DanceCult Conference is back

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DanceCult Conference

Dancecult Research Network (DRN) is an interdisciplinary network of academics, scholars and students researching all aspects of electronic dance music culture (EDMC). The DRN acknowledges that, from proto-disco through what is today labelled “EDM”, from the practice of the DJ to the present ubiquity of dance clubs, the aesthetics, politics and cultures of electronic dance music permeate underground and popular movements.

As an educational and research network, the DRN facilitates information exchange, resource sharing and collaboration among international researchers of the genres, identifications, aesthetics, technologies and other manifestations of EDMC. Researching techniques and locales, scenes and events, ethnicity and gender, production and distribution technologies, digital arts, drugs, sexuality and other subjects, members hail from various disciplines, operate in many different global locations, and employ diverse methodologies.

Programme at https://dancecult-research.net/2021-agenda/

More info and registration at https://dancecult-research.net/conference/

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Staffordshire University artists at the British Ceramics Biennial 2021

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BCB returns to the Potteries from 11 September to 17 October 2021 and includes an ambitious programme of exhibitions, installations, events and hands-on activities.

A showcase of work by recent Staffordshire University MA Ceramics and BA (Hons) 3D Designer Maker graduates takes place in the main festival hub at The Goods Yard.

Research staff from the C3 Centre exhibiting include Professor Neil Brownsword and Associate Professor Anna.

Associate Professor Anna said about the BCB: “As always, this important biennial activates the streets and buildings of our city, providing an opportunity to discuss the heritage and future of our relationships with ceramics.”

Our University Press release can be found here.

The British Ceramics Biennial 2021 takes place from 11 September to 17 October. See the full programme of events and plan your visit – https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/

Upcoming Research Seminar in Media and Performance

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22 Sept 12:00-13:00 Research Seminar in Media and Performance

Our next online research seminar in the series for the media and performance department will feaure three of our current PhD candidates nearing their early progress reviews with subjects in arts, media and film as below

  • Tim Anderson: “Reconfiguring the Gesamtkunstwerk: Composing with sound and video across media”
  • Francisco Mazza Filho: “Re-Sounding the Screen: Politics and Poetics of Acoustic Territory in Contemporary Documentary Film”.
  • Awat Ali: “Getting an identity for Kurdish nation through cinema beyond victimhood”

Presentations will be 15 minutes each followed by 5 minutes questions. Feel invited to come along and support the students and invite others who might be interested.

Contact Associate Professor Dave Payling for more info on email: D.Payling at staffs.ac.uk

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22 Sept 2022
12:00-13:00 Research Seminar in Media and Performance

 

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

In touch – Delivering creative workshops online (Upcoming Factory Online Event)

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Session details

  • Topic: In touch – Delivering creative workshops online 
  • When: 10:30 – 12:25, April 16th, 2021 
  • Where: Zoom (link to follow registration, registration see at end of post) 
  • Cost: Free 

What is the session about? 

When we can’t physically host people in our studios or creative spaces how can we practically and meaningfully move workshops and engagement online?  

This Factory session is led by BCB Associate artist Sarah Fraser, Artist and International Programme Manager for the International Ceramics Studio Kecskemét, Hungary Steve Mattison and Artist and creative business owner, writer, educator and marketing guru Mel Bose also known as The Terrain Tutor 

This session will cover: 

  • The difference between delivering in-person and online workshops – how to change delivery styles to suit online workshops. 
  • Budget friendly and easy to use equipment and platforms for delivering online workshops. 
  • Tips and tricks for delivering a tactile workshop online  
  • How to engage with workshop participants or community groups online. 

REGISTER AT EVENTBRITE
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-touch-delivering-creative-workshops-online-tickets-148886536639?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

Staffordshire University’s film students document research into the plastic pandemic

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A new documentary series, made by Staffordshire University students, takes a deep dive into the global plastic pollution crisis

    The six-part online series Plastic Pandemic was created by Isaac Robinson and Jonathan Eley while completing a Master’s degree in Film Documentary. It demonstrates how documentary film making can really help to bring science research alive and communicate the importance of the increasing threats to the planet, people and animals.

    Fiona Graham, Associate Professor of Film Technology and Masters supervisor to Jon and Isaac, said the students spent many months developing their film project researching into Plastics Pollution and had pitched the idea to be a long form film. With the Covid pandemic and lockdown a year ago, this changed.

    She said:

    Jon and Isaac wanted to create a film about plastics pollution and to talk to people about the growing problem for the planet. Documentary form has the power to investigate, probe and tell stories that need to be heard and they were passionate to still do this despite the pandemic affecting film production. Staffordshire University’s Professor Claire Gwinnet was one of many contributors internationally to support their film.

    The film students wanted to explore new methods and processes in documentary film online, as they were emerging from industry and we developed ideas working through the problems and solving the technical and creative issues that arose.”

    They created an international research project for their Masters that had international contributors who may never have come forward before the pandemic.”

    Full press release at https://www.staffs.ac.uk/news/2021/03/new-online-documentary-takes-on-the-plastic-pandemic

    The website and the videos at https://www.isaacjonesrobinson.com/copy-of-plastic-pandemic-series-tra