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Perception: Where Science and Art Meet. Sort Of.

Posted: 09/06/21 09:26 | 0 Comments

The important point is our brains are wired in a certain way and we invent and build the world in our heads as much as perceive it as ‘truth’. This is important for anyone attempting to represent three dimensions in two. The world is indeed out there but perhaps capturing it requires more intervention than we might initially think.

What kind of spatial designer am I? #4 Grant Armstrong

careers creativity innovation sustaining practice

Posted: 14/05/21 09:22 | 1 Comments

Studying Interior Design, Spatial Design, Interior Architecture – or any kind of design of the built environment – can lead to many different careers. In this series of blog posts we are looking at the experience and careers of different design professionals and finding out what inspired them to study in the first place. Our fourth design professional is Grant Armstrong, an experienced supervising art director and production designer for film and television.

OCA Music: The virtual choir project

collaboration engagement innovation

Posted: 07/05/21 09:01 | 0 Comments

With in-person study visits, especially those involving singing, off the cards due to the pandemic, we had to think somewhat outside of the box to get a composition workshop together in 20/21! With a handful of singers within the student body of the music department, we decided to give a ‘Virtual Choir’ project a try.

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.

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.

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.

An accessible exhibition

accessibility digital assessment innovation

Posted: 04/08/20 09:11 | 2 Comments

Attending the exhibition, looking at the work and speaking with the artist is something that Leonard wanted to ensure all the people that he invited could do. You see, Leonard is visually impaired, and mobility-impaired disabled, so making the exhibition accessible to all was something that he was conscious of achieving and he has done that in bucket-loads.

A guide to tutoring prisoner students – Part 2

art education creativity innovation

Posted: 01/07/20 09:50 | 0 Comments

In this blog post I want to outline the different options prisoners have for carrying out the research element of their courses. As with most things relating to prisons, the specifics of each of these will differ between establishments, but what I want to emphasise is that it will very rarely be the case that someone can’t do research – it may just take a bit of effort on their part.

A guide to tutoring prisoner students – Part 1