Darkroom bar, LCC
Time tbc

Cordless is an online show bringing you the best in unsigned talent. At each show students are entered into a live competition where they perform one song of their original material. The audience then decide who they thought was the best act of that night, the winner is then qualifies for the grand final; they will compete against the finalists from the other universities. The winner will then have a place on the Cordless Show.

www.cordless-show.com

We are holding auditions to find 4 finalists for the Cordless UAL final on November 19th 2009

More to follow after Freshers…

What is the point of the Student Hub….If it isn’t for Students?

We will be meeting on Monday at 5pm for an emergency meeting to gather thoughts and plan what we want from the University when the Hub moves from it’s current location to 272 High Holborn. Please try and make it along, if only for a few minutes to show your support and help us plan further action. Bring anyone you think is interested. We will be confirming that there is majority backing for what the SU is calling for, and taking suggestions and pledges of help for further action.

Find out more at www.suarts.org/hub

Join the fight on facebook

Friday 30th October
9pm
LCC darkroom bar

Doors open 9pm . Ticket £5 . Student ID needed . The Dark Room, LCC. Elephant & Castle SE1 6SB.

The official UAL Halloween fancy dress party!

Join the haunt in fancy dress as your favorite late musical/artistic prodigy at the official UAL fancy dress Halloween ball on Friday the 30th of October. Remember Come dressed to Distress!

Trick or Treat? There will be Live PA’s from Chocolate Blonde, Jukebox and the best in old and nu school classics till 3am, with burlesque dancers with a dangerously seductive edge. Don’t miss out on this hellish get together for freaky fun and funky music!

The Varsity Cup
10am – 6pm 2010

The 8th-12th Feb will be the UK’s third national week of student action on climate change in schools, colleges and universities and UAL will be a part of it

Go Green Week 2009, students campaign across London
Following on from our first ever cross-UAL greening campaign last year, GO GREEN WEEK 2010 is going to be BIG!

You can expect a week of campaigning, fun, events, lectures, talks, exhibitions, films, lobbying and awareness raising around the green agenda.

… in the run up to Valentines day we’ll be getting in the mood for romance and encouraging everybody to fall in love with the climate!
… more details coming soon, and if you want to get involved helping out email green@su.arts.ac.uk or call 020 7514 6270 and ask for Helen Gimber, Students’ Union President.

… green love! x

www.suarts.org/green

TASHAN 2010
29 May
7:30pm
RHS Catwalk | London College of Fashion

An epitome of style,
a breath of fresh talent,
a zest of team effort,
a fundraiser for CORD
a contemporary Indian Fashion Show
a show produced by the members of ICS featuring TASHAN (Style).

This event is no ordinary fashion show. This is the first Fashion Show organised by any society in the University.. Our University includes prestigious Fashion Schools like London College of Fashion, Central Saint Martin London College of Communication and so on. Audience includes individual fashionistas from different pathways of the Fashion industry, such as fashion students, professional models and fashion professionals.

It is a showcase of budding design. photography, make-up, hairstyle and venue design talents backed by enthusiastic and innovative marketing, events managements teams.

The event is fundraiser for C.O.R.D. Click here to know more ABOUT C.O.R.D.

In the grandeur of the London College of Fashion RHS Catwalk, in the midst of over a huge audience. TASHAN 2010 is one of its fashion show.

So the talent is innate and the tashan (style) is remarkable.

After Party @ JALOUSE
An exlusive west-end club voted LONDON’S BEST CLUB 2009

Time: 9pm to 10.30pm
exclusively to Tashan 2010 & then party on till 3 am
Venue: 17 Hanover Square, Mayfair, London, W1S 1HU
Dress Code: Smart Casuals(NO hoodies, trainers, jumpers)
*ENTRY ON DISCRETION OF THE CLUB, IF INAPPROPRIATELY DRESSED.
*NO REFUND

www.ics-ual.com

 
Title: I <3 TyPoS

‘Drawing messaging – think txt message but with drawing made on touch screen hand held devices.’
A presentation by Derrick Welsh, Associate Drawing Fellow, Wimbledon College of Art

