Having delivered several workshops before in and outside of university the chance to propose some for the 'Interchange' part of the 2nd years was too good an opportunity to miss. I worked with Jo Dunlop in creating and delivering two each and supporting the other with theirs, thereby being involved with four in total. This all seemed fine but as the deadline approached we could both see it was going to be two very full on days of preparing, delivering, clearing up and then preparing for the next one...
Everyone was asked to initially send in a proposal for as many workshops as they wanted to, the event only ran for two days so time was limited and we decided two each was plenty. We were both fortunate to have all of our proposal accepted by the Dean, then began the process of developing and refining the details. This also included a session run by Dr. Mark Wilshire as Educational Development Coordinator which was used to ensure we were fully prepared to maximise the opportunity of the workshops, not just for the participants but also ourselves.
My workshops were CONTEMPLATION CREATION and BEYOND LANGUAGE.
Full details of the session plan are below:
Contemplation Creation
Interchange – 10 and 11 March 2022, Week 20: Project Brief
Project Leader:
CARL DURBAN
Staffing or Student teaching on project if different to project lead:
Carl Durban & Jo Bellamy (Dunlop)
Title of Project:
CONTEMPLATION CREATION
Type of Session (Masterclass, workshop, walks, visits, etc.)
WORKSHOP
Please indicate day you can run project (if you are able to repeat please tick both days)
Friday 11th March 2022
No. of students - please indicate min and max (ideal is minimum 20 students per activity)
Minimum 4 – Maximum 12
Please indicate preference of time and length of your session(s)
10.00 – 12.30 (2 ½ Hours)
Brief description of the project (max 150 words) what will students be doing in the project
Stage 1
In 6 containers are a variety of objects, each labelled 1 - 6.
Write down x3 numbers without knowing what is in each container, you can use anything from the corresponding numbered containers. Make a sculpture, use for a still life, you might consider making an intervention in this space or another or using them as part of a performance. Write down your thoughts while you are creating.
Stage 2
Document your work. Think about how any of the work could be used for a future development. Photo areas and supplied models will be available to change the scale of the piece.
Stage 3
Make drawings from your creations, considering the shadows and light and looking at the finished piece from as many different angles as possible.
Refer back to the list of thoughts and use these for inspiration in creating further work.
Any prerequisites (ideally open to as many students from diverse subjects) but are there any skills students should already have in order to do the session?
No prerequisites. Although this would suit Fine Art students, I would like to work with students from as many disciplines as possible.
Project Outcomes: What will students achieve by the end of the session?
Students will have a finished or multiple finished sculptural items. They will also have photographic documentation of their work and by using model figures will be able to turn their pieces into sizeable sculpture or architectural pieces.
Students will also have drawings or studies from their finished pieces as well as a list of thoughts to develop beyond the workshop.
Space requirements: i.e. a computer lab, seminar room or messy studio space or no as online?
GU92b
Resource requirements (including equipment in room such as computer/projector, if tables or just chairs if any consumables are required and potential budget, such as paper, pens, materials?)
X4 rolls Masking tape
ball of string
x10 sheets A4 sculptural wire mesh (fine) available in 3D
x4 packs sculptural wire
Pliers and wire cutters
X12 Sets of Scissors
X1 Pack of Architectural small model figures (available in the uni shop)
X40 Sheets of A2 Cartridge paper
Compressed charcoal, willow charcoal, pencils
x6 black sharpies
Pictures from the session
I was really pleased with the outcome of this session and it was a very good turn out with five of the six signed up taking part, plus a fellow 3rd year Fine Art student, so a full house, which wasn't the case for many of the sessions as take up across the board had been particularly poor. On discussion this is believed to be very much to do with the after effects of Covid and students still coming to terms with being in uni and engaging fully with everything. Many of these students wouldn't have had a normal first year in any shape of form and possibly had a disrupted end to the end of their time at their respective colleges.
