SUPERTOURIST
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http://zagreblondonlondonzagreb.blogspot.com/
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PRESS RELEASE
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April 27 - May 15, 2007
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Exhibition of students of ALU, Zagreb & LMU, London
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Lucy Carew, Jonathan Gabb, Nicholas Lockyer, Lorna Macmillan, Anja Malec, Myrna Martini, Wendy McLean, Tomislav Mostecak, Dina Roncevic, Nives Sertic, Natasha Stanbridge, Mateja Sabic, Trevor Taylor, Lea Vidakovic
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SUPERTOURIST

The exhibition presents the process and outcomes of a two-week student exchange project between London Metropolitan University and Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. There were fourteen students taking part, seven from each University.
During the first week, students from Zagreb visited London, and in the second week the students from London came to Zagreb. During this time, besides attending presentations of each other’s work and being introduced to various galleries and museums, the students have participated in the ongoing programmes of the host universities.

The project has included students giving guided tours/walks (both of their home town, and the town they visit) for their visiting peers. This is a way of making the possible thematic of such an exchange manifest and articulated – i.e. tourism, translation, the ‘other’, outsider/insider.
In addition, the project has also included each group of students preparing packs of written material, images, articles, quotes, sketches, etc. that have informed their own practice. These packs of information were then sent by post to the other side prior to the visits.
The themes of the project are not specifically set, although students have been given specific texts, and have been offered the following as areas for reflection: language, translation, tourism, nomadism, travel, spectacle, other and othering, dislocation, adventure.

This is the second of what is conceived to develop into a series of ongoing exchange projects between the two Universities.

Project supervisors and coordinators: Ben Cain and Nicole Hewitt.

London Metropolitan University, Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb, Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb University Student Union, and the City of Zagreb have supported the project.

Supertourist
Private View Night
Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic

Natasha Stanbridge and Trevor Taylor

Work exhibited: Video Piece
Video Collaboration about London and Zagreb

“We took inspiration from "On Photography" by Susan Sontag and particularly from the comment she makes on the Chris Marker film ‘Si j’avais quatre dromandaires’. The montage of our video is similar to the Marker’s one: a variety of different themed still photographs, each still being displayed on the screen for a different duration. Sontag comments, “Both the order and exact time for looking at each photograph are imposed and there is a gain of visual legibility & emotional impact.”
In our piece each still was shown for such a short duration that it could be said that one cannot engage with a particular image therefore could not endorse emotional detachment.
The video was primarily looking at the memory of the trip and the way in which our memories are reduced to a series of stills rather than that of moving image. In an interview for the Boston review Sontag says, “Each memory from one's childhood, or from any period that's not in the immediate past, is like a still photograph rather than a strip of film. And photography has objectified this way of seeing and remembering.”
We also used three different sounds experienced of our travels through Zagreb and the sounds gave the stills an individual character, and gave rhythm and emotion to what the spectator saw."

Lorna Macmillan and Nicholas James Lockyer

Work exhibited: Performance and video

Lorna Macmillan and Nicholas James Lockyer collaborated together to do a performance and a video:
‘The most important thing for me was the opportunity to work with someone else. This is something I have not done since college. At times it was very challenging because although Nick and myself have many similarities within our work, we are also quite different. After establishing that we would both have to get used to coming out of our comfort zones it all began to take shape. We wanted to concentrate on the idea of travelling to a foreign country. We knew it would be a performance piece that we would record. We both have an interest in constructing characters in our work. We started to think about animals that move about, change location and travel. Our final decision was a bird. Our story is of ‘The Lost Bird’ who has migrated to Zagreb and unfortunately got himself into a bit of bother. He is distressed and unable to find his way. He is looking everywhere for help and support from others, much like the way tourists feel when placed in this situation. He is in the quest of something familiar, something that reminds him of home. I am really pleased with the final outcome. I think when watching the video you begin to feel for the bird and even find it moving. I’m glad I experienced working as a collaboration, a fantastic performance from Nick.’

Jonathan Gabb

Work exhibited: Mixed Media: Acrylic, Digital photo Print

‘I entitled my work ‘Yellow Paint’. It is mind map of a yellow paint’s journey from conception and realisation at London Met to being left behind amongst the canvas paintings at the Academy of Fine Art. It maps out my thoughts of the experiences of the trip and the thought processes that directed the piece of work. How it’s constructed is like a growth, a journey, with borders, advances, and points of interest.’

Lucy Carew

Work exhibited: Performance and video

Lucy did a performance with photography and films: “My work drew upon concepts surrounding traditional female based craft skills. I used the methodology of felting in the form of two performances and an exhibited final product of the performances. The idea was layered upon the exchange of the raw wool, which was obtained from an urban London farm, and the preparation and processes involved in the felting process, which took place in Zagreb. The idea of the felting has a surreal element in its physicality and the methodology. I felted the wool and different fibres such as human hair, plus organic particles which just so happened to get caught up in the process i.e. seeds, dandelions that carried in the wind (as I did the performances in the open air, in a park and at the preview for the show). I displayed it in such a way that the fibres and felted piece took on the behaviour of an organism and parasite, growing out of the gallery walls, taking over the space from tiny corners and crevasse that existed in the walls. Also ideas of repulsion and seduction operated within my concepts for the practice.”