Derrick will discuss cutting edge approaches to drawing using fast developing tools such as iPods and mobile phone. He is currently working with art departments in schools across the country to encourage drawing on hand held touch screen devices. Having carried out quite a few test projects and visited schools and universities from Bristol to Glasgow over the last few years, this project is gaining   momentum.  He visited the ESSA Academy with 1000 students who each have an iPod for learning.  After a day showing how these devices could be used creatively with 100 of the younger kids, the teacher emailed ‘I can’t thank you enough. The enthusiasm you created amongst students was amazing’.

http://moshing.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/drawing-messaging/

London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes St London W1G 0BJ
Tuesday 8 March 2011, JPS Room 105, 5.30-6.30pm
RSVP Charlotte Hodes, Reader in Fine Art, c.hodes@fashion.arts.ac.uk

This event is one of a series of presentations by researchers & research students for whom drawing plays an important but not always central role in their practice. The Forum for Drawing is a research initiative which has been established to provide a platform for a dialogue about drawing at London College of Fashion. The Forum for Drawing has been established to provide a platform for a  dialogue about drawing at London College of Fashion. Researchers, staff and students throughout the university are welcome.
For further information, to propose a presentation or to be placed on the emailing list please contact Charlotte Hodes, Senior Research Fellow in Drawing, LCF, c.hodes@fashion.arts.ac.uk.

Tuesday 15 February 2011
‘Drawing as a Tool of Communication and Analysis in the Field of Medicine’Jenny Wright, PhD student, CCW
Jenny’s PhD research is entitled ‘Extending the field of drawing the body: fine art anatomical drawing and its relationship to developing medical technologies and procedures’

As a drawer Jenny Wright is interested in the purposes and practice of drawing in medical science. As a development of her MA and within her PhD research, she has been working alongside maxillofacial surgeons making and analysing drawings. This, together with work she has undertaken with medical practitioners, patients and students using drawing as a tool to understand the process, symptoms and treatment of an eye disease called Birdshot Uveitis, provides a challenging series of images, as well as an opportunity to discuss the use of drawing in cross disciplinary research.

Jenny completed her MA in Drawing at the University of the Arts London in 2009. Her residencies include ELOPE, University of Berne, Switzerland in 2009  and more recently  Moorfields Eye Hospital, London 2010 where she is an Honorary Visiting Artist. She presented a workshop at the 2010 Birdshot Uveitus Conference, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.  Jenny is currently a Visiting Tutor and examiner for Anatomy for Artists UCL, London.

Forum for Drawing Programme 2010 – 2011

London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes St London W1G 0BJ, room 105, 5.30-6.30pm

Tuesday 15 February 2011
Jenny Wright, PhD student, CCW
Jenny’s PhD research is entitled ‘Extending the field of drawing the body: fine art anatomical drawing and its relationship to developing medical technologies and procedures’

Tuesday 8 March 2011
Derrick Welsh, Associate Drawing Fellow, Wimbledon College of the Arts
The presentation will address  ‘ Drawing messaging -think txt message but with drawing made on touch screen hand held devices.’

Tuesday 24 May 2011
tbc

Everyone is welcome but booking is essential. Please RSVP & contact: Charlotte Hodes, Reader in Fine Art, LCF  c.hodes@fashion.arts.ac.uk

Past events:DY Noro Kim, MA Artefact, LCF
Noro’s current  research challenges the boundaries of Fashion Illustration. A recent project in association with BBC Blast at the V&A took the form of a set of Fashion Illustration workshops.

Tuesday 26 October 2010

‘Sandle’ drawing detail

‘Sketchbooks, Drawing and Editing – Whose Line is it Anyway?’
A Presentation by Elisa Alaluusua, PhD student, CCW
Tuesday 30 November, 5.30 – 6.30pm

Room 105, London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes St, London, W1G 0BJ

Researchers, staff and students throughout the university are welcome.

Elisa’s PhD research title is Sketchbooks – ‘A Qualitative Analysis of the Creative Strategies Used in Sketchbooks by Novice and Expert Artists’. Her interest is in sketchbooks as objects as well as spaces where artists test their ideas and develop their visual language. For her research she has interviewed artists who keep sketchbooks. She also uses her own drawing as an investigative tool while researching sketchbooks; particularly ones kept by her own students. This presentation will unpick some of the strategies used in these sketchbooks and will discuss parallels which exist in her own practice of drawing and video making.

