Unit 12, Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, Birmingham, B5 5RT

“Language is fundamentally a combinatorial system” – Elizabeth Spelke

Can an exhibition think?

Thinking requires words to be re-combined to form complex meanings. In place of words and a mind, The Infinite Combinatorium uses artworks and code. Within the Infinite Combinatorium artworks endlessly recombine with each other to form new works, giving rise to emergent qualities and ever shifting, unpredictable meanings.

Entering The Infinite Combinatoirum Part 1, are newly commissioned digital works by If We Don’t, Remember Me, which draw on the world of film to create seamlessly repeating loops, locking subjects inside the uncanny moment of a single gesture.

These are complimented by the intricate paintings of New York based Michelle Weinstein. The abstract geometry of Weinstein’s work displays a systematic approach, a visual circuitry reminiscent of a Mandelbrot set, gently drawing the viewer between magnitudes of scale.

The work of Elizabeth Short further explores these notions through a project that uses Google Earth, KML, HTML and digital photography, to create a body of work that investigates the connection between the global and the local. Short’s practice place-marks abandoned and forgotten urban spaces onto Google Earth, subverting it’s original function combining and re-contextualising the dead spaces of the urban landscape.

S Varndell is interested in systems of language and logic. His work The Inner Combinatorium uses javascript and HTML to create a shifting digital collage that recombines the other artworks in the show to form new artworks and emergent qualities. His artwork is inspired by contemporary theories of language psychology.

Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum is delighted to announce it will be hosting The Event’s third bi-annual visual art festival from 21 – 30 October 2011 from their galleries, studio spaces and empty buildings in various locations in and around Eastside, Birmingham’s creative quarter in Digbeth.

Central to The Event this year is Symposion, an evening of performance curated by Boris Ondrei?ka of Tranzit.org, with a line up of international artists, theorists and musicians responding to Symposion, a philosophical text by Plato, concerned with the genesis, purpose and nature of love. The themes in Symposion will be felt throughout The Event and at the forefront of the festival’s intentions for each exhibition and event presented. Contributors include Jan Verwoert, Karl Holmqvist, Emily Roysdon and many more.

The Event’s programme includes works and projects from artists selected through an Open Commission including a series of events by Birmingham based artists BAZ, a film programme curated by Claire Craig and a presentation by performance artist Phillip Henderson.

Groups presenting works in The Event 2011 are: AAS, An Endless Supply, Companis, Crowd 6, Eastside Projects, Grand Union, The Lombard Method, SLICE and TROVE.

For more information please go to http://the-event.org

The Infinite Combinatorium; Part 0.

Mary Yacoob

Preview: 6^th May 2011 6-8pm

Open: 7^th to 27^th May 2011 by appointment

Email crowd6@gmail.com or info@TROVE.org.uk for further information

TROVE, Newhall Square,

144 Newhall Street,

Birmingham,

B3 1RZ

www.TROVE.org.uk     www.crowd6.org.uk       www.mary-yacoob.com

Create a more efficient way of doing things. This simple mantra has driven the advance of culture for millennia. Better tools, smarter thinking, maximum output from smallest effort. With each new iteration of efficiency, a little more about the universe we live in is revealed. We move closer to a realization that a formula exists.

There is a system. The system is perfect. The problem is not the system, the problem is purpose. The suspicion arises that the journey toward purpose will not be efficient. It will be messy. It will be the work not of the scientists, but of the combinatorialists.

Pattern will fail. Hypothesis will end. The Infinite Combinatorium has begun.

Mary Yacoob has produced 3 new bodies of work for the Infinite Combinatorium; Part 0.

In her ‘Doodle’ drawings, the artist repeatedly draws a letter of the alphabet or a number whilst she listens

to the radio, mapping the changes in sound, voice, and music with changes to direction, size and colour of the unit. A site specific drawing responds to the time of installation, the voices in the gallery space, and changes to music being played. The process altered a previous the artwork, a large Tipp-Ex rectangle created by Alastair Levy.

In ‘Research for Trove’, the artist has enlarged a photograph of the site as many times as it takes for the image to disappear. The largest white area on each photocopied image describing the magnitude of enlargement.

Her ‘Draft’ drawings are inspired by the technical diagrams in mechanical and electrical engineering textbooks, and relate to the site’s previous history as a science museum.

The ‘Proposition for Trove’ drawings are proposals for large scale installations for the site. Drawing on top of photographs sent to her by the Gallery Director, Yacoob has generated ideas for 3d installations. For example, in one drawing colour lines are matched up to different tonal values in the photocopied image.

Mary Yacoob
The Infinate Combinatorium Part 0.

Exhibition opening Friday 6th May 2011 6pm to 8pm
Open by appointment until Friday 27th May 2011

For more information or/and to book an appointment please contact Crowd6@gmail.com

Above is what they will look like but less bright green I hope!

Font wise Crowd6 like to use Astrolyte as it’s part of our logo.

Check out the new Twitter updated page and logo to have a see what we are doing.

A Mameshiba itself is actually a cross between a bean and a dog and happens to appear in peoples food offering up words of wisdom. There are quite a few Mameshiba characters which look slightly different but all aper randomly and offer advice and information. Characters include: Green Peas, Natto, Sword Bean and Chilli Bean amongst others. I think there are about 20 different types of Mameshiba dog/beans in total which make for enthralling watching.

There is something wonderfully simple and classic about this type of Anime that is wonderfully captivating and these short animations are great for learning and entertainment.

I am no expert into the origins of Anime or/and Manga but it’s style and substance infiltrates my thoughts as it’s a style which I find visually exciting and I hope you enjoy Mameshiba as much as I do!

We are currently working through them and will get back to you shortly.

The first planned exhibition is for May 2011 at TROVE space in Birmingham.

Our on-line gallery is still open for submissions for on-line based work only. If you feel your work is suitable please drop us an email to crowd6@gmail.com

Artworks wanted to delight and distract audiences. Notions surrounding the infinite and recombination are desirable but not essential, contemporary artworks of all mediums will be considered, including wall/floor based, time based and performative.

If you are curious and/or if you would like to take part in one of a series of shows please submit a statement of interest along with an artist’s CV to crowd6@gmail.com

Crowd6