Leeds Arts University Repository
Not a member yet
463 research outputs found
Sort by
Freedomination
Get PDFFreedom and domination appear to be mutually exclusive concepts. This performance draws attention to this binary, through the concepts of objectification and empowerment, by exposing and exploring a grey area in between. Women in contemporary societies often experience a simultaneous mix of overt and subtle messaging in adverts that suggest a women’s power is confined to her attractiveness and desirability. There exists a plethora of consumer products promising to liberate women if they choose to objectify themselves. Some of these messages are overt and highly sexualized as in Victoria Secret ad campaigns, others such as Dove ad campaigns offer a more subtle narrative that beauty is a path to better health. The adverts use sexual subjectification to promote commodities and the freedom to consume has become a pervasive form of oppression. Freedomination recognises this paradox and seeks to expose it through dialogue. Set up like an unruly debate, the Soapbox performance will ask: has feminism become a pursuit of freedom that is little more than a freedom to consume, and sexual empowerment that is confined to a highly commodified from of self-objectification
Conflict and activism
No full textThis panel was convened in order to bring together various approaches to ‘conflict and activism’ that had an anthropological reading within a fine art context. In particular it explored drawing practices in relation to inner city realities. Barker's own peer reviewed paper ‘Drawings of stories told’, was concerned with drawings made in response to being embedded within a community development organisation, (Newton Futures) and of how the drawings made in support of community development led on to a series of further drawing led investigations, that responded to stories being told to myself as I was making drawings standing in the streets of my local community. The presentation was developed out of the research material Barker had developed for a chapter in the book; ‘Collective and collaborative drawing in contemporary practice’. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 192-215. ISBN 9781527503472. The chapter ‘Drawing as a tool for shaping community experience into collective allegory’ explored how a practice that began with being embedded within a community development organisation, moved on to walking through a community and drawing, and had become over time a practice that was responding to the stories told by individuals met whilst drawings were being made.
The development of an allegorical practice that had further evolved from this work was also highlighted, and a debate was undertaken as to what were the real benefits of this type of work to the community that had stimulated the initial idea
Not really understanding stuff: A reptile reliquary
Get PDFThe output is an artefact, a sculptural crocodile called ‘Not Really Understanding Stuff: A Reptile Reliquary’. Research process: The composition is made from heavily embellished textures and written text. Part of the form is made from found objects such as a deflated blow up doll occupying the crocodile’s mouth, axle stands acting as a plinth. Gruesome found imagery from the internet is collaged onto the surface, contrasting with the patterned skin. Research insights: The piece responds to the exhibition’s theme, focusing on the conditions of modern man from a political, sexual and violent perspective. At first, the crocodile appears to be a decorative, visual feast. But at the same time, it reveals dark imagery that seeks to remind the viewed of the ways in which society has become desensitised to the representations of violence. Dissemination: The artefact was disseminated as part of The Vagaries and Misconceptions of the Modern Man at Vane Gallery, 19th January – 24th February 2018
Me & You
Get PDFThe output is an exhibition, ‘Me & You’, curated by Gaffney, and featuring the work of Linda Schwab.
Research process: The exhibition is a curated display of material outputs from Gaffney’s artistic research that defines a particular approach in sculptural practice as ‘Embodied Dreaming’. This making approach is informed by the psychoanalytical writings of Christopher Bollas. The artefacts, individually and as a group, demonstrate the traditional sculptural processes of modelling and casting to be pertinent manual techniques for contemporary identity formations that have class, gender and multigenerational ethnicity in their scope. The source material for life modelling was personal family photographs in which Gaffney featured aged 5 or 6 years old, that provided her with a register of classed and gendered subjectivity, situation, place and an internalised knowledge from her lived experience. Gaffney used casting processes to simultaneously predetermine the production and reproduction of objects identified in the photographs. Casting enabled the systematic investigation into the selected entities which both established knowledge of them and produced material conclusions.
