The PIYN project involves aspiring artists and performers from Auckland’s ethnic communities, working with the best of contemporary UK talent, to combine forces for a masterclass in creativity & compose and perform a live street-style urban show.
PIYN 2010 involved live shows in Auckland, Taupo and Wellington during May 2010, as well as UK visitors USO (Urban Soul Orchestra), and acclaimed street poet and urban creative guru Charlie Dark (Attica Blues, Blacktronica).
The event in 2010 focused on participatory media, live streaming internet technology and online income generation toolkits for diverse aspiring creatives.
Creative cities aspire to be successful cities. They attract visitors and citizens who want to live in them. They are cities that attract individuals to cluster in dynamic and creative urban neighbourhoods, to share ideas, to bargain for talent that will drive learning and research and develop innovation and products that compete with global markets and other successful world cities. Creative cities are cities of the knowledge economy. There are thirteen countries included in the scope of the British Council's Creative Cities project.
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. For 75 years we have been building engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide.
In New Zealand we operate with the twelve countries in the East Asia region, working on a programme of Creative Cities work. This includes promotion of diversity through inclusivity, working towards empowering creative entrepreneurs, giving skills for social enterprise and mitigating the effects of climate change through promotion of sustainability.
The 2010 PIYN Programme includes workshops in participatory media, history of string playing (as well as contemporary string arrangement for UK pop music), spoken word techniques, live streaming internet technology and online income generation toolkits for diverse aspiring creatives.
Learn how to create an online identity, collaborate with other artists worldwide, fund, sell and market your work using online tools. Workshops in Auckland and Wellington during May 2010 will be followed by live performances which will also be streamlined internationally via Ustream.TV
Follow news from People in Your Neighbourhood online at
twitter.com/piyn (#piyn), watch the PIYN promo and other clips from the
British Council NZ at You Tube. You will also be able to tune into the PIYN Channel and chat on Ustream during the live events in Auckland & Wellington, May 2010.
The 2009 PIYN project involved aspiring artists and performers from Auckland’s ethnic communities, working with the best of contemporary UK talent, to create an album, and perform a live music show.
Working with some of the emerging artists amongst Auckland’s Asian, Polynesian, Hispanic and European communities, an album was recorded that included ethnic musicians and songwriters, alongside modern Kiwi urban producers and artists, collaborating to create a work that has modern production values, whilst still retaining distinct elements of culture.
The album is available for free distribution/download here:
http://www.last.fm/music/Various+Artists/People+In+Your+Neighbourhood. Album parts can also be remixed at our Creative Commons site :
http://ccmixter.org/people/britishcouncilnz
The PIYN 2009 documentary contains footage shot during production, rehearsals and the live performances in Auckland and at WOMAD, New Zealand. Produced by Macroscope in association with the British Council the PIYN 2009 documentary was released at the end of 2009.
The 2010 documentary is currently being filmed.
The title “People in your Neighbourhood” is used both as a reference to the increasing multi-ethnicity of Auckland City, and as a vehicle to show the potential for intercultural collaboration in the arts in this rapidly changing City. Visit our youtube site to view the documentary..
PIYN also involves the Urban Soul Orchestra collective from London, an acclaimed and experienced string orchestra working with some of the most current and exciting UK musicians from Nitin Sawney, to Gabrielle and Keane. www.urbansoulorchestra.co.uk
