What's on The Space?
The Space, developed by Arts Council England and the BBC, is a new service which provides free and on-demand access to the work of artists and arts organisations, including theatre, concerts, opera, dance, film and more, to every screen. The pilot, which ran from 1st May 2012 to the 31st March 2013, has now come to an end.
From 1st April, hundreds of hours of original work direct from some of the nation’s greatest artists and arts organisations will remain free and on demand for you to enjoy as The Space Collection, including full performances, unique behind-the-scenes access, rare archive and interactive collections.
This is the place to discover what you can find on The Space, providing a pick of what’s coming soon, a comprehensive list of offerings that are currently available and below a list of works which have previously been featured on the site but are no longer available.
You can find out more about what The Space is by viewing the video below. You can find out more in our frequently asked questions section here.
DANCE
FILM
LITERATURE & SPOKEN WORD
MUSIC
PERFORMANCE & FESTIVAL
THEATRE
VISUAL & MEDIA ARTS
FILM
LITERATURE & SPOKEN WORD
MUSIC
PERFORMANCE & FESTIVAL
THEATRE
VISUAL & MEDIA ARTS
DANCE
ALEX REUBEN’S CHOREOGEOGRAPHY: A look at the work done by film-maker Alex Reuben to capture dance in its various guises in different locations around the world, including the southern states of the US and London.
DANCE FOR THE CAMERA: A series of short films from 1993-2003 which are a collaboration between the BBC and Arts Council England. They combine the talents of up and coming film-makers and choreographers.
DANCE FROM THE RAMBERT: Filmed over two seasons at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, this four part series highlights the range and creativity of the Rambert Dance Company. It includes performances of Najinksy’s L’Apres Midi d’un Faune and a modern response to this work, entitled What Wild Ecstasy.
GILBERT AND GEORGE: The artists share their dancing sculpture Bend It with The Space and are interviewed about the project.
IDRIS KHAN: Lying in Wait, a work by the film-maker featuring dancer Sarah Warsop in a decommissioned library.
THE RODIN PROJECT: Erebus is a film collaboration between choreographic director Russell Maliphant and film directors Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones. They present a slimmed down film version of Russell Maliphant’s The Rodin Project, a dance interpretation of the sculptor’s works.
WAH! WAH! GIRLS: A song from the British Bollywood stage musical Wah! Wah! Girls has been adapted especially for The Space and filmed on location in East London, taking it from its theatre environment and into the streets with additional performers from the local community.
FILM
ANIMATION: A collection of animations featured on The Space, including David Shrigley and items from the archives of the BFI.
ARENA HOTEL: In a landmark project for The Space, BBC arts documentary series Arena has turned its archive, stretching back to 1975, into an online hotel, where you can pick and choose from its rich content. It is modelled on New York’s Chelsea Hotel, a famous haunt of the rich and famous. A selection of feature-length Arena documentaries can also be explored here.
BFI BEGINNINGS: A showcase of first or early films by major British directors, from the BFI archive, including Ken Russell and Ridley Scott.
BFI SHORTS: A series of short films and animations made by emerging British talent. This offering ranges from quirky animations, shocking comedies and thrilling genre movies to thought-provoking dramas and moving documentaries.
EALING STUDIOS: A series of films from the BFI looking at the postwar heyday of British cinema, from classic comedies and dramas to the stable’s big stars such as Googie Withers and John MacCallum.
FROM THE SEA TO THE LAND BEYOND: A film which evoked Britain as an island in the 20th century, using archive footage from the BFI and music by the band British Sea Power. Watch the screening of the film at the Sheffield Doc Fest 2012, inter-cut with the live performance of the band.
BFI PETER GREENAWAY: Peter Greenaway is one of the most influential figures in British film-making. The Space is showcasing some of the early works for the Central Office of Information and the British Film Institute, which provide a glimpse of his experimental techniques and unique sense of style.
FLOWERS OF LONDON: BFI silent film Flowers of London has been given a musical soundtrack, sound effects and narration from The New Radiophonic Workshop. You can customise your own version by deciding which soundtrack or combination of soundtracks the film should have, or choose the full mix. It forms part of a series on music and silent archive, called Scoring the silents.
