OPTIMISTIC OLYMPIAD

A monthly newsletter SPONSORED by Pudding Mill River:
Not content with sharing the delicious fruits of the lower lea valley Pudding
Mill River are keen to bring together some equally tantalising ideas, events,
explorations and debate around the Olympics.
To list events and info contact hilary@...

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JULY 2009

CONTENTS
Upcoming events July
Three Mills Loop
Hackney Wick Festival meeting
Wick Curiosity Shop and the 2012 Digital Archive Project at the Leabank Square
`Big Clean Up
River Lea Vale walk and Flight festival
Legacy Now Youth Panel
National `Big Lunch' - local lunches at Leabank Square and Abbey Gardens
Hackney Society Triathlon
CREATE festival
Hackney Wicked Festival
Wickcentrics
Open Weekend
Discovering the Greenway
Big Blue Fence
Participation and Projects
Last Call for TINAG Festival 2009
CALL FOR HACKNEY WICK FESTIVAL
London Transport Museum East London Line project
Ongoing collections and the Wick Curiosity Shop
Links of the month
Abbey Gardens
Hackney Podcast Olympic Tour
Image/Video of the month
Fringe in the Fringelands – Blue movies continued / Adaptive Actions launch
Create festival viral marketing campaign

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Upcoming events – July 2009

Sunday 5th July 2009 1-4pm
Three Mills Loop
Meet at 1pm at House Mill, Three Mill Lane, London, E3 3DU
A circular walk from Three Mill Lane in East London (Bow) along the River Lea
Navigation and past the Olympic Park.
see http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/14831/
http://bit.ly/The_Netwalking_Club

Monday 6th July 2009. 6.30pm onwards
HACKNEY WICK FESTIVAL MEETING
Space. Triangle. 129 - 131 Mare St, Hackney, E8 3RH
If you're working on projects in Hackney Wick and would like to get involved in
the upcoming Hackney Wick Festival in September 2009 come for a drink and chat
out in the courtyard.
Bring a bottle. Nibbles available.
http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/contact/SPACE/

Sunday 12th July 2009
Wick Curiosity Shop and the 2012 Digital Archive Project at the Leabank Square
`Big Clean Up'
Meet the lovely residents of Leabank Square living right opposite the Olympic
park, hear about their projects and get to know people whilst helping clean up
the area.
The Wick Curiosity Shop will be in the square opening the shop, sharing songs
and stories, running a raffle and photo booth and inviting residents to produce
their own leabank square poster for the shop. They'll be joined by the East
London Lives project 2012 project documenting the lives of East Londoners in the
run up to 2012.
http://www.wickcuriosityshop.net
http://leabanksquare.blogspot.com
http://www.uel.ac.uk/ell2012/

Sunday 12th July 2009 2pm
Hackney Society Triathlon
Meet at Kings Hall, Lower Clapton Road, E5
Sport meets local history and heritage. Swim, cycle and walk your way round
Hackney's historic swimming pools with Simon Inglis – co-author of Great
Lengths: The Swimming Pools of Britain. The tour will include King's Hall,
Pitfield Street Baths, Haggerston Baths and finish with a swim at London Fields
Lido (LFL).
FREE, except swim at LFL. Bicycles required for travel between pools.
http://www.hackneysociety.org/events.htm

Sunday 12th July 2009 11am-2pm
River Lea Vale Walk
A three hour walk along the Lea Valley, starting from Three Mills and ending at
St. James Street. Points of interest on the route include The Greenway (Olympic
Park viewpoint), River Lea Navigation, Old Ford Lock Keeper's Cottages,
Middlesex Filter Beds, Lea Bridge Sluices, Walthamstow Marshes, and Coppermill
Lane (Thames Water Reservoirs).
Meet at Three Mills at 11am for a route to reach Walthamstow Marshes for 2pm to
celebrate and learn more about the Lea Valley's rich history of invention and
production at the AVRO Aircraft Centenary event during the afternoon.
see http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/14831/
http://bit.ly/The_Netwalking_Club

