cardiff school of art & design magazine - issue 3

Cardiff School of Art & Design

Illustratingthe unseen

Spring 2013 Edition 3

magazine

Pages 22 - 23

Image: Anna Bhushan


CSAD MAGAZINE

Contents

Cardiff School of Art & Design 2

educational institution that doesn’t have degreeawarding powers, but has substantial researchand industrial credentials. Each year, studentson the MDes do three modules here in CSADfrom October through to the end of January,” he explains.

“Then from the February until the end of July,they do their remaining modules out in SADI.They’re practice based modules. It’s taught inKorean there and English here so we require therelevant English language qualifications.”

On the note of language, both staff and studentshave found that it is not the barrier that onemight think it ought to be. Students are expectedto have a good level of English or to take alanguage course to enable them to complete themodules in Cardiff straightforwardly.

“We found the relationship with them very easyand honest,” Thompson adds. “It helps that mostof the people who we are dealing with at SADI

have done their design degrees in eitherAustralia or America. The language isn’t abarrier at all.”

With the School of Art & Design moving to thenew Llandaff campus in 2014, the School isalready thinking of the future and how SADI fitsinto that.

“We’re keen to build the visibility of SADI in ournew building. We’re going to try to have aconstant link between the two studios. The timedifference is such, however, that it’s absolutelypole-to-pole: during working hours, they wouldbe looking at a dark studio and so would we,”Thompson explains. “We’re now looking atwhether we can inter-develop SADI/Samsungfacilities in the new CSAD building. This maymean an enhancement of the proposed Fab Lab,which is a fabrication workshop with links toother labs across the globe.”

Asked about how important the use oftechnology in the seminar room or class room is,Thompson and Loudon both agree that in thenext couple of years the School will be testing alot of ways to enable better interaction betweenstudents.

“We’re exploring with SADI ways that we canopen up the pool of teaching in both locationswithout building up a huge carbon footprintthrough students and staff flying back and forth,”Thompson says excitedly. “The feeling from bothsides is that we’re not quite there yet to enableit. We’ll be working with them to bring thepresence of one to the other more directly. In anideal world, I’d like to have some kind ofmirrored space, but I think we’re a little bit off itat the moment. That being said, we’re dealingwith a company who is at the cutting edge ofthat stuff.”

CSAD’s dean flew out to Seoul in November totake the discussions further.

1 Cardiff School of Art & Design

CSAD MAGAZINE

It wasn’t too long ago thatthe classroom of the future

was one that contained apersonal computer.

Things have come a longway in those twenty years

and the classroom of thefuture is nothing like the

classroom of the past. In our present, we’re

beginning to look at howthe technology available to

us can be used to betterfacilitate the interaction

between people, wherever they are.

That’s one of the aims of the partnershipbetween Cardiff School of Art & Design and theSamsung Art and Design Institute (SADI).

“SADI is in Seoul, South Korea. SamsungCorporation owns it, ostensibly as a means totrain designers but also to experiment withdesign. We have a very good relationship withthem in that we jointly deliver an MDes, which isvalidated with us,” explains Steve ThompsonDeputy Dean and Director of Teaching andLearning at CSAD. “Students can study part ofthe time here and then go back to South Korea,or our students can start here and then go toSouth Korea.”

Thompson is sitting with Gareth Loudon, who ishead of masters studies at the School. They lookvery relaxed as they tell me about the on-goingpartnership,

“We’ve completed two years so far. We startedwith four students in the first year of delivery.There are twelve who are finishing now andthen 16 who are coming this year. That’s a nicegrowth,” Loudon continues, “They focus onwhat’s called experience design, which cancover a range of disciplines: product design,graphic design and now, for the first time,fashion design.”

The SADI MDes is one year in length andalthough they have found that UK students arefar less likely to want to leave Cardiff to studyabroad, there have been a number of studentswho have spent time in the other hemisphere.

“In fact I had an e-mail from a student yesterdaywho I didn’t even know was in SADI,” Loudontells me laughing. “He’s not on the Masters - hejust finished the undergrad in Product Design.

He had just gone out there of his own accord.They were happy to accept him.”

I was intrigued to find out how a partnershipwith one of the world’s biggest companies cameabout - moreover, how it came about betweenSeoul and Cardiff.

“We’re not quite certain of how it happened. Ithink the impetus came from Gareth Barham, aPrincipal Lecturer here, who was roamingaround the Far East and China making contacts.He must have visited and it started from there,”Thompson explains. “Professor Richard Park,who heads up the team at SADI and is SADI’sProvost, visited us. We talked about how wemight work together and went from the initialdiscussions to the validation of the MDes withinthree months.”

Both Loudon and Thompson are also keen toemphasise that the School of Art & Design isalready engaged very deeply with research intocomputer embedded design. Obviously, this issomething that is very important to Samsungwhich has a revenue of $148 billion based on itswork in the electronics industry.

“People almost take Samsung for grantedbecause it’s running so well,” Thompsonremarks. “They’ve been in the press recentlyand it’s not particularly positive, but the mobilephone sector is only a tiny part of what they do!To be involved with a company of this calibre isa reflection on the quality of staff and researchthat we have here at CSAD.”

For Loudon, the important thing is how thedegree works out in practice.

“The degree is a Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityMaster of Design. SADI is a much respected

SADISamsung Art and Design Institute

CSAD Matters

pages 2 - 3


being human. Before you have the cognitiveexperience of thinking, 'What should I be doinghere?’ we are sensory, feeling people. That's the idea behind Reactickles - it reacts towhatever sensory input we have.”

The idea is simple and stripped back. There is ashape on a screen and the user interacts withthe shape by simply trying things out. There area number of different modes including Expand,Find, Orbit and Trail which when ‘played with’cause the shape on the screen to do a numberof visually stimulating responses but there areno instructions which might confuse or annoy anautistic child. That’s a very intentional way ofsaying to the child, ‘You can’t lose, becausethere’s no end goal.’

“I started designing these little games at home sothat I could learn the coding myself and teach itto my students the next day. I was also makingthem for my kids. I realised how empowering itwas for them to grasp something and then dosomething with it that gave a response. Soinstead of thinking of a computer as 'what task Ican do', we started thinking of it as graspableand giving people decisions of what to do with

it,” Keay-Bright explains. “As soon as you touchthe circle and it responds, you get a positivefeeling and you act on it again. That's a feedbackloop of you acting on something that mirrorswhat you are doing - it's a positive affirmationthat you exist and that's before you even decidewhat you're going to do.”

She shows me a video on her iPad whichdocuments the history of the project from thevery first inception which used a mouse and acomputer screen, through to the stage of testingusing interactive white boards, incorporating theuse of sound and also right up to the presentday of using a multi-touch interface on an iPad.

As well as developing technologically, herproject has now adapted to the demands ofdeveloping Reactickles as a product which isavailable worldwide as well as her secondproject Somantics - a similar product toReactickles but relying on the use of sound andmotion sensors more heavily than touch. Toaccommodate the workload, Keay-Bright workswith a core team who she is full of praise for:Joel Gethin Lewis, Pete Hellicar, Marek Berezawho have an incredibly impressive CV between

them all. Additionally, Somantics and Reacticklesare worked on by a much larger team ofconsultants and contributors.

The video that Keay-Bright shows medemonstrates the glee of a boy who uses hishead to manipulate the circle on the wall, a boywho enjoys bouncing on a space hopper whileshrieking gleefully and causing a cascade ofcolour on one side of the classroom whereSomantics is being projected.

The most remarkable thing? Some of thesechildren used to struggle to communicate at all.Now they’re having a whale of a time. Maybe theclaim about Keay-Bright being a 21st CenturyBraille doesn’t sound so outlandish after all.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Wendy Keay-Bright isexactly the kind of person

who will be remembered indecades’ time. It may seemlike a grand claim but she’s

akin to a 21st CenturyLouis Braille and should bepraised for her team’s workin helping autistic people to

communicate better. Dr Keay-Bright is a readerin inclusive design at the

Cardiff School of Art &Design. Working mainly

in the area of graphiccommunication she works

with a variety of media. Her thirty year career has

taken many forms includingwork in digital storytelling,

film making and, probably most

importantly, animation.

“I started my career in animation in Cardiffworking on the Superted series. That was abreeding ground for all sorts of creative activityin South Wales. I started in 1981/1982 and spentthree years there, becoming interested in filmproduction. I then started working freelance as aproducer and during that period of time Irevisited my earlier experience of animation: notdrawing teddy bears but making things out ofbits of paper and anything to avoid doing a lot ofwork really!” she explains. “I was very excitedby technology and the editing process - the ideaof making things out of nothing with simpleideas that could be amplified using technology. Ibegan working with children directly at thatpoint with S4C. They had a project called TheStoryboard Competition which invited schools toparticipate in a project whereby their ideas for astory would be made into an animated film byanimators.”

The Storyboard Competition was Keay-Bright’sfirst foray into the world of working directly withchildren to help them to express themselvesvisually. The project ran for three years and atone point the competition was in partnershipwith classic children’s television show Blue Peter.But it wasn’t until she began working on atelevision show for HTV that she began to reallyrealise how empowering visual communicationcould be for children with disabilities.

“We started filming these little flipbooks thechildren were making as animations. We werequite experimental in our way of getting from astory to a film that could be shown on a TVprogramme. That's where I cut my teeth on theidea of making a complex process very simple,”she explains. “I began working with childrenwith special needs, including the hearingimpaired and various other sorts of disabilities.

That was empowering for them because theycould describe their idea using means other thanspeech.”

After years of industry experience and now amother, Keay-Bright decided to take anacademic role and began teaching at CSAD. Shesays that at this point, the digital revolution wasjust getting into swing and forced her toembrace the change,

“While I was teaching, the digital revolution kickedin and I realised I was teaching students whohad a different concept of what film wastechnically. I had to get to grips with newtechnology very quickly, so that I could be onestep ahead of my students,” she says. “Duringthat period, I became really interested intechnology and computer programming. So Istarted developing interactive scenarios andbegan to introduce these things to students. Istarted designing activities for my studentswhere they could use a bit of code to make acircle behave in a particular way. The idea wasthat anything you could do with coding in thisway would be pretty much guaranteed success.That took the terror away and shaped what I donow.”

That’s when Reactickles began. Reactickles is asuite of interactive programs that encouragecommunication in autistic children and give thema positive affirmation when they use the ‘games.’

“Reactickles is a cause and effect digital activitythat is responsive to user input. There's adifference between that and perhaps acomputing game or a computing task. With thosethings, there's a motivation towards completingthe task,” she explains. “But with Reactickles, it'svery much responsive to the physical being or

Wendy Keay-BrightWendy Keay-Bright on helping children with autism

CSAD Academic

pages 8 - 9

Cardiff School of Art & Design 1413 Cardiff School of Art & Design

CSAD MAGAZINE

I’m based in BA Graphics but work with staffand students across the School. I am alsoresponsible for the CSAD website, and updatethe School’s Facebook and Twitter feeds alongwith other social media. My main area of interestis web technologies, but I’m also developing aninterest in motion graphics.

What’s a typical day at CSAD like for you?The morning usually starts by checking myemails. If I’m running a workshop, I will preparethe computer room. There are usuallyamendments and additions to be made to theCSAD website, or news items to be posted onFacebook and Twitter. Throughout the daystudents will book out and return equipment. If Ihave any spare time I try and develop my skills -at the moment I’m learning After Effects andHTML5. Often, current and ex-students and staffwill send me links to interesting course relatedthings on the web, and I’ll add them to the BAGraphics blog, and tweet them.

What is your favourite piece ofart/design/making/architecture?The opening credits to It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, MadWorld by Saul Bass. Or the scene at the end ofthe Woody Allen film Love and Death where hedances with Death to the music of Prokofiev. Or Prince’s career between 1980 and 1987.

Is there a book/film/album/artwork that hashad an impact on your life in some way?Billy Liar, the book and the film. The pathos ofBilly’s thwarted ambition had a powerful affecton me as a youth, feeling, as I did at the time,that the good life was out there somewhere -for Billy (as for me), that meant London. UnlikeBilly however, I didn’t miss the last train, and Ispent 7 amazing and awful years there.

Five records for a desert island?Joanna Newsom - YsElliott Smith - Either/OrSufjan Stevens - IllinoiseJoni Mitchell - HejiraBjork - Vespertine

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve everbeen given?Don’t get tipsy till the cheese course.

What’s the best thing about working for CSAD?The fresh insight from working with studentsconstantly rejuvenates my working life, keepingit interesting and exciting in a way which noother job has come close.

I am a TechnicianDemonstrator at CSAD. My

specialist area is machinewood working and joinery.

I studied at Cardiff Met andhave over 27 years

experience, 20 of whichhave been working in

CSAD. I am primarily basedin the woodworking studio

and hold demonstrationsand workshops for all wood

working equipment, andother demos such as woodturning, wood construction,

carving, adhesives, woodfinishes and many

other processes.

A typical day at CSAD: Days are not typical at CSAD. At the start of theacademic year I am mostly involved with firstyear BA Fine Art and Designer:Maker students,showing them the process of safe use andtechniques of the machinery. The rest of thetaught year is split up among all three years,contributing ideas and help with the studentstoward their coursework.

My favourite piece of architecture?It’s a Sussex barn built in the decades either sideof the turn of the 18th Century. What gives methe greatest pleasure is the interior oak frame.It’s an outstanding example of what some wouldcall vernacular architecture and I would say is aliving tribute to our ancestors’ mastery of theirenvironment. They may not have had a lot ofbooks in them but they could do marvellousthings with hand tools and green oak.

A film that has had an impact on my life.This is easy, Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks.It’s a movie about a very simple person, and itmade me realise that you don’t need to be‘somebody’ to do something. No matter who youare, you can make a difference as long as you doit right. You don’t need to be ‘known’ to be acatalyst for positive change! Ever since I foundout that I was going to be a dad, this movie andwhat I learned from it has been on my mind.This Robert Zemeckis masterpiece has become amajor part of my whole being, and lets me lookback through my life fondly, at special times andeverlasting friendships.

Five records for a desert island.Eric Clapton - Tears in heavenLionel Richie - Oh No Jon Secada - Just another dayEd Sheeran - Lego House Pink Floyd - Great Gig in the Sky

What’s the best bit of advice I’ve ever beengiven?After losing a few very special friends within thelast five or six years from illness, and to the warin Afghanistan, all in their forties or younger,you get to thinking, “Where am I in this queue ofdeparting people?” So after chatting to a veryclose psychiatrist friend of mine, free of chargemay I add, he came out with these pearls ofwisdom. He said “Nigel, live everyday like it’syour last, because one day you’ll be right”.

My all time heroine?Elsie May Edwards, my Nan. What can I sayabout this woman? I could write a book. Shewas amazing, intelligent, sprightly and so funny.I was forever laughing when she was around,she made me smile so much during myadolescent years, and later on in my life, I thinkthis is why I became a stand up comic for aboutfive years during the early nineties. She wasbursting with Second World War anecdotes,which I would intently listen to, hardly wantingto take a breath for fear of missing some aweinspiring piece of information or fact that woulddouble me over with laughter. She knew thatthis was a bad time for everybody, but refusedto let it get the better of her.

My all time villain?The wicked witch from The Wizard Of Oz. Thepoignant quote being, “I’m melting, I’m melting,what a world!”

What’s the best thing about working forCSAD?Nurturing the students work from the verybeginning is still such a refreshing challenge forme. The host of wild, wonderful and whackyideas, and thought processes that are discussedand constructed are what makes CSAD such anexciting place to work.

I have been a technician atCSAD for about 10 years,starting as a part-timevisiting tutor, then leavingto teach Graphic Design inFurther Education, beforereturning in 2006 when Iapplied for a full-timetechnician position.

NigelWilliamsWho are you?

Matt Leighfield

Who are you?

Meet our Technician Demonstrator and Administration Team Meet our Technician Demonstrator and Administration Team

pages 14 - 15


CSAD MAGAZINE

"It was the wood firing and salt glazing that Iwanted to learn about and she's an expert inthat as well as being a great mentor, tutor andsupporter," she continues. "We're a good teamnow! I'm able to take some of the responsibilitiesof running the pottery. I run my own eveningthrowing course, have time for my own pottingand make a range of pots for the pottery.”

While there is plenty of chance to learn thesecrets of salt glazing, Fleen has been learning a lot about the other aspects of running apottery too.

"As well as learning lots of practical skills in thepottery, I have also gained useful business skillsas well. Each day of the week, we have adifferent focus," she says. "Monday, I work on mypots. Tuesday is maintenance day; preparing clay,the kiln and wood. Wednesday is office day -website management, photography, publicityorganising courses etc. Thursday is making potsfor the pottery and Fridayis working on my pots again!"

Having recently returned from travelling aroundIndia learning about the firing techniques thatthey use in making pots there, Fleen is now backat work on her own pots.

"At the moment, I throw pots on the wheel, butalso I've been working on hand built pots. Theseare slab built pots," she explains of her currentpractice. "I roll out slabs of clay and I make papertemplates which I cut around and then fold upthe slabs into pots. I am enjoying exploring thisprocess.”

Fleen will carry on working on those functionalitems. Her interest in pots that you can useeveryday has already taken her far.

With an enthusiasm for pottery and glazing ascontagious as hers, it would be difficult to seeher not going far in the world of pottery.

Ceramicists and potters are always interesting to

speak to. Their love of clayand kiln is so infectious and

their enjoyment of theircraft is so evident.

