Monthly Archives: October 2011

Landscape Interface Studio – Dublin Exhibition

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Interim exhibition to support ‘Waterways Forward’ project masterclasses.

Sept 14th 2011. Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland


http://www.waterways-forward.eu/news/

Landscape Interface Studio (LIS) is working as consultants to the EU “Waterways Forward” project helping one of the UK partners, British Waterways, to develop the project communication plan. “Waterways Forward” is a project developed under the European Union Interreg IVC programme. It brings together 17 partner organisations from 11 EU countries plus Norway and Serbia. The project runs for 3 years from 2009 to the end of 2012.

LIS produced and presented an exhibition of support material at the latest Waterways Forward Partners’ Confedrence at Dublin Castle, Ireland. The aim of this exhibition was to support the masterclasses by illustrating the good practice case studies identified previously and to present each case study as an exemplar good practice that can be directly transferred into policy. A series of posters and leaflets were developed by the LIS team: each presenting a case study as a distilled and concise policy suggestion. The exhibition travelled from Dublin to Enniskillen and will also be exhibited in South Tipperary later this year.

Further partner meetings will take place in Budapest in January 2012, Telemark, Norway in June 2012 with a final conference in The Hague in October 2012. The project’s final policy recommendations and report will be presented during this conference and Landscape Interface Studio will develop and produce a final exhibition to support these.

 


Kingston research student named Guardian Artist of the Week

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Emma Hart, TO DO (2011). Installation photograph courtesy the artist and Matt’s Gallery, London.

Kingston PhD student Emma Hart was featured as last week’s Guardian Artist of the Week. Emma was picked for the slot in the arts and culture pages by Guardian reporter Skye Sherwin, who comments on Emma’s film-and photography-based installations: “Hart’s lo-fi adventures challenge film and photography as unbiased document and dependable, authoritative fact…Her camera shapes the action with a gleeful inventiveness and a refreshingly daft sense of humour.”

 A student, who didn’t even start studying art until she was 21, Emma  has also  secured a solo exhibition at one of London’s most prestigious galleries –  Matt’s Gallery in Bow, east London. The gallery has exhibited work by many leading artists including former Turner Prize nominees, Willie Doherty and Mike Nelson and Nathaniel Mellors and Lindsay Seers, who have staged an exhibition at Tate Britain.
“I was over the moon when I got the opportunity to exhibit at Matt’s Gallery,” Emma, who’s now 36, said. “It’s a major commission, where i’ve been given time and space to work, a real chance to demonstrate my ideas.”
While teaching undergraduates at Kingston University, Emma has developed a form of ‘performance lecture’, in which she interacts with images that are projected on to a wall behind her. “The lectures involve an entourage of cameras, so I’ve become used to being surrounded by them. While planning the new show, TO DO, I decided to take the idea further.”
“In TO DO, the cameras become my assistants. I’ve created 27 creatures and incorporated cameras into them. The cameras don’t just record the show – they actually perform it,” she explained.
Emma left school and went to work for an insurance company in her hometown of Croydon. Aged 21, she studied for a degree in photography. Three years later, she went to the Slade School of Fine Art in central London to study for an MA and then, in 2008, came to Kingston to study for a doctorate.
“I specifically wanted to do a PhD at Kingston – I wouldn’t have done one anywhere else,” she said. “The fine art PhD here is progressive and a pioneer for research through practice”

Last year, Emma was included in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries show at the Institute of Contemporary Art, which is widely regarded as identifying future stars of the art world – both David Hockney and Damian Hirst have been selected in previous years. Since coming to Kingston University, she has also shown work at nearly 20 different galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto and New York’s Performa.
 “This show at Matt’s gallery marks a notable shift for Emma – from being an emerging artist, she is now a significant figure on the international stage,” Kingston University’s Head of Fine Art, Louis Nixon, said. “The show itself exemplifies the kind of artist and project we are supporting through our PhD programme.”

TO DO is supported by FUJIFILM<http://fujifilm.co.uk/
Arts Council England<http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/
Outset Contemporary Art Fund<http://www.outset.org.uk/>,
The Centre for Useless Splendour
<http://fada.kingston.ac.uk/research/research.php> at the Kingston University London and
The Shandy Collection<http://www.theshandycollection.org/>.

It runs until November 20 at Matt’s Gallery, 42–44 Copperfield Road, London E3 4RR, which is open Wed–Sun 12–6pm<http://www.mattsgallery.org/access.php>.

Designer dating connects creatives

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Any graduate hoping to embark on a career in the creative industries could tell you just how fierce the competition can be, but three design students from Kingston University aim to give themselves and their peers a helping hand with the development of their new networking app.

Thomas Valente and Andrew Gill, who have both just completed postgraduate degrees in motion graphics, have teamed up with MA Graphic Design student Michael Azzopardi and they have big plans to bring the creative community together with their new app.