Everyone really engaged with the process and the concept behind it in a very productive and relaxed manner, it was particularly pleasing to be able to talk to students from other years and disciplines. There were several comments about how the session had been, one in particular that I wanted to highlight was from a fellow mature student, currently in her first year who said: 'Really enjoyed the workshop, the time just whizzed by.. I came away with loads of photos and ideas going forward, so thank you Carl and Jo 😊'
I couldn't ask for more.
My second session was:
Beyond Language
Interchange – 10 and 11 March 2022, Week 20: Project Brief
Project Leader:
CARL DURBAN
Staffing or Student teaching on project if different to project lead:
Carl Durban & Jo Bellamy (Dunlop)
Title of Project:
BEYOND LANGUAGE
Type of Session (Masterclass, workshop, walks, visits, etc.)
WORKSHOP
Please indicate day you can run project (if you are able to repeat please tick both days)
Friday 11th March 2022
No. of students - please indicate min and max (ideal is minimum 20 students per activity)
Minimum 4 – Maximum 12
Please indicate preference of time and length of your session(s)
14.00 – 16.30 (2 ½ Hours)
Brief description of the project (max 150 words) what will students be doing in the project
Xu Bing’s ‘Book From The Sky’ and ‘Book From The Ground’ will be given as examples of the two extremes of non-verbal communication, as well as other work by Fiona Banner, Anna Barham and Caroline Wright.
Various non-verbal alphabets will be supplied, including; Sign Language (Makaton), Morse Code, Braille, Semaphore… along with other items, ie flags for Semaphore, torches for Morse Code and recording devices from the MRC - cameras and sound recorders along with any necessary cabling. A variety of materials for sculpture.
Participants can use painting, drawing, film, sound, sculpture, performance or whatever they wish to make a piece of work that explores non-verbal communication, whether this is using existing forms or to create their interpretation or even their own way of communicating non-verbally between people.
Any prerequisites (ideally open to as many students from diverse subjects) but are there any skills students should already have in order to do the session?
No prerequisites.
Ideally, I would like to work with students from as many disciplines as possible.
Project Outcomes: What will students achieve by the end of the session?
As this is an entirely experimental workshop, I would like to see how existing non-verbal communication can be used to either inspire participants to create work or indeed to propose a new way of communicating or even new alphabet or language.
There are no limits to what any outcome could be, it may be in the form of a piece of 2D, a film, a performance, a series of photographic images or even something that may inform a future work, whether this is print, textile or sculpture.
Time to be allocated to discuss the work created and explain their thought processes. It may be possible to take away any initial ideas and then develop work further for a possible exhibition.
Space requirements: i.e. a computer lab, seminar room or messy studio space or no as online?
A suitable studio space would work in would be fine. Floor, tables, wall can be used (Make Space is unavailable). Gunton’s Basement is available. However, would need to consider current student space and work.
Resource requirements (including equipment in room such as computer/projector, if tables or just chairs if any consumables are required and potential budget, such as paper, pens, materials?)
X50 Sheets of A2 Cartridge paper.
Pack of compressed charcoal,
Pack of willow charcoal
Pack of sharpie pens (red, blue and black)
X12 sets of scissors.
X4 rolls of masking tape
Half a bag of clay (if possible – can be used clay)
A selection of fabric pieces/off-cuts. CD to source from textiles.
Film/Photographic equipment will be hired through the MRC by CD.
Disappointingly this session we agreed to cancel due to the lack of bookings and despite the whole of Interchange being opened up to years 1 and 3. I would have needed four participants as a minimum to make this one work and after discussions with the Dean's Office we decided to pull it. This was really frustrating on two fronts, firstly the amount of work involving in devising and preparing for the workshop, research, collating materials and negotiating the workshop as a session. But, secondly and probably more frustrating was that I was hoping it would potentially inform me more about my practice and I could see ways in which people might consider communication beyond a verbal language.
