New academic lead for Creative Futures

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Aristea Fotopoulou as the new academic lead for Creative Futures.

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou

The Brighton Futures are an integral part of the Strategic Plan for Research and Enterprise and, together with the Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs), are the focus of the University’s globally-influential research and enterprise activities.

The five Futures (Connected, Creative, Healthy, Radical and Responsible) are based on the principles that underpin our strategic plan and characterise the type of research and enterprise that we currently do and plan to expand. Our academic leads are senior academics who provide thought leadership, working to consolidate our existing strengths and explore and develop new possibilities.

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou will commence in the role in January 2021 and has already begun to make a contribution to the Creative Futures agenda. As a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Innovation Fellow and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Leadership Fellow, she leads on the ART/DATA/HEALTH research project which uses data as creative material for health and wellbeing; the project recently brought attention to the pandemic’s impact on women facing domestic abuse through a sculptural installation. In addition to her research and leadership credentials, Aristea brings broad-ranging experience to the role, including insight from her work as a Postgraduate Research Coordinator and her previous position as Early Career Researcher ambassador.

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou said:

“I am delighted to join the Brighton Futures as Academic Lead of Creative Futures, and contribute to the development of the University’s interdisciplinary research environment that nurtures creativity and innovation. The opportunity to produce inspirational solutions and positive change has never been greater, and I am a strong supporter of bringing together the arts, science and technology to do this.”

More Culture Less Medicine – 23rd November to 26th November

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

104 Days Later – a lockdown data story from ART/DATA/HEALTH and Caroline Beavon

March 23rd 2020: lockdown begins. For 103 days we counted as people got sick, were tested, lost businesses, were laid-off, furloughed, signed-on, suffered depression, anxiety, fear, asked for help, received support. But the data is only half the story. This online, multimedia scrollable story brings the numbers to life with first person testimonies in video, audio and writing.

Based on local and national data about the COVID-19 pandemic and commissioned by the University of Brighton research project ART/DATA/HEALTH: data as creative material for health and wellbeing, with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

From 04 October 2020 view the full interactive project here: http://www.artdatahealth.org/104-days-later-a-lockdown-data-story

The academic research project ART/DATA/HEALTH: data as creative material for health and wellbeing builds a bridge between the data, creativity and experiential stories. In workshops, online and offline meetings, a community of artists, service workers, academics and people living in Brighton and Hove have used a combination of creative media, storytelling and data analytics to explore evidence around health and wellbeing.

ART/ DATA/HEALTH: data as creative material for health and wellbeing is led by Dr Aristea Fotopoulou, based at the University of Brighton, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/S004564/1 2019-2021). For inquiries about the project please email at info@artdatahealth.org. See www.artdatahealth.org and follow us on Twitter @artdatahealth1

 

SHIELDING: A Sculptural Installation from ART/DATA/HEALTH

SHIELDING: A Sculptural Installation from ART/DATA/HEALTH and Anna Dumitriu in Collaboration with RISE

WHEN: 09 October 2020 13:00 – 14:00

HOW TO BOOK: Book your FREE ticket via the Brighton Fringe Festival portal. You will receive the ZOOM meeting link when you have booked https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/a-sculptural-installation-from-artdatahealth-and-anna-dumitriu-in-collaboration-with-rise-147554/

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou from the University of Brighton School of Media is pleased to invite you to the online launch of the virtual exhibition of SHIELDING: A sculptural installation by internationally renowned artist Anna Dumitriu, in collaboration with the domestic abuse charity RISE, and commissioned by the University of Brighton research project ART/DATA/HEALTH: data as creative material for health and well being.

Join Aristea and the ART/DATA/HEALTH team for the screening of the virtual exhibition film, followed by a live Q&A with the artist to find out more about the production of the artwork, how art can help create meaning from complex health data and uncover hidden narratives, and about the impact of the COVID-19 quarantine on women facing domestic abuse.

