News and Events September 2008

Innovations in Education and Training International - Special issue on Creativity

Edited by Annie Grove-White, the IETI special issue on Creativity argues that creativity is central to the process by which students negotiate their environments and flourish personally and professionally. However, in Higher Education, creativity is often in a state of tension with external and internal expectations that require predictability and control. The space for exploration and risk-taking contracts for both academics and students, impacting on student engagement in creative learning and practice.

Grove-White presents a selection of papers from an international and cross-disciplinary conference entitled ‘Creativity or Conformity: building Cultures of Creativity in Higher Education' held at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff in January 2007. The conference considered how the tensions between creativity and conformity affect higher education - its organisational cultures and its teaching and learning practices. While these papers cover a wide range of issues and contexts, all the authors stress the importance of nurturing creativity for personal, social and economic well being. It is hoped that readers will be stimulated to reflect on the context within which they work and their current practice and how they might develop that more creatively.

Innovations in Education & Teaching International (IETI) is the official journal of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA).

Innovations in Education and Training International - special issue on creativity, Vol 45 (3) Routledge, 2008.

Lens 4 - A Sense of Place

Festival of Welsh Documentary Photography , Saturday, 1 November 2008

Some of Wales' most renowned photographers will give illustrated talks based on the theme 'A Sense of Place'. Paul Cabuts, a researcher for the European Centre for Photographic Research at the Newport School of Art will look at the different perspectives of three photographers who photographed South Wales during the 1950's; W Eugene Smith, Robert Frank and Geoff Charles.

LENS creates an opportunity for professional and amateur photographers, archivists and collectors, historians and journalists to discuss the wealth of Welsh documentary photography held at The National Library of Wales, which contains over 800,000 images from the earliest photograph taken in Wales in 1841 to the works of current photographers.

Don Parker Appointed Visiting Professor at Shenzhen University, China

Don Parker has been given Visiting Professor status at the School of Mass Communication, Shenzhen University for his teaching, research and commercial contributions at the University and to Industry. The University of Wales, Newport will be part of an international research hub focusing on Advertising and Design with the co-operation and integration of Shenzhen University and the BA (Hons) Advertising Design Programme.

During his visit to Shenzhen in June 2008, Parker also visited Chen Shaohua Design Studios, who is renowned for his work on the Beijing Olympics and as a major force in the rebirth of contemporary Chinese design. The recent China Design Now exhibition at the V&A, London opened with Chen's historic 1980's "Graphic Design in China" poster, a potent symbol of the rise and rise of China's new design philosophy.

Parker's research, Public Research Systems, examines emotional responses to brands and the implications these have on societal change. This includes an installation shown at the 9th Biannual Art Festival, Slovenia in November 2007 and a documentary film that will air later in 2008.

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