Arts and Creative Industries events
Our Arts and Creative Industries Research Seminars afford researchers with a discursive platform to present work in progress, test out ideas and seek peer input.
Wednesday, 21 February, 4 – 5pm, A&D Research Seminar on Teams
Ralf Broeg, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art (Sculpture), Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, University of Sunderland
ShowRooms Unlimited
A key aspect of Broeg’s research over the years looks at new ways of distributing and presenting art and art-related material. Within this research area, Broeg has employed a wide range of medias, formats, structures, and strategies, such as multi-media sculpture/installation, curating, magazine publishing, or running a gallery. For the project of the 3 ModelRooms, Broeg is using sound as sculptural and architectural material in public spaces. The work challenges ways in which a synthesis of technologies, disciplines, formats, and categories can open new territories for innovation, creativity, cooperation, and interactivity in the public realm. It presents sound as sculptural material in a dynamic, fluid, and time-based way. The research engages with the diverse nature of the audiences in this specific/functional non-art context.
Image credit: Ralf Broeg, Laboratory, 3ModelRooms, Heinrich-Heine-Allee Underground Station, Düsseldorf, 2018-2019. Photo: Achim Kukulies
Friday, 8 March 2024, 1-3pm, Room 402, St Peters Gate Enterprise Centre, Charles Street, Sunderland, SR6 0AN
Rebel Women of Sunderland –The Podcast!
The podcast builds on the successful Rebel Women of Sunderland project that celebrates the lives, work, and activism of women past and present who have made a significant contribution to culture and life in and beyond Sunderland.
The first series has three episodes produced in and with communities in Sunderland about rebel women past and present working in creative writing, sports, music, and tech.
Speakers include Professor Mary Talbot, writer and academic.
Join the podcast producers and participants to listen, celebrate, and discuss the issues and themes of the first series.
Free entry – includes lunch and cake!
This is a community podcast research project funded by the University of Sunderland's SunGen and Participations Interdisciplinary research networks and delivered by We Make Culture CIC.
Wednesday, 29 May 2024, 4-5pm, Teams
Commissioning Interdisciplinary Art-making through Cross-sector Curatorial Collaborations
Dr Suzy O’Hara Lecturer in Digital Arts and Enterprise, Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, University of Sunderland
In this presentation, O'Hara will explore how art-making and curatorial processes are centralised within cross–sector collaborations to derive new ways of thinking, doing and understanding complex problems affecting society and the planet. It will focus on two recent curatorial projects that have explored the role that hybrid (online and physical), socially engaged arts practices can play within big data science and marine environment conservation.
Delivered throughout the Covid-19 global pandemic, One Cell At A Time is an art and science exhibition that invites exploration of our growing understanding of the trillions of cells that make up the human body, and the role we play in pioneering scientific discovery. It is the result of a UK wide programme of public engagement activities, delivered with the Human Cell Atlas initiative. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Human Cell Atlas is a global scientific research initiative aiming to map every cell type in the human body. This research has the potential to transform our understanding of biology and could revolutionise future healthcare and medicine.
Blue futures is an exhibition featuring environmentally-conscious arts practices that enable a deeper understanding of our relationship with the ocean and our local North East coastline. The exhibition forms part of a regional public engagement programme entitled SeaScapes Colab, devised and delivered by O’Hara for SeaScapes, a marine heritage consortium project funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. The aim of SeaScapes is ‘to reveal and better manage the hidden heritage of our unique seascape and create opportunities for learning, access and enjoyment in order to ignite stewardship of this special place for generations to come’.
Taking these two curatorial projects, the seminar will explore models of cross-sector curatorship that centralise art-making as a conduit for public engagement, knowledge exchange and a site for generating new knowledge through arts practice research.
Wednesday, 12 June 2024, 4 – 5pm, A&D Research Seminar
Photography: When Taking a Picture is not the Answer
Prof. Arabella Plouviez, Academic Dean Faculty of Arts & Creative Industries, University of Sunderland
This seminar will look in detail at the process of using photography to explore complex communities of experience. Whilst often photography is used to reveal and share visual interpretations of the world, sometimes the simplicity of ‘showing what’s there’ can be a barrier.
