Kooji does Poland...Again! - Day One

It’s hard to believe that nine months have passed since our last trip to Poland. This all started by getting involved with the Leeds Met's International Volunteering Projects and the 'Leeds Met Poland 2007' project in particular last June. The opportunity to work within the arts therapy centres, Fundacja Miedzy Nami (The Among Us Foundation) and Matki Teresy z Kalcutty (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) was too good to pass up. We gained so many new experiences, made so many new friends and learnt so much in such at short space of time.

Fundacja Miedzy Nami is a centre for adults with physical and learning disabilities in the village of Kreznica, just outside the city of Lublin in East Poland. The centre runs many creative workshops for its artists including ceramics, woodwork, weaving and arts and crafts. It was an enormous challenge for us to take on this kind of project but incredibly rewarding.

After the two weeks had come to an end my partner Johnny and I were asked to help promote the two centres. I felt that this would make a fantastic final year group project and so began the process of integrating this work with the final year of my BSc (Hons) in Multimedia Technology. I have brought together a team from across my faculty, Innovation North and we are working towards producing a flash website and documentary film for Fundacja Miedzy Nami. My contribution will be the design and build for the flash website and I will use video footage of interviews and events both here in the UK and in Poland.

Heading back to our friends in Lublin, Poland.

Leeds Met University have also helped us in producing a large number of ‘Fundacja’ t-shirts. These will be presented to the artists when we arrive at the centre next week and I can’t wait to see everyone’s faces. The t-shirts look beautiful and their logo on the front looks wonderful.

We are about to set off on another adventure, I’m just about finished with my packing, the cameras are charged and so am I!

>>> Kooji does Poland...Again! - Day Two

Cinema of Horror

Stardom beckoned and we answered the call as film director Peter Kershaw invited us to bring our thespian talents to the Zavvi store. There we performed as extras in his soon to be released short film, "Cinema of Horror". It looks like we have made the final cut though either way we can't wait to see the full feature! Any film that mixes goths with bhangra dancing is certain to be interesting :)

Have a Kooji Christmas and a Merry New Website!

To celebrate the launch of our new website and a brand new year Kooji sends out a message of Christmas cheer and good tidings to all our friends.

Our name in lights!

Kooji finally hits the big screen; The BBC big screen in Millennium Square, Leeds that is! A collection of dream inspired images and sound, this showreel stopped passers by in their tracks during the Christmas period.

BarCamp Leeds 2007

Linda Broughton, Head of the New Technology Institute in Leeds, mentioned BarCamp earlier this year and, after taking a look at what people had said about it online, we decided it'd be something we'd really enjoy. Unfortunately by the time we found out about when it was being held the registration had already closed, so after some good old-fashioned pleading with Linda we were able to secure ourselves places by offering to help out with reception duties. This was a fantastic opportunity as it meant we were able to meet and greet everyone who attended. Groovy BarCamp mugs were dished out to all too, along with some particularly tasty lollypops.

Photo © Richard-G

Armed with a handy Kodak camera we took photos of each BarCamp attendee and began putting together a 'Networking Wall.' If you go here you can find almost everyone's names from the wall, on Flickr.

Photo © Mohsin Ali

Who can forget the 'Box of Mystery.' I had this crazy idea to tempt people in with a cardboard box. Personally, I think too many sugary sweeties and coffee were to blame. "Oooh BEHOLD the Box of Mysssterryyyy!"

Here's a photo of Katherine with Professor Reinhold Behringer from Leeds Met University. He works in Innovation North, the faculty where we both studied.

Photo © Mohsin Ali

Who says you can't draw on walls? :P

Photo © Mohsin Ali

Here's us doing some networkin' schmoozin with Johnny's bro, Andrew.

Photo © Mohsin Ali

RockStar Versus Kooji - FIGHT! A game of Virtual Table Tennis with Ian Bowden from RockStar. I totally beat everyone that night (including the lad to my left (Simon) note the fear in his eyes) :D RockStar took us all out for drinks and burgers afterwards too!

We met some very nice people during BarCamp Leeds 2007, including some we already knew or were later about to know. Here's a shout out to all who crossed our path (all in alphabetical order cos that's the way we like it!):

Ben Dalton

Deb Bassett

Dominic 'The Hodge' Hodgson

Imran Ali

Linda Broughton

Lorna Mitchell

Mark 'Ernie' Earnshaw

Maz Hardey

Paul Bacchus

Paul Jenkins

Paul Stanton

Reinhold Behringer

Ryan Taylor

Simon Edwards (Freestyle)

Simon Wheatley (Virtual Tennis Virtuoso)

Tom Smith (Wacom Extraordinaire!)

City of Light

We were given a leaflet about Leeds Light Night from Chris Nriapia (the BBC Big Screen Manager) who we met up with earlier this month. He recommended going along and taking a look at all the exhibitions set up around the city, so we did. We started with Millenium Square and were given a personalised 'Zombie Tour' of the local vicinity, then across to the Electric Press where we were able to interact with a video installation of a paranoid pedestrian. Everytime you approached the screen without care, the walker would eventually catch you out by looking over his shoulder. Old School Board was our next destination to take a look at one of their staircases, followed by a visit to the Civic Hall to watch a huge video projected onto the side of the building. It was a really cool night and we're definitely going again next year!

Opportunity knocks

Leeds Metropolitan University asked us to create a DVD highlighting the best moments from their international volunteering projects. A series of motion graphics and video were used to great effect and the outcome was a well received promotional tool.

Don't over-(re)Act!

To promote this year's conference on digital live art we were asked to design the branding and website from ground up. To support the events surrounding (re)Actor2 Kooji have produced posters, a brochure, branded items and animation which will feature on large screens around Leeds city centre!

T-Shirts and Suits

During our trip last week to Manchester for this year's RSA Flying Start Programme we were fortunate enough to hear a talk by David Parrish, International Business Advisor for creative people and author of the book: 'T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity.'



"David Parrish helps creative businesses to become even more successful by bringing together creative people (T-Shirts) with smart business thinking (Suits)."

For those who work as freelancers or run businesses in the creative industries this is a must read. A fantastic book, crammed with advice and the great news is you can read the full version in interactive PDF format for FREE here!

(Better yet, grab yourselves a paperback copy of the book here and read it in it's full papery glory :D)

Useful Links:

David Parrish - Creative Industries Business Adviser and Trainer
T-Shirts and Suits Creative Enterprise Network
T-Shirts and Suits Blog
David on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
Join the TSS Group, Be a Fan of the Book on FaceBook
View and print the eBook on Issuu

The sweet smell of success

Commissioned by The British Library and Harewood House for the Wilberforce 2007 project, this online graphic novel and printed booklet was a collaboration with pupils of Easingwold School. The aim was to promote awareness of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain in the 1800s.

http://www.bittersweetproject.net/