Ravensbourne University Repository
Not a member yet
72 research outputs found
Sort by
An introduction to the manifesto for illustration pedagogy: A lexicon for contemporary illustration practice
Full text linkAs illustration educators our role is to be at the forefront of championing the development and understanding of our subject. Through practice, debate and research we strive to extend the remits of contemporary illustration and provoke debate as to what may be achieved at the very heights of ambition. Questioning of the potentials of illustration has never been more urgent as we work to prepare students to enter into a rapidly expanding field. Changes in industry, the vast expansion of potential platforms and the shifting of hierarchy as illustrators become more autonomous has prompted professionals to interrogate new ways to apply their diverse skill sets. This, met with the development of illustration taught as an independent subject not beholden to other graphic art forms, has seen the emergence of increasingly experimental and interdisciplinary uses and placements of illustrative work. Within our community of educators there is a concerted effort to establish new benchmarks for the study of our subject, to provoke aspirational thinking amongst our student cohorts and to facilitate pioneering practice. The Manifesto for Illustration Pedagogy intends to nurture ambition for the future of contemporary illustration practice and support the development of a discipline-specific critical vocabulary
Squaring the Circle: Wilfred’s Lumia and his Rejection of ‘Colour Music’
Full text linkThroughout the twentieth century, a variety of art forms emerged that shared a similar approach to abstract images in motion. They evolved with the medium of motion film from the 1890s to 1910s and also shared a root in the older area of ‘colour music’ although, as we shall see, some of their major practitioners distanced themselves from earlier attempts to make an equivalence between the scales of music and sequences of colours. The range of names for this practice of making animated abstract images reflects the breadth of approaches, but one overarching term that could probably apply to all of them is ‘visual music’.
This chapter will explore Thomas Wilfred’s relation to music in his self-defined art form of ‘lumia’, and compare him to contemporaries including the abstract animator Mary Ellen Bute (1906–83) and Oskar Fischinger (1900–67), as these two artists were the most successful and visible proponents of visual music in mid-twentieth-century America. They went on to influence a number of significant successors in the field, not least the pioneers of early computerized animation, James and John Whitney. Fischinger also influenced the young John Cage, whilst Wilfred had some impact on Jackson Pollock and was exhibited alongside him at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Landscape Ecology Soundscapes reveal disturbance impacts: biophonic response to wildfire in the Sonoran Desert Sky Islands
No full textContext. While remote sensing imagery is effective at quantifying changes to land cover across large areas, its utility for directly assessing the response of animals to disturbance is limited.Soundscapes approaches—the recording and analysis of sounds in a landscape—could address this shortcoming.
Objectives. In 2011, a massive wildfire referred to as “the Horseshoe 2 Burn” occurred in the Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona. We evaluated the impact of this wildfire on acoustic activity of animal communities two years after the event.
Methods. In 2013, 49 981 soundscape recordings were collected over 9 months in 12 burned and 12 non-burned sites in four major ecological systems. The seasonal and diel biological acoustic activity was described using the “Bioacoustic Index”, a detailed aural analysis of sounds by source, and a new tool called “Sonic Timelapse Builder” (STLB).
Results. Seasonal biophony phenology showed a diurnal peak in June and a nocturnal peak in October in all ecological systems. In June, higher acoustic activity was observed in three of four ecological systems at non-burned sites. This difference was associated with the presence of cicadas (Cicadidae spp.), which were favored by the presence of living trees at non-burned sites.
In October, higher orthopteran activity was observed at some burned sites, probably linked to low vegetation emerging at an early successional stage of post-fire response.