Wendy Mc Lean
Work exhibited: Collaboration with Tomislav Mostecak. Paintings

“Tom, one of the Croatian students, and I, set up a still life to paint from two angles, on two different canvases, which we painted consecutively, swapping over which one each of us were working on at the time. The set up, of a souvenir London bus and a mug with drawings of Zagreb landmarks, was deliberatively naive: we planned that each painting would contain both, although, in each the focus would be on one.”

Oliver Evelyn-Rahr, Art Teacher and Alumni of London Met invite you to:

The Fantasy Island show
12.06.07
3.30-6.30pm

Beaverwood School for girls
Beaverwood Road, Chislehurst

A project realised in/with the school where he teaches after being inspired by the workshop he did for Calverton Arts Week in 2006!!
We are very pleased for him and wish a very good luck!

Seven weeks ago, I gave my year eight pupils in 8a and 8b3, a very simple brief. Working in pairs or as individuals, I asked them to design and construct a fantasy island. From this brief, a multitude of fantastical and inspired Islands have been created, and I am incredibly proud of my pupils, for the high standard of work which they’ve achieved.

From the very beginning, each team was asked to think about, the myriad of different features that their island might require. This included the methods by which their island could be accessed, and how their island would be connected and situated to the other islands around it. Consequently some of the islands have been created as archipelagos and have been joined with bridges, boats and roller coasters, to name but a few!

In the Fantasy Island Show, these connections between the islands, and their installation as a cohesive group, becomes a metaphor for the wider school community.
The show reflects, not only the individual personalities involved, but also the friendships and co-operative spirit which form Beaverwood. The islands clearly reflect very idiosyncratic ideas about the world, but are nevertheless inextricably linked to each other.

Running parallel to this in their music lessons, my pupils were asked to think about the themes explored by their islands and to compose soundtracks to accompany them during the show.
The Fantasy Island Show is a premier for these musical themes, and the first time that the islands have been connected and displayed together, as they were originally intended.


Oliver Evelyn-Rahr
Art teacher

Thanks:

This project would not have been possible without the following people:

Louisa Lowing for co-ordinating the composition of pupil’s musical island themes.
Mike Turner and Alan Lingwood for their untiring support.

And Tim Pratt for helping to formulate the project originally.

Satellite, A Fine Art Course Approach

http://satellite-projects.blogspot.com/

please contact:

Babette Pauthier
Satellite Outreach Coordinator

London Metropolitan University
Department of Art Design and Media

Central House , Room 309
59-63 Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7PF
020 7320 1900
e.pauthier@londonmet.ac.uk



Satellite is a project, which has been established to enable BA Fine Art students form London Metropolitan University to work as artists on live projects as volunteers, either in community settings or within a more traditional gallery environment, with dedicated support from the university and partner organisations.
Satellite has established a strong outreach and external project programme throughout the last four years in order to support staff and student initiatives, which contribute directly to enriching the course curriculum and extending student experience.
Satellite has established successful partnerships and networks at a local, national and international level. Students have been able to work with a wide range of artists and community groups. Although Satellite has only been established for four years, students have been able to work with a wide range of artists, community organisations and schools groups: So far we have undertaken projects with organisations as diverse as Tate Modern, The Women’s Library, The Tower of London, DITO – a disability training information and advocacy Organisation, The Museum of Installation, Hales Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, The Royal London Hospital, Artism – an art project for autistic children’s, Poplar Day Centre for the elderly, and most importantly a number of local primary and secondary schools in Poplar, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

Satellites role within the course

Satellite grew out of the ethos of the course – that art is about communication and thinking creatively to enable audiences to access the world of ideas. For students to be able to employ their ideas and use the skills they have learned in a live project situation is tremendously exciting, and gives them a real world perspective on their chosen academic discipline. Reaching an audience and contributing towards cultural life is a priority of most artists’ practice. To experience this first hand whilst studying helps to equip students for their future career and helps them to develop strategies for their own work. Working on live projects builds an awareness of professional standards, and the roles an artist can play in variety of contexts.

Opportunities for artists to work on community projects, or within education programmes based at galleries and schools have burgeoned in the last ten years. Within the market driven art press this activity tends to be marginalised but it is tremendously important for a number of reasons:

1. It brings art to new audiences
2. It engages new participants in the arts
3. It raises the standard and range of arts provision locally
4. It employs artists and gives them a valued role


Satellite's initiatives include academic and community oriented projects, which facilitate an enhanced understanding of fine art as a discipline. Satellite is innovative in its methods and aims to enable students to gain experience of working on live projects with practising artists. This covers the diverse range of applications of fine art, from using art as an educational tool through to assisting and working alongside renowned practitioners and theorists. Satellite projects - from school based workshops to group discussions with visiting theorists - enable students to develop a broad based experience of fine art practice and its effects in a wider cultural context.

One of the main points of the Satellite project is to give students an opportunity to develop ideas and be innovative in their practice. Students need to be responsive to context and show a level of flexibility in their approach to each new project.