Fleen Doran is no exception.

Having graduated from BA Ceramics at CardiffSchool of Art & Design in 2010, Fleen has comea long way since she first started becominginterested in ceramics as a teenager who hadunknowingly got a job one of Britain's top craft galleries.

"I worked at a little gallery called the CandoverGallery. I started working there without reallyknowing that it was a prestigious gallery. It wasa great introduction to some brilliant pots andpotters," she explains. "After college, I first wentto Staffordshire University to do a course in 3DDesign Crafts, but having decided that it wasclay that I wanted to work with full time I wentto Cardiff because it's the place to be forCeramics! That's when I started making pots andit's functional pots that really interest me: objectsyou can use everyday in the kitchen and home."

In 2010, when she graduated from the course atCSAD, Fleen received funding from theorganisation Adopt-A-Potter to go and be anapprentice at Bridge Pottery under the very wellrespected potter Micki Schloessingk.

"I had already planned to work with Micki for thesummer. But we decided to apply for funding fora year long apprenticeship. The idea of Adopt-A-Potter is that the funding goes to the student sothat they can focus on their apprenticeship fulltime,” Fleen explains.

Having already completed a work experience atBridge Pottery the year before she graduated,Fleen was keen to return to learn more fromSchloessingk about salt-glazing and wood-firing,the two methods in which she is expert as wellas learning how to run a pottery practice as abusiness.

"That's a more unusual way of firing pots. As well as the kiln being heated by wood, thewhole pottery is also heated by wood," Fleensays. "We do lots of chopping! The point of firingwith wood is that the firing is as much a part ofthe creative process as the making. The piecesare made individual through the process."

You would be forgiven for not understanding thenuances of using wood as opposed to gas orelectric. Unlike an electric kiln - which can beprogrammed and left to complete the process,firing with wood requires constant stoking andmonitoring. The kiln is responsive to the patternof stoking, it is affected even by weatherconditions and the type and size of wood usedon each stoke.

“It is very engaging way of firing my pots,” Fleenexplains. “We fire for around 30 hours. Towardsthe top temperature, we put salt in the kiln thatforms a vapour which is drawn through the kilnand glazes the pieces. With a standard kiln, youwould usually fire the pieces twice and glazethem in between the firing. With this process, the pots are only fired once and instead of usingglazes, I use slips (clays with oxides) to getdifferent colours, so it's really a combination ofthe salt, the wood ash and the slip that makesthe glaze unique."

Micki Schloessingk is a renown potter because ofher skill in salt glazing and wood firing methods.Her work has been exhibited all around theworld. Fleen feels very privileged to have been offered the opportunity to learn from her teacher.

Fleen Doran BA Ceramics 2007-10

CSAD Graduate

pages 20 - 21


Walkey’s enthusiasm for teaching people how todo things is something that she thinks she wouldlike to explore further.

“I’d really like to go into teaching. It’s strange tothink that but even when I was in my degree, Iwas having tutorials with people and seeing theroles that the MA students had. I learnt off themby mimicking them,” she explains. “I reallyenjoyed that and I thought that it was somethingthat I’d really love to do. That’s a way of mecarrying on my practice as well.”

For now, Walkey seems very content to continuelearning more about printmaking anddocumenting that learning process for the worldto see via the internet.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Florence Walkey is a printmaker.

She’s currently enrolledpart-time on the Master of

Fine Art (MFA).

“I’ve always been interested in art. My mum is anart teacher. In 2006, I was diagnosed withscoliosis and was ill from school for 2.5 years,”she tells me. “After operations, I did my GCSEsfrom home and hospital and my mum taught me art.”

After getting her A-levels and finishing hersecondary education, Walkey made the decisionto study “an arty or computer course” in Cardiff.She initially enrolled for an Interactive andMotion Design degree course at the University ofGlamorgan’s ATRiuM, but decided after her firstyear that she wanted to do something morefirmly rooted in artistic practice.

“I came to Cardiff School of Art & Design. So I’veonly been doing printmaking for two years. I managed to get a first class honours! I thought,‘I can’t stop now because I really love what I’mdoing.’ I was persuaded to do the MA here so Itook the chance.”

After the offer of a place on the MA, Florencefound some funding and began her work whichdraws on her experiences with Scoliosis and thevarious problems that it causes.

“Last year, my degree piece was called AThousand Pieces of Flesh and Bone which Ientered into the Bankside Gallery competitionand I won a prize for it, the Frank BrangwynMemorial Prize and I got £1000,” she explains.

“From that piece, in the MA I thought that I wouldexpand and I did 10,000 monoprints, made itinto a book and I’m working on a projectionpiece.”

Walkey’s dedication to producing monoprints isastounding. Finding it rather hard to wrap myhead around such a large number of prints andhow that would look on a gallery wall or even ina book, I asked her for her motivation behindchoosing that number.

“My relationship with Scoliosis found a physicalrelease through art. I did 1000 because I hadonly just joined printmaking and I wanted toperfect a technique. Secondly, all my peers hadtwo years experience more than I so I wanted todo something quite impressive,” she explains. “Igot really into the mass numbers and the10,000 came from that. I want the end productto have aesthetic gratification for people but it’smore to do with mass production really.”

Florence cites the work of Damien Hirst andAndy Warhol as influences in her printmakingpractice. This makes a lot of sense and reallyhelps you to appreciate what it is that motivatesin her work. She tells me that she will soonbegin experimenting with other kinds of printmaking.

“I plan on making a beginners guide toprintmaking this year with a book and filmedlessons which I’m going to put online. That waypeople can go online and learn in a reallysimple way,” she tells me. “There are a greatdeal of printmaking books out, there but theones that I’ve come across are very text heavy.As someone who is dyslexic, I find that I learnthrough pictures and things being shown to me.If I were making short films and documentingthings step by step, it would make it easier forpeople like me.”

FlorenceWalkey

CSAD Current Student

pages 26 - 27


that before my PhD but in the process I began tolearn why colour is such an enigma.”

In the process of her work, Moorhouse is keen toact on her instinctive use of colour and questionthe traditional rules of colour theory.

“One of the fascinating things I remember beingtold as a child is that ‘blue and green shouldnever be seen.’ When you think about it, that’srubbish! A lot of the landscape is blue and green- the sky next to the fields, for example,” shesays. “I feel so excited by it because there areendless colour combinations that look greattogether. There is no end to what I’m doing. Thecombinations are limitless and that’s fascinatingin itself. My life’s work will never really end.”

Asked what her future plans are, Moorhouse hasa lot in store. She was recently the recipient ofan Arts Council Wales grant that she used to goon two courses: large throwing and mouldmaking.

“The two are slightly different endeavours,” shesays. “The large throwing course was because Iwanted to make large one off pieces, reflectingthe scale of the landscapes that I am interestedin. The mould making course is to help me makelots of smaller bowls which could help thebusiness side of what I do and help me get moreout to galleries. I also want to develop mycolours in relation to seascapes. The coastlinesfrom around South Wales are beautiful.”

One thing is for certain, with her life’s workbeing firmly based and rooted in a wonderfullyinfectious fascination with colour and the worldaround her, Sara Moorhouse is unlikely to runout of things to explore and create.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Sara Moorhouse is a self-employed ceramicist

with a studio in Riverside and an unusual

relationship with colour. Her work is currently takingthe form of bowls which shethrows on the pottery wheeland then paints in bands of

bright colours.

Although she began her career as an illustrator,gaining an undergraduate degree fromWolverhampton, she decided that life as anillustrator was not for her,

“I could do the colour but I wasn’t too good atdrawing, really. I became a teacher for six years.As a teacher, a lot of the projects I developedwere about colour: the impressionists, pointillism,Clarice Cliff,” Moorhouse explains. “In 2003, Ileft teaching and decided to go back to ceramicsso that I could do an MA.”

In first six months of her Masters degree at theSchool of Art & Design, Moorhouse struggledfrom a problem that many people face atsometime or another in their life: she waslooking for a great idea, when all along, thething she was looking for stared her in the face.

“I was throwing on the wheel and making lots ofpots before cutting them up and reassemblingthem in order to make tall tower structures thatlooked like they were quite unbalanced andmight fall over. That was my concept then,” shesays. “My tutor cut to the chase and said theyweren’t that great but asked what I had beeninterested in at degree level. When I told himabout the colour, he suggested I go back to thewheel and use colour. I thought ‘Oh’ and had akind of revelatory moment and then spent thenext day painting bands onto a bowl.”

It was shortly after Moorhouse became aware ofthe idea of painting her bands onto bowls thatshe was throwing, her mother fell ill. This meantthat Sara spent a lot of time driving back andforth between Cardiff and Nottinghamshire.

“It was spring time and the landscape inNottinghamshire is quite rolling and gentle.That’s something I always liked because you can

see for miles but you also get a sense of themovement,” she continues to explain of theorigin of her work. “The development in thecrops was also very noticeable. The oil seedrape and the vivid yellow fields stick in my mind.Watching it completely change its appearanceover the weeks with the bright yellow across thearea making everything seem vast in scale.These things together seemed like a perfectcombination of events: I could change the bowlby the application of different colours.”

Moorhouse is keen to point out that usuallywhen colour and ceramics are mentioned orresearched together, it is to do with thechemicals needed to achieve a certain shade ofred or yellow. However, it was her unique takeon colour and ceramics that led her to undertakea PhD in the subject.

“Whenever I walk through a landscape or atownscape or wherever, I’m constantly pickingup on colour. Now I know that that’s what mylife’s work is going to be about, I understandthat habit and before I noticed it fully, it musthave been subconscious. I pick up on things likea cloud having a little tinge of purple in it. I seecolour all the time and it excites me. I want to dosomething with it: remember the combination ofcolours, put it into a sketchbook and try to use it.It never fails to excite me and it never stops,changing,” she tells me when I ask what it isspecifically that interests her about the topic.

“By that I mean that one colour can look differentinside and outside. I’m sitting looking at a benchin the garden which I painted blue and there’sthe same colour blue on the windowsill insidebut it looks completely different. Also, if I wereto put that blue next to a red, for example, theblue would look completely different. It’s all to dowith the physiology of the eye and I didn’t know

Sara Moorhouse

CSAD Graduate

pages 4 - 5


CSAD MAGAZINE

place they have never been that they want todevote several years of their life, at least, toimproving the design of its systems andproducts?

"Actually, my last trip was my first to Africa. My sister lives in Africa and I felt that I wasinterested in coming at design from anenvironment different to our own," she explains. "So it's not specifically Zambia, but more aboutgoing outside of a western culture into a verydifferent one. I could have gone to Asia, but thatdidn't really interest me. I wanted to gosomewhere with bigger needs."

Her first trip was an eye opener for her. Shewas amazed by how much she takes for grantedin her day to day life.

"It's amazing what we take for granted. Aftereven a week, you come back and think, 'Wow, Iforgot how nice my flat is,'" she says. "We don'treally think about it in terms of how different itis for Western people. Over there, people don'talways have electricity and water, many don'thave the basics. You just can't get anunderstanding of that without being there."

It's as she submits a proposal for a PhD that shewill remember the warm welcome that shereceived in Zambia this summer.

"That sounds nice, doesn't it?" she laughs as shecatches herself on a clichéed view of African

kindness. "But it really is great and I'm veryhappy to have helped. The students were verykeen and couldn't have been more grateful forspending their time to go out there."

It is probably a little premature to ask whereWatkins will be in five years time, but she isn'tafraid to answer,

"Ideally, I'll be in culturally relevant design. I wantto do something that matters and I think it'simportant to focus on that. I love design and Ilove how important it can be," she says. "Yourmobile phone is not just a mobile phone. You'vegot a cultural relationship with that product.

Design could be quiteselfish. When your trade isin making things easier or

more comfortable to useand you see problems so

readily, you could quiteeasily decide to make life

easier for yourself only andredesign products and

systems that you use daily.

For Clara Watkins, a product designer studyingfor a PhD at Cardiff School of Art & Design,that's not really a consideration that she takes.

"I studied product design and did the BSc here atCSAD. I worked really hard and in my third year Itook on a project which involved a researchcentre in Malawi," she says with telling patience,despite my confusing the time of our interviewand turning up late. "I was redesigningpackaging for Malaria treatment. This led me intothe area of cultural relevance in design and howthings have to be altered to suit differentenvironments. I found it really interesting and mylecturer suggested I should follow through andtake that to a higher level of education. I did thatand got involved with the charity Mothers of Africa."

Watkins has just returned from Zambia whereshe was working with Mothers of Africa toassess the problems that design might solve indaily life in the country.

"It was my first trip, so it was a bit of a scope-out. I was working with a team from Mothers ofAfrica who are doing a massive project at themoment," she explains of her trip. "They had ateam of six who went out. Two of those six areengineers from Cardiff University and they weresetting up the electricity for a local school wherethey don't have any. While they were doing that,I spent a long time with clinical anaesthetiststeaching in a school there. I also had a lot ofmeetings with different medical personnel andhad a lot of tours of hospitals. The idea was tosee their needs and identify projects that wecould do."

Mothers of Africa is a charity started in 2005 byProfessor Judith Hall, Head of Anaesthetics &

Intensive Care at Cardiff University which aimsto make motherhood in African countries safer,through addressing some of the risks associatedwith childbirth.

“They are working to improve the standards ofcare for the mothers, especially by working withthe midwives," Watkins elaborates. "There is a lotof work going on in Zambia at the moment onimproving the standard of education for motherswhich through trickle down will allow for abetter standard of education for the children.They're looking at how to promote health andthe understanding of contraceptives."

That's where Clara comes into the picture.Already well involved with culturally relevantdesign from her undergraduate work on Malariapackaging, she is now planning on continuingher work in this area through her PhD."I'm in the early stages," she tells. "But I will focuson how the design process can be used andevolved to cover different cultures andassociated political issues, as well as different environments."

What is interesting about Watkins' interest inAfrica is that she doesn't have the personal linksto any particular country that you usually findwhen speaking to humanitarians in Africa: shedidn't grow up there, she hadn't been therebefore. In fact, her only personal link to Africa isthat her sister lives on the continent. So what isit that makes a person interested enough in a

Clara Watkins

But at the same time, we forget that there areother countries and when you go to hospitals inAfrica, they've often been donated the samestuff as we use, but it's not always relevant.That's a big issue that needs to be addressed.They need stuff that they can actually use andthat is suitable for their surroundings."

With someone as caring and talented as ClaraWatkins designing the medical products that areused to help mothers in Africa, the risks are,even if slowly at first, sure to decrease.


pages 10 - 11


It was on a train journey between her home inthe Brecon Beacons and London, whereRapoport was working at the time, that she, bychance, sat next to Professor Terry Stevens, anexpert in City and Regional Development as wellas the Digital Economy.

“I told him what I was doing and he said he lovedthe idea and that he would be happy tointroduce me to Ken Poole who is in charge ofthe City Council’s resurgence and regenerationactivities,” she recalls. “Within ten weeks we hada deal with the City of Cardiff to partner with usfor 3 years. Terry also introduced me to GaynorKavanagh, Dean at Cardiff School of Art &Design. I met Gaynor for a coffee andextraordinarily kindly, she accompanied me onmy first meeting with Ken Poole about the Prize.That was an amazing leap of faith for her - tocome along with someone she had just met.”

The judging process of the Lumen Prize iscomplex but through its complexity,thoroughness is ensured.

“We judge the works in two ways. First, anInternational Selection Committee of academicsand art experts review 100 works each. Westructure this so each work submitted to theLumen Prize is seen by at least 5 committeemembers. The top 50 works - which make upthe Lumen Prize Exhibition - are chosen throughthis review are then submitted to our Jury Panelof 8 top artists, gallery owners and art critics.These panel members review all 50 of theworks and select the 20 works on our shortlistand our three top prize winners,” Rapoportexplains. “Also, all the submitted worksappeared in a Lumen Online Gallery where therewas an open vote for the People’s Choice Winner.

Next year, we will invite works into the LumenOnline Gallery for the People’s Choicecompetition.”

The judging panel of eight industry expertsincludes nationally-known artist Gordon Young;Ivor Davies, President of the Royal CambrianAcademy and Anne Farrer, programme directorat Sotheby’s Institute. In keeping with the digitalaspect of the Prize, none of the judges met inperson to discuss the shortlist. It was all doneonline. This is just one of the ideas that makes itso special.

“Digital art is uniquely enabling. It can be createdanywhere in the world without the need forcanvas, oils, studio or any of those other things.It can be done with an iPad or a computer orany digital device. The luminosity of our tabletscreates a great effect.”

Like any advance in a traditional industry, digitalart has its critics. Carla Rapoport’s response tothose who dispute the value of digital art is toask whether they believe a print made by apress to be art or why photographers likeAndreas Gursky can sell their photographs for millions.

“Where the critics of digital art misunderstand isthat they associate it with commercial artbecause dog food commercials are createddigitally,” she rebukes. “The person who createsthat imagery is not an artist because they areworking commercially. But when that persongoes home at night, what they create on theiriPad could well be fine art and shown inmuseums. Because an artist does dog foodcommercials in the day, does that mean theycan’t be an artist?”

Very thankful to both the City of Cardiff andCardiff School of Art & Design, Carla Rapoport isat the head of a very exciting art prize whichhas the potential to showcase the work oflesser-known artists from around the world andgive them a platform for praise.

