Monthly Archives: June 2015

creative events, news

Celebrating EED Year in Industry Students

The School of Music and Fine Art’s  Event & Experience Design BA programme has two students taking the Year in Industry during the academic year 2015/16, before they return to take their final year on this innovative programme.

This is particularly exciting as these are our first BA Event & Experience Design students to do this and both achieved highly competitive placements.

Leah Stewart has been accepted on a national paid internship scheme at L’Oreal and will work on visual merchandising, design and branding, important elements within our course. For more information: http://www.loreal.com/careers/students—graduates/internships

Kirsten Short underwent a rigorous recruitment process at Hels Angels in Covent Garden, London, to achieve a paid internship, beating competition from students on the event management courses at Sheffield Hallam and Greenwich.  For more information: http://www.helsangels.net/

“These are two fabulous opportunities for our students to experience two completely different high-level work environments in London, which will provide them with contacts for their future employability and a deep understanding of the events and marketing industries. They will return to their studies with a wealth of knowledge,” says Peter Hatton, Director of Events &Experience Design.

fine art, news, research

Sculpture in the City Art Exhibition: Ghost

IMG_6054.CR2

Adam Chodzko is an artist and senior lecturer in Fine Art  at the School of Music and Fine Art, University of Kent. His work, Ghost, was selected for Sculpture in the City, an annual public art exhibition in the City of London, in which contemporary art pieces are placed in and around the Square Mile from 9th of July 2015 – May 2016. The Sculpture in the City art exhibition is a unique collaboration between the City of London Corporation, local businesses, and the art world, providing the opportunity for new audiences to engage with established and emerging contemporary artists, including works from internationally renowned artists Damien Hirst, Sigalit Landau and Bruce Beasley.

Chodzko Thames Ghost St Paul's

Adam Chodzko’s, Ghost is a kayak, a sculpture as vessel, a coffin, a costume and a camera rig. He designed the kayak to have a paddler in the back and a passenger – a member of the public in the front. The passenger is reclined, stretched out like a body in a coffin, with their head slightly raised. They occupy the horizontal interface between sky and water in an attempt to experience a state between sleep and wake, living and dying. A dome in the deck of the kayak also separates them physically and visually from the paddler at the back. Through each journey for Ghost, the artist and the passenger are on a metaphorical and mythological journey to the Island of the Dead. A camera, mounted on the bows, records the journey of each passenger, thus creating an archive of their experience. No two journeys are the same.

IMG_6124.CR2

This year a total of fifteen works are set to transform the EC3 insurance area. The Historic Leadenhall Market will again be used as a dramatic backdrop, when Adam Chodzko’s Ghost, a 22 foot wooden kayak, is suspended from the ceiling of the ornate Victorian structure.

Chodzko’s art works  has been  exhibited extensively in international solo and group exhibitions including: Tate, St Ives; Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (MAMBo); Istanbul Biennale, Venice Biennale; Deste Foundation, Athens; PS1, New York; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. His work focuses on the relational politics of culture’s edges, endings, displacements, transitions and disappearances through provocatively looking in the ‘wrong’ places” – a search for knowledge through instability. Chodzko operates in the tight, poetic spaces between documentary and fantasy, conceptualism and surrealism, public and private space, often engaging reflexively and directly with the role of the viewer.

Complementary educational workshops, run by Open-City, will inspire schoolchildren from the local area before and after the project installation.

For more info go to: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/sculptureinthecity

fine art, news

Regeneration and the Role of Public Art

The School of Music and Fine Art is hosting a creative seminar called Regeneration and the Role of Public Art on Wednesday the  8th of July, 10am in the Engineering Workshop at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

IN-SITE_Poster

Chaired by artist David Cotterrell, this is an open discussion and facilitated activity on the role of public art. Aimed at developers, planners, local authorities, architects and artists, the Creative Seminar will share learning, guidance and advice from professionals working in the public realm and the artists working on the IN-SITE Public Art Project, an engaging and interactive temporary public art project along Rochester Riverside and on Sun Pier. Tim Meacham, Lecturer in Fine Art & Partner College Liaison at the School of Music & Fine Art, has been on the advisory panel for the IN-SITE Public Art Project.

