Delia Whitbread
Reconfiguring the Rose - Translating a visionary medium of the second millennium into the visionary medium of the third
Supervisory Team: Mike Davis (Director of Studies), Dr Laura Johnston, Dr Kevin Petrie MA (RCA).
A web-based project to design a rose window collaboratively over the Internet with participation from women artists around the world. This will involve a reflection on a range of strategies for managing a complex collaboration over the Internet, the creation of a body of information as a didactic resource and a new artwork using medieval stained glass design principles in a modern context.
Click here to go to the project's website.
I chose to do this project as a PhD for the support that the University Sunderland could give me in terms of both computer technology and Glass skills. I have enjoyed learning the new skills involved in the process of creating a digital image of a rose window (lrose4.jpg) and designing the website. The cosmic egg in the crop (eggcrop) is shown here with the centre panel glass sample piece (eggglass1). There is also an example of editing before and after for medieval colour combinations (owlgba) I hope that the next stage of promotion and development in 2003 will begin the process of wider artist involvement and the collecting of more designs.
The problems involved are mostly practical - getting funding for publicity material took some time and help for some of the promotional work is needed. At the moment uncertainty about the level of participation is the main issue and finding other strategies as back up will be a priority.