Satellite Objectives

* To offer students live project experience; putting theory into practice
* Enable students to engage with artists’ networks on a professional level.
* Develop students ‘employability’ and careers awareness.
* Enhance local arts provision and engage new audiences.
* Promote the value of higher education in the local community
* Encourage local initiatives

Key strategies

* Building links with arts providers and organisations
* Engaging with arts networks - locally and internationally
* Creating a diverse and wide range of professional practice opportunities for students
* Reflecting course values in projects
* Maintaining good practice and providing models of excellence

Key factors in making Satellite work

* Course staff commitment – students work with a team of practicing artists, writers, critics, and theorists; dovetailing with course objectives
* Internal funding support
* Strong long-term relationships with external partners
* Maintaining good communications between students, tutors and project partners


Location

As an inner city campus based in one of the poorest boroughs in London, outreach projects play an important role, in promoting higher education – and the arts – as accessible and relevant. Therefore our location is tremendously important. We are based in the East End of London, and as well as being ideally placed in relation to many artists’ studios and independent galleries, we are an inner city campus in the poorest borough of London. In Tower Hamlets, 56% of school age pupils are from first or second-generation immigrant families, and London Metropolitan works to reflect the diversity of that demographic within our student cohort. We attract a great many students from the local area, and outreach projects play a vital role in raising awareness of the value of higher education, and the role that the University can play in terms of enhancing cultural provision.

Consequently off campus projects, our work with local schools and community groups, and the networks we have established with other arts providers and organisations in the area are an incredibly important means of promoting the course - and the arts - as accessible and relevant.

Professional Practice

The course had always encouraged students to work off campus, interacting with external organisations, working with and establishing links with galleries and artists’ groups as part of their own work and as a result of set projects and staff initiatives. Elements of the Profesional Practice course– initiating projects, contacting partners, seeking funding, writing press releases, enforce the need for students to recognise how creative ideas require organisational ability and communication skills to achieve concrete outcomes and enable the work to operate in the public realm.

Alumni

Proof of the efficacy of this strategy is the success of our alumni who have a strong record of setting up successful galleries, public arts events and creative enterprises. Often we work with alumni on Satellite projects – ie workshops for students and local teachers creating artists books with Earwig Press – a creative print company formed by two alumni. We have employed Alumni as workshop leaders, photographers and project managers to pass on their skills and experience to current students, it is a great incentive for students to see how it is possible to progress from their own course and meet artists at different stages in their careers. We also have a gallery on-site, Unit 2, curated by Richard Hylton, where students volunteer to assist in the running of the space and the organisation of its programme, and an alumnus is training as an intern.

Pages: Conversations and Keepsakes

A catalogue and exhibition curated by Nici Oxley and Rosemarie Mc Goldrick, and held at Notice, 171 Deptford High Street, London SE8 from the 7th of June 07.

Pages: Conversations and Keepsakes will be a wide ranging dialogue which explores inspirations and processes in the work of creative practitioners, from within the arts and further afield.
A team of ten researchers from Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design will choose practitioners whose life, work or subject area has inspired their own creative process. These practitioners will be invited to participate in dialogues with the researchers and with each other.
The starting point for these conversations will be a formatted page, on which practitioners are requested to respond to the following:

- How would you describe your work?
- Who has been your main influence?
- If the sky was the limit who would you love to collaborate with?
- Please include a self portrait.
- Please include an image of your studio/workspace or where you sit and contemplate.

The conversations initiated by this process will be used to generate keepsakes: text, images, objects, video and sound recordings etc. These will be archived as pages in the catalogue and on the web, and will form a large part of the content for the gallery exhibition. The archive will be curated by Nici Oxley and Rosemarie Mc Goldrick with the help of the team of researchers. Using a series of notice boards and other display devices, a growing meshwork of connections will be formed between elements, highlighting inherent visual and conceptual themes. The meshwork of responses will expand to encompass the catalogue, gallery, web and performance spaces etc.

"The identity turns an open book into an opening door leading to an unseen space housing the Pages exhibition. Just walk in."
Lynda Broackbank and her team from Crescent Lodge (www.crescentlodge.co.uk) designed the Pages' Identity Project and will design the catalogue !

Pages's website
Online real soon !

Designed by Lynda Broackbank and her team from Crescent lodge with the help of Annie Spinster and Francesca Vilalta.

From One Island to Another

Project Outline
From One Island to Another was the first year that Satellite collaborated with the inner city all girls secondary school St Saviour's and St Olave’s in Southwark. The project aimed to get the students and pupils to investigate influential female figures, such as their mother and grandmother as a way of investigating and embracing their own diverse cultural histories. They were asked to explore their own personal histories through the generations of women in their families and start to consider how this had an influence on the construction of racial and gender stereotypes.
Students were encouraged to devise workshops and activities, which involved assisting the pupils in planning their research and producing a piece of work as a final outcome.
The students selected the work produced by the pupils and curated an exhibition displayed at the school on the 31st of October 2005. Students experienced working in a different environment, producing work outside of their studios.
This project was part of Black History month and aimed to foster and encourage debate in a culturally diverse environment. It aimed to recognise difference as something positive through a common ground, being female.

