Birmingham - AVIT UK 2005 Day 1

Slept through my alarm and awoke frantic at the though of having missed part of the AVIT festivities. Threw myself together and rushed over to the Custard Factory to find that the first session had been cancelled. Was able to join the Narrative Lab session. Paul and Laura, who I met at the Birmingham train station, were leading the workshop. Kate Southworth who works as Glorious Ninth started off talking about some collaborative projects she has worked on. Paul talked next about a Story Collector, a project he has been working on to create narrative works based around the lives of fictional characters. A back-story is developed and then the character is thrown into situations and visual work is created about the events. The last part of the session was a hands-on creation of a short piece created around five pictures. I gave up my seat and worked on my laptop, but most of the session was then taken up by transferring the picture files from CD to several laptops. Had a bite to eat at a health food spot called Rooty Frooty at the Custard Factory.
Next up was 7" cinema. Some nice work from around the world. Caught the end of the Step Up and Play session where the event attendees were invited to plug into the video system and show off their stuff. Joined Chris, a Birmingham native, for an hour-long video jam. Got some kudos from fALk about the stuff I was doing. Back to the hotel around 2 am. Finally stilled my racing mind around 3:30.