News and Events October 2011

Award winning Newport film maker awarded Professorship

International award winning filmmaker Christopher Morris (International Film School, Wales) has been appointed to the role of Professor of Practice, Documentary Film at the University of Wales, Newport.

Professor Morris has been given the award in recognition of his transformational contribution to the advancement of knowledge through practice and his professional standing amongst peers, both within the University and across the wider academic film industry.

In endorsing the award, Professor Stephen Hagen, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Newport University said: "Christopher's track-record in professional practice and his production and other outputs are significant. He has set a model for others to follow in film-making and in teaching film-making at this University

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Christopher Morris said: "I have always seen my career as an adventure in film - and I've always tried to push the boundaries of factual filmmaking with every film that I have made. I began my filmmaking journey as a student at Newport and now to be awarded a professorship in documentary film in the same University is both humbling and a spur for me to continue to tell powerful stories in the real world." Further information on the appointment is available here.

Newport Design Centre launches

Newport's University has launched a new centre to bring together the work of staff and postgraduate research students in the School of Design, Engineering, Fashion and Technology.

Located at the University's City Campus, The Newport Design Centre will focus on using skills and expertise in design to develop research, commercial ideas and collaboration, the links between design and sustainability, social responsibility and access to a wider audience.

Examples of the research taking place includes:

• Work lead by Jane McCann into how the clothing needs of older people can be addressed through design and smart textile technology.

• Irene Dee's ‘seamless dignity gowns' currently being trialled by the NHS. The gowns aim to protect patient dignity whilst also reducing the risk of infection.

• Mark Jackson and his team are looking closely at how the teaching of design can be developed to maximise the potential of students and improve teaching techniques.

Work within the engineering subject area focusing on energy management and other aspects of sustainable.

PDR at Innovate '11

Tue 11 Oct 2011 - Business Design Centre, London

PDR will attend the Innovate '11 conference hosted by the Technology Strategy Board.

Innovate is the leading, one-day, networking, conference and exhibition event in the UK. The focus of the conference is for businesses, Government and academia to meet with the aim of making innovation happen - creating opportunity and growth for the future.

Prof Andre Stitt: Research update

During October and November, Professor Andre Stitt (CFAR) will present a number of works and lectures reflecting on his own work and the place of performance.

Professor Stitt will present the performance akshun lecture ‘Amnesia' as part of Experimenticia 1:1 performance festival at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff on 13th October 2011. Through spoken word, text, sound, akshuns and projected image Stitt will reflect on the place of performance and art making in his life. From his childhood, and the civil conflict in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to a life spent travelling and making art around the world; Stitt considers how memory and recall, allegory, communal narrative, conflict, codes and myth inform the present.

This will be followed by the launch of a new book, TRACE Displaced : Trace Collective projects 2008-09 on 14th October 2011, also at Chapter Arts Centre. Edited by Andre Stitt, the publication charts the work of a Trace Collective. Formed in 2006, the collective have embarked on a series of projects involving full size replications of the Trace Installation ArtSpace in Cardiff resulting in performances using reconstituted materials to incorporate experiences of displacement, memory and recall, while accumulating extensive archives of the process.

On 11th November 2011, Professor Stitt will deliver a lecture at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff on the work of Joesph Beuys. As a schoolboy in 1974 André Stitt saw Joseph Beuys interacting with the public on the streets of Belfast. This formative experience had a profound effect on the young would-be artist. In his talk, Creation Myth, Stitt will take the audience on a personal journey through Beuys' work, the current exhibition, the cult and mythology of performance art, and their relationship to his own arts practice.

ESRC Festival of Social Science - Playing and Learning with innovative technologies

Topcliffe Primary School, Birmingham, B35 6BS and Online
1 November 2011

Taking place in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Council's Festival of Social Science, Dr Wendy Keay-Bright's research projects Somantics and ReacTickles will be part of a programme looking at the innovative use of technology. Taking place at Topcliffe Primary School, Birmingham, parents, practitioners and children will be able to engage in hands-on experiences, listen to presentations, participate in workshops and try cutting-edge, technologies that have been developed specifically for children on the autism spectrum. Materials will also be available online in the run-up to Festival week and for three weeks after it.

The event builds on research with the Topcliffe Primary School as part of the ESRC funded ECHOES project to develop a Technology Enhanced Learning environment. Echoes is a collaboration between Dr Karen Guldberg from the Autism Centre for Education and Research at Birmingham University, Dr Sarah Parsons, Reader at Southampton University and Dr Wendy Keay-Bright.

Wearable Futures: Inclusive Design Conference 2011

2 November 2011
Wellcome Trust, London

The one-day event will bring together academic, industry and user group communities engaged in the hybrid area of Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology, building on the success of the Wearable Futures Conference, held at the University of Wales, Newport in 2005.

In particular this conference will promote a design-led approach to addressing a significant gap that has been identified in the area of design of contemporary clothing and textiles that may enhance the autonomy, independence, and sense of enjoyment and wellbeing of the Active Ageing.

Findings from current research in ‘Design for Ageing Well' will stimulate discussion with regard to new strategies for new routes to a rapidly growing market, with end users at the centre of all discussions.

This event follows the research group's contribution to Outdoor 2011, Friedrichshafen, Germany in July. Dave Taylor facilitated and led post-presentation discussions at New Routes to New Markets: The New Consumer Majority, an industry focussed breakfast seminar which included talks by Stephen Cann, the CEO of the Bollin Group, Rick Fowler, International supply chain coordinator for YoungOne, Claudia Bieker from Germany's Generation Sport, and a representative from WL Gore.

Partnership has designs on making patients' lives easier

PDR has opened a new centre to develop patient-specific medical products funded by Welsh Assembly Government's Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme.

The centre will address the increasing demand for affordable personalised healthcare products and enable medical technology manufacturers in Wales to access the specialist expertise of the Medical Applications Group (MAG) and the latest technologies and techniques developed in rapid customised product design. Devices could range from products to make daily living easier, such as utensils and reading aids, to customised grips for walking aids or specialised seating cushions, which have been prohibitively expensive due to the costs involved with traditional manufacturing processes.

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