Lucy McRae: body architect and synthetic biologist
"Lucy creates provocative and often grotesquely beautiful imagery that suggests a new breed existing in an alternate world.
Trained as a classical ballerina and architect her work inherently fascinates with the human body. The media call her inventor, friends call her a trailblazer. Either way, she relies on instinct to evolve an extraordinary visual path that is powerful, primal and uniquely Lucy McRae."
(Lucy McRae)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Search The British Newspaper Archive online
"The British Library and online publisher brightsolid today launch a website that will transform the way that people use historical newspapers to find out about the past. The British Newspaper Archive website will offer access to up to 4 million fully searchable pages, featuring more than 200 newspaper titles from every part of the UK and Ireland. The newspapers - which mainly date from the 19th century, but which include runs dating back to the first half of the 18th century - cover every aspect of local, regional and national news."
(The British Library and brightsolid, 29/11/2011)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
WESC Interactive Window Concept
"We created a concept around and Interactive Display Window: The Worldwide Conspiracy.
The Brief was to connect the brand with Music/Art and we used the best connection and resource the brand has connected to the creative industry: The WeActivists. We also wanted the brand to be perceived as global and connect the Activists more to the people.
The window contains a screen that displays these videos generated online and that turn live when users triggers them offline by walking."
(By cyril foiret 16 Jan 2011)
CONTRIBUTOR
James PrattSHARE
The Purpose and Focus of Research for Costumes
"One of the greatest challenges for any practitioner in the performing arts is to create a believable and completely honest 'world of the play,' no matter how abstract or obscure it might be to the modern eye. A costumer's overarching objective is essentially to create forms of clothing that are appropriate to any and every type of character, taking into account not only the obvious variables of nationality, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, gender, sexual orientation and creed, but also those of geography, climate, occupation, familial and/or marital status, physiology, personality, psychological state, ideology, historical milieu and so forth. ...
Evocative research, the most liberating form of research for a costumer, is found all around us. This form of research, includes the visual arts but expands to encompass highly abstract art, music, nature, fantasy, film, language, demography and sociopolitical perspectives. Used by directors, actors and designers alike, it creates a basic vocabulary of concept and style upon which to begin discussions of production design. For example, one of the first discussions regarding a play or opera might be the director bringing to the table a piece of music or a painting that to them conveys the mood and spirit they are looking to evoke in the production. For example, a painting by Gustav Klimt might have a specific palette and a detailed use of texture and pattern that evoke key emotions from the director and serve as an excellent springboard for a stylized concept. A director could even bring in a list of adjectives that describes his or her response to the play, and a production team would be expected to visually interpret these words. It is the combination of evocative and factual research that brings focus, cohesiveness and consistency to a production design. Finding fundamental themes or through-lines upon which to base the clothing of the characters therefore allows the designer to create a more controlled environment and a more unified aesthetic."
(Linda Pisano, Timeless Communications September 2010)
Fig.1 Gloria Swanson in the ruins of the Roxy Theatre. Eliot Elisofon. New York City, October 14, 1960. © Time, Inc.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Wall5 (a gallery without walls): presenting art and design research
"Research at Nottingham Trent University takes place in all our Schools, in all our subjects- from Art to Zoology. Alongside the reports, books, papers, keynote talks that you might expect, many times our researchers produce things as well as words. These might be: art works; 3D designs; visualisations of scientific insights; fashion; images produced from ethnography; film and theatre production; costume designs and more.
We think of it as something like a gallery, except without walls, or with just one, a virtual wall - hence the name. Each three months or so there is a new show to see, carefully curated round the work of one researcher or a small group. The variety of our work means that an exhibition of interactive art work might be followed by one about the visualisation of nano particles, or on the ancient architecture of Oman.
Wall5 is a way to show how these things articulate with the knowledge our researchers generate and let us demonstrate the full spectrum of what we produce.
Wall5 launched in November 2010. As each show is replaced it will appear in an archive section, so if you like what you see you can check back later. Also, look out for WALL5 groups on social media sites for updates on the exhibition programme."
(Nottingham Trent University)
Fig.1 Jed Hoyland 'Silence/Stillness/ Arrangements'
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
