Arborescent

Today's xsite is Neringa...

Last Saturday xsite were braving the wilderness.

The Arborescent project lead by the talented Ed Carter promised 3 unique musical performances in an extraordinary setting – Kielder forest. xsite were asked to compose one of the graphic scores – a visual piece of music that was yet to be invented by musicians playing glass percussion instruments, a tuba and a trumpet.

In our piece, we asked the audience to take part by wandering into the forest and reading the symbols left on trees to be deciphered according to one’s own reason. Such conscious meandering made for a strange exhibition of sound where music, sometimes resembling a distant sound of a wild predator, travelled closer and further as if trying to influence one’s reason.

The sound was moving and the venue was uncanny.

We couldn’t have asked for a more enjoyable cultural weekend out in nature and judging from great comments after the event – the participants felt the same.

To Make The Stone Stoney

Today's xsite is Anna...

‘To make the stone stoney’ is a series of interactive discussions events, based at our events venue Ouse Street Arts Club, related to the long-term research partnership between artist Nicola Singh and our own Tim Bailey, commissioned by Wunderbar.

Curated under a collection of themes by Nicola Singh, the events aim to generate discussion that reflects upon and challenges the archive of work created through this partnership and which also looks to future collaborations.

Each event will include an introduction to the work, group discussion and a short exercise that aims to further explore the value of thinking with and through movement and sound in relation to the built environment.

Wednesday 20 November
space; place; scale; negotiation; private; public; permission; protest; ownership; governance; structure; substance; signs; symbols;

Wednesday 27 November
performer; spectator; absence; non-participation; aesthetics; ethics; discomfort; the act of seeing; the experience of being seen;

Wednesday 4 December
improvisation; instruction; spectacle; collectivity; synchronicity; thought; posture; action; gesture; rhythm; labour; move; be moved;

Wednesday 11 December
head; shoulders; knees & toes; length; depth; breadth; height;

Documentation of previous work will also be exhibited as part of the events.

Each event will take place between 6pm – 8pm on the above dates, at Ouse Street Arts Club, Ouse Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PF. Tickets are £4 for each event or £12 for all four, price includes a limited edition print. Refreshments will be provided. Please note that the events have a very limited capacity.

Tickets available at: www.wegottickets.com/xsitearchitecture

For further information or if you have any queries please contact: info@xsitearchitecture.co.uk

Ouse Street General Store

Today's xsite is Anna...

Ouse Street General Store has been open, at Ouse Street Arts Club, since last Friday, we have had a lot of people through the doors, sold quite a bit and enjoyed being shop keepers! We are still open all day today and 9-5pm on Saturday so if you haven't been along yet try and pop in!

 

Ouse Street General Store

Today's xsite is Anna...

We will be opening our events space Ouse Street Arts Club as ‘Ouse Street General Store’ from 11th – 20th October as part of Northern Design Festival, please make sure you pop by!

The corner shop, not just a place to pick up a pint of milk and The Chronicle, but a place central to our sense of community and our collective memory. Not just purveyors of essential provisions but a place to bump into neighbours, to pick up gossip and central to our sense of living somewhere.
Overshadowed by the supermarkets and seldom the first thought on a property developer’s mind the humble corner shop’s future is far from secure.

Ouse Street Arts Club sits at the heart of Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley where an industrial past sits alongside a creative present and JCBs are preparing the ground for major residentially led regeneration with the aim of creating a sustainable urban village.

It is in this context that Ouse Street General Stores will open its doors for Northern Design Festival 2013.

Presenting curated shelves full of work from over 30 North East and national designers, artists and makers Ouse Street General Stores will be your local cultural 7-Eleven.  It’s ‘Open all hours’ meets ‘Etsy’ and you won’t go short of that pint of milk.

Opening Hours
11 – 20^th October 9am – 5pm
Preview Friday 11th 5.30-7.30pm
Closed Sundays

Newcastle University Exhibition

Today's xsite is Louise...

Newcastle university - Architecture, Planning & Landscape, held their annual exhibition on Friday 14th June. An event enjoyed by many, showcased the culminating years work and research of the students. Held within the department, the venue allowed the work to be displayed in a variety of exciting ways.

 

 

This Weekend...

 Today's xsite is Anna...

Fancy a cocktail down the arcade?

This weekend our new venue Ouse Street Arts Club will be transformed into a retro games arcade with a bar, cocktails from Ouseburn Coffee Company, music, food from Riley's Fish Shack, ping pong and leaderboards... Come down and have a go!

Ouse Street, Newcastle, NE1 2PF

In Praise of Shadows

Today's xsite is Anna...

