DOUGALD HINE

Tag: Sheffield

  • How I Became a Cyber-Womble

    This is James Wallbank’s story of founding Access Space, based on an interview I did with him for the ‘Steel City’ special issue of PICK ME UP zine, 28 October 2005

    James and his friends wanted to make art with computers. But they didn’t have any money. So they decided to see what they could do with PCs other people were throwing away. Now they run a free “media lab” where anyone can come and learn.

    One day I sent an email to some friends saying, look, I’ve got a great idea for an arts organisation. We’ll only work with technology that costs nothing. We’ll have exhibitions and all sorts of exciting events where we show people the creative things that we do. And that will inspire people to give us more computers.

    A friend of mine, without telling me, rewrote the top of this email to say “You should hear about this great thing that James Wallbank is running in Sheffield…” and forwarded it to all these mailing lists. Within a few days I had emails coming from all over the world saying, “Hey, what you’re doing is absolutely great!”

    There was one in particular, from California. The guy said, “We had an idea like that, for being creative with old computers in Silicon Valley. We tried it and we just couldn’t get it to work. I’m so happy to hear that you’re actually doing that successfully in Sheffield now!”

    And I didn’t have the bottle to say to him, it’s just an idea, I haven’t really got started. So instead, like an idiot, I sent back emails to everyone saying, “Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it? People are giving us computers from all over the place and we’re having exhibitions and activities and what have you…”

    After that, I had to make it happen.

    I thought the hard thing would be getting access to technology – but it turned out we could get as many machines as we wanted.  People started writing back saying, I’ve got this friend and his firm are throwing out sixty PCs – do you want them?

    So I went racing round the country collecting computers in a tiny little van that ended up completely knackered. We started making them work and doing exhibitions – and still more computers kept arriving. A year later, we had a warehouse with 2000 old PCs sitting there. We just didn’t know what to do with them all.

    That was when we had the idea for Access Space.

    Anyone can walk in, but it’s not a free cybercafe. We’re asking everyone to get actively involved in developing content, doing things. 

    The one thing we can’t provide is motivation. So we ask everyone to propose to us a project that they really want to do, something they’re excited about.

    The philosophy is simple: share what you know, learn what you don’t. 

    If you get stuck with something, you can ask anyone in the space and they’ll try and help you – the only catch is, when someone asks you for help, you’ve got to give them a few minutes.

    In the future, everyone’s going to need to acquire new skills over and over and over again. How are we going to do this in Britain, in every neighbourhood, for free, forever, in a sustainable way, that isn’t going to cost us all a fortune?

    The answer is to have local, community-based organisations where anyone can walk in and do creative activity that they’re excited by, that helps them to learn skills. I think Access Space is an unbelievably great model for that – because it also solves another question, which is that businesses all over the UK are throwing out computers hand over fist.

    Now should we, at Access Space, go all over the country collecting computers, taking them back to “Access Space Central” and then distributing them to people like you? No, that’s stupid – and it’s also a complete waste of diesel.

    Instead, we should give you the skills to find computers in your local area, revivify them in your local area and make them available to people in your local area. Not only so that people can come to you and learn skills and do exciting creative things – but so that you can learn skills from them.

    www.access-space.org.uk

  • How To Bring a Building Back to Life

    Published in the ‘Steel City’ special issue of Pick Me Up zine, 28 October 2005

    I’m not sure quite how it started. There was a huge empty building in the middle of the city, an old cutlery works. One guy with a recording studio on the second floor, and the rest of it just mouldering away.

    Then the G8 Justice ministers came to Sheffield. Lots of people who didn’t really know each other met because they wanted to protest against the G8. There were artists and doctors, school kids and single mums. DJs and journalists, economists and clowns.

    Afterwards, we agreed that it wasn’t enough to protest against things – you have to show people what you’re for. So we decided to bring the building back to life. Once the idea got round, everyone wanted to get organised. It wasn’t always fun – sometimes it was really hard work – but no one minded, because we knew what we were working for.

    Down in the mouldy cellars under the building, Helene and her friends got stuck in with paint scrapers. In six weeks, they transformed them into a gig space for bands and fundraising parties for all kinds of campaigns.

    “There’s nothing more inspiring than working together with your friends, starting with a roomful of rubble and ending up with this fantastic space. Before, I’d been struggling to get out of bed in the morning, but suddenly I was in the office at seven every morning, so I could be out and scraping walls by two.

    “We put the word out that we needed wood, and it just started turning up. People were finding it lying around or in skips, pulling it out of the crumbling urban environment. We were a bit nervous when it came to making the stage, because we didn’t think we had the skills. But people came out of the woodwork – handy friends who could borrow tools and teach the rest of us. In the end, it was built in a weekend.”

    Up on the first floor, we took out the partition between two empty rooms and built a new kitchen. All the surfaces, the table, the appliances were donated by people who wanted to help.

    On Thursdays, we have a work day when anyone can come along and help with doing up the building. There are always plenty of jobs to do, like glazing the broken windows before winter arrives… And if you don’t know how to glaze, someone will teach you.

    At the end of the day, people get together to cook a meal, and we open a few bottles of wine.

    Yiannis turned the room next to the kitchen into a film set.

    “Our film is called Get Lost. It’s a fantasy story, like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and the surrealists – you have to be lost in order to be found.

    “I found out about the building because a friend brought me to a party here. The look of the place is ideal for the atmosphere of the film.”

    The craft collective meets on Sunday nights, with knitting needles and wool and button boxes. And, most importantly, cake.

    Eric is curating an exhibition in three rooms at the front of the building. It’s a fringe event for the Art 05 festival.

    “I’d heard about the building because it used to be the old Yorkshire Arts Space. It had been big in Sheffield since the ’70s, but YAS moved out just before I arrived here. I used to walk past the building and wonder what it was like inside. Then I met this guy called Mozaz at a Sheffield Independent Film event. He said I should come along one Monday night.

    “When I stepped inside the building it was just, like, wow! Sitting in the weekly meeting, listening to people talk, I got an idea for an event I wanted to do there. The next week I came back with a proposal – people asked lots of questions, but they gave it the go ahead.

    “The theme of the event is ‘Urban Decay – The Invasion of Space’. With the exhibitions I’ve put on before, the space has been just a background – something to fill. Here, the space is the starting point, the whole event is a response to it.

    “Putting on an exhibition without any funding is hard. I’ve been stressed a lot of the time, but everyone’s helped out – cleaning the space, getting it safe for visitors, making food for the opening. Now I’m just hoping lots of people will come.”

    We don’t own Matilda. But before we came along, it had been sitting empty for years. 

    Everyone who’s been involved feels proud because we’ve made it happen for ourselves. We didn’t wait for anyone else to organise it. We didn’t even have any money. We’ve had to learn new skills – and work out ways of running this huge building. Already, hundreds of people have visited the space in just a few months and everyone seems to go away inspired.

    The building is owned by the Regional Development Agency. We don’t know what plans they have for it. But we do know that, one way or another, what we’ve started is going to keep going – because it’s as exciting as anything any of us have ever been part of.