The Lumen Prize Exhibition - a global tour tofive cities - was launched at Gallery 27, CorkStreet, London on January 22 and ran toJanurary 26 before moving to Riga, Latvia,Shanghai, Hong Kong, and returns to Cardiff inMarch 2013. The 50 artists chosen for theLumen Prize Exhibition come from 13 countriesand 43 cities around the world, includingPakistan, Israel, Iran, Taiwan, and China.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Last autumn saw theannouncement in Cardiff

of the winner of theinternational Lumen Prize

Exhibition for digitally-created fine art. Tommy

Ingberg of Sweden collectedfirst prize for his piece Tornwhich depicts a man ‘torn’

between the sky and theground by balloons and

a boulder.

The prize, now in its second year, was startedby business and financial journalist CarlaRapoport in an effort to draw the world’sattention to the amazing art being created by allthe new technology that has rained down onartists worldwide, from the ubiquitoussmartphone to tablets to the latest computersoftware.

The prize, now in its second year, was startedby business and financial journalist CarlaRapoport in an effort to draw the world’sattention to the amazing art being created by allthe new technology that has rained down onartists worldwide, from the ubiquitoussmartphone to tablets to the latest computersoftware.“I was really taken with all the changeshappening to so many industries because of theIT revolution and the impact techhology washaving on art being a huge fan of DavidHockney’s work. I’ve always had an interest inart as a member of various museums, attendingprivate views and always wanting to spend asmuch time as possible in front of great art. It’ssuch a pleasure to be in the presence of genius,”says Rapoport. “I thought it might make sense toset up a competition to provide a bar to whichartists who use this genre can reach. I see theLumen Prize Exhibition as a means of breakingthe log jam of acceptability of this genre by theestablished art world.”

Rapoport, the US-born CEO and Founder of theLumen Prize Exhibition, has long been a fan ofart. For her, fine art is unlike any other culturaldiscipline because of the proximity that it allowsthe viewer.

“It’s such a pleasure to be in the presence ofgenius. While music is fabulous and the theatre isfantastic, you can’t actually stand as close togenius as you can to visual art. You can’t get

that close to an actor or an orchestra,” sheexplains. “Attending a visual art exhibition isperhaps the most exciting cultural thing that youcan do. I realised that technology was a greatenabler for artists but I also recognised thatdigitally-created fine art had been shoved offinto a corner of the art world. I think this wasthe simple reason that no-one knew how to sell it.”

Rapoport admits that the response to the Prizehas been overwhelming. Between its launch inMay 2012 and now, 1000 people haveregistered on the Prize’s website. When thecontest closed its call for entries last summer,Lumen had received over 500 submissions ofwork from over 30 countries for its 2012competition.

“The Prize was set up to recognise the very bestin art created digitally and then take that artaround the world on a global tour. Digital art hasthe unique ability to be shared and enjoyed viathe web or on web-enabled devices, so it can beseen in places where traditional art is already,but also where it can’t be seen,” she says of theart prize which is unlike any other. “From thevery start, I wanted the Lumen Prize to engagewith a charity, so I took it to Peace Direct whichenables and support local peace builders inconflict zones. The charity loved the idea andhelped to give us a home so that we could getthe project off the ground by providing us withstrategy and logistical support. Then, thankssupport from the City of Cardiff, we now have aphysical home for the Prize.”

In a world that has been rendered increasinglyborderless through technology and networking,the story of how the Lumen ended up in thecapital of Wales instead of a major world city is afunny one.

Carla RapoportCEO of Lumen Prize

CSAD Matters

pages 16 - 17


and Indian philosophy/yoga) intersected on thatproject. That was quite fantastic for me. Now myPhD research is continuing the intersection ofthose two areas of interest.”

“Anatomical diagrams are based in informationillustration now, but if you look at PersianMedieval diagrams (for example), whendissection wasn't allowed, there's a big difference.The role of imagination comes into the picture.One of the challenges that scientists face is toexplain concepts that are beyond the everydayunderstanding. That's where my interest inworking as an illustrator with scientists on someof those projects came about,” she explains.

“My current research has taken a slightly differentdirection and I'm still looking at the idea of howimages and text can be used to communicatenotions that are paradoxically, beyond humanimagination, which can be ambiguous, intangibleand elusive. Now, I'm looking at this in terms ofphilosophy, rather than in terms of sciencespecifically.”

The PhD, Bhushan hopes, will be an ambitiousexamination of the use of image and text inauthorial illustration for communicating elusiveand ambiguous subject matter. This will bebased upon a text and image work re-examiningthe teachings of Buddha and Patañjali.

“Teaching is important. My project is all aboutcommunicating complex and intangible ideasthrough text and image,” she explains. “Whenyou teach you have to learn how tocommunicate things which are difficult to put into words. Teaching feeds back into the way I think about communication, both verbaland visual.”

Bhushan seems very pleased to be a part of theSchool and delighted to have found a middleroad between teaching, research andindependent practice.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Anna Bhushan is a lecturerin illustration at Cardiff

School of Art & Design - but she's also a meditation

teacher, freelance illustratorfor some of the world's bestpublishers and a researcher

in Indian philosophy.

“I come from a family of artists. Both my parentswere artists as well as my grandfather. I grewup drawing and painting and it was alwaysassumed that I would go to art school,” Bhushanexplains. “I rebelled and decided to studyComparative Religion at Manchester but it didn'tlast very long. I missed paint and being creativein that way. So I changed track and started anart foundation in Oxford.”

Following her time in Oxford, she completed anillustration degree in Brighton. It was when sheleft University at the end of that course that shegot her first taste of travelling and working as afreelancer.

“I had a couple of years out of education after mydegree, when I visited family in different parts ofthe world: India and Los Angeles,” she explains.

“I spent time in both of those places and joinedan agency. I was having my first experience atbeing an illustrator in the real world.”

After two years of moving about the world andworking wherever she could, Bhushan settleddown in London for a while to complete an MAin Communication Art and Design at the RoyalCollege of Art (RCA).

“Just as I was leaving the RCA, I got in touch withHeart Illustration Agency which was the agencyI'd always fantasised about being represented by.I was really fortunate that they took me on andwhen I left I got straight into freelancing. I waswith them for four years,” she recalls. “Theweek I graduated, I moved to New York and gotmarried. That was a dramatic time in my life. Iwas doing lots of editorial work and freelancework. I also started to show my work in galleriesin New York.”

Having moved back to London, as well asworking for publications like the New York Timesand The New Yorker Bhushan also added visitinglecturer to her CV. But, after balancing all ofthose different parts of her portfolio for a while,she decided it was time for a change.

“I decided that I'd been a visiting lecturer for quitea while: teaching at Westminster, St. Martins,Winchester, bits at Brighton and Camberwell andvarious other institutions,” she explains of herdecision to take a post at Cardiff School of Art &Design. “I was juggling lots of different projectsand hundreds of students. Managing that wasbecoming a bit unwieldy so I made acommitment to one single course. That's why Idecided to take this job! I love the feel of thecourse here.”

She likes doing what she does at the Schoolbecause it balances her interests in teaching,illustration and research into her specialist areawithin Indian philosophy.

“I practice and teach meditation. I've beenteaching that for a few years but have practicedsince a child. It has influenced and infused theself initiated work I do,” she says.

The illustrator has worked on an illustratedversion of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Childrenas well as the Bhagavad Gita (part of the Hinducanon) for the Folio Society, a publisher ofquality physical books.

“The Bhagavad Gita was much more key to myinterest in particular philosophical traditions andmeditation. It was one of the first times that Ihad been asked to produce a body of workdirectly related to those interests,” she explains.

“Those two sides of my interest (making images

AnnaBhushanIllustrating the unseen

CSAD Academic

pages 22 - 23


with; that will give audiences a more personalrelationship with an object. If there’s a thingthat’s sitting in a glass case, you can’t really doanything with it. But if there’s an object lookingyou in the eye, you don’t have a choice but toreact. I like looking at enchantment. I’m intoescapism. The real world’s great, but I would liketo create my own world at the same time.”

The idea of fantastical creatures being thoughtup to help people understand danger is bothfascinating and central to Alland’s work.

“My work is about looking at our relationshipwith animals and our need to create fantasycreatures to better understand the real world, toprotect us and to produce fear in order to stopus from doing things. There was an interestingexample from Japan where they had created theidea of a fish-monkey which drowns children,”

says Alland. “The idea was that they would useit to stop children from going out into deepwater by making them believe they would beattacked by the fish-monkey if they did.”

Alland’s interest in animals is of an origin thatshe cannot pinpoint. However, she says that shehas always found it interesting.

“The whole social side of animals is interesting.Everyone always thinks that animals are thesedumb things that are in the background,” sheexplains. “But if you look at a species and then abreed within that species, they have in-depthsocial protocols: how they communicate, interactand do things. If you look at dogs, one dog couldbe aggressive, while the other is passive. Justlike people.”

For now, it’s probably a bit early to ask whatplans Alland has for the future. However, what isclear is that it will involve some very excitingprojects that bring a fusion of technological andtraditional methods.

“My understanding of these technologies is verybasic. I’m hoping to learn to programme Arduinoso that I can get them to do what I want them to.I’ve not played around with electronics before,it’s all new,” she says. “I haven’t actuallyprogrammed anything yet as we haven’t gotthat far but I’ve been building bits, cut things thewrong size and had to do them again. It’s trialand error.”

“I want to carry on with building things. I’d love tobuild full size animal pieces,” she says excitedly.


CSAD MAGAZINE

“I’ve got a rabbit with hornsand a rabbit with wings,”

is not a sentence that youwould usually expect to

hear. But when it comes out of Samantha Alland’s

mouth, it seems incredibly plausible.

Alland is a first year Artist Designer:Makerstudent who, only a few months into her degreeat Cardiff School of Art & Design is makingwaves with her wonderful creations.

“I’ve always kind of done crafts and stuff. When Iwas little I was always making a mess! I starteda textile course at GCSE because I had donesewing when I was younger. Then I went on todo two years of textiles at college,” she explains.

“I did a foundation course and realised that I hadfallen in love with clay…not just clay, because Istill like working with other materials. My finalcollege project was a mixed media deersculpture. The skull was leather with glass eyesthat I made myself. The body was scrap metaland leather with porcelain legs and hooves outof wood.”

Originally from Portsmouth, but half-Welsh bynationality, Alland first decided that she wouldcome to Cardiff after enjoying her annual visitsto family at Christmas.

“I love it here,” she says. “I originally applied todo Fine Art and when I came to look at that, Iwas told I might be better suited for the ArtistDesigner: Maker course. I spoke to Ingrid Murphy,the Subject Leader, and she sorted that out forme. In Fine Art, it’s more developing concepts,than building objects. I prefer the building side asit leads me to the concept.”

And conceptual her work is. Samantha’s studiospace is completely plastered in models ofvarious animal’s heads, pictures of creaturesboth mythical and real, as well as circuit boardsand wires.

“We went to the museum and I saw a sculpture ofa Satyr: a Greek mythological creature that’s halfgoat, half man. I’m looking at the animal form

but also hybrid creatures,” Alland says, showingoff her various clay structures. “I’ve got thishorse’s head which I’m going to cover, I’m alsodoing taxidermy rabbit skin to attach to it andI’ve got a neck with a platform that’s attached toan Arduino board.”

Arduino is an open source (developed by acommunity of hobbyists/professionals, ratherthan a company) which combines programmingand electronic components in order to enablepeople to create interesting projects withouthaving to be trained in electronic engineering.By way of example, to illustrate what Arduinocan actually do, Alland explains her project.

“My plan is to put sensors in the horse’s head sothat when people walk near it, it can sense themand turn to look at them, like a real creature,”she explains. “I like things that you can interact

Samantha Alland


pages 28 - 29


"I want to develop skills that will work with lotsof different types of people all around the worldand make sure they can connect with theiraudience and help them get their ideas across,"Steffan explains.

"Essentially, I want to be a graphiccommunicator. I want to help peoplecommunicate rather than just 'knocking upbranding' and I’ll make an impact with the things I work on."

As we’re closing our interview, Cummins has alot to say in praise of the Cardiff School of Art & Design.

"Without Olwen, I wouldn't have been able to doa number of the things that I have. When I firststarted, I was really shy and not confident," hesays, completely sincere. "It took me a while toactually make some friends and I was in my ownlittle bubble. I'm kind of like that. When Ieventually did make friends, the wholeuniversity experience grew. I'm thankful for theSchool for helping me get skills and become a bitmore confident, giving as much as I can andgetting going. If I hadn't have come here, I'd probably not have done half the things I have done."


CSAD MAGAZINE

Despite only having just out completed his first year of a Graphic

Communication BAprogramme at Cardiff

School of Art and Designthis summer, Steffan

Cummins has been gaininga lot of attention for a

self-initiated brandingproject that he published

on his blog.

While watching the Olympics in London,Cummins became interested in the branding ofboth of the Games and London and decided touse some of his summer vacation to undertakean ambitious project to rebrand the City ofLondon, publishing the results on his personalblog. Cummins based his work on an oldcompetition brief from the Student Awardsorganised by Design and Art Direction (D&AD),an organisation representing creativesworldwide.

“My City of London project got quite a bit ofattention online, including from a writer atFastCo.Design (Fast Company Magazine's designblog)," he says. Although nothing came of thatexchange, Cummins was also contacted out ofthe blue by several other people including thedirector of a London-based branding studio whoassumed Cummins was already a graduateworking freelance.

“He asked what I was up to at the moment,”Cummins laughs. “I got really excited and toldhim everything I was up to. His response was'Drop me a line when you graduate.'"

Last summer, as well as going to the Olympicsand becoming internet famous, Steffan spentthree months at See What You Mean, a brandingagency in Cardiff run by Richard Webb, who hasworked for an impressive roster of clientsincluding BBC Worldwide and Chelsea FC.

"Richard also came across my work online andasked whether I'd be interested in going in tospeak to them. I went in and walked themthrough my work," Cummins recalls. "He seemedto be really interested in what I was doing andoffered me a placement between June and late September."

Cummins is keen to emphasise that he learnt somuch at the agency in just a few months ofworking on projects. "At See What You Mean,they operate on the idea that the best way tocommunicate is less in a robotic way and morein a human way," he explains. "Learning what Idid there has helped me develop those humanskills such as conversation and dialogue andrealising the potential of that rather, than justhaving facts thrown at you."

Now the semester has started again he’s busywith his classes but also helping out at theagency from time to time.

"I did a workshop with Richard at The School ofCommunication Arts 2.0 in London showingwhat they could develop by working in the SeeWhat You Mean way," he says. "He asked me tobe his assistant. I not only helped out with theworkshop but because I'd been there for threemonths, I could show the students how to thinklike that. It was quite nice."

But that's not the only place where he's beeninvited to help teach other people aboutbranding. Recently, the college from which hegraduated just under two years ago asked himback to give a workshop to AS Level students.

“The lecturer told me she hadn't seen thestudents that motivated in a while!” Cumminssays. “It was empowering for me too.”

Cummins is young to be attracting so muchattention for his work and still has two yearsremaining on the Graphic Communication BA atthe Llandaff Campus of Cardiff School of Art &Design under the enthusiastic leadership ofOlwen Moseley.

Steffan CumminsGraphic Communication (2010-Present)


pages 6 - 7


CSAD MAGAZINE

There is, for most peoplewho have attended a

university, a lecturer whohas been formative in theway that they think about

the world and the way thatthey conduct theirprofessional lives

afterwards. For me, thatlecturer was an east

German man who,ironically, looked like Karl

Marx. For many CardiffSchool of Art & Design

graduates, I expect, it willbe Jonathan Clarkson,

senior lecturer in Historyand Theory of Fine Art.

"It's a series of accidents," he says when I askhim how he got to be where he is today. "I waslate coming to education. I did a year atuniversity in Cardiff studying architecture and Iwas very bad at it; I failed the first year andthought that was it. I worked for a few yearsand then came back to do Art History and FilmStudies for my BA in Kent and then a PhD inEssex, where I was looking at art theory andpsychoanalysis."

This interest in psychoanalysis formed the basisfor Clarkson's later work.

"I was interested in the role that art plays in thepsychoanalytic theory of the mind. It seemed tobe interesting and one that no theorist agreedon," he explains. " All the analysts said that artwas something to do with ‘fantasy’, but they allmeant something by the word."

A very eloquent man, Clarkson says that hiswork is not as clear cut as it is for some of hiscontemporaries, who maybe, for example,Picasso scholars or experts in a particular artisticmovement.

"One of the things I'm interested in is therelationship between the viewer and theartwork. What demands does the artwork makeon the viewer, or what does the viewer expectof the artwork? Moreover, when you look atRenaissance paintings, you often wonderwhether one represented character can seeanother," he says. "Even though they are both inthe painting, one might be a mythical person andthe other historical. Or they might be separatedby the corner of the building and although youcan see them, it's not clear if they can see eachother or not."

By way of example, Clarkson pulls up on hislaptop a picture of a vase in the collections ofthe National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

"This is called the Jenkins Vase. It's a reallyinteresting object that is part Roman and part18th century. It has a narrative that runs aroundits middle. It's set before the Trojan war," heexplains while I listen, fascinated. "You've got theGreek figures Helen, Aphrodite, Eros and Parisand on the other side you have the three Muses.One of the things that interests me is thatbecause of the nature of carving a narrative on acircular surface, some things are closer to eachother than they could be on a flat surface. Helenand Paris can see one another on a flat surface,but as a curved surface, we're not shown howthey meet but the moment just before. Onemore step and they'll come into view of eachother and fall in love. This is a pregnant momentjust before history becomes inevitable."