The application, which the designers have called Momentum, is designed to work on smart phones and portable devices such as the iPad. It features several different elements, all intended to make interaction and networking within the creative industry more accessible to users on the go.

The trio’s design was the winning entry in a competition which aimed to bring together creative people from East and West, as well as connecting designers closer to home in Britain. The project, instigated by Kingston Professor Catherine McDermott, was part of a wider scheme, called Connecting Contemporary Design, involving universities around the world.

“Our app is about building real connections and collaborations between designers,” 23-year-old Thomas said. “It’s a portable source of creativity and random inspiration that keeps you in touch with the design community around you, all through the simplicity of your phone. Digital dating for designers if you will.”

The three students fought off stiff competition from other Kingston University designers as well as people from Korean University, Hongik, to carry off the winning prize – the chance to work with renowned graphic designer Malcolm Garrett.

A RSA Royal Designer for Industry, Garrett, whose most famous work includes the artwork for the Duran Duran album Rio, and projects for the likes of Boy George and the Buzzcocks, was instrumental in the success of the boys’ app design and had inspired them personally as well as acting as their mentor, Michael, 24, said.

“Malcolm Garrett is a hero of ours so the chance to work with him was completely amazing and his advice has been invaluable,” he said. The designer had genuinely seemed to be excited by the team’s ideas, Thomas added. “I think that his guidance has really helped us to push our ideas further.”

The app design features a way to keep track of portfolios and ideas that have been shared between designers as they move around. It also provides a source of information on surrounding events, agencies, jobs and design resources. The trio hope it will eventually include a jobs list to enable users to search for roles and locations relevant to their specialism. “Getting designers involved is the key to the project’s success. Designers want to open up their app and see lots of activity and so do recruiters,” Michael explained. “A whole design community is revealed in the palms of their hands.”

The project was a great example of how designers could use new technologies to build professional networks that bridged the divide between university study and employment, the students’ course director Ian Noble, who nominated them for the competition, said. “On the MA in Communication Design we ask students not only to employ their skills as designers, but we encourage them to develop entrepreneurial skills which can help to create new job opportunities,” he added.

Although the idea is to share content and ideas, privacy settings will allow content visibility to be controlled should an individual require it. This is something that the students themselves were all too aware of during the app’s initial concept stage. “Details were kept top-secret during development so we could perfect our ideas without any competitors swooping in and compromising our plans,” Andrew, 27, said.

With the concept stage now complete, Thomas, Michael and Andrew are looking to take the project live and work with a developer to get the app up and running.

 

 

Students featured in ‘Icon’ magazine

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Two of our BA(Hons) Product and Furniture Design graduates and one BSc(Hons) Product Design graduate were featured in last month’s ‘Icon’ magazine graduate issue. Each year the renowned design and architecture publication lists 15 of the most promising young designers from up and down the country. This year only four listed were undergraduate, with Kingston taking three of those slots! The rest making up the 15 came from MA courses including the Royal College of Art. We’re very proud to see our students work being compared at this level. Congratulations to Ben Fursdon, Oscar Medley Whitfield and Hannah Niskanen Benady.

Kingston’s Got (Surveying) Talent!

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Kingston graduate Ben Hodge (BSc Hons Property Planning and Development) has been named the winner of this year’s Kingston’s Got Talent, an awards event run by FADA’s School of Surveying and Planning and sponsored by the RICS’s Local Association.

 The annual event brings together one graduate from each of the School’s undergraduate courses to compete for a cash award from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). To win, graduates must impress a panel of judges made up of industry professionals, RICS board personnel and Kingston academic staff with a short presentation.

 Nominees talk about what makes a good surveyor and why they have what it takes to make it in the industry, before fielding questions from judges, current students, local employers and academic staff. This year’s presentations ranged from the importance of an entrepreneurial spirit to the need for determination and enthusiasm to succeed in the surveying industry.

In his winning presentation, Ben talked about the importance of duty of care and advised current students not to give up: “The market for jobs is tough, but with perseverance and self belief the best results can be achieved by anyone; hard work does not go unnoticed by employers. Make the most of social events, it’s important not to understate their importance – that’s where you will meet partners and potential colleagues in their most relaxed environment.”

 Head of School, Professor Sarah Sayce said “ as we have come to expect all the finalists gave an excellent account of themselves and showed that they had talent not just technically but they understood the need for integrity and  a strong work ethic- as well as highly developed inter-personal skills.  I know they will continue as now to be great ambassadors for both the School and the University.”

Kingston’s Got Talent will return in 2012. If you’re interested in finding out more about this initiative, please contact h.boyes@kingston.ac.uk.

