Led by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj, the group’s work explores interactivity and confronts a media-saturated world in which popular culture rules, using performance, installation, video, mobile and online technologies to ask questions about the ideologies present in the information that surrounds us.

I’d Hide You (2012) commission from The Space, a BBC / Arts Council England initiative

Why we like it:
Blast Theory is innovative and has a strong track record of taking major artistic risks – in Kidnap (1998), for example two members of the public were kidnapped as part of a lottery and the resulting event was streamed online. They have tackled themes of violence, pornography and politics.

A Machine To See With (2010) commission from the Sundance Film Festival, 01 San Jose Biennial and the Banff New Media Institute

In Blast Theory’s film, A Machine To See With (2010) participants play the lead in a heist. Participants signed up online with their mobile phone numbers. On the day, they received an automated call giving them an address to go to. From there, a series of calls instructed participants through the city, they hid money inside public lavatories on the way, met up with a partner in crime and onwards to the bank, the tension rising. This seems like an utterly unique experience as it’s up to the individual participants to deal with the bank robbery and its aftermath.

Find out more:
Website | Vimeo | Flickr | Facebook | Twitter

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

The idea came about when Andy McColgan (managing-editor of the Racket Racket online magazine and former station manager at Glasgow’s Radio Magnetic) met designer, Denise Ross (who runs web design company, IDENTI). Denise and Andy, essentially, combined their passion for music, and for Glasgow, with their complimentary talents fuelled by the love of the city and it’s music scene to collaborate on this new project.

Denise and Andy’s main inspiration for starting So & So was to shout about the city’s fantastic, unique and truly diverse and inspiring music scene whilst simultaneously producing a collectible and covetable series of publications. Issue 1 is out now and work on Issue 2 has already begun.

Andrew Pirie

Here’s the So & So intro:

We believe that alongside the digital world that we now inhabit there should always be a place for collectable physical publications that try and capture a time and place in history. We are passionate about music and are incredibly lucky to live in Glasgow, a city renowned for it’s vibrant and diverse music heritage. We want to celebrate and promote the people who make Glasgow such a great place to live.

We hope that So & So inspires others to take a leaf out the book of the people we have interviewed and get out there and involved in creative music related projects and pursuits.

In our inaugural issue we chat to a variety of people representative of the many facets of the Glasgow music scene. Visual artist Florence To, DJs and producers Brian D’Souza (Auntie Flo) and Esa, musician and lecturer Ken McKluskey, musicians Organs of Love and DJ and audiophile, Andrew Pirie.

Visual artist Florence To

Musicians Organs of Love

So & So has been designed and produced in Glasgow and printed on the finest paper from GF Smith. It is printed by J Thompson, and singer sewn bound by bookbinder Fraser Cameron.

You can buy a copy online here or in Glasgow at Good Press and Monorail (both part of Mono Cafe Bar, King’s Court) and in the Street Level Photoworks shop on King Street.

Where to find So & So:
Website | Facebook | Twitter

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Find more zines we’ve featured here.

The history of Tramway official starts in 1990, with the Capital of Culture. The connections made in that year led to an ongoing programme of performance that included regular visits from Peter Brook, Robert Lepage, Les Ballets C de la B and Belgium’s Victoria. In the past five years, Tramway has entered a new phase. The addition of a Hidden Garden out the back, the arrival of Scottish Ballet in a purpose built wing and a new emphasis on community engagement – much in the fashion of contemporary art policy – suggest that Tramway is moving in a new, dynamic direction.

There are two “theatres” within Tramway: the majestic T1, dominated by the apparently ancient red wall, built for the Mahabharata; the more intimate T4, a long, versatile space ideal for solo and immersive performance.  The stage in T1 is large enough for an opera house, and has hosted large scale ballet, opera and even orchestras. T4 was, for many years, the home of Into The New, the graduating programme of the Royal Scottish Academy’s contemporary performance degree.

Despite a location away from the city centre, Tramway has a profile that extends beyond the city. Its support of choreography that is more usually found in major venues, such as Sadler’s Wells, has made it something of a cult within the dance community. Aside from the visitors, it has supported local and emerging artists through a series of schemes. This heritage is reflected in the new dance studios, that offer residencies for artists like the goddess Iona Kewney or punk icon Linder.

During the IETM, Cryptic present Orlando – also part of Glasgay!  An appropriate choice, as Cryptic’s artistic director Cathie Boyd was inspired by Tramway during the year of the City of Culture. Her willingness to make large scale theatre, that pulls on opera, technology and elaborate staging echoes the diverse companies that have graced the former tramshed.

Both a fine example of how industrial spaces were occupied by the arts when traditional industries began to disappear, and an ongoing experiment in linking performance, visual art and public space, Tramway is worth a visit for far more than just a show. The Hidden Garden is a small oasis in a very urban city, the use of the cafe by the local community reveals the various creative groups at work. A brief tour unveils art classes and the rehearsals of Junction 25, Scotland’s most experimental youth theatre. A building so idiosyncratic can never be an emblem of Glasgow’s culture, yet it represents the best of the West Coast: individual, lively and constantly surprising.