20 years ago I rescued from a skip the video archives of a community arts organisation here in Northampton that I used to volunteer for. It had closed its doors after 19 years of service to the town and there was no one left but me to...
Six months ago I met my good friend of 35 years, writer Stephen Loveless, for our usual weekly coffee and a chat. It was just before I went away on holiday for a couple of weeks. I didn’t know then that would be the last time I’d eve...
We were preparing for the next phase of our Camara Chica project in Cuba, loading the filmmaking software onto five more iPads for the ten media hubs we’ve set up across the island in partnership with IntoFilm, British Council and Suit...
I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I gave them up some time ago – we all know why; they tend to be based on some mild guilt about something we do and shouldn’t or something we’re not doing and should. How many New Year gy...
There’s been a huge increase in events, exhibitions and engagement projects around art and activism in visual arts galleries, major institutions and independent spaces. In fact there is now a new phrase; Activism, or Socially Engaged ...
No-one in their right minds goes into the arts for the money, but so many artists remain in the dark about the financial aspects of the arts – whether they can ask to be paid, whether they can sell their work and, if so, for how much. ...
“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” – Alan Turing From our very first project, Threshold had a commitment to reinvesting our skills back into the community. W...
“Aim high, for every arrow feels the pull of the earth.” – Dr Tahir Choudhry Once a year, usually in April/May, Threshold gets away from the office for a long weekend. We spend 3 days reviewing the past year, planning out the next twelve...
“How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of “Green”? …Imagine a world alive with incomprehensible objects and shimmering with an endless variety of movement and innumerable graduations of color.” —S...
“I’ve been a farmer all my life; I have nothing, but when I see my daughter standing in the centre of our village with the camera in her hand I know what it means for her future and I just want to thank you for the opportunity you bring to...
When I first started working with the organisation, my very first project role was supporting as a Production Assistant on a First Light project, Dark Reels. 5 groups of young people making their own short films with support from profe...
We are recruiting a Commercial Engagement Manager to support our development of commercial relationships and sponsorship opportunities linked to our Frequency Festival of Digital Culture, in order to take Threshold into the next phase of...
Of all the Knowledge Sharing services we provide at Threshold, from Continuing Professional Development, Trouble-shooting, Life-coaching, Training Linked to Production initiatives and Mentoring to Consultancy, my favourite is the Critica...
There’s something happening here… I’ve been back from Cuba for about two months now and it’s taken that long to process all that went on in the three weeks I was there. I am still not sure I understand fully what our time there represent...
We are currently recruiting for 3 brand new roles as part of our latest (HLF-funded) community engagement project. This Is Us will explore the history of one of Lincoln’s most culturally diverse areas, and bring together local reside...
We are currently looking to commission a Digital Advert and ident for our forthcoming HLF-funded community engagement project This is Us. The purpose of the advert is to create a living active resource from archive materials and assets...
We are currently looking to commission a dynamic Freelance Educator Photographer with experience of working collaboratively with communities and participants to develop high quality content. The creative brief for this project is to wor...
We are currently looking to commission a dynamic Freelance Educator Photographer with experience of working collaboratively with communities and participants to develop high quality content. The creative brief for this project is to wor...
This Is Us – the past, present and future of Sincil Bank, Lincoln We are delighted to announce that we have received a National Lottery grant of £56,800 for an exciting community-led engagement project, This Is Us. The project will take...
As one of the creators of the Cámara Chica project we were pleased to recently be invited back to Cuba to expand on its incredible work. Threshold Director, Barry Hale previously helped set up filmmaking and media hubs with the project...
Threshold Studios are looking for an enthusiastic, dedicated and dynamic Marketing and Digital Communications freelancer to work with the team over the next year. This role encompasses social media management, audience development act...
We are looking for an enthusiastic, dedicated and dynamic Programme Assistant. This is a new role that will support the day to day running of the organisation as well as delivery of projects and initiatives to a high standard. You will w...
RADAR is an accelerator scheme devised in collaboration with the University of Lincoln for graduates looking for a head start after University. Through a paid internship, we give graduates first-hand experience and a chance to put their...
Frequency Festival Directors, Threshold Studios are looking for a dynamic Marketing Assistant to work in a fast-paced environment, with the festival team and partners. Frequency Festival of Digital Culture is a biennial festival hosted i...
Threshold Studios are delighted to announce that we are part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of organisations for 2018-22. At a time when the funding environment is increasingly complex, we are honoured that Arts Council E...
We are looking for an enthusiastic, dedicated and dynamic Marketing, Digital and Communications Manager to work with the team to deliver social media, audience development communications and marketing activity across our range of project...
This World Autism Awareness Week, we are delighted to share the news of the launch of Flow Observatorium (FlOb), a new national project funded by Arts Council England and based at New Theatre Royal Portsmouth as part of their Creative L...
