Category Archives: All Centre News

Catch up up on our C3 Centre Launch?

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Our new C3 Centre is all about new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities.

And we discussed theses issues at our official launch, which happened on Friday 18 June 2021. The YouTube video is now available below.

Browse through, skip, speed up or listen during a lunch time break. We also had fun at our virtual pub, which sadly is not part of the YouTube experience.

Included in the video is our introductory panel discussion where you can get to know (some of) us; and our concluding panel debate about why we think research in the arts is so important for our regions. 

As part of the event we had various showcases of our work, which was not recorded as part of the video, but some of the work can be viewed on our website at http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/ .

We welcome you to become part of our collective narratives, exploring with us some of the questions that we have been asking in our research projects.

Contact of our staff at http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/contacts/

Launch of C3 Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities

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Feel invited to the launch of our newest of our Research Centres, the C3 Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities.

Our C3 Centre is all about new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities.

Online event

Friday 18 June

4.00pm

There will be introductory panel discussions where you can get to know us; panel debates about why we think research in the arts is so important for our post-pandemic resilience; and we will showcase of some of our work. In all of these sessions we welcome you become part of our collective narratives, exploring with us some of the questions that we have been asking in our research projects. For both our researchers and our partner communities, there will also be the opportunity to continue chatting in our Virtual Pub, which will remain open until 20:00 (bring your own drink).

The C3 Centre is one of the newest of Staffordshire University’s Research Centres. It provides a single overarching structure for all staff working with our creative partners through the medium of arts and culture, in relation to the creative and cultural economy, society and sectors. In short, we are less ‘about the arts’ but more about ‘through the arts’. The Centre provides a structural framework for activities that reflect the search for new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities. It focusses on those areas of Ceramics, Creative Industry and Creative Communities that make our region so impactful through its creative engagements.

Be part of our community by registering for this launch, where together with external audiences we will explore research, innovation and new creative insights via panel debates, showcases and online spaces for networking.

More info about our C3 Centre at http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/

 

Register now at 
https://hopin.com/events/c3centrelaunch?code=je7HlM0HGC9KqG7V6q0g6WgW0

 

New Erasmus+ Project: Digital Career Stories

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Last week, we just held our first European partner meeting for our ERASMUS+ project DICO (Digital Career Stories) running from 2021 – 2023. It will produce online tools, which graduates can utilise to enhance their professional identity, improve their digital expertise in traditionally non-digital fields.

The project has its own webpage at https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/projects/dico-creating-digital-career-stories-erasmus/

Our partners in this project are

  • Turku AMK, Finland (lead)
  • University of Macerata, Italy
  • TU Dublin, Ireland
  • MOME Desgin Institute, Hungary
  • Stafforshide University, United Kingdom (contacts: Rob Marsden, Carola Boehm)

DICO Objectives

  1. Boosting arts, culture, and creative industry students’ resilience and belief in their future by inspiring them to rethink their possibilities and career strengths through digitally supported professional self-reflection.
  2. Providing piloted and researched Digital Career Story method to the use of art and culture lecturers who traditionally work with concrete hands-on methods in intimate workshop environments.
  3. Enabling internationalisation, networking and online skills of art and culture students through collaborative digital reflection and career story workshops in the time where traditional student exchange mobility is not possible.
  4. Intensifying the collaboration of the participating educational organisations in the field of pedagogical art and media based online methods.

And we have had already a fun first meeting where we got to know our partners, both in person and in their digital form!

More info, please contact Rob Marsden or Carola Boehm.

Interdisciplinary International Conference and Festival

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On 24th April 2021 the C3 Centre and the Department of Media and Performance hosted the international and interdisciplinary conference around the themes of Connections “Communities and Communication”.

Co-hosted by Agata Lulkowska, Sharon Coleclough and Stephanie Steventon, this conference considered the ways in which creative digital communities start, develop and grow, what is created within those groups and how real connections are built through technology sharing and eventually within the virtual environment of online discussion and dissemination.

“The idea for the event emerged in early 2020 as we were entering into the unknown of what later developed into a full-blown pandemic. Coming from a perspective of practice-based researchers, we discussed the links between academia and the creative world, and we thought of the importance of connections – between disciplines, between cultures and between people. The idea of our hybrid-event was born. We did not expect such a spectacular response to our call for submissions. Between films and papers, we have received nearly 2500 applications from 105 countries. It was clear that there is a need for a positive reminder about what brings us all together. We were fortunate to secure some fantastic keynote speakers, both local and international, as well as invite our colleagues from the Department of Media and Performance to talk about some amazing projects they are working on.”

The conference website is at https://www.agatalulkowska.com/communitiesandcommunication

Conference Programme (PDF)Download

#CreativeConnections2021

Conference: Philosophy & Serres

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The annual conference of The Society for European Philosophy and the Forum for European Philosophy (SEP-FEP 2020 Conference) will be happening on 30­–31 October and 6­–7 November 2020 – The programme is divided over successive Friday afternoons and full Saturdays. The wbsite is at https://sep-fep.com/

The SEP-FEP conference is the largest annual event in Europe, aiming to bring together researchers, teachers and students from different disciplines, interested in all areas of contemporary European philosophy. This year, to mark the passing of Michel Serres last June, the conference will feature a strand of presentations devoted to his work.

