New York City Student Residential 2012

Each year the staff and students in the School of Arts Design and Media in Higher Education attend a residential in a European or International City. This year we took 93 students to New York City. 

We believe strongly in the value of the annual residential. Students who come on the study trip become 'part' of the course / college, its traditions and its values. 

This is where the student 'connects' with their peers and with the philosophy of the course, often this is where the penny drops. Being together 24/7 in a city far from home is impossible to replicate. 

Here are a few highlights from the trip this year.

The BA (Hons) Graphic Arts & Design course took part in 8 studio visits whilst in New York this year! One of the highlights has to be visiting Condé Nast in Times Square, the world's leading publisher of upmarket glossy magazine. Twenty-five students and staff arranged to meet with Carl Kelsch, Production Manager, of Self magazine. As we entered 4 Times Square, students were in awe of the grandeur and scale of the building, not to mention the publications on other floors such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker!

Self magazine has a total audience of 5,904,000 in the USA, made up of both newsstand and subscription users. Carl discussed the challenges of the changing role of design within the publishing industry. He explained how revolutionary technologies now enable the display of information in a range of formats, and that it is crucial for the industry to respond and keep up to maintain readership. It was so valuable for students to be talked through the design process from print to tablet, hearing of the kinds of considerations that need to be taken in to account.

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The students from the BA (Hons) Contemporary Photography course received a special introduction to the photographic collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. We were lucky enough for Malcolm Daniel, Senior Curator in the Department of Photographs at the museum to agree to spend an hour with us showing us some treasures in the archives of the Alfred Stieglitz collection held at the research centre in the museum.

Malcolm started by making a powerful visual demonstration of the difference between archival prints and vintage prints. This is particularly important, as the prevailing attitude towards photographic print currently is to treat them as simply hard copies of what appears on a computer screen. We were reminded that prints are part of the creative process and that the photographer can convey meaning through prints simply through the choices of process used and the technique employed. We discussed whether there is no truer print than that made by the photographer, either at, or around the time the negative was made.

We had an exclusive viewing of a number of vintage prints from Gustav Le Gray as well as a range of nineteenth century prints from the collection. Perhaps the highlight was to see a set of three different prints made by Edward Steichen of the flatiron Building in New York taken in 1905. This was a unique opportunity to see three prints, each treated very differently by Steichen.

 

Finally we were treated to a selection of photographs taken by Stieglitz of the artist Georgia O’Keeffe during their tempestuous relationship and subsequent marriage in the 1920’s. A set of astonishing prints which are one off originals and take pride of place in the collection.







ABC TV Studios, New York

As part of the residential trip to New York, students of FdA TV Production visited ABC Studios to watch the TV recording of "The Chew" (a cross between "Ready, Steady, Cook" and "Saturday Kitchen") and "Katie", a networked live daytime chat show hosted by Katie Couric.

"The Chew" proved to be a lively, upbeat, take on our somewhat more staid UK TV coverage of food, with lots of audience interaction and humour - we also got to see Billy Ray Cyrus who was the special guest.. The crew were very welcoming and - on realising that were were TV production folk - chatted to us at the end ... and asked if we knew of any jobs going at the BBC!

"Katie" was a very different experience - a live-mixed one-on-one chat show the day after the result of the US Presidential Election was announced was bouind to prove a lively occasion! But perhaps the major attraction was the presence of Michael J. Fox as the headline studio guest.

Alongside the hectic challenge shooting their own short pieces, the visit to ABC Studios proved to be the icing on the cake of a busy, industrious - but hugely enjoyable - trip to the Big Apple.

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The students with crew on the set of "The Chew"

 "Katie"

BA (Hons) Illustration Michele Zackheim, School of Visual Arts

The course has had an association with Michele Zackheim, a tutor at the School of Visual Arts, New York (SVA) for a number of years now. When Michele knew we were visiting New York on a student residential, she invited us to attend her class. I took a mix of Level 5 & 6 students (who were particularly interested in narratives of their own) and we joined a class of 20 masters students on the Illustration programme.

The students had been issued with a short story called ‘Yellow Woman’ by Leslie Marmon Silko, prior to the session.  Written in 1974, the story tells of woman who momentarily goes off with a strange man she meets on a walk along the river. The woman is swept up in the traditional Native Ameriacn myth of Kochininako, the Yellow Woman, who left her tribe and family to wander for years with the powerful ka'tsina, or spirit, Whirlwind Man. The story becomes unclear and blurs the boundaries between myth and everyday experience. The session was then led by one of the students from SVA who addressed the class and asked them questions regarding their interpretation of the text. They were all very opinionated and clearly used to discussing work in this way without fear of being chastised.  Our students joined in the discussion and offered an alternative view of the text.