Research insights: The exhibition contributes to the histories of sculpture in Britain, a phenomenon that Gaffney argues has no register of identity formation within it. The ‘Embodied Dreaming’ approach embeds the psychic life of the maker within the action of making, bringing together critical and analytical practices with action based, manual processes in a way that has relevance to contemporary identity questions. Gaffney asked questions about how sculpture can convey what it is like to inhabit a woman’s body as she, the researcher, knows it, which is differently positioned from the masculine contributions to the history of figuration that constitute the European and British sculptural canon from Rodin to the present day. Dissemination: The research was disseminated at Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax, 17 February- 20 May 2018
Practical wisdom and democratic education: phronesis, art and non-traditional students
No full textPhronesis or practical wisdom has been understood in relation to the professions where people were able to deliberate wisely by drawing upon their knowledge, character and experience. This project proposes that non-traditional (mature or Access) students also have the potential to draw upon their practical wisdom in order to act well on their degrees. Using the ideas of the educational sociologist Basil Bernstein1924-2000 it is argued that higher education within art and design in particular advantaged some groups of students over others. He proposed a democratic education where everyone felt enhanced, included and able to participate. Informed by his work, this book argues that phronesis, the ability to deliberate well should be an intrinsic part of a democratic education not only in the arts but in other vocational and academic disciplines and subjects.
This includes consideration of four case studies that discuss the narratives of four post Access-to HE students during the three-four years of their degrees in art and design.
The book aims to make the work of Basil Bernstein accessible to those interested in the sociology of education (students, academics, managers and researchers). It ends with some recommendations for students, Access to HE tutors and lecturers in Higher Education regarding what is good and what is right in democratic curriculum design and pedagogy in Art Education in particular and more widely in other subjects and disciplines
Dreamers
Get PDFThe text in this immersive installation refers to the “Windrush” and “Dreamers” communities in the UK and the US respectively, whose citizenship has been under threat of revocation by current ruling governments. The use of optical illusions demonstrates the fugitive nature of truth, by aligning the inherent biases in human visual perception with implicit social, political and racial biases in our news media. The text is installed to replicate a visual distortion illusion in which the segments of different colour text trigger a visual stimulus that is misinterpreted by the brain, leading to the perception that the columns of text and curved. The illusion a of crooked line signifies a broken promise to the Windrush and Dreamers communities. Davin Watne and Dawn Woolley work collaboratively, under the name Hard Stop, to produce art interventions that question notions of truth in contemporary society
Woodpecker
No full textThis output is a creative project comprising a song and a film based on the final years of the Cold War. ‘Woodpecker’ is a song about the Duga Over the Horizon radar system, told through an imagined dialogue between the residents of Pripyat and the gay community of San Francisco in the mid 1980s. It works in conjunction with a film that is played during the performance of the song. Research Process:
For this project, Young wrote the lyrics, made the film and played the drums. He collaborated with 3 other musicians (The Shops), Janet Holmes (vocals), Alan Holmes (guitar) and Alex Russell (Synthesiser). In 2016, Young visited and climbed the Duga Radio structure, just outside Chernobyl in Ukraine. It was operational during the early to mid 1980s. The film that accompanies the performance of the song is made from photographs Young took at the site. Research insights: The Duga systems broadcast a repetitive tapping noise which led to it being nicknamed by short wave listeners as the ‘Russian Woodpecker’. This tapping sound is sampled in the song. Duga still stands in the 10km exclusion zone just outside the town of Pripyat. It does not appear on any maps. The radar was supposed to detect the launch of American nuclear missiles. After talking to people on the ground on site, Young discovered that the radar system never worked as intended. He also discovered that the Jupiter Radio factory in Pripyat was a cover for a nuclear weapon development site. This is referenced in the song. Dissemination: The song was performed by The Shops at the IASDR Conference 2019 at Manchester Metropolitan University on 2nd September 2019, in front of the accompanying film. R Fest, 5th July 2019, Manchester
Club Academy, 28th June 2019, Manchester
Night & Day, 19th April 2019, Manchester
The Cavern, 7th November 2018, Liverpool
Fuel Bar, 29th September 2018, Mancheste
Intern
No full textIntern is a digital artefact that supports the next generation of creatives, who may be faced with the prospect of unpaid internships as an access route to industry. It aims to help build aspirational careers. Research Process: As Editor-in-chief and Creative Director of Intern, Dudson uses practice-based research through on-going consultation and conversations with a growing network of creative and academic professionals. The dissemination of his research also functions as a means of trialing ideas. Dudson uses the website readership, newsletter subscribers and social media audience (38k) to steer the focus of his research, exploring current issues that impact on creative careers. Research Insights: As digital media becomes an increasingly influential tool for brands and businesses globally, the creative industry is having to shift and reassess its offering in order to take advantage of new opportunities, satisfy demand and deliver an evolving range of services. This, inevitably has an impact on the skills that the creative industry demands of its new entrants, who are often expected to be proficient across design, animation, video and copywriting even at entry-level unpaid positions. Technology is contributing to the shift towards freelance work, with current projections estimating that by 2027, over 50% of the US workforce will be self-employed (Freelancing in America, 2017). Through the editorial work, it has been discovered that freelancers are experiencing a changing context with regard to workplaces, wages, mental health, personal branding strategy and legal considerations. Dissemination: The research insights from this project have been disseminated at: • Out There, Goldsmiths University, March 2018. • Roger Hatchuel Academy Programme, Cannes Lions, June 2018.• Internet Age Media Conference, Barcelona, March 2019
