Dr Emma Posey

Founding Director

Emma Posey is founding Director of bloc. She has lectured and written widely on creativity and technology as well as focusing on the effects of technology on place in her own art practice. Her past lecturing experience includes Course Leader of the Creative Technology Masters at University of Salford and visiting lecturer at University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC) and University Wales Newport (UWN). She has edited various visual arts publications and acted as consultant on external research projects.

emma@bloc.org.uk

Simon Mundy

Chair

Simon Mundy is a poet, festival director, broadcaster and cultural policy adviser. He is Director of the Centre for the Cultural Environment at King's College, London.

He has worked as an adviser for UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the UN Mission in Kosovo as well as many non-governmental organisations including the Ford Foundation, the European Cultural Foundation and the International Music Council. He was the Director of the UK's National Campaign for the Arts from 1989 -1993 and a co-founder and first President of the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage. He has directed festivals in Scotland and the Netherlands and written several books on musicians (including biographies of Elgar, Purcell and Tchaikovsky).

Three books of his poems have been published and among his other books are Making It Home: Europe and the Politics of Culture, and the Council of Europe's Short Guide to Cultural Policy, as well as a novel, Seeking the Spoils (using the pen name James Eno).

He is also Vice-President of the Presteigne Festival and a Trustee of the European Baroque Orchestra, The Sidney Nolan Trust and the Asian Music Centre. He has broadcast on BBC Radio for more that 25 years and written on the arts for most of Britain's major newspapers.

sajhmundy@hotmail.com

Stefhan Caddick

Online Manager, northern bloc Programmer

Stefhan Caddick is a visual artist based in Wales. His work is often multidisciplinary, encompassing visual art, new media and elements of performance.

His work sometimes takes the form of manoeuvres; strategies or methodologies which result in an action, installation, or other form of presentation; erecting a discontinued electronic road sign in the middle of Cardiff and asking the public to send their text messages to it; attempting to make and use a pair of skiis with no knowledge of woodwork (or skiing); recording a second of sound every minute for three hours in an attempt to produce a 7" single; or cycling 250 miles during a cold February in Wales, avoiding main roads and asking passers-by for hand-drawn directions.

Stefhan has also had a varied career in the arts in Wales, including roles such as Development Officer for Cultural Enterprise, a business support service for Wales-based creative industries and more recently, Project Manager for bloc: Creative Technology Wales, a role which involved the programming and delivery of professional development events and sector-specific research across North Wales.

The third strand of Stefhan's work is as a designer working in print and on the web. Here he has worked for most of Wales' arts organisations and many of its artists, designing everything from catalogues and monographs to blogs and online image galleries.

Stefhan lives in the Brecon Beacons with his partner and their daughter.

Paul Granjon

Board Member

Born in Lyon, France, in 1965, he grew up in the countryside and developed from an early age an interest in mechanics and electricity. After passing A Levels in mathematics and technology he embarked on a fine art course and graduated in Marseille (France) in 1990. He founded his company Z Productions in1988. At that time he was working as a freelance video and audio technician for petrochemical companies.

Between 1990 and 1995 he directed several short films, all based on a different type of food. Most of the films were shown in European video festivals. In 1995 he was invited to Cardiff (UK) as a research artist. During his residency he produced It is Not a Piece of Cake, a performance that marked the beginning of his international series Z Food across the World which toured in Europe and the USA between 1995 and 1999.

He was offered a lecturing job in Cardiff and moved to the UK in 1995. He then started an intensive period of research in electronics and robotics, while directing and producing 2 Minutes of Experimentation and Entertainment. This video series in 7 episodes was shown internationally and is still touring at time of writing.

In 1999 he created Z Lab Presents, a performance combining his interests for off-key music and robotics, with real robots on stage. The show toured in various venues including the Whitechapel Gallery, London and Mousonturm, Frankfurt.

Since then he developed several installations using robotics, some of them were exhibited in his touring show Z Lab 2001. Some installations were sold to the Arts Council of England and to the Museum of Modern Art of Luxemburg. He also ran a number of DIY robotics workshops for artists and contributed to several conferences and symposiums. He developed Furman, a man size kicking robot and a set of robotic tail and ears, presented in the performance Z Lab Transported that toured internationally between 2003 and 2005.

He was awarded a Nesta (National endowment for science technology and the arts) Fellowship in 2004. He was one of the artists representing Wales in the Venice Biennale 2005, where he exhibited a Robotarium.

In February 2006 he premiered a new performance that includes Sexed Robots and primitive technology in the Arnolfini, Bristol. The performance is touring to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, UK. He is currently developing projects involving robotic perception and autonomous robots.

www.paulgranjon.net.

paul@zprod.org

Gwawr Cordiner

Board Member

Gwawr is the Managing Director of Menter Iaith Sir y Flint and co-owner of a Welsh Book and Craft shop in Denbigh. Gwawr was raised in the Vale of Clwyd and the Conwy Valley and is from a farming background. Securing the growth and development of the Welsh language and culture and of the Welsh economy is very important to her. She was educated at NEWI, Wrexham and the University of Wales Bangor and she has worked in the social housing development, economic development and community development sectors for 15 years.

Gwawr worked closely with bloc officers to establish Northern bloc in the counties of Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey and she is eager to see the bloc network extending into North East Wales. Gwawr is married with two children and lives in Denbigh.

