Leeds Arts University Repository (CREST)
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Bring Stuff to Life? You can with the 12 Principles of Animation
No full textThe output is an artefact created by Simpson.
The artefact is a book which simplifies and demonstrates the 12 Principles (building blocks) of successful animation.
The project was devised, compiled, and contributed to by Simpson, with sections written and illustrated by Peter McDonald, Cindy Cheng, and Tim Webb. The foreword for this output was written by Tom Box.
Research process: The aim of the project was to create a simple but effective means to communicate the core elements of successful animation to children and young people. It was important to Simpson that the book was in a format which is accessible to others, and that the information was presented in a fun and engaging way.
The output was created via long distance communication between the authors, who all contributed sections which provide visual explanations of a core principle of animation.
Research insights: Through collaborating on this output, Simpson was able to reflect on the core elements to successful animation in a group of his peers in the animation industry – producing an output which stands as a culmination of different perspectives and interpretations of these foundations.
This output provided Simpson and his collaborators a new insight into ways in which illustrated instructions can provide accessible learning to those who are new to or struggle with English.
Dissemination: The output was published through Red Bird publishing on 11 November 2019, has been used in workshops at Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival in 2019 and 2021
The artists’ house: the recontextualised art practices of British postgraduate students in conversation with Italian amateur artists
No full textThe article is developed from a paper presented at the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) Access, Learning Careers and Identity Network Conference 2017: Exploring Learning Contexts: Implications for access, learning careers and identities. It explores how the recontextualisation of creative practice and communal living as part of a pedagogic device reveals the ideology behind what constitutes a professional artist and a successful art student. This is achieved through the application of Bernstein’s theories of horizontal and vertical discourse in conjunction with his theory of the pedagogic device to a case study based on a residency at ‘The Artists’ House,’ based in Canale Di Tenno in Italy. It was found that the participating students were able to perform those successful creative practitioner identities which were regulated by official art and design pedagogic discourse. However, the Artists’ House residency also reproduced disadvantage. Those students who did not take part were in danger of being positioned as unsuccessful creative practitioners because they could be seen by tutors, their peers and themselves as not being gregarious, risk-taking or globally-orientated
Collaborative practice as an exploratory means to investigate the ‘transformative power of pattern’
No full textThis paper explores findings from an experimental workshop in which learners and practitioners worked collaboratively, a shared experience wherein participants investigate approaches to surface pattern design and application. We consider the transformative power of pattern, reconsider the tools we utilise and the potential for pattern to transform beyond the preconceived perception of print to product. From the perspective of a print & surface pattern design degree course, we consider the transposition of two- dimensional pattern to three-dimensional surface and object. We consider the notional boundaries of the discipline whilst challenging and re-inventing process, approaches and potential outcomes, ‘multi-disciplinary’ practices emerge through a transformative pedagogic tool as participants explore their ‘disciplines’ through ‘non-disciplinary’ means. By utilising alternative materials and methodologies which reflect pre-determined practices and knowledge we present an alternative, practical hands on approach to thinking through inherent process. In addition to this we introduce risk-taking, reflection and the opportunity to learn from the unexpected. Learning through experiential methods becomes a means to challenge creative design thinking and problem-solving whilst also encouraging exploration through making and experimentation and collaboration
Storytelling as a means of communication in the United Kingdom's creative industries
No full textThis was a talk delivered at the 5th International Conference on Media and Popular Culture. My talk was on my ‘Reductionist Manifesto’. How I developed a methodology and the uses I have put it to. Over the course of my professional career I have worked in both large and small design and advertising agencies and experienced many methods of working. But there has always been one constant. Clients. My job was to convey the benefit of their product or service in a compelling and engaging way. This is often where the trouble begins. Clients who have paid a lot of money for creative work and media space want to say as much as possible to as many people as possible. But by trying to say everything they often end up saying nothing. Bombarding an audience with too much information can be a turn off. They don’t know what to ignore first. My instinct has always been that less is more. Discover what the most important thing is and say it clearly. But to be brief is to be brave. In Erich Harth’s (2004) paper ‘Art and Reductionism’, he explains that in physics reductionism attempts to weave a fabric of cause and effect from the complex to the elementary: ‘reductionism is the most powerful strategy known to science’ (Ramachandran, 2001, cited in Harth, 2004: 111). However, the human brain doesn’t behave this way. Our thoughts and feelings are not just shaped by the bottom-up influences of our genes but by the top-down effects of experience. ‘Reductionism’ already has many definitions, some of them derogatory, suggesting it was to simplify a complex idea or issue to the point of obscuring or distorting it (Dictionary.com, 2014). This is the opposite of what I want to do I define ‘Reductionism’ as ‘Storytelling through absence’. The intention of my ‘Reductionist Manifesto’ is to interrogate the theory that less can be more. To provide a methodology that can be used by storytellers to reduce the amount of information one communicates. And to use the experience of the audience to help tell a story