Aims
* Introduce students to different practical skills and art practice
* Introduce students to how an artist makes work (using many different types of media)
* Introduce students to content and concept
* Introduce students to researching and collating their ideas
*Introduce students to using their research to inform their visual work culminating in making a finished piece of work.
*Introduce students to displaying their final piece of work

An health and safety seminar was given to the participant students to introduce them to the different aspects of working in a school. It aimed to familiarise the students with guidelines and outlined good practice in schools ensuring awareness of regulations and procedures for working with children.
Having discussed the health and safety issues the next step was to think about themselves as arts practitioners and the creative process involved in preparing a workshop. To do this, a series of meetings were held to discuss the progression of the student’s workshops. This was an important part of the process as there were many different ideas and an open forum acted as a good opportunity to speak about their plans and receive feedback.
Tutor support was also given throughout the entire process in group sessions and individual tutorials, this helped students develop their workshop ideas along with guidance for ensuring effective delivery.
Having a representative (Kelly Fitzpatrick) from the school at each stage of the planning process ensured that we were able to maximise the art experience of the pupils at the school in the following ways. Clare Fitzpatrick was also present at the school which was very helpful for the students from London Met.

Trunk Show

Press Release

The radical politics of the 60’s and its critique of race, gender and sexuality have had a massive impact on development of contemporary art. This impact would be felt not only in terms of artwork that directly addressed these issues, but also in terms of an ongoing debate about the role of the artist and strategies for making exhibitions and artworks.
Trunk Show is an international traveling exhibition initiated in the USA by artist and curator Ann Shostrum. The idea is to build an international exhibition from the ground up, involving local curators and artists. With each new location a new trunk is added by the local curator.
Trunk Show aims to ‘shuffle together artists from diverse backgrounds in new ways.’ The project began simply, ‘the first Trunk was the trunk of my car, ‘ and the concept of the exhibition derives from the sense of a Trunk Show as an alternative form of distribution. In the USA a Trunk Show can mean either the US equivalent of a Car Boot Sale, or more specially the long established practice of shop or home-based demonstrations and sales for Women’s Fashion, Accessories and Jewellery in particular.
Trunk Show so far includes over 100 artists based in the USA, Ireland and the UK and features both established and emerging artists. Artists explore themes of portability, mapping, miniaturization, travel and displacement.
Trunk Show at the Women’s Library will reconnect with the activist and self-published materials housed in the library’s special collections. Students from London Metropolitan University will be producing a small catalogue to accompany the exhibition drawing on the tradition of fanzines and self-published magazines. There will also be a small display of books made by fine art students as part of their drawing workshop.
Trunk show is a collaborative project involving The Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University, The Future Art Board Research Group, Satellite, Sirius Art Centre, Visual Arts Leitrim, Roscommon & Leitrim County Council, King House Boyle (Co. Roscommon) and Pennsylvania State University School of Art and Architecture (USA)
Trunk Show will be travelling to London from the Sirius Art Centre in the port Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland (formerly known as Queenstown.

Tower of London Student Artist Residency in Digital Media

Students were invited to apply for a residency placement at the Tower of London World Heritage site using digital media. The Project proposals involved an exploration based at the Tower and its environs. And special consideration were given to proposals which involved visitors or those based in the community around the Tower.
The Tower operates an extensive education project working with a range of community and schools groups and there was a potential to work with this programme. A small budget were available for the successful applicant for the production costs of the work at the end of the project. The residency ran from January to May 2005.

Creative Writting for Visual Artists

A short module of 4 weeks held as a series of informal presentation and discussion sessions covering writers selected by Charlie Woolley. The sessions focused on writers who have impacted on twentieth century visual artists, and continue to hold a great deal of relevance for contemporary artists.

Architecture Parallax : Visual Crisis

Project Leaders

The Artist
Alexander Pilis is an artist, architect and curator based in Barcelona. He is the founder of Archimemoria, Canada and www.architecture-parallax.net, a non-profit organisation established to broaden the links between art, architecture, science and perception. He has participated in many international exhibitions, including galleries in Canada, the I.F.A Public Art Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany and the Tapies Foundation Barcelona, Spain and has organised Architecture Parallax: Theoretical Cabaret at La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain.
The Museum of Installation
The Museum of Installation (MOI) is a registered charity set up in 1990 as a unique institution dedicated to the research, production and dissemination of Installation. Their aims and policies have been evolving in tandem with the projects that have been initiated both in the UK and abroad. Central to this is a commitment to the cross fertilisation of theory and practice to research and education, and to cross-disciplinary collaboration. As a policy, MOI provides free access and encouragement for audiences to engage with contemporary art.