Riotous Order 2
This workshop was devised and created by Jo Bellamy (Dunlop). We have worked a lot together in the four years of our university experience and know how each other works, so it was very easy to support the creation and delivering of all the workshops.
This workshop was a two part session, where the original piece of work was created and then cut up to provide each participant with a piece or pieces of the painting that they were tasked with developing to be briefly hung and discussed by Jo and myself.
Stage one complete.
Details of stage one.
With only two participants for this workshop Jo and I also joined in, which was a balance between letting the two who had never really done anything like this have their freedom to create as they wished but also meant we could be subtle in the way we interacted and gave some sort of control to the main piece when we thought it might become saturated with paint. What was interesting was that neither of the students were Fine Artists, one was studying Fashion and the other Textiles. It was almost a shame to stop when we did as Jo and I both felt that we were all starting to respond to the various marks in a far more sympathetic way, there were areas joining other areas, spaces were filling up and the some really fascinating layering happening. However, due to time constraints we needed to finish and prepare it for stage two.
We agreed to meet back on the landing the next day with our developed pieces. Jo and I also took a cut up sheet to develop ourselves.
Stage two details.
This part is always a treat as you can never imagine what someone else might do with their selected piece. It was clear from the results that the disciplines being studied had come to the fore and the elements of Fashion and Textiles were clearly evident. Both students agreed that this was a really positive way to create future work and had really informed them going forward. It was something they wanted to repeat and was very helpful with their studies.
Jo and approached this individually and I was struck by the detailed images I had taken with my phone, loving the way they were abstracted and by highlighting a set of them how they became a collection of details. I also wanted to use an element of the main pic that I was starting to develop just before we stopped stage one and that was where I was using a white paint to surround areas, connect elements of the paint with the intent to go right across the main painting giving some structure to it. This would also have meant taking control and that was something we were very keen not to allow, it was something that I believe we all had to hold back on. Jo used on of her mirror tiles and created a cube around an existing frame, the mirror then reflecting everything and also making it look like a massive void in the middle of the cube, almost like a coloured mine shaft to infinity...
Stage two displayed.
We also decided to display the floor piece as the accidental marks, drips and powder from the pastels had created this subtle texture and in the process had also recorded our progress in the creation of the large piece, which being cut up didn't exist any more, it was a remnant of the process.
How Still is Life
This was Jo's second workshop where the question of a still life really not being still was explored. We were fortunate to have the Munnings Studio, which was perfect with the easels and light for the session. Ryan, from our year joined in with the workshop meaning with Jo and myself we had four participants, which worked very well.
The set up was an arrangement of items placed on a table and everyone was to draw as they wished for about 15 minutes, we were then to move our paper to another easel and draw over what we had already observed, this highlighted how much objects change even by the slightest of head movements, the idea of representing a three dimensional object on a two dimensional plain goes back to the beginning of the last century with Braque, Gris, Léger and Picasso to name a few.
My first piece I had used a graphite stick, with multiple lines and an element of tonal work, it became harder to work out the relationship between the objects as the drawing progressed. Certain items dominate and others float around, it really did create something new. I decided to leave this one as shown and then do a quick version using a sharpie pen, the idea to simplify the line work.
Ideally I will go over the drawing and just recreate the line work using a simple single line. I could then look at panels of colour that could I could layer on top, whether this is done is a collage way, digitally or even screen printed, which is something Jo was keen to explore.
The student that signed up for the session is currently studying animation and it was very interesting to see how she approached the project and commented that she felt she could use this process in her practice to make items move. It was fascinating to see her use the paper and look to plan the movements exploring the different scales.
We placed all our work on the floor to discuss the different approaches. Very varied and that was with just four of us. Tonal, line, colour, different positioning and scale. Really informative.
Overall the workshops were very successful despite the lack of numbers, and that wasn't just to our sessions, that was across the board. Hopefully there will be a change to attitude and maybe the way they are promoted in the future. If I decide to undertake an MA I may well be looking to create and deliver one next year.
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