Born as a daughter of a reindeer herder in Finnish Lapland in 1970, Elisa studied Graphic Design 1989-1991 in Raahe, Finland. She completed her MA in Art as Environment at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1995 and an MA in Art Education at University of Lapland, Finland in 1999. Elisa was a Visiting Lecturer in Visual Studies at LCF 2001-2007. She is an active member of BAG (Bermondsey Artist Group) and has exhibited internationally since early 1990s.

RSVP Charlotte Hodes, Reader in Fine Art c.hodes@fashion.arts.ac.uk

We are excited to announce the first ‘This is This’ commission to take place on the Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground.
Chelsea Fine Art Graduate Alicia Fidler will be using the space to erect ‘Faill’ a large sculpture made from heavy weight sailcloth, improvised hooks, shock cord and scaffolding, exploring the boundaries between the performance object and the sculptural object.

The Private View takes place at 6 – 8:30pm on 11th October 2012.

‘Faill’ comments on suspense and momentary happening between failing and suspension, proposing a complicated, risky participation that could equally result in exhilaration or injury.
Fidler lives and works in London her work explores performative potential and narrative through site-specific and improvised works.

 ’This is This’ is an annual commission awarded to a newly graduated Chelsea Fine art student.
 

The exhibition runs until 27th October 2012

Festival veteran and UAL associate lecturer Deborah Britz has returned to Latitude for the fourth summer, taking a band of talented fashion student to present a captivating catwalk across the site’s lake. This year’s festival  fashion feast was compered by cult fashion blogger Bip Ling and Made In Chelsea star Jamie Liang. With Storm models taking the Chelsea, CSM and LCF students’ designs down the runway as the sun set, the stunning show picked up press interest, including coverage on MyDaily.

Deborah comment: “It was another great success, gorgeous clothes, courtesy of the graduates, fabulous models, supplied by Storm and lots of sunshine and a catwalk that makes it appear the models are walking on water.”

MyDaily raved about the “the achingly cool collections from budding talents” on show, saying: “It was the PERFECT summer scene – the vibe was fresh, bright and all about the ultra-modern oversized silhouettes and serious textiles play.”

For Oxfam blogger Sam Oliver the show was one of the weekend’s highlights, reporting: “Bright colours were clashed with innovative new silhouettes and collection after collection depicted fantastic attention to detail. With the sun shining down on the crowd, there was a combination of elegance and class, with a strong contemporary undertone that made each ensemble a fantastic future hit.”

Read more on the Oxfam blog, Latitude image stream and MyDaily news.

Seeing London’s oldest feature afresh, Chelsea trained artist Layla Curtis has created an alternative map of the Thames. Curtis’ visionary collage The Thames (from London Bridge, Arizona to Sheerness, Canada) has been created in ten parts which are being released separately for each day of the Thames Festival, each of which can be mapped together to form a downloadable artwork available to everyone. The artwork was constructed by reappropriating areas from existing international maps and relocated to form the familiar outline of the Thames.

Curtis conceived of the idea for a new map of the Thames through” researching the etymology of place names along the river’s shores and tracing their global namesakes, to create an artwork that presents new geographical fictions as well as reflecting the history and far-reaching influence of the Thames”. The work ultimately creates a bold new understanding of the Capital’s riverscape and its wider history.

Layla Curtis graduated from the MA Fine Art Sculpture course at Chelsea College of Art in 2000.

See the piece as it develops and download your free copy.

Browse sculpture courses at UAL.

“We’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one.” So says Dr Who back in season five, and he’s certainly followed his own advice, as the UK prepares for the 50th anniversary of the cult series. Celebrating this epic milestone is Steven Cook , a London College of Fashion tutor, whose photographic exhibition this month reveals long lost photos of the Doctor’s much loved companion Ace.

Sophie Aldred, the actress who played Who’s assistant, is seen behind the scenes in shots captured by Cook while he was working for Marvel UK as art director of Doctor Who magazine in the 1980′s.

“We were licensed by the BBC and because I was also a freelance photographer it was arranged that I could go on set and attend the press calls and interviews, thereby getting exclusive images for the magazine.” Explains Cook, “During Sylvester McCoy’s era, I struck up a friendship with Sophie Aldred who played Ace and along with a terrific make-up artist called Nina Gan, we shot pictures in our spare time for our own amusement. A lot of the previously unseen photographs from these sessions will be exhibited in September alongside images from the show itself.”