The creative seminar aims to provide a foundation, for reflecting on and taking forward achievements from the IN-SITE Rochester Riverside public art commissions. It will open discussion surrounding the exploration and development of art in the public realm and creative processes.

Introduced by Public Art Consultants Francis Knight and Lead Artist Katayoun Dowlatshahi, speakers include: Senior Partner from LDA Design Neil Mattinson (appointed design consultancy for Chatham Placemaking Masterplan). Director of Insite Arts Sam Wilkinson (public art organisation). With contributions from the IN-SITE artists: Stuart Bowditch, Nicola Flower, Caitlin Heffernan, Jane Pitt and Christopher Sacre. Facilitated activity from artist led organisation Figure Ground.

The Creative Seminar is accompanied by British Sign Language interpreters. Lunch and refreshments are provided and the event is free to attend but booking required via: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/regeneration-and-the-role-of-public-art-tickets-16988301467

fine art, news

In the Dock: West Kent College Degree Show

 

The School of Music and Fine Art is hosting the West Kent College Degree Show in the Engineering Workshop at the Chatham Historic Dockyard.

INTHEDOCK

Friday 3 – Saturday 11 July, 10am – 5pm weekdays, Saturdays 9am – 3pm /closed Sundays.

PREVIEW Thursday 2nd July 2015 between 5 – 8pm.

West Kent College, a University of Kent partner college, runs School of Music and Fine Art validated degrees. The exhibition, called In the Dock, includes work from the following Higher Education programmes at West Kent College:

HND 2 – Photography
BA – Photography
BA – Fine Art (Part-time Year 1 Undergraduates)
BA – Fine Art (Part-time Year 2/ Full-time)
BA – Fine Art Professional Development (Postgraduate)

 

 

fine art, news

TAKEOVER: A Season of Student Exhibitions in Studio 3 Gallery

image005

This summer Studio 3 Gallery is proud to host two exhibitions featuring students based in Fine Art, English and Architecture departments. These ambitious and compelling projects demonstrate the vibrant work undertaken across undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of Kent. Admission is always free, so please come by to see what these talented individuals have been up to.

The Alternative Self-Portrait • 29 June – 4 July • Monday – Friday 10 AM – 4 PM, Saturday 9 AM – 3 PM

The MA Fine Art Students from the University of Kent’s School of Music and Fine Art are delighted to present their current practice in their new show, The Alternative Self-Portrait.

Using a variety of media, the artists attempt to show a piece of themselves though a range of themes ranging from culture and immigration to memory and perception. Endeavouring to break the traditional mould of the self-portrait, the exhibiting artists have chosen to refrain from displaying conventional portraits in order to show representations of the self without the confines of a frame.

Transcribing Spaces: Projects from the intersections of literature, architecture and art • 13 July – 24 July • Monday – Friday and Saturday July 18 12 – 5 PM

This exhibition brings together students from Architecture, Fine Art and English all of whom use drawing, painting, sculpture and photography to explore ideas of how spaces are defined politically, socially and physically.

The gallery walls will be covered by Imogen Lesser’s large-scale CAD and hand-drawn images interpreting the architectural spaces of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy, prompting the reader-inhabitant to question their relationship with these physical and imagined places. Ben Porter’s canvases of confused texts will examine the possibilities and failures of communication in contemporary society. Heather McCutcheon’s analogue photographs document the intimate and ephemeral in-between moments of an archetypal American road trip. Rosa Furneaux’s photograph’s of transitory space in Canterbury and Dover asks viewers to consider these banal spaces as border crossings within the particularly charged contexts of Kent’s position as a first point of entry for asylum seekers. Ashanti Darby playfully investigates ideas of safety and shelter with Blanket Fort, encouraging visitors to inhabit this provisional and nostalgic construction. Finally, Aggela Ioannidou will furnish viewers with bespoke hand-held screens, through which they can view the other works in the show, and as a result move from visitors to voyeurs.

