Sunday 30 September 2007

New Club Starting for Cardiff ATRiuM Arts & Media Students, Faculty and Friends



AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Are you a member of the AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media? Why not? It’s free and some your friends are joining – so what are you waiting for?

Just what are the Five Primary Aims of AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media?


Our Five Primary Aims


1) We are an open and inclusive collective of student artists and student entrepreneurs who band together for social contacts, artistic education and stimulation, entertainment and all things pertaining to the advancement of our dreams and careers.



2) We devise and launch events and projects related to media, journalism, film, television, sound and video recording and distribution, set design, costume design, lighting design, concert, festival and special events promotions, online innovations, presentational graphics, photography, architecture, mixed and multi-media, dramatic performance, public speaking, performance art, individual or collaborative projects and other diversions.



3) We assist each other in developing and perfecting our art forms and professions.

4) We sponsor, attend and promote artistic, educational and social events, including imagined, narrated, fictional, real and virtual.



5) We assist one another in developing our artistic and professional portfolios, and we share these creations at various networking opportunities; with all these activities, we commit ourselves to the promotion and refinement of our own as well as our colleagues’ artistic portfolios and professional dossiers.



Is AIM a political or religious organization?

While it’s true that our ultimate goal is WORLD DOMINATION balanced with INTRINSIC FULFILLMENT nuanced with MEANINGFUL / MEANINGLESS PLEASURE enhanced by INCREDIBLY GREAT STYLE / LACK OF STYLE, and the inevitable material / spiritual gains / losses that accompany these goals, AIM respects the fact that we’re all on similar / different and interesting / mind-numbingly-boring paths; to this end, we neither affirm, deny or espouse any one political view or religious / non-religious, irrational / rational viewpoint.



Is AIM an arts club, a social fetish, a secret society, or a Cult of Personality?

It’s all of these things and none of these things. It has never existed and it has always existed. If it ceased to exist tomorrow, in the GREAT UNIVERSAL SCHEME OF THINGS, hardly anyone would care.



How do I join?

Email our Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. on Face Book



What happens next?

When Dr. Mark collects a sufficient number of interested students’ names and details, he will announce an initial organizational meeting.

He’ll probably call or write to you before the end of October 2007, just in time to plan your Halloween costume.



Please include at least your name, alias, email address, mailing address, interests, Zodiac sign, your favourite ice cream flavour and hat / rollerblade size. Dr. Mark will use his extraordinary intuition to guess in which century you were born.



Where will the meetings be held?

The first meeting will be held at either ATRiuM or Ty Pont Haearn in the Cardiff City Centre. ATRiuM students and Ty Pont Haearn residents will host the first meetings to assist the launch of our collective.



Later meetings will held in Newport, London, Aberystywth, Port Meirion, Castle Harlech, Salisbury Plains, among the Roman ruins of Caerleon and the Norman ruins of Ogmore Castle, online, via pod-casts and video-conferences, in eventually in Copenhagen, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Toronto, Prague, Southern Italy, Barcelona and Amsterdam.



Conversations will take place in the past, present, future, conditional, imperative, pluperfect, and in other dimensions.



Can anyone be a member of this collective?

Well, the collective intends to include all interested residents of Ty Pont Haearn and other local student residences, communes, and shared living arrangements in the Cardiff City centre area.



Students or faculty can be affiliated with ATRiuM, UWIC, Coleg Glan Hafren, Cardiff University, Swansea University, Swansea Institute, Newport School of Art, Media and Design, or other institutions. Enthusiastic, dynamic and artistic friends and families of these students are also welcome to join.

What will be the social and political ethos / mythos of this collective?



Our collective will vacillate between historical notoriety and contemporary obscurity. We will foster greatness and encourage Misfits and other Outcasts. Invariably power struggles, nepotism, clicks, sub-groups, spin-offs, copycats, crass commercialism and other controversies will overtake our collective.



Obviously some of us are destined for Greatness; what will become of our collective?

Our Great Leader and Esteemed Founder Dr. Mark will attempt to arbitrate petty in-fighting and common resentments between members, including jealousy and jousting / fencing / armed pistol duels and mud-wrestling /cock fights; but eventually he too will tire of the fuss and choose to instead balance his check book and go into the West with the other Elves. Product line extensions, copyrighted residuals and returns, film franchises, Japanese language comic book series based-upon-our-lives and computer games will go on forever.



Are the members of this group either successful, aspiring or wannabe ‘Media Whores?’

Yes.



What will be the first projects of our collective?

a) We will organize and elect / appoint officers. All members will have important titles and hold multiple posts. Powdered wigs and celebrity entourages / limousines are optional.

b) We will launch a project to create and produce glossy 8x10 headshots, personal and group biographies, news releases, and promotional gimmicks of our ever-more glorious and celebrated selves. And this is only the beginning! Next we’ll develop video calling cards, websites and blogs, and various innovative ideas yet to be conceived or exploited.

c) We will organize and plan a variety of domestic and international trips, events and study abroad projects; we will involve ourselves in fund raising, grant writing, and other activities to fund our projects.

d) We will enhance our current research and study with activities including TV & Film Retrospective Screenings, exhibits and performances, speeches and debates, parties and festivals, media and print ‘guest articles and appearances, etc.



e) We will always call ourselves the ‘AIM Collective’ and we will write endless Manifestos. We will do this mostly because we like the sound of the word, ‘Manifesto’.