I spent about 7 hours yesterday exploring Milton Keynes with artist and mythographer Phil Smith. We set out to orient ourselves in the city in preparation for our Digitalis project, working with the Libraries network there and the Counci...
On 17 January we held the first Collider Conversation of the year, bringing ‘diversity’ forward, at Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester discussing Neurodiversity. Chaired by Susan Jones, published writer and researcher, with Jon Adams,...
Threshold Studios are thrilled to announce that Co-Founder and Director Uzma Johal has been awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List for services to the Digital Economy in the East Midlands. The award recognises Uzma’s sign...
The brilliant Ariane Delaunois of Sound Art Radio yet again produced some great coverage of Frequency. Check out this interview Barry gave, discussing Frequency’s ethos and vision, current debates surrounding digital culture, and the cha...
Threshold are excited to announce that we have commissioned a new multichannel audio work from Jo Thomas, Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica Winner Music and Sound. Agna Rita will premiere at Lincoln’s Collection Gallery in October at thi...
28 participants, two days, three workshop stations. How will the young generation of today cope when thrown into the world of coding and creative tech? “It’s so important to learn the skill of coding because of how much technology is...
We are now living in the digital age, with thousands of people relying on technology in their everyday lives. However, it is so easy to use this smart technology without thinking of what it takes to make it work. For many years creative ...
A set of recurring motifs seem to feature in ancient and primitive art from around the world, spanning centuries, cultures, continents. Some have speculated that these motifs represent evidence of an inherent noise within the hardwired c...
As part of RADAR, our Creative Graduate Accelerator Scheme in partnership with the University of Lincoln, we have an exciting set of internship opportunities available to recent graduates of the College of the Arts to work on Frequenc...
FUTUROLOGY: Hybrid and digital works, experimental tech, public performative, interactive works and beta demonstrators Introduction Frequency 2015 represents the third iteration of Lincoln’s Festival of Digital Culture. For ten days in ...
Postern Gate exhibition site: Durational or performative digital and hybrid art works Introduction Frequency 2015 represents the third iteration of Lincoln’s Festival of Digital Culture. For ten days in October we take over the city...
Something magic(k)al happens every time I end up in Northampton. Last time it was hanging out with Alan Moore at Robert Godfrey’s Lodge Studios where I got lost in a haze of Unearthings and Dodgem Logic. This time round the NN Cafe shook...
So yes, I’m old enough to have been there at the dawning of the cultural revolution that was Punk and all the subsequent kaleidoscopic offshoots that blossomed from that defiant root, planted in the industrial ruins of what was Broken Br...
About Game On Women are currently under-represented in creative technology fields. These industries are growing quickly and as digital culture becomes a part of everyday life, it is vital that women are an equal part of the emerging gene...
As part of RADAR, our Creative Graduate Accelerator Scheme in partnership with the University of Lincoln, we have two exciting internship opportunities available to recent graduates of the College of the Arts. Get more information, a...
March 20th offered us a rare chance to experience a partial solar eclipse – did you see it? Only 95% of Totality this time so no dip to darkness, nothing to scare the birds into silence, none of the corona or Baily’s Beads to see but sti...
I’ve been working with Birmingham City University’s School of Media department for a few years now, usually as a panel member assessing their Music Industries students presentations on setting up record labels and PR companies. At the e...
This month we’ve been focusing on the planning for October’s Frequency Festival of Digital Culture – sketching out possible sites and the artists who might suit those spaces. As always, the budgets are tight and the vision ambitious; the...
As part of RADAR, our Creative Graduate Accelerator Scheme in partnership with the University of Lincoln, we have an exciting internship opportunity available to recent graduates of the College of the Arts. Lincoln Drill Hall are looki...
I can’t begin to explain how happy I feel for Cuba and the friends I’ve made there. The recent news that Raul Castro and Barack Obama have agreed to reinstate diplomatic links and the 50 year blockade is coming to an end is an exciting d...
A podcast from our latest Collider Creative Conversation in partnership with Dance4: Choreography, Technology and New Audience Experiences Chaired by Jen McLachlan, Head of Development at Random Dance with speakers Mark Coniglio, Co-Foun...
Yesterday was one of those days when you get a hefty reminder of why we do what we do. Sometimes you step into another person’s life, just for a short while, and try to have some impact on their future. Matt was one of those. Uzma and I ...
Creative student or graduate? RADAR is an accelerator scheme for creative graduates looking for a head start after University. It connects you with opportunities in creative media and the arts through a paid internship designed to get yo...
For the last three weeks I’ve been cataloguing all the media assets we gathered on our two visits to Cuba – the hours of documentary films made by TV Serrana that capture the traditional way of life in the mountains, the two dozen or mor...