Clarkson is writing an article about the JenkinsVase at the moment, he says. When it wentthrough its restoration process in the 18thCentury, the man who restored it created twoseparate illustrations of the story that isengraved on the middle of the vase. The firstshows the story as a horizontal narrative whereHelen and Paris have already met and fallen inlove. The second engraving shows an alternative,circular view, in which the two lovers have notyet met. Clarkson’s interest is in the twodifferent effects that this creates. His articlediscusses the idea that the different perspectiveshave a huge difference because of the loverseither meeting or not meeting.

Clarkson is perhaps best known for his work onConstable. In 2010, Phaidon Press published hisbook Constable much to the adoration ofreviewers with The Sunday Times and Telegraphlisting it in their art books of the year in 2010.

"When I look at Constable I ask similar questionsas I do of the Jenkins Vase: things about whereand when a thing is seen and the demands itmakes on a viewer," he says showing me apicture of Wivenhoe Park painted by Constable.

"When you go here, there isn't a single placewhere Constable could have seen everything hehas painted here. He has moved around the parkabout 50 yards and blended the viewpoints. Hewants something like the experience of a triparound the park. There's the daughter of thehouse in a little donkey cart and the idea is she'sgoing to make a trip round the park.”

Clarkson's love of the story behind the artefact isinfectious and makes you think again about allthe paintings you have simply brushed off asbeing shallow.

"That's the pleasure of doing it. If it didn't do thatI wouldn't be interested," he says as we close ourinterview. "For me it's the dynamics of therelationship between an artwork and an artist ora viewer that I like."

"This study came out of talking to students inthe museum. As an art student, you comeacross works of art that come from a cultureabout which you might know next to nothing,"he tells me. "As a group, we decided that thebest way to look at the vase was to ask thesame questions of it that we would ask of acontemporary art project. Once we did that itrevealed the two perspectives that I am writingmy article about."

It is interesting that Clarkson's work has recentlybeen influenced by a discussion which he hashad with his students. However, he says thishappens more often than just this once.

"About half of my seminars are in the museumand the type of discussion you get when face toface with the work is quite different from whenyou have to rely on images," he explains. "Artstudents are extremely good at responding tothe physical work of art and finding entry pointsthat may not be the ones that you expectcoming from a standard art history background."

JonathanClarkson

CSAD Academic

Image courtesy of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales


pages 12 - 13


“It's not so much the painting - whenever I seethem in the flesh I'm not really blown away bythem. His vision! I think he's seeing somethingthat you can't categorise. You can only say it'sBacon-esque,” he says when I asked him whyhe liked the painter so much. “I can only reallyappreciate something that someone has createdon their own back. Bacon wasn't really part of agroup - he hung around with numerous artistsbut he wanted to concentrate on his own thingand that's what he did. He goes into it withdifferent ways of thinking as well. It's not justabout a palette and paint. He'd scrape the paintoff, use sponges and his hands and I find thatquite inspirational.”

Creative people often find it hard to escape theshadow of their idols. It is hard for a painter to

not try and paint like a person they very muchadmire because they have spent such a longtime studying the minutiae of the paintings thatartist painted.

“I really enjoy abstract work but I'm not anabstract painter. I would like to be and so I guessI try to force it in somehow and incorporate that,”Ginsberg continues. “Every time I try and makean abstract picture, a figure comes out. I'mtoying with the two things.”

It’s even harder still to avoid being derivativewhen you have, from your earliest childhood,been surrounded by an artist's work and taughtto enjoy it. That's something that Ginsbergidentifies with.

“I was a massive fan of Norman Blackwell as achild. Earlier on I was looking through the houseat books. My father was an art teacher and Iremember seeing Bacon's work and finding itinteresting. All of these things around me,” herecalls. “I've been very lucky and very privileged.My father never taught me how to draw, but justhaving those things around me was veryinspirational. I noticed in my friends’ houses as achild, you'd never find an art book. I was lucky tohave that.”

It isn't hard not to see that a childhood of beingsurrounded by great art and ideas has paid offfor Ginsberg. He is accomplished and already hiswork looks like the work of someone who hasbeen painting for far longer than he has.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Meirion Ginsberg answers the phone

and his warm North Wales’accent greets me with a

strange familiarity.Ginsberg is in Chester and

is taking a break from hispainting to speak to me.

“I'm a full time artist and I paint for a living,” hesays proudly. “I'm living in Chester at themoment. I was living in Liverpool for the pastfew years.”

Born in 1985, Ginsberg says he has alwaysenjoyed painting and it's quite obvious withinminutes of the start of our conversation that hehas.

“I had to take a number of different part time jobsand factory jobs to fund my painting,” he tellsme. “It gave me time to improve as a painter.Then, The Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff sawand liked my work and have taken me on as oneof their gallery artists. That allowed me to go fulltime, as I was now selling work. I go there bypure grit and determination.”

After a foundation year at Coleg Menai, Ginsbergmade the move south to Cardiff where hestudied for a BA Fine Art at the School of Art &Design. After graduating from that course in2007, Ginsberg moved to Liverpool where hehas been working, until recently.

In between shifts at 'factory jobs', he has beenbusy exhibiting and now has an impressive CVof past exhibitions for someone as young asGinsberg. A solo show in Canary Wharf in 2008,then Caernarfon in the same year (followed byanother there in the same town in 2010) and afinal solo show in Cardiff in 2010. That's notincluding all of the group shows, of which he hasbeen a part (on average, one a year), since hiscareer started back in 2003.

He tells me that his next solo show will be inJanuary 2013, which will be in Oriel TegfrynGallery in Menai Bridge, Anglesey.

“They are mostly portraits and they're quite small.I'm planning on doing some larger pieces in thenext few months.”

Ginsberg is looking to move away fromproducing small canvases though. For thisforthcoming exhibition he plans to try a few newthings,

“It's more minimal and it's mostly a figure and aplain background,” he explains. “A lot of thework is more spontaneous now and it's a lot ofsketching. I didn't feel like I wanted to work inthe same way I did previously.”

Ginsberg's work is intriguing. On the one hand,the foreground of his canvases are usuallyfigurative portraits which are sometimeswonderful, sometimes discomforting, but alwaysfull of life and vibrancy. On the other hand, thebackground to his work is an abstracted worldof swirling colour and shape that contrastssharply with the detail of his characters.

“I don't see it personally as a particular style. I know what my influences are and I try toimitate them all the time. Eventually it becomesits own thing, just by doing it and learningthrough trial and error,” he says. “I'm continuallylooking for new inspiration. I think it willeventually become a thing of its own anyway.Every artist you look at, for instance Bacon, ifyou look at his early work, they've got aPicasso-esque quality to them, but eventuallythrough trial and error, he found his own style.It's just by doing it and seeing where it goes…”

Ginsberg freely admits to being heavilyinfluenced by Francis Bacon in particular.

Meirion Ginsberg

CSAD Graduate

pages 18 - 19


and it's good for the undergrads, because itchanges their mindset. When they see theirlecturers talking about their research withpassion, I think it rubs off on them too. That's areal bonus.”

The Research Seminar series was originallyinspired by the School staff meetings whereoccasionally, one member of staff would give ashort talk on their work.

“One of the professors, Rob Pepperell, gave a talk.He's a Professor of Fine Art and I'm in ProductDesign,” Loudon recalls. “I didn't really knowwhat Rob was doing and when he gave the talk,I thought it was very relevant to my work. Werealised that we needed to have more of thatshare. You can see that mix and it probably helpsto facilitate it as well.”

Despite the fact that there are some obviousthemes shared by the research of many of thestaff at the School, Loudon is unwilling to set atheme or dictate the topics of the seminars.

“For me, again talking selfishly, I enjoyed theseminars because I was getting exposed toareas I knew nothing about. I found them reallyenjoyable and because it was surprising, it was

more fun. If it was over one core theme, I wouldfind it a bit boring to be honest,” he says of thedecision. “My area is particularly on play andcreativity which is not limited to product designby any means. It's also true for a lot of the otherareas too. It's good to get that sharing going really.”

This year the Seminar Series takes on a moreimportant role than ever before because of the changes to the undergraduate degreeprogrammes.

“There's a more integrated structure there. In thecoming year and the second year, people haveoptions. So it's really important that people areaware of what is happening in the School,” hesays. “This is one vehicle they can use to findout what's going on. Even now, ifundergraduates attend the seminar series, they'll be able to use that as a way to informmodule choices for second year, when studentscan elect to work with one of the School’sResearch Principals. Traditionally, you were inyour area of product design or fine art and that'sall you ever saw.”

Loudon is very enthusiastic about the sharing ofknowledge between the members of staff, their

students and, most importantly perhaps, withthe members of the community.

“Research is the cornerstone of the School, to avery large extent. I might be biased but I think itis really important because it underpins thelearning and teaching,” he says. “The knowledgegets passed on to the students. It can betranslated into enterprise work and brings a lotto the School. We're communicating that andhopefully creating new opportunities. It's animportant element to what a school of art anddesign should be.”


CSAD MAGAZINE

One of the definingcharacteristics of Cardiff

School of Art & Design isits commitment to cross-disciplinary research into

all kinds of design and art.Another of the most

recognisable values of theSchool is its involvement in

the community and all ofthe ways that it relates to

the city at large.

Those two tenets come together perfectly forthe School's Research Seminar Series which willbegin this autumn.

Now a regular part of the School's calendar, theseminar series is a programme of in-formalevents designed and organised by Head ofMasters Studies, Dr Gareth Loudon.

“The idea behind it is to share with staff andstudent something of what's going on from aresearch perspective inside the School. We did itlast year and we got all the leading researchstaff to give talks on their research,” Loudonexplains. “The Series ran in Tommy's Bar everyweek in the evenings. We're going to do a similarstructure this year, only we're going to get morePhD students involved.”

Last year, not all of the research staff were ableto make the events for one reason or anotherbut Loudon says that those who couldn't make itlast year will be in Tommy's Bar this year inorder to keep everyone up to date on their research.

“The idea is to cover the full range of art anddesign research in the School and make surethat each subject area represents its work,”he says. “The idea is quite informal. They give a 45 minute talk and then a question and answersession. We do it in the bar to give it a relaxed feel.”

The idea of a seminar series is not a particularlynew one. Loudon says there are a number ofother organisations in Cardiff who do a series oftalks with a similar idea and there are also anumber of creative industries seminars, such asTEDxCardiff, which already happen in the city.

“It was selfishly motivated for me in part becauseI found it useful to find out what all the otherresearch staff were doing. It was something Iwas enjoying doing anyway. There's a formalmodule on the Masters courses called ResearchSeminars and so in a way, it's formal for theMasters students and because I'm head ofMasters that's my duty,” he continues. “But Ithink the idea was not to just keep it private, butto open it up to everybody and put an emphasison raising awareness. One of the key thingsabout research and creativity is getting ideasfrom different places. So getting thecollaboration and cross-discipline discussiongoing is important.”

As Loudon says, it can be quite difficult to makesure that everyone within the School knowswhat their colleagues are researching orworking on. It's even harder then for the publicto get a good perspective on the School'sresearch output.

“Everyone is welcome and that's why it's anevening event,” Loudon says. “There is a lot ofexciting work going on in the school and this isan opportunity for people to realise that this iscool stuff. I don't think this has been fullyrecognised up until now. It creates a nice buzz

ResearchSeminar Series

CSAD Matters

pages 24 - 25

pages 30 - 31

CSAD has in the order of1200 registered students

studying for degrees atundergraduate, masters and

research degree levels.Their ambition to live a life

enriched by their skills,knowledge and imagination,are not just unquestionable,they are entirely realisable.For some, this may involveenabling others to engage

with art and design,through careers in teaching,curatorship, media, or arts

management. For others,this may mean working as

artists and designers intheir own right, building a

freelance career withincredible nerve and steelycommitment. Some of ourgraduates, especially our

designers, gain employmentin established design

businesses, often in smallor medium sized companies.

Others take unexpected trajectories, workingwith the materials and ideas to build practicesthat can be anything from designing tree-houses, to working with charities (oftenoverseas) where their skills are especiallyrelevant. A number will work outside of thecreative industries entirely, as a means ofearning a living whilst their own special workdevelops to the point where it will find its niche.Notwithstanding where our graduates end up,few will never stop engaging their passion forart, design or making, in whatever form thattakes. It is this that defines them and makesthem whole.

CSAD has structured its undergraduateprogrammes to give our students a fightingchance of fulfilling their ambitions. In theirsecond year of study, students can elect to takea module on starting-up a business, undertake awork placement or voluntary work. In their thirdyear, instead of writing a dissertation, studentscan choose to write a start-up business plan,ready for enactment once they have graduated.These opportunities sit alongside not onlypersonal and professional planning, which is anintegral component of their studies throughouttheir three years, but also many opportunities tohear from successful graduates and leadingpractitioners.

CSAD has ambitious plans to further enable thecareer aspirations of our graduates. We areplanning an annual employability conference forour final year students. Our graduates will beable to elect to go on the CSAD Graduate BootCamp in the summer following graduation,further preparing them for self-employment aspractitioners. We hope to go even furtherthrough the inauguration of CSAD Graduate

Launch Pad, which will provide opportunities foreight of our graduates to incubate their creativeprojects within the School, in a special facility.Other initiatives include the development ofcommercial outlets within the city for the sale ofwork and for promoting commissioning, throughwhich are students will learn about such realitiesas price tolerance and effective marketing.

For some time now, significant figures in thesector, in particular Sir James Dyson andProfessor Sir Christopher Frayling, have beenstating the case for how much the UK and Worldeconomies need creative talent and the skillswhich the CSAD graduates hold in abundance.We couldn’t agree more.

One of the most stunning recommendations forthe quality of creative practice in the UK came inthe opening and closing ceremonies of theOlympic games in the summer of 2012. Simplyput, the people behind those events were artists,makers and designers, trained in UK’s art andperformance schools. In the UK, we have thelargest creative sector in the EU and, relative toGDP, perhaps one of the largest in the world.We got to that position through having aninfrastructure to foster this talent. But more thananything, we got to that position because wehave people with the guts to say that they wantto be artists, designers and makers, who refuseto settle for anything less.

Professor Gaynor Kavanagh DPhil MPhil FMADean, Cardiff School of Art & Design



CSAD MAGAZINE

It wasn’t too long ago thatthe classroom of the future

was one that contained apersonal computer.

Things have come a longway in those twenty years

and the classroom of thefuture is nothing like the

classroom of the past. In our present, we’re

beginning to look at howthe technology available to

us can be used to betterfacilitate the interaction

between people, wherever they are.

That’s one of the aims of the partnershipbetween Cardiff School of Art & Design and theSamsung Art and Design Institute (SADI).

“SADI is in Seoul, South Korea. SamsungCorporation owns it, ostensibly as a means totrain designers but also to experiment withdesign. We have a very good relationship withthem in that we jointly deliver an MDes, which isvalidated with us,” explains Steve ThompsonDeputy Dean and Director of Teaching andLearning at CSAD. “Students can study part ofthe time here and then go back to South Korea,or our students can start here and then go toSouth Korea.”

Thompson is sitting with Gareth Loudon, who ishead of masters studies at the School. They lookvery relaxed as they tell me about the on-goingpartnership,

“We’ve completed two years so far. We startedwith four students in the first year of delivery.There are twelve who are finishing now andthen 16 who are coming this year. That’s a nicegrowth,” Loudon continues, “They focus onwhat’s called experience design, which cancover a range of disciplines: product design,graphic design and now, for the first time,fashion design.”

The SADI MDes is one year in length andalthough they have found that UK students arefar less likely to want to leave Cardiff to studyabroad, there have been a number of studentswho have spent time in the other hemisphere.

“In fact I had an e-mail from a student yesterdaywho I didn’t even know was in SADI,” Loudontells me laughing. “He’s not on the Masters - hejust finished the undergrad in Product Design.

He had just gone out there of his own accord.They were happy to accept him.”

I was intrigued to find out how a partnershipwith one of the world’s biggest companies cameabout - moreover, how it came about betweenSeoul and Cardiff.

“We’re not quite certain of how it happened. Ithink the impetus came from Gareth Barham, aPrincipal Lecturer here, who was roamingaround the Far East and China making contacts.He must have visited and it started from there,”Thompson explains. “Professor Richard Park,who heads up the team at SADI and is SADI’sProvost, visited us. We talked about how wemight work together and went from the initialdiscussions to the validation of the MDes withinthree months.”

Both Loudon and Thompson are also keen toemphasise that the School of Art & Design isalready engaged very deeply with research intocomputer embedded design. Obviously, this issomething that is very important to Samsungwhich has a revenue of $148 billion based on itswork in the electronics industry.

“People almost take Samsung for grantedbecause it’s running so well,” Thompsonremarks. “They’ve been in the press recentlyand it’s not particularly positive, but the mobilephone sector is only a tiny part of what they do!To be involved with a company of this calibre isa reflection on the quality of staff and researchthat we have here at CSAD.”

For Loudon, the important thing is how thedegree works out in practice.

“The degree is a Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityMaster of Design. SADI is a much respected

SADISamsung Art and Design Institute

CSAD Matters


educational institution that doesn’t have degreeawarding powers, but has substantial researchand industrial credentials. Each year, studentson the MDes do three modules here in CSADfrom October through to the end of January,” he explains.

