In the second term, we were told to pick between 8 different projects.
- Flat Pack Film Festival
- Jonny Briggs: Law And Disorder (Criminology)
Fine Art Students were also offered the chance to stay in the studio or go on work placement.
Public sculpture is everywhere yet it is in crisis argues Lisa Le Feuvre.
If this year's edition of Münster Sculpture Projects questioned the very concept of sculpture as object, as well as what is meant by 'public', does public sculpture have a future and, if so, is it a permanent one?
For this project, you will be researching and developing an imaginative response to a chosen location and space in the city. This will be a proposed artwork or piece of urban design related to the environment, in any form that you feel appropriate, that may ask questions, be enhancing, surprising, engaging, celebrating or critical. It will require research, investigation and the creation of a ‘mock-up’, either digital manipulation, video, or as a scaled model to ‘professionally’ present the outcome. In addition, you will be creating a temporary intervention, which may be an object or an action, documented as a video or photography.
Flatpack is a festival which takes over venues across Birmingham every spring. It draws people from far and wide with a mixture of films, performances, contraptions and surprises, and has been described as “magnificently eclectic” (Time Out), “joyously inventive” (the Guardian) and “the UK’s most creatively curated film festival” (the Independent).
Studio_LAB is an off-site workspace that runs alongside Flatpack Film Festival, this year it is situated in the Custard Factory. It is a space in which to make, to think, to reflect and to discuss - it is a space in which to challenge both yourself and your practice. To support this hybrid making space, Flatpack will organise a program of masterclasses, lectures and workshops with directors and animators involved in the festival, providing a unique opportunity to learn from professional filmmakers in a studio environment.
This year’s festival celebrates 50 years since 1968, a pivotal year in local, national and international history. It was a year of protest - from civil rights marches to student sit-ins, the Situationist International and anti-capitalist demonstrations. And yet 50 years later, in a ‘post-Brexit’ and ‘post-truth’ world, we could be forgiven for thinking that nothing has really changed. Perhaps by looking backwards to 1968 we can find the answers to some of today’s challenges and the space to re-imagine our present.
Using the theme of ‘1968’, students will develop individual and/or collaborative projects, which they will then take into the Studio_LAB project space. Students will collaborate with Flatpack as to how this studio space functions but it should serve as live workspace from which to test out ideas, with an emphasis on process and experimentation. Students will also need to consider how they document the different activities taking place from within the studio, from artist talks to workshops. Studio_LAB encourages students to take risks, to explore processs and to think through making. Students will then refine their work for a final exhibition/event at the end of the module.
Studio_LAB provides a unique opportunity for students to explore a range of making strategies supported with workshops by internationally renowned filmmakers and animators. The module is ideal for students who wish to engage in a hybrid and experimental practice with potential outcomes ranging from film and animation to performative works to installation and sculpture – anything goes!
http://flatpackfestival.org.uk
Jonny Briggs: Law And Disorder (Criminology).
This is an opportunity to collaborate with the department on Criminology, working alongside their students towards an exhibition.
In the department, there is a mock magistrates court.
There is a mock Crown Court
There is a mock Police questioning room
There is a mock crime scene, where students walk in to a room and attempt to solve a crime.
It could be that you’d like to make work on morality.
It might be that you’re interested in authority figures and authority bodies.
You may be interested in the boundary between what’s a truth, and what’s a fiction.
You mash to make interventions within the rooms.
You might be interested in the aesthetics within the department.
It could be that you’re interested in specific court cases, or merely interested in clinical forensic presentation.
Whatever your interest, this will be an opportunity to infiltrate another department, and to see your works within a new context: on top of having an exhibition!
The Lights Of Leamington is a public exhibition at Leamington Spa Museum and Art Gallery that will run between 19 January – 15 April 2018
In the 1950s a festival called The Lights of Leamington drew 300,000 visitors to the town. Thousands of coloured electric lights turned Jephson Gardens into a wonderland until the last event took place in October 1961.This eclectic exhibition, selected and curated by Birmingham based artist Stuart Whipps, brings the theme up to date showing the diverse ways light runs through the collection at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum. Lights used during the historic festival will be on display alongside light emitting objects linked to Leamington’s history, such as lights used in medical spa treatments, and paintings and photographs depicting or utilising light.
You will make new work in response to the broad collection of the museum and Art Gallery. the collection contains over 11,000 objects. Examples of which can be seen here:
http://www.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk
UpSlide is a project by artist Leanne O'Conner
UpSlide is reviving the various slide collections of Birmingham City University.
Revival can mean many things, but it’s always up and away from the dust. The dust must be removed from the slide collection, which have mostly been left unused for the best part of 15 years. The collection comprises of old master works, show works captured by tutors, alumni work and un marked works, which If investigated properly, could unveil some interesting research leads in to the collection and its origins. This initial research would also comprise of interviews with the senor lib techs that I mentioned previously; Hugh and Chris Hands from Library services have some valuable knowledge about the previous authors of the slide collections.
You will work with Leanne to uncover hidden knowledge and importantly, you will use these collections as the catalyst for the production of your own work.
I have decided to pick Upside, I find the historical trait of this project appealing and would be interested in studying it. However, I would also find it interesting to go against the historic theme and use modern methods and techniques in the art to create my work. I think there are many different paths you can go down with this project and I want to explore as many of them as I can whilst trying new techniques and methods myself.