HITCHCOCK: A series of films about the film director’s early work, an interview from the BBC archive and how his first feature was restored.
OSKA BRIGHT: See the world through the eyes of learning-disabled film-makers from around the world. The Space showcases the best award-winning videos from the Oska Bright Film Festival 2011, organised by Carousel.
PUSH ME: A series of short films, which forms part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, about artists pushing themselves to reach previously unattained goals. As well as performances, the artists talk about their journeys. A documentary about all the artists featured in the series, Total Permission, can be viewed here.
SILENT SHAKESPEARE: A collection of very early film versions of the Bard’s work from the BFI archives.
THE MAKING OF MACROPOLIS: Watch how an animated film from the Flickerpix studio in Belfast was put together, from the initial concept through to animation and post-production. The series culminates in an edited version of a tale about the journey of two toys left behind because they are different.
WOMAN2WOMAN: A set of films from the Arts Council archives marking International Women’s Day on 8th March. They showcase the concerns of women and female artists that have been overlooked, including India’s first female photojournalist, Homai Vyarawalla.
LITERATURE & SPOKEN WORD
SILLITOE’S NOTTINGHAM: A virtual tour of Alan Sillitoe’s Nottingham focusing on five locations from the novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958): Old Market Square, The White Horse, Raleigh, the River Trent and Goose Fair. iPhone users can also download the Sillitoe Trail App and follow the footsteps of the novel’s anti-hero, Arthur Seaton.
HEARTS OF DARKNESS: From Artangel, a collection of new works from four artists, inspired by stays in A Room For London, an installation perched high above London’s South bank. Caryl Phillips and Naomi Alderman created literary responses as part of this series.
INANIMATE ALICE: Watch a film explaining novelist Kate Pullinger and artist Chris Joseph’s digital novel, which merges text with animation, videos, music and games, via a series of interactive episodes that explore what it means to conduct your life online.
KAFKA’S WOUND: Author Will Self has re-imagined the literary essay for the digital age, in a project by the London Review of Books. In a pioneering first, Kafka’s Wound, is an essay which allows you to explore music, animations, films and texts, inspired by the Kafka story
60 YEARS IN 60 POEMS: To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne, Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy brings together a dazzling array of contemporary poets to write about each of the sixty years of Her Majesty’s reign, As well as reading the poems, you can listen to them being read and watch archive footage from the year in question.
TONGUE FU FLICKS: A collection of recordings made for The Space, fusing spoken word, improvised music and film: contemporary culture reflected in fresh, spontaneous live collaborations. Watch inspiring performances from Kate Tempest, Salena Godden and others.
MUSIC
NEW MUSIC 20X12:
20 commissions, each 12 minutes long, inspired by the dynamism of sport and the passion of human endeavour. New Music 20×12 brought together a fascinating line-up of composers, performers and organisations to put new music at the heart of the Cultural Olympiad.
ALDEBURGH WORLD ORCHESTRA: A series of four films chronicling the formation of this musical ensemble for London 2012 and the creation of a new orchestral work by an emerging British composer, Charlotte Bray.
A ROOM FOR LONDON: A collection of seven music concerts by artists invited to play in A Room For London – an installation perched atop London’s South Bank – by Artangel. Andrew Bird, Amadou and Mariam and Imogen Heap feature among the performers.
BAND ON THE WALL: This project from Inner City Music showcases a series of nine African music concerts captured in venues around Manchester during June to September 2012. Femi Kuti, Diabel Cissohko and Kanda Bongo Man are among the artists featured.
BT RIVER OF MUSIC:
The Scissor Sisters performed at the Tower of London as part of this global celebration of music. They were one of the acts appearing on the Americas stage, one of six venues around London showcasing world music. A number of the performances and stage highlights are available on The Space.
COUNTRYBOY’S STRUGGLE: Contact Theatre’s one-man show about a Cornish rapper who comes to London is transformed into a series of storytelling music videos. Watch the plot unfold episode by episode.
HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A series of new works inspired by stays in A Room for London, the installation perched high above the South Bank. Artist and writer Tim Etchells created a musical response to Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, while musician Imogen Heap’s new song took her on a journey around Edinburgh.
HOW LIKE AN ANGEL: Watch mesmerising contemporary circus from Australian group Circa while listening to the singing of UK vocal group I Fagiolini, all set in 3 cathedrals of England. This interactive project allows you to follow the performances, while learning more about how it came together.
IDRIS KHAN: A work by the film-maker based on Franz Schubert’s last three piano sonatas, which edits layers of the works’ from a performance by pianist Warren Mailey Smith.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE JOHN PEEL BENEFIT CONCERT: To raise money for the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, The Fall, The Undertones, Bearsuit and newcomers Dingus Khan performed a concert at Epic studios in Norwich. The event launched this year’s Sound and Vision Festival on Wednesday 10th October 2012 and the first ever John Peel Festival of New Music.
JOHN PEEL’S RECORD COLLECTION: Over the course of the first 26 weeks, The Space revealed details of 10% of John Peel’s vinyl collection, 100 albums at a time. You can watch interviews with a selection of the bands and here why Peel helped them on the way.
LONDON REQUIEM: Watch the premiere of this new work by Benjamin Till, performed in September 2012 by the Rebel Chorus and musicians, as a community project by Rich Mix, in the famous Abney Park Cemetery. The work explores the lives and deaths of Londoners from Victorian times to the present day. You can also see a series of films which capture the journey as this unique production was created, movement by movement.
NEW RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP: The trailblazing Radiophonic Workshop has been reborn. Its first project was to create the Sound of The Space, which can be heard by clicking on the ‘listen to The Space’ button at the top of every page. Other work by Matthew Herbert and the composers is featured.
ROYAL OPERA LIVE: On 7th January, The Space hosted a broadcast from backstage at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden, giving unprecedented access to rehearsals and the workings of the world-class venue.
SONIC JOURNEYS: Four pieces of music inspired by a landscape are combined with a film of the physical journey. Sound UK’s “sonic journeys” are both eerie and powerful, providing a unique sense of place. You can experience these journeys as well as download the tools to have a go yourself. Space readers were inspired to created their own musical trips, including urban journeys and those referencing nature.
SPACE INVASION: Generator and Northern Film & Media joined forces for Space Invasion, a series of experimental music, arts and film collaborations in unusual venues across the North East.
STOCKHAUSEN HELICOPTERS: The Birmingham Opera Company staged the first complete performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s opera Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light), including a piece in which a string quartet plays from four helicopters. This is now available as an HD on demand recording, along with three films contextualising Stockhausen’s life, music and beliefs.
VORTEX JAZZ: A series of themed concerts from the Vortex Jazz Club showcasing London’s musical diversity of British-born, immigrant and visiting artists, which is enriched with archive material and interviews.
PSAPPHA CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ENSEMBLE: Written in 1969, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ iconic work Eight Songs for a Mad King changed the direction of British music. Psappha Ensemble has worked closely with Maxwell Davies to create a new way of interacting with the work through a 3D gaming environment. You can also watch Psappha perform Eight Songs for a Mad King with baritone Kelvin Thomas, hear Maxwell Davies talk about the work, follow the libretto and see additional material.
PERFORMANCE & FESTIVAL
CIRCUS POST: A series of films from Crying Out Loud which puts into context the development of the circus over the past 40 years, away from its traditional big top setting. See Gandini Juggling in Smashed, the bad boys of Finnish circus in Petit Petit Mal and epicycling in the centre of London, as well as other highlights from Picadilly Circus Circus.
THE EMERGENCE SUMMIT: A five-day curated walk in two directions, one heading North and the other South, which was designed by the artist Simon Whitehead as two elliptical journeys.
MEMORY MARATHON: Watch highlights from the Serpentine Gallery’s Memory Marathon, filmed in October 2012, including talks by John Berger, Michael Stipe and Douglas Coupland.
