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463 research outputs found
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Is It To Feel Each Limb Grow Stiffer, Is It To Feel The full Potential Of A Life?
Full text linkThis output is a journal article, articulating issues that have emerged from an art practice now responding to ageing and memory, both as practice-based drawing research and as research undertaken as part of a community group that has been looking at how to manage the ageing process.
Research process: Barker’s practice as an artist revolves around making and drawing led conversations with people, whereby conversations held are translated into images using various making and drawing processes.
As an individual, Barker is getting older and, as this very natural process becomes more noticeable (more aches and pains, a growing awareness of mortality and, of course, more conversations with people of a similar age) his drawings, artwork, and community engagements have reflected these things. In particular, Barker’s recent work has begun to embody issues that have emerged from their research into ageing and memory, both as practice-based drawing research and as research undertaken as part of a community group that has been looking at how to manage the aging process.
This article documents and delves into Barker’s recent artistic engagements.
Research insights: Barker’s drawing practice is based on conversation with others and is, by its very nature, a constantly evolving one and one that follows the changing nature of conversations as they unfold. The process of aging is rarely the subject of fine art practice and this body of conversations, drawings and ceramics begins to establish the groundwork for further investigation into the area.
Dissemination: This article is published as part of volume 15 of Loughbrough University’s publication TRACEY. This work has also been shown in presentations to the Leeds Older People’s Forum, reflections on the work have been hosted in the Life Hacks for a Limited Future blog
Crossing the Line
Full text linkThe output is a performative artwork consisting of fifty meters of crime scene tape created from appliqued blue and white satin ribbon.
Research Process: Crossing the Line was made the during the Covid 19 summer of 2020 in response to escalating domestic violence incidents triggered by the pandemic restrictions. UK crime scene tape has the phrase ‘Police Line Do Not Cross’ printed in blue on white. This phrase is subverted by replacing the word police, with every other word that might precede the word line; coast line, waist line, straight line etc. With the addition of ‘Do Not Cross’, these textual interventions take on multiple layers of meaning. Coast Line Do Not Cross becomes a comment on immigration, Waist Line Do Not Cross a comment on sexual harassment, Straight Line Do Not Cross on transphobia.
Chambers performed with this tape walking in and around her home, climbing out of the living room window and returning through the front door. This work exists as a film of this performance and as a sculptural object.
Research Insights: Several new works were made during the Covid-19 pandemic as a response to the circumstances women found themselves confronted with: domestic violence, depression, loneliness, isolation and desire to escape from home. This was the first performance of an artwork which led to further investigation of embodied actions arising from sculptural works.
Dissemination: In addition to public performances, Mis(s)placed Women? concluded with an online event and discussion panel at the Centre for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade, Chambers being an invited participant. Crossing the Line was performed live around the buildings in front of the audience, and streamed live to online participants. Crossing the Line was shown at a film screening event for House, Home and the Domestic Symposium at Coventry University, 22nd October 2021
What can critical thinking do for access to Higher Education adult learners at a Further Education arts institution? Reflections on a poetry group.
No full textThis chapter on developing critical thinking skills is likely to be of interest to further education lecturers, and those involved in the arts and pedagogy of widening participation, access and lifelong learning. This qualitative, practitioner research chapter discusses how a critical thinking intervention of a Poetry Group may benefit some students encouraging confidence in speaking, progression and social cohesion in a Community of Inquiry. The hypothesis asks what critical thinking can do for adult learners, and lifelong widening participation students. Early findings are that critical thinking nurtures a dialogic attitude, the confidence to question and problem solving skills
Echo Chambers I / Echo Chambers II
No full text‘Echo Chambers I and II’ are a pair of sculptures by Dale, resembling towers, scaled to the artist’s proportions.
Research process: The works reflect Dale's longstanding interest in the physical effects of ideology (in this case, visualising the notion of the ‘echo chamber’ [social or political polarisation] as a mode of segregation or imprisonment), as well as a continuing interest in sculpture as expanded drawing. They are a subset of an on-going collaboration with Prof. Adam Smyth exploring the visualisation of a grangerised edition of Ovid’s Art of Love (1813).
Research insights: The sculptures extended Dale's knowledge of material, volume and form through the exploration of lightweight, pliable materials and inspired further work around the activation of sculpture through performance.
Dissemination: The work was commissioned and exhibited as part of the group exhibition ‘Remote Work’ at The Grundy, Blackpool, 27 March – 19 June 2021
Pea Green Surprise
Full text linkThe output is a single photograph taken by Robinson, commissioned for the ‘Curious Colour’ exhibition at Linden Mill Galleries.
Research Process:
Participants were invited to respond a single colour of their choice from the British Colour Council’s ‘Dictionary of Colour Standards’, published in 1951. Robinson's work responds directly to colour 172 ‘Pea Green'. It explores the language of commercial colour photography, referencing cookbooks and recipe cards made popular in the 1950s and 1960s, in keeping with the era in which the ‘Dictionary of Colour Standards’ was produced. Many colours in the ‘Dictionary of Colour Standards’ are named after foods, suggesting the connection between the two topics.
Research Insights:
This project continues my research into mid-20th century cookbooks, exploring the lavish and colourful imagery which appears in these volumes. Major advancements in colour photographic processes in this period contributed to a huge increase in the use of full-page colour photographs in cookbooks, and mark a shift towards photographs which are aspirational rather than instructional. These carefully crafted images perpetuate an idealised version of domesticity, presenting food as a visual spectacle, often in the context of entertainment and social advancement.
