Birmingham’s love of threatened species and the soon-to-be-demolished has manifested itself again in a flurry of Central Library activity. Last night VIVID in Digbeth unveiled a new multi-screen video installation by Karin Kihlberg and Reuben Henry, filmed in the guts of the building on empty Sunday afternoons. It’s called Inbindable Volume, and runs until 21 August.

A group have also formed around the notion Project Brutal, aiming to celebrate the library ‘before it’s too late’, and this week Lucy McLauchlan has been painting a bird mural on the side of the building.

[via BiNS]

This might also be a good time to revisit the documentary about the man who designed the thing, John Madin, back when he had the world in the palm of his hand. This film helped inspire the writing of Catherine O’Flynn’s new book The News Where You Are, featuring an architect whose legacy gets demolished. And finally, when/if they do start knocking it down perhaps someone would like to film a sequel to this:

Birmingham timelapse from 7inch cinema on Vimeo.

PS: In anticipation of the big clear-out, there are some good film-books going cheap on the fourth floor at the moment.

The Bioscope is a font of useful information on silent cinema, delving comprehensively into neglected corners while also alert to new developments and events. It’s run by Luke McKernan, Moving Image Curator at the British Museum. Having not visited for ages here are some of the things I caught up with today…

> A tasty-looking silents festival in Berlin which kicks off tomorrow;

> The extended Metropolis is on at the BFI next month, as well as various archive events as part of the Long Live Film season;

>A potted history of football in silent film;
>A Muybridge exhibition coming to the Tate in September;

And most excitingly, news of the Strobotop Lightphase Animator, a hand-held optical gizmo which works along the same lines as Jim Le Fevre’s Phonotrope. The Strobotop was designed by Rufus Butler Seder – he also created the ingenious Scanimation books – and if I don’t restrain myself I’ll end up ordering at least 10 as presents.

The final Hospital Club 100 has just been announced, highlighting established and up-and-coming people across the UK’s creative industries, and we appear to be second in the emerging film category. Sandwiched – as it were – between Emily Blunt and Carey Mulligan. Most surreal. Many thanks if you voted! There’s more info in The Independent.

Stan Morgan worked at BBC Birmingham for over 20 years, a scene hand on the likes of Boys From the Blackstuff and All Creatures Great and Small. After he left he retrained in photography at Wolverhampton University, and then returned to Pebble Mill shortly before the building closed down to capture these behind-the-scenes shots. My abiding memory of the place is that it felt a bit like a polytechnic, so it’s nice to see shots of the Archers studio looking like a shabby 70s seminar room. A selection of the images will be on show next to the cinema at mac, alongside the aforementioned weekend of drama delights.

Stan died last year. His son Stephen took the portrait above and is keeping the photography flame flying. He has a show opening next week at the Wapping Project Bankside in London.

Images by Stan Morgan courtesy of Birmingham Library and Archive Services.