Leeds Arts University Repository (CREST)
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446 research outputs found
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Room one
No full textThe output is a creative project, a collaboration between book designer, Fletcher and photographer Richard Higginbottom. Room One was created for the Index Visual Arts Festival in response to Yorkshire Sculpture International, where primary observations of how sculptural works are viewed within a gallery setting informed the photographic methodology. The exhibition was a response to the book created in response to these themes. Research process: Through a series of observational research, Fletcher and Higginbottom identified how sculptures are viewed in a gallery setting. They then translated this experience to both the photographer’s methodology of taking photographs of sculptural forms and the books design. Research insights: The research explored the use of the form of the book to emulate the experience of viewing, opening up questions around physical experience and the book form as a mode of communication. The exhibition explored how the book form and book design is translated to a physical environment, emulating the viewing experience of engaging with sculptural forms to the gallery walls, a direct reference to the book created alongside the exhibition. Dissemination: The project was disseminated via a book launch and exhibition at Village, Leeds, 12 September – 29 September 2019
The Legend of La Mariposa – The Demon Gauntlet
No full textThe artefact is a young adult graphic novel created by Lawrence.
Research process: This project was primarily practice-based, involving initial research into the social, historical, folkloric and metaphysical aspects of Lucha Libre before utilising findings to inform a fantasy action-adventure setting pitched at a young adult audience.
The story explores themes of duty, trust and the keeping of oaths and also serves as an attempt to extrapolate the tropes and traditions of Lucha Libre into a foundation for fantasy worldbuilding.
Lawrence handled all roles in the production of this output, including all the design and generation of visual and narrative elements.
Research insights: The output furthered an ongoing inquiry into the semiotics and narrative techniques unique to sequential art with a goal of developing an accessible but distinct visual vocabulary.
Dissemination: This output has been disseminated via Kickstarter, at Thoughtbubble Comic Art Festival in 2020 and 2021, and at Glasgow Comic Con in 2022. It is also available for purchase through online stores
Myth
No full textBased on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, this series explores the transformation of the human form; the body is a mutable canvas, subject to the whims of the Gods. Myth is expositional- here Ovid suggests the vulnerability of the human condition in the face of time, illness and eventually death.
Galatea, sculpted from marble by Pygmalion- such is the power of his obsession with her that the sculptor animates the cold stone with his touch and she is brought to life. Tyresias- both Male and Female, the blind prophet had the gift of prophecy, sight being the classical paradigm for knowledge. Narcissus- The beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection and eventually pined away, unable to break free from this infatuation. He was eventually transformed in his longing into the Narcissus flower
Quant & advertising: Collett Dickenson Pearce
No full textThis essay traces a series of contextual influences upon British Advertising in the post-war period and by doing so locates the Quant Brand within the ‘creative revolution’. Developments in British Art Education, high-definition printing techniques and the creative practices of the agencies such as Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP) all contributed to the advertising platform from which new visions of life and style were imagined. CDP and Mary Quant Limited were both companies that placed creativity at the apex of their business and by doing so became the game-changers that influenced the next generation of innovators including the Saatchi brothers. Many examples of Quant adverts are discussed, revealing how the concept of Quant ‘radical fashion design for all’ was communicated to the public in a creative manner. This study contends that the particular type of art education experienced by Mary Quant and the (CDP) advertising creatives Colin Millward and Ron Collins received, influenced the creative direction of the Quant brand. All the adverts selected in the essay celebrated Quant’s experimental approach to design; and encouraged women to be ‘bold’ by using cosmetic and fashion colour palettes to create radical new looks. This creative strategy appealed to women ready for social change and together Quant and CDP transformed the world of fashion and cosmetics
London Spinner
No full textThe output, 'London Spinner', is a collaborative practice research, digital film project, co-authored by artists Taylor and Paul. Research process: This practice research seeks to investigate the collaborative intersections between film and painting and concepts of perceptual expectancy. Research insights: Through the application of a trans disciplinary methodology across film and painting the research engages with phenomenological precepts and associated narratives. This process of investigation embraces concepts of aesthetic hierarchies, DIY culture and Dr Sarah Taylor’s concept of Aspirational Beauty. Dissemination: The film was disseminated within a group exhibition, Outpost 2, at SHORTWAVE, London, 3 - 28June 2019