Taking two works that were developed through a collaboration with Professor Yitka Graham and a post-bariatric surgery patient group, and working across the disciplines of health and art, the seminar will explore the challenges and thinking behind the works made.
Image credit: Arabella Plouviez
Research Seminar
Research Seminar – Participatory methods, interactive and ideological issues pertaining to the construction and success of offline and online digital communities - Dr Helen Thornham and Dr Joanne Armitage.
Online and In-Person
Date/Time: Monday 30 January 2023, 5-6:30pm, room 233 Media Centre.
Dr. Helen Thornham is Assoc Professor of Digital Cultures at the University of Leeds
My research centres on issues of gender and digital technology and my main research interests are around gender and digital culture; digital and data inequalities; feminist new materialisms and STS. At the moment I am working with Dr. Joanne Armitage and a number of activist groups exploring technology and social justice issues in the UK and across Latin America through UKRI-funded projects. I lead an EPSRC-funded Network+ (2022-2027): INCLUDE+ (INCLUsive Digital Economy network+), which explores how social and digital environments can be built, shaped, and sustained to enable all people to thrive. You can find out more about INCLUDE+ here. I teach across the Digital Media Programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and am currently leading the MA module Feminism, Identity and Media. I am Deputy Postgraduate Admissions Tutor, which means I also deal with PhD admissions.
Dr Joanne Armitage is Lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Leeds. My research is concerned with understanding digital technology in culture and society. The broader questions that frame my work speaks to the politics of digital technology – who produces it, how it is produced, and how it shapes different practices. I employ participatory, digital, and empirical methods to examine technologies in the context of environmental justice and (in)equality. With this, I work with expert and non-expert groups to develop (new) technologies and infrastructures to examine the ways in which they facilitate different practices and forms of political agency. I lead the AHRC networking grant Sus_NET: Sustainable Marking for Feminist Action which examines technological practices through the lens of sustainability and equality. I have lectured in Digital Media at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds since 2016.
I have contributed to a large number of public-facing projects such as Machine Learning Imaginations where participants explore machine learning as an embodied, lived and reconfigurable technology. Similarly, Automation and Me brought together a group of international artists and academics to explore and respond to automation as a critical issue in society through a feminist lens. In 2018 I participated in a coding cultural exchange between Yorkshire and Tokyo funded by Arts Council England, British Council, Daiwa Foundation, and Sasakawa Foundation.
Alongside my work at Leeds, I am Research Associate in the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. Here I contribute to the AirKit proof of concept project as part of the Citizen Sense research group led by Prof Jennifer Gabrys.
Alongside my academic work, I am an algorithmic producer and musician and currently produce music for the Bloomberg series ‘Art + Technology’. My work has been featured in The Times, Guardian, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 5. I have received Sound and Music’s Composer-Curator fund (2018) and am a resident at Somerset House Studios. Recent commissions include environmental soundscape Collision Grounds with video artist Anya Stewart Maggs.
Gaming Festival – Media and Culture
Date/Time: Friday 24 June 2022, 12-9pm
The University of Sunderland is to host its first Gaming festival at the Prospect Building on St Peter's Campus.
The festival will be a chance to connect the community of Sunderland with the amazing work happening locally in the games industry.
Students will showcase their work, visitors will be able to see and play on exclusive footage of games currently in development, and local developers will be able to connect with the local community and upcoming stars in games development.
With the announcement that Sunderland will be home to a multi-million pound esports centre, it is time to connect the local community and our students with a booming industry.
The University of Sunderland's Esports network will be hosting a tournament throughout the day. There will also be a raffle with prizes including games, and merchandise.
Developers and games artists from across the north east will take part in our festival, giving students and the public a chance to network and learn about our growing games industry. There will be the chance to speak to developers, see exclusive content and ask questions of the leading games industry experts. Taking part are:
Tanglewood Games – an established games development studio based in the north east of England. As a friendly team of Unreal Engine experts with long careers based at the forefront of this technology, we have a proven track record working with well-known AAA publishers on some of the biggest Unreal Engine titles to date, such as Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, and Paragon.
Atom Hawk – Since 2009 Atom Hawk been working with movie studios, game developers and product designers to help realise their visions and bring ideas to life through world class visual development and design.