In the second session of the class, Michele provided a range of postcards splayed out on a table. They were a combination of photographic and artists cards. We were asked to select an image quickly and without overthinking our decision. It was important to choose an image that instantly connected with the individual. We were then asked to answer a series of questions to embellish and add layers to the image:  Was it a male or female voice that spoke when you looked at the image? What era was it from? What colours did it evoke? What did it smell like inside the image? How do you relate to the image? What does it say to you?

We then spent 45 minutes, unpacking these initial thoughts and wrote a short story from the perspective or point of view from something or someone in the image. We then took it in turns to stand at the front of the class and read the story aloud. This was a wonderful experience. The students’ stories were so imaginative and we talk so much about visual language in our students images on our course but when they read aloud, you could also hear their personal voice, stance and how they see the world. It was obvious that there is a connection between, the way they write and the images they make. The SVA students were keen to talk with our students and some exchanged contact details. We intend to extend this new link and hope to work on collaborative projects in the future. 

Illustrator vs illustrator

Foursight are a collective of four graduate illustrators, who, intheir words, 'have joined forces to change the world… or just make some cool stuff'.

Each member of forsight have a different approach to illustration and design and by working together they say they want to learn from each other and hopefully create something a little bit amazing (at least that’s the plan)

Forsight has already made onto the Creative Review blog with its first publication where they paired up 20 illustrators and asked each duo to do battle...

Foursight then selected ten pairs of "binary opposite words" such as war and peace, analogue and digital, and big and small, and gave each duo of artists one of the word pairings to interpret.

The resulting artworks appear in the publication, entitled VS, in the form of ten double sided tear-out prints – the idea being that the viewer becomes a referee in the each of the ten included 'battles', ultimately deciding which side of each print to tear out and display.

Fior more information see the Creative Review blog

Foursight are graduates of the BA (Hons) Illustration course at Stockport College and comprise, Dominique Byron, Jordan O’Brien, Matt Bray and Kris Sale. 

Sweet sixteen

8x8 Anthology Launch, Saturday 14^th October, 2pm, International Anthony Burgess Foundation

Words and photograph by Sarah-Clare Conlon.

The 8x8 magazine project is a really interesting collaboration, which brings together eight writers and eight illustrators, all students. The authors are second and third years at MMU Cheshire, who submit their fiction coursework for consideration; the artists are from the second year of Stockport College’s BA (Hons) Illustration programme, selected via a competition.

This is the fourth year the book has been put together, in this instance by Sarah Galloway, who is thanked by MMU tutor Robert Graham, with a cover design by Holly McLoughlin, thanked by Stockport College’s Jo Spicer. Robert and Jo take it in turns to introduce the contributors to the stage to answer questions about the creative and collaborative processes, and to read their stories in the case of the writers, or, in the case of the artists, to discuss their pieces, some of the workings-outs and roughs shown on screen behind them.

  

Up first is Tim Rands, whose story Long Time No See deals with Danny’s relationship with his parents, and is illustrated by Andrew Melville. Jamie Lawton reads from Ladies, then the illustrator Rachel Felstead describes how she worked with Jamie Walsh’s words (One For All), but was actually pipped to the post by fellow illustrator Cat Webb. The competition is strong! We listen to a reading by James Harker, who, not only is an Edge Hill Crime Writing Competition winner, he is also Writer On Attachment at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. Another genre writer is Dan Peacock, with the sci-fi offering Entropy, and we also hear about the partnership by Jessica Redmond (author) and Emily Dennison (illustrator).

 Jo Spicer explains how it’s “Great for the students to have a printed piece in their portfolio”, and we see the finished publication, with its glossy, bright cover. Jo asked Jadine Butler about how she set about the task of designing something to go with Laura Brown’s As It Was, and she explained how she “tried to pick the two most symbolic moments in the text”, which includes a half-eaten piece of toast, which, indeed is very representative. Robert says of Laura: “She’s very good at leaving it entirely to the reader to work it out, using the little tiny things to say a lot more.”

Finally, we have some flash fiction, from Louise M North (pictured). Her seven stories are called the Wings Collection, and each deals with a running theme, but using very different forms. She attributes her experimental approach to US writer Richard Brautigan, and thanks her partner illustrator for really getting to grips with her pieces.

Eight writers, eight illustrators: an awful lot of talent.

