Black Country Digital Firsts: Alex Billingham
Selected artists from the Black Country are harnessing digital skills and mentoring through Black Country Digital Firsts; a partnership between Creative Black Country and The Space. We’ve been working with our first group of creatives during 2024 and will be rolling out a second cohort in 2025 (more details coming soon). For this series of blog posts we are introducing the folks who have joined us on the first round of mentoring sessions and workshops as they begin to develop their digital commissions.
Alex brings a playful and bold perspective to Black Country Digital Firsts, developing a quirky, climate-themed digital world blending humour, culture, and innovation while celebrating the region’s unique character and creative potential.
What inspired you to apply for Black Country Digital Firsts and how did you hope it would impact your creative practice?
I’ve recently started learning game development and was looking for ways to integrate it into my art practice. Black Country Digital Firsts felt like a perfect sandbox to play and experiment. I hoped it would help me broaden the interest in my practice and allow me to work with a wider range of people.
Can you share a little about the project you are working on and why you feel it’s particularly bold or imaginative?
Black country by the sea, baby! After the floods, Octopuses will take over and use the Black country as a Living Museum of Humans.
It’s a combined digital world and tourist information film, styled after the Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham film. After we’re gone what happens next? I wanted something that looked at climate change without blame.
It’s a fun, brash and silly way of dealing with this while celebrating the ramshackled mash-up that is the Black Country.
How do you believe fostering digital creativity can contribute to the cultural landscape of the Black Country?
There's such a diverse wealth of talent and lives in the Black Country but we always keep our heads down. Avoiding the limelight. Digital worlds allow us to connect way beyond the physical limits of the Black Country and share everything from orange chips and wildlife preservation to experimental theatre and bostin' curries.
What has been the most valuable lesson or insight you've gained from the mentoring and advice sessions provided through Black Country Digital Firsts?
Trust yourself and prepare. The more time you put into prep the easier it will be. But also build in space for spontaneity / the unexpected. Flexible plans help make everyone’s life easier. Listen to what people need and find ways of supporting them.
In what ways do you think Black Country Digital Firsts can amplify diverse voices and perspectives within the Black Country?
I think it provides a much-needed platform from which to shout about the Black Country. Showing the massive range of lives and voices held within. We aren’t simply one thing or one type of person. But a mixture of a million lives all connecting.
How do you now envision the role of technology in enhancing your creative practice going forward?
It’s far less scary or an impossible mountain, and more of an everyday. There are things I get wrong but if you wanted me to build a basic 3D world in an hour I could do it with ease.
What advice would you give to other creatives in the region who are considering applying for the second round of Black Country Digital Firsts?
Have a clear solid idea of what you want, who you want to help, and why. Something which will push you while being achievable. Then get on with it. The support will be there when you need it, but the program will fly by before you realise it. Have fun and take chances!
Black Country Digital Firsts is a unique partnership between Creative Black Country and The Space that aims to build digital creative confidence, inspire excellence in the area, foster digital creativity, commission artists, and offer creative support via mentoring and advice sessions.