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Old and new: Riddle Songs

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

art education creativity innovation

Posted: 24/06/20 09:18 | 3 Comments

Tutoring prisoner students can feel like something of a minefield. It can be difficult to decipher fact from fiction from the information shared in the press about what prisoners do (and don’t) have access to, as well as what the individual is expecting from you, or you from them. Hopefully this series of blog posts can provide a bit of information and a few suggestions to help make this easier.

Setting out on textiles journey: Foundations textiles

creativity innovation sustaining practice

Posted: 23/06/20 09:50 | 13 Comments

What I learned here was not a specific technique but the process to research, not only in media but also in daily life, and to experiment material manipulation, then to combine these to create something conceptual, visible and tangible. Besides, some findings in the process led me to unrestricted exploration out of the course guide. I feel I have set out on my textiles journey. I do not know where it leads, and that’s why I take it!

Study event review: In conversation with Naomi Incledon

creativity digital assessment innovation sustaining practice

Posted: 20/05/20 09:06 | 0 Comments

Participants were instead invited to view her work through a video documentation ‘Time Works’ emulating Cinema Verite- quite a Blair Witch style film where we walk through the Land Art works whilst being informed of her creative intentions, contexts and physical making in a serene and contemplative tone.

Large scale embroidery

creativity innovation

Posted: 19/05/20 09:30 | 4 Comments

I frequently discuss the idea of exploring scale to my students-at least twice a week! It might be to look at exploring a technique at a smaller, more intricate scale or to do the opposite; take the choice of media or base larger. It is so easy to stick within the limitations of the size of your sketchbook, or to remain firmly in your comfort zone (I should know, for a good portion of my degree I only ever worked on pieces smaller than a sheet of A4, feeling too daunted to go any bigger!), but it can be so beneficial to investigate the possibilities of creating work at different scales.

Interactivity and scriptwriting: Who is the storyteller?

engagement innovation

Posted: 06/05/20 09:36 | 1 Comments

In the last few years there have been an increased number of interactive films enter the mainstream film market, acclaimed by some as the new frontier of entertainment that will soon become the new normality. As a screenwriter and lover of “traditional” filmmaking, I had to dip my toe into this and find out what the appeal is all about.