We are very pleased to be involved with Nicola Singh and her upcoming project In Praise of Shadows, taking place on the 18th April. Set in the beautiful Charlton Bonds building on Waterloo Street, it is a performance that explores the way we interact with, create and are affected by the architecture of our cities.  Tickets are now on sale and you can read more about the project below. Hopefully see you there!

Thursday 18th April, Charlton Bonds, 18 Waterloo Street, Newcastle, NE1 4DE
Tickets: £8.50 includes limited edition print
Book Here

In Praise of Shadows invites an audience to explore how architectural sites can shape, and be captured by sound.

In a building in Newcastle’s city centre that has been empty for almost 8 years, a meter-diameter hole has been cut out between two floors. An entirely acoustic performance of experimental music will take place across this hole, with the audience seated on the ground floor and performers on the first.

Some of the UK’s most well-respected and exciting musicians will perform strings, brass, woodwind and percussion alongside choral and solo vocals, exploring the full range of sonic possibilities of this altered space. Musicians include Rhodri Davies, Paul Dunmall, Chris Greive, Impossibility Knox (Gwilly Edmondez and Greta Buitkute), Mark Sanders, Nicola Singh and Sue Tompkins. Following the performances, Tim Bailey, partner at xsite architecture, will expand upon ideas of acoustics and their space in architectural practice in a brief lecture.

In Praise of Shadows is first in a series of ambitious new projects by Nicola Singh that explore the ways in which we interact with, create and are affected by the architecture of our cities. In Praise of Shadows is commissioned by Wunderbar and produced in partnership with xsite architecture.

  

Ouse Street Arts Club

Today's xsite is Anna...

We're the the process of curating Ouse Street Arts Club full of exciting events for 2013. Last year saw an architectural Summer School, an Art Mart, a cinema, Grazer Supperclubs and a few different exhibitions.

Building on this for the coming year, we already have plans for a temporary games arcade as part of The Late Shows, a pop-up sewing cafe, more exciting Supperclubs, exhibition launches, The Northern Design Festival and Ouseburn Open Studios...

If you are interested in using the space for an event or exhibition please get in touch. 

You can email using anna@xsitearchitecture.co.uk or ousestartsclub@gmail.com

http://ousestreetartsclub.wordpress.com/

 

 

Open Studios 2012 as it happened...

Today's xsite is Anna...

Open studios has been and gone for another year and we for one had a brilliant time. We were open at Ouse Street Arts Club for the first time, instead of Foundry Lane Studios, and received about 750 visitors over the course of the weekend. A lot when you think that the space only holds about 30 people!

The work on show in our art-mini-mart looked amazing and the pocket cinema worked brilliantly with people hanging around to watch whole films. Our little wood burner kept us warm all weekend and made sure all visitors left with a slight wood smoke aroma!

Our new venue was incredibly well received and we look forward to a full programme of events over the next year. To keep up to date with what is going on you can check out the wordpress site here. Or get in touch if you are interested in using the space via OuseStArtsClub@gmail.com

Ouseburn Open Studios 2012

Today's xsite is Anna...

We're taking part in the Ouseburn Open Studios again this year, but instead of opening Foundry Lane Studios we will be at the newly complete Ouse Street Arts Club.

Ouse Street Arts Club is our brand new creative venue occupying two converted shipping containers in the Lower Ouseburn on Ouse Street, tucked in next to the Victoria Tunnel entrance. For the ever busy Ouseburn Open Studios we are putting on an ‘Art-Mini-Mart’ with amazing stuff to see and buy from the likes of Prefab, Amy Dover, Muro Buro, Jill Tate, Laura Sheldon and Bubblegum Vegas

Come along and visit our ‘Pocket Cinema’ with an array of short films being shown all weekend... There will be music, food from The Grazer Supperclub and drinks including the finest indie coffee from Ouseburn Coffee Company for you to enjoy around our hand built woodburner keeping us all warm!

Prefab have prints for sale framed and unframed, Amy Dover has beautiful illustrations, cards and ceramics for sale and Jill Tate will be selling her photography as cards and prints. Muro Buro has amazing ‘skull’ prints in gold silver and bronze... Laura Sheldon has prints, t-shirts, cards, badge/sticker packs and ceramic decals for sale too, as well as jewellery from Bubblegum Vegas.

We'll be hanging out there all weekend, so pop down and say hi, have a look our new space, have some lunch and buy some Christmas presents...

As well as ourselves Mushroom Works, Northern Print, 36 Lime Street, The Biscuit Factory, Biscuit Tin Studios and Colbalt Studios will be open all weekend, as well as the Toffee Factory who are playing host to the British by Design pop-up shop. A free shuttle bus will be running between all of the venues as well as to the Baltic and the Sage.

To see more about Ouse Streets Arts Club click here....

and more about Ouseburn Open Studios here...