MUMMYJI PRESENTS: Mummyji went on a mission to launch new British Asian talent, and showcased a selection of acts. Watch a recording of the live show from Watford Palace Theatre filmed on 11th October 2012 and further videos introducing the talent.
TORSTEN LAUSCHMANN’S WORLD JUMP DAY: The Glasgow-based German artist recounts the events that led to World Jump Day in 2005 which saw a co-ordinated effort to shift the Earth’s orbit for ecological benefit. The plan went viral and duped media outlets around the globe. Lauschmann’s Digital Clock can be viewed here.
PASS THE SPOON: Surreal artist David Shrigley’s ‘sort of opera’ Pass The Spoon was streamed live from Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, and is available on demand.
SERPENTINE GALLERY: An insight into the construction of the 2012 Pavilion was complemented by a number of films about the arts events that took place there over the summer.
THEATRE
10by10: Eclipse Theatre brings 10 short films by emerging Black and Asian writers which are set in different English cities and are responses to Chester Himes’ novel A Rage in Harlem.
GLOBE TO GLOBE: A season of Shakespeare plays performed by theatre companies from around the world at London’s Globe Theatre. The set of 36 performances were rounded off with a special collection about Hamlet featuring material from the BBC Archive. A selection of the plays are still available to view.
KURSK: A film adaptation of Fuel Theatre’s much-applauded play Kursk tells the story of a small group of British submariners who witness the sinking of the Russian monster submarine the Kursk, and the effect is has on them.
NORA: Hattie Morahan, who recently played Nora in a Young Vic production of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, stars in a short film imagining what a modern-day Nora might look like, 130 years on from the original tale about a woman taking control of her own destiny.
THE PARADE: A series of four filmed plays set in parts of the declining high street, including a poundshop and a kebab shop. They were commissioned as part of the BBC’s Writersroom and originally recorded for Radio 3 before being filmed by Slung Low.
TWO WORLDS OF CHARLIE F: Watch the highlights of Imagine – BBC One’s flagship arts programme – about the making of the play, The Two Worlds of Charlie F. It explains how a unique theatrical collaboration between two distinct worlds – the military and the professional theatre – came together.
YORK MYSTERY PLAYS: For 2012 a new adaptation of York’s traditional cycle of medieval plays, involving hundreds of actors and more than one thousand locals was performed in York’s Museum Gardens, against the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey. You can now watch a performance, choose from six camera angles, read the script and access background material.
VISUAL & MEDIA ARTS
ANIMATED SHAKESPEARE: A series of animations by students from Central St Martin’s, inspired by William Shakespeare’s work and created for a project with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
ARTES MUNDI: A look at the seven artists shortlisted for the £40,000 Welsh arts prize, which encompasses artists from various parts of the world. The winner, Teresa Margolles from Mexico, talks about her work in this film.
BLACK COUNTRY STORIES: A photographic project based in the industrial communities of the West Midlands which features work by Martin Parr.
BLINC: Wales’s largest contemporary arts festival was dedicated to Alan Turing in his centenary year. The curators commissioned a series of artworks to reflect his life and work. The festival in Conwy showcases artworks both in various site-specific locations and also in 3D projections around the town.
DAVID SHRIGLEY: Three of the Scottish artist’s quirky animations, including Laundry, the tale of a man taking his horse to the laundrette.
THE DISCUS THROWER: The Discus Thrower, or Discobolus is one of the most famous and most copied sculptures in the world. Cast in bronze in Greece in the 5th century BC then lost for several centuries, it was rediscovered by the Romans and copied several times in marble. British Museum curators, discus throwers and artists talk about this icon of perfect manhood.
GOLDSMITH’S: Artist and Goldsmith’s lecturer Nick Crowe take us on a private view of the college’s annual degree show (2012). Artists including Lucien Freud and Damien Hirst have studied at the arts institution.
MODERN MASTERS: Arts Council England’s film collection contains some of the most ground-breaking and significant film portraits of the great masters of modern art. The Space is showing some of these rarely seen gems, including films about Burra, Magritte and Giacometti.
