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463 research outputs found
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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
Traditional leather making
Full text linkThe output is a collection of artefacts comprising handmade leather accessories which explore traditional techniques, made from Vegetable Tanned leather. Research process: The focus of the research process was sourcing vegetable-tanned leathers and exploring traditional techniques and executing them to a high standard. Sourcing the leathers was mostly done online, contacting suppliers and tanneries directly and speaking to other leather-makers. By building up a library of vegetable-tanned leathers, Roe found suitable leathers for the artefacts. This included a matt grey leather which felt modern and relevant to the objects. Learning traditional techniques came from a combination of reading, connecting with leather-makers and observing the techniques to learn the process. A lot of experimenting took place to execute the techniques, such as the saddle stitching, well. Research insights: Learning traditional leather-making techniques and working with vegetable tanned leather to create modern artefacts has allowed Roe to have a thorough understanding of how craftsmanship can be applied to contemporary, everyday fashion apparel. The process of hand-making resulted in extremely high quality, long lasting pieces. There is a market for this in the current fashion climate where fast fashion is having such a
detrimental impact on the environment. The research also highlighted some of the challenges that crafters can face in modern society, such as: the time it takes to produce each item (for example the tote bag takes 18-19 hours to produce), the high costs of materials (vegetable tanned leather is 2.5-3 times more expensive than chrome dyed other leathers). Craftsmanship lends itself to small batch production, higher retail costs and a specific market. Dissemination: The artefacts were disseminated via social media and an online portfolio on www.zealous.com
'Kannan Arunasalam: the tent' review
No full textA review of the exhibition Kannan Arunasalam: The Tent at The Tetley, Leeds, 16 February-2 June 2019. Discussing the works The Tent (2018), Kerosene (2011) and Paper (2011).The article highlights the film makers use of documentary conventions and how he has adapted these for the first gallery-based presentation of his work
Trusting Technê: An exploration into the creative value of learning through doing
Full text linkThis paper takes the form of a testimonial experience reflecting on the piloting of two undergraduate projects. Students on the BA (Hons) Fashion course at Leeds Arts University, United Kingdom (UK), were required to start the design process by participating in a series of kinesthetic workshops, solely based on exploratory pattern cutting principles. Sourcing any visual inspiration or references was prohibited, thus distorting students’ preconceived notions of what constitutes a linear design system. Encouraging design ideas to emerge from creative cutting principles rather than sourced imagery aims to embed ‘technê’ (practically applied knowledge); emphasise the importance of tacit epistemologies in a pedagogical context; enhance creative impact; and instigate autonomous learning. The paper will also serve to illustrate the creative potential of eliminating visual research from the early stages of the design process
Thomas Houseago: When art and life blurred together, a biographical tribute
Full text linkA text written in response to the idea of the artist as a fictional being that needs an underlying myth in order for a wider understanding of the artist and their work to be achieved. This text further cemented the idea that semi-fictional narratives could be developed out of real experiences, and that in doing this more effective communication could be developed with both specialist and non art audiences. The text was written for the catalogue of first large retrospective exhibition of the work of Thomas Houseago and was written directly in response to real experiences. A mythic narrative was developed to take the original experience and to mould it into a story that now had traction as an idea of what as an artist Houseago could now be. His Yorkshire roots highlighted and developed as a grand narrative that could support the ‘weight’ of his current practice. The text was peer reviewed by the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris editors as well as by Thomas Houseago himself. This aspect of my narrative practice continues the stories begun in the book ‘Art and Fiction’ and has been revisited several times since, including the Library Interventions project, the exhibition ‘Insidious Materials’ and the stories told in conjunction with the Henry Moore Institute performance event, Tales from a Sculpture City
Necrotic biography room
