than they love their products.

Kyle Wong is the founder and CEO of Pixlee, a visual marketing startup in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter at @kwong47

Fashion in Florence & her Music

My Girl Rayna..

I'm just giving a shout out to my friend Rayna..

BEST OF LUCK FOR 2012 THIS IS YOUR YEAR ..

xx

http://soundcloud.com/nevrayna/my-crunchy-funky