“Then from the February until the end of July,they do their remaining modules out in SADI.They’re practice based modules. It’s taught inKorean there and English here so we require therelevant English language qualifications.”

On the note of language, both staff and studentshave found that it is not the barrier that onemight think it ought to be. Students are expectedto have a good level of English or to take alanguage course to enable them to complete themodules in Cardiff straightforwardly.

“We found the relationship with them very easyand honest,” Thompson adds. “It helps that mostof the people who we are dealing with at SADI

have done their design degrees in eitherAustralia or America. The language isn’t abarrier at all.”

With the School of Art & Design moving to thenew Llandaff campus in 2014, the School isalready thinking of the future and how SADI fitsinto that.

“We’re keen to build the visibility of SADI in ournew building. We’re going to try to have aconstant link between the two studios. The timedifference is such, however, that it’s absolutelypole-to-pole: during working hours, they wouldbe looking at a dark studio and so would we,”Thompson explains. “We’re now looking atwhether we can inter-develop SADI/Samsungfacilities in the new CSAD building. This maymean an enhancement of the proposed Fab Lab,which is a fabrication workshop with links toother labs across the globe.”

Asked about how important the use oftechnology in the seminar room or class room is,Thompson and Loudon both agree that in thenext couple of years the School will be testing alot of ways to enable better interaction betweenstudents.

“We’re exploring with SADI ways that we canopen up the pool of teaching in both locationswithout building up a huge carbon footprintthrough students and staff flying back and forth,”Thompson says excitedly. “The feeling from bothsides is that we’re not quite there yet to enableit. We’ll be working with them to bring thepresence of one to the other more directly. In anideal world, I’d like to have some kind ofmirrored space, but I think we’re a little bit off itat the moment. That being said, we’re dealingwith a company who is at the cutting edge ofthat stuff.”

CSAD’s dean flew out to Seoul in November totake the discussions further.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Sara Moorhouse is a self-employed ceramicist

with a studio in Riverside and an unusual

relationship with colour. Her work is currently takingthe form of bowls which shethrows on the pottery wheeland then paints in bands of

bright colours.

Although she began her career as an illustrator,gaining an undergraduate degree fromWolverhampton, she decided that life as anillustrator was not for her,

“I could do the colour but I wasn’t too good atdrawing, really. I became a teacher for six years.As a teacher, a lot of the projects I developedwere about colour: the impressionists, pointillism,Clarice Cliff,” Moorhouse explains. “In 2003, Ileft teaching and decided to go back to ceramicsso that I could do an MA.”

In first six months of her Masters degree at theSchool of Art & Design, Moorhouse struggledfrom a problem that many people face atsometime or another in their life: she waslooking for a great idea, when all along, thething she was looking for stared her in the face.

“I was throwing on the wheel and making lots ofpots before cutting them up and reassemblingthem in order to make tall tower structures thatlooked like they were quite unbalanced andmight fall over. That was my concept then,” shesays. “My tutor cut to the chase and said theyweren’t that great but asked what I had beeninterested in at degree level. When I told himabout the colour, he suggested I go back to thewheel and use colour. I thought ‘Oh’ and had akind of revelatory moment and then spent thenext day painting bands onto a bowl.”

It was shortly after Moorhouse became aware ofthe idea of painting her bands onto bowls thatshe was throwing, her mother fell ill. This meantthat Sara spent a lot of time driving back andforth between Cardiff and Nottinghamshire.

“It was spring time and the landscape inNottinghamshire is quite rolling and gentle.That’s something I always liked because you can

see for miles but you also get a sense of themovement,” she continues to explain of theorigin of her work. “The development in thecrops was also very noticeable. The oil seedrape and the vivid yellow fields stick in my mind.Watching it completely change its appearanceover the weeks with the bright yellow across thearea making everything seem vast in scale.These things together seemed like a perfectcombination of events: I could change the bowlby the application of different colours.”

Moorhouse is keen to point out that usuallywhen colour and ceramics are mentioned orresearched together, it is to do with thechemicals needed to achieve a certain shade ofred or yellow. However, it was her unique takeon colour and ceramics that led her to undertakea PhD in the subject.

“Whenever I walk through a landscape or atownscape or wherever, I’m constantly pickingup on colour. Now I know that that’s what mylife’s work is going to be about, I understandthat habit and before I noticed it fully, it musthave been subconscious. I pick up on things likea cloud having a little tinge of purple in it. I seecolour all the time and it excites me. I want to dosomething with it: remember the combination ofcolours, put it into a sketchbook and try to use it.It never fails to excite me and it never stops,changing,” she tells me when I ask what it isspecifically that interests her about the topic.

“By that I mean that one colour can look differentinside and outside. I’m sitting looking at a benchin the garden which I painted blue and there’sthe same colour blue on the windowsill insidebut it looks completely different. Also, if I wereto put that blue next to a red, for example, theblue would look completely different. It’s all to dowith the physiology of the eye and I didn’t know

Sara Moorhouse

CSAD Graduate


that before my PhD but in the process I began tolearn why colour is such an enigma.”

In the process of her work, Moorhouse is keen toact on her instinctive use of colour and questionthe traditional rules of colour theory.

“One of the fascinating things I remember beingtold as a child is that ‘blue and green shouldnever be seen.’ When you think about it, that’srubbish! A lot of the landscape is blue and green- the sky next to the fields, for example,” shesays. “I feel so excited by it because there areendless colour combinations that look greattogether. There is no end to what I’m doing. Thecombinations are limitless and that’s fascinatingin itself. My life’s work will never really end.”

Asked what her future plans are, Moorhouse hasa lot in store. She was recently the recipient ofan Arts Council Wales grant that she used to goon two courses: large throwing and mouldmaking.

“The two are slightly different endeavours,” shesays. “The large throwing course was because Iwanted to make large one off pieces, reflectingthe scale of the landscapes that I am interestedin. The mould making course is to help me makelots of smaller bowls which could help thebusiness side of what I do and help me get moreout to galleries. I also want to develop mycolours in relation to seascapes. The coastlinesfrom around South Wales are beautiful.”

One thing is for certain, with her life’s workbeing firmly based and rooted in a wonderfullyinfectious fascination with colour and the worldaround her, Sara Moorhouse is unlikely to runout of things to explore and create.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Despite only having just out completed his first year of a Graphic

Communication BAprogramme at Cardiff

School of Art and Designthis summer, Steffan

Cummins has been gaininga lot of attention for a

self-initiated brandingproject that he published

on his blog.

While watching the Olympics in London,Cummins became interested in the branding ofboth of the Games and London and decided touse some of his summer vacation to undertakean ambitious project to rebrand the City ofLondon, publishing the results on his personalblog. Cummins based his work on an oldcompetition brief from the Student Awardsorganised by Design and Art Direction (D&AD),an organisation representing creativesworldwide.

“My City of London project got quite a bit ofattention online, including from a writer atFastCo.Design (Fast Company Magazine's designblog)," he says. Although nothing came of thatexchange, Cummins was also contacted out ofthe blue by several other people including thedirector of a London-based branding studio whoassumed Cummins was already a graduateworking freelance.

“He asked what I was up to at the moment,”Cummins laughs. “I got really excited and toldhim everything I was up to. His response was'Drop me a line when you graduate.'"

Last summer, as well as going to the Olympicsand becoming internet famous, Steffan spentthree months at See What You Mean, a brandingagency in Cardiff run by Richard Webb, who hasworked for an impressive roster of clientsincluding BBC Worldwide and Chelsea FC.

"Richard also came across my work online andasked whether I'd be interested in going in tospeak to them. I went in and walked themthrough my work," Cummins recalls. "He seemedto be really interested in what I was doing andoffered me a placement between June and late September."

Cummins is keen to emphasise that he learnt somuch at the agency in just a few months ofworking on projects. "At See What You Mean,they operate on the idea that the best way tocommunicate is less in a robotic way and morein a human way," he explains. "Learning what Idid there has helped me develop those humanskills such as conversation and dialogue andrealising the potential of that rather, than justhaving facts thrown at you."

Now the semester has started again he’s busywith his classes but also helping out at theagency from time to time.

"I did a workshop with Richard at The School ofCommunication Arts 2.0 in London showingwhat they could develop by working in the SeeWhat You Mean way," he says. "He asked me tobe his assistant. I not only helped out with theworkshop but because I'd been there for threemonths, I could show the students how to thinklike that. It was quite nice."

But that's not the only place where he's beeninvited to help teach other people aboutbranding. Recently, the college from which hegraduated just under two years ago asked himback to give a workshop to AS Level students.

“The lecturer told me she hadn't seen thestudents that motivated in a while!” Cumminssays. “It was empowering for me too.”

Cummins is young to be attracting so muchattention for his work and still has two yearsremaining on the Graphic Communication BA atthe Llandaff Campus of Cardiff School of Art &Design under the enthusiastic leadership ofOlwen Moseley.

Steffan CumminsGraphic Communication (2010-Present)



"I want to develop skills that will work with lotsof different types of people all around the worldand make sure they can connect with theiraudience and help them get their ideas across,"Steffan explains.

"Essentially, I want to be a graphiccommunicator. I want to help peoplecommunicate rather than just 'knocking upbranding' and I’ll make an impact with the things I work on."

As we’re closing our interview, Cummins has alot to say in praise of the Cardiff School of Art & Design.

"Without Olwen, I wouldn't have been able to doa number of the things that I have. When I firststarted, I was really shy and not confident," hesays, completely sincere. "It took me a while toactually make some friends and I was in my ownlittle bubble. I'm kind of like that. When Ieventually did make friends, the wholeuniversity experience grew. I'm thankful for theSchool for helping me get skills and become a bitmore confident, giving as much as I can andgetting going. If I hadn't have come here, I'd probably not have done half the things I have done."


CSAD MAGAZINE

Wendy Keay-Bright isexactly the kind of person

who will be remembered indecades’ time. It may seemlike a grand claim but she’s

akin to a 21st CenturyLouis Braille and should bepraised for her team’s workin helping autistic people to

communicate better. Dr Keay-Bright is a readerin inclusive design at the

Cardiff School of Art &Design. Working mainly

in the area of graphiccommunication she works

with a variety of media. Her thirty year career has

taken many forms includingwork in digital storytelling,

film making and, probably most

importantly, animation.

“I started my career in animation in Cardiffworking on the Superted series. That was abreeding ground for all sorts of creative activityin South Wales. I started in 1981/1982 and spentthree years there, becoming interested in filmproduction. I then started working freelance as aproducer and during that period of time Irevisited my earlier experience of animation: notdrawing teddy bears but making things out ofbits of paper and anything to avoid doing a lot ofwork really!” she explains. “I was very excitedby technology and the editing process - the ideaof making things out of nothing with simpleideas that could be amplified using technology. Ibegan working with children directly at thatpoint with S4C. They had a project called TheStoryboard Competition which invited schools toparticipate in a project whereby their ideas for astory would be made into an animated film byanimators.”

The Storyboard Competition was Keay-Bright’sfirst foray into the world of working directly withchildren to help them to express themselvesvisually. The project ran for three years and atone point the competition was in partnershipwith classic children’s television show Blue Peter.But it wasn’t until she began working on atelevision show for HTV that she began to reallyrealise how empowering visual communicationcould be for children with disabilities.

“We started filming these little flipbooks thechildren were making as animations. We werequite experimental in our way of getting from astory to a film that could be shown on a TVprogramme. That's where I cut my teeth on theidea of making a complex process very simple,”she explains. “I began working with childrenwith special needs, including the hearingimpaired and various other sorts of disabilities.

That was empowering for them because theycould describe their idea using means other thanspeech.”

After years of industry experience and now amother, Keay-Bright decided to take anacademic role and began teaching at CSAD. Shesays that at this point, the digital revolution wasjust getting into swing and forced her toembrace the change,

“While I was teaching, the digital revolution kickedin and I realised I was teaching students whohad a different concept of what film wastechnically. I had to get to grips with newtechnology very quickly, so that I could be onestep ahead of my students,” she says. “Duringthat period, I became really interested intechnology and computer programming. So Istarted developing interactive scenarios andbegan to introduce these things to students. Istarted designing activities for my studentswhere they could use a bit of code to make acircle behave in a particular way. The idea wasthat anything you could do with coding in thisway would be pretty much guaranteed success.That took the terror away and shaped what I donow.”

That’s when Reactickles began. Reactickles is asuite of interactive programs that encouragecommunication in autistic children and give thema positive affirmation when they use the ‘games.’

“Reactickles is a cause and effect digital activitythat is responsive to user input. There's adifference between that and perhaps acomputing game or a computing task. With thosethings, there's a motivation towards completingthe task,” she explains. “But with Reactickles, it'svery much responsive to the physical being or

Wendy Keay-BrightWendy Keay-Bright on helping children with autism

CSAD Academic


being human. Before you have the cognitiveexperience of thinking, 'What should I be doinghere?’ we are sensory, feeling people. That's the idea behind Reactickles - it reacts towhatever sensory input we have.”

The idea is simple and stripped back. There is ashape on a screen and the user interacts withthe shape by simply trying things out. There area number of different modes including Expand,Find, Orbit and Trail which when ‘played with’cause the shape on the screen to do a numberof visually stimulating responses but there areno instructions which might confuse or annoy anautistic child. That’s a very intentional way ofsaying to the child, ‘You can’t lose, becausethere’s no end goal.’

“I started designing these little games at home sothat I could learn the coding myself and teach itto my students the next day. I was also makingthem for my kids. I realised how empowering itwas for them to grasp something and then dosomething with it that gave a response. Soinstead of thinking of a computer as 'what task Ican do', we started thinking of it as graspableand giving people decisions of what to do with

it,” Keay-Bright explains. “As soon as you touchthe circle and it responds, you get a positivefeeling and you act on it again. That's a feedbackloop of you acting on something that mirrorswhat you are doing - it's a positive affirmationthat you exist and that's before you even decidewhat you're going to do.”

She shows me a video on her iPad whichdocuments the history of the project from thevery first inception which used a mouse and acomputer screen, through to the stage of testingusing interactive white boards, incorporating theuse of sound and also right up to the presentday of using a multi-touch interface on an iPad.

As well as developing technologically, herproject has now adapted to the demands ofdeveloping Reactickles as a product which isavailable worldwide as well as her secondproject Somantics - a similar product toReactickles but relying on the use of sound andmotion sensors more heavily than touch. Toaccommodate the workload, Keay-Bright workswith a core team who she is full of praise for:Joel Gethin Lewis, Pete Hellicar, Marek Berezawho have an incredibly impressive CV between

them all. Additionally, Somantics and Reacticklesare worked on by a much larger team ofconsultants and contributors.

The video that Keay-Bright shows medemonstrates the glee of a boy who uses hishead to manipulate the circle on the wall, a boywho enjoys bouncing on a space hopper whileshrieking gleefully and causing a cascade ofcolour on one side of the classroom whereSomantics is being projected.

The most remarkable thing? Some of thesechildren used to struggle to communicate at all.Now they’re having a whale of a time. Maybe theclaim about Keay-Bright being a 21st CenturyBraille doesn’t sound so outlandish after all.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Design could be quiteselfish. When your trade isin making things easier or

more comfortable to useand you see problems so

readily, you could quiteeasily decide to make life

easier for yourself only andredesign products and

systems that you use daily.

For Clara Watkins, a product designer studyingfor a PhD at Cardiff School of Art & Design,that's not really a consideration that she takes.

“I studied product design and did the BSc here atCSAD. I worked really hard and in my third year Itook on a project which involved a researchcentre in Malawi,” she says with telling patience,despite my confusing the time of our interviewand turning up late. “I was redesigningpackaging for Malaria treatment. This led me intothe area of cultural relevance in design and howthings have to be altered to suit differentenvironments. I found it really interesting and mylecturer suggested I should follow through andtake that to a higher level of education. I did thatand got involved with the charity Mothers of Africa.”

Watkins has just returned from Zambia whereshe was working with Mothers of Africa toassess the problems that design might solve indaily life in the country.

“It was my first trip, so it was a bit of a scope-out.I was working with a team from Mothers ofAfrica who are doing a massive project at themoment,” she explains of her trip. “They had ateam of six who went out. Two of those six areengineers from Cardiff University and they weresetting up the electricity for a local school wherethey don't have any. While they were doing that,I spent a long time with clinical anaesthetiststeaching in a school there. I also had a lot ofmeetings with different medical personnel andhad a lot of tours of hospitals. The idea was tosee their needs and identify projects that wecould do.”

Mothers of Africa is a charity started in 2005 byProfessor Judith Hall, Head of Anaesthetics &

Intensive Care at Cardiff University which aimsto make motherhood in African countries safer,through addressing some of the risks associatedwith childbirth.

“They are working to improve the standards ofcare for the mothers, especially by working withthe midwives,” Watkins elaborates. “There is alot of work going on in Zambia at the momenton improving the standard of education formothers which through trickle down will allowfor a better standard of education for thechildren. They're looking at how to promotehealth and the understanding of contraceptives.”

That's where Clara comes into the picture.Already well involved with culturally relevantdesign from her undergraduate work on Malariapackaging, she is now planning on continuingher work in this area through her PhD.

“I'm in the early stages,” she tells. “But I will focuson how the design process can be used andevolved to cover different cultures andassociated political issues, as well as different environments.”