 

More information about both these events can be found here: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/studio3gallery/current-exhibition/

creative events, fine art, music, news

School of Music and Fine Art Open Day – 2015

Saturday June 20th from 9am – 2pm – Visit the School of Music and Fine Art at the Chatham Historic Dockyard

On Saturday the 20th of June, don’t miss the chance to visit the School of Music and Fine Art at the Historic Dockyard and explore our exciting courses in Fine Art, Music and Audio Arts, and Event and Experience Design. Our Open Days are designed to give you a real flavour of what it is like to live and study at the University of Kent.

Things to do:

  • Take a guided tour of our fantastic specialist music and art facilities
  • Experience our unique campus at the Historic Dockyard
  • Meet academic staff and chat to current students
  • Learn about our excellent student support
  • Your chance to ask questions – and find out more

Due to the popularity of our open days, we ask that you book a place online. Online booking will open approximately four weeks’ before the event.

How to make the most of it

Have a look at our top tips and FAQs for an enjoyable and successful day. We have also included approximate timings for talks and activities to help with your planning. We normally book sunshine and blue skies for open day but please bring a waterproof jacket, just in case!

For further information, please visit: http://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/visit/openday/essentials-medway.html

creative events, fine art, music, news

London St Pancras to Margate Train Journey Inspires Art Work

Downloadable as an App, the work by composer/artist Claudia Molitor from the School of Music and Fine Art will also go on display at the Turner Contemporary 20 June – 13 September

The-Sketch-of-the-Score-for-Sonorama-credit-Lucy-Dawkins-e1434554034928-1024x683

The Sketch of the Score for Sonorama     Picture by Lucy Dawkins.

Informed by trains, journeying and the disconnect between looking at the passing landscape and hearing only the interior sounds of the carriage, the piece – titled Sonorama  – is described as ‘filling the gap between the visual and sonic realities of train travel’.

Imagining the journey as the ‘score’, Claudia Molitor’s  cycle of works, collected interviews, readings and British Library archive material respond to the social history of the route. The tracks cover topics as diverse as visio-centricity, Roman history and hop-picking – all relating to a different point or area between London St Pancras and Margate.

The App, which features contributions from flautist Jan Hendrickse, poet Lemn Sissay, saxophonist Evan Parker and writer Charlotte Higgins, will be free to download at the App store from 19 June – 30 September 2015.

creative events, news

Event and Experience Design students work with Fuse Festival 2015

IMG_0073

As part of the Fuse Festival in Medway this weekend, the Welcome Home Art Trail has been designed by students from Event & Experience Design at the School of Music & Fine Art in partnership with Emergency Exit Arts and associate artist Cristina Ottonello. Together they have delivered a programme of free arts workshops across Gillingham, enabling residents to learn new creative skills as part of the festival.

In the Spring Term 2015, as part of the 2nd Year module CR523 Celebratory Performance, students worked on a project with Emergency Exit Arts, designing artworks based on research on the region and site visits to go in the streets of Gillingham during the Fuse Festival. The project, Welcome Home, is a celebration of multicultural Gillingham and is a positive response to migration and movement, historically with the Dockyard, and contemporary multiculturalism.

Based on their research and designs, students then created workshops for different age groups at Gillingham Library.

The workshop titles and creators were:

Making Your Mark – Chien-Yi Yang, Garrick Chan, Krunal Tailor

Home Sweet Home – Sophie Cawsey & Leah Stewart

Cargo – Itse Ayonmike, Janice Ooi, Ying The

Nest – Jade Alcock & Emily Lloyd

Magic Moments – Kirsten Short, Jade Wildes & Ginny Brennan

Website Design and Marketing – Charles Bernacki

Welcome Video – Garrick Chan

Emergency Exit Arts ran further workshops, which Jade Wildes participated in, and together they produced the fixtures and fittings and made the larger artworks waterproof and structurally safe to be displayed outside. Director of Emergency Exit Arts, Deb Mullins, reviewed their research and designs with lead artist for Emergency Exit Arts, Cristina Ottenello, and the entire project was overseen by module convenor Janet Hodgson.

