Following on from More Culture Less Medicine last year, for 4 days in November 2020 the Brighton & Hove City Council Arts, Health and Wellbeing Group will be bringing together a wide spectrum of people from Arts, Health and Social Care to look at some of the key developments within the sector and to explore how we establish Brighton and Hove as a Centre of Excellence for Arts, Health & Wellbeing. Duncan Bullen (Director of the Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at the University of Brighton) and Dr Aristea Fotopoulou (project lead ART/DATA/HEALTH) shall both be presenting.

The conference will take the form of a series of bite-sized morning sessions, 10am-midday every day, via zoom. The sessions are FREE to book via the hyperlinks below,

Each event will include cross sector speakers and presentations, showcasing of diverse and high quality practice and open discussion.

Each day will be themed, as follows:

• Monday 23rd: The Big Picture – considering the international, national and local context and the latest research findings. BOOK DAY 1 HERE

• Tuesday 24th: The Big Challenges – tackling inequalities and finding opportunities. BOOK DAY 2 HERE

• Wednesday 25th: The Big Vision – creating a shared vision for Brighton and Hove (this
session will be led by the HERA Partnership) BOOK DAY 3 HERE

• Thursday 26th: The Big Conversation – exploring the issues, the opportunities, the
developing language and practice BOOK DAY 4 HERE

Brighton CCA is delighted to launch the first Edition of the Grand Parade Press; a series of publications produced by Brighton CCA and University of Brighton Creative Futures, about the pursuit of knowledge and the mechanisms through which we acquire and share an understanding of our material, social and environmental surroundings.

Engaging in research, the act of investigation, is fundamental to human nature and yet what is considered of value in research is deeply contested. By interweaving research from the University of Brighton and elsewhere with the Brighton CCA programme, the Grand Parade Press articulates a more comprehensive conception of what research can be. Is it for example, only the preserve of the academic community? Is it necessarily empirical? Must methodologies be logical in their approach and what is the role of chance? How is it possible to characterise the relationship between research and understanding? How do we consider artistic practice in this context?

How to Make an Image of Something You’ve Never Seen begins with the idea that research can be as equally embodied by sculpture as an equation and that the processes of making and thinking are closely bound. Preconceptions, even prejudices, about the answers to these questions have embedded divisions in the ways we value different approaches to the pursuit of knowledge.

http://coastalcurrents.org.uk/grounded/

GROUNDED: 

A SEASON OF  SCREENDANCE

28 July – 9 August 2020

grounded is a season of online screenings that brings work together under the framework of Screendance, a term that signals an affinity between choreographic and cinematic approaches to art practice, an attraction between dance and film that is as old as cinema itself.

Supported by the University of Brighton and focusing on artists predominantly based in the south- east of England and London, grounded proposes a way of thinking about movement as a political act. Set against the backdrop of Covid-19, the season considers the variety of ways artists use movement in video and film to explore the relationship of the body to society, of confinement to imagination, and health to politics. Much like the Danse Macabre, a medieval allegory about the equalising power of death, the programme is a space, albeit virtual, where we can reflect on questions around solitude and communication, community and identity, solidarity and our futures.

grounded echoes the approach of those working in grounded theory who gather materials together to understand the social conventions that affect how people act and relate to each other. The season asks how we may break new ground in developing a social fabric that is welcoming, how we traverse boundaries and dissolve conventions, how we nurture newness and mourn what we have lost, how we remember and how we forget, how we explore what it means to be human.

The programme is composed of five online screenings, each appearing online for 24 hours from 6pm, and is hosted by Coastal Currents, Hastings UK. Curated by Claudia Kappenberg, University of Brighton and Fiontán Moran, Tate Modern.

LIST OF ARTISTS:

Jordan Baseman, David Blandy, Holly Blakey, Lucy Cash, Lisa Clifford, Phoebe Collings-James, Hugh O’Connor, Oona Doherty, Dave Tynan, Becky Edmunds, Adham Faramawy, HRH, Evan Ifekoya, Onyeka Igwe, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Andrew Kötting, Paul Maheke, Zoë Marden, Ursula Mayer, Harriet Middleton Baker, Graeme Miller, Hugh O’Connor, Harold Offeh, Florence Peake, Sally Potter, Yvonne Rainer, Ben Rivers, John Smith, Eve Stainton, Dave Tynan, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Cheryl White, Gray Wielebinski.

