I was invited along to a presentation by Mia Makela aka SOLU at Modulate's studios in Birmingham on the 31st August.

It was a very interesting evening during which Mia presented her Master's thesis on 'Live Cinema', a term I have been hearing used for a while.

I've become wary of using expressions, such as 'Live Cinema', to describe my creative work for fear of jumping on bandwagons ('Live Multimedia' has always suited me). However, having heard Mia's explanation and history of the term I think it's one I might start using more often.

Download the PDF of Mia's thesis to find out more.

The 3-day Summer Sundae festival has come and gone for another year and yet again it was an excellent weekend of live music, attraction and great food and booze (all washed down, of course, with the occasional downpour of rain).

Friday night saw the Bathysphere stage play host to a fine mix of electronic and acoustic music.

The headliner was Plaid, but for me the two outstanding artists were Psapp from Domino Records, whose upbeat poptronica tunes and love of cats made a positive impression on me, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw (pictured), playing as a duo of violinist and accordion/percussionist.

Any artists who can play accordion whist hitting a cymbal with a drumstick protruding from a jingle-bells hat deserves respect in my books. As for AHAAH's music, an avant guard folky sound appealing to my Balkan sensibilities is probably the best way to describe it.

Well done to Bathysphere for selecting some great music for the night. My contribution was visuals for SofaLofa and The Buoys who also appeared on the bill.

On Saturday I had the pleasure of seeing favourites of mine Calexico play on the main stage. A fine set and an appreciative audience.

I had fancied seeing José González (of Sony Bravia advert fame) on Sunday, but did quite make it. I'm sure I'll get to see him at some point in the future.

It's also worth noting that Pineapster hosted the official Summer Sunday warm-up gig this year at the Firebug.

I'm looking forward to next year already...

P.S. I've just found out that Calexico are going to be supported by A Hawk and a Hacksaw on part of their forthcoming UK tour. Unmissable!

It's been a hot summer so far in the Cuttlefish office - although I've managed to miss most of it with my first two-week holiday in five years! I spent one week spent in rural Bulgaria reading and watching DVDs and another relaxing and sightseeing.

My favourite book of the break was most definitely "The Tree of Knowledge" by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. Their radical approach to cognition from a systems perspective is quite amazing.

The best DVD I watched was "How Art Made The World" from the BBC. This series presents a fascinating perspective on why humans make art and how art makes us human. I also started re-watching Jacob Bronowski's classic BBC2 series "The Ascent of Man".

Just before I went away I had some good news relating to my creative work. From October I will be studying part-time towards a MA in Digital Arts at Camberwell College. This is a two-year practice-based course that I plan to use to help me move creative work forwards and to give me a good foundation for a follow-up PhD. I'll be posting more about this in the near future.

A few other things are worth reporting on. Pineapster 2.0 is nearing its beta release. Summer Sundae is less than two weeks away. My studio's almost back together following the Moving Science project. Finally, thinking back to my holiday, fresh sheep's milk tastes pretty good in tea!

It's taken a little time, but I've uploaded a selection of video clips and stills from the visuals I produced for the SofaLofa show at the National Space Centre in Leicester in March.

After a lucky find on an old hard disk I have been able to re-upload a complete version of Nemeton - The Shamen's Web site. I've given the site a bit of a tidy in order to remove broken links, but it is pretty much as it was when The Shamen split in 1999.

Cuttlefish - both a commercial side and arts site - has been working hard over the past few months on a number of new initiatives. These are now starting to see the light of day with the announcement of Leicester.TV and Pineapster 2.0. We will be releasing full information about these shortly - but take it from us, they're going to be good!

Resonance was an early digital arts group involving Geoff Broadway, Noel Douglas and Sean Clark. Geoff maintains an archive of some of our work on his Web site.

I went to see Chumbawamba play an acoustic set as part of the 'Big Session' festival at De Montfort Hall in Leicester on Sunday.

I've been something of a fan of the band for many years (in fact, I was amazed to realise that I bought my first Chumba album in 1988) and have seen them play as an 'electric' band many times. This, however, was the first time I'd seen them in this stripped-down formation.

While I still think nothing beats the full-on live electric Chumbawamba experience, the show was excellent. They mostly played stuff from the older 'Rebel Songs' and two most recent albums, and reminded me - if I needed reminding - just how good they are at mixing pop/folk with an uncompromising political message.

'Flow' was and installation by Geoff Groadway and Sean Clark which took place at the Q Gallery in Derby in 2000. It explored elements of personal change and transformation through a continued interest in the creative possibilities of the oral-history document and experimental moving image and sound techniques. A record of the installation is now available.

Cuttlefish has been involved in two shows at the National Space Centre in Leicester (UK) this year.

The first was the SofaLofa show in the 360 degree 'Space Theatre' in March, and the second was the Moving Science project which culminated in a live show at various locations around the Centre in May.

In both cases the Space Centre was excellent and the support we had from staff was first rate. If you are interested in knowing more about the venue then visit their Web site at www.spacecentre.co.uk.