What is interesting about Watkins' interest inAfrica is that she doesn't have the personal linksto any particular country that you usually findwhen speaking to humanitarians in Africa: shedidn't grow up there, she hadn't been therebefore. In fact, her only personal link to Africa isthat her sister lives on the continent. So what isit that makes a person interested enough in a

Clara Watkins



place they have never been that they want todevote several years of their life, at least, toimproving the design of its systems andproducts?

“Actually, my last trip was my first to Africa. My sister lives in Africa and I felt that I wasinterested in coming at design from anenvironment different to our own,” she explains.

“So it's not specifically Zambia, but more aboutgoing outside of a western culture into a verydifferent one. I could have gone to Asia, but thatdidn't really interest me. I wanted to gosomewhere with bigger needs.”

Her first trip was an eye opener for her. Shewas amazed by how much she takes for grantedin her day to day life.

“It's amazing what we take for granted. Aftereven a week, you come back and think, ‘Wow, Iforgot how nice my flat is,’” she says. “We don'treally think about it in terms of how different itis for Western people. Over there, people don'talways have electricity and water, many don'thave the basics. You just can't get anunderstanding of that without being there.”

It's as she submits a proposal for a PhD that shewill remember the warm welcome that shereceived in Zambia this summer.

“That sounds nice, doesn't it?” she laughs as shecatches herself on a clichéed view of African

kindness. “But it really is great and I'm veryhappy to have helped. The students were verykeen and couldn't have been more grateful forspending their time to go out there.”

It is probably a little premature to ask whereWatkins will be in five years time, but she isn'tafraid to answer,

“Ideally, I'll be in culturally relevant design. I wantto do something that matters and I think it'simportant to focus on that. I love design and Ilove how important it can be,” she says. “Yourmobile phone is not just a mobile phone. You'vegot a cultural relationship with that product.

But at the same time, we forget that there areother countries and when you go to hospitals inAfrica, they've often been donated the samestuff as we use, but it's not always relevant.That's a big issue that needs to be addressed.They need stuff that they can actually use andthat is suitable for their surroundings.”

With someone as caring and talented as ClaraWatkins designing the medical products that areused to help mothers in Africa, the risks are,even if slowly at first, sure to decrease.


CSAD MAGAZINE

There is, for most peoplewho have attended a

university, a lecturer whohas been formative in theway that they think about

the world and the way thatthey conduct theirprofessional lives

afterwards. For me, thatlecturer was an east

German man who,ironically, looked like Karl

Marx. For many CardiffSchool of Art & Design

graduates, I expect, it willbe Jonathan Clarkson,

senior lecturer in Historyand Theory of Fine Art.

“It's a series of accidents,” he says when I askhim how he got to be where he is today. “I waslate coming to education. I did a year atuniversity in Cardiff studying architecture and Iwas very bad at it; I failed the first year andthought that was it. I worked for a few yearsand then came back to do Art History and FilmStudies for my BA in Kent and then a PhD inEssex, where I was looking at art theory andpsychoanalysis.”

This interest in psychoanalysis formed the basisfor Clarkson's later work.

“I was interested in the role that art plays in thepsychoanalytic theory of the mind. It seemed tobe interesting and one that no theorist agreedon,” he explains. “All the analysts said that artwas something to do with ‘fantasy’, but they allmeant something by the word.”

A very eloquent man, Clarkson says that hiswork is not as clear cut as it is for some of hiscontemporaries, who maybe, for example,Picasso scholars or experts in a particular artisticmovement.

“One of the things I'm interested in is therelationship between the viewer and theartwork. What demands does the artwork makeon the viewer, or what does the viewer expectof the artwork? Moreover, when you look atRenaissance paintings, you often wonderwhether one represented character can seeanother,” he says. “Even though they are both inthe painting, one might be a mythical person andthe other historical. Or they might be separatedby the corner of the building and although youcan see them, it's not clear if they can see eachother or not.”

By way of example, Clarkson pulls up on hislaptop a picture of a vase in the collections ofthe National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

“This is called the Jenkins Vase. It's a reallyinteresting object that is part Roman and part18th century. It has a narrative that runs aroundits middle. It's set before the Trojan war,” heexplains while I listen, fascinated. “You've got theGreek figures Helen, Aphrodite, Eros and Parisand on the other side you have the three Muses.One of the things that interests me is thatbecause of the nature of carving a narrative on acircular surface, some things are closer to eachother than they could be on a flat surface. Helenand Paris can see one another on a flat surface,but as a curved surface, we're not shown howthey meet but the moment just before. Onemore step and they'll come into view of eachother and fall in love. This is a pregnant momentjust before history becomes inevitable.”

Clarkson is writing an article about the JenkinsVase at the moment, he says. When it wentthrough its restoration process in the 18thCentury, the man who restored it created twoseparate illustrations of the story that isengraved on the middle of the vase. The firstshows the story as a horizontal narrative whereHelen and Paris have already met and fallen inlove. The second engraving shows an alternative,circular view, in which the two lovers have notyet met. Clarkson’s interest is in the twodifferent effects that this creates. His articlediscusses the idea that the different perspectiveshave a huge difference because of the loverseither meeting or not meeting.

JonathanClarkson

CSAD Academic


Clarkson is perhaps best known for his work onConstable. In 2010, Phaidon Press published hisbook Constable much to the adoration ofreviewers with The Sunday Times and Telegraphlisting it in their art books of the year in 2010.

“When I look at Constable I ask similar questionsas I do of the Jenkins Vase: things about whereand when a thing is seen and the demands itmakes on a viewer,” he says showing me apicture of Wivenhoe Park painted by Constable.

“When you go here, there isn't a single placewhere Constable could have seen everything hehas painted here. He has moved around the parkabout 50 yards and blended the viewpoints. He wants something like the experience of a triparound the park. There's the daughter of thehouse in a little donkey cart and the idea is she'sgoing to make a trip round the park.”

Clarkson's love of the story behind the artefact isinfectious and makes you think again about allthe paintings you have simply brushed off asbeing shallow.

“That's the pleasure of doing it. If it didn't do that Iwouldn't be interested,” he says as we close ourinterview. “For me it's the dynamics of therelationship between an artwork and an artist ora viewer that I like.”

“This study came out of talking to students in themuseum. As an art student, you come acrossworks of art that come from a culture aboutwhich you might know next to nothing,” he tellsme. “As a group, we decided that the best wayto look at the vase was to ask the samequestions of it that we would ask of acontemporary art project. Once we did that itrevealed the two perspectives that I am writingmy article about.”

It is interesting that Clarkson's work has recentlybeen influenced by a discussion which he hashad with his students. However, he says thishappens more often than just this once.

“About half of my seminars are in the museumand the type of discussion you get when face toface with the work is quite different from whenyou have to rely on images,” he explains. “Artstudents are extremely good at responding tothe physical work of art and finding entry pointsthat may not be the ones that you expectcoming from a standard art history background.”




CSAD MAGAZINE

I am a TechnicianDemonstrator at CSAD. My

specialist area is machinewood working and joinery.

I studied at Cardiff Met andhave over 27 years

experience, 20 of whichhave been working in

CSAD. I am primarily basedin the woodworking studio

and hold demonstrationsand workshops for all wood

working equipment, andother demos such as woodturning, wood construction,

carving, adhesives, woodfinishes and many

other processes.

A typical day at CSAD: Days are not typical at CSAD. At the start of theacademic year I am mostly involved with firstyear BA Fine Art and Designer: Maker students,showing them the process of safe use andtechniques of the machinery. The rest of thetaught year is split up among all three years,contributing ideas and help with the studentstoward their coursework.

My favourite piece of architecture?It’s a Sussex barn built in the decades either sideof the turn of the 18th Century. What gives methe greatest pleasure is the interior oak frame.It’s an outstanding example of what some wouldcall vernacular architecture and I would say is aliving tribute to our ancestors’ mastery of theirenvironment. They may not have had a lot ofbooks in them but they could do marvellousthings with hand tools and green oak.

A film that has had an impact on my life.This is easy, Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks.It’s a movie about a very simple person, and itmade me realise that you don’t need to be‘somebody’ to do something. No matter who youare, you can make a difference as long as you doit right. You don’t need to be ‘known’ to be acatalyst for positive change! Ever since I foundout that I was going to be a dad, this movie andwhat I learned from it has been on my mind.This Robert Zemeckis masterpiece has become amajor part of my whole being, and lets me lookback through my life fondly, at special times andeverlasting friendships.

Five records for a desert island.Eric Clapton - Tears in heavenLionel Richie - Oh No Jon Secada - Just another dayEd Sheeran - Lego House Pink Floyd - Great Gig in the Sky

What’s the best bit of advice I’ve ever been given?After losing a few very special friends within thelast five or six years from illness, and to the warin Afghanistan, all in their forties or younger,you get to thinking, “Where am I in this queue ofdeparting people?” So after chatting to a veryclose psychiatrist friend of mine, free of chargemay I add, he came out with these pearls ofwisdom. He said “Nigel, live everyday like it’syour last, because one day you’ll be right”.

My all time heroine?Elsie May Edwards, my Nan. What can I sayabout this woman? I could write a book. Shewas amazing, intelligent, sprightly and so funny.I was forever laughing when she was around,she made me smile so much during myadolescent years, and later on in my life, I thinkthis is why I became a stand up comic for aboutfive years during the early nineties. She wasbursting with Second World War anecdotes,which I would intently listen to, hardly wantingto take a breath for fear of missing some aweinspiring piece of information or fact that woulddouble me over with laughter. She knew thatthis was a bad time for everybody, but refusedto let it get the better of her.

My all time villain?The wicked witch from The Wizard Of Oz. Thepoignant quote being, “I’m melting, I’m melting,what a world!”

What’s the best thing about working forCSAD?Nurturing the students work from the verybeginning is still such a refreshing challenge forme. The host of wild, wonderful and whackyideas, and thought processes that are discussedand constructed are what makes CSAD such anexciting place to work.

NigelWilliamsWho are you?

Meet our Technician Demonstrator and Administration Team


I’m based in BA Graphics but work with staffand students across the School. I am alsoresponsible for the CSAD website, and updatethe School’s Facebook and Twitter feeds alongwith other social media. My main area of interestis web technologies, but I’m also developing aninterest in motion graphics.

What’s a typical day at CSAD like for you?The morning usually starts by checking myemails. If I’m running a workshop, I will preparethe computer room. There are usuallyamendments and additions to be made to theCSAD website, or news items to be posted onFacebook and Twitter. Throughout the daystudents will book out and return equipment. If Ihave any spare time I try and develop my skills -at the moment I’m learning After Effects andHTML5. Often, current and ex-students and staffwill send me links to interesting course relatedthings on the web, and I’ll add them to the BAGraphics blog, and tweet them.

What is your favourite piece ofart/design/making/architecture?The opening credits to It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, MadWorld by Saul Bass. Or the scene at the end ofthe Woody Allen film Love and Death where hedances with Death to the music of Prokofiev. Or Prince’s career between 1980 and 1987.

Is there a book/film/album/artwork that hashad an impact on your life in some way?Billy Liar, the book and the film. The pathos ofBilly’s thwarted ambition had a powerful affecton me as a youth, feeling, as I did at the time,that the good life was out there somewhere -for Billy (as for me), that meant London. UnlikeBilly however, I didn’t miss the last train, and Ispent 7 amazing and awful years there.

Five records for a desert island?Joanna Newsom - YsElliott Smith - Either/OrSufjan Stevens - IllinoiseJoni Mitchell - HejiraBjork - Vespertine

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve everbeen given?Don’t get tipsy till the cheese course.

What’s the best thing about working for CSAD?The fresh insight from working with studentsconstantly rejuvenates my working life, keepingit interesting and exciting in a way which noother job has come close.

I have been a technician atCSAD for about 10 years,starting as a part-timevisiting tutor, then leavingto teach Graphic Design inFurther Education, beforereturning in 2006 when Iapplied for a full-timetechnician position.

Matt Leighfield

Who are you?



CSAD MAGAZINE

Last autumn saw theannouncement in Cardiff

of the winner of theinternational Lumen Prize

Exhibition for digitally-created fine art. Tommy

Ingberg of Sweden collectedfirst prize for his piece Tornwhich depicts a man ‘torn’

between the sky and theground by balloons and

a boulder.

The prize, now in its second year, was startedby business and financial journalist CarlaRapoport in an effort to draw the world’sattention to the amazing art being created by allthe new technology that has rained down onartists worldwide, from the ubiquitoussmartphone to tablets to the latest computersoftware.

The prize, now in its second year, was startedby business and financial journalist CarlaRapoport in an effort to draw the world’sattention to the amazing art being created by allthe new technology that has rained down onartists worldwide, from the ubiquitoussmartphone to tablets to the latest computersoftware.“I was really taken with all the changeshappening to so many industries because of theIT revolution and the impact techhology washaving on art being a huge fan of DavidHockney’s work. I’ve always had an interest inart as a member of various museums, attendingprivate views and always wanting to spend asmuch time as possible in front of great art. It’ssuch a pleasure to be in the presence of genius,”says Rapoport. “I thought it might make sense toset up a competition to provide a bar to whichartists who use this genre can reach. I see theLumen Prize Exhibition as a means of breakingthe log jam of acceptability of this genre by theestablished art world.”

Rapoport, the US-born CEO and Founder of theLumen Prize Exhibition, has long been a fan ofart. For her, fine art is unlike any other culturaldiscipline because of the proximity that it allowsthe viewer.

“It’s such a pleasure to be in the presence ofgenius. While music is fabulous and the theatre isfantastic, you can’t actually stand as close togenius as you can to visual art. You can’t get

that close to an actor or an orchestra,” sheexplains. “Attending a visual art exhibition isperhaps the most exciting cultural thing that youcan do. I realised that technology was a greatenabler for artists but I also recognised thatdigitally-created fine art had been shoved offinto a corner of the art world. I think this wasthe simple reason that no-one knew how to sell it.”

Rapoport admits that the response to the Prizehas been overwhelming. Between its launch inMay 2012 and now, 1000 people haveregistered on the Prize’s website. When thecontest closed its call for entries last summer,Lumen had received over 500 submissions ofwork from over 30 countries for its 2012competition.

“The Prize was set up to recognise the very bestin art created digitally and then take that artaround the world on a global tour. Digital art hasthe unique ability to be shared and enjoyed viathe web or on web-enabled devices, so it can beseen in places where traditional art is already,but also where it can’t be seen,” she says of theart prize which is unlike any other. “From thevery start, I wanted the Lumen Prize to engagewith a charity, so I took it to Peace Direct whichenables and support local peace builders inconflict zones. The charity loved the idea andhelped to give us a home so that we could getthe project off the ground by providing us withstrategy and logistical support. Then, thankssupport from the City of Cardiff, we now have aphysical home for the Prize.”

In a world that has been rendered increasinglyborderless through technology and networking,the story of how the Lumen ended up in thecapital of Wales instead of a major world city is afunny one.

Carla RapoportCEO of Lumen Prize

CSAD Matters


It was on a train journey between her home inthe Brecon Beacons and London, whereRapoport was working at the time, that she, bychance, sat next to Professor Terry Stevens, anexpert in City and Regional Development as wellas the Digital Economy.

“I told him what I was doing and he said he lovedthe idea and that he would be happy tointroduce me to Ken Poole who is in charge ofthe City Council’s resurgence and regenerationactivities,” she recalls. “Within ten weeks we hada deal with the City of Cardiff to partner with usfor 3 years. Terry also introduced me to GaynorKavanagh, Dean at Cardiff School of Art &Design. I met Gaynor for a coffee andextraordinarily kindly, she accompanied me onmy first meeting with Ken Poole about the Prize.That was an amazing leap of faith for her - tocome along with someone she had just met.”

The judging process of the Lumen Prize iscomplex but through its complexity,thoroughness is ensured.

“We judge the works in two ways. First, anInternational Selection Committee of academicsand art experts review 100 works each. Westructure this so each work submitted to theLumen Prize is seen by at least 5 committeemembers. The top 50 works - which make upthe Lumen Prize Exhibition - are chosen throughthis review are then submitted to our Jury Panelof 8 top artists, gallery owners and art critics.These panel members review all 50 of theworks and select the 20 works on our shortlistand our three top prize winners,” Rapoportexplains. “Also, all the submitted worksappeared in a Lumen Online Gallery where therewas an open vote for the People’s Choice Winner.

Next year, we will invite works into the LumenOnline Gallery for the People’s Choicecompetition.”

The judging panel of eight industry expertsincludes nationally-known artist Gordon Young;Ivor Davies, President of the Royal CambrianAcademy and Anne Farrer, programme directorat Sotheby’s Institute. In keeping with the digitalaspect of the Prize, none of the judges met inperson to discuss the shortlist. It was all doneonline. This is just one of the ideas that makes itso special.

“Digital art is uniquely enabling. It can be createdanywhere in the world without the need forcanvas, oils, studio or any of those other things.It can be done with an iPad or a computer orany digital device. The luminosity of our tabletscreates a great effect.”

Like any advance in a traditional industry, digitalart has its critics. Carla Rapoport’s response tothose who dispute the value of digital art is toask whether they believe a print made by apress to be art or why photographers likeAndreas Gursky can sell their photographs for millions.

