creativity Blog Posts | The Open College of the Arts
Explore #WeAreOCA
Skip Navigation
Browsing Category:

creativity

Old and new: Riddle Songs

creativity innovation
Posted: 03/11/20 09:21 | 1 Comments

Working with ancient texts and dead languages might give one cause enough to steer away, presenting the composer with all sorts of challenges in interpretation and performance. Add into the mix historical instrumentation and such projects could easily lose focus, become too academically dry, or even a pastiche of itself. The key, in my opinion, to the successful combination of old and new, is that the composer needs to respect what both sides have to offer any potential soundworld and then somehow keep them in balance. 

Read More

Virtual study event: Paradise, Garden.

creativity social sustaining practice
Posted: 27/10/20 09:15 | 2 Comments

Across both sessions, we will look further at the relationship between the real, the photographic, the digital and the physical. You will be sharing work on a group Padlet as well as working together from time to time. There is a playful edge to these sessions to reflect the considerations of Bosch as well as the theme of the fantastical garden.

Read More

What is experimental writing? Part 2: Poetry

creativity
Posted: 12/10/20 09:14 | 2 Comments

In that sense, any kind of creative writing – a poem, a play, a story, etc. – is an experiment. A person sets about creating something utterly new, something that hasn’t existed before, and has often very little idea what the end product will be like. But I believe that some kinds of writing are more ‘experimental’ than others. 

Read More

Student stories: Anne Bryson, Photography

creativity engagement sustaining practice
Posted: 07/10/20 09:03 | 9 Comments

In this post we celebrate the learning journey of photographer and OCA student, Anne Bryson. Earlier this year, Anne exited the Photography degree at the end of level 2 with the award Diploma in Higher Education (DipHE). After a short study break she decided to take the short course, Investigating Place with Psychogeography and used this to further extend a project exploring the coal mines in the Forest of Dean. She caught up with programme leader Dan Robinson.

Read More

Student stories: Jane Plumridge

creativity
Posted: 06/10/20 09:13 | 12 Comments

I’m a mature student currently studying OCA’s Music Foundation Course before moving on to their Music Degree Programme once I’ve finished that. If it wasn’t for OCA it would be impossible for me to continue music studies to a higher level. You see, my situation is different to say the least. Let me give you a brief idea.

Read More

What is experimental writing? Part 1: Fiction

creativity
Posted: 01/10/20 10:13 | 2 Comments

The definition of ‘experimental writing’ is highly subjective, but for me it includes writing that plays with form and pushes the possibilities of language further than usual. Some experimental writing can be difficult, asking for careful and active reading

Read More

Printmaking studios at home

creativity innovation sustaining practice
Posted: 23/09/20 09:29 | 1 Comments

During covid lockdown I’ve been so grateful I have a studio space at home. I was reflecting how my OCA students use their homes as studios. I asked a number of printmaking students to reflect and share how they made printmaking spaces within their homes.

Read More

Textiles and jewellery

creativity innovation
Posted: 16/09/20 12:23 | 4 Comments

As my own textiles practice has, for the past few years now, been venturing more and more into the jewellery sector, I have built up a real fascination with how textiles and jewellery disciplines have such a fine line between them and so easily blurred. I know that many, many practitioners work in a multi-disciplinary way, with many choosing to not specify which ‘section’ of the art and craft sector they reside – which I equally appreciate as well- but focusing in on just the relationship between more ‘typical’ textiles and jewellery disciplines is a very interesting area of research to me. 

Read More

Why enter awards?  You might actually win!

creativity sustaining practice
Posted: 09/09/20 09:29 | 13 Comments

When the global Covid-19 pandemic threw us all into a national lockdown, I – like many other OCA students – watched my university studies grind to a shuddering halt.  My otherwise reasonable progress through Body of Work and Contextual Studies was suddenly stymied by uncertainty, chaos and adventures in homeschooling!  Then I read a #WeAreOCA article about why photography students should enter awards.   

Read More