Looking back on the legacy of Dr Who Cooks says: “ I think of watching Doctor Who as the rite of passage for every child in this country, as it has been since the early sixties. Just as the seasons came and went, so did The Doctor. My first memory of him was as the grumpy old man who I really wanted as my own Grandfather. I watched him on telly every week. The Zarbi, the Cybermen and of course the Daleks. How could he defeat them all!?! I watched him throughout his first three incarnations, then I stopped, but he didn’t stop inspiring me; so when I finally ended up working on the Doctor Who magazine it was one of those things that your younger self would be so very thankful for. And ever since; the genius of the show and the whole concept of Time Travel went a great way towards inspiring my own Time Travel art project ‘Alternity‘. “

Search photography, film and television courses at UAL

Read more on Orbital’s website

Read more on SFX

Read more about Alternity

Now in its 10th year, London Design Festival promises a renewed focus on graphic design with a series of free talks underscoring the theme and more than 300 events. We list some of the highlights of UAL’s activity over the design-frenzied week.

The Scarcity Project at CSM
17 September, 3pm-8pm
Central Saint Martins, 1 Granary Square, King’s Cross

The Scarcity Project is a major installation by Paulo Goldstein at Central Saint Martins. Answering the question: “What if instead of adding, one redistributes what is there already?”, the final room is a brilliant installation that demonstrates how creativity might be exercised under conditions of scarcity.

See a six-second tour on Vine

Read more

Future Map Design
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm
Private View Mon 16th 6pm-8.30pm
Free event

Joining the Future Map brand in 2013 is Future Map Design, showcasing a selection of UAL’s brightest design graduates.

See a six second tour on Vine
Read more

Richard Wilson: No Formulas
Chelsea Space
18 September-26 October

An exhibition concentrating on preparatory material for finished works and proposals for as-yet unrealised projects.

Read more

HOME
The Mosaic Rooms, 226 Cromwell Road, London SW5 0SW
13-21 September, Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm

This mixed media exhibition will include furniture and objects, photomontage artworks, oral history testimonies and artist reflections. These are the results of various projects each exploring notions of home with FdA Interior Design students from Chelsea College of Art, young people in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and members of London’s Yemeni community. As part of this there will also be an exclusive Carwan Gallery pop-up exhibition. Visitors will be able to purchase limited-edition furniture, lighting and objects d’art by cutting-edge designers from the Middle East and beyond.

Read more

CSM Invasion

Do Shop
14-22 September

Nine fresh graduates from Central Saint Martins are invading Do Shop this London Design Festival! #CSM_invasion

Read more

Philosophical Toys/ Stitch in Time
By appointment only, 11am-6pm, Tues-Fri and Sun; 11am-2pm, Sat
Ultra-indigo Showspace at Somerset House (West Water Gate Entrance), Victoria Embankment, WC2R 1LA

Philosophical Toys and ultra-indigo are ventures by members of staff from the Ceramics, Product and Industrial Design programme at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Philosophical Toys is a collaborative agency dedicated to the promotion of critical thinking and making in design. It is an on-going project that reaches out beyond CSM via workshops that engage with the issues shaping the larger culture. It aims to consolidate its work through exhibitions, films, a website, blogs and related publications. The work shown in the exhibition is by recent graduates of the programme.

Read more

Imprint
17-21 September, 10.30am-6.30pm
Craft Central, 33-35 St John’s Square, London EC1M 4DS

Part of the London Design Festival and the Clerkenwell Design Quarter, Craft Central presents Imprint – a cross-disciplinary exhibition of printed design, showcasing a diverse selection of exciting contemporary craft and design by more than 30 UK designer-makers who use a variety of print and mark-making techniques. From framed prints and interior textiles to furniture and ceramics to 3D-printed products, celebrate all things “print”. The exhibition includes identity and print design by Turnbull Grey (graduate of MA Printmaking at Camberwell), Annabel Williams (CSM Foundation Art & Design graduate), Kethi Copeland (alumnus of LCC GMD Illustration), along with Camberwell BA Illustration alumna Reena Makwana and Wimbledon MA Sculpture alumna Regina Heinz.