We are the spiritual and artistic heirs of many enigmatic icons, including but not limited to D.W. Griffith, the Marx Brothers, Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe, Che Guevara, Billy Holiday, Victor Hugo, Luis Buñuel, Michelangelo, Jacques Brel, Bertol Brecht, Edith Piaf, Grace Jones, Simone Weil, Louie Armstrong, Flip Wilson, Arthur Godfrey, Jackie Gleason, Walt Disney, Merv Griffin, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Donna Reed, Al Jolson, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Joel and Ethan Coen, John Dewey, Marcel Proust, Elvis Presley, The Artist Formerly-known-as-and-once-again-known-as Prince, William Shakespeare, Sir Salman Rushdie, porn star John Holmes, Buckminster Fuller, John Waters, Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright, and too many others to list.

I’m a painfully ordinary and dismally plain wallflower: can I join?

Yes.

I’m a fabulous reincarnation of Mother Teresa, P.T. Barnum, Madonna, Cher and David Bowie: can I join?



Yes.

I’m heterosexual / metro-sexual / gay / lesbian / transgender / asexual / celibate / neuter / spayed, all-of-the-above or unsure: can I join?

While your sexual orientation / relationship status / dating availability are immensely interesting / mind-numbingly-boring to all of us, we recommend that you share the intimate details of your life only with qualified gossip-mongers, literary agents, and assorted predatory paparazzi, until we get to know you better.



I’m naïve, innocent, pompous, moody, broke, or morally bankrupt: can I join?

Yes.

AIM seems to intentionally side-step answers while asserting ambiguities and ambivalent stances; do you have any core values?

YES!

We value humour, and we try to always take ourselves seriously / not take ourselves (or others) too seriously.

We value creativity and we like to pay our bills and get along with others; we are constantly seeking ways to avoid Writer’s Block, balance our check books, and have fun.



We value mutual respect and consideration for others. These simple values guide all our other activities.

We value having and nurturing within ourselves a good attitude and productive work ethic; but if we can’t be optimistic and helpful, we can always be spiteful and distracting.

We value kindness, altruism, and transcendent human equalities; we also recognize and delight in our ruthlessness, compassion, competitive spirit, neo- Machiavellianism, and related vagueness.

How will it benefit me to join this group?

Only you can answer that question. Generally, you will sound smarter-than-your-mates, make more friends, have better sex, consume less fat, sodium and sugar, have whiter teeth, you will lose weight, gain muscle, look better, feel better, gain self-esteem, and eventually make more money or not care about making more money.



Remember, the more people put into something, the more they seem to get out of it. Some folks are never happy, and as Abraham Lincoln supposedly said, “ People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Who will run the collective?

This group will be run entirely run by student members. Dr. Mark and other faculty, University staff, Advice shops, Resident Hall Activities Coordinators, and qualified volunteers will also advise and help as needed.



Who is the Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, and why do we call him that?

Dr. Mark Leslie Woods is the fabulous author and initiator of this collective, and we owe him our lives! Also, he likes to wear wizard capes and over-stuffed animal costumes, clown make-up, clever disguises and gangster suits, and he really likes weird titles and decorative headpieces and likes wigs, hats, plumes, crowns and space helmets.



While he prefers to play the head, he has occasionally been the horse’s ass.



Okay, so just who is this Man-behind-the-curtain, Dorothy?

Dr. Mark Woods is the Ty Pont Haearn Resident CCI Senior Welfare Tutor:

Dr. Mark is a filmmaker and scholar from Miami Beach, Florida, who has recently completed his Ph.D. in Film Studies.

His long and diverse background in the arts and creative industries allow him to offer advice and guidance to many different students:

He studied performance voice and keyboards and attended a Theatre & Drama Program for the Arts. He sang 1st Tenor with regional opera company choruses, and has done back-up vocals for Gospel, Bluegrass, Jazz and Folk concerts.



He studied Film Production Technology and worked on the Miami film production crews of feature films starring Will Smith and Monica Potter.





He has worked on both independent and studio productions, film festivals, and music videos and television & radio advertising campaigns in Miami, New York and California. He is currently studying the

Minority Language Cinemas of Barcelona and Southern Italy:





He teaches part-time Film & TV courses for CCI ATRiuM and is U.K. leader of:

Czech Film Study Abroad Courses in Prague and Florida.

He edits 9 blogs and three award-winning websites.



His specialties include Welsh, Italian and European Minority Language Cinemas, Hollywood & Cult Films, Feminist & Gay cinemas, Broadway Musicals, Horror, Mythology & Fantasy films.



Dr. Mark is a student of Latin, Welsh, French, Italian and several other languages. He lifts weights and is an unreformed Romantic / Socialist / Hippie / Health Nut / Jesus or Krishna Freak / Pagan / Anti-war agitator / Satirist.



Dr. Mark is friendly and helpful and a bit of a perfectionist, and he engages in shameless self-promotion, so let that be a lesson to you all!



Why is ATRiuM spelled with three initial swollen letters, followed by two sick, humiliated and bent-over letters, followed by a mountainous and glorious final letter?

Good question.

I am sleep-deprived / hung-over / brain dead, so please tell me again: How do I join?

Email our Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. on Face Book

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

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