Brick Lane Tour

Hey there guys, I’ve just been out of office for a weekend, why do I miss you so much and think it’s been such a long time?! Aha I must like working at CIDA very much. As we all know, CIDA is based in the heart of the East End, south of the Olympic Village, just east of the ‘Silicon Roundabout’ and a stone’s throw from Brick Lane. Last Thursday, Toks and Rebecca gave me and other girls the chance to explore the Brick Lane on our own.

I have my own purpose of this tour. As I told you guys before, I am interested in stories behind each passenger in London and want to listen to their story and share mine with them. Brick Lane gives me the chance because it is all those unique, special and stylish vintage stores that make Brick Lane famous for.  I like second hand garments and accessories, but I didn’t usually buy them. On the one hand, I usually get some high-quality stuff from my mother and grandmother because they are gorgeous ladies, who have great taste. On the other hand, I think it is because of culture or mysophobia (I’m not that serious and morbid of course). I don’t know where they are from, their last owner and what stories they have been through.

But things have changed. I’ve never noticed that I like vintage stores so much until I came to London. The first reason must be their artistic decoration. Everyone has his/her heart in beautiful things. Where else can you buy superior quality in such a reasonable price? But just for your information, check thoroughly before you pay, especially for details. Most stores have no return, refund and exchange policy, so bewareJ

Second, wearing vintage garments means keeping up with the times. Sorry? You say it is too old, you may be totally wrong. You’ll get a new idea on vintage after having a look at who likes to wear them: JuliaRoberts, Renee Zellweger, Chloe Sevigny, Tatiana Sorokko, Kate Moss and so on. This increase in interest is due in part to increased visibility, as vintage clothing was increasingly worn by top models and celebrities. Besides, popularity of period pieces set in the mid 20th century in television and film has also contributed to vintage's popularity.

Finally, vintage shops imply clusters of all creative ideas, so does the graffiti outside. It shows the best combination of inside and outside, making them much more attractive and a better place for visiting.

 


Cheers, 

Mo

Howdy!

Hello everyone! My name is Alexia and i’m a new intern here at CIDA. I’m getting my MA in Creative Cities as King’s – a programme that combines not just courses on the Creative and Cultural Industries but also cultural policy, geography, and urban development. I came here from America after studying glassmaking and photography to learn how to provide more creative opportunities to excluded and marginalised people and have always wanted to bring more installation and experience-based art into smaller cities and rural areas.

I’m so happy to be interning for CIDA because their organisation essentially encompasses my reason for coming to England. As an artist, much of my work also seeks to do the same. Through art and creativity, I want to help others overcome the difficulties of imagining other people and allow my audience to experience thought outside of themselves. Personally, I think that art isn’t just about aesthetics or objects- it’s about experiences and communicating as society in a new way. And I want more let more people have their voices heard. 

The weekend before I started this internship I was fortunate enough to visit the Venice Biennale and was thoroughly overwhelmed and inspired. For those of you that don’t know, many countries at the Biennale have their own pavilions to showcase the best art being produced from their nation- perhaps it’s easier to think about as the art Olympics? Anyway, what I saw at the Japanese pavilion I will never forget. It was almost meta- in a way; it did everything I want to do while examining art and what it can do in the bigger narrative of ‘how can art realistically bring people together?’ ‘How can it contribute after the tsunami?’

The exhibiting artist, KokiTanaka, responded to these questions by examining collaboration, shared experiences in microcommunities, creation and problem solving. His work was so simple and moving: all he did was ask people to come together to do something together, make something together, or experience something together. The art itself was the event, and the videos playing all around the pavilion were artefacts. 

[from Koki Tanaka's piece at the Biennale x]

For example, he had nine different people collaborate on the haircut of one woman, each taking their turn on her hair and getting everyone’s opinion. Similarly, a group of people went on an urban expedition with flashlights, another group collaborated on pottery, on poetry, on a piano piece. A group of people took a nap together with all of their heads facing eachother to try to dream collectively, and then constructed the narrative of a story when they woke up together. I thought the most poetic was when each person brought their favourite tea and put it all in one teapot and drank from it, sharing and uniting bits of the world in a single, communal act.

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You can learn more about the project here

Brick Lane: a creativity-driven success? BY LULU

On Thursday 4 July, part of the CIDA team, as four casual visitors wandered around East London. We finally decided to pay our attention to Brick Lane which represents a good case for the ungovernability of creative practises and cultural production. 

In general, the name Brick Lane, this inner-city area has been functioned as an international brand characterised by micro-enterprises and self-employed entrepreneurs involved in small retail, leisure and creative businesses.  

Particularly as in the rest of the UK, Brick lane is called as ‘curry capital’. The ‘Indian’ restaurants are generally owned by Bangladeshi. According to Carey (2004), Brick Lane’s Indian restaurants are not isolated. In fact, many of them were hugely influenced by the success of ‘upmarket’ restaurant such as Cafe Spice in Soho and West End London. 