Friday 17th July 2009. 5-8pm
Legacy Now Youth Panel and the Light Surgeons
See the Legacy Now Youth Panel's view of the future of the Olympic Park with the
Light Surgeons mixing videos and sound onto a 3D model of the new City –
accompanied by lively debate and free food and drink. The event is aimed at
young people between 12 and 20. The Legacy Now Youth Panel (LNYP) is a dedicated
group of young people from the five Olympic host boroughs who have given up
their time over the past year to help inform the Olympic Legacy Masterplan. The
young people have submitted a formal response to the planning documents, created
a soundscape to accompany the flythrough of the proposed developments and
written a Manifesto to share their vision for the development of communities and
the built environment following the 2012 Olympic Games. Part of CREATE09 and
funded by the London Development Agency as part of the Olympic Legacy planning.
Pre register for a free ticket by emailing julie@... or call/text
07961 374772
http://www.fundamental.uk.net/
http://www.urban8.org/

Sunday 19th July 2009
National `big lunch day'
The big lunch day encourages people all over the country to host a big lunch in
their own street sharing food and time with neighbours. There are lots of them
going on in London including communal lunches at Leabank Square and at Abbey
Gardens on opposite sides of the Olympic Park.
http://leabanksquare.blogspot.com
http://www.somewhere.org.uk/abbeygardens/
http://www.thebiglunch.com/

Until August 2nd 2009
CREATE 09 Festival begins......
From June 20th until August 2nd 2009 they'll be lots of cultural activities and
festivals going on in the Olympic host boroughs under the umbrella of CREATE 09.
Info in brochures and on the website
http://www.createlondon.org/

The above also includes:
31st July – 2nd August 2009
HACKNEY WICKED FESTIVAL
Hackney Wicked is a major art festival in Hackney Wick. Hosting the new blood
of contemporary art, hundreds of artists will be featured in a rising
generation of galleries and open studios combined, live music and art
installations around Hackney Wick. Check out their website and facebook group
for more info.
http://www.hackneywicked.com/
Wickcentrics
As part of the festival The Mission Arts Club at the historic (and soon to be
history) Eton Mission, 91 Eastway, Hackney Wick will be opening its doors to
show the outcomes of the recent portrait painting project Wickcentrics.
Hackney Wick as it stands, is a place on the verge of disappearance. What will
the faces of Hackney Wick look like after it has morphed from non-destination
into Olympic Village? This industrial ghost town is home to artistic and
musical talent, immigrants, fine-up-standings and the penniless. Sitters include
photographer Stephen Gill , Iain Sinclair, Hilary Powell and Ralph Phillips of
Hackney Boots.

Friday 24th- 26th July 2009
London 2012 OPEN WEEKEND
http://www.london2012.com/get-involved/open-weekend
Various events going on as part of this Open Weekend including:
Dominoes
Station House Opera's commission for CREATE09 links the five 'host' boroughs of
the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games takes as its starting point the
simplest of ideas... a line of dominoes. On Sunday 26th July, thousands of
concrete blocks will be used to create a moving sculpture along a 15-kilometre
route, unfolding over the course of the day. Beginning in Newham, the starting
ceremony will see a structure of hundreds of blocks brought to life by a group
of performers. It will wend its way southwards, through Waltham Forest, Hackney
and Tower Hamlets concluding at dusk in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval
College in Greenwich.
http://www.dominoes2009.com
Saturday 25th July 2009 12-4pm
Discover the Greenway
There's a new building springing up on the Greenway at Marshgate Lane and making
the most of it's ideal vantage point over the 2012 Olympic Park.
To highlight its arrival it will form the hub of an afternoon of activities on
July 25th as part of Open Weekend - prompting further discovery of the stretch
of the Greenway that runs from the River Lea Navigation to Pudding Mill Lane
DLR. Rich in wildlife, the Greenway is a walking and cycling route running on
top of the giant Northern Outfall Sewer in East London, and provides a
magnificent view of the Olympic site. The afternoon of family-orientated
activities will entertain and engage people in discovering their environment.
Delivered by CABE, Heritage Link & Natural England.

Ongoing.....
Tuesday 2nd June – Monday 31st August 2009
Big Blue Fence
Hackney Museum, Technology and Learning Centre, Reading Lane, London, E8 1GQ
The Big Blue Fence Interactive Installation is a scale model based on a section
of the 2012 Olympic site fence and showcases the work of
Immediate Theatre's Big Blue Fence project. Working with schools and community
groups in the Hackney Wick area, the Big Blue Fence project gives people living
next to the Olympic site the opportunity to record stories, develop creative
ideas and express their views about living in the area and the changes that have
taken place. Community and museum workshops will explore E9's rich heritage
from the 1948 London Olympics to the present, capturing change in stories,
pictures and memorabilia.
http://www.immediate-theatre.com/youth_projects/big_blue_fence/
http://www.hackney.gov.uk/cm-museum

