How far would you go to join a social network?

How far would you go to join a social network? When you signed up for Facebook you might have spent a fair amount of time filling in fascinating information about yourself, where you went to school, the bands you like or the places you’ve worked.

Opening a Twitter account probably entailed several minutes’ deliberation over your username, and Flickr requires you to sit and upload or tag all your photos, which can admittedly take some time.

But would you go as far as having your membership information tattooed on your body? That’s what the arts organisation Ultimate Holding Company is asking of one hundred volunteers to do for a new exhibition at Chapel Street in Salford.

On the face of it, Ext-Inked is simply an exhibition of drawings illustrating the one hundred most endangered species in the British Isles. The drawings, which feature everything from a red squirrel to an ‘erratic ant’, went on display at Unit 108, Chapel Street, Salford, M3 5DW on 12th November, and will be on show 10am – 6pm every day until 1st December.

But between 26th and 29th November, the exhibition takes a twist, and becomes a groundbreaking social experiment. With help from expert tattooists from Ink & Steel, the drawings will be converted into tattoos, and a hundred ‘ambassadors’ will volunteer to have the designs etched onto their skin for posterity – to form a very exclusive social network of representatives for the endangered species.

Tattooing will happen live at Chapel Street over the weekend of 26th-29th November, beginning at 7:30pm on the 26th. Volunteers can sign up at any time during the exhibition’s run, but the species are being assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you’ve got a particular fondness for a fungus, or a long-held wish to be tattooed with the likeness of a lizard, you’d better move fast…

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

JOIN THE EXT-INKED FACEBOOK GROUP

 

 

DaVinci the Genius hits Ning…

Another great project in Manchester today – and we’re still with the museums sector. MOSI – the Museum of Science and Industry down in Castlefield have created a whole site to support the Manchester leg of the Da Vinci the Genius exhibition which is on show at MOSI from 14th November 2009 to 13th June 2010. They’ve built the site using Ning.com, where you can create your own social network around anything you like.

There’s loads of information and links on the Manchester Da Vinci site – a discussion forum, lots of links to interactive content, and a whole range of Da Vinci-related videos and images. You can even take The Genius Test to find out if you’re as clever as Leonardo himself. I, unsurprisingly, am not..

Community Reporters do Guerilla Busking!

PVM’s Community Reporters are going to be out and about this Friday documenting Single Cell’s / Futuresonic’s Guerilla Buskers.

Raising money and awareness for refugees and asylum seekers, a whole range of Manchester artists are going to be playing in secret locations all around the city centre – and we’re going to be following them.

Look out for up-to-the-minute footage on Single Cell’s YouTube channel as the day progresses: http://www.youtube.com/singlecellcollective

And best of all, we want your footage as well. If you’re going to watch any of the acts, or just happen to stumble across them on your travels, and feel to take some pics or record something on your phone, then we want it! Send what you can to jess@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk, or get in touch for Youtube account info.

Here’s to hoping for a sunny day!

What’s The Story? Community Reporters Hit The Big Time!

A group of Community Reporters from Manchester and Salford will be in Exchange Square on Monday 16th February 12pm – 2pm. They will be asking passers-by ‘What’s Your Story?’ as their own stories are shown on the big screen.

If you’re a Community Reporter, then come along! And if you’ve got a story you’d like to tell our reporters, or you’re interested in becoming a reporter, or if you’d just like to see what it is we get up to, then come along too! The more the merrier!

Community Reporting is a programme run by People’s Voice Media, in partnership with the BBC. People are trained in using social media to tell their own stories in their own ways. Some use audio and video equipment, others use mobiles or webcams, some prefer just to blog.
As part of their training they have produced a variety of short films, and a selection of these will be shown on the big screen. The reporters will then interview passers-by to get their thoughts, views and stories.

Theatre Review Workshop

It’s happening again….and this time it’s definitely going ahead!

We’ve got 12 tickets to go and see True Love Lies at the Royal Exchange theatre, on Saturday 7th Feb at 16:00. This is going to be followed by a short (45mins – 1hour) workshop on how to create a theatre review, given by someone who’s done it for a living! A great opportunity to go to the theatre and learn new skills, skills which can be applied to reviewing all sorts of things – swimming lessons, films, restaurants, days out at the Velodrome….check out our Community Reviewers blog to see what our Reporters have been up to.

Tickets cost £4.50 each, and we’ve already given away 5, so if you want one you’ll have to be quick. Email jess@mcin.net. It’s first come, first serve, and priority will be given to existing Community Reporters, or those who want to join the scheme and produce content on a regular basis – see our Community Reporters page for more info.

