Making its own cultural and artistic contribution to the 2012 Games, the University of Brighton Faculty of Arts is involved in a range of projects and activities this summer.
15 Aug 2013
Making its own cultural and artistic contribution to the 2012 Games, the University of Brighton Faculty of Arts is involved in a range of projects and activities this summer.
The Creative Campus Initiative is a collaboration between the Universities of Brighton and Sussex in a consortium of thirteen higher education institutions in South East England delivering a dynamic programme of cultural events and artworks in response to the Olympics and Paralympic Games.
The projects encompass creative writing, digital medical scanning, sound art and music, film and moving image, dance, fashion, graphic and product design and public art and culminate in a group exhibition at Jubilee Library, Brighton and at the University of Brighton Gallery at Grand Parade which runs until Tuesday 31 July, 2012:
Bodies Beautiful: Paralympic sportswear and equipment design, is a cross-disciplinary and community partner project led by Malcolm Mcinnes, academic programme leader for Fashion and Textiles and researchers Dr Jyri Kermik, and Tom Ainsworth.
Endeavour, led by lecturer Fiona Smith and Lucy Pocknell, lecturers at the university’s Chelsea School, with Random Dance and Conall Gleeson, lecturer in Performance and Visual Art.The project involved year two undergraduate physical education teacher training students, members of KICK-START and FIDGET Dance companies working in residency with Random Dance to create a performance inspired by an aspect of London 2012 with an original score composed by Gleeson.
Metaphorical Measurements, is lead by George Hardie, Professor of Graphic Design. It is a visual clarification of the measurements involved in some 30 of the Olympic and Paralympic sports, which will be produced as a pulp book and as posters.Run and Become focuses on two runners’ participation in the inaugural Brighton Marathon which took place in April 2012. It records their motivations to run, and the relationship between self and other motivations, such as running for charity and their experiences of transformation – in both their bodies and their sense of self as they train for and complete the marathon.
Scanning for Gold. Gordon Kay from Brighton & Sussex Medical School and Professor David Mellor form University of Sussex have led this project combining clinical imaging scans of Olympic hopefuls in training with action and portrait images to create a striking visual exhibition. This project shows how anatomy and sports science can help us understand more about what makes a high-performance athlete deliver results.
Subtle Objects: Pick up is the result of research by researcher Mike Blow. Working with sports kit and equipment it captures sounds relating to when the object was made as well as a particular game or match and includes evocative soundscapes, laughter, ominous sounds, and so on.
Using the expertise of the lead researcher, Vaida Morkunaite, Unlocking Spaces is based on the work of diploma Architecture students mapping and visualising open urban space in the Ditchling Rise area of Brighton and Hove, investigating land that has scope to be more intensively used for both sporting and cultivating activitiesThe Creative Writing Olympics Anthology has been produced, exploringnew and existing connections between art and sport through the medium of creative writing. Lead by Literature lecturer Jess Moriarty, this anthology by University of Sussex and University of Brighton staff and students, plus other local writers, is inspired by London 2012 themes, topics, issues and debates.
The Creative Campus group exhibition is at Jubilee Library and University of Brighton gallery at Grand Parade until Tuesday, 31 July, 2012.
In the area of Arts and Media Practice, Dr Sarah Atkinson and Marley Cole staged two events in the run up to the Games:1908: Body and Soul fused performance, sport, circus and immersive sound drawing on the sports history expertise of Professor Alan Tomlinson from University of Brighton’s Chelsea School, and experimental media production. The event recalled London’s first Olympic Games held in 1908.
Auditoryum: A site-specific three-dimensional interactive sonic artwork using ambient sounds of the arena will be audible as visitors step into the space; then specific audio sounds triggered by the visitor’s movement through motion-sensing.Visiting lecturer and alumnus, Pascal Anson’s design for the new livery for British Airways planes flying in teams for the Olympics was chosen by the airline as part of its Great Britons Olympic programme. The competition aimed to promote British talent in the run up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Turner prize-nominated artist Tracey Emin was on the judging panel, which picked Anson's design from hundreds of entries last July.
Brighton-based Anson chose the dove because as well as being a symbol of peace and social unity, it was used in ancient Olympics as a messenger to send Games reports to outlying villages, and the bird also played a role in Olympics ceremonies such as that at the last London Games in 1948.
Lin Cheung, who graduated from Brighton with a 3D Materials Practice BA(Hons) in 1994 has designed the medals for the Paralympic Games. Cheung is still in touch with our department and is one of our regular visiting lecturers on the Design and Craft BA(Hons) course.
Turner Prize winning artist and Brighton graduate, Rachel Whiteread is one of the artists who have designed a poster for the 2012 Games posters. The images are currently on show in a free exhibition at Tate Britain as part of a high-profile promotion of the 2012 Games.
As part of the legacy of the Games, Andre Viljoen, lecturer in Architecture, is briefing the Olympic Park Legacy Company's real estate team on how to boost the Olympic Games' green legacy and integrate urban agriculture into the post-Games development of the Olympic Park in Stratford.