Photography and war
No full textThere are countless books on war photography, but most focus on dramatic images made by photojournalists in combat zones. Photography and War instead proposes a radically expanded notion of war photography: one that encompasses a far broader terrain of geographies, chronologies, practices, and viewpoints. Thematic chapters consider photography’s fundamental role in military reconnaissance, propaganda and protest, exposure of war crimes, and the memorialisation of war, among many others. Iconic images by well-known names such as Roger Fenton and Robert Capa are considered alongside overlooked artefacts such as photo-albums made by First World War nurses, or placards protesting the Argentine military dictatorship. The historical scope ranges from 19th century surveys carried out by Persian military photographers, to digital images of Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi shared globally on Twitter and recent artworks by ‘aftermath’ photographers. The author takes a feminist and postcolonial stance, ensuring that viewpoints from people who have historically been overlooked—women and photographers from diasporic and non-Western backgrounds—are forcefully present. As a result, Photography and War offers a nuanced and more inclusive understanding of war as a far-reaching undertaking in which anyone might be implicated and affected. Richly illustrated with 120 images, some of which are published for the first time, Photography and War offers an accessible and comprehensive introduction to photography’s perhaps most contested, complex, and emotive subject
Perspectives on access to Higher Education: practice and research
No full textAccess to HE is an under researched area there have been a small amount of books which have addressed the topic (Burke, 2002; James and Busher, 2017; Broadhead and Gregson, 2018) and some journal articles (Parry, 1996; Osborne, Leopold and Ferrie, 1997; Reay, Ball and David 2002; Christie, Munro and Wager, 2005). Access programmes have a long history beginning in the 1970s and 1980s and their function to provide an alternative route into higher education is still very relevant in today’s context. Access programmes are an important means of enabling people to improve their life chances. In light of recent findings by The Social Mobility Commission (2017) who have commented on the fall in part-time student numbers over five years by 56%, suggesting that adult students are not able to study, care for dependents and work concurrently. The Commission also found that that over the last five years 1.2 million students from low-income homes have left school without five good GCSEs. As more careers require higher education qualifications, people who have not achieved level three accreditation (conventionally in the UK A levels) will need to find alternative ways of entering higher education. Access to Higher Education courses are still needed in today’s Britain as are other enabling courses in other parts of the globe.
Access to HE has been through many changes since their beginning in the 1970s. These include the introduction of Access Validating Agencies; the introduction of regional frameworks; the standardisation of credits required to gain an Access certificate and the grading of individual credits. What is the state of Access to HE in the 21st century? This question needs to be addressed as adult learners seek to access higher education to increase their life chances and social mobility. This book evaluates some of the recent changes and argues that Access education is alive and kicking because of its diversity; serving different people in different ways. As much of the research in this book is carried out by practitioners and researchers who have worked in access education; their unique and valuable analysis is grounded in authentic experience
Glowing like phosphorus: Dorothea Tanning and the Sedona western
No full textIn the mid-1940s, Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst left the urbane, avant-garde circles of Manhattan to build a house and studio in the then remote Southwestern outpost of Sedona, Arizona. Many have written of Ernst’s fascination with indigenous artefacts but there was another pop cultural format that emerged concurrently with their time in Sedona: the genre of the Hollywood Western. Indeed, films like John Wayne’s Angel and the Badman (1947) and Johnny Guitar (1954) starring Joan Crawford were filmed in the immediate vicinity, amidst the iconic red rock landscape. Tanning’s topographical mapping of the desert, as found in paintings such as Self-Portrait (1944), Evening in Sedona (1976), and novella Chasm: A Weekend (2004), feature some of those same scenic locations used as the backdrops in the Sedona Western. Comparisons between the self-presentation of Tanning and the actor Gail Russell are striking especially when one considers Tanning’s own performance in Hans Richter’s film 8 x 8 (1957). Moreover, the feminine, “phosphorus” glow, which Tanning recurrently uses in her painting and writing to describe the appearance of her female characters, matches the typical costuming of the lead women in Westerns, for example Russell’s Penny and Crawford’s Vienna. This article explores the complex role the Sedona Western played in the surrealist art and literature made during Ernst and Tanning’s Sedona period and beyond, particularly in terms of gender politics. In order to rethink this moment of “Western surrealism,” I offer a Tanning-centric perspective through methodological use of Mieke Bal’s feminist “autotopography” (2001). Research involved site visits to Sedona, and archival research at The Dorothea Tanning Foundation in New York. Based on this research, I was invited to give a public lecture at the Sedona Arts Center (January 2020)
