UPCOMING EVENT: JOURNEY. THUR MAY 8 - SAT MAY 10 2008

For three days in May, ESA host Journey, a multifaceted event that will open up ESA’s Patrick and Beaver Studios giving audiences the opportunity to navigate the buildings to engage in artists’ work and participate in the launch of new activities and the culmination of past projects.

Timetable of events:

THURSDAY 8th May 6pm – 9pm: Launch
• Check – In- Join ESA membership scheme at a discount rate.
• Departure Lounge-New work reflecting artists engagement with Leeds and Berlin.
• RouteMappers café- Prize winning cakes and tea served by artists involved in the RouteMap professional development project.
• Socialist Juke Box-A musical/sound exploration of the social.
• Go-See-Buy-Visit artists in their studios at Patrick Studios.

FRIDAY 9th May 11am – 6pm.
• Check – In-Join ESA membership scheme at a discount rate.
• Departure Lounge-New work reflecting artists engagement with Leeds and Berlin.
• RouteMappers café -Prize winning cakes and tea served by artists involved in the RouteMap professional development project.
• Go-See-Buy-Visit artists in their studios at Patrick Studios.
Digital Lounge-Meet, talk and explore Second Life. * Please note this is event is taking place at the Old Broadcasting House and booking is essential.

SATURDAY 10th May 11am – 6pm.
• Check – In- Join ESA membership scheme at a discount rate.
• Departure Lounge-New work reflecting artists engagement with Leeds and Berlin.
• RouteMappers café-Prize winning cakes and tea served by artists involved in the RouteMap professional development project.
• Go-See-Buy-Visit artists in their studios at Patrick Studios and Beaver Studios. * Shuttle bus will leave Patrick Studios every 30 minutes from 11am to 4pm
• Cooking with Herman-Cooking and networking demo with sourdough.

For more information on Journey scroll down or please click here

Interdisciplinary designer Donna Walker has been commissioned by ESA to re-design the Social Club mobile bar. Donna works with found, collected, damaged and discarded objects to create furniture and spaces. The pieces incorporate the history and value of existing objects increasing the longevity of possessions, instead of condemning re-useable resources to landfill. For more info: www.donnawalker.org

ESA has commissioned artist Laura Tait to make a new piece of work for Social Club publication ‘review 07’ which will be launched as part of Journey (details above).
Laura Louise Tait is a recent BA (Hons) Visual Communications graduate from Leeds College of Art and Design. She currently resides in Leeds having moved from Buckinghamshire to study, and now work.

Laura’s piece ‘I want to explore socially engaged art work’ is a journey taken by the artist through an unfamiliar subject using research, reading, collation and communication as her guide. This graphic solution reflects the artisit’s own perspective of her findings, using line as a language to create an aesthetically grounded art work.
For more details on this, and other projects, please e-mail Laura_Tait26@hotmail.com

What would a Socialist Jukebox play? Maybe music that has a socialist message like The Clash or The Levellers? Or perhaps folk? Or maybe protest songs? The Socialist Jukebox could play spoken word – great speeches or maybe audio recordings of important moments in social history. The Socialist Jukebox might play revolutionary music or punk. Perhaps the Socialist Jukebox plays songs that were incredibly popular and sold the most copies: 80s pop, easy listening or popular classics.

The Socialist Jukebox comes with many types of socialist music, but partygoers are invited to bring their own versions of socialist song or spoken word, on vinyl records and the Jukebox will play it.

This particular jukebox is egalitarian, she wants exchange. She’s interested in the way that music and sound activates memory and narrative. If you give her your story in return you will receive a souvenir copy of the record sleeve stamped with the Socialist Jukebox stamp. Thus your labour is converted into a wage and audio is converted into 2D image. The stories will be collected by the branch secretary and will (together with the sleeve images), make a book of stories and social songs.

Herman is a sourdough starter, and will be the basis for the start of a journey and the start of a conversation at Patrick Studios.
Herman is a physical, living entity made from flour, sugar and water and needs a certain amount of care and attention to keep it alive and growing. Herman forms the basis of many recipes with names like friendship cake and friendship bread. At 'Cooking with Herman' you are invited to cook, eat, chat and collect some Herman starter from the Patrick Studios give-away station. Over the afternoon cooks, consumers and guests alike are invited to consider starting points, journeys and how we go about sitting ourselves, before being offered some Herman starter of their own to care for, bake with and pass on to a new friend.
The new Herman owners can blog or track Herman's progress and journey on the 'Cooking with Herman' website, a journey which has the potential to spread out exponentially from its Leeds starting point.

Come and explore the virtual world of Second Life.
Digital Lounge is a new touring strand of ESA Social Club bringing together practitioners and audiences specifically interested in film and digital work. To launch, the first Digital Lounge will explore artists and other creatives response to the internet based virtual world Second Life.
The session will be a very informal exploration and discussion event

with expertise on hand. Snacks will be provided. We are looking for participants interested in knowing more, wanting to have a go or anyone who can share their skills and knowledge. The discussion may lead to further projects on and about Second Life.
Anyone wishing to join us on Friday 9th May please book a place through info@esaweb.org.uk
Places are limited so book early!