Cardboard Sword – a growing independent games company that has worked on games such as Forza Horizon 3.
Radical Forge – have pushed, grown and succeeded since their formation to become an established name within the game development industry as a place of creativity, innovation and adventure. Handling many projects across multiple platforms including PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Oculus Quest, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch. They have several years of experience on a vast range of indie and externally published titles as well as tirelessly working away on our first original IP “Bright Paw”.
Nosebleed Interactive – a multi-award-winning independent studio based in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the heart of the North East of England. Nosebleed have worked with some of the world’s biggest companies, brands and content providers such as Channel 4 and Sony Interactive Entertainment. At our core, we're all gamers, passionate about playing and making great games and entertainment software. Named as one of the Top 50 creative companies in the country by Creative England. Nosebleed Interactive also won the PlayStation Mobile Pioneers competition, as well as best small to medium business in the Newcastle Business Awards. Alongside this the company was one of the first handful of companies to receive support from the prestigious UK Games Fund.
The festival will provide an opportunity to speak to some of the biggest names in the game industry, and to see the wonderful media work being created in our region.
Register via Eventbrite
Research Seminar – Art and Design
From Sailing the World to Saving the World: How bast fibres could help high street fashion become more sustainable' by Naomi Austin
Date/Time: Wednesday 29 June 2022, 4-5pm
The event will be hosted online via Teams and is internal only. For further details on how to join externally, please contact alexandra.moschovi@sunderland.ac.uk
Bast or bark is the fibrous material found inside certain plants sandwiched between the woody core and the outer layer. Bast fibres include flax (linen), hemp, kenaf and ramie, all which have been used by humans for thousands of years for everything, from building materials to sails and ropes to clothing. These fibres are known to be the most environmentally friendly out of all fibres, with a fineness, strength and flexibility which surpasses many other fibres; therefore, offering great potential as sustainable alternatives to the dominance of cotton. However, since the 1960s, consumption of garments made using bast fibres is very low compared to other textiles. This presentation will offer an insight into the reasons for this and what can be done to help increase consumers’ and manufacturers’ interest in these fibres.
Research Seminar – Art and Design
'The Introduction of New Media Art Practices in Greece in the 1970s and 1980s' by Stamatis Schizakis, Curator of New Media, Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, GR; Ph.D. candidate University of Sunderland
Wednesday 16 March 2022
This presentation focuses on the discourse and practice of new media art produced and presented in Greece from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, for the first time through a new media art scope. It aims to throw light into the aims and methods of new media artists and organisations active in Greece during the period in question. The content of the presentation originates in a doctoral project with the same title and subject, which resulted in a new chronology of new media art in Greece, an evaluation of the role of institutions and public support, an account of the efforts of certain new media artists for connecting to a global network and market, as well as a mapping of common characteristics of the works produced and presented during this period.
Pantelis Xagoraris
[Computer drawing in ink], 1973
Ink on paper
31 x 27 cm
National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, Inv. No. 428/02,
donated by Zafos Xagoraris, 2002
Research Seminar - Art and Design
'Sustainable Ceramics: An Exploration of Some Conceptual and Professional Factors' by Visiting Professor Dr Wendy Gers
Wednesday 16 February 2022
What are the issues behind developing ethical and sustainable ceramics practices? Who are the pioneers in this field? What are the milestones involved in becoming a more sustainable ceramics artist? Is it enough to develop an engaged practice, with an environmental policy and action plan? This presentation surveys international art practices that have moved beyond environmental advocacy and are actively engaged in reducing their environmental impact.
Research Methodologies in the Arts and Creative Industries
Postgraduate Research Symposium - Art and Design
Wednesday 9 February 2022
13:00 Introduction, Dr Alexandra Moschovi, Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Media and Dr Kevin Yuill, Associate Professor of American History
13:30 Welcome, Prof. Kevin Petrie, Head of the School of Art and Design
13:10 HOME, Janine Sykes
13:30 Casting Self Reflection: Three-Dimensional Mirrors within Contemporary Glass Art Practice, Joanna Manousis
13:50 Don’t Deny Your Past, Andy Mellors
14:10 Discussion
14:20 Preview of the research publication A Book for Research that is Art, Dena Bagi and Helen McGhie
Games, Culture, and Identity: The MultiPlay Conference 2022 - Media and Culture
Wednesday 19 January 2022
Games, Culture, and Identity: The MultiPlay Conference 2022 is a multi-disciplinary conference which brought together a range of academics and practitioners across different fields. It also launched the new academic network MultiPlay, committed to a multidisciplinary approach to video games. The conference was hosted online.