Read more

Cricklewood’s Town Square
Until 28 September, various locations

Textile Futures Senior Tutor Kieren Jones constructs a pop-up town square for Cricklewood. Civic ideas agency Spacemaker’s mobile town square will be transported by bike around Cricklewood to highlight a lack of public space in the area. Designed and constructed by Jones, the fold-out square will tour disused spaces in the north London community until 28 September. There are a series of free events, including DIY libraries, design workshops and rooftop film screenings.

Read more

100% Design
18-21 September
Earls Court

100% Design is supporting MA Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins by bringing works from this year’s graduating students to the London Design Festival exhibition in September 2013.

Read more

V&A Digital Design Weekend
Sackler Centre
21-23 September
Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2RL

UAL is found all over the place during this weekend of events devoted to the digital sphere. Here are a few events:

Join CSM MA Textile Futures 2013 graduates Emilie Frederique Grenier, Yesenia Thibault-Picazo, Amy Radcliffe & Amielia Katze as they present work that explores the intersection of craft, science and technology.

Read more

MATF Course Leader Caroline Till will be speaking at the first in the series of “Making it in London” talks at the V&A. This event asks “What’s new and inspiring in the present and future of engineering, manufacturing and design? What are the new possibilities presented by new materials, information technology, and robotics? And what is the value of design and creativity in these areas?” Speakers include: Caroline Till, Course Leader, MA Textile Futures, Central Saint Martins; Chris Lefteri, Chris Lefteri Design; Dr John L Collins, Innovation Foundry; Zoe Laughlin, Institute of Making, UCL; Martin Stevens, A1 Technologies; and Assa Ashuach, Assa Ashuach Studio

Read more

Textile Futures first-year tutor Nelly Ben Hayoun launches her new project, “Disaster Playground”. Join Ben Hayoun, funding Director of the International Space Orchestra at the NASA Ames Research Center, and experts as they speculate on future potential outer space catastrophes.

Read more

Design Junction
18-22 September
The Sorting Office, 21-31 New Oxford Street

Design Junction showcases an international edit of furniture, lighting and product design from global brands, alongside emerging enterprises. Eight Camberwell BA 3D graduates are exhibiting, part funded by SEE. Also on show are Magnus Long, CSM BA Product Design lecturer’s ‘works with…’ exhibition of new furniture and lighting  for three brands engaged in manufacture, craft and engineering.

Read more

• Search design courses at UAL
• See the full London Design Festival programme
• See photos live from LDF on UAL Edit’s Instagram

Taking as its motto Ken Robinson’s quote “If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original”, forthcoming exhibition ‘Process in exile’ is set to present fresh, experimental and exploratory works from a batch of new creatives.  With works selected by an authoritative panel of experts, including Design Week editor Angus Montgomery and Journal of Wild Culture editor Tom Jeffreys, the exhibition will take place on Oxford Street during Frieze Week, offering an appealing alternative to the polish of the Fair itself.

Curated by UAL Central Saint Martins graduate Rose Pickles and independent curator, writer and facilitator Francesca Cavallo, the exhibition runs 10 – 20 October and includes fine art, illustration, photography, performance, video art, product design and textiles.

‘Process in exile’ is the brainchild of Made in Arts London (MiAL), the commercial team supporting UAL’s graduates with commercial opportunities to sell their work direct to buyers. The curator reveals that the title “refers to a theme running through many of the artists’ and designers’ work exhibited. Nietzsche declared that ‘when something is perfect we tend to neglect to ask about its evolution’. The artists included in ‘Process in exile’ embrace imperfection, uncertainty and the adventure of open-ended process. The potential for unanticipated meaning, novel frames of reference and new perspectives are essential to the latest MiAL collection.”

Art Critic, Curator and Editor of Journal of Wild Culture Tom Jeffreys comments: “Made in Arts London is an extremely valuable initiative and it was a real privilege to be involved on the selection panel. Not only was it fascinating to see the diversity and quality of the works currently being produced at University of the Arts London, but the discussion that they initiated amongst the judges was both enjoyable and thought-provoking.”

The show has already appeared on Design Week in a feature which highlighted works by Esther Ellard, created using coloured tape, an intricately detailed illustration by Rene Ramirez and hand-carved porcelain landscape lights by Beth Lewis-Williams which were also spotted at Designersblock.