“Where the critics of digital art misunderstand isthat they associate it with commercial artbecause dog food commercials are createddigitally,” she rebukes. “The person who createsthat imagery is not an artist because they areworking commercially. But when that persongoes home at night, what they create on theiriPad could well be fine art and shown inmuseums. Because an artist does dog foodcommercials in the day, does that mean theycan’t be an artist?”

Very thankful to both the City of Cardiff andCardiff School of Art & Design, Carla Rapoport isat the head of a very exciting art prize whichhas the potential to showcase the work oflesser-known artists from around the world andgive them a platform for praise.

The Lumen Prize Exhibition - a global tour tofive cities - was launched at Gallery 27, CorkStreet, London on January 22 and ran toJanurary 26 before moving to Riga, Latvia,Shanghai, Hong Kong, and returns to Cardiff inMarch 2013. The 50 artists chosen for theLumen Prize Exhibition come from 13 countriesand 43 cities around the world, includingPakistan, Israel, Iran, Taiwan, and China.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Meirion Ginsberg answers the phone

and his warm North Wales’accent greets me with a

strange familiarity.Ginsberg is in Chester and

is taking a break from hispainting to speak to me.

“I'm a full time artist and I paint for a living,” hesays proudly. “I'm living in Chester at themoment. I was living in Liverpool for the pastfew years.”

Born in 1985, Ginsberg says he has alwaysenjoyed painting and it's quite obvious withinminutes of the start of our conversation that hehas.

“I had to take a number of different part time jobsand factory jobs to fund my painting,” he tellsme. “It gave me time to improve as a painter.Then, The Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff sawand liked my work and have taken me on as oneof their gallery artists. That allowed me to go fulltime, as I was now selling work. I go there bypure grit and determination.”

After a foundation year at Coleg Menai, Ginsbergmade the move south to Cardiff where hestudied for a BA Fine Art at the School of Art &Design. After graduating from that course in2007, Ginsberg moved to Liverpool where hehas been working, until recently.

In between shifts at 'factory jobs', he has beenbusy exhibiting and now has an impressive CVof past exhibitions for someone as young asGinsberg. A solo show in Canary Wharf in 2008,then Caernarfon in the same year (followed byanother there in the same town in 2010) and afinal solo show in Cardiff in 2010. That's notincluding all of the group shows, of which he hasbeen a part (on average, one a year), since hiscareer started back in 2003.

He tells me that his next solo show will be inJanuary 2013, which will be in Oriel TegfrynGallery in Menai Bridge, Anglesey.

“They are mostly portraits and they're quite small.I'm planning on doing some larger pieces in thenext few months.”

Ginsberg is looking to move away fromproducing small canvases though. For thisforthcoming exhibition he plans to try a few newthings,

“It's more minimal and it's mostly a figure and aplain background,” he explains. “A lot of thework is more spontaneous now and it's a lot ofsketching. I didn't feel like I wanted to work inthe same way I did previously.”

Ginsberg's work is intriguing. On the one hand,the foreground of his canvases are usuallyfigurative portraits which are sometimeswonderful, sometimes discomforting, but alwaysfull of life and vibrancy. On the other hand, thebackground to his work is an abstracted worldof swirling colour and shape that contrastssharply with the detail of his characters.

“I don't see it personally as a particular style. I know what my influences are and I try toimitate them all the time. Eventually it becomesits own thing, just by doing it and learningthrough trial and error,” he says. “I'm continuallylooking for new inspiration. I think it willeventually become a thing of its own anyway.Every artist you look at, for instance Bacon, ifyou look at his early work, they've got aPicasso-esque quality to them, but eventuallythrough trial and error, he found his own style.It's just by doing it and seeing where it goes…”

Ginsberg freely admits to being heavilyinfluenced by Francis Bacon in particular.

Meirion Ginsberg

CSAD Graduate


“It's not so much the painting - whenever I seethem in the flesh I'm not really blown away bythem. His vision! I think he's seeing somethingthat you can't categorise. You can only say it'sBacon-esque,” he says when I asked him whyhe liked the painter so much. “I can only reallyappreciate something that someone has createdon their own back. Bacon wasn't really part of agroup - he hung around with numerous artistsbut he wanted to concentrate on his own thingand that's what he did. He goes into it withdifferent ways of thinking as well. It's not justabout a palette and paint. He'd scrape the paintoff, use sponges and his hands and I find thatquite inspirational.”

Creative people often find it hard to escape theshadow of their idols. It is hard for a painter to

not try and paint like a person they very muchadmire because they have spent such a longtime studying the minutiae of the paintings thatartist painted.

“I really enjoy abstract work but I'm not anabstract painter. I would like to be and so I guessI try to force it in somehow and incorporate that,”Ginsberg continues. “Every time I try and makean abstract picture, a figure comes out. I'mtoying with the two things.”

It’s even harder still to avoid being derivativewhen you have, from your earliest childhood,been surrounded by an artist's work and taughtto enjoy it. That's something that Ginsbergidentifies with.

“I was a massive fan of Norman Blackwell as achild. Earlier on I was looking through the houseat books. My father was an art teacher and Iremember seeing Bacon's work and finding itinteresting. All of these things around me,” herecalls. “I've been very lucky and very privileged.My father never taught me how to draw, but justhaving those things around me was veryinspirational. I noticed in my friends’ houses as achild, you'd never find an art book. I was lucky tohave that.”

It isn't hard not to see that a childhood of beingsurrounded by great art and ideas has paid offfor Ginsberg. He is accomplished and already hiswork looks like the work of someone who hasbeen painting for far longer than he has.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Ceramicists and potters are always interesting to

speak to. Their love of clayand kiln is so infectious and

their enjoyment of theircraft is so evident.

Fleen Doran is no exception.

Having graduated from BA Ceramics at CardiffSchool of Art & Design in 2010, Fleen has comea long way since she first started becominginterested in ceramics as a teenager who hadunknowingly got a job one of Britain's top craft galleries.

“I worked at a little gallery called the CandoverGallery. I started working there without reallyknowing that it was a prestigious gallery. It wasa great introduction to some brilliant pots andpotters,” she explains. “After college, I first wentto Staffordshire University to do a course in 3DDesign Crafts, but having decided that it wasclay that I wanted to work with full time I wentto Cardiff because it's the place to be forCeramics! That's when I started making pots andit's functional pots that really interest me: objectsyou can use everyday in the kitchen and home.”

In 2010, when she graduated from the course atCSAD, Fleen received funding from theorganisation Adopt-A-Potter to go and be anapprentice at Bridge Pottery under the very wellrespected potter Micki Schloessingk.

“I had already planned to work with Micki for thesummer. But we decided to apply for funding fora year long apprenticeship. The idea of Adopt-A-Potter is that the funding goes to the student sothat they can focus on their apprenticeship fulltime,” Fleen explains.

Having already completed a work experience atBridge Pottery the year before she graduated,Fleen was keen to return to learn more fromSchloessingk about salt-glazing and wood-firing,the two methods in which she is expert as wellas learning how to run a pottery practice as abusiness.

“That's a more unusual way of firing pots. As well as the kiln being heated by wood, thewhole pottery is also heated by wood,” Fleensays. “We do lots of chopping! The point of firingwith wood is that the firing is as much a part ofthe creative process as the making. The piecesare made individual through the process.”

You would be forgiven for not understanding thenuances of using wood as opposed to gas orelectric. Unlike an electric kiln - which can beprogrammed and left to complete the process,firing with wood requires constant stoking andmonitoring. The kiln is responsive to the patternof stoking, it is affected even by weatherconditions and the type and size of wood usedon each stoke.

“It is very engaging way of firing my pots,” Fleenexplains. “We fire for around 30 hours. Towardsthe top temperature, we put salt in the kiln thatforms a vapour which is drawn through the kilnand glazes the pieces. With a standard kiln, youwould usually fire the pieces twice and glazethem in between the firing. With this process, the pots are only fired once and instead of usingglazes, I use slips (clays with oxides) to getdifferent colours, so it's really a combination ofthe salt, the wood ash and the slip that makesthe glaze unique.”

Micki Schloessingk is a renown potter because ofher skill in salt glazing and wood firing methods.Her work has been exhibited all around theworld. Fleen feels very privileged to have been offered the opportunity to learn from her teacher.

Fleen Doran BA Ceramics 2007-10

CSAD Graduate


“It was the wood firing and salt glazing that Iwanted to learn about and she's an expert inthat as well as being a great mentor, tutor andsupporter,” she continues. “We're a good teamnow! I'm able to take some of the responsibilitiesof running the pottery. I run my own eveningthrowing course, have time for my own pottingand make a range of pots for the pottery.”

While there is plenty of chance to learn thesecrets of salt glazing, Fleen has been learning a lot about the other aspects of running apottery too.

“As well as learning lots of practical skills in thepottery, I have also gained useful business skillsas well. Each day of the week, we have adifferent focus,” she says. “Monday, I work onmy pots. Tuesday is maintenance day; preparingclay, the kiln and wood. Wednesday is office day- website management, photography, publicityorganising courses etc. Thursday is making potsfor the pottery and Fridayis working on my pots again!”

Having recently returned from travelling aroundIndia learning about the firing techniques thatthey use in making pots there, Fleen is now backat work on her own pots.

"At the moment, I throw pots on the wheel, butalso I've been working on hand built pots. Theseare slab built pots," she explains of her currentpractice. "I roll out slabs of clay and I make papertemplates which I cut around and then fold upthe slabs into pots. I am enjoying exploring thisprocess.”

Fleen will carry on working on those functionalitems. Her interest in pots that you can useeveryday has already taken her far.

With an enthusiasm for pottery and glazing ascontagious as hers, it would be difficult to seeher not going far in the world of pottery.


CSAD MAGAZINE

Anna Bhushan is a lecturerin illustration at Cardiff

School of Art & Design - but she's also a meditation

teacher, freelance illustratorfor some of the world's bestpublishers and a researcher

in Indian philosophy.

“I come from a family of artists. Both my parentswere artists as well as my grandfather. I grewup drawing and painting and it was alwaysassumed that I would go to art school,” Bhushanexplains. “I rebelled and decided to studyComparative Religion at Manchester but it didn'tlast very long. I missed paint and being creativein that way. So I changed track and started anart foundation in Oxford.”

Following her time in Oxford, she completed anillustration degree in Brighton. It was when sheleft University at the end of that course that shegot her first taste of travelling and working as afreelancer.

“I had a couple of years out of education after mydegree, when I visited family in different parts ofthe world: India and Los Angeles,” she explains.

“I spent time in both of those places and joinedan agency. I was having my first experience atbeing an illustrator in the real world.”

After two years of moving about the world andworking wherever she could, Bhushan settleddown in London for a while to complete an MAin Communication Art and Design at the RoyalCollege of Art (RCA).

“Just as I was leaving the RCA, I got in touch withHeart Illustration Agency which was the agencyI'd always fantasised about being represented by.I was really fortunate that they took me on andwhen I left I got straight into freelancing. I waswith them for four years,” she recalls. “Theweek I graduated, I moved to New York and gotmarried. That was a dramatic time in my life. Iwas doing lots of editorial work and freelancework. I also started to show my work in galleriesin New York.”

Having moved back to London, as well asworking for publications like the New York Timesand The New Yorker Bhushan also added visitinglecturer to her CV. But, after balancing all ofthose different parts of her portfolio for a while,she decided it was time for a change.

“I decided that I'd been a visiting lecturer for quitea while: teaching at Westminster, St. Martins,Winchester, bits at Brighton and Camberwell andvarious other institutions,” she explains of herdecision to take a post at Cardiff School of Art &Design. “I was juggling lots of different projectsand hundreds of students. Managing that wasbecoming a bit unwieldy so I made acommitment to one single course. That's why Idecided to take this job! I love the feel of thecourse here.”

She likes doing what she does at the Schoolbecause it balances her interests in teaching,illustration and research into her specialist areawithin Indian philosophy.

“I practice and teach meditation. I've beenteaching that for a few years but have practicedsince a child. It has influenced and infused theself initiated work I do,” she says.

The illustrator has worked on an illustratedversion of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Childrenas well as the Bhagavad Gita (part of the Hinducanon) for the Folio Society, a publisher ofquality physical books.

“The Bhagavad Gita was much more key to myinterest in particular philosophical traditions andmeditation. It was one of the first times that Ihad been asked to produce a body of workdirectly related to those interests,” she explains.

“Those two sides of my interest (making images

AnnaBhushanIllustrating the unseen

CSAD Academic


and Indian philosophy/yoga) intersected on thatproject. That was quite fantastic for me. Now myPhD research is continuing the intersection ofthose two areas of interest.”

“Anatomical diagrams are based in informationillustration now, but if you look at PersianMedieval diagrams (for example), whendissection wasn't allowed, there's a big difference.The role of imagination comes into the picture.One of the challenges that scientists face is toexplain concepts that are beyond the everydayunderstanding. That's where my interest inworking as an illustrator with scientists on someof those projects came about,” she explains.

“My current research has taken a slightly differentdirection and I'm still looking at the idea of howimages and text can be used to communicatenotions that are paradoxically, beyond humanimagination, which can be ambiguous, intangibleand elusive. Now, I'm looking at this in terms ofphilosophy, rather than in terms of sciencespecifically.”

The PhD, Bhushan hopes, will be an ambitiousexamination of the use of image and text inauthorial illustration for communicating elusiveand ambiguous subject matter. This will bebased upon a text and image work re-examiningthe teachings of Buddha and Patañjali.

“Teaching is important. My project is all aboutcommunicating complex and intangible ideasthrough text and image,” she explains. “Whenyou teach you have to learn how tocommunicate things which are difficult to put into words. Teaching feeds back into the way I think about communication, both verbaland visual.”

Bhushan seems very pleased to be a part of theSchool and delighted to have found a middleroad between teaching, research andindependent practice.


CSAD MAGAZINE

One of the definingcharacteristics of Cardiff

School of Art & Design isits commitment to cross-disciplinary research into

all kinds of design and art.Another of the most

recognisable values of theSchool is its involvement in

the community and all ofthe ways that it relates to

the city at large.

Those two tenets come together perfectly forthe School's Research Seminar Series which willbegin this autumn.

Now a regular part of the School's calendar, theseminar series is a programme of in-formalevents designed and organised by Head ofMasters Studies, Dr Gareth Loudon.

“The idea behind it is to share with staff andstudent something of what's going on from aresearch perspective inside the School. We did itlast year and we got all the leading researchstaff to give talks on their research,” Loudonexplains. “The Series ran in Tommy's Bar everyweek in the evenings. We're going to do a similarstructure this year, only we're going to get morePhD students involved.”

Last year, not all of the research staff were ableto make the events for one reason or anotherbut Loudon says that those who couldn't make itlast year will be in Tommy's Bar this year inorder to keep everyone up to date on their research.

“The idea is to cover the full range of art anddesign research in the School and make surethat each subject area represents its work,”he says. “The idea is quite informal. They give a 45 minute talk and then a question and answersession. We do it in the bar to give it a relaxed feel.”

The idea of a seminar series is not a particularlynew one. Loudon says there are a number ofother organisations in Cardiff who do a series oftalks with a similar idea and there are also anumber of creative industries seminars, such asTEDxCardiff, which already happen in the city.

“It was selfishly motivated for me in part becauseI found it useful to find out what all the otherresearch staff were doing. It was something Iwas enjoying doing anyway. There's a formalmodule on the Masters courses called ResearchSeminars and so in a way, it's formal for theMasters students and because I'm head ofMasters that's my duty,” he continues. “But Ithink the idea was not to just keep it private, butto open it up to everybody and put an emphasison raising awareness. One of the key thingsabout research and creativity is getting ideasfrom different places. So getting thecollaboration and cross-discipline discussiongoing is important.”

As Loudon says, it can be quite difficult to makesure that everyone within the School knowswhat their colleagues are researching orworking on. It's even harder then for the publicto get a good perspective on the School'sresearch output.

“Everyone is welcome and that's why it's anevening event,” Loudon says. “There is a lot ofexciting work going on in the school and this isan opportunity for people to realise that this iscool stuff. I don't think this has been fullyrecognised up until now. It creates a nice buzz

ResearchSeminar Series

CSAD Matters


and it's good for the undergrads, because itchanges their mindset. When they see theirlecturers talking about their research withpassion, I think it rubs off on them too. That's areal bonus.”

The Research Seminar series was originallyinspired by the School staff meetings whereoccasionally, one member of staff would give ashort talk on their work.

“One of the professors, Rob Pepperell, gave a talk.He's a Professor of Fine Art and I'm in ProductDesign,” Loudon recalls. “I didn't really knowwhat Rob was doing and when he gave the talk,I thought it was very relevant to my work. Werealised that we needed to have more of thatshare. You can see that mix and it probably helpsto facilitate it as well.”

Despite the fact that there are some obviousthemes shared by the research of many of thestaff at the School, Loudon is unwilling to set atheme or dictate the topics of the seminars.

“For me, again talking selfishly, I enjoyed theseminars because I was getting exposed toareas I knew nothing about. I found them reallyenjoyable and because it was surprising, it was

more fun. If it was over one core theme, I wouldfind it a bit boring to be honest,” he says of thedecision. “My area is particularly on play andcreativity which is not limited to product designby any means. It's also true for a lot of the otherareas too. It's good to get that sharing going really.”

This year the Seminar Series takes on a moreimportant role than ever before because of the changes to the undergraduate degreeprogrammes.

