News & Events February 2009

RAE 08 Success

The Wales Institute for Research in Art & Design (WIRAD) is pleased to announce that in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise the Art & Design panel rated 95% of the research submission as international standard, with 70% rated as either Internationally Excellent or World Leading. Using Times Higher weightings this makes the submission 12th out of 70 in the UK and the best in Wales. This significant achievement by WIRAD's founding members, UWIC and Newport, demonstrates very clearly the international quality of WIRAD's research. It puts WIRAD in the best possible position to build on this achievement through our invitation to key research partners from across Wales to join in this success story.

Performance and Screen Media Research Group seminar with Richard Bartle; The Myth of Virtual Worlds

18th February 2009

PhD Clinic: 4-5pm, PhD Room Rathmell
Seminar: 5-7pm, E10, Cearleaon

Virtual Worlds - from World of Warcraft to Second Life - are places where people go to have fun. Yet what is meant by "fun" in this context? Why do different people consider different things to be fun, and why do their opinions change over time? Ultimately, why do they invest so much of their time and energy playing in virtual worlds instead of pursuing other forms of entertainment? The answer, as this talk explains, lies in an understanding of the common narrative of myths and legends.

Prof. Richard A. Bartle co-wrote the first virtual world, MUD, in 1978; he has thus been at the forefront of the industry from its very inception. He divides his time equally between being an industry consultant and an academic specialising in virtual worlds. His 2003 book, "Designing Virtual Worlds", is the standard text on the subject, and he is an influential writer on all aspects of virtual world design and development.

New Publication - Tale: Helen Sear

Tale is a collection of works evaluating the breadth of work produced by Helen Sear (eCPR) since 1992. It highlights the occurrence of narrative throughout her work as well as the necessary frictions and connections between adjacent images. Previously her work has been viewed in chapters, one coherent body of research following another in carefully balanced exhibitions; this publication we can begin to see the connections and links that make Sear's work an enthralling experience.

Tale also includes an accompanying narrative text written by David Chandler, director of Photoworks in Brighton. It was produced in association with University of Wales, Newport.

The publication of Tale also coincides with an exhibition of Sear's photographic work at G39, Cardiff. Throughout Sear's practice is an ongoing enquiry into beauty and nostalgia, ranging from the grand opulence of Italian interiors or a rural vista, to abandoned detritus in a wooded glade or a forgotten ornament.

For her exhibition at g39 she uses a stock of imagery, a personal language that she has built up over a number of years: the landscape, the glassy eyes of taxidermied nature, and the deserted cage. She investigates the relationships between the viewer and the viewed, the hunter and the hunted. She often compounds the act of looking by removing the returned gaze of the other by closing or obscuring the eyes, or presenting only the back of the head or a reflection. The viewer of the image has the ‘view' obscured by someone else.

The exhibition will run until 7th March 2009. For more information on Tale visit g39.

UNESCO funding for Intangible Culture and Heritage in a Globalised World - a Comparative Study in Kenya, Cameroon and Wales

The Welsh Assembly, on behalf of UNESCO Cymyu-Wales, has awarded funding to Intangible Culture and Heritage in a Globalised World - a Comparative Study in Kenya, Cameroon and Wales, a collaborative project between Francis Ayisi (ISFW), Newport School of Art, Media & Design and University of Glamorgan.

Preliminary work has already started on the project, with filming scheduled to take place in Kenya, Cameroon and Cardiff between June and December 2009.

Exhibition celebrates 25 years of ceramics success

Friday 30 January to Tuesday 20 February
Howard Gardens Gallery

25 nationally and internationally renowned ceramicists display their work at an exhibition to mark 25 years of the MA Ceramics Programme at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC). All ceramicists are graduates of the MA Ceramics programme and who live and/or practice in Wales.

Pete Castle, Programme Director who has taught on the programme since its inception, said: "The exhibition is testament to the high calibre of graduate that has consistently emerged from the programme over the past 25 years and the diversity of work on show, from figurative sculpture to time based practice, demonstrates the philosophical ethos of the programme on the individuals' creative exploration and practice with clay."

Wendy Keay-Bright to present at ‘By Us, For Us, About Us': A Children and Young People's Festival of Participation in Research

11th March 2009
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Cardiff University in association with the Children's Commissioner for Wales and Children in Wales are holding a one-day event which aims to engage children and young people in debates about children's role in research. The event will showcase current and recent research conducted with or about children and young people and forms part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2009.

Keay-Bright (Sensory Design) is one of 20 exhibitors selected to present findings from their research to an audience of children and young people (aged 10-20) from schools and groups across Wales. The interactive presentation "ReacTickles: Re-discovering playfulness with technology", will demonstrate the findings of the Reactive Colours project, which has been developing customizable sensory software, ReacTickles, and investigating the impact of embodied user interfaces on social communication and learning for children with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASCs).

Wendy Keay-Bright is also working with Autism Cymru, Wales' National Charity for Autism, on the development of strategies to promote play, creativity and communication in Foundation Phase Key Skills.

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