• Falmouth University, April 2019
A design driven approach to 3D printing textiles from recycled polyester
No full textPolyester is aligned to the industrial cycle and as such needs to be preserved as a recyclable resource. (Goldsworthy, 2009). In the last 50 years alone plastic production has increased by 500% and when discarded often ends up in the rivers and sea creating ‘plastic soup’. Finding new ways to recycle this into new things is infinitely better than creating new as it saves on CO2 emissions and the ever decreasing resource of oil it starts out as C.A. Griffiths et al (2016) noted this means that the design stage must consider constraints of time and cost and to furthermore consider sustainability and the need to seek to reduce scrap. Due to the nature of 3D printing, it only uses the material needed for a product with exceptions of small supporting pieces during additive manufacturing, rather than the subtraction approach in manufacturing which involves controlled material removal but involves a lot of waste. 3D printing has been known as a throw away fad and one which can produce lots of waste itself as with both novice and amateur makers there are often mistakes which end up in the bin. While, plastics are still recycled at low rates in centralized recycling facilities, distributed plastic recycling to produce filament for 3DP could help increased this rate at a lower economic and environ-mental cost (Kreiger et al., 2014). However, at present the market in raw materials for 3DP remains highly concentrated. Even though 3DP plastic is processed into filament by a range of both small and large companies, feedstock is supplied by a handful of large polymer producers (Despeisse, M., et al 2016) There are number of stake holders already involved in this unique area, from the reprocessing companies to the manufacturers of the filament and the grinders of the virgin material, fashion brands, 3D printing companies and charitable foundations involved in sustainability issues regarding plastics and finally, designers. This paper seeks to outline these stake holders in detail and showcase the current work of the researcher where by in developing the ‘2 Way Closed Loop Cycle’, new textile structures have been designed and printed using recycled polyester. Using a design driven approach the structures of existing 3D Printed textiles were analyzed and new structures were designed based on the properties of the recycled material. From a subject only in its infancy, the researcher aims to show the potential of such an experimental idea and how it could change future maker markets and give the fashion industry another route to take in order to close the loop
Consumed: stilled lives - Blyth Gallery
Get PDFConsumed: Stilled Lives plays with the traditional concept of still-life painting, which grew in popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries. Often featuring silver plates, ornate glassware and expensive foodstuffs such as shellfish and exotic fruit, still life paintings became a fashionable way for the Dutch and Flemish to illustrate their wealth. When interpreted using emblematic symbolism the paintings represent a conflicting relation with material wealth. In response to this reading Woolley produces still-life objects that suggest contradictory relationships to contemporary consumer culture. Drawing on both definitions of the term ‘consume’ (to ingest and to purchase) she uses food still-life photography to represent different characters and positions in relation to capitalist society. What we eat and how we eat are symbols of our wider consumer habits. We are what we consume. In addition to photographs and installation this exhibition presents a series of still life objects installed in vitrines. The Celebrate installations suggest the conviviality of a feast but the materials used to make the food disrupt this reading. The objects were produced in response to research into the visualisation of food in eating disorders. Food is imagined to be drained of colour and aroma to help suppress desire. The food is inedible, eradicating its value as food. In the white installation (objects produced in 2012 with supported by a training grant from the Arts Council of Wales), the food is made of the same porcelain as the containers, raising the food to the status of a crafted and delicate object. The grey party food is made of concrete, a common, inexpensive material. The black banquet is made from plastic, material that will not break-down, it is indigestible. The different materials evoke the shifting status of food in the lives of eating disorder sufferers, in turn object of disgust and obsession. Two new installations ‘Barmecide Feast’ devised for the exhibition at Blyth Gallery, are named after Barmecide, a prince in Arabian Nights. Barmecide invites a beggar to a feast, but serves only imaginary food. The beggar plays along, acting as though he were intoxicated by the imaginary wine and hitting the host during a drunken brawl. Eventually the beggar is rewarded with real food. The Barmecide feast has become a name for situations, in which promises are made but not delivered and acts of generosity that are no more than illusions. In the installations the illusion of plenitude and extravagance is undermined by the material of the food. The overabundance of newspaper headlines are intended to leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth, and invoke ideas of food insecurity