Nottingham Trent University Art & Design Degree Shows 2012 (promotional video)

Animated Presentation Describing Grade-Based Assessment at NTU

"For the 2012 / 13 academic year, NTU is introducing a new scheme for assessing undergraduate students' work. The scheme is known as grade-based assessment or GBA.

A major advantage of GBA is that it ensures that there is a direct link between the expected learning outcomes of the part of the course being assessed and what you, the student, have demonstrated in the assessment. This short video explains this.

The specific arrangements relating to the assessment of a module will be set out in module documentation. Previously, assessed work was awarded a mark, usually a percentage. Following the introduction of GBA, each piece of assessed work will be awarded one of 17 grades.

You will be informed about what is expected of you in order to achieve a particular grade. This information will mean that feedback on your work will be clear and you will be able to evaluate your progress towards your final degree classification."

(Nottingham Trent University)

[This animated presentation provides an overview of the grade-based marking scheme which is being introduced at Nottingham Trent University for the 2012 / 13 academic year. The presentation is clearly aimed at NTU students (and refers to the university-specific VLE called the "NOW" - the "NTU Online Workspace"), despite this the clip covers issues which I expect have more general relevance to students studying at other institutions.]

Communicating and discovering insight through reflective journals

A reflective journal is both a communication tool and a design method for developing professional practice. Such journals allow designers to publish their projects as they progress and provide a platform for critically reflecting on creative works and the design process.

Reflective journals can be used to discover insight about how designers approach their creative problem-solving. This is commonly understood as a central requirement for designers to develop their professionalism and to become experts in the field. They do so through reflecting on their work - characterising common features and critically analysing successes and failures.

Reflective journals also help designers situate their work within the broader creative industries and contemporary visual culture context. Designers might use their journal to document developing trends and to collect examples of inspirational works. These collections might be made as part of the research phase of a given project or contribute to a more general understanding of a design field.

Such journals should take an appropriate form so that they communicate effectively and provide necessary insight. They might exist in a singular form e.g. a workbook, a weblog or they might exist as a collection e.g. as a workbook of sketches with notes/annotations and as a weblog/Tumblr of photographs/videos with associated critical reflections.

The following are examples of art and design reflective journals:

• Sketchbook blog of illustrator and cartoonist Jillian Tamaki: http://blog.jilliantamaki.com/


• Design blog of visual artist/illustrator Bryce Wymer: http://brycewymer.blogspot.co.uk/


• Webblog of Nottingham Trent University first year Multimedia student Zoe Stroud: http://zoestroud90.blogspot.co.uk/


• Weblog by Havering Sixth Form College student Victoria Robinson: http://vickierobinsongraphics.tumblr.com/


• Blog by Spainish graphic design student Lydia Franco: http://www.lylena.blogspot.co.uk/


• Mary Whittingham's student photography blog: http://marywhittingham.blogspot.co.uk/


• Group visual culture blog: http://wewastetime.wordpress.com/


• Architecture blog created by Orsalia Dimitriou and Dejan Mrdja: http://studiosynthetica.wordpress.com/


• Blog by Goldsmiths, University of London digital media student Justin Pickard: http://justinpickard.net/blog/

Art and Design and Built Environment College Research Conference and Festival: Perspectives on the Material World

"Thursday, 28 June 2012, 09.00 am - 17.30 pm, Exhibition-Newton Central Gallery, Conference-Newton LT3, LT37, LT33 and LT32, Welcome 9 am - 9.30 am in Newton Central Gallery, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.

All University staff, students and guests are invited to come along to this exciting research conference and festival. The conference has a series of parallel sessions of papers organised round research groups, as well as an exhibition.

This year's innovations will include workshop sessions on the seven candidate REF impact case studies, as well as the involvement of the Future Factory. Video art, production engineering, sustainable consumption, C18 textiles, concrete, knitting - all these and more will be the origin of papers in this year's Art and Design and Built Environment College Research Conference and Festival. This rich collection of research has a common concern to understand and shape our relationship to the material world; physically, socially and philosophically."

(Nottingham Trent University)

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Origamibiro: Quad Time

"Origamibiro is a collaboration between myself and musicians, performers and producers Tom Hill and Andy Tytherleigh. Tom and I have a long history of collaboration through av_dv [Jim Boxall/Jon Gillie], Wauvenfold [Noel Murphy/Tom Hill] and Penfold Plum [Tom Hill]. After creating the first Origamibiro album 'Cracked Mirrors and Stopped Clocks', Tom wanted to find unorthodox ways to produce intimate live music based on generated loops without the audience barrier of laptop screens. Tom's music had a high level of emotional intensity that I felt a real affinity with and wanted to replicate through my visuals. I also wanted to further explore our live setup and find ways to show what we are doing and how we are doing it, as we are doing it. Early on in this process we enlisted the multi instrumentalist skills of Andy Tytherleigh. Andy immediately multiplied layers of melody and atmosphere in the set to create a wider and more beautiful sound."

(Jim Boxall)