Speaking after the exhibitor list was announced, panelist Katy Wheeler, from CultureLabel and Morning Edit said: ”It was both an honour and a joy to be part of the selection panel for the October Collection for Made in Arts London. We were introduced to so many talented artists and designers as part of this process, and seeing all of the fantastic work and ideas they had to offer was really inspiring. I can’t wait to see everything in the flesh at the ‘Process in exile’ show, and it’s going to be exciting to see how their creative endeavours develop in the future.

Artist Esther Ellard, an alumna of CSM whose work appears as the hero image for the ‘Process in exile’ publicity, affirms: “As a recent graduate, being a part of the exhibition is an invaluable opportunity to sell my work and have it seen by a wide audience.”

Angus Montgomery, editor of Design Week concludes: “Made in Arts London is a great initiative, which supports students and graduates at a crucial time in their career. The high quality and huge variety of work in the programme meant the selection process was a thought-provoking and sometimes challenging process. I look forward to seeing the work on show.”

All works will be available to buy on www.madeinartslondon.com throughout the exhibition.

Read more about Process in exile

Read more about MiAL

Search courses at UAL

Process in exile runs 10 – 20 October at 29-31 Oxford Street, W1D 2DR

Highlight events include:

Artists’ Guide to Social Media
17 October 6-8pm
Led by Richard Sedley of Seren Design. As a fine art graduate, with over 25 years in the creative field and as former course director for social media at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Richard is extremely well suited and equipped to provide a social media tool-kit for creatives.
Book a place at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/8632713679

By Matt Jacques

Two BA Textile Design graduates from Chelsea College of Art and Design, Matt Jacques and Reeve Massey, have each won a Chelsea @ Cockpit Award worth £2,500.

The Chelsea @ Cockpit Awards are offered in partnership between the College and social enterprise Cockpit Arts. They are designed to assist Chelsea textile graduates in setting up a craft-based business by providing studio space and business support from Cockpit Arts.

Winners Matt and Reeve will each receive 50% towards the cost of a Cockpit Arts incubator package, which includes:

• Studio space within the creative community of Cockpit Arts, Deptford, with access to office facilities and resource centre.
• Business and professional development services, including on-site coaching, a personalised development plan, access to finance, workshops and seminars.
• A range of selling and promotional opportunities, including Cockpit Arts Open Studios selling events.

“The Cockpit @ Chelsea Award is a great chance for anyone to progress as a designer so I am extremely grateful for the opportunity” Matt says. “I’m so excited to have received the award as already it has given me more confidence in my designs and the motivation to really focus on making my business work” adds Reeve.

Matt and Reeve will move in to their studio spaces on 1 November 2013 for 12 months.

By Reeve Massey

The new AKA/UAL Scholarship Competition offers budding designers fantastic industry exposure for their work and brilliant cash prizes.

The brief:  Create the cover of an A-size Christmas card

• Provide a piece of artwork of your own design that responds to the theme “Experiencing Great Art and Entertainment”
• Illustrations, graphics and photography are all welcome
• While this is a Christmas card, it doesn’t necessarily need to have a Christmassy feel. Instead, we’re specifically interested in work that captures the thrill of experiencing a great West End show, visiting a brilliant museum exhibition, seeing some inspiring dance. An image that articulates some of the emotional responses that are felt when culture lovers experience really powerful art – whether it’s elation, catharsis, excitement, romance, thrills, fear etc.

This competition is ran by AKA – an arts marketing agency – and is open to Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon students only. The deadline for entries is Wednesday 6th November 2013.

More details at http://www.akauk.com/ualcompetition/

Good Luck!

From performance art to our deepest grey matter; artist, writer and neurolinguist, Alexander Rosenberg has just returned from the States where he spent the summer at Harvard University’s Functional Neuroimaging Lab. The CSM BA Fine Art 2013 alumnus was working with Harvard before returning to London to take up a place on UCL’s Neuroscience, Language and Communication masters. Prior to his stateside stint the artist found time to write a comedy-drama series which has been picked up by Vera Productions. Here he takes time out to share his perspective on art and neuroscience.

