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innovation Blog Posts - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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Electronic Music 1 – Halim El-Dabh  thumb

Electronic Music 1 – Halim El-Dabh 

In 2023, I ran a Listening Group session with OCA students, focused on electronic music. There was quite a lot of enthusiasm for the ideas we discussed and, consequently, I have decided to write a series of blog posts exploring the history, techniques, and aesthetics of this beautiful and bewildering type of music. 

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Critical reviews in Interior Design thumb

Critical reviews in Interior Design

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in some first year student reviews with the Interior Architecture degree course at Westminster University in London. As a tutor it’s really helpful for me to see the work of students at other institutions so that I have an idea of the wider picture of Interior Design education (and student output) in the UK today.

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Student work: Archive as Creative Presentation  thumb

Student work: Archive as Creative Presentation 

This blog post introduces the production of a creative archive by ECA student Tim Harbridge. Tim’s Box Concert archive demonstrates an excellent and engaging use of combined methods across film, audio, physical objects, and installation. 

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Season’s Greetings & A Year in Review thumb

Season’s Greetings & A Year in Review

Everything that has been achieved this year is down to all of the amazing people at OCA who have repeatedly gone above and beyond in order to make things happen, whether it be running programmes, supporting students, or managing the transfer to The OU.

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Tutor news: Caroline Wright thumb

Tutor news: Caroline Wright

Caroline, alongside others, worked on SPIRAL, a project that explored multi-sensory dimensions of materials with disabled people. They aimed to explore if creative approaches could intersect with the work of UCL researchers to bring new and stimulating experiences to people.

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Drawing Invisible Cities: A Close-Reading and Drawing Workshop thumb

Drawing Invisible Cities: A Close-Reading and Drawing Workshop

Using selected extracts from Italo Calvino’s book ‘Invisible Cities’, on Wednesday 23 March I held a drawing and close-reading workshop to explore his writing and create a series of speculative drawings that imagine the cities he describes.

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Augmented Reality – what place does this have in art? thumb

Augmented Reality – what place does this have in art?

The primary focus for Artivive, going by their website, appears to be its use in galleries, but I was beginning to see the potential beyond that context. What if artists could add an audio track for people with literacy difficulties? Or a video of themselves talking about the work? Or how about a video comprising photos showing how the finished piece came about? 

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