Full text linkThe output is a creative project, a two-channel moving image work exhibited as an installation at Pavilion, Leeds. The installation consisted of a 30-minute digital video and a 1-minute 2D animation. Research Process: ‘Necrotic Biography Room’ -- the title refers to a phantasmagorical 'room' frequently alluded to in the script -- developed from two related interests: (i) artworks that 'return to the scene' and (ii) the 'behind the scenes' documentary. An earlier version was exhibited at ‘Library Interventions: Moving Knowledge’, which provided a testing ground. During the first phase, Steans realised the process of filming was as interesting as the ostensible subject, or 'scene', and the very concept of 'behind the scenes' was itself a 'scene'. Subsequently it became a film about the making of itself. Research insights: ‘Necrotic Biography Room’, like Foster's 'traumatic realism' (1996), depends not on a stable dichotomy between the world and the artwork but on interlinked processes of receptive experience and artistic production. The concept 'returning to the scene' helps to figure a privileging of receptive and productive processes, implying agency or action on the part of the artist. ‘Necrotic Biography Room’ also evidences a kind of ‘versioning’, meaning that projects materialise as series of published iterations, each one a singular version and an adaptation of previous ones. Steans likens versioning to Edmond's 'iterative poetics' (2011), with which Edmond describes the work of Caroline Bergvall. Versioning relates to Steans' thinking on horror – it adapts and evolves in a similar way to genres that mutate over time, propagating new subgenres through repetition and difference (Neale 1980; 1985). Dissemination: ‘Necrotic Biography Room’ has been competitively shortlisted and screened at New Flesh residency website; ‘Necrotic Biography Room’, Pavilion, Leeds, 2019; ‘Library Interventions’, 2018
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
They also ran
No full textThe output is an artefact, a photograph informed by the Race Tech archive, capturing a dog participating in a sporting event. Research process: Race Tech is the dedicated technical facilities provider that has maintained British Racing at the forefront of global broadcast technology for more than 70 years, its archives include filmed photo finishes from all major races since 1945 as well as images from the Olympic games and other sporting events. Through archival exploration, Williams became interested in the representation of competitors who aren’t competing for the results. He scanned numerous negatives, specifically analysing images of dogs that were in danger of being erased and forgotten because they were not winners. He selected one image in particular that typified his findings. Research insight: During the process of analysing a small element of a much larger archive, Williams considered the technical approaches employed to evidence events. He found that these approaches result in very specific visual outputs with aesthetic qualities. The way in which the disregarded dogs are represented is somehow erased or distorted by the machinery recording the event; only the competing bodies are worthy of recording, the rest are written out of this point of history. The indexical relationship between the subject and the photographic is diminished in the case of the losing dogs. Dissemination: The artefact was exhibited as part of ‘Make Good’, Leeds Arts University, 27 September 2019 and within ‘Peers’, Vrij Paleis Amsterdam, 29 September 2019 as part of the ‘Unseen’ Photography festival
To Hide Ones Face from God
Full text linkThe output is an artefact comprising a series of five photographs. The images
depict the ancient French eating ritual of the Ortolan bird. This now illegal
tradition consists of capturing this tiny endangered songbird which is then drowned in Armagnac brandy, plucked and cooked before being eaten in an elaborate and ritualistic dinner. The bird is eaten whole, headfirst, organs, bones and head intact and with the diner's head shrouded by a napkin, to savour the aroma and it's said, to hide one's face from God. Research process: Allen’s practice draws from her relationship with nature and how at odds it is with
the societal behaviours imposed on us. Birds feature heavily in her more recent
work, being the symbol of innocence, fragility and beauty; the dichotomy between
nature’s purity and society’s urge to consume. Allen created a series of staged
photographs that reference French and Dutch genre and still life painting.
Research insights: This theatrical culinary act has transformed the bird from a symbol of innocence to an act of gluttony symbolic of mans’ fall from grace. The photographs communicate the dichotomy between shame and the urge to consume through visual metaphor. Dissemination: This output was disseminated as part of the Make Good exhibition at Leeds Arts University, September 2019 and also exhibited in “PEERS” at Vrij Paleis, Amsterdam, September 2019
Office exercises
Full text link‘Office Exercises’ is a photographic series translating the repetitive daily routine
of contemporary society. Research Process: The research process included the use of choreographed and improvised
movements and poses to visually communicate the repetitive actions used in the workplace. Aspects of the absurd, the everyday and the links between health and the workplace formed the framework of the series. Research Insights:
‘Office Exercises’ is a photographic series translating the repetitive daily routine of contemporary society. Office exercises are promoted to the work force through
the use of corporate signage around the workspace, communicating the importance of health and wellbeing. This communication is often in conflict with the realistic nature of work environments, that can often result in a narrative of long work hours, burnout and exhaustion. The performance of the exercises symbolises the ongoing pressure to achieve and produce whist experiencing
feelings of restriction and inertia. Dissemination: The project was disseminated via exhibition at ‘Beyond the Camera’, Diesel Engine Factory B1, Pingyao International Photography Festival, ‘Jump’, The Gallery Liverpool, Look Photo Biennial and a poster campaign