Screening programme and film streams here:
http://coastalcurrents.org.uk/grounded/

Creative Futures are delighted to share the update below from Louise Colbourne (Course leader for MA Graphic Design at the University of Brighton) on her exciting VR maker and exhibition space know as the “Studio Lab Project” that has been co-supported by Creative Futures and the Schools of Art and Media here at the University of Brighton.

The aim of this research and enterprise project was to explore new horizons from my own curatorial initiatives, whilst being able to introduce researchers within the Schools of Art and Media to the creative potential of VR via an accessible, web-based platform. After some changes of the initial plans, the project has developed well and is now entering the second phase of development as a VR maker and exhibition space.

Development installations made to test the boundaries of Mozilla Hubbs

We are developing a process of accessibility that allows relative ease for makers to be able to work with tools and gain enough basic knowledge to create VR studio/gallery spaces and experiences. These spaces, places and environments are shareable and interactive through the use of the Mozilla Hubs platform. With this platform it is possible to use a broad range of software to make 3D digital objects and assets to import, along with existing digital images and videos, to create immersive virtual installations or exhibition designs. The ultimate aim is that this relatively simple in-road into creative VR will then inspire makers to utilise more specialised open source platforms such as Unity 3D, in order to make more sophisticated environments.

Development installations include video loops and 360 Photographs

Going forward, as each of the finished projects for the Studio Lab are completed they will then be housed on a dedicated website, where they can be viewed by anyone who would like to access them on a computer, tablet or even smart phones, with or without VR head-sets.

So far the project has enabled myself and others involved to explore the potential capabilities of this open source platform and to test what is possible. The first space we built was deliberately ‘over-loaded’ with content in order to push the boundaries and test the possibilities.

Scott Macpherson is the main developer collaborating on this project

We are now working with the artists David Blandy and Larry Achiampong to install one of their collaborative pieces; the Finding Fanon trilogy into the VR studio/gallery space. This installation is taking the form of various interactive rooms that are accessed by the visitor. Visitors will take on a basic avatar form to explore the work within a virtual environment which allows them to interact with other visitors in the space, which can potentially include the makers and artists (good for gallery tours). This virtual space has enabled a different collaborative curatorial experience between the developer, myself and the artists, who have stated that this an ‘exciting new development’ for their work.

The exhibition will launch in September 2020 and will showcase the possibilities of the new Studio Lab as a facility.

Preview image from the three rooms being developed for the installation of the Finding Fanon trilogy by David Blandy and Larry Achiampong

Louise Colbourne

Course leader for MA Graphic Design at the University of Brighton

Performance and Wellbeing Symposium 

When  | November 2020

Where | Online

What   | This one-day interdisciplinary symposium gathers together academics, students, writers, artists and practitioners and anyone who is committed to developing imaginative, creative, researched responses to the core themes.

Call for papers, workshops, discussion groups and on-line performances. The symposium has an emphasis on innovative, out-of-the-ordinary ways of presenting artistic methods / practice / research / case studies of teaching on relevant themes/issues / engaging with communities outside of HE – that might contribute to the discussion around narrating and co-constructing work relating to themes of performance and wellbeing.

Themes the symposium will address but is not limited to include:

• Teaching, practice and research that connect with notions of performance and wellbeing
• Community projects and work that are committed to diverse and inclusive practice
• Critical and creative thinking about how performance practices can impact on well-being (this might speak directly to the pandemic and how work on performance can respond to/capture/support experiences with Covid-19)
• Performing maternity – research and practice that challenges dominant narratives around motherhood

The 500 word abstract needs to include your name, affiliation, the title of your presentation, an outline of your contribution and any technical issues you envisage. There will be a post conference publication with the book series Performance and Communities for Intellect Books.

Please send your abstract to CentreforArtsandWellbeing@brighton.ac.uk by the 1^st August 2020.