Category Archives: news

fine art, news, research

SMFA Fine Art Lecturer Adam Chodzko featured in exhibition of films as part of Film London Jarman Award at the Whitechapel Gallery

Adam Chodzko, 2018.

 

Fine Art Lecturer and acclaimed artist Adam Chodzko is featured in the exhibition of films commissioned from shortlisted artists by Channel 4 as part of Film London Jarman Award: A Journey Through the First Decade at London’s Whitechapel Gallery 2 from 15th May  – 10th June.

The Film London Jarman Award was named in honour of visionary artist/filmmaker Derek Jarman, and since 2008, has celebrated the creative spirit of artists working today, rewarding challenging and innovative work and helping to establish the place of the moving image within the art world.

More info  here: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/film-london-jarman-award-journey-first-decade/

Adam Chodzko lives and works in Whitstable and has exhibited extensively in international solo and group exhibitions and projects including: Tate St Ives; Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna; Athens Biennale; Istanbul Biennale; Venice Biennale; Deste Foundation, Athens; PS1, New York; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Kunstmuseum Lucerne; Creative Time, New York; Hayward Gallery, London and Tate Britain.

 

Related post: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2662

Alumni, fine art, news, research

SMFA Fine Art PhD student Stephen Connolly wins prestigious 2018 BAFTSS Award

Stephen Connolly, an artist filmmaker, Lecturer in Film Production, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham and Fine Art PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Music and Fine Art (also a Kent 50 Scholar), has won a British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Award for 2018, in the Moving Image category under Best Practice Research Portfolio for Machine Space.

BAFTSS encourage best teaching and research practice, promoting the training of postgraduate students in research and giving researchers and practitioners the opportunity to attend and present a paper at the annual BAFTSS conference.

Says Stephen: “The PhD has been such an amazing experience and deeply helpful for my practice, encouraging me to push forward towards publication. The process of academic research has allowed me to place the work in context and in conversation with other disciplines and artists. I aim to contribute to the further development of practice as research as a process of making moving image work in the arts.”

Connolly’s Machine Space is an essay film exploring a city as a machine; a place of movement and circulation. Using a kinetic approach, issues of space, race and finance frame the city of Machine Space. Residents in voiceover testify how the city as a spatial and financial machine shapes their experience. The city is Detroit, a place that has changed from producing the means of movement to producing space itself.  The film uses formal representational devices to explore this content, and addresses issues of complicity of audiences in the state of affairs in the city. It is a visualization of the ideas of Henri Lefebvre, philosopher of space and urban life.

The film was shown at London Film Festival and Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University.  https://wexarts.org/film-video/stephen-connolly-machine-space

You can read the LFF Review (in which it is described as “brilliant”) on MUBI https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/spatial-stories

Stephen Connolly’s work investigates cinema and representation through place, politics and history. His award winning single screen work which explores the interface between spectatorship, material culture and subjectivity, has been widely shown internationally since 2002. A FLAMIN award recipient, he has had solo screenings at the ICA and BFI Southbank in London, and was a juror at the Ann Arbor Film Festival (Michigan, USA) in 2011.

 

More info about the BAFTSS Awards here  http://baftss.org/awards-2018/   and  http://baftss.org/special-interest-groups/practice-research/

Machine Space newsprint giveaway http://bubblefilm.net/texts/pdf_texts/Machine_Space_Newsprint.pdf

Alumni, music, news

SMFA Music student compositions performed by leading ensemble Octandre

On Monday 21 May at 1pm, the School of Music and Fine Art, University of Kent, Medway is excited to present a special lunchtime recital to celebrate the work of our BMus, year 2 composition students. Having spent the term working alongside one of the UK’s leading contemporary music ensembles, we are delighted to have three musicians from Octandre – Audrey Milheres (Flute), Sam Cave (Guitar) and Corentin Chassard (Cello) – to showcase selected submissions. Octandre are developing an international reputation for their work with a recent commission receiving a BASCA composition award, multiple broadcast recordings for BBC Radio 3 and several high profile performances at venues including LSO St Lukes and St John Smith’s Square. With Sir Harrison Birtwistle as their patron and a consistently thriving programme they are well and truly at the forefront of our nation’s music scene.