The MultiPlay Conference 2022 is a conference supported by the University of Sunderland’s Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies and the Participations Interdisciplinary research Network.
Keynote
Dr. Rob Gallagher (Manchester Metropolitan University) Rob Gallaher’s research specialises in examining the relationship between video games and identity, with focus on personal data and posthuman subjectivity, and life narrative games. He is author of Videogames, Identity, and Digital Subjectivity,( Routledge 2019)
“In right-wing NPC memes gaming jargon is deployed to articulate a reactionary critique of liberal democracy, one that contends only some identities should be recognised as valid and only some subjects as fully human; in ludobiographical games by creators like Cassie McQuater and Tabitha Nikolai materials poached from retro videogames and 90s gaming magazines are repurposed in the service of more radical and progressive explorations of identity and subjectivity. Putting these forms in dialogue, this keynote considers how terms, images, concepts and characters drawn from gaming culture are being used to contest and reformulate liberal conceptions of personhood and politics.”
Confirmed speakers
Dr. Poppy Wilde (Birmingham University School of Media) presented research on posthuman subjectivity at play. Wilde is an expert on the use of avatars and the relationship they have to the posthuman. She has published multiple academic articles on the posthuman, from death and resurrection in the online game to the lived experience of gaming.
Daz Skubich is one of the driving forces behind the popular streaming channel Game Assist, a channel dedicated to creating video essays on accessibility and liberation in video games. Their work poses new questions and considerations for academics about our approaches to video game analysis.
Javier Rayón is The Director for the upcoming Dream of Darkness game which explores the true history of Mexico before colonialism whitewashed the nation’s heritage. A leading content creator in the games industry, Rayón also supports the efforts of academics to address history ethically through video games.
Benjamin Carpenter is a visiting Fellow in the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communications Study at the University of East Anglia. He completed his PhD in 2021, writing on philosophical critiques and solutions to the problems of contemporary identity politics. Benjamin’s current research interests are in contemporary online media and identity, with a particular interest in bringing these into dialogue with phenomenology and existentialism.
Adam Jerrett is a lecturer and PhD student in the School of Creative Technologies at the University of Portsmouth. As a games studies researcher, he is particularly interested in pervasive games, and the way games can break out of their “magic circles” to truly affect the lives of their players. His ongoing PhD work explores values like empathy, identity and reflection in order to create games that have personal and social impact.
Stephanie Farnsworth is a PhD candidate at the University of Sunderland. Her research focuses on examining the mutants of Mass Effect, as well as the wider themes of biological manipulation and exploitation in science fiction. Farnsworth is a co-founder of MultiPlay.
Imo Kaufman is a Midlands 4 Cities Researcher in collaboration with the British Games Institute Videogame History: Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies University of Nottingham
Dr Ayisi is an early-stage academic researcher and a member of the faculty of the Communication Studies Department of the University of Ghana. Prior to joining the University of Ghana, she taught in several higher education institutions both in the United Kingdom and in Ghana. Her research interests are in the fields of gender and new media, popular culture and digital cultures. Her focus is on issues around identity and participatory cultures and online activism.
Eyram is the co-founder and CEO of Leti Arts. As an experienced game developer, Eyram believes that Africa can make a salient contribution to the world of game development and preserve culture through this. He has pioneered developing the gaming industry in Africa with Leti Arts. Eyram believes preserving cultural diversity through gaming and entertainment is very important and aims to prove this by creating world-class games and comics using African talent. Eyram is an experienced game developer who designs and implements games in most programming languages based on the platform. He's won several awards for his work in the African video game development space, is a frequent speaker at game conferences globally and is an author of the book Uncompromising Passion documenting his Journey as an African video game developer.
Lisa Meek completed her MA in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sunderland in 2020. She completed a dissertation researching the creation of space and place in the videogame Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo EPD, 2020). She hopes to complete a PhD which will continue this research and develop the use of phenomenological geography within media studies, as well as contribute to ongoing discussions surrounding videogame theory.