Community Reviewers Get Active!

Community Reviewers have just teamed up with the wonderful people at Manchester Sport and Leisure who are so keen to get people off their sofas and jumpin around that they’re offering Reviewers a wealth of opportunities to get active. They’ve got facilities all over Manchester, so there’s bound to be something going on somewhere near you.

Ever wanted to give yoga a try? Or maybe a game of squash? Or perhaps you’d like to throw yourself about doing a bit of aerobics? We’ve got a plethora of free sessions available. We can even offer you a week’s free gym membership. There are so many possibilities. We just want to get you running around, and then letting the world know what you thought about it!

The best thing to do if you’re interested is to check out the Manchester Sport and Leisure website and have a snoop around and see what’s going on near you. If you find something you’re up for doing, get in touch with me (jess@mcin.net), and I’ll let you know if it’s possible. You might as well try your luck – you never know! Happy snooping!

Community Reviewers Are Born!

Hear ye, hear ye!

Never let it be said that we at MCIN never do anything for our Community Reporters. Through equal amounts of charm and pestering we have linked up with some of the kind folk in Manchester’s entertainment industry, who have agreed to give us free tickets to some of the city’s top events in return for reviews. We’ve already had people go to the Comedy Store, the Royal Exchange and the Velodrome, and we’ve got also contacts with the Greenroom, Contact, Sportcity and SJM Concerts – they of Manchester Academy fame. Details of all available tickets are available on our brand shiny new Community Reporter’s Newsletter, which went out today. If you haven’t received it, and you’re registered as a Community Reporter, let me know (jess@mcin.net) and I’ll include you on the list.

Likewise, if you’ve got contacts at any venues in or around the city who you think might be up for taking part, then let me know, and if you’ve got anything you want other Community Reporters to know about – events, courses, news…whatever really – then get in touch and I’ll send the email round.  We’re still waging the charm/pestering offensive at MCFC and the Lowry.

It’s worth noting that Community Reporters who go to events WILL be expected to write/record a review (we’re no stranger to nagging. Some of us are exceptionally good at it), and priority will be given to people who haven’t had tickets before. If you’re unsure about how to write a review, one of our Community Reporters, who has written some professional reviews, has agreed to give a free workshop. Let me know if you’re up for it so we can organise it.

Have fun!

Birely Fields in Hulme

A 2 minute video made in 2006 by Hulme resident, and Friend of Birley Fields, Nigel Woodcock. Birley Fields is a 40 acre brownfield site in Hulme, central Manchester, which has remained undeveloped for the last 10 years since Hulme was regenerated. During this time, the open space as evolved its own interesting wildlife ecology. Many local residents like it just how it is, or would like to see it used for social, or ecological activities. However, Manchester Metroploitan Univiersity recently unveiled plans to develop a new 3,000 people campus on the Birley Fields, which will destroy the green space, and dramatically transform the character of Hulme. The video includes an interview with Nigel, and other local people, shot at a Friends of Birley Fields event, which was held to raise awareness about the future of the area.

AllVoices – The first open media site where anyone can report from anywhere

There’s a brand spanking new website just out, and it’s taking what we’re doing here at People’s Voice Media to an international level.

AllVoices.com “brings together multiple voices or points of view via news stories, videos, images and blogs from the Internet, to provide context and build momentum.” The idea is simple – it does what it says on the tin. Anyone, anywhere in the world, with access to a computer, can post ‘news’ on the site. The site is computer-moderated, so inevitably some spam gets through, but most of the stuff posted on there is legitimate.

Unshackled by advertising, the site is bringing together a whole range of voices, opinions and stories, many of which would not normally be considered ‘newsworthy,’ or would even, for various reasons, be deliberately left out of the mainstream media (see eg Proof That Media Controls the Election) It’s a fascinating experiment, and what we at PVM are aiming towards, if on a slightly smaller scale!

If you live in or around Manchester, and would like to get involved in some way, please email jess@mcin.net

Happy Surfing!

Hi World!

I’m the new editor for the MyManchester.net website. We’ve got 12 websites providing community information for Manchester. We post jobs, events, training and courses that are happening all over the city. But above all, we’re here to try and get YOU to have your say. We’ve got forums and bulletin boards for you to post on; we’ve got a Blogroll section, where people from all over Manchester feed their blogs into our site so you can hear about Manchester things from Manchester people; and we’ve got Community Reporters, who we provide with media equipment and training so that they’re equipped to tell their stories in their way.

Interested? Visit MyManchester. net to see what all the fuss is about, and get involved!