Art and neuroscience are like-minded

Rosenberg argues that art and neuroscience are disciplines exploring common issues of cognition; “There’s really no element of human experience you can’t relate to the human brain – art and neuroscience are both concerned with disseminating knowledge and meaning. As meaning happens in the brain then there’s no element of human experience that can’t in theory be talked about on the neural level.” Although for Rosenberg, the contemporary approach to “sci-art” often misses the point: “I’m less interested in one discipline simply describing or justifying another; aestheticised science vs empirical explanations of aesthetics. There’s nothing wrong with either, but I’d rather converge fields to make new ones.”

It’s all about language

“Conversation is the most ubiquitous resource in art school – people just sitting down talking about ideas.” Rosenberg’s BA Fine Art 3D piece was produced in collaboration with 4D student Rhian Smith and was “a meta-conversation about conversation” combining video, installation and performance; the work consisted of the two playing with the concept of how conversations emerge and evolve, the interaction, patterns and rhythms of conversational flow. Rosenberg comments: “I’m very much interested in language as the externalisation of the mind and art as language. My collaboration with Rhian is ongoing and we bring our different artistic backgrounds together to explore some of these notions.”

Science is as avant-garde as art

“One thing I learnt from being at Harvard was drawing a parallel between my art education and neuroscience education, in that they’re both so dependent on an understanding of context. Even brain-imaging has its own cultural currency. Images of the brain have a potency in our society. We have to be careful about what we take neuroscientific studies to ‘mean’ outside of their intended context. It can be abused in the same way that art can. I certainly wouldn’t say art and science are the same – they are not. But scientists and artists are both avant-gardists in ever-moving disciplines, trying to understand the human condition.”

Neuroscience is about subjectivity

While art can be seen as the ultimate in subjectivity and science is often interested in only the objective and exact, Rosenberg reveals that cognitive neuroscience has the job of putting subjective experience into objective terms: “as meaning doesn’t exist in a vacuum, neither do our tools for creating and communicating it. So neuroscientific study depends on context just as art and language do. At Harvard I learnt that designing neuroimaging experiments deals with similar issues to creating artworks for an audience – they both use artifice. The simulation of a real interaction. In manufacturing an experience, you have to account for the big magnetic donut – the fMRI scanner – as much as the ‘white-cube’ gallery environment.” He notes the irony of neuroscience: “The scientific/empirical method interprets data via the senses. Senses are neurological phenomena. Neuroscience is the ultimate postmodern irony in that it is the brain trying to understand itself via the only means it has.”

Art and science share a sense of humour

As the writer of comedy series ‘Aunties’, Rosenberg is in a good position to understand the science behind humour and how both art and science reveal the brain’s method for rewarding thinking patterns that can correlate apparently disparate subjects: “before notions of anything thematically ‘funny’ or comical, humour is the reward system for sense-making. Nonsense is an exercise in subverting sense. Like ‘sweetness’ is the evolved incentive and reward for finding necessary sugars, ‘humour’ is the reward for resolving incongruity. There’s certainly a revelatory moment in scientific discovery and artistic creation that could be said to have a humorous aesthetic. ‘Aha!’ versus ‘haha!’”

Art is a good foundation to science

“At CSM it’s hard to see the value of three years study in real time. I can’t represent the experiences of others on the course, it’s so individual, but I’ve taken a more theoretical and academic route alongside my working practice and if I’d done a philosophy degree, I don’t know that it would’ve opened me up and allowed me to free-think in the way I try to – to work interdiscplinarily, intercategorically.”

Search fine art courses at UAL

Discover science courses at UAL 

You might enjoy: LCF Professor Helen Storey discusses her exploration of the science of desire

Back for a fourth round, London Collections:Men brought next season’s most directional menswear looks to London for an intense three days of catwalks and presentations. Largely as a result of the London Collections, menswear is increasingly rivaling womenswear for fashion press attention and this January’s shows brought strong outings from a very diverse set of labels.

Central Saint Martins alumni showed highly anticipated collections over the three days. CSM alumni father and son, Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford, showed their label Casely-Hayford. Richard Nicoll and this year’s winner of GQ’s Breakthrough Menswear Designer Brand, Jonathan Saunders were among those on schedule. The British Fashion Council’s Designer of the Year, Christopher Kane, Alexander McQueen and Christopher Shannon were among the established CSM graduate brands sending new looks down the catwalk, while newer labels included Common,  Craig Green, Nicomede Talavera and Lee Roach. Behind the major labels showing in London are Joanna Sykes at Nicole Farhi and Luc Goidadin, newly appointed by Christopher Bailey as Chief Design Officer at Burberry.