SLADE FILM COLLECTION: A curated set of films created by artists at the Slade School of Fine Art that demonstrate a broad range of approaches, techniques and experimentation by students, alumni and staff alike. The collection ranges from an artist’s response to keeping a spirit level true to a sci-fi documentary on modern Russia.
SPEED OF LIGHT: For 20 nights in August, Edinburgh’s Arthur’s Seat was the stage for a remarkable fusion of public art and sporting endeavour. The iconic mountain was brought to life in a mass choreographed act of walking and endurance running, as part of Edinburgh International Festival and London 2012 Festival.
TATE: Tate Modern presents 15 new short films, covering the best visual art events of 2012 across the UK in Tate Shots. There are also 20 existing films of relevance from the Tate archive.
THE WORLD IN LONDON: London boasts one of the most diverse populations in the world. To mark the Olympics and Paralympics, The Photographers’ Gallery commissioned 204 portraits of Londoners, each originating from one of the competing nations. This exhibition brought together the work of British and international photographers and you can see a selection of them on The Space.
TIME & PLACE: A project from Fabric inspired by photographs taken at the Belle Vue Studio, looking at the South Asian community in Bradford over the last 50 years.
TORSTEN LAUSCHMANN’S DIGITAL CLOCK: A fully functioning clock created by the Glasgow-based German artist which tracks the viewers’ real time. It is a 24-hour long film which uses painted wooden blocks animated by Lauschmann, and appears online for the first time on The Space. A film about his 2005 World Jump Day project appears here.
TRACEY EMIN’S MARGATE: Coinciding with Tracey Emin’s first solo exhibition in the town in which she grew up, the artist was interviewed live on The Space by Stephen Fry at Turner Contemporary. The Emin Turner collection brings together her look at Margate and material about the artist Turner.
#WEARMIMA: Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art invites the public to wear certain pieces from their significant jewellery collection and create haul videos, a YouTube phenomenon whereby the fashionistas give their insight into their new acquisition.
WHITECHAPEL FRIEZE: In June 2012, artist Rachel Whiteread unveiled a golden frieze to adorn the facade of London’s Whitechapel Gallery. The various stages in the creation of the artwork are told in film.
YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK: Films detailing indoor and outdoor sculpture exhibitions at the venue, including the work of Spaniard Joan Miro and the “walking” artwork of James Capper.
Material that has previously been featured on The Space:
BLAST THEORY: A highly technical game of hide and seek using mobile phone technology where three artists/camera operators ran around the streets of Manchester.
BRANCHES: A dance performance created for National Theatre Wales involved a shorter ‘remix’ of a walk through a Flintshire wood, beamed to Cardiff where revellers in the Welsh capital were invited to interact with the performance.
BREAKIN’ CONVENTION: The annual hip hop dance festival event from Sadler’s Wells was streamed live, and edited highlights of the performances were made available afterwards.
COME DANCE WITH ME: Comedy duo New Art Club, otherwise known as Tom Roden and Pete Shenton, presented this weekly magazine show aimed at demystifying the world of dance. They met dance luminaries including choreographer Matthew Bourne.
EISTEDDFOD: Two medal-winning artists from the summer 2012 festival in Wales talk about their work, while members of the public give their responses to various works of art on show at the event.
EDDIE IZZARD: Marathon runner and London 2012 ambassador Eddie Izzard ran around the Olympic Park and delivered the de Coubertin lecture on Olympism live on The Space in July. On demand recordings of both events followed.
FORKBEARD: The fantasy world presented in theatres across the UK by the team at Forkbeard became an interactive online game on The Space. The aim was to play the games and watch a specially made Aardman film as your prize.
GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART: Sarah Lowndes, lecturer at the art school, presented a guided private view of this year’s degree show specially for The Space, singling out some of the most interesting work from the class of 2012.
GPO FILMS: A series of films from the BFI about the GPO Film Unit, which created films to promote the postal service in the 1930s. It was also a hot-bed of film-making experimentation.
IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: Adain Avion is a mobile art space created from the fuselage of a DC-9 airplane, discovered and transformed by Spanish sculptor and designer Eduardo Cajal. Welsh artist Marc Rees celebrated its 20th anniversary by bringing Avion to Wales in the summer of 2012. It came to three Welsh towns, hosting art works and becoming part of the local community.
KEEP HER LIT: Artist Roderick Buchanan’s response to capturing the cultural activity that took place around the Olympic Torch Relay in Scotland in June 2012.
LAND OF GIANTS: From Northern Ireland, a film that captured a major outdoor spectacle held at Belfast’s historic Titanic Slipways during the summmer of 2012, celebrating Ulster’s cultural, social and literary heritage.
LAUREN LAVERNE’S SPACEPOD 2012: Broadcaster Lauren Laverne hosted a series of six podcasts for The Space focusing on the arts, culture and entertainment surrounding the summer of events for the London 2012 Festival and Cultural Olympiad.
MICHAEL CLARK’S BARROWLANDS PROJECT: As part of the London 2012 celebrations in Scotland, the Michael Clark Company took over the Glasgow Barrowlands – once the city’s premiere dance hall, now a revered rock music venue. The Space streamed the performance live which was made available on demand.
NORTHERN STAGE: Theatre company Northern Stage took over a 19th Century church to present a series of work for the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A number of the plays were available on The Space, along with films about how the venue was prepared.
OVERWORLDS AND UNDERWORLDS: Key spaces in Leeds were transformed in May 2012 into Overworlds and Underworlds from Leeds Canvas, with responses to the work of fantasy animators the Quay Brothers, composer Gavin Bryers and other artists.
SONGS FROM THE SHIPYARDS: An interactive project which captures the history of shipbuilding in the UK, accompanied by music from folk singing sisters The Unthanks. Artist/film-maker Richard Fenwick and Tyneside Cinema presented context and archive footage of the industry in the North East throughout the 20th century.
SPILL: A PLAYGROUND OF DANCE: A series of films from Dance Xchange about an outdoor dance work performed in playgrounds around Birmingham in May as part of the city’s International Dance Festival was featured on The Space.
SUPERSONIX: A series of films capturing an international festival of art and science, taking in the Exhibition Road cultural quarter’s world-famous colleges, museums, concert halls, cultural institutes, historic buildings and research centres.
THE TROJANS: In a UK exclusive, The Space streamed live Berlioz’ monumental opera The Trojans in David McVicar’s new production conducted by Antonio Pappano from the Royal Opera House, which was subsequently provided as a worldwide on demand recording.
TWEET MUSIC: The Listening Machine converted the world of Twitter into an ever changing sound stream, created by composer Peter Gregson and the Britten Sinfonia, to generate a unique aural experience.
TWO WORLDS OF CHARLIE F: A performance of the full work, which brought together the worlds of the military and professional theatre, in this ground-breaking play.
UNIVERSE OF SOUND: The opportunity to interact with The Planets by Gustav Holst, performed by The Philharmonia Orchestra, and experience an orchestra as if you were sitting in the midst of it. Using a digital tool, especially designed for The Space, users were able to create their own remix of each movement, focussing on different sections of the orchestra. You could also hear conductor Esa Pekka Salonen and the players talk about The Planets.
VANILLA GALLERIES: Seven young artists based at a new exhibition space in Leicester tested their ability to represent and respond to the endless round of daily news through a range of artistic media.
WAR REQUIEM: A live broadcast of Benjamin Britten’s powerful work, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra live on The Space 50 years after its premiere at Coventry Cathedral, was featured on the site, followed by an on-demand recording of the performance.
WORLD EVENT YOUNG ARTISTS: A 10-day gathering of 1,000 young artists from all over the world, in Nottingham between September 7th to 16th 2012. It featured the work of Ayanna Witter, Antonio Santo Orcero and Esther Strauss, as well as many others.
WORLD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the festival celebrated Shakespeare as the world’s playwright. A series of short films showcased the festival and invited artists to talk about their work and their own perspective on Shakespeare.