Audio link –  https://www.octandre.com/audio

The concert takes place in the Galvanising Shop Performance Space on the Historic Dockyard Chatham and is free to attend but please book via Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/school-of-music-and-fine-art-lunchtime-concert-with-octandre-tickets-45584024043

Alumni, fine art, news

Ropery Songs now on You Tube

In May 2017, SMFA Lecturer in Fine Art, and Partner College Liaison Officer, Tim Meacham, facilitated an innovative public event in the Historic Dockyard Chatham Rope Walk with LTHT, a University of the Arts London community of practice group engaged in low-tech and high-tech action, traversing sound, space, interaction and textiles. The result – Ropery Songs – is now available on You Tube.

The event, which took place on Monday 29th May 2017, was a collaboration between staff and students from SMFA Fine Art and UAL Textiles, Interior Spatial Design and Sound Studies. The project sought to activate the ropery by transforming the whole structure into a musical instrument through improvised “playing” of the space. Ropery Songs offered a valuable opportunity for staff and students from different universities and disciplines to come together for one day to create a new shared space of sound and performance through the re-reading of this historic building.

Ropery Songs film documentation can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0MWP1yIlus

music, news

SMFA Associate Lecturer in Music, Anna Neale Widdison’s new album Wide Sky out FRIDAY 23rd March

Wide Sky. Anna Neale-Widdison, 2018.

 

SMFA music lecturer Anna Neale-Widdison has released a new album Wide Sky, which is available on all the usual music platforms such as Spotify and iTunes. Anna Neale is a multi-talented singer/songwriter, composer, session vocalist and voice-over artist. She’s worked professionally in the music industry for over a decade. In that time she has toured the world, and has showcased at major music conferences across the globe and released two albums and two EP’s to critical acclaim.

Inspired by personal experience, tumultuous current affairs, and views surrounding her home, Wide Sky fuses modern pop with Arabic music, and continues the world music theme of her previous album River Man to ask the question, “Where is humanity going?”

Dan Chisholm, BBC Broadcaster, commented:  “It reminds me how I felt the very first time I heard Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. Like then, I feel this is a very special piece of work. Many congratulations.”

Featuring performances by a talented array of Syrian musicians and vocalists from the English National Opera (ENO), Wide Sky was co-produced with Jez Larder at Skyline Studios, who has previously worked with David Bowie, Estelle, The Damned, and Amy Macdonald.

Anna’s previous album River Man was voted by R2 (Rock’n’Reel) magazine as one of their top albums of 2012.

Anna’s showcase appearances include Brighton’s Great Escape Festival in 2010; the world renowned Canadian Music Week festival in 2009 in Toronto; the sell-out BPI showcase as part of Canada’s NXNE festival in 2006 (where she was the highest rated solo artist); and the NEMO Music Festival in Boston USA in 2005. After her Boston performance Anna’s track “All For Nothing” topped the NEMO Starbucks download charts across New England.

As well as her composing and performing credits, Anna has lectured at the University of Cambridge, The British Museum, BIMM (Brighton & London), Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Hertfordshire. She is also a member of the Oxford Brookes’s music industry board.  Her research interests include songwriting and the music of Ancient Greece.

More info here:  http://www.annaneale.net​

 

See also: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2682

creative events, fine art, news

SMFA MA student Steve Kilmartin organises Through The Lens – Festival of Photography, 31st August to 8th September

School of Music and Fine Art MA student Steve Kilmartin has organised an exhibition called Through The Lens –  Festival of Photography, running from 31st August to 8th September.  Held at St Mary In The Castle, Hastings, East Sussex,  this magical festival is for any photographer, photo-enthusiast, keen amateur or anyone who wants to see the world through a different lens. Offering a mix of world-class guest speakers, with new emerging photographic talent exhibiting alongside well-established photographers,  viewers can see contemporary photography and reportage all under one roof. There is also an opportunity to submit photographic work – closing date for submissions is 1st July.