Conclusions. Soundscape approaches can help address long-term conservation issues involving the responses of animal communities to wildfire. Acoustic methods can serve as a valuable complement to remote sensing for disturbance-based landscape management
Integrating Wellbeing and Student Engagement Lessons from the Growing Creative Leaders of the Future Programme
No full textBye Bye Privacy - Sonic Interactions in Mixed Reality
Full text linkBye Bye Privacy is an interactive installation that engages with our perception of digital privacy rights, through a mixed reality experience. The installation introduces tangible representations of digital data into real space, then encourages the user to explore and interact with those representations through the real-time manipulation of the soundscape. Conceptually, the installation looks to blend together different forms of space: the real physical space, artificial constructs in that space, and a distinct sonic layer blending the two in the form of a three dimensional soundfield. Multiple streams of modulation run between the layers that read and interpret user interactions, then use that understanding to generate music and sound. The sound output is then analysed and utilised to affect the shape and form of the augmented layer. These feedback mechanisms form a complete loop between participant, soundscape and augmented reality, providing a participant mediated experience that exists somewhere between creator and observer. The majority of both research and commercial augmented reality work takes the binaural approach to sound delivery. We take an alternate approach of working within a multi-speaker system, encircling the participants with speakers to create an immersive soundfield around them. This spatial focus looks to explore music composition as inherently multi-channel by design, and is itself part of an audio-visual landscape. We look to explore how empty space can be transformed into immersive environments, and how ecological approaches to composition and spatialisation can engage participants on an innate perceptive level
Sex Shop Stories: Shifting Disciplines in Design Research
No full textBoth popular and academic writing about upmarket sex toys and the shops they are sold in has focused on the ways in which the market has repositioned itself to appeal to the female consumer. While existing research has tended towards a disembodied decoding of objects, my work prioritises the voices of female consumers. By using sociological research methods, I have uncovered women's understanding of the various discourses embedded in the materiality of sexualised things and spaces, asking how women's sex shops speak to women about their sexuality.
This paper introduces a framework for exploration of the intersections between sexuality, consumption and designed objects, acknowledging the struggle to honour precepts and adapt methods foreign to one discipline or prized by another. Primarily it focuses on those dilemmas of the research process which have resonated most markedly in the life of this project, highlighting the need to adapt an analysis method steeped in one ontological framework to encompass selves in relationship to objects rather than people. Furthermore, it explores the challenges of exploring a sensitive subject and documents the search for a fluid methodology, leaving space for research trajectories to be shaped by participant readings of the spaces of sexual consumption
Writing-for-the-cut: What can screenwriters learn from film editors about storytelling?
Full text linkThis article explores an approach to screenwriting using storytelling dynamics found in film editing. I call this ‘writing-for-the-cut’. This idea finds its roots in the lively theories and debates of early Soviet filmmakers such as Lev Kuleshov and Sergei Eisenstein in the 1910s and 1920s. They viewed editing as a juxtapositional dynamic, one that invites the audience to ‘discover’ the story for themselves. From their Hegelian notion of juxtaposition to its more nuanced application today, I discuss three kinds of cinematic juxtaposition: suggestion, puzzle and kinesis. I then explore how these dynamics might be embedded in the screenplay
Solo 18 - Karel Doing
No full textKarel Doing (Australia, 1965) is a visual artist and experimental filmmaker. He studied at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He has selected a number of works from his extensive analogue oeuvre to show at his Club Solo exhibition.
Doing looks for ways to dispel the contradictions between nature and culture. His aim is to establish a new synthesis between both worlds. In his experimental films, installations, and documentaries, he addresses ecological questions, postcolonialism, posthumanism, and “alternative” knowledge in the broad sense. He doubts the existence of an objective truth, instead taking an interest in the limits of human perception and knowledge. “I am not a scientist. I try to look at the world from an unusual point of view. I’m curious about the possibilities of an alternative kind of knowledge.” Possibilities that are rarely even given a chance in our rapidly changing society, where performance takes centre stage.
Karel Doing was born in Australia and grew up in a family with range of interests including Buddhism, pacifism, ecology and art. He began painting and playing music at an early age. A few years ago, he moved his Dutch practice to London. Doing will be showing experimental films from the past twenty-five years at Club Solo, but with an emphasis on more recent work.
Visit www.kareldoing.net or read Doing’s blog where the artist gives insight in his self-developed technique: phytogram.blog
Van Abbemuseum has chosen to show Der Sonnenaufgang en Der Sonnenuntergang (1968) by Dieter Roth in response to Karel Doing’s Solo exhibition. In this work, two sunrises and sunsets can be seen as the result of chemical processes and food. Roth’s way of working and using natural processes can be likened to Karel Doing’s energetic approach to carrying out and setting up his research
Affordances for Capturing and Re-enacting Expert Performance with Wearables
No full textThe WEKIT.one prototype is a platform for immersive procedural training with wearable sensors and Augmented Reality. Focusing on capture and re-enactment of human expertise, this work looks at the unique affordances of suitable hard- and software technologies. The practical challenges of interpreting expertise, using suitable sensors for its capture and specifying the means to describe and display to the novice are of central significance here. We link affordances with hardware devices, discussing their alternatives, including Microsoft Hololens, Thalmic Labs MYO, Alex Posture sensor, MyndPlay EEG headband, and a heart rate sensor. Following the selection of sensors, we describe integration and communication requirements for the prototype. We close with thoughts on the wider possibilities for implementation and next steps