August / September 2009

RAE 08 Success

UWIC to host Joint Society / Forum for European Philosophy Conference 2009

27 - 29 August 2009
Cyncoed, UWIC

The 5th Joint Conference of the Society for European Philosophy and the Forum for European Philosophy is taking place at CSAD from Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 August 2009.

The conference offers faculty and graduate students the opportunity to present papers in any area of European philosophy. The keynote speakers are.

Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht)

Claire Colebrook (Penn State)

Leonard Lawlor (Penn State)

Christopher Norris (Cardiff).

The conference will include two open plenary sessions, The Future of Hermeneutics (Chair: Nicholas Davey, Dundee) and The Role of Imagery in Ontology and Thought (Chair: Clive Cazeaux, UWIC), and a work of sound art based on Cardiff's arcades (Jennie Savage) commissioned to accompany the conference.

For more information or to register, visit the conference website.

Jeff Jones starts Henry Moore Research Fellowship

Dr Jeffrey Jones (Centre for Ceramics Research)has started a Research Fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. The Fellowship is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, which aims to encourage appreciation of the visual arts, especially sculpture.

Dr Jones will utilise the Institute's extensive library and archive collections to investigate The Relationship of Sculpture to Pottery in British Art from the Early Twentieth Century to the Present Day. The project will focus specifically on the periods when the interests of sculptors and potters in Britain have either overlapped or come into particularly sharp focus. Jones's research will use case studies to track and interpret these relationships in order to provide an historical context in which the work of contemporary practitioners can be better understood and appreciated.

Each year the Henry Moore Institute offers four fellows the opportunity to spend a month in Leeds to develop their own research. As an integral part of the research programme, fellows present fresh perspectives on the Leeds collections, open up new collaborative possibilities and further research into sculpture.

Following an initial visit to the institute in May, Dr Jones will complete the Fellowship during the summer 2009.

All-Wales Centre for Creative Teaching and Teaching Creativity in Art & Design

Following on from the international successes of the members of the Creative Pedagogy research cluster, WIRAD hosted a one-day event on 23rd June for art and design educators in Higher Education in Wales. The event aimed to explore setting up an All-Wales centre for Creative Teaching and Teaching Creativity in Art and Design.

The seminar session produced an outline, vision and strategy for the Centre, ‘Creative Teaching Champions' in the majority of the participating institutions, and a conference planning team. Further information on the day, and the resulting Action Plan is available here.

Doctoral Scholarships at PDR

PDR has recently received funding for 3 studentships. Two are supported by UWIC's Vice-Chancellor Doctoral Awards scheme, which aims to further the development of world leading and internationally excellent research. The remaining studentship is supported by the Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship scheme. All three studentships are set to start in October 2009. Further information on the studentships is below - please note, applications are no longer being sought.

• An investigation into the relationship between design management capability and economic performance in a range of European SMEs

This doctoral scholarship expands on the success of the Design Management Europe (DME) Awards. This doctoral project will present an investigation into the relationship between design management capability and economic performance in a range of European SMEs. The DME Award process gathered voluminous data on entrants. The research proposed here represents a first systematic attempt to investigate the design management/firm performance relationship for the 400+ entrants to the Award.

• The creation of novel design solutions for prosthesis retention mechanisms

Maxillofacial prosthetics is a specialised profession that seeks to meet the needs of patients with degrees of facial deformity by restoring aesthetic and functional portions of missing tissue using artificial materials. The new bursary funded PhD will build upon previous doctoral research undertaken at PDR which demonstrated the potential of computer-based technology for improving the efficiency of soft-tissue prostheses production. There is significant scope to use the latest computer aided design and rapid manufacturing equipment, more commonly found in product design, to optimise retention mechanisms, which provide a secure attachment for prostheses to the wearers face. The research will develop new mechanical design solutions whilst also considering the surgical and prosthetic requirements. Formal support is provided by the Maxillofacial Unit at Morriston Hospital, Swansea.

• The design and development of a novel system for sterile freeze drying of small batch samples of aqueous solutions.

This doctoral scholarship will be developed in collaboration with MicroPharm, a West Wales based producer of anti-venom. The stability of aqueous solutions of valuable, heat liable biological products is often enhanced considerably by freeze drying. The aim of this project is to develop new equipment that facilitates low volume sterile freeze drying in non sterile environments. This in turn will facilitate small pharmaceutical businesses to produce affordable freeze dried products in low volumes for a wide range of applications. The logistical benefits include: prolong shelf life of valuable laible products (biopharmaceuticals etc), facilitate handling / delivery / storage and enhance safety of hazardous products (toxins, radioisotopes etc) by reducing risks of leakages or spills.

WIRAD researcher collaborates on AHRC funded project, "Cloddfa"

Funded by an AHRC's Practice Led and Applied grant, "Cloddfa" is a collaborative practice-led research project by AHRC Creative and Performing Arts Fellow Dr Ruth Jones based at The University of West England and sound researcher/filmmaker Andrea Williams based at The University of Wales, Institute, Cardiff.

Jones's research has emphasised the multi-layered nature of place and identity and has focused on drawing audiences into an experience of the in-between or liminal nature of place in relation to memory and identity through film installation and public art practice, while Williams has focused on exploring sound-led film, in which the assumed dominance of image over sound in film and installation is called into question. This collaboration will provide an opportunity to bring together these two concerns to ask how sound-led film techniques could be employed in an audio-visual installation environment to generate a heightened awareness and meaningful experience of liminal places for viewers.

The research will focus on two particular places, the disused Porthgain granite quarry and Abereiddy slate quarry in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. These sites could be considered as liminal places, located between their historical industrial use, of which traces remain and their present use as sites of leisure, and/or curiosity. In addition their physical and acoustic resemblance to outdoor auditoriums lends itself to exploring their potential for sound-led film. The researchers will experiment with applying 'surround-sound' techniques simultaneously with the intimacy of hyper sound systems that can target sound outputs to explore how a rendered 'sound-led' experience could function in an audio/visual installation environment.

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