Host Institutions

British Airways London Eye
The British Airways London Eye is the world’s largest observation wheel and the fourth tallest structure in London. This London attraction and Millennium project was designed by Marks Barfield Architects along with partners British Airways. The structure consists of 32 rotating, fully enclosed capsules: each trip lasting approximately half an hour. It offers an incredible panoramic perspective of London’s skyline 135 meters above the River Thames.
Old Operating Theatre, Museum and Herb Garret
Britain’s oldest surviving operating theatre (dating to 1822) is situated in the Garret of St. Thomas’ Church, Southwark on the original site of St. Thomas’ Hospital. It consists of a small restored 19th century theatre, built in an amphitheatre style, which was used before anaesthetics and antiseptic surgery came into existence. The Herb Garret was used by the hospital’s apothecary to store and cure herbs used in medical compounds. The Museum displays the history of medicine, surgery and nursing with a collection dating predominantly from the 19th century.
Tate Modern
Tate Modern, a major gallery of modern and contemporary art, is housed in the former Bankside Power Station and opened in 2000. It displays Tate’s collection of international modern art from 1900 to the present day.
Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project is the fourth commissioned work in the annual Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall. The Danish artist was commissioned to create a monumental installation that simulates a rising Sun out of mist and encourages visitors to interact with the artwork via a giant mirror placed on the ceiling of the Turbine Hall.
Creative Perfumers
The London based company Creative Perfumers, situated in Piccadilly, are dedicated to the creation of haute couture fragrances. The couture perfume house was established to offer an accessible bespoke perfume service. Customised, signature scents are produced by a team of top quality perfumers and inspired by the clients they are created for.
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is part of the National Maritime Museum, which works to illustrate the importance of the sea, ships, time and stars and their relationship with people. The Royal Observatory offers a tour of the night sky in the Planetarium, London’s only Camera Obscura, the telescope gallery, the Harrison clocks and the finest collection of scientific (in particular astronomical) instruments.
LABAN International School of Dance
The LABAN International School of Dance opened in Creekside, Deptford in February 2003. The dance centre offers courses for and performances from students, choreographers, designers, writers, researchers, artists and musicians from around the world. The multi-coloured translucent building by architects Herzog & de Meuron was recently awarded the prestigious 2003 Stirling Prize for Architecture.
Sir John Soane Museum
The house, museum and library at No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields was designed and built by the eminent architect Sir John Soane. Soane was a connoisseur and collector and used his home to display his collection of antiquities and works of art. His collections were evolved to some extent as a teaching tool for architectural students at the Royal Academy where he was Professor of Architecture from 1806. Soane’s wish for the house to become a museum was fulfilled in the early 19th century and his aims and objectives have become the museum’s mandate. The fabric of the museum and Soane’s arrangements of the collections have been preserved and made accessible to the public through its programme of exhibitions, talks and events as well as production of catalogues and publications.

Interfaces

Nicolas de Oliveira
Nicolas de Oliveira is one of the founding Directors of the Museum of Installation. He is co-author of the book ‘Installation Art’, 1994, and ‘Installation Art in the New Millennium : Empire of the Senses’ published in October 2003. Both titles were commissioned and published by Thames & Hudson. He has recently served as a conference panel member at events hosted by the Whitechapel Gallery, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Tate Modern and La Caixa, Barcelona. He is also a senior lecturer at the Sir John Cass Department of Media Art and Design, London Metropolitan University.
Bob and Roberta Smith (A.K.A. Patrick Brill)
Integral to Bob and Roberta Smith’s art is the active participation and performance from the viewer. His interactive work is motivated by a belief in art as a force for change and forum for conversation and free speech. The work he produces is funny, accessible, anti-elitist. Bob and Roberta Smith have exhibited extensively in the Europe and America, and has recently shown work in India and Norway.
Dr. Tomasz Troscianko
Tom Troscianko is a Professor in Psychology at the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences (COGS) and a member of the Vision Research Group at Sussex University. He was previously based in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol and his research is currently spread between both institutions. Troscianko’s work is concerned with how the brain processes visual information. Other topics of focus include: the use of photo-realistic graphics to depict complex environments, works of art, and vision in robots.
Jeremy Wood
Jeremy Wood is a London born artist, writer and musician. He is a co-founder of a sound recording studio which produces contemporary music projects, and is a director at the Museum of Installation. He currently lectures at the Sir John Cass Department of Media Art and Design, London Metropolitan University specialising in the history of ideas and critical theory.
Gary Staunton
Gary Staunton has been a London Black Cab driver since 1997. His considerable historical and topographical knowledge of the city is constantly growing as he exchanges information on the city with the public on a daily basis whilst navigating London’s maze of streets.
Gerry Tilling
Gerry Tilling is Technical Services Manager of the Sir John Cass Department of Media Art and Design, London Metropolitan University. Previous to taking on this role he has driven a range of creative enterprises including setting up the notable 1970’s fashion house Mr Freedom on Chelsea’s Kings Road. Gerry also maintains a practice as a highly regarded jewellery designer/ maker, and is an authority on antique and collectible timepieces.
Malcolm Last
Malcolm Last is a partner at Chassay + Last Architects, who have undertaken a diverse range of commissions for acclaimed contemporary spaces and buildings in the UK, Europe and North Africa. Chassay and Last specialise in creating environments which utilise the latest developments in materials and construction techniques in order to maximise the ergonomic potential of the space.
Dr. Matthew Chalmers
Matthew Chalmers is a reader in Computer Science at the Department of Computing Science, Glasgow University. His current research focuses on social perceptual issues in visualisation, collaborative filtering and ubiquitous computing, relating contemporary semiology / philosophy to computational representation. He teaches in the areas of human-computer interaction, information visualisation, computer supported collaborative work, and information access.