Swapping the pleasures - social practice artwork and alternative performances: gender and alternative pleasure dynamics within the social dancing of kizomba
No full textThe output is a creative project based on social practice that challenges the twin taboos of men-following-women and women-leading-men in Afro-Latin social dance. Research process: The work, a series of dance classes, facilitated alternative performances of gender and alternative pleasure-dynamics within an existing community of practice. The teaching of Afro-Latin partner dance forms including Salsa, Bachata, Cha Cha Cha and Kizomba routinely encourages, and in many cases requires, participants to perform their gender within a rigid paradigm of heteronormative power relations. Although many dancers are challenging the gender conventions of male-leading and female-following within social dance, through initiatives such as queer tango and same-sex ballroom dance, there is virtually no evidence of social dance role-reversal within mixed sex couples ie. women leading men. As both a socially-engaged artist and Afro-Latin social dancer, Collins wanted to see whether dancers were open to dance-role reversal within a heterosexualised context and how they would respond to the experience. To this end Collins used methods drawn from socially-engaged art practice to run and evaluate a series of role-swap dance classes for existing dancers of Kizomba in Leeds. Research insights: The most significant results were the relative ease with which participants adapted to the new roles and the feelings of pleasure that many, particularly the men, reported from the experience. Several of the participants went on to occasionally dance socially in role-swapped couples during, and after, the period of the classes. There were also some interesting linguistic effects in terms of the evolution and use of gendered and non-gendered language during the process. Dissemination: The project was disseminated at the Fourteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society, 19-21 June 2019 and Pop Moves “Dancing the Politics of Pleasure” Conference, Royal Holloway, University of London, October 2014
What can critical thinking do for Access? Can transferability speak to specificity in a Further Education arts institution?
No full textThis presentation on critical thinking (CT) is likely to be of interest to national and international educationalists and educational managers in further education, higher education, widening participation, Access education, continuing education and training. This action research paper discusses how CT interventions such as book club and poetry writing group may benefit some students in their individual mental health wellbeing, create a community of inquiry, social cohesion and bonding in the classroom and wider social spheres. In addition how establishing CT habits of mind may ease Access student transition to higher education and employment. The hypothesis asks what CT can do for Access? Is CT necessary to students or is it another educational imperative? What of transferability, can these developed CT skills be transferred to real world skills, university courses, and for the students themselves engagement with studentship and by extension citizenship? Or are CT skills so specialised that they are of no use in other paradigms. Is specificity in regard to teaching CT more important than generality? Should CT skills be accessible across subject areas without a silo culture? Lipman (2003), has practical philosophies and strategies that will be the starting point for research. Other authors are Brown (1998) an educational philosopher with an emphasis on the freedom and education for all and PJ Burke (2001) an Access lecturer and transformational education thinker. In addition Biesta (2010) and his educational theory, Sennett (2008) for the craft of practice and Hyland (2017) the role of vocationalism in education. Relevant policies are:- the Foresight Review into the Future of Skills and Lifelong Learning (2016) and the Department of Education (DfE) adult learners policy (2018). The research approach uses qualitative arts-based mixed methodologies, these are inclusive and illuminative (Kara 2015: 26). Theories used are hermeneutic/interpretive, postmodern decentring theory, new ethnographic and feminist autobiographical theory. Interventions used for this paper are a poetry writing group, book club, surveys and interviews. A sample of 133 self-selecting participants volunteered for CT interventions. Data is inductively, iteratively linked and analysed in a cycle of reading, labelling and coding, to discover patterns and themes. Tentative conclusions are, a community of inquiry accesses the legacy of the critical traditions. Classroom democracy is a high-risk strategy, Beck (2013) implies, risk can be both positive and negative. Democracy is unpredictable and it does not have a predetermined outcome. Participants in the research have become more confident and articulate, argumentative and discursive