As part of this strand, Staffordshire Univeristy Professor David Webb interviews Christopher Watkin on Michel Serres.

 

Conference: Communities and Communication

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Staffordshire University’s new Department of Media and Performance (formerly Film, Media & Journalism, Humanities and Performing Arts)  is organising an international and interdisciplinary conference around the themes of Connections. It will take place online on 24th April 2021.

More information about the conference is at its own website.

This conference seeks to consider the ways in which creative digital communities start, develop and grow, what is created within those groups and how real connections are built through technology sharing and eventually within the virtual environment of online discussion and dissemination. We welcome contributions from across the sector from traditional print media forms to film and television, and gaming and interactive technology, offering the opportunity to explore both applied and theoretical explorations of this area of communities within the digital world. We aim to publish a selection of these contributions in an edited collection developed as a result of the conference. 

​Topics of interest:

  • ​Real-world versus digital communities 
  • Audio-visual communication practices
  • Interdisciplinary community-connections
  • What is the future of communities?
  • Visibility and identity in communities
  • Local vs global communities
  • Sports, digital media and communities
  • Healthcare and community
  • Community inclusion and exclusion
  • Performance

Deadline for submissions is 18th December 2020. For more details on how to submit please see the Call for Papers.

For any enquiries, please contact: Agata.Lulkowska@staffs.ac.uk

Running Naked: University and private equity partnership launch a feature film

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Running naked is a feature film made in collaboration between private equity and Staffordshire University’s film production courses. The film has already screened at Beijing and Portland International Film festivals and is due for release in February 2021.

Running Naked is the story of two lifelong friends, pushed together through cancer. The story explores a period their life as one discovers the cancer has returned and their adventures as his illness unfolds.

The film was made in a unique way. The funding for the film came from private equity. This was combined with in-kind use of equipment, space, locations and crew from the University.

We, Andy Paton and Mike Knowles successfully combined a crew of industry professionals who mentored Staffordshire University students. The Crew included, Oscar nominated and Emmy winning director Victor Buhler. He directed Running Naked and Mike and Andy produced the film. The film’s score was composed by Craig Potter from Elbow

The film was all shot in and around the University in Stoke, utilising some of the buildings as locations and a production office, as well as many local businesses.

The cast start Andrew Gower(Carnival Row and Black Mirror) Tamzin Merchant(Carnival Row, Salem and Pride and Prejudice) Matthew Mcnulty (The Terror, Jamaica Inn and Deadwater Fell)

The project is an amazing example of how the University and private equity can be brought together to create a film that already has a distribution deal and international sales with an international release date in February 2021.

Watch this space for announcement of first screenings!

Yet another podcast?

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Prof Carola Boehm joins two co-hosts for the launch of a new podcast about education in audio, music production and music technology.

A new Routledge supported podcast exploring the intersection between the Creative Industry and Academia has been launched this weekend with Staffordshire University input. Sound Learnings is a podcast  about education in audio, music production and music technology. One of the Co-Hosts is Carola Boehm, Professor of Arts and Higher Education from the C3 Centre of Creative Industries and Creative Communities. 

“There are not many public discourses on how our contemporary worlds of industry and academia regularly interact, sometimes with specific frictions and sometimes with real positive impacts for both. We thought it timely and useful to do this in our area of creative practice, music technology and music production. And inviting various makers and shakers to our roundtable allows us to really go behind the scenes of how this connectivity between the two spheres play out in our creative sectors.” (Carola Boehm)

All three co-hosts are educators, researchers and have professional profiles in music and audio. The podcast has been sponsored by Routledge publishers. Tim Canfer, who initiated the project, is a Lecturer at Barnsley College Higher Education, an Author, Tech Developer and Musician. His main area of research is developing reactive devices for live performance. Russ Hepworth is a part time Senior Lecturer at York St John University with a research area of audio mastering education. He has his own studio and continually works within the industry as a mastering engineer.

In the first series of the SoundLearnings podcast, the co-hosts chat with guest from the world of either education or industry. The characteristic that connects them all is that they value education specifically, and that they relate to the world of industry.

Being in pre-production since May, the next episodes to drop feature interviews from Flying Colors manager Bill Evans, mastering engineers Mike Cave and Katie Tavini, educator and mix engineer for Pete Waterman – Tim ‘Spag’ Speight, and educator, researcher and Eurovision Song Contest contender, ‘Stereo Mike’ Exarchos. 

Dr Agata Lulkowska receives an international award for her work in film

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Dr Agata Lulkowska has been selected from among the highest-ranked articles of the year to receive the annual International Award for Excellence from The Journal of Communication and Media Studies.

Her article Voice of the Arhuacos: Transcending the Borders of “Indigenous” Filmmaking in Colombia was identified as outstanding by members of the Communication and Media Studies Research Network.

Read more about this at https://www.staffs.ac.uk/news/2020/06/film-lecturer-wins-international-award