GIF the City: Wolverhampton

The FLIP Festival is launching GIF the City, a new invigorating participatory project.

GIF the city: WolverhamptonUp to 3000 images will be collected from local residents and used in a film that will be projected onto a landmark building in the Wolverhampton town centre. This will take place during the Flip Festival on Friday 2 November from 9:30 until 10:30pm. The event will coincide with the annual firework celebration in the city.

The FLIP Festival is calling for local residents to submit images for the project. The GIF the City project will collect photographs, gifs and videos that represent the daily lives of residents in Wolverhampton and surrounding regions. Those images will be curated and edited by local artists to create a film of up to 20 minutes in length for projection on to the landmark building. This gives local residents a unique opportunity to see their images transformed into a piece of temporary public art work, using a central landmark building as a canvas.

GIF the City is one of the exciting events that will be taking place in Wolverhampton during the FLIP Festival this year. Free exhibitions of 2D artwork will be held in vacant shops. Also scheduled is an art-battle party The People versus the Machines, with live illustration artists going up against computer generation artists. There will be screenings at Light House of indie animated shorts and special guest masterclasses. GIF the City offers all residents a way to be creatively involved in the festival, regardless of their background in animation or art.

Renata Walton, the director of FLIP Festival said: “GIF the City is is an exciting project that will give Wolverhampton residents the opportunity to become creatively engaged with animation, and give them an access route to other art mediums and venues. It will also create closer relationships between residents and their public spaces with the process of transforming their images of their lives into an art piece that in turns transforms a local landmark.”

An online campaign has been launched to allow residents to submit their images. They can submit their photos via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FlipFestival. Links to video material can be submitted via email to [email protected]

GIF the City will take place during the FLIP Festival in the Wolverhampton town centre on Friday 2 November from 9:30 until 10:30pm. The project will collect up to 3000 photographs, gifs and videos that represent the daily lives of residents in Wolverhampton and surrounding regions and screen a film that incorporate these images.

For more information please visit; www.flipfestival.co.uk, facebook.com/flipfestival, Twitter: @flipfestival or email [email protected].

Wolverhampton’s independently animated festival, simply known as FLIP, was conceived in 2004 under a Light House project for creatives called PLOT when it identified the need to support the region’s burgeoning animation industry by providing a forum for showcase and discussion focusing on this diverse and colourful aspect of the creative industries.

The mission of FLIP is to work alongside and employ animators, creatives, artists and developers on producing works that seek to explore the culture of innovation within arts, technology and science. FLIP will aspire to attract a wide and diverse audience to engage with events and festivals that are in pursuit of quality and entertainment.