ARCHITECTURE PARALLAX : VISUAL CRISIS
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

Throughout 2002 and 2003 the Museum of Installation collaborated with the Brazilian / Canadian artist Alexander Pilis in an exciting visual arts and educational project entitled, Architecture Parallax: Visual Crisis. This exhibition aimed to promote the visual arts to the visually impaired by involving partially sighted and blind members of the public in a project that directly addresses the notion of visuality.
The project encouraged the audience to explore the city as a multi-sensory landscape by examining the cross over between the sighted and blind, through an interdisciplinary relationship between Art, Perception, Culture and New Technologies. The project involved site-specific events at major London organisations, which commenced on October 27th 2003 and continued until November 10th 2003. Prior to the site events, students attended a blind awareness training seminar led by June Bretherton who acted as consultant throughout the project, and a lecture given by Alexander Pilis detailing his past projects.
Invited individuals from various professions acted as guides (interfaces) and offered an interpretation of each site to mixed groups consisting of visually impaired and sighted members of the public. Students from the London Metropolitan University as part of the City Volunteering programme documented these events with four cameras and audio equipment. The visual and audio material accumulated from these tours was exhibited at Unit 2 Gallery, London Metropolitan University, from November 12th to December 12th 2003. To accompany the Unit 2 exhibition a seminar examining the issues of mapping space and visual crisis was held which was open to all students and members of the public.

Consultancy
To ensure that the visually impaired were able to relate to the unique environment that each of the sites offered, the Museum of Installation collaborated with June Bretherton and David Whitehead, visually impaired consultants from JBC – London who have worked extensively with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). In their capacity as consultants to the Museum of Installation and the artist, Alexander Pilis, they provided awareness training to all participants involved in the project including the artist, interfaces, members of MOI’s production team, staff from Unit 2 Gallery and London Metropolitan University students (who were participating in the City Volunteering programme). This awareness training enabled all beneficiaries to offer support and guidance at all of the seven site events and throughout the exhibition at Unit 2 Gallery.
Role of Digital
Architecture Parallax: Visual Crisis embraced the digital cultural phenomenon by mediating between several ways of seeing. The use of digital media aimed to introduce technology as a way of communicating through audio and visual means. A fundamental part of this project was to make it accessible to a wider audience. It was essential to preserve the digital media from this exhibition as a catalogue of events in the form of an encyclopaedic library.
Seminar
A seminar was held for the Students at the London Metropolitan University, which was chaired by Nicolas de Oliveira. The panel consisted of Alexander Pilis, artist and Mathew Chalmers, a reader in Computer Science at Glasgow University. The audience was invited to discuss their relationship to the crisis of the visual and take a retrospective look at their involvement in the project.
Catalogue
Interpretive material in the form of a catalogue, available in Braille and text format, will become an educational resource for the sighted and visually impaired.

VOLUNTEERS

Events Team
No. Of volunteers: 19
Volunteer hours: 798
Seminar / lecture student attendance:152
Volunteer hours:758
Total Hours:1546

A total of nineteen people volunteered approximately seven hundred and forty one hours of their time for the site visits. Three of the volunteers were serving internships at the Museum of Installation and the other sixteen were students at London Metropolitan University as part of the City Volunteering programme. The film crews for the site events were staffed entirely by student volunteers who also assisted in the installation of the exhibition at Unit 2 Gallery. Two student volunteers helped in the invigilation of the exhibition. Ten of the nineteen volunteers were male and nine female with a majority age range of between nineteen and twenty-five years of age.
The students were placed in a professional work situation responding to a demanding schedule and given roles of responsibility within an organised team. For many of the volunteers this was their first experience of working as an artist outside of an academic situation. Adopting dual roles as both camera operators and assistants to visually impaired members of the audience was demanding for the volunteers but all involved responded extremely well to the challenge. Audience members were complimentary of the students’ attitude and appreciative of their abilities as guides. A noted increase in students’ confidence and communication skills added to the practical skills acquired whilst working on the project. All of the students were highly appreciative of the careers experience gained and the insight that awareness training had allowed them.
Tutor David Wilkinson commented that the exercise had been a tremendous achievement both practically in terms of the skills and energy required to complete the work, and in terms of raising awareness amongst the student body with regard to the issues addressed.
Students had expressed great pride at having been instrumental in the project. Many stated that working with the audience and consultants had been an inspiring experience for them. The exceptionally high exhibition attendance reflected the great deal of interest generated by the project, students often visiting and revisiting to view all seven hours of video footage, also bringing their friends family and colleagues to the gallery.

Approximately 173 members of the public participated in the site events in addition to the 1000 visitors to the Unit 2 exhibition. Approximately 143 from this total number were comprised of ‘spontaneous’ participants who independently joined a number of the site events. 20 of the 42 members of the public that could be accounted for were people with a visual impairment. The ages of audience members ranged from 18 to over 50. The audience came from the following geographical London and Greater London boroughs: Kent and Essex, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Ealing, Camden, Newham, Kensington and Chelsea, Waltham Forest and Wandsworth.

Feedback

Site Events
Participants in the site events were contacted and given an opportunity to respond to their experiences.