Waking the dead: New life for digitally archived puppets
No full textThe output is a creative project towards the preservation of stop-motion puppets and assets (the Kraken from ‘Clash of the Titans’ (1981) and Mr Toad from ‘The Wind in the Willows’, Cosgrove Hall Archive) before they deteriorate. It is a collaboration between Dr Steve Henderson, Manchester Metropolitan University, Print City, Barry Purves, and Clark. Clark is responsible for the development of the scanned assets so that they can be used in a production environment. Research process: Using a range of software tools, scanned media is retopologised by Clark to a workable level. Character models are reposed in preparation for sculpting and rigging. During retopology, details are lost, so sculpting methods are applied to create displacement maps which can recreate fine detail on a low polygon mesh. During the scanning process, occluded areas may not get full texture detail and these need to be recreated through sampling of other parts of the model or similar media. Rigging provides a skeleton that can deform the digital mesh in the same way that armature might in a physical world stop-motion puppet. In order to test the Kraken and Mr Toad rigs, Clark developed understanding of motion through viewing original footage and through collaboration with Purves. Research insights: The project revealed that it is possible to develop animation from scans that were not initially archived with the intention of reanimating. Clark developed an efficient workflow from scanned artefact to animated article. The original stop-motion animation was 12 frames per second, and it was found that in order to replicate this effectively, the CGI animation had to be made on ones and at 12 frames per second, which is an unusual practice for CGI. Dissemination: The project was disseminated via exhibition at Waterside Arts, 15 November 2019 – 4 January 2020
Eye eye
No full textThe output is a creative project called ‘Eye Eye’ consisting of a series of largescale
printed textile and paper works. The project was a collaboration between
textile designer Slater and visual artist, Mawuena Kattah. Both artists responded to
shared connections in their practices, of pattern and textiles, image making, and
narrative found in family and personal iconography. Research process: Initial inquiry was undertaken at The Whitworth Wallpaper and Textile Collection.
Ideas were developed using textile and print as accessible and democratic
processes. Slater and Kattah questioned the nuances between artist and designer,
drawing upon their shared methods and tools. Their collaborative approach to
making, drawing and image development challenged the function of the studio and
the factory. Research insights: The notion of collaboration was questioned in relation to the roles of artist and designer. The dichotomy of studio and commercial practice was challenged within the context of textiles. Collaboration is important in keeping work relevant and innovative whilst sustaining the longevity of the creative economy. Through the project, Slater and Kattah argue that the design industry needs to acknowledge practitioners that come through alternative routes to practice. Dissemination: The project was disseminated at the following:
Exhibition: ‘Eye Eye’ - Colours May Vary, Leeds, 15-30 November 2019.
Seminar: ‘PROCESS I PATTERN I PRINT I PURPOSE’ The Whitworth Study Centre,
Design Manchester, 16 November 2019. Seminar: ‘Archives and Collections- Design in a Gallery Context’, The Hepworth Wakefield- 14th December 2019.
Editorial: ‘Together in Print’ by Jake Kennedy, Editorial Pressing Matters Magazine,
November 2019. Exhibition: Collect, Crafts Council, Somerset House, 25th February- 1st March 2020. Acquisition: V&A Textile Collection, ‘Eyes’ (Pink) and Screen-Printed Linen, November 2019, Laura Slater & Mawuena Kattah
[Im]moral food
No full textWhat do popular Instagram posts of food communicate about the morality of health in Neoliberal Capitalist Societies?
This slideshow of appropriated Instagram posts demarcates the visual identity and linguistic tropes attached to contemporary moralising rhetoric around food, which has become a mainstay of social media platform Instagram’s pictorial oeuvre. This simplistic division of foods into those which are good and those which are bad is often accompanied by deeper moral judgement of ways of living and a quasi-religious partition between the clean and the unclean. Such damning ideology is symptomatic of the neoliberal agenda of individualisation, which places full responsibility for physical and mental health and wellbeing at the level of the individual; an ideology which conceals the social and economic complexity of the choices we make about our food and lifestyle.
Commodified and spectacularised, the ‘healthy body’ acts as a sign-value for success, a strong work ethic and self-control; viewed as a productive resource and medium for creating ‘bodily capital’. By the same token, the unhealthy, shamed body: traditionally working class, poor, and other marginalized people; ‘are subjected to the “bio-power” of experts who impose upon these bodies judgments that explain their pathologies and failures’. On Instagram this logic is further codified into the semiotics of food, and underscored by accompanying hashtags. These hashtags sparingly spell out the user’s values through direction to others on how to behave, whilst also serving to affirm allegiances with virtual communities bound by these shared values through incantation like repetition of use. Through the use of hashtags a seemingly innocuous image of a meal is incorporated into a wider, ongoing dialogue about bodies, health and personal responsibility, and a private act becomes a public statement.