Sarah-Clare Conlon is a freelance writer, editor and press officer. Her award-winning blog, Words & Fixtures, is about language, literature, arts and culture.

Congratulations to all our Graduates!

Pieces: On Dementia

Second Year BA (HONS) Illustration students have taken part in a collaborative project with the charity, Age UK in Stockport. The students made visits to day care centres in Marple and South Reddish, where they spent valuable time talking to people at various stages of dementia. This provided a unique and insightful experience for the students involved.

The students recorded their conversations through note-taking and short recordings. They then used, this information as a catalyst to make illustrations, based on the things talked about. Stories about their lives, things they did, anecdotes or fragments of memories became pictures. The students presented their work to Age UK in a professional manner, who in fact became ‘the client’. The work resulted in the publication of a booklet entitled 'Pieces' which was accompanied by a set of cards representing individual student responses.

Joanna Spicer, the course leader for BA (Hons) Illustration said, "As a tutor, I feel it is really important for students to engage with people from different walks of life. The publication of the booklet aims to highlight the past lives of those affected by dementia enable them to be seen as ‘real people’, with a past, a history and a story to tell".

Photographs by Texbook Studios

BBC News in Pictures Features BA Photography Graduate Work

Photography graduates from Stockport College have made it onto the BBC News in Pictures web site. Degree work from students who have just completed a three-year BA (Hons) Photography course will go on show at the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester from 20th June.

A selection of student still and moving images took the top slot on the BBC News website after graduate Andrea Smith contacted the BBC to help publicise the exhibition.

“We’re really please about the exposure that the exhibition was given on the BBC website – but it didn’t surprise me at all,” said Paul Proctor, Assistant Dean of the School of Arts, Design & Media at Stockport.

“Our students are a group of highly motivated and entrepreneurial individuals, and enterprising in every respect


“We try as far as possible to encourage our students to work independently as well as collaboratively, and this is a perfect example of that; the students played a big part in organising the exhibition, then Andrea took it on herself to do what she could to raise the profile of the event – and this is the result.”

Among the graduates’ images featured on the BBC website were examples of Andrea’s own work, which explored gender stereotypes through the idea of hunting in modern life, from food to designer goods.

 Also included were images by: Emma McKay, whose work examined the improvisational world of hip-hop; Chris Griffiths, who mixed images and sounds in his original film, ‘Bleed’; Stacey Calderwood, whose work took its inspiration from the stonemasonery skills of her father and two brothers; and Andy Moseley, whose short film depicted foreigners offering their humorous observations on English men and women.

They can be viewed at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-18416143

GROW Design Shows 2012

THE home-grown talents of Stockport College graduate students have been displayed to potential employers from the creative industries at a series of special exhibitions.

Using a horticultural theme, the 2012 Arts, Design & Media Degree Show – entitled ‘Grow’ – illustrated how far the students’ imaginations and abilities have bloomed after three years in the College ‘hothouse’.

It featured a range of some of the best new cutting-edge work in the North West, including graphic design, illustration and photography – and received overwhelming interest from the hundreds of people attending the show’s preview.

“The GROW theme really refers to the students themselves and the journey they have taken on their courses,” said Paul Proctor, Assistant Dean of the Arts, Design & Media Department.

“But in order for something to grow you have to provide the right conditions. You also have to nurture its growth.

“We certainly hope that we have played our part in that, by providing our students with an environment in which they have been able to explore, experiment and make mistakes, and through those processes cultivate strength, confidence and independence which will enable them to continue to grow throughout their future careers.”

‘Grow’ showcased the work of 70 graduating students from the BA (Hons) Graphic Design, BA (Hons) Illustration, BA (Hons) Photography and Foundation Degrees in Commercial Photography and Design & Advertising.

Dominique Byron and students on the Illustration course won the ‘Best in Show’ prize with another six students winning best in course.

Following ‘Grow’, students’ creative work was featured at ‘Grow-into Town’, held at Kraak Gallery near Stevenson Square in Manchester. They also exhibited at the Design & Art Directors’ ‘New Blood’ event in London on 27th & 28th June. And the BA (Hons) Photography graduates displayed their photographic work at the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, at a show titled ‘Everything for Effect’, attended by the great and the good from the photographic community in Manchester and the surrounding areas.

Paul added: “It’s a privilege to work with such ambitious and talented students and our dynamic staff, who are completely dedicated to student success.”

For information about courses in Arts, Design & Media go to: http://www.stockport.ac.uk/art-and-design/