Leeds Arts University Repository
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Lightworks
No full textThe output is a curated project called ‘Lightworks’ culminating in a show in 2016. The project was funded by Arts Council England, North East Lincs Council, Shoreline Housing Association and local businesses. The premise of the event was to reclaim the unloved and dangerous parts of Grimsby Town for local people. Holley, with his business partner Chris Lillywhite, organised and curated the event.
Research process: The project started as a local event but became an international one. A series of landmark buildings in the centre of Grimsby were chosen to create an immersive environment of carefully curating sound art, film projection, digital mapping, physical 2 and 3 d works and performance. The 2016 event centred around a group of brutalist tower blocks that were condemned for demolition the following year. The event featured art by established and emerging practitioners. Work was commissioned and selected from local, national and international artists and filmmakers. Research insights: The project was created with these values and insights: art is for everyone; events should be for the senses as well as the brain; art can make you feel differently about where you live; location is important; more is sometimes better; ambition, soul and teamwork are everything. Holley found that one does not have to know about art to enjoy the work. Dissemination: The project was disseminated via exhibition at ‘Lightworks’ in Grimsby town centre, 16 October – 13 November 2016
Leeds Print Festival x G.F. Smith Print Archive
No full textThe output is a creative project, Leeds Print Festival x G.F. Smith Print Archive. The researcher constructed an ‘archive’ of prints inspired by G. F. Smith’s Colourplan range. G.F.Smith’s iconic Colourplan was developed in 1936 and over the decades expanded to a range of fifty colours. Evolving from the relatively muted palette of naturals “Smoke” and “China White” to the explosive colours of “Mandarin” and “Vermillion” added in the 1960s. The colours developed are a clear reflection of the time they were created, with “Mist” a recent addition that celebrates a more natural and organic hue. Research process: An archive was created working with papers from GF Smith’s Colorplan range and using contemporary and traditional print making process to celebrate the paper’s colour by responding to associations the colour may hold. The intention was to document more just a collection of paper but to celebrate it, as becomes part of a printed image. The processes included deboss, screenprint, letterpress, monoprint and foiling. Research insights: The Colourplan range had previously not been an archive of papers showing the practical application. By combining print materials and processes, colour adjustments could be made during the printing process, thus creating a body of research through practical investigation. Dissemination: The project was disseminated by exhibition at Leeds Print Festival, Munro House, 2 – 29 April 2016
The World Percussion Group (WPG)
Get PDFThe World Percussion Group (WPG) is an ensemble devised and developed by Jason Huxtable & Timothy Palmer (Maraca2 Percussion Duo) to address the professional development needs of young professional percussionists around the world. Research process: The WPG’s first tour took place in 2016 and the ensemble has, over the course of four previous incarnations, provided opportunities for 45 young performers from 18 different countries, engaging percussion students, staff and audiences at 27 leading Higher Education Institutions. In addition to the direct contact with percussive communities, the WPG social media video output has achieved over one million views through partnership with industry sponsors and media broadcasters. Within this research an Impact Case Study is conducted with the intention of assessing the impact the WPG has made and the extent to which the original ‘Rationale’ for the project has been achieved. A Thematic Analysis of previous member’s Survey response provides the qualitative data, developing identity of themes which are then positioned within a ‘Thematic Map’ image. Research insights: Thematic Analysis of survey data reveals that the WPG is a significant and prestigious project which provides tour members an opportunity to develop professionally and personally through a challenging, reallife tour experience. Outcomes of the project relate to both the individual members and the percussion community more broadly with the benefits of ‘Cultural Sharing’ straddling these two domains. The success of previous projects has fed back into the ‘Prestige’ of the group, creating a positive feedback loop for future participants. This research shows that the WPG project is not only beneficial to individual members but to the Percussion Community more widely. Dissemination: Media outputs produced by the WPG have been viewed over 1,000,000 times
Getaway