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Participation, Projects

Monday 6th July 2009
LAST CALL for This is Not a Gateway Festival 2009
Over the course of 3 days, This Is Not A Gateway (TINAG) will bring together
people living and working in Europe, whose main preoccupation is the city. The
festival will take place in London on 23, 24 and 25 October 2009.
There is now a FINAL CALL out for:
. Discussions & Workshops
. 5-Minute Soapbox Presentations
. European Walks & Tours
. Book or Project Launches
There is no fee for applying. The festival is free and all events are open to
the public. The deadline for application is 06 July 2009. Applicants will be
informed of decisions by 13 July 2009. To submit a proposal, please fill in the
form below and email coordinators@...
Download the CALL and Application Form on the website
http://www.thisisnotagateway.net
After 2008's interesting `Salon de Refuses Olympique' we hope to develop this
`Olympic' themed debate so any relevant projects and plans are welcome in this
area.

CALL FOR HACKNEY WICK FESTIVAL – September 2009
If you're working on projects in Hackney Wick and would like to get involved in
the upcoming Hackney Wick Festival in September 2009 come along to the meeting
listed above on Monday 6th July or contact Fiona Fieber, Head of Collaborations
at space – fifi@...

Ongoing
London Transport Museum East London Line project
London moves East
Interested in local history and the changes happening in your area? London
Transport Museum wants to find out what you think about the social and physical
changes occurring in your local area. Become a `community collector' and work
with London Transport Museum to collect and record material relating to the
East London Line developments. You'll learn new skills, meet new people and get
a behind-the-scenes look at how museums work.
To find out more or express your interest contact Michelle Brown on 020 7565
7424, michelle.brown@...

ONGOING CALL. If you're working on projects engaging with the changing East End
and the Olympics do get in touch as we build an archive of the alternative
voices surrounding the more official cultural programme. We also run quarterly
events of which documentation of the various artists and projects involved can
be seen in the growing Wick Curiosity Shop. (http://www.wickcuriosityshop.net) -
get in touch if you have more Hackney Wick and Olympic edge-lands stories,
history, art, images etc to add to the growing archive.

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Links of the month

Abbey Gardens `What Will the Harvest Be' - a project by Karen Pope and Nina
Guthrie of Somewhere with the Friends of Abbey Gardens.
The Harvest Garden at Abbey Gardens, a protected site in East London, not far
from the 2012 Olympic Village is now going full steam ahead the invitation is
open to come along and take part in the work and fun to be had. The site
contains the remains of a 12th century Cistercian Abbey (St. Mary Stratford
Langthorne, Essex) and will be adjacent to a new extension of the Docklands
Light Railway opening in 2010.
Get in touch if you'd like to be involved with the developing garden or go along
to free Garden Club sessions (led by Chris chris@...).
Free Garden Club Sessions (June - Nov 2009)
Saturdays 10.00 am - 2.00 pm, Tuesdays 10.00 - 1.00 pm, Thursdays 5.00 pm - dusk
http://www.somewhere.org.uk/abbeygardens/
http://www.abbeygardens.org/
http://www.whatwilltheharvestbe.com/webcam/

Hackney Podcast Edition 12 Olympic Park Tour
Olympic Park tour edition in which Francesca Panetta joins John Hopkins - the
Olympic Delivery Authority's Project Sponsor for Parklands and Public Realm -
for a tour of the site.
http://www.hackneypodcast.co.uk

Always worth picking up or checking out:
Hackney Citizen
http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk
Games monitor
http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk

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Image/Video of the month

June's `Fringe in the Fringelands' event continuing the blue movie' series with
films projected onto boats was a fantastic night. The boats (made by Will
Shannon and colleagues at the RCA ) were beautiful both in daylight and as
mobile projection screens as dusk fell over the Olympic stadium. Jean
Francois-Prost presented his work and the collaborative project `Adaptive
Actions' to a full house and The Counter was an amazing venue both inside and
out at the new ad hoc bar and `Fish Island Yacht Club'.
Thanks to The Counter for a great night and delicious tapas, all the artists
involved and everyone who came along and helped out on the night moving
projectors and sorting technical details – thanks Hugh, Ruth, Harry and Dan. The
event was organised by Hilary Powell of Optimistic Productions.
http://www.optimisticproductions.co.uk