Dissemination:
The work was exhibited as part of the ‘Curious Colour’ group exhibition at Linden Mill Galleries 1-31 August 2021. The exhibition was organised and curated by artist Heather Boxhall
What Eliza and Jake did next: Learning beyond access to HE art and design?
Full text linkThis chapter considers the wider social impact an Access to Higher Education Diploma (AHED) has beyond those educational benefits gained by individual students. This is an example of an Access course, which are designed in the United Kingdom to give those older students without qualifications a means of going to university. It is argued that the altruistic motives of some of the students extend the sphere of influence of their education beyond themselves and their immediate families to other communities. In relation to the ‘possibility of hope’ within adult education as advocated by Raymond Williams (1989) it can be seen that the students aimed to share their skills and knowledge gleaned from their learning experiences that included their AHED course. It also appeared that they chose to undertake this activity on the margins of mainstream education
It Is Solved By Walking
No full text‘It Is Solved By Walking’ is a durational performance in which Dale, suspended in the air via a harness, attempts to go for a walk. Both Dale and the audience are able to see her (lack of) progress reflected in the large round mirror below her feet.
Research process: As well as reflecting on Begehungen Festival’s theme of ‘Leerzeit’ (idle time), the work was also informed by the philosophical tradition ‘solvitur ambulando’ – how a problem might be solved via practical experiment. The work re-framed Bruce Nauman’s walking performances (in particular, the contrapposto studies) for a contemporary setting.
Research insights: The work presented the impossibility of moving forward despite ‘walking’ as a visual metaphor for the imbalance between effort and reward that underpins contemporary labour.
Dissemination: The work was performed live at Islington Mill, Salford, UK and live-streamed at Begehungen Festival, Germany (12-15 August). These events included public tours, printed leaflets and a catalogue. The work was reviewed by Mike Pinnington in ‘The Double Negative’
Arranged in Time and Space
No full text‘Arranged in Time and Space’ is an artist’s book by Dale (edition of 1) presented in a black wooden box and comprising 49 printed cards, a memory stick, a pair of white gloves and three lengths of wood, each of a different width.
Research process: The artist was commissioned – alongside other artists, writers and creatives - to respond to one or more of the ‘50 Jewish Objects’ in The University of Manchester’s collection. The work became an act of translation, seeking to convey both difficulties in understanding the archival items and recognising human experience from across its centuries.
Research insights: The work became an impossible quest for a personal language that might be shared, resulting in a work that resembles a puzzle. Across sculpture, photography, creative writing, video and audio, the work’s individual components are linked in their exploration of the human senses, with particular reference to touch.
Dissemination: The work was commissioned by the Centre for Jewish Thought, The University of Manchester. It has become part of the John Rylands library collection on 31 March 2021. The creative process was documented and reflected upon via a dedicated blog and the artist created a short online presentation discussing the work and its impetus
Chernobyl: Thirty Years On
Full text linkThe output is an exhibition of 12 photographs taken by Young in Chernobyl 30 years after the nuclear devastation.
Research process: In May 2016, exactly 30 years after the disaster, Young visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station and the nearby abandoned city of Pripyat. The experience affected him in ways he did not expect. What was previously alien was now also eerily familiar. The city of Pripyat reminded him in so many ways of the city he grew up in. The utilitarian architecture and uniform paint schemes reminded Young of the 1980s’ council estates of the Halewood and Speke areas of Liverpool where his grandparents lived. The concrete pipes and iron frames of the children’s playgrounds in Pripyat looked just like the swings in Greenbank Park where he would play as a child. A disaster, that happened far away, felt uncomfortably close to home. Young took a number of photographs during his visit. But it has taken him five years to be able to really look at them.
Research Insights: Through the course of his research, Young has developed a methodology he calls ‘reductionism’. He defines reductionism as ‘storytelling through absence’. By deciding what to leave out of a story one can allow the audience to place themselves in it making it more meaningful for them. There is a lot of ‘absence’ in the story of the Chernobyl disaster. First there was an absence of truth in what the residents of Pripyat were told. And now there is an absence of people from the exclusion zone. The images of buildings taken in a Soviet Union that no longer exists. But still stand today. The council blocks of south Liverpool have, mostly, been knocked down.
Dissemination: A collection of 12 photographs exhibited at Cafe Blah in Manchester from 16th - 30th October 2021
Pragmatic White Allyship for Higher Education Popular Music Academics
Full text linkThe world watched the killing of George Floyd from a position of covid induced captivation. The succeeding global protests and Black Lives Matter movement justly prompted us all to consider our own complicity with the modes of systemic racism which have normalised anti-Black thought and action. The Wonkhe@Home: Black Lives Matter event (July 2020) sought to share pragmatic advice for ‘taking action to tackle racism across HE’, aware of the responsibility for the Higher Education sector to acknowledge its own role in consecrating racist forms of knowledge. This ‘statement’ translates session outcomes for Popular Music Educators (PME), provoking the ethical imperative to reflect upon individual situational praxis’ towards White Allyship action. Through consideration of PME’s typical fields of agency, suggestions are made towards development of anti-racist learning cultures within Popular Music Higher Education