Get PDFThe output, a graphic story and creative project, narrates a story in response to the 2015 refugee crisis. Research process: As practice research, the comic looks to innovate approaches within the medium by attempting to use creative methods to tell traumatic stories sensitively whilst priming the reader to have an empathetic and personal response. It contributes to a body of contemporary comic work exploring and evolving sequential illustrative practice through unpicking and challenging its stylistic visual language. This piece investigates the aesthetic and tonal use of nostalgia as a means of personalising a narrative. Additionally, the comic actively explores using narrative structures such as misdirection, emotive character design and world building as prompts for the reader to place themselves at the heart of a global as a visual counter to metaphors such as “cockroaches”, “swarm” and “tropes of inundation” were all used in the media at the time. Research insights: The research contributes to knowledge of communicating realistic emotive accounts through illustrated fictionalised stories. Getaway is one of a series of comics by the author to explore the appropriateness of specific aesthetics within a comic to set the mood and tone. The author’s intention is to explore visual styles which create and build words most appropriate for empathising with stories as a counter to notions of ‘othering.’ Dissemination: The output has been published and widely shared online. In 2015, it was shortlisted in the Jonathan Cape/Comica/Observer graphic short story prize and showcased as part of the awards ceremony in the finalists’ exhibition at Orbital comics. The piece was also exhibited at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley as part of the 2019 ‘Panel Show’ exhibition where Dawson also wrote about the methods and ethical considerations around the comic’s creation for an article in the arts funded publication which documented the exhibition
The Slow Show - Augustine (Short Film)
No full textThe output, 'Augustine',is a short film created with and for the band The Slow Show. Research process: Shot on location across the Slow Show European Tour 2015-16, the film collects concert performances of the band to the tune Augustine. Research insights: The production contributed to Booth’s knowledge of documentary and music video production, both in terms of production and production values and insights into how film is used on TV, in the press and online as an important aspect of music marketing. Dissemination: The film has been in international competition, and screened at the following international film festivals • Oxford International Film Festival 2016 • Long Island International Film Expo 2016 • Asbury Park Music and Film Festival2016 • Short Stop International Film Festival 2016 • Broken Knuckle Film Festival 2016 • Red Phoenix Underground Film Festival 2016. In addition the film won an award at the Indie Film Festival 2016 and was voted hbhap.com video of the day. The film has also appeared on C4 TV and on websites internationally
Precarious designers and the transformative potential of biopolitical production and the commons
Get PDFIn this paper, I will explore the potential of an autonomist and feminist Marxist approach that aims to transform the precarious working conditions of designers. For this, I am mobilising Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s notion of biopolitical production as one arena in which contemporary political struggles take place by way of the production of the common. I will think through the transformative potential of the common in relation to open design. Confronted with the continual precariousness and (self-) precarisation in this field, I draw heavily on the call for production and inventive resistance made by the Michel Foucault scholar Judith Revel. Finally, I link Revel’s call with the feminist economic geographer J.K.
Gibson-Graham’s invite to engage in an ethical praxis of being-in-common, which can foster de-precarising practices that have a transformative potential beyond the field of design
Precarity pilot: re-defining the path of our working lives
Get PDFThe output is a creative project comprising an online platform and a series of nomadic workshops. It aims to address issues faced by precarious designers in inventive ways. It was a collaboration between Dr Bianca Elzenbaumer (lead researcher, writer, workshop leader), Fabio Franz (co-workshop leader), Caterina Giuliani (ideation, structuring of website, co-lead pilot workshop) and Gaja Meznaric-Osole (graphic design). Research process: Between 2014 and 2018, Elzenbaumer ran over 16 workshops in the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Portugal and Finland. The results influenced the generation of content for the online platform, which went live in January 2015 and was gradually filled with content. Research insights: The project raised questions about how designers can act individually and collectively to make space for critical practice, despite the precarious working conditions pervasive in their professional field. The workshops enabled the proposal, critical assessment and conception of “de-precarising” tools that designers can draw on in their everyday practice in order to create a more empowering and egalitarian professional environment, allowing themselves and the design field to evolve in terms of a much-needed eco-social transition. Dissemination: • Keynote, Papanek Symposium 2017, London. • Keynote, By Design or by Disaster conference 2017, Bolzano Italy. • Keynote, Graphic Design Educators Network Annual Conference 2016, Cardiff. • Keynote workshop, Beyond Change Swiss Design Network Summit 2018, Basel. • Paper, Association of American Geographers Annual Conference 2015. • Paper, Cumulus Conference in Milan 2015. • Group show, Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart (21 May - 5 July 2015) • Design Museum in Helsinki (FIN) as part of the exhibition Lorem Ipsum – Talking about graphic design (23 March - 27 May 2018). • University of Alberta in Edmonton (CAN) as part of the group show Design Latitudes (12 May - 6 June 2015)
Students as producers: an ‘X’ disciplinary client-based approach to collaborative art, design and media pedagogy
No full textThis article presents the findings of a cross-disciplinary project between BA (Hons) Interior Design, Creative Multimedia and Film and Media Studies at a large Metropolitan University in the North of England. The collaboration was part of Unit X, a faculty-wide credit-bearing initiative to enable better collaboration across art and design courses.