More precisely, the creative and cultural sectors such as galleries, bookshop, theme cafe, independent music &fashion retailers are dominated in this neighbourhood. Compare with the fashion retailers in oxford circus, their organisation is better described as networked especially more intense interaction among producers, consumers and niche innovators rather than dominated by firms.  Particularly I drew my focus on brick lane gallery and an independent record store called Rough Trade.

I do love going to contemporary galleries especially discovering fresh art pieces. When I came across the brick lane gallery, I found the gallery itself has a specific aesthetic. I sketch them as mixed modern mediums with a dash of pop art. After doing a little bit research and chatting with the invigilator, the main function of this gallery is about grassroots artists could send in their portfolio, and if chosen can pay various amount (quite depends)to exhibit and sell their work here. After reviewing several pieces of art, each holds a special story from the artists past, which has influenced them enough to make an everlasting impression.  I could really feel these artists’ true feeling. They seem to shout: ‘I am the master of my tastes and feelings, I only paint like I live!’

To be honest, during our half day visit, I spent almost an hour on Rough Trade, the future of music retail from my perspective. Everyone knows how difficult it is out there for music record stores at the moment, but the Rough Trade shops are a real success story. Apart from the passion and expertise of their staffs, Compare with HMV, the chief secret of Rough Trade’s success is derived from the nature of the music they stock. 

They also provide the meeting places and live show stages. Fans of music can go there without spending any money. They can browse in a safe and relaxed environment including the coffee stand, whatever takes your fancy.

Yeah! 

We can’t 100% rely on internet and be in our bedrooms 24 hours a day. Moving your ass and take a breath to see what is the real music life!

Critical thinking!

Apart from the success aspects of Brick Lane, it is important to note that despite this influx of capital, people and creative idea from elsewhere, Brick lane remains an extremely poor area, dominated by social housing and a reliant on state and their sector support.  Organisations like the East London Business Association keen to support training, mentoring and small business growth. The interesting thing is the diversity of Brick Lane is one of its best selling point! The mixture involves ethnic, social class, communities.  Lastly, I do hope the creative policy issued by the UK government could adopt more strategies to let brick lane become a more sustainable and unique creative cluster.

Lulu's first moment @ CIDA

A big wave to everyone, this is Lulu the new intern here.

On July 3rd, I started my first day of internship at CIDA organisation, which aims to assist thousands of creative individuals, business and arts organisations at varying stages of development through a range of innovative projects, professional services and social events. Firstly, I will start with a brief background introduction of myself. I am currently doing a master’s degree in Culture and Creative industry at King’s College, London. I have spent a couple of years in the UK since 2009. I was doing BA sociology at university of Warwick during my undergraduate year. The chief reason I planned to start my new life at King’s is due to London’s glamour and superb cultural & creative environments. I do hope a year at King’s could help to enhance both my academic and practical skills.

Overall, in the context of the practical skills, gaining a chance to stay in CIDA is absolutely superb. Crucially, it will help me to keep updating the specific trends and changes among both creative organisations and as Florida suggested the ‘creative class’. After briefly reviewing hundred pages in CIDA’s publicity material, in my general view, such a small team CIDA leaded by its CEO Toks is unbelievable. Since the year 2002, according to my rough calculation, they have helped thousands of grassroots businesses in their quests for self sufficiency and progression through business consulting, workshops and seminars. Apart from it, each year more than 15 different types of one day or two days big events related to professional development trainings, showing cast opportunities and networking conferences would be held in London.

There are two events called CR8NET and Digital Women’s Club both impressed me a lot. Particularly, in terms of CR8NET which I participated in person this year, generally its aims is to bring together leaders, professions and scholars in the creative sector to discuss the pressure points to the industry. Throughout the whole event, I discovered that social networking is the first but crucial step to start your careers in creative sectors. In terms of the role that CIDA acted, it maximise opportunities for creative individuals to share their experiences. As Toks argued that ‘only creative minds could support creative minds’. Moreover, Creative Entrepreneurs is also a great event which reflects his claim. This ‘idea journey’ offered each participant to have opportunity in order to develop their business concept from idea to draft business plan.

In addition, CIDA tries to encourage all creative individuals no matter their gender, race, ethnicity or economic circumstance. As a post feminist, the Digital Women’s club is particularly successful which provides a clear route for those creative but unemployed women. During the event which encompasses a panel discussion, training, advice and networking, this group of unemployed and underemployed women will get the opportunities in finding their proper role in creative digital sector. To some extend, some women once faced with ‘glass ceiling’ would shared their strategies such as how they coped with them. 

Lastly, I never fixed my life targets. Everything will flow. In a short term, I am ready to make a little tiny positive change to CIDA and creative industries in a broad sense. 

Best wishes to you all.