London College of Fashion graduates were out in force at LC:M, including Marc Hare, alumnus of Fashion Business and recent panel speaker at the college, and alumna Ada Zanditon, BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Womenswear 2007. Roxanne Farahmand, whose 3D printed metalwork and handmade leather pieces were first seen on LCF’s 2013 Runway, is part of Fashion East’s A/W 14 installation, marking her out as one to watch for the next generation of menswear talent.

MA Fashion Design Technology Menswear alumnus 2012, Joseph Turvey, who is about to release a collection with River Island, presented his AW13 collection in an installation showcasing his unique take on luxe streetwear.

On Tuesday, rising star J.W. Anderson, BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology Menswear 2005 alumnus, was one of the event’s highlights. Kay Kwok, MA Fashion Design and Technology: Menswear 2012 grad also showed on Tuesday, as did and Sebastiaan Pieter Groenen , who graduated from BA Hons Bespoke Tailoring in 2012 and won the “Collection of the Year” award presented at the catwalk show.  For LC:M, Sebastiaan presented his own collection at Southard Reid gallery.

Wednesday brought collections from Wouter Baartmans and Amber Siegel, BA (Hons) and MA Fashion Design Technology Menswear 2010, who make up the luxury menswear label, Baartmans & Seigel. Duo Agi & Sam, designers supported by the Centre for Fashion Enterprise’s New Fashion Venture Programme, revealed their latest looks on the final day.

An A/W13 men’s footwear collection from Diego Vanassibara, alumnus of BA (Hons) Cordwainers Footwear: Product Design and Innovation, was on display at the Designer Showroom at NEWGEN MEN throughout the week.

The Museum of London’s current display, Anatomy of a Suit, reveals that many of the most important global menswear trends seen on this month’s catwalks, such as the three-piece suit, have their origins in London. See the display until 1 June at the Museum.

Read the Christopher Shannon show report

Find out more about London Collections: Men

Search fashion courses at UAL 

Professor Rob Kesseler has not only pulled off a centre spread in the Guardian, he has also won 1st prize at the Royal Microscopical Society’s International Scientific Imaging Competition for his image of a Medicago seed.

On Tuesday this week, 1 July 2014, The Guardian printed within their centre fold his images of a rosebay willow herb seed, a honey bee and a single grain from a passion flower, works which currently play a part of the Invisible Garden exhibition at the RHS Hampton Court Palace flower show this month.

Yesterday, 2 July 2014, Professor Kesseler took 13 PG students from UAL’s Postgraduate Community to attend the ‘Microscience Microscopy Congress’ in Manchester.

Whilst at the event it was announced that he had won 1st prize at the Royal Microscopical Society’s International Scientific Imaging Competition for his image of a Medicago seed.

Also published today is an interview with Professor Kessler titled ‘Under the Microscope’ by Interalia Magazine here http://www.interaliamag.org/

Professor Rob Kessler’s UAL research profile.

University Chairs Background

Thirteen artists and designers, who are pioneers in their fields, have been appointed as Cross University Chairs at UAL in a major investment in students’ academic experience.

Nigel Carrington, Vice-Chancellor of University of the Arts London, says:

“As one of the world’s largest creative communities, UAL is a leading force in how creative disciplines develop and evolve, which is why we have invested in these new roles and appointed pioneers in their fields as Chairs. These new professors will spearhead our continuing drive to create communities of practice in which students and staff can take time out to think differently and develop new approaches to the evolution of our disciplines.”

University Chairs appointed are:

The post Congratulations to Chair of Arts, Design & Science Professor Rob Kesseler appeared first on News & Events.

Artsmart 2015: Save the date!

Artsmart, UAL’s summer employability festival for creative graduates, will return for its fifth year on Thursday 9 July 2015 at London College of Communication.

Artsmart 2015 will include practical and inspirational talks, portfolio masterclasses, one-to-one support, employment opportunities and industry networking to provide our graduating students with the skills, knowoledge and motivations to get ahead in their chosen career as a professional creative, whether employed or self-employed.

Find out more at artsmartlondon.co.uk

Artsmart 2015

The post Artsmart 2015 appeared first on News & Events.