The NewBridge Project Gallery is currently closed.
This month’s Neighbourhood Watch will feature a special screening of Videocity’s Ukrainian artist films! Neighbourhood Watch aims to create a space for divergent video-making practices, outside of our current channels of media distribution.
Wednesday 12 April
7pm – 10pm
The NewBridge Project Screening Room (off the Gallery)
NewBridge is currently hosting Eye/View: Ukrainian artist film with Videocity in our bookshop.
It is curated by Polina Chizhova (Newcastle) & Andrea Domesle (Basel).
For Neighbourhood Watch this month, the first portion of the evening will be given over to watching the Ukrainian artist films on the big screen, followed by a conversation with Polina Chizhova.
The video works by Sergey Bratkov, Copa & Sordes, Marina Dykukha, Olia Fedorova, Maksym Khodak, Mykola Ridnyi have proven to be a prediction of war and testify to a life in fear and danger. The gaze regimes that are revealed in the videos revolve around: following, monitoring, focusing, remembering and the unexpected breaking out of the blue.
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Video art struggles within online attention economies — Youtube, Vimeo, TikTok, etc. Often, the patience and suspension of judgement that most video art needs cannot be provided by these massive platforms (video art doesn’t make for good clickbait!). As such, Neighbourhood Watch offers a dedicated environment for showing, watching and discussing video art, affording levels of engagement that aren’t currently offered by like-driven social media.
Taking place in The NewBridge Project screening room (next to the gallery), Neighbourhood Watch is an opportunity to show digital moving-image works of all kinds, whether that be computer animation, documentary, abstract video or anything in between. All types of video art are welcome, from lo-res clips filmed on your phone to more ‘produced’ hi-res works. Similarly, it’s a space open to all artists, whether they work exclusively in video or not, and anyone interested in viewing contemporary moving-image works.
Anyone is welcome to share work of up to 10 minutes or come, view and offer feedback. Participants can show clips, excerpts, sketches, half-finished things or fully realised pieces — with an opportunity to briefly say what kind of feedback they’re hoping to get. After showing each work, there will be a moment for others to respond and offer their thoughts. It’s also fine to show something and not talk about it too. This will be a space for all kinds of feedback, allowing for both casual discussion and critical engagement – whatever you want to get out of it.
There will be a digital projector, computer and speakers set up. If you have any questions, you can email NewBridge’s Artist Development Programmer Dan Russell on dan@thenewbridgeproject.com and email Dan to share a work or bring a USB.
Neighbourhood Watch has been set up by NewBridge members Aaron Dawson-Riley and Liberty Hodes.
Poster by Liberty Hodes.
This event is part of Practice makes Practice, an artist development programme run by artists for artists and the wider arts community.
Wednesday 1 March – Saturday 29 April
NewBridge Books is open 12pm – 5pm, Wednesday – Saturday
Curated by Polina Chizhova, Newcastle & Andrea Domesle, Basel. The exhibition is accompanied by fundraiser for Ukrainian artists.
The title of Videocity’s cycle “Eye/View” comes from the German word “Augenblick”, which translates as a “moment”. Taken individually, “Augen” means “eyes” and “Blick” means “gaze”. The play on words “Augen/Blick” (Eye/View) refers to both individual meanings, as well as the “moments” the two words co–create.
Whether by another’s gaze or an artificial lens, rarely a moment goes by uncaptured in today’s world. The visual information we receive profoundly shapes our worldviews yet is infallibly susceptible to our own subjective experiences and beliefs. Our understanding of sight and its relation to our beings has only been complicated by digital immediacy and the prevalence of technology. What was once a question of reality phrased in relation to not being seen, is now phrased in relation to not being documented, as being “seen” has taken on a completely new meaning in the wake of personal cameras, surveillance devices and digital media platforms. Technology has not only duplicated the realms of our existence, the physical and the digital, but it has also proliferated questions of consent and ethics. Most profoundly, it has left us wondering whether the consent to being susceptible to the “public eye” also extends to being subjected to CCTV cameras and other surveillance measures, and whether such surveillance measures are conscionable to begin with.
After the start of the war, Videocity’s annual curatorial concept of Eye/View acquired a new dimension: observing and being observed became situations that now affect everyone to an extraordinary degree. We made this threat more visible in the second part of the cycle. The video works by Sergey Bratkov, Copa & Sordes, Marina Dykukha, Olia Fedorova, Maksym Khodak, Mykola Ridnyi have proven to be a prediction of war and testify to a life in fear and danger. The gaze regimes that are revealed in the videos revolve around: following, monitoring, focusing, remembering and the unexpected breaking out of the blue.
The NewBridge Project
Shieldfield Centre
4-8 Clarence Walk (off Stoddart Street)
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 1AL
The NewBridge Project is accessible. You can find out more here, or feel free to contact us prior to visiting if you require additional information regarding access and facilities.
The NewBridge Project is supported by Arts Council England, Newcastle Culture Investment Fund, Newcastle University’s Institute for Creative Arts Practice and the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