Peter Hatton, Director of Studies Event & Experience Design, said, “Working with Emergency Exit Arts and the Fuse Festival director Megan Donnolley has been an invaluable opportunity for our students. They have worked with an arts company with 25 years of experience on large scale outdoor performances and a long term commitment to working with communities in the south east. Fuse Director Megan is an international festival programmer and artistic director. Working with these professionals inside and outside of the studio has been a tremendous learning opportunity for the students and they have risen to the challenges with creativity and energy and have had the chance to take an idea from the sketchbook to the streets, getting to know the community through their research and sitting down with them in workshops – not forgetting that their work will be presented within a nationally renowned festival alongside an impressive range of international acts and performers.”

 

Links:

Emergency Exit Arts www.eea.org.uk/

Fuse Festival: http://fusefestival.org.uk/

http://welcomehomeuniproject.weebly.com

creative events, fine art, music, news

‘Meditation Mix’ joint winner of the 2015 Barbara Morris Prize for Learning Support

The Barbara Morris Prize 2015 has been awarded to the Meditation Mix, a project initiated by the School of Music and Fine Art in collaboration with the university’s Wellbeing Team and Student Learning Advice Service (SLAS) resulting in the production of an innovative meditation CD.

The project aims to provide practical strategies for students to help them manage stress and anxiety which are increasing issues in higher education. The selection panel said, “This was felt to be an original and innovative initiative which brought together staff and student skills, and provided a showcase for cross-disciplinary talent, as well as a useful form of student support. The involvement of different professional groups and a number of Schools was commended.”

Thanking everyone who worked on the project, Louise Frith, Student Support Officer for SMFA said, “The project is still ongoing; two apps are currently being developed by two MA computing students using the recordings, and a PhD research project looking at what is happening in the brain when students meditate will begin soon.”

The team will receive an award of £2,000 in recognition of their work, and certificates will be presented to all winners by the Vice Chancellor at a lunchtime ceremony on Wednesday 7th October. More info on the project can be found: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=1265

music, news

Sound#Hack Creative Music Tech Event Saturday 27 JUNE!

soundhackoperhouselogo

The School of Music and Fine Art are hosting a fantastic event as part of the Ideas Test Digital Learning events programme created in partnership with Royal Opera House Bridge to bring music tech and performance to young people from Swale and Medway, with students and teachers discovering new skills and composing and performing with feedback from an industry panel.

“This is going to be about discovering new talents and inspiring new career pathways, and also helping educators and parents recognise creative technology career pathways. We wanted to develop an event culture that always has performance, exhibition and a dynamic learning culture at the core,” comments Kevin Grist, one of the event producers at Ideas Test.

ideas-test-logo-300x286

This small-scale pilot event, from 10.30am-5pm, will see students and teachers learning together, working with professional digital musicians, discovering new skills and uncovering some different approaches to taste and excellence in performance. Participants will compose and perform music, with artistic feedback from an industry panel from AudioActive’s In the Lab team.

The event will start with a digital music performance including live coded pieces made with Sonic Pi.

This will be followed by sessions where participants, educators and live coders work with Audio Active and University of Kent’s music team and music students to develop their own pieces, either on their own or in groups. The afternoon session will enable people to present their ideas, showing rough code or snatches of ideas.

Look out for an online webinar after the event with ROH Bridge, to talk more about the event itself and how it touches on issues and opportunities that digital music tech bring to the classroom.

Workshops will include:

  • AudioActive, featuring DJ Skitz and other artists including live vocal looping and beat production
  • Sonic Pi, exploring the use of live coding to compose music
  • University of Kent, exploring mixing for 5.1 surround sound
  • AudioActive’s In the Lab will feature an expert panel giving artistic and technical advice on music created throughout the day

Places are limited to 15 spaces for teachers and 25 spaces for young people. To confirm your space please register via EventBrite before Saturday 13th June 2015, at 5pm.

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ideas-test-presents-soundhack-featuring-audioactives-in-the-lab-tickets-17259580871