Thursday 4th December // Antenna Media Centre, Nottingham // 6pm Threshold Studios, in collaboration with Dance4, invite you to a Collider Creative Conversation: Choreography, Technology and New Audience Experiences A chance for creative...
[View the story “Collider Creative Conversation at Kinetica Art Fair” on Storify]...
We will be showing our JFK installation 63|3D at Kinetica Art Fair on the 16th – 19th of October. Kinetica Art Fair ‘provides a global platform for galleries, curatorial groups, design studios and artists working in the realm of inte...
“What’s your plan? What’s next?” The dreaded questions faced currently by zillions of graduates around the country. We’ve finished our degrees; hopefully we’ve done well. Three years of our life has built up to this moment. We’...
So let me tell you about the time I met Stan Brakhage! Well, his name has cropped up a couple of times this week in conversations I’ve been having with people about the realm of digital in relationship to art and the sense that we may ha...
Graduated from University of Lincoln’s College of Arts in the past three years? Enthusiastic about marketing, communications and the internet? Great, read on! As part of our Creative Graduate Accelerator Scheme, in partnership with the U...
2014 is a pivotal year for me. In June of 1982 I was made redundant from the printer’s where I worked. With my small redundancy payment I bought a super 8 camera, a projector, all the editing gear and some film stock and decided my new c...
This week writer Steve Moore’s earthly remains were cast to the four winds beneath a Supermoon, during a meteor storm, while a comet whizzes past at the tail end of a hurricane (thanks for that image Amber Peachey-Moore). I only met Stev...
Here’s an exciting opportunity for artists to collaborate to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. The City of Lincoln and University of Lincoln have created a residency programme and are looking for artists to...
I’ve been thinking a lot today about the theme for the next Frequency Festival in 2015 and about the word liberation in the context of the digital revolution. I’ve come to the conclusion that the most important aspect of digital liberati...
I recently presented at the RSA What Would William Shipley Do? mini-conference at New Art Exchange. It was a quickfire, 5-minute talk, but here’s my slides (minus me chatting over them). I talked about building social networks by being h...
Dear Internet, I’m sorry, Internet. It’s not you… it’s me. For too long now this relationship has been all too one sided – I just take, take, take. I know, I know, Internet – all the little things that you do for me that I neve...
Dear colleagues, partners, supporters and friends, Threshold is proud to announce that we are part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of organisations for 2015-18. At a time where investment in the arts is increasingly diffic...
It’s been a really busy year for us and it seems we’ve slightly neglected our blog. But fear not! Here’s a round up of some of the things we got up to: March 2013, Northampton: Electrickal Seances 2 at the Legendary Labour Club We work...
March 2013: Northampton: Electrickal Seances at the Legendary Labour Club Nottingham: Mute Synth workshops at Antenna Northampton: Syzygy Live Cinema Sessions at The Victoria Inn There’s a creative quarter of Northampton where things are...
Behind the red door the management retains the right to refuse admission, but as long as you promise not to bother the cribbage club you’re fine. An informal queue call orders from zimmer frames and stools in a dark corner, as they wai...
Here’s our very own Barry interviewing Stephen Loveless about his novella, Hibakusha. If this sounds like the sort of thing you’d be into, you can get the eBook from Amazon, or a signed paperback from Threshold’s eBay...
“beneath the waters of the river, trapped in the chains of the dancing weed, I listened to the rumble of my own escaping breath….” Reality disintegrates on the riot-torn streets of Paris. Hallucinations and distorted memories collide wit...
Shey has found a room to build her boat, a small boat big enough to hold a lot of pain and one symbolic passenger, herself. Through seeing historic film of the horror of the A-Bomb attack on Hiroshima an Anglo-Japanese schoolgirl at a Br...
Today we were visited at our Northampton offices by Secretary of State, Vince Cable, for an intimate conversation regarding Threshold’s future within a new and changing industry. Threshold welcomed the recommendations outlined within t...
“Threshold originally set itself the challenge of taking unique voices from hard to reach communities out to an international audience. Today, it recognises that new digital tools have democratised production and offers open access to ...
Massive congratulations to the makers of “Our Journeys”, which won the Film Nation Shorts Best Animation (17-19) sponsored by Panasonic. The film was made by young film makers as part of Threshold’s “We are the Word” project in...
As part of the upcoming Frequency Festival, Threshold Studios is screening ‘Intraference’ exclusively at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln. Intraference harnesses the chaos of simple video feedback loops or isolates the inherent noise ...
Over the next two weeks, our We Are The Word films are going to be on television. If you have access to one of those telly boxes, you should turn your attention to The Community Channel (Sky 539, Virgin Media 233, Freeview 87 and BT Visi...
In December 2010 The Phoenix Youth Centre in Daventry became the best new gallery in town. Young artists transformed the main hall into a slick exhibition space and set up a lounge cinema to launch the We Are The Future book and photogra...
