Somewhere (artist collective)

Somewhere is a multi-disciplinary UK-based creative organisation founded in 2001 by artist / film-makers Karen Guthrie (born 1970) and Nina Pope (born 1968) to produce and support projects with a concern for new audiences and innovative uses of media and technologies.

After studying together at Edinburgh College of Art, Pope & Guthrie completed MA's in London and began collaborating as artists in 1995, with their installation "Somewhere Over the TV" at the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, followed by their live online travelogue "A Hypertext Journal" in March 1996, [http://www.somewhere.org.uk/hypertext/journal/proj.info/index.html] which was one of the earliest blogs. One of the UK's earliest artists' websites, [http://www.somewhere.org.uk/ www.somewhere.org.uk] has been online since 1996.

Somewhere has long-term collaborators including composer Tim Olden and technologist Dorian Moore.In 2008 Karen Guthrie & Nina Pope won the first ever [http://www.northernartprize.org.uk/ Northern Art Prize] Northern Art Prize.

Works

Living with the Tudors

The culmination of four years spent incognito within the UK historical re-enactment scene, "Living with the Tudors" is a documentary feature film shot entirely inside the 2007 Tudor (16th century) 're-creation' at Kentwall Hall in rural Suffolk (UK).Among the 500 volunteers spending their summer holidays re-creating every aspect of 16th century English life, the film meets a core of loyal and protective re-enactors whose real life stories form a fascinating counterpoint to their chosen Tudor roles. Shepherding through the thousands of paying visitors who keep Kentwell afloat is owner Patrick Phillips, a distantly paternal leader who describes the epic spectacles as his ‘game’.

Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the future

In 2005 Somewhere co-produced Pope & Guthrie's first feature film, the unorthodox documentary travelogue "Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the future", which was selected for the 2005 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film followed a group of former Bata shoe factory workers travelling from the UK to Zlin in the Czech Republic, on a free coach trip hosted by the artists. The film sees the travellers visit the origins of the global shoe empire built up by early 20th century Czech entrepreneur Tomas Bata, in search of what his maxim 'We are not afraid of the future' can mean in a changing Europe. The film originated in a commission by agency Commissions East and the project has since become a benchmark for the contemporary public art genre.Bata-ville has screened in many festivals and art venues, including at Tate Britain. [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/film/batavilleninapopeandkarenguthrie3421.htm] , SXSW Festival (Austin, Texas) 2006 and the Zlin Film Festival 2006.

TV swansong

In 2002, Somewhere produced the innovative media art project "TV swansong", the first live webcast of artists' projects commissioned specifically for the WWW, which took as its subject the demise of television in the age of convergent media. Featured artists were Graham Fagen, Jordan Baseman, Jessica Voorsanger, Zoe Walker & Neil Bromwich, Rory Hamilton & Jon Rogers, Giorgio Sadotti.The project is archived at [http://www.swansong.tv/ www.swansong.tv] .

/broadcast/ (29 pilgrims, 29 tales)

In 1999, Pope and Guthrie organised a contemporary version of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which was 1999's Tate Modern (bankside) Annual Event.

For this event [http://www.somewhere.org.uk/broadcast] they chose 29 people to act as pilgrims, and on September 11th they broadcast the pilgrim's tales live in Borough Market (Southwark, London) as well as webcasting them from this site onto the net. The website is now a record of the day's events, containing all the pilgrims' tales and prologues. The website contains an index, "The order of the day" and there is a link to each pilgrim's home page, with details of the journeys they made to their chosen destinations within the project's 24 hour period.

Other works

Other works include:
* "Almanac", Site-specific permanent commission for Cinema City in Norwich (2007)
* "Sometime Later", Commissioned by BBC & Arts Council England, web / film project at www.sometimelater.org.uk (2005/6)
* "Seven Samurai", Site-specific project for Echigo-Tsumari Triennale, Japan - curated by Grizedale Arts
* "A Fair Place", British Council Group show, Nouvelles Peripheries, Istanbul, Turkey (2001)
* "The Festival of Lying", Grizedale Show, Cumbria, in collaboration with Anna Best and Simon Poulter (2000)

External links

* [http://www.somewhere.org.uk Somewhere's official site]
* [http://www.livingwiththetudors.com Living with the Tudors official film website]
* " [http://www.tate.org.uk/about/pressoffice/pressreleases/11_0899.htm Broadcast (29 pilgrims, 29 tales) Tate Annual Event Borough Market – 11 September 1999] ", Tate Online press release (1999)
* " [http://www.grizedale.org/lying/ The Festival of Lying"] ", Grizedale Show, Cumbria (2000)
* "Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the future":
** [http://www.somewhere.org.uk/bata-ville/ somewhere.org.uk/bata-ville] / [http://www.bata-ville.com Bata-ville official film website]
** [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4188260.stm Review of Bata-ville on BBC News website]
** imdb title|0495576|Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the Future
** [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117927999.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 Review of Bata-ville on Variety.com]
** [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/07/08/bfdvd08.xml&page=5 Review of Bata-ville on Telegraph.co.uk]
** [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/70952 Article about Bata-ville on Radio Praha website]