“I am writing on behalf of Mr Steve Jerrom as I participated in your project Architecture Parallax: Visual Crisis. I visited the Sir John Soane Museum with a client who has visual impairment and would like to say that my client enjoyed the visit very much. May I take the opportunity to say thank you for giving this opportunity to my client and would like to hear from you if similar projects are run in the future.”
Yoges Ravindran on behalf of Steve Jerrom, E-mail: 25.11.03

“We were pleased to participate in the ‘experience’ and found it very different and quite demanding. Working through the project reminded us how important flexibility becomes when involved in such a complex subject – both materially and psychologically. It was interesting to visit the realised result.”
June Bretherton and David Whitehead
Bretherton Consultancy, E-mail: 25.11.03

“Thank you for you invitation to Sir John Soane Museum on 10 November 2003. All of my students enjoyed participating in your project and they are keen to go back some other time to explore the museum. Since they didn’t know anything about the museum, it was a great introduction to them. We think the talk was very interesting and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We haven’t been to the Unit 2 Gallery yet, and we might organise a visit before the term ends. We look forward to visiting the gallery soon.”
Chris Komoto
Westminster Kingsway College, Letter 26.11.03

“I enjoyed taking part in the project as it gave me access to a building which I had hitherto not discovered and which proved to be full of interesting sensory experiences. This was the John Soane Museum. My only criticism was that we had such a short stay there - I am sure there was much more to discover!”
Andrew Hodgson, E-mail: 10.12.03

Exhibition
The exhibition at Unit 2 Gallery, London Metropolitan University, had an attendance of 1000 people, with an average of approximately 30 visitors per day. 200 guests attended the private view including representatives from creative organisations and agencies in the area including Artsadmin, The Whitechapel, private galleries and funding bodies.
The students who attended events were unanimous in their sense of achievement and pride in having been a part of such an ambitious project, and being able to see the result on display in the gallery.
Visitors were encouraged to record their response to the exhibition.

“Thank you for your invitation to write a short response to the project on show until last week at the Unit 2 Gallery, London Metropolitan University. I visited the gallery and spent a long time watching the video clips from the trip to the Sir John Soane Museum. I feel poorly qualified to respond to the exhibition eloquently, however I would comment the following:
• Watching the video screen in the darkened gallery was faintly disturbing: looking at people who are not looking.
• Recognising the bewildering variety of altered perception when every object is reflected and abstracted by its context.
• The participants have individual realities based on their own perception of what they are experiencing.
• The viewer struggles to hear the commentary and construct their own perception, yet is encouraged to consider the ambiguity of the various other filmed participants... what pictures are in their minds? How do these pictures differ from what I see?
Congratulations on a very interesting project.”
Kate Nepstad, E-mail: 16.12.03

“Really experimental work. I like the different perspectives on the projection.”
Vasco Teixeira, 19.11.03

“Amazing approach.”
Claris Shali, 11.11.03

“Enigmatic and creative.”
Peolao Redig, 11.11.03

“Fun to work on, fun to look at.”
Kaya Jenner, 11.11.03

Architecture Parallax : Visual Crisis: Participants

Artist
Alexander Pilis

The Museum of Installation

Project Co-ordinator
Nicolas de Oliveira
Project Administrator
Clare Fitzpatrick
Project Assistance
Evelyne Acker
Rebecca Jennings
Rosa Lleó

London Metropolitan University

BA Fine Art Course
Nicola Oxley
Film Crew Co-ordinator
David Wilkinson
(Alumnus) Remi Lamont

Community Outreach
Dawn Shorten
Unit 2 Gallery
Honor Beddard
Student Volunteers
Liza Arifin, Isabella Burr-Evan, Ian Commons, Mathew Fuller, Kaya Jenner, Nick Jones, Pritesh Maisuria, Luke Morgan, Deborah Nutt, Merijn Royaards, Annie Spinster, Neil Stephens, Elsa Tierney, Vinny Konieczny, Joseph Watling.
Event participants Approx 150 students from levels 1, 2 and 3 Fine Art attending seminars lectures and site events as audience participants.

Photographer
Leon Cole (Alumnus)

PROJECT PARTNERS

June Bretherton Consultancy
June Bretherton
Visual Awareness Consultants
David Whitehead
British Airways London Eye
Creative Perfumers
LABAN International School of Dance
Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Tate Modern
Olafur Eliasson
Sir John Soane Museum

Contributors

Malcolm Last, Chassay and Last Architects
Nicolas de Oliveira, M.O.I. and London Metropolitan University
Bob & Roberta Smith, Artist
Gary Staunton, Registered London Taxi Driver
Gerry Tilling, London Metropolitan University
Professor Tom Troscianko, Sussex University
Jeremy Wood, M.O.I and London Metropolitan University

Seminar speakers
Alexander Pilis
Dr Matthew Chalmers
Nicolas de Oliveira

Invited Audiences
London Metropolitan University,
London Kingsway College,
Action for Blind People,

With the support of
Action for Blind People
Canadian High Commission
City Volunteering Higher Education Active Community Fund
European Blind Union
London Metropolitan University
NEC
RNIB
South East London Community Foundation

DITO – Disability Information Training Opportunity

Aims
*To encourage students to undertake voluntary work with community groups
*To enable students to experience working as an artist with special needs groups
*To form long term relationship with DITO groups to enable future artists residencies, workshop experience and possible training for students in working with specific groups.
*To place students in a role where they can be ambassadors for the University encouraging lifelong learning.