Eddie Berg

Advisor

Eddie Berg became the Artistic Director of the British Film Institute on London’s South Bank in spring 2005. He is also leading the development of the arts vision for a new £100m international centre for film and the moving image in London by 2012 on behalf of the BFI. He was formerly the founder and Chief Executive of FACT, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology. He was responsible for conceiving and leading the £11m FACT Centre development, which opened to public and critical acclaim in Liverpool in February 2003, forming a crucial part of Liverpool's successful bid to become European Capital of Culture 2008. The first purpose-built arts project in the city for more than 60 years FACT is now Britain's leading centre for film, video and new media art.

Since FACT's inception in 1988 Eddie has been responsible for commissioning and producing more than 100 projects by UK-based and international artists working in film, video and new media and has curated and organised a wide range of exhibitions, screenings and events across the world. He has extensively lectured internationally and served on juries and panels at film, art, media, government and corporate events and festivals internationally; was part of the curatorial team for the 2002 Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art; was a judge for the 2004 Paul Hamlyn Awards for Artists, was a member of the Alexander Korda Jury for the Best British Film at the 2006 BAFTA’s and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2005 he was awarded the £10,000 ART 05 Prize for Outstanding Contribution to the Cultural Life of England’s North West jointly sponsored by the Arts Council and the BBC.

Eddie.Berg@bfi.org.uk

Peter Davies

Advisor

Peter Davies was born in Swansea and studied at Swansea College of Art, Goldsmiths, and the Royal College of Art. He then taught in the USA at the School of Art Institute in Chicago. At Northern Arts he was Head of Visual Arts for 18 years and developed Grizedale, Public Arts programmes and Artists' Support programmes. In Wales, PETER was commissions Director Cardiff Bay Arts Trust and later was Head of Visual Arts and Crafts for the Arts Council of Wales. More decently he works as Head of Glass and Ceramics at the University of Sunderland. Peter has also undertaken a range of consultancies which include 'The Arts and Crafts Strategy for the City of Edinburgh', 'A review of Open Access Facilities in Scotland' which brought about New Media Scotland, Dundee Contemporary Arts, and Visual Arts & Crafts for the National Eisteddfod. He is a Founder Member of the BECA Group. Worked with Locus + establishing two AHRC Collaborative PhD studentships and has recently curated exhibitions in the National Glass Centre and for the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore.

peter.davies@sunderland.ac.uk

Lucy Kimbell

Advisor

Lucy Kimbell works as an artist and interaction designer. She is Clark Fellow in Design Leadership at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where among other things she teaches design thinking to MBA students and researches service design and innovation. She was previously AHRC Creative and Performing Arts Fellow at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art and tutor on MA Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art. Her recent arts projects disturb evaluation cultures in management, technology and the arts.

www.lucykimbell.com

inbox@lucykimbell.com

Michael Tooby

Advisor

Since March 2006 Mike has been Director, Learning and Programmes, Amgueddfa Cymru -National Museum Wales. He was previously Director, National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff. He was founding Curator, Tate St Ives. He previously held posts at Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow; and Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge,

He has served on a variety of advisory bodies, most recently for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, for the culture programme, 2012 London Olympics, and for visual arts sector review, Arts Council England.

From 1999 - 2004 he was Chair of “engage”, the UK association for visual arts education in museums, galleries and public art, continuing as board member. He was external examiner in museums, arts and cultural management, City University London, 2002-7. He chaired the steering group for the first ‘Wales Pavilion’ at the Venice Biennale 2003, and was a member of steering group for 2005.Mike was for five years involved in ‘Collect and Share’, the Engage led EU European network for promotion of good practice in lifelong learning and the arts and heritage.

He has written for a variety of contexts about community based practice, cultural tourism, 20th century and contemporary art and applied art. He was an assessor of the architectural competition, and co-curatorial advisor for the opening exhibition, at the New Art Gallery, Walsall 1995 - 2000. He was recently part of the professional and academic seminar ‘Noves Politiques per al tourisme cultural’ at Fundacio Catalunya, Barcelona.

He has been a visiting lecturer and professor at colleges and universities throughout the world. He has research interest in Canadian art, curated two major exhibitions of Canadian art in the 1980s, and was MacReady lecturer in Canadian art in 1996. He is presently Visiting Professor in Contemporary Curatorial Practice at the University of Glamorgan.

Paul Freeman

Advisor

Paul brings 15 years experience in the blue chip and SME business environment holding a variety of key positions including business consultant, business development manager, sales manager and contact centre manager.

Paul has spent the last 6 years consulting in over 40 different businesses from Apple computers to the Chambers of Commerce in the areas of contact centre performance management, operations review, change programmes, new business development, marketing, CRM, sales and business performance management and business growth. Paul has assisted many businesses in improving performance, turnover and profit from between 15-30%. Paul has worked with businesses and call centres across all industries from finance, health, government, telecoms and SME’s.

Paul is a certified Advanced Performance Management consultant and has been accredited, as a Registered COPC 2000 Auditor is Prince 2 qualified and is currently working towards CIPD qualification. This extensive work with customers allows Paul to bring solutions to the business that benefit the entire organisation. Paul has successfully lead many businesses through performance enhancements; concentrating on the people and process side of the equation while increasing the efficiencies of the technology.

Paul’s area of expertise is creating high performance work cultures, utilising advanced change management techniques.