Monthly Archives: September 2010

Landscape Interface Studio goes European

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The Landscape Interface Studio (LIS) in FADA has been involved in the development of the European Regional Development Fund € 2.8m project – ‘Waterways Forward’ over the past 2 ½ years. ‘Waterways Forward’ brings together 17 partners representing public authorities and institutions across 11 EU countries + Norway and Serbia to improve the management and socio/economic development of regional inland waterways and adjacent regions.

LIS is acting as communications consultants to British Waterways displaying project outputs through workshops and organising the final exhibition which will promote Kingston University across Europe.

LIS successfully secured Proof of Concept Funding from the Kingston University Enterprise Development Fund in Jan 2010. This was used to fund a project manager for the initial stages of their involvement in ‘Waterways Forward’ allowing time for contracts to be negotiated and signed and for a management scheme to be developed.

Final funding from the EU Interreg IVC Programme Secretariat was awarded at the start of 2010 and a staff and student team presented at the launch meeting of ‘Waterways Forward’ in Den Haag in March.

The second partner meeting took place in Milan and Ferrara, Italy in early September 2010 where the capacities of LIS were presented to partners and representatives from the regions of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna who hosted the meeting.

Please visit the following link to the Landscape Interface Studio website:

 http://www.landscapeis.org/showground.html

 www.waterways-forward.eu

MA graduate managing ‘Creatives in Residence 2011′

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MA Curating Contemporary Design graduate, Kati Howe is currently the project manager on the Creatives in Residence 2011 programme based at London’s creative industries members venue; The Hospital club. As well as an interest in creative philanthropy, Kati has also developed a specialism in digital design and has been working as the assistant curator on this years Alpha-ville digital arts and culture festival at the Whitechapel gallery. Through this position, her selection of work has made the front cover of design week and she has also secured a section of the programming to showcase Chinese digital artists and designers, a connection made from a recent curating trip to China with Kingston University, The Design Museum and The British Council.

Muybridge in Kingston:Trevor Appleson – Dance of Ordinariness

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Inspired by pioneering Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s famous collotype sequences of human figures in motion, Dance of Ordinariness is an ambitious new film and sound installation by South African born artist Trevor Appleson.  Dance of Ordinariness forms part of Muybridge in Kingston, a programme of exhibitions and events taking place in Muybridge’s own birthplace, to accompany the first major UK retrospective of his work at Tate Britain this autumn.

To develop his new work Appleson was given privileged access to objects from Kingston Museum’s unique collection of rare material that Muybridge himself bequeathed to his hometown.

Dance of Ordinariness was developed through a residency undertaken by the artist at The London Contemporary Dance School, where he invited dancers to reinterpret actions that relate, directly and indirectly, to the various visual narratives that Muybridge himself built into his original motion studies. The resulting film-installation is an absorbing work that combines incidental gesture and choreographed movement to explore the interrelationships between performer and observer, author and human subject.

Dance of Ordinariness is launched to coincide with Muybridge Revolutions, a new exhibition at Kingston Museum that investigates Muybridge’s groundbreaking contribution to the development of the moving image, featuring an extensive and unprecedented display of his beautiful and rarely seen Zoöpraxiscope discs.

Please visit www.MuybridgeinKingston.com for more information.

Open: Tues – Fri 12-6pm; Sat 12-4pm; Mon by appointment

External – New Art from Further East

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Curating Contemporary Design gradute Noor Al Suwaidi is exhibiting in London as part of “External”. The exhibition, curated by Juan Carlos Farah and Ruba Asfahani, brings to London promising and fresh talent from the Middle East, Turkey and Iran. It is a showcase of innovative paintings, photographs, sculpture and video installation, featuring not only work by Emirati artist Noor Al Suwaidi but also Lebanese abstract calligrapher Shirine Osseiran and the acclaimed Palestinian photographer Yazan Khalili. The exhibition will run from 25 – 31 October 2010 at The Gallery in Redchurch Street.

Open Daily 10.00 – 21.00

Private View | Thursday 28 October 2010 | 19.00 – 23.00

The Gallery in Redchurch Street
50 Redchurch Street
London E2 7DP

Curating Contemporary Design’s “Innovation Greenhouse”

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Innovation Greenhouse is a project curated by students from the MA Curating Contemporary Design at Kingston University in partnership with the Design Museum, London and staged as part of the London Design Festival at the V&A programme.

The project is the result of a collaboration between students and staff from Kingston University and the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou to explore the legacy of the 2010 Shanghai Expo.  MA Curating Contemporary Design is delivered in partnership with the Design Museum, London and, since 2005, has been building close relationships with curating in China. For one month, staff and students from both institutions worked together on a brief set by the British Council in London. At the end of May, students presented their ideas at the Design Museum in London and in the VIP Room of the UK Pavilion in Shanghai. The project was selected and developed to represent this UK/China collaboration during London Design Festival. 

For Innovation Greenhouse, the Entrance Tunnel to the V&A has been converted into a living greenhouse, inviting visitors to consider the relationship between design and the natural world, and previewing the Link Corridor exhibition which showcases new design projects developed from plant based materials.  

The inspiration for the Innovation Greenhouse came from the underlying vision for the UK pavilion, famously including 60,000 seeds within its structure to highlight  Kew Garden’s Millennium Seed Bank’s ambition to collect 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020.  For many of the UK and Chinese students this offered the opportunity for reflection on the potential of new relationships between society, plants and contemporary design, and to explore current creative practices that see beyond  traditional uses of resources  to create new possibilities. Innovation Greenhouse showcases new design projects and research developed from plant-based materials, presenting pioneering design approaches and research from Architect’s Journal, Bibiana Nelson, David Benque, Heatherwick Studio, Julia Lohmann, ModCell, thomas.matthews, among others. 

Innovation Greenhouse  is curated by Pete Collard and Katarzyna Jezowska, MA Curating Contemporary Design, Kingston University in partnership with the Design Museum, London.

The research visit to China was funded by the British Council Student Mobility programme and was part of the UK Events programme for the UK pavilion in Shanghai.

Kingston Fashion Graduate Scoops Top Prize

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Congratulations to Alice Early, a recent BA Fashion graduate from Kingston University for scooping the prestigious ‘Design Means Business’ award at HM treasury in Westminster, London organised by the Textile Institute. The award was open to nine of the country’s leading art and design institutions and her graduate collection inspired by the ‘Preservation of Craft’ landed first prize.

The industry based event saw experts from all areas of fashion and textiles, including retail heavyweights, Browns, Topshop and ASOS descend upon the 27 creative hopefuls. Champagne in hand, the graduating students representing the likes of Central St Martin’s, The London College of Fashion and The Royal College of Art were quizzed by future and potential employers.

After speeches given by Lord Haskel who opened the event, Designer, Anne Tyrell and the Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, Lord Sassoon, the award was presented by Lord Sassoon and Andreas Weber – World President of The Textile Institute.

Lucy Hammond and Naama Rietti were the other two selected graduates from Kingston University in recognition of their exceptional textile and design work. Lucy has secured a place at the RCA specialising in Knitwear and for the dedication these graduates show, they definitely deserve the plaudits.