Project Rationale
DITO offers training to residents of Tower Hamlets who fall in to the category of ‘disabled’; for DITO this is defined in the sense of a social model and covers the widest range of impairment catagories. As such DITO also plays a role empowering users to participate and contribute to how the project is run, also helping to define the services they offer.

As part of the 2004 programme (which already consisted of course in disability advocacy and IT courses designed for visually and aurally impaired groups as well a Gyspy Rights Project), DITO hosted a ‘Disability Event’ for 250 people based at their resource unit.
Initially students were asked to help plan this event, consulting various groups and clubs to ascertain suitable activities and book appropriate spaces and facilities. Students were encouraged to take a central role in this, setting up creative workshops. With the advocacy role DITO takes, students were encouraged workshop participants to create a work that were shown in the Campaigning exhibition (Dec. 03 Unit 2 – see ’Campaigning’ post). Students were also asked to document the event.
Long term plans for this project included students observing and assisting on the DITO courses to give them a stronger understanding of sensory impairment. This were envisaged as a crucial step in educating students who wished to offer workshops to special needs groups in terms of how to devise activities suitable for specific disabilities and facilitating users projects.
This project also offered opportunities to the University as a research study in how we could develop a stronger inclusive policy for future students.

Campaigning – East 1

Aims
*To engage students in a professionally organised exhibition showing alongside internationally recognised artists.
*To offer students work in both gallery and community settings
*To stimulate interactive and pro-active projects involving local community groups.
*To raise the profile of East 1 and the benefits of collaboration in the arts to extend the reach of creative projects.

Following a series of meetings the East 1 group arranged a series of events and exhibitions set around the theme of Campaigning to enable all organisations to be part of a coherent programme that could be promoted from the East 1 web site (East 1.org) and joint print media. (see card attached)
Campaigning began with The Women’s Library exhibition on Womens Suffrage and included talks at the Toynbee from Paul Boateng and Trevor Phillips, a symposium at the Whitechapel Gallery on subversive strategies in art, a singing workshop and performance involving young women from the Jagonari Centre organised by the Spitalfields Festival.
The Sir John Cass School of Arts Media and Design set a project with tutor Patrick Brill (A.K.A. Bob Smith) to make work for an exhibition to be held in Unit 2 gallery. Students were invited to make work in response to the title ‘Campaigning’ in any media. The same exercise was set for Royal College of Art printmaking students. B.A. Fine Art students were also invited to participate in workshops at St Paul’s Way Community School; four students assisted at the school to help pupils create work for the exhibition.
A series of tutorials where students could discuss their ideas and seek advice for the work were held and the students were then asked to submit a proposal for exhibiting the work, considering issues of display i.e. placement, framing etc..
The premise of the show was to be ‘democratic’ so that the works of pupils, students and internationally recognised artists should be shown alongside each other with no distinctions. Many of the artists created work that involved a participatory element, either involving visitors in a process or producing items that were to be given away or sold cheaply.
Visitors to the exhibition were invited to make their own posters and badges using facilities designed by artist Damien Grist, these artworks could either be taken home or displayed in the gallery.
Throughout the run of the show a number of events were programmed including daily performances by ‘The Clean Team’, who scrubbed an area of pavement matching the dimensions of the gallery frontage, which also featured in ‘The Metropolitan’ magazine. Artist, Peter Harris gave a talk on his work, and a seminar hosted by Bob Smith featured musical performances from Victor Mount and Mel Brimfield with previews of new work by Mark Titchner (Platform for Art at South Kensington).

People involved

Invited Artists
Mel Brimfield (Radio Radio), Nico de Oliviera, Damien Grist, Mark Hampson, Peter Harris, Saron Hughes, Peter Lamb, Ann-Marie Lequesne, Peter Lewis, Bob Matthews, Rosemary McGoldrick, Victor Mount, Garry O’Connor, Nici Oxley, Nigel Oxley, Resonance FM (Calling All Pensioners weekly broadcast), Neal Rock, Royal College MA print making students, Hana Sakuma, Keith Sargeant- Immprint, Dawn Shorten, Bob and Roberta Smith, Mark Titchner, Jessica Voorsanger.

Student Exhibitors
Katrina Anderson
Marcos Ayala
Mary Betteridge
Claudia Borgna
Isabella Burr-Evans
Sahaun Clohessy
Alex Christie
Shona Davies
Oliver Evelyn Rahr
Sophie Gordon
Caroline Halliday
Kaya Jenner
Matt Jonstone
Lara Kutova
Daniella Maller
Alison McCormack
John McEvoy
Luke Morgan
Fabiana Righi
Angela Saunderson
Dan Shaw-Town
Joan Speed
Jules Tolchard
Betty Woessner
Mary Yacoob

Gallery Volunteers
Isabella Burr-Evans
Kaya Jenner
Oliver Evelyn-Rahr
Joe Watling
Catherine Rich

Schools Volunteers
Catherine Rich
Renata Grabon
Nick Jones Phillipa Hilliard