93 GLASGOW OPEN HOUSE 86 HANNA TUULIKKI
VIEWING FIGURES FLYING FINN
Recent graduates from the Glasgow School of Art launched the Glasgow Open House and brought together the work of 80 emerging and established artists in 32 venues across the city. Artists exhibited in their bathrooms, basements and garden sheds, others staged shows in community centres, wastelands and disused buildings. (RC)
92 SCREENPLAY FILM HOUSED
Movie critics Linda Ruth Williams and Mark Kermode curate the UK’s most northerly i lm festival. Led by director Kathy Hubbard, Shetland Arts’ annual event has a distinct, local l avour, with screenings of i lms about Shetland and by Shetlanders programmed alongside international i lm and work from award-winning directors. (RC)
91 RICHARD YOUNGS PSYCHED OUT
A genuine underground hero, Youngs’ prolii c output spans psychedelic folk, electronics and ‘teeters on the brink of music’. Recent exploits include his i rst orchestral piece and the Flexibles, a punk band starring his eight-year-old son. (SS)
90 MANFEELS PARK ANIMATED AUSTEN
A deceptively simple concept – quotes from sexist internet trolls put into the mouths of Pride & Prejudice characters – has become a cult internet hit thanks to two feminist bloggers from Dundee. Manfeels Park illustrates the worst of online misogyny with hilarious cartoons of the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic. (KW)
89 HOT MESS DISCO INFERNO
This self-proclaimed ‘homo disco sans frontières’ celebrated its second year of booty-shaking at Glasgow’s Poetry Club. DJ Simonotron also brings it some style, providing Edinburgh’s Annexe at the Liquid Room with a mesmerising blend of disco, electropop, acid and techno. (KS)
The bird-i xated singer / artist composed an all-female, site-specii c choir soundscape performed in Canna, released A
Wake with band Two Wings and exhibited her r alphabet lithographs for GSA’s Alasdair Gray season. (CS)
85 ROBERT SOFTLEY GALE GETTING PHYSICAL
Activist and performer Robert Softley Gale champions personal physical theatre. Having toured the world with If These Spasms Could Speak, he nipped to Glasgow for a sardonic take on the Commonwealth Games, parading g his dislike for sport in Tell Me What Giving Up Looks Like. (GKV)
84 IAIN LAURIE & JOHN LEES COMIC CUTS
Operating on the small press scene, comics writer Lees and artist Laurie deserve the attention and good notices they’ve been getting further ai eld for And Then Emily Was Gone. The i ve-part Hebridean psycho-thriller makes much of Laurie’s imagery. (DP)
83 BLOODY SCOTLAND CELL OUT
Scotland’s crime writing festival, founded by Alex Gray (pictured) and Lin Anderson, celebrated its third year. Its unusual events –
Bloody Cinema in the town jail, medieval murder mystery tours and a Scotland vs England crime-writer football match – made it the festival’s most successful year, selling more than 5600 tickets over three days. (KS)
82 EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
CAPITAL CINEPHILIA The world’s oldest continually running i lm festival has kept drawing on its prestige to present an impressive programme. This year there were ten premieres every day, 122 new features from 47 countries and Hero Hangouts, giving audiences a chance to chill with Elijah Wood and Simon Helberg. (KS)
88 FERGUS LINEHAN INTERNATIONAL STAR
81 VANISHING POINT DISAPPEARING ACT
This year, the Dublin-native stepped into his role as director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Having previously been involved in the development of the Sydney Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival, he has already coni rmed Juliette Binoche will perform in 2015. (MS)
87 LOST MAP LAND MARKS
Established in 2013, the micro label now boasts an impressive roster including Randolph’s Leap, Kid Canaveral and Tuff Love. They had shows at Hidden Door Festival, East End Social and packed out the Isle of Eigg for their i rst festival Howlin’ Fling. (RMc)
Despite a short run in Scotland, Tomorrow reminded audiences that Matthew Lenton’s vision could be poetic and impressionistic. This came hot on the heels of a playful musical biography of Scotland’s poet of the mundane in The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler. (GKV)
80 JAMES MACMILLAN CLASSIC JM
Scotland’s towering classical i gure launched his own community-themed festival The Cumnock Tryst, worked with fellow Scot Colin Currie on his Second Percussion Concerto, and in January 2015 will conduct a new production of his controversial opera Inés de Castro. (DK)
T H E HOT
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P H O T O © V C T O R A
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A L B E R T M U S E U M
, L O N D O N
SOPHIA GEORGE
MORRIS DESIGNER
It’s been a busy few years for
Dundee-based game designer Sophia
George. The 24-year-old Abertay graduate won a BAFTA for her i rst game, Tick Tock Toys, in 2012 before being named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2013. In March this year, she
completed her residency as the V&A’s i rst ever game designer in residence and in October released Strawberry
Thief, an iPad game based on the work of textile designer William
Morris, which she researched at the
London museum.
Now, she’s teaching game design at primary schools in Dundee, the new UNESCO City of Design that’s being steadily transformed as the new
V&A Dundee museum establishes its presence before its slated opening in 2017. ‘Dundee has a rich heritage, a rich history in games,’ George says. ‘DMA Design [now Rockstar North] was around in the 1990s and made Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings. Now some of the Minecraft games are being made here [by 4J Studios], and there are lots of start-up studios. There is a really great community of
game developers here.’
George grew up playing Super
Mario Brothers and Pokémon, and – although the videogames industry remains male-dominated – has
always felt supported by her fellow developers. Moreover, she feels like
the world at large is beginning to take video games more seriously. ‘Games
are becoming more popular,’ she explains. ‘People have smartphones
and tablets; everybody is playing games now, even if it’s just Candy
Crush. Maybe people are also starting
to see how much money there is in these games nowadays. When I was younger and I said I wanted to be a game designer, people didn’t think
that it was a real job. But they are dei niely more interested now.’
(Yasmin Sulaiman)
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
11 Dec 2014–5 Feb 2015 THE LIST 23