The slideshow of appropriated Instagram photographs of food represents a snapshot of this dialogue, emphasising the moralising binaries between healthy and unhealthy, good and bad, clean and unclean
The Art of surviving and thriving’ why do mature learners matter?: presenting a progression framework for mature learners in the arts
No full textThis paper ‘The Art of surviving and thriving’ is set in the context of higher education in a specialist arts university. With the challenge of mature students’ ‘unconventional educational histories’ (Broadhead 2012, 2018) a multi-layered progression framework is presented. This offers support for mature learners from Access to HE to Postgraduate education. It draws upon findings of Broadhead’s earlier doctoral research of Access to HE Arts students, one to one interviews to gain the students’ voices and examines current WP practice interventions in access, outreach and the student experience that facilitates a pathway into undergraduate and postgraduate study. Mature Learners make a valuable contribution to the art and design community in higher education. However many have been dissuaded from studying this subject area and at this level when younger. They have come to study the arts later in their lives. Mature learners come to higher education from diverse backgrounds and capacities. There are many social, cultural and economic reasons for their delayed entry into higher education. Although many mature students will have actively sought informal art and design education opportunities in short courses, gallery museum engagement and community settings before coming to Higher Education. They arrive with alternative qualifications, a wealth of prior experience and skills that they may not at first recognise as valuable to contribute to their success. The learner brings with them ‘phronesis’, their practical wisdom and earlier acquired experiences. They have succeeded to navigate a myriad of barriers and difficulties, such as careers, caring responsibilities, mental health, finance and confidence to enter into their course of study. Once on undergraduate study, the mature learner is in danger of feeling marginalised in the predominantly younger student cohort. This results in lower satisfaction responses in the National Student Survey, they are less likely to be happy with the Student Union, much more critical of the organisation and management of their course. Alternative pedagogies and student support mechanisms have been put in place across the whole student lifecycle. These interventions have had to be designed to be appropriate for mature learners, to accommodate their needs throughout their whole educational journey. Our approach is underpinned by the recognition and celebration of their particular strengths and aptitudes and addresses academic, socialisation and participatory aspects of their student experience. The resulting progression framework that is presented, of student focused interventions, that addresses the whole student lifecycle. Support and opportunities have been put in place for them in pre-access, further education, undergraduate and postgraduate stages so they can become successful creatives. The key to the success of these practical interventions is that they are cross institutional strategies; timely, accessible and flexible, but importantly also focuses on the individual needs of the student. In turn the student as alumni of the university then contributes to the cycle of education for others they encounter in their sphere as influencers, as their contribution back to their community and in the public realm by their advocacy for the Arts
Window displays as vehicles of social commentary: The case of Harvey Nichols
No full textThe output is a case study about Harvey Nichols, the luxury department store. Specifically, it is about how they used the window displays of their London store in September 2018 in order to commemorate the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK. The case study has been created for teaching purposes, particularly for students that are becoming familiarised with different notions of branding and visual merchandising. Research process: A variety of literature relating to window displays and visual merchandising was consulted. Additionally, examples of other fashion brands using window displays as a medium of social discourse were researched. Also, different public sources such as social media, websites and blogs were examined to identify the reactions of the public to the revelation of the Harvey Nichols window displays. Research insights: The case study begins with learning objectives. Through a combination of theory and narrative the story is presented accompanied by questions that are there to stimulate conversation and reflection. Also, teaching notes are available for tutor use as a guide to further tasks/assignments that could be based on this specific case. Dissemination: It is published on the subscription-only online resource Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases Academics and University libraries from around the world have access to the resource and tutors are invited to use the case studies as part of their teaching practices
Expanding communities of sustainable practice symposium proceedings 2018
No full textWe are excited to present the proceedings from our second one-day symposium at Leeds Arts University focusing on how to expand communities of sustainable practice within and beyond art and design schools. Given the need for art and design education to transform its mode of operating in times of massive ecological crises, the symposium was an opportunity to learn from cases of good practice, to get feedback on one’s initiatives and to network with others eager to make art and design education an effective advocate of sustainable practice. Communities of sustainable practice are groups or networks of educators, designers, artists, craftspeople, researchers and students who aim to place sustainability concerns at the heart of their practice. Through the symposium we wanted to provide a space for people involved in such initiatives to effectively network and strategise together in order to enhance the positive impact and reach of what they do. During this one-day symposium, we focused on the importance of collaboration and networks in creating art and design practices that contribute to eco-social sustainability. We were especially interested in complicating as well as expanding the notions of sustainability within art and design education and how they contribute to engaging the public in sustainable and progressively transformative eco-social practices. We are convinced that sustainability is also about meshing up and intersecting practice and theory, thus the day encompassed theoretical and practical engagements with sustainability – always with a focus on making this day productive in terms of building alliances, projects and shared commitments between the people attending. People who are active within art and design schools who foster sustainability initiatives contributed to the debates: tutors, students, technicians, researchers and more. We especially valued contributions by students as this is where many of the most innovative initiatives come from. This one-day event included a presentation by keynote speaker Dr. Joanna Boehnert, parallel discussion sessions where participants presented their initiatives and networking lunch enabling discussions allowing knowledge transfer around pressing issues that art and design education faces in terms of engaging with ecological crises