Send your questions in advance to info@artdatahealth.org or via Twitter @artdatahealth1 using hashtag #shielding

After the launch you can watch the film here: https://www.artdatahealth.org/shielding/

See also

www.riseuk.org.uk
www.annadumitriu.co.uk

www.artdatahealth.org

ART/ DATA/HEALTH: data as creative material for health and wellbeing is led by Dr Aristea Fotopoulou, based at the University of Brighton, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/S004564/1 2019-2021). For inquiries about the project please use the contact form or email at info@artdatahealth.org

Studio Lab is launched!

Creative Futures is delighted to announce that the joint School of Art, School of Media and Creative Futures funded Studio Lab project is now launched and ready to experience.

Louise Colbourne (course leader for MA Graphic Design at the University of Brighton) initiated and led the project with an objective to create an accessible ‘maker space’ within Virtual Reality environments.

This VR facility is run on a web-based platform, hosted on the Studio Lab website, where it can be easily accessed by viewers. The spaces created can be experienced on all types of devices via any browser on desktop/mobile or tablet. Navigating within the space is via the WASD keys on keyboards or by zooming-in on smart phones/tablets. For a fully immersive 3d VR experience use any VR headset [oculus quest/rift/htc vive/valve index] in your Headsets Browser of choice.

The first Virtual installation is The Grid, with Larry Achiampong & David Blandy showcasing selections from their video works- ‘A Terrible Fiction’ (2019) and ‘Finding Fanon 2’ (2015).

studio-LAB offers further-research students and staff at the University of Brighton the opportunity to use of the platform to develop their own projects including; exhibition design, 3D installations, images and text, moving image installation, 360 photography, photogrammetry, sound and live performance.

‘airTime by Judith Ricketts

‘airTime by Judith Ricketts

Due to the low barrier, accessible nature of the space, the project maker can bring invited visitors into their spaces for demonstrations, lectures, seminars and collaborative making and curating sessions on a variety of platforms from mobile phones to full VR rigs.

Our Machines by Elfyn Round

Our Machines by Elfyn Round

 

Please explore and enjoy the spaces, the website is undergoing some minor amends, but the spaces are free to visit.

http://studio-lab.co.uk/

 

 

 

Grand Parade Press: Edition #1

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.

GROUNDED: A SEASON OF SCREENDANCE 28 July – 9 August 2020

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 OConnor, 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 OConnor, 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/

Update – STUDIO LAB – VR maker and exhibition space

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

 

 

Call for papers, workshops, discussion groups and on-line performances – Deadline 1st August 2020

 

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 1st August 2020.

 

 

 

Graduate Show 2020

It’s the opening of the University of Brighton’s Graduate Show 2020 this Friday and we are delighted to share the details of this year’s online exhibition.

When? 12 June 2020 12.00pm

Where? Brighton Graduate Show 2020 website

What? A vibrant digital exhibition of work by our brilliant art, design, fashion, textiles, media, photography, film and history of art and design students – as well as a series of live events.

For information go to the Brighton Graduate show webpage on the University of Brighton website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art in a Domestic Setting: Surviving Creatively through COVID-19

This series of events celebrates the creativity and adaptability of our talented students in the midst of the C-19 pandemic. 

Discussions with students looking at ways they have replicated the features of specialised studio and workshops spaces in their homes, flats and bedrooms. Keep checking on the Graduate Show pages for the dates for these events. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Film Cries Festival

14 June at 7pm

Join the School of Media for Brighton’s promising filmmakers awards show where they will be streaming a film festival dedicated to the film and media students. Follow the facebook page for further information.

Introduction to Drawing Workshop

15 June at 12.30pm

This live workshop led by our Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Fine Art Printmaking, Phil Tyler is open to all and takes us through the fundementals of drawing.

Book Your Place

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Art Printmaking: Instagram Live Series

Starts Sunday 14 June 6pm

Follow @fineartprintmaking_uob on Instagram for this series of events every Sunday at 6pm BST from 14 June for a discussion with some of our talented Printmaking students.

Follow on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art in a Domestic Setting: Fine Art Painting 

16 June at 6pm

Join us for a conversation led by Course Leader, Chris Stevens with a panel of graduating Painting students about how they have adapted their home spaces into studios.

Find Out More