Research Seminar - Media and Culture
Organised by FACI Research group and Participations Interdisciplinary Research Network
'How Women can Save the Planet' by Dr Anne Karpf (Professor of Life Writing and Culture at London Metropolitan University)
Wednesday 17 November 2021
Writer and academic Dr Anne Karpf talked about her recent book's themes: activism, climate, gender and racial justice.
How might practitioners/researchers in the arts and creative industries incorporate such themes in their work? What kind of collaboration between researchers from different disciplines is possible?
Research seminar - Art and Design
'Airs, Phrases and Notes in Neon: The Language of Birds' by Professor Mike Collier
Wednesday 20 October 2021
A short talk about the research behind an exhibition staged for the research gallery at the National Glass Centre in November 2021.
Prof Mike Collier has been assisted in this work by gladd artist Dr Ayako Tani and neon craftworker Bryn Reeves.
As the world went silent in lockdown March 2020, something else happened; for the first time, many people became more aware of the spring sounds of the birds around us.
This talk explored the background and research process involved in creating six circular large-scale neon birdsong pieces that foreground the value of our acoustic environment and will be displayed in an exhibition from November 2021 to April 2022 at the National Glass Centre.
The form of each piece has been drawn from Geoff Sample's sonograms of each bird (Wren; Great Tit; Spotted Flycatcher; Mistle Thrush; Goldcrest and Nuhatch). The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of six poems (called airs) by acclaimed Scottish comtemporary poet, Gerrry Loose.
Mike Collier, Spotted Flycatcher, digital drawing, 30 inches square
spotted flycatcher
by Gerry Loose
singer not song
only here here note
now not song now
only singer now not
song now now note
now fly
Launch of Interactive Film - Media and Culture
'Jessica’s Story - Young Parents and Perinatal Mental Health'
Wednesday 13 October 2021
David Puttnam Media Centre Cinema
The Film was followed by Q and A from health educators, actors, Trylife film director and project researchers
The NENC ICS’s Child Health and Wellbeing Network’s (CHWN) have commissioned this Interactive film. You can view the trailer here. Developed by our local phenonium, Trylife, a true CHWN partnership project, the ICS Mental Health funding for this work was secured in partnership with the Perinatal MH Network and was commissioned by the William Howard School in Cumbria. Clinicians and Youth workers across mental health, Maternity and Perinatal mental health have contributed to this work and a programme board have managed its progress throughout the pandemic. The CHWN has evolved from the ICS and promotes partnership working to enable all children to thrive. Our episode has been filmed on location in the NENC and focuses on pregnancy in young parents, Mental Health and Perinatal mental health.
University of Sunderland researchers Drs. Rick Bowler, Floor Christie and Amina Razak who have followed and researched the process of the partnership and production will be present at the launch as will Laura North Laura Northmore University of Sunderland Media production student who advised on storylines and acted in the film.
Once launched this resource will be freely available to both children and young people (from 13yrs and above) and professionals supporting them to ‘try life’ and see the impact of their choices in these interactive films on a range of hard hitting topics:
- Episode 1 Sophie’s Story - Substance Misuse, Sexual Health and Consent
- Episode 2 Aaliyah’s Story- Knife Crime and Drug Misuse
- Episode 3 Jacob’s Story - Mental Health and Relationships
- Episode 4 Avani’s Story - Grooming
- Episode 5 Shane’s Story - Isolation and loneliness & Covid
- Episode 6 Jessica’s Story - Young Parents and Perinatal Mental Health
Research Symposium
Wednesday 6 October 2021
This symposium involved advanced postgraduate students doing 10 minute presentations on their projects, the challenges they have faced, and their experiences of prosecuting a PhD.
The purpose of the symposium was to get PhD students used to presenting their ideas in succinct and understandable form, to expose their research to questions and challenges from their academic peers, to inspire and instruct new research students, and to enhance the research culture in our faculty through participation of our academic staff.
Schedule
1:00 Introduction - Kevin Yuill
1:05 Siouxsie Barber
1:20 Elizabeth Waugh
1:35 Steph Farnsworth
1:50 Dena Bagi
Art and Design Past events