Leeds Creative Timebank

Latest Updates

Meet Jon Eland…

Strawbleu is the pseudonym of member Jon Eland.
A timebanker since 2015, he has two photographic art practices and loves collaboration and collective development – he has been involved in several local and international artistic collectives.

Photo of Planetine by @strawbleu for @timebankleeds member @LunaLeFey

Whilst his photographic style does differ between practices and from project to project you can be certain that each series will have a sense of narrative that also has some unreality.

His strawbleu practice is focused on capturing what it is to be in a place; responding on a personal level to the environments he finds himself in, his But I Like It practice uses gay and queer men as it’s subject – looking at identities, tribes and society impacts how individuals react with the world at large.

Alongside his photographic projects Jon worked to develop a real-world element for Flickr (the social network) in Leeds before founding the Exposure Leeds photographic group (which ran for 5 years), as part of this he brought the Photocamp concept to Europe. Since this he created the (we are) Obscured international queer art collective and has exhibited with the Homosurrealism group in London, Warsaw and Paris as well as other exhibitions throughout the UK, in Athens, Rome, Dortmund, Louisville, Los Angeles and New York

Currently Jon is refining his practices looking at assemblage with fabric and needle crafts as can be seen from his most recent work, shown at Homosurrealism Paris:

résister aux bandes parallèles si vous pouvez (2019) – assemblage with mixed media.

You will find more of his work posted:


Leeds Creative Timebank Social

Light Bulb Moments

For our 10th anniversary we want to begin to change how the Timebank works and move towards a new era of supporting your creativity.

Do you have a Big Idea or would you like to help devise one?

Email us with your idea before the night or just bring it on the night.

Come along, meet other Timebank members, eat, drink, chat and have fun.

What’s in for you?

Boost your hours – Bring homemade food and get 1 hr time credit, 2 hrs time credit for attending.

Be part of shifting LCT into the next decade.

When is it?

Leeds Creative Timebank SOCIAL – 9th March 6.30 – 9.30
in Workshop Press Basement Gallery at 10 Back Newton Grove.

Please email us to let us know you are coming.

New Timebroker and Management Committee members needed

Would you like to get more involved in managing Leeds Creative Timebank?

We are currently looking for more people to join the Management Group. Meetings are friendly and it is a great way to build up your hours.

We would like another Timebroker and a person to organise inductions for potential members.

One person can do both.

A job description for the Timebroker is here:

Timebroker Job Description

The tasks for the person to organise inductions involves finding a date and meeting place for the induction and sending out emails to potential members.

Next Induction

Our next induction will be 2pm – 4pm, Saturday 15th September 2018.

It will be in Chapeltown (Leeds 7).

Please email us for more details or to let us know you are coming.

Winter Social and Design Hack

#timebankleeds #designhack

 

The Winter Social and Design Hack took place at Live Art Bistro on 23rd November 2017 and was organised by Timebank members Reet-so ( Alice and Lucy).This is the second member led social. If you are interested in organising the NEXT social event, get in touch! It’s a good way to earn lots of time credits and to get involved and to know other members.

This event was about sharing, looking forward and thinking about new plans! We invited all Timebank members and other interested people to join us and bring along a book that had inspired their artistic practice to gift, share or exchange with others.
A ‘design hack’ of the timebank was also part of this Social and what we discussed at the social will begin a year where we are looking to make changes and ensure the timebank works at its BEST for you and its network of members.

So a quick update on why happened. The questions asked in the design hack helped us to explore ways we could make the experience for members better and also the experience for those taking more responsibility like time brokers and management group more enjoyable and productive.
We ( very briefly) looked at some alternative models in other time banks and other alternative currency systems. We then had a chat in small groups about what the issues with using the Timebank were and the issues with running/managing the Timebank.

Some main points raised:

TIMEBANK SYSTEM – can feel unappealing to use and very off putting. This is the timebanking.org site but maybe also other aspects of the system like the formal language used. There is a form now on our website but more about this later in this post.

FUNCTIONALITY – are the many jobs to run the Timebank too complex – could we strip it back?

VISIBILITY OF THE TIMEBANK – its often just not in the mind of members, could we be more visible on social media?
Would it be useful to have profiles for each member, if so how can this be created easily given 150 members and who is in agreement that it is a good idea?

So actions from this around: modernising the Timebank and making it more user friendly in its virtual interface, more connected and visible in social media and less admin heavy.

STEP 1 – Thanks to Jessica Sweet who will work out what we do and is needed logistically by meeting with management group early ish January. ( Jessica to email)

STEP 2 – Thanks to Adam Young who together with any members who are tech millennial alternative currency savvy will explore options available of other currency systems we may be able to tap in to that would make the Timebank more user friendly.

ACTION 1: Can you recommend any open source software or systems from which we can develop an App that locates timebank members through their art-form tags to initiate an exchange’ If you could click here to share ideas to our Facebook group that would be ideal, or for those who do not use Facebook, email us with this information/ suggestions which we will pass on to Adam Young.

OTHER IDEAS/ STEPS:

REGULAR TIMEBANK PLAY DAYS – a suggestion to connect with Leftbank open artist days each month ? Is that right? To be run by a member not in management group. Who provides hours? Timebank? Is it like socials?

DISCUSSIONS around TWITTER and making Timebank more visible. Twitter is about conversation. In first instance – I have switched to directly engaging on twitter rather than linking only with Facebook posts. If members could tweet and Facebook more about the Timebank using the hashtag #timebankleeds when talking about Timebank ( this is for members who use social media).

Making a Request can now happen directly from our own website here

ACTION 2: We hope this form has simplified and improved the user experience. If members could click on this link and have a try at making a request this way ( if you put the words TEST in the request we will know it is not a real request) Then feedback to us if this has improved usability/ made things better and in what ways this still needs improving.Many thanks for reading and please get in touch if you have ideas or thoughts on the things raised.

This post was written by Zoe Parker @Zoe_Parker – a Timebank member, time broker and member of management group. Zoe is a choreographer, producer and performer working in  multidisciplinary arts projects that are socially engaged. She is one part of Tea & Tolerance and Yorkshire Life Aquatic.

Transaction between Leeds and Sheffield timebanks

Opening up trading opportunities and connections between the Leeds and Sheffield creative timebanks has been a success for Leeds member Jonathan Turner. We are also looking at how we can transact hour credits to access venues, rehearsal spaces and equipment, in addition to our skills, knowledge and hands-on support.

International case study

The informal noncash economy of LCT is viewed with interest by researchers investigating ‘non-risky risk’ and creativity, time as an exchange currency and as an alternative and critique of the monetary mainstream. Recent publication of Design and Economics by Guy Julier includes LCT as an international casestudy.

When’s the next Big Social?

Its planned for the autumn. This get-together happens twice a year and is member-led. It’s an opportunity to connect with others across a diverse range of artforms and disciplines, and help shape the timebank according to your interests.

Joining as a member

The next Induction is June 17th 12-2pm. We hold regular inductions for new members where you can learn about its ethos and operation, get a sense of all the skills and knowledge that you can access and add to, and learn how to make transactions. Now with 180 members, your involvement will build the capacity of the network.