For more details on events in the School of Surveying and Planning please visit their facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kingston-Universitys-Surveying-and-Planning-Events/229578767068455?sk=wall

 

Kingston student named “best of the best”

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Kingston Quantity Surveying student Elsie North has won a national prize for best female student in a competition run by the Association of Women in Property (WIP).

 Elsie, who works for quantity surveyors Faithful & Gould while studying in her third year, was picked out as “the best of the best” from eight regional finalists in a dinner held at Claridge’s last week. In June, Elsie won the top regional prize in the competition, becoming the south-east finalist, before beating the other 59 students from 38 universities in the final, held at Claridge’s in London.  

 Winning £700 and a package of support that includes a place on the WIP mentoring scheme, Elsie was recognised for her “refreshing approach”. Kingston’s winner was applauded by the judges when she said: “We know [young people] are high risk, but employers must trust us to do the job.”

 Head of Surverying and Planning Sarah Sayce said: “We are all immensely proud of Elsie for what she has achieved; she succeeded against very strong competition. I note that the judges were particularly impressed by her confidence and her positive approach – both characteristics that are so vital for success in today’s competitive environment. I am sure she will be an excellent role model for others entering the profession.”

 The awards were launched to inspire young women studying a built environment degree course and are open to female students in the second year of their studies.

Denise Scott Brown: New Questions

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Kingston tutor David Knight and one of our students have recently taken part in an exclusive event led by Denise Scott Brown and Sir Terry Farrell at the Architecture Foundation, London.

Denise Scott Brown, one of the world’s most influential architects, led a debate between practitioners, tutors and students at the Architecture Foundation, London, on Monday 26th September. ‘Denise Scott Brown: New Questions’ was chaired by Finn Williams (Common Office) and Sir Terry Farrell (Farrell and Partners) and featured in the invited audience a number of tutors and students from London’s architecture schools, including David Knight and Yemi Aladerun, a tutor and recent graduate respectively from Kingston University School of Architecture and Landscape.

Scott Brown began with a lecture on her work, notably ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ and recent university masterplanning projects, before the debate opened to the floor and covered topics including tactics for engaging communities, how students should approach architecture as a career, pragmatism and the planning process, and the social life of cities.

More information on the event  is available here:

http://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk/news/2011/sep/exclusive-members-only-seminar-with-denise-scott-brown

Architecture graduates debate the future of the high street

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‘The Unlimited Edition’ is a new, ultra-local newspaper produced by the practice We Made That as part of the High Street 2012 initiative in the run up to the London Olympic Games.

Issue 2, ‘Speculation’, speculates on the future of the high street as a place and an idea. Guest edited by Kingston tutor David Knight, the issue features articles by leading designers, commentators and authors including Oliver Wainwright (Buildings Editor, Building Design magazine) Sam Jacob (FAT) and Wouter Vanstiphout (Crimson Architectural Historians), as well as featuring the projects of Hannah Tourell and Shaun Young, two recent graduates of Kingston’s postgraduate diploma in architecture programme. Hannah and Shaun’s projects both offer speculation on the future occupation and form of the high street, and are the result of the School of Architecture’s year-long investigation of High Street London during the 2010-11 academic year.

Issue 2 of The Unlimited Edition is currently being distributed free on the high street itself, from Aldgate to Stratford.

The project is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, High Street 2012, the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

Photograph by We Made That

Martin Westwood These Hands Are Models: Exhibition Launch 5 October 2011

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Martin Westwood These Hands Are Models:

Exhibition Launch at The Stanley Picker Gallery

5 October 2011

Stanley Picker Fellow Martin Westwood’s exhibition These Hands Are Models launches Wednesday 5 October from 6-8.30pm.

The exhibition, supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and running until 26 November 2011, constitutes a major installation of new ceramic pieces resulting from an 18 month period of research as part of the Stanley Picker Fellowship programme here at Kingston University.

Westwood initiated this new body of work following a residency at The British School at Rome researching the origins of money and currency. A further period of research at the European Ceramics Work Centre (EKWC) in Holland resulted in the development of ambitious large-scale ceramic pieces, with much of the work for the final exhibition produced within the specialist ceramic workshop facilities at the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture. The resulting installation of multiple elements locates itself somewhere between the factory-floor aspirations of mechanisation and the conspicuous-consumption of the executive environment.

These Hands Are Models is accompanied by a download-publication, available free from the Stanley Picker Gallery site, as well as an artist-edition, both designed with Fraser Muggeridge Studio and including a newly commissioned text by Steven Claydon. The publications will be launched on Friday 14 October 2011 coinciding with Frieze Art Fair.

Westwood is due to continue his involvement with the research culture here at Kingston University, commencing an AHRC-funded PhD with the Fine Art School’s Centre for Useless Splendour.

www.stanleypickergallery.org