 

More info: http://ttlfest.co.uk/

music, news, research

MAAST Concert in Royal Dockyard Church on Friday 25th May 2018

 

On Friday 25th May at 5.30pm in the Royal Dockyard Church, the School of Music and Fine Art, University of Kent, Medway is delighted to present an exchange concert (the second in the series) between Greenwich University and SMFA students.  It will involve multi-channel electroacoustic compositions of spatial sound and audiovisual works by students.

Music and Audio Arts Sound Theatre (MAAST) is a portable and flexible sound diffusion system designed for the performance of electroacoustic music and research in spatial sound.

The system comprises a custom-made 32-channel Gluion console, two MOTU audio interfaces, an array of Genelec loudspeakers which include sixteen bi-amplified 8020s, twenty 8040s, four tri-amplified 1038s, 7060B and 7070A subwoofers, and custom-made loudspeaker stands that can be extended up to 3 metres in height. The console controls the sound diffusion through OSC and Max/MSP. The system allows for diffusion of stereo and multichannel works, and its setup is flexible, depending on the spatial characteristic of concert and sound installation venues.

FREE to attend but booking via Eventbrite.

creative events, fine art, news

Strange Umbrellas: SMFA’s Dr Blanca Regina, Associate Lecturer in Event and Experience Design, performing in London on Tuesday 20th March

 

Strange Umbrellas, a platform for free improvised music and visual art, was started in 2012 by Dr Blanca Regina with musician Steve Beresford.

An artist, teacher and curator who is currently involved in creating mixed media performances, installations and film, Dr Regina is a visiting research fellow at University of the Arts London. Her research and practice encompass expanded cinema, free improvisation, moving image, photography and audiovisual performance.  In 2010, she received a doctorate in Humanities from University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, with the thesis The VJ and audiovisual performance: towards a radical aesthetic of postmodernism.

She is curator at the London-based Music Hackspace, Live Cinema Foundation and Strange Umbrellas. With Matthias Kispert she founded the Material Studies Group, developing a series of workshops and performances around the production of sound with everyday objects.

Dr Blanca Regina, 2018.

 

You can hear Dr Regina here: https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/article/conversation-blanca-regina?mc_cid=114a477664&mc_eid=65dfeeb7e0 as part of Unpredictable: Conversations with Improvisers – a collection of videos that have grown out of deep research into the nature of Free Improvisation, its history in the UK and its international connections. Research and filming began in 2011 and it was directed and produced by artist, curator and educator Blanca Regina in collaboration with Steve Beresford and Pierre Bouvier Patron.  The series was commissioned by Sound and Music for the 50th anniversary of the British Music Collection.

Strange Umbrellas Number 19 will be on 20th March, in collaboration with CAFE OTO at 18-22 Ashwin St, London, Dalston E8 3DL.  Doors at 7.30 pm, performances at 8 pm. Tickets £8 £6 ADVANCE £4 MEMBERS.

 

More info go to https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/strange-umbrellas-19/

music, news

Ahoy there! SMFA music students lead creative project on HMS Gannet

 

On 14th March SMFA music students worked with The Dockyard Development Trust and Kings Hill School to lead a creative music project on HMS Gannet in the Captain’s Cabin. They also had a tour of the ship.

Music Education students from Level 2 designed an interactive performance and composition workshop inspired by the Gannet, life at sea, sea shanties and film music inspired by the sea.  The children learned some Pirate Metal, sea songs, took part in a musical “boat race”, and composed and performed their own pieces based on the sights and sounds of the day.

 

Says organiser, SMFA Lecturer in Music, Jackie Walduck , “The project is a fantastic opportunity for students to engage in the kinds of arts events taking place all over the UK, in which musicians work alongside museums, galleries, arts venues, orchestras, record labels or festivals to create accessible projects for members of the community.”

 

To see the KMTV feature click on this link: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kmtv/video/special-university-of-kent-projects-hits-the-right-notes-at-chatham-dockyard-11820/