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Beorma's Home
Welcome to the Beorma Project, is an ongoing artist-led programme of activities which will be based in Birmingham, with a particular focus on the Digbeth area. The project challenges artists, writers and other creative talent to helping to create a modern urban icon for the city of Birmingham by shaping a contemporary Anglo-Saxon legend based upon the life of Beorma, the namesake of the city, whose tribe is said to have established the hamlet from which the modern settlement has grown.
If you're an artist, writer, photographer, filmmaker, designer, musician, academic or otherwise creative person I'd like you to join this community and its discussions. I hope to bring together a wide range of people to shape and interpret a fictional legend as if it were real.
Just as Winchester has Alfred and Nottingham has Robin Hood, Birmingham has Beorma. The difference: he is a mystery, undefined, and unburdened by thirteen centuries of social evolution.
Here's the challenge:
Then, once the basic story is defined
Ask yourself the question: if the legend were real, how might Geoffrey of Monmouth have told the story, or Shakespeare, Gilbert & Sullivan, Shelley or Tolkein? How would artists like Blake, Burne Jones or William Morris have envisioned him?
Perhaps you are simply inspired by the concept and want to produce a work for exhibition and sale, or you want to contribute a piece of public art, either paid for by individual bids for creative funding or as donations to enable the project to continue.
If you're an artist, writer, photographer, filmmaker, designer, musician, academic or otherwise creative person I'd like you to join this community and its discussions. I hope to bring together a wide range of people to shape and interpret a fictional legend as if it were real.
Just as Winchester has Alfred and Nottingham has Robin Hood, Birmingham has Beorma. The difference: he is a mystery, undefined, and unburdened by thirteen centuries of social evolution.
How do I get involved?
Here's the challenge:
1. We need to create the core story of Beorma as a heroic, Beowulf-like icon whose story resonates with 21st Century Britain. This is currently being developed as a mythic framework (here), which needs to be fleshed out, commented upon and adapted to accommodate the throughts and ideas of a proactive creative community.
Then, once the basic story is defined
2. We need as many creative people as possible to interpret it, deconstruct it, reinvent it, rewrite it, and mould it to their own purposes just as people would have done throughout history. This is currently being done through our brainstorming activities (here).
Ask yourself the question: if the legend were real, how might Geoffrey of Monmouth have told the story, or Shakespeare, Gilbert & Sullivan, Shelley or Tolkein? How would artists like Blake, Burne Jones or William Morris have envisioned him?
3. We need those who are inspired by the project to share and publish their contributions in whatever way they see fit. This activity will be captured in a project log (here).
Perhaps you are simply inspired by the concept and want to produce a work for exhibition and sale, or you want to contribute a piece of public art, either paid for by individual bids for creative funding or as donations to enable the project to continue.
++Project Update++ We've now heard back from the Arts Council (http://www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk/). Our bid didn't get shortlisted - there were 133 applications for the West Midlands alone. There won't be any feedback because of the sheer volume of applications, and the final shortlist will be published on August 14th 2009. To be honest, the odds were tall, but now the bid results are available the project is free to pursue other opportunities. For example, we can now:
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Who was Beorma? | Beormaingaham | Project Origins |
Urban Icons | Politics | Beorma today |
Geography | The Characters | Religion |
The Legend | Locations | Research |
We've got a programme to finish, and this site is a central point to keep track of our goals, the project schedule, and our work in progress. Feel free to create and use threads, add pages as necessary, brainstorm on the wiki "whiteboard" page, and use the person-to-person messaging features to keep in touch with team members.
The Project Description | Project Schedule | Brainstorming |
Drafts | Governance | Team Members |
Disclaimer
Much of the information contained within this website is both speculative and interpretative. While its basis is on a combination of historical facts and conjecture, there is limited information about the period and geography of Mercia. Many aspects of the project's presentation are primarily artistic.
Metabaron |
Latest page update: made by Metabaron
, Jan 13 2010, 2:10 PM EST
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by Metabaron
4 words added 2 words deleted view changes - complete history) |
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Keyword tags:
anglo saxon
beorma
beormaingasham
birmingham
brainstorming
class project
group project
milestones
project planning
Who was Beorma?
workgroup
More Info: links to this page
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| Commentatus | Some thoughts on Beorma | 1 | Aug 5 2009, 12:47 PM EDT by Metabaron | ||
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Thread started: Jul 29 2009, 7:19 PM EDT
Watch
Really interesting concept, but I have some questions:
1. What matters most here, the historical accuracy or the mythic conceit? I think its fair to say that the origins of Birmingham are shrouded in more mystery than those of most towns or cities. The dating is uncertain, the etymology is uncertain, and the cultural interactions are uncertain. One could just as easily, and just as effectively, argue that Birmingham, Bromsgrove, the various Bromwiches were all part of a single territory over which a chap called Brom or Breme held sway. 2. How are contributions measure/valued/recognised? Is this a project by committee, a project steered by a visionary, or a collection of loosely connected projects where ownership resides with the individual? 3. How does the project relate to such things as Birmingham City Council and J R R Tolkein? To create an iconic figure for Birmingham surely needs the city behind it to succeed, and given its subject matter it will create a mixed response in those interested in Tolkein's legacy - is it building upon it, ignoring it, or challenging it? 4. Finally (for now), have you considered the appropriateness of the hero's journey to modern society? Its a very masculine, savage, mightily thewed Beorma - certainly of his time - but how do he and his story hope to have any resonance with a modern, theoretically equal, society. You would have to "break" the rules to represent women more appropriately to a 21st century audience, and their viewpoint and associated morals are as important as Beorma's. |
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| Commentatus | Commiserations | 1 | Aug 5 2009, 12:25 PM EDT by Metabaron | ||
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Thread started: Aug 5 2009, 11:53 AM EDT
Watch
Sorry to hear the bid didn't succeed, but as you say, it creates other opportunities. Does this mean the brainstorming section is now redundant, or are we still okay to come up with ideas and bugger the budget?
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