The project explored cross-disciplinary approaches to problem-solving and generating designed outputs using a ‘vertical studio’ model. The outcomes for the students were to create a number of media/arts/design-based interventions, responding to real clients (festival organisers, local bar and café owners) and real client briefs. The constructivist approach to pedagogy allowed students the opportunity to develop their practice skills within communities of practice to help explore, develop, support and form their creative identities. The aim was to facilitate a supported environment to allow knowledge creation to take place through group tasks, reflection and the challenges of working and negotiating roles as professionals
Antarctic circles
Get PDFThe output is a creative project comprising an exhibition of songs, photography and sculptural books inspired by the environment, wildlife and cultural heritage of Antarctica. It is a collaboration between visual artists Lucy Bergman and Adele Jackson. Bergman’s finished works are cycle of 5 songs, written in response to the Antarctic Treaty and the landscape and wildlife it protects. Research Process: The name of the project takes inspiration from the circular 60° southern line of latitude that defines the geographical extent of the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty, an international agreement, preserves Antarctica as a place of peace and scientific research where the natural environment is protected against exploitation. The artists have used the circular theme as a creative device to develop the form and the content of the work: the circle recurs in the song structures and rhythms. The sculptural books take on circular and spherical forms. The songs were recorded and performed alongside an exhibition of lyrics, photographic images and other handmade artefacts relating to the context of the project. The songs could also be heard through The Seafarer Listening Station (a converted antique radio). Research Insight: The works provide visual and sonic information on the subject of Antarctica. The project as a whole showcases how artists can employ several different approaches when engaging with a body of land in order to convey a sense of place. For Bergman the outputs provided a new model of collaborative exchange specifically exploring a visual approach to songwriting, which has engendered further research into songwriting methods and methodology. Dissemination: The project was disseminated through a peer reviewed exhibition at Barbican Library (2015), accompanied by a lecture including a live musical performance of the Antarctic songs. The project was also exhibited at The Artworks, Halifax (2016), alongside a public lecture and performance
Lincoln voices artists residency
Get PDFLincoln Voices – Artist’s Research Residency, was a part-time artists residency based in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln. I undertook the residency with my then collaborative artistic partner, artist Emma Rushton. During the research residency Rushton and I became aware of the unique areas of common lands that border the city centre, West Common, South Common and Cow Paddle Common and to research their history. We also connected with people who uses the commons, including those who have written about them (John Bennett, Phil Grimshaw) and activists who have fought to keep them safe (Mick Commons, Sally Davies and George Wolfendon). Aiming to raise public awareness of these important spaces and their relationship to the Magna Carta, we organised two free public lectures at historically significant sites in Lincoln. Andy Whitman, a specialist in Land rights, democracy and economics gave a public talk at West Common on March 2016. In June 2015, the renowned historian Prof. Peter Linebaugh, author of the Magna Carta Manifesto, gave a lecture at the Victorian Prison of Lincoln’s Castle, home of historic documents Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest. The intention of the lectures was also to present alternative ‘counter narratives’ to a series of ‘official’ lectures taking place at Lincoln’s Cathedral. Peter Linebaughs talk “The Future of the Charters of Liberty in the 21st Century: From homo idioticus to femina communis” was presented on Monday 8th June 2015, the 800 anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta.
Linebaugh presented his lecture in the hall of Lincoln Prison from behind a lecturn and purpose built stage we constructed for the site and event. Both lectures were filmed by University of Lincoln’s Media unit and Linebaugh’s lecture was archived on the arts website ThisisTomorrow