“There's a more integrated structure there. In thecoming year and the second year, people haveoptions. So it's really important that people areaware of what is happening in the School,” hesays. “This is one vehicle they can use to findout what's going on. Even now, ifundergraduates attend the seminar series, they'll be able to use that as a way to informmodule choices for second year, when studentscan elect to work with one of the School’sResearch Principals. Traditionally, you were inyour area of product design or fine art and that'sall you ever saw.”

Loudon is very enthusiastic about the sharing ofknowledge between the members of staff, their

students and, most importantly perhaps, withthe members of the community.

“Research is the cornerstone of the School, to avery large extent. I might be biased but I think itis really important because it underpins thelearning and teaching,” he says. “The knowledgegets passed on to the students. It can betranslated into enterprise work and brings a lotto the School. We're communicating that andhopefully creating new opportunities. It's animportant element to what a school of art anddesign should be.”


CSAD MAGAZINE

Florence Walkey is a printmaker.

She’s currently enrolledpart-time on the Master of

Fine Art (MFA).

“I’ve always been interested in art. My mum is anart teacher. In 2006, I was diagnosed withscoliosis and was ill from school for 2.5 years,”she tells me. “After operations, I did my GCSEsfrom home and hospital and my mum taught me art.”

After getting her A-levels and finishing hersecondary education, Walkey made the decisionto study “an arty or computer course” in Cardiff.She initially enrolled for an Interactive andMotion Design degree course at the University ofGlamorgan’s ATRiuM, but decided after her firstyear that she wanted to do something morefirmly rooted in artistic practice.

“I came to Cardiff School of Art & Design. So I’veonly been doing printmaking for two years. I managed to get a first class honours! I thought,‘I can’t stop now because I really love what I’mdoing.’ I was persuaded to do the MA here so Itook the chance.”

After the offer of a place on the MA, Florencefound some funding and began her work whichdraws on her experiences with Scoliosis and thevarious problems that it causes.

“Last year, my degree piece was called AThousand Pieces of Flesh and Bone which Ientered into the Bankside Gallery competitionand I won a prize for it, the Frank BrangwynMemorial Prize and I got £1000,” she explains.

“From that piece, in the MA I thought that I wouldexpand and I did 10,000 monoprints, made itinto a book and I’m working on a projectionpiece.”

Walkey’s dedication to producing monoprints isastounding. Finding it rather hard to wrap myhead around such a large number of prints andhow that would look on a gallery wall or even ina book, I asked her for her motivation behindchoosing that number.

“My relationship with Scoliosis found a physicalrelease through art. I did 1000 because I hadonly just joined printmaking and I wanted toperfect a technique. Secondly, all my peers hadtwo years experience more than I so I wanted todo something quite impressive,” she explains. “Igot really into the mass numbers and the10,000 came from that. I want the end productto have aesthetic gratification for people but it’smore to do with mass production really.”

Florence cites the work of Damien Hirst andAndy Warhol as influences in her printmakingpractice. This makes a lot of sense and reallyhelps you to appreciate what it is that motivatesin her work. She tells me that she will soonbegin experimenting with other kinds of printmaking.

“I plan on making a beginners guide toprintmaking this year with a book and filmedlessons which I’m going to put online. That waypeople can go online and learn in a reallysimple way,” she tells me. “There are a greatdeal of printmaking books out, there but theones that I’ve come across are very text heavy.As someone who is dyslexic, I find that I learnthrough pictures and things being shown to me.If I were making short films and documentingthings step by step, it would make it easier forpeople like me.”

FlorenceWalkey



Walkey’s enthusiasm for teaching people how todo things is something that she thinks she wouldlike to explore further.

“I’d really like to go into teaching. It’s strange tothink that but even when I was in my degree, Iwas having tutorials with people and seeing theroles that the MA students had. I learnt off themby mimicking them,” she explains. “I reallyenjoyed that and I thought that it was somethingthat I’d really love to do. That’s a way of mecarrying on my practice as well.”

For now, Walkey seems very content to continuelearning more about printmaking anddocumenting that learning process for the worldto see via the internet.


CSAD MAGAZINE

“I’ve got a rabbit with hornsand a rabbit with wings,”

is not a sentence that youwould usually expect to

hear. But when it comes out of Samantha Alland’s

mouth, it seems incredibly plausible.

Alland is a first year Artist Designer: Makerstudent who, only a few months into her degreeat Cardiff School of Art & Design is makingwaves with her wonderful creations.

“I’ve always kind of done crafts and stuff. When Iwas little I was always making a mess! I starteda textile course at GCSE because I had donesewing when I was younger. Then I went on todo two years of textiles at college,” she explains.

“I did a foundation course and realised that I hadfallen in love with clay…not just clay, because Istill like working with other materials. My finalcollege project was a mixed media deersculpture. The skull was leather with glass eyesthat I made myself. The body was scrap metaland leather with porcelain legs and hooves outof wood.”

Originally from Portsmouth, but half-Welsh bynationality, Alland first decided that she wouldcome to Cardiff after enjoying her annual visitsto family at Christmas.

“I love it here,” she says. “I originally applied todo Fine Art and when I came to look at that, Iwas told I might be better suited for the ArtistDesigner: Maker course. I spoke to Ingrid Murphy,the Subject Leader, and she sorted that out forme. In Fine Art, it’s more developing concepts,than building objects. I prefer the building side asit leads me to the concept.”

And conceptual her work is. Samantha’s studiospace is completely plastered in models ofvarious animal’s heads, pictures of creaturesboth mythical and real, as well as circuit boardsand wires.

“We went to the museum and I saw a sculpture ofa Satyr: a Greek mythological creature that’s halfgoat, half man. I’m looking at the animal form

but also hybrid creatures,” Alland says, showingoff her various clay structures. “I’ve got thishorse’s head which I’m going to cover, I’m alsodoing taxidermy rabbit skin to attach to it andI’ve got a neck with a platform that’s attached toan Arduino board.”

Arduino is an open source (developed by acommunity of hobbyists/professionals, ratherthan a company) which combines programmingand electronic components in order to enablepeople to create interesting projects withouthaving to be trained in electronic engineering.By way of example, to illustrate what Arduinocan actually do, Alland explains her project.

“My plan is to put sensors in the horse’s head sothat when people walk near it, it can sense themand turn to look at them, like a real creature,”she explains. “I like things that you can interact

Samantha Alland



with; that will give audiences a more personalrelationship with an object. If there’s a thingthat’s sitting in a glass case, you can’t really doanything with it. But if there’s an object lookingyou in the eye, you don’t have a choice but toreact. I like looking at enchantment. I’m intoescapism. The real world’s great, but I would liketo create my own world at the same time.”

The idea of fantastical creatures being thoughtup to help people understand danger is bothfascinating and central to Alland’s work.

“My work is about looking at our relationshipwith animals and our need to create fantasycreatures to better understand the real world, toprotect us and to produce fear in order to stopus from doing things. There was an interestingexample from Japan where they had created theidea of a fish-monkey which drowns children,”

says Alland. “The idea was that they would useit to stop children from going out into deepwater by making them believe they would beattacked by the fish-monkey if they did.”

Alland’s interest in animals is of an origin thatshe cannot pinpoint. However, she says that shehas always found it interesting.

“The whole social side of animals is interesting.Everyone always thinks that animals are thesedumb things that are in the background,” sheexplains. “But if you look at a species and then abreed within that species, they have in-depthsocial protocols: how they communicate, interactand do things. If you look at dogs, one dog couldbe aggressive, while the other is passive. Justlike people.”

For now, it’s probably a bit early to ask whatplans Alland has for the future. However, what isclear is that it will involve some very excitingprojects that bring a fusion of technological andtraditional methods.

“My understanding of these technologies is verybasic. I’m hoping to learn to programme Arduinoso that I can get them to do what I want them to.I’ve not played around with electronics before,it’s all new,” she says. “I haven’t actuallyprogrammed anything yet as we haven’t gotthat far but I’ve been building bits, cut things thewrong size and had to do them again. It’s trialand error.”

“I want to carry on with building things. I’d love tobuild full size animal pieces,” she says excitedly.


CSAD MAGAZINE

I am a TechnicianDemonstrator who works

across various departmentsfrom Product Design to

the Foundry at Howard Gardens.

My specialist area is high end technology andmaterials - I have amassed a great deal ofknowledge in tooling, engineering techniques,crafts, systems or methods to solve technicalproblems including tensile testing, inductionhardening, plasma nitriding, titanium nitridecoating, high, data capture specialist software,cad cam, 3D scanning, laser cutting and etching.Born in Cork, Ireland I studied at various collegesand have over 25 years experience in amanufacturing/product design environment.I hold demonstrations of technical and labequipment, including: tools, tensile testing, straingauge bonding, finite element analysis, controland data capture and other processes.

What’s a typical day at CSAD like for you?I don't think there is such a thing as a typical dayat CSAD. It can vary tremendously, even within aparticular department. I could be demonstratingto a class of 50 on how to use CAD and next betelling a masters student what process he wouldneed to use to manufacture a product; or eventesting chicken legs in the tensile tester to mimicbroken bones in footballers feet.

What do you like most about your job?Working with, and helping students to achievetheir goals. Sometimes they expect too muchbut when individuals get it right it is a dream towatch. You know that you had a hand in thebirth of something new and like any goodmother you will feed it, watch over it, protect it,and see it flourish.

I especially enjoy working with colleagues whoinspire me and show me what can beaccomplished. Within CSAD there is a core ofindividuals which is quite rare in a organizationwho have the knowledge and skill set that isquite unique. Sometimes (not always!) I feelprivileged to be working with such individuals.

What is your favourite piece of art/design/making/architecture?In mid Wales I have seen great Dams andviaducts built by the Victorians in the Elan Valley.They always impress me when I see them and Iappreciate the design and making of suchenormous structures.

Is there a book that has had an impact onyour life in some way?

“Cycling in Wales” - a book that covers theNational Cycle Network a system of routes alongtraffic free paths linking our towns, cities andcountryside and places of interest. Last year mywife and I decided to attempt to complete all 28routes. So far we have managed 18.

Five records for a desert island?The very best of Ennio Morricone by EnnioMorriconeLegend Album by Bob Marley21 by AdeleRumours by Fleetwood MacSgt Pepper's lonely Hearts Club Band by theBeatles

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve everbeen given?Love the life you live and live the life you love.

Name one of your heroes and tell us why.Steve Jobs. A true pioneer, innovator andvisionary.

Name one of your villains and tell us why.Darth Vader. He tried to destroy planet Earth.

What’s the best thing about working for CSAD?Working with talented people and givingknowledge and passion to people who willinfluence the future of things to come.

Michael O KeeffeWho are you?



What’s a typical day at CSAD like for you?Most days you can find me in the Stitch Room,but that could be with anything from 1 to 25students, and doing anything from showing agroup of first years how to set up a sewingmachine, to working out how to do theseemingly impossible with a third year for theirdegree show.

What is your favourite piece ofart/design/making/architecture?Thomas Heatherwick’s cauldron design for thisSummer’s Olympics was a spine-tingling strokeof pure genius. It was breathtakingly beautiful,both aesthetically and symbolically, and youhave to admire the nerve of someone who takesa brief that says “no moving parts” and creates260 individual petals to be brought separatelyinto the stadium during the Opening Ceremony,then assembled, and erected live in front of theentire world. I wonder how many differentversions there were before they got that right.‘A different shaped bowl, on a different shapedstick’ it was not!

Is there a book/film/album/artwork that hashad an impact on your life in some way?Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr Seuss, will alwayscheer me up if I’ve had a bad day. Any adultwho’s read it will understand why, and most TimBurton films will guarantee to make me want toget creative.

Name one of your villains and tell us why.I wouldn’t like to single out any one individual,but generally, that would be fake celebrities,famous for little more than courting publicity ineverything they do, who complain about theirprivacy being invaded when they get caughtdoing things they shouldn’t!

Records for a desert island?Design for Life - Manic Street Preachersbecause it will always be my favourite song.Everybody Hurts - REM because it’s so beautiful in its purity.Chasing Cars by Snow Patrolbecause it reminds me of when my daughterwas a baby.Six Months in a Leaky Boat by Split Enzbecause it’s impossible to listen to it withoutsmiling, and it seems quite fitting.

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve everbeen given?On the day I was told that I was going to bemade redundant from a previous job, my Dadtold me, “Don’t worry about the future becauseit won’t be what you expect it to be.” It’s not apiece of advice that is always easy to follow, butit’s still true.

What’s the best thing about working for CSAD?The final term running up to the third yeardeadline is the best time of year. The studentskeep you insanely busy and there can be a lot ofpressure. You often have to think very quicklyand creatively to work through challenges andthat can actually be fun. It’s also very rewardingto see how far people have come, and howeverbusy it is, when I think of rows of silent studentssitting hunched over exam desks on othercourses, the way we do things here feels like acelebration.

I’m Maggie Cullinane,Technician Demonstratorfor Stitch, working primarilywith Textiles students, butalso students from manyother courses too.

Maggie Cullinane

Who are you?



CSAD MAGAZINE

CSAD is host to a wide

variety of exciting research

& enterprise activities.

The School strives to build

links and share its

expertise, creativity

and innovation with

academic, industry and

community partners.

Research

School of medicine ‘Show & Tell’Staff from CSAD and Cardiff University’sSchool of Medicine met to discuss possibleresearch links between the two institutionsat a ‘show and tell’ event on 19 October.Hosted at the School of Medicine’s HenryWellcome building, the event includedpresentations by Dr Cathy Treadaway,Dr Gareth Loudon, Prof Steve Gill, Prof CliveCazeaux, Chris Glynn and Clara Watkins.The day concluded with fruitful conversationsregarding areas of mutual interest, futurecollaboration and a proposed event to behosted at HG.

Short on KandinskyDr Chris Short recently presented his paper‘Eclecticism in Uber das Geistige in der Kunst´at the Symposium Centenary and Impact ofKandinsky’s Book Uber das Geistige in derKunst, Leiden University. Chris was invited tospeak based on his recent publication TheArt Theory of Wassily Kandinsky, 1909-1928.

RAVE onProfessor Robert Pepperell is starting twonew research projects this year. Funded byWIRAD, As Seen is a joint project withSwansea Metropolitan University and theNational Museum of Wales that willinvestigate whether British artists of themodern and contemporary periods havemade significant discoveries about the natureof visual perception in a way that has so farbeen largely unexplored by art historians orthose studying vision in the sciences.

The second project, Research in Art & VisualExperience (RAVE) is supported by CardiffMet’s Research & Enterprise InvestmentFund. It will aim to produce images thatoptimally represent the way humansexperience their visual field and seek toexploit the commercial possibilities of suchimages. Rob has also recently participated innetworking events in Lyon and Berlin with aview to discussing the potential for futurecollaborations. As a result of his trip to Berlin,Anja Ruschkowski has chosen to spend herErasmus Work Placement award with CSAD.

Wendy Keay-Bright at BBC Science CaféOn 2nd October 2012 BBC Radio Walesbroadcast a special edition of the ScienceCafe, entitled ‘Another Piece in the Puzzle?’which focussed on Dr Wendy Keay-Bright’sReactickles and Somantics software.Programme host, Sian Pari Huws,interviewed Wendy and met with some ofthe teachers and staff from schools that useReacTickles and Somantics. This wasfollowed by an ‘in conversation’ betweenDavid Jacksons, the Science Café producer,and Wendy at the Wales Millennium Centre.The free event in the foyer area also gaveaudience members the opportunity to try outthe software being discussed.

Alexandros: Sent to CoventryDr Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulospresented at the INTIME 2012 Symposiumhosted by Coventry University. Thesymposium aimed to discuss the notion andperformance of new music and theorisecurrent practice in these areas.

in brief


CSAD Drawing Research and the WNOCSAD staff were given the opportunity todraw a rehearsal of the Welsh NationalOpera’s performance of Jeptha in Septemberas part of the CSAD Drawing Research day.During the afternoon symposium at Craft inthe Bay, Dr Natasha Mayo, Dr Jac Saorsa, DrCathy Treadaway and James Green gaveshort presentations on drawing researchprojects that they are currently engaged in.The day concluded with a discussion chairedby Prof Rob Pepperell about the developmentof a Centre for Drawing research and plansfor a drawing symposium in 2013.

EBERE update: SEB 12For the second year running, Dr JohnLittlewood has Chaired the invited session'Assessment and Monitoring theEnvironmental Performance of Buildings' atthe 4th International Conference onSustainability in Energy and Buildings SEB’12,Stockholm. The theme is based on John’sLow Carbon Built Environment project andwon the 'Best Invited Session Award’. Theaward was presented by the conferenceChairs, Professor Howlett from KESInternational and Professor Hakansson fromKTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden.As a result, John has been invited to expandthe 'Assessment and Monitoring theEnvironmental Performance of Buildings'session into a Sustainable Building sessionfor the Mediterranean Green Energy Forum,which will host both SEB’13 and the WorldRenewable Energy Congress.

The EBERE group also presented threepapers at the conference. All papers will be

published as a book chapter in early 2013 bySpringer.

CARIADDr Wendy Keay-Bright and Dr CathyTreadaway have received a ResearchInnovation Award for CARIAD’s most recentresearch project, Open heart: capturing andsharing through video. The funding willsupport a Research Assistant to investigatethe use of video documentary both tocapture creativity and as an innovativeinclusive design toolset. The project willexplore and evidence how video can becomethe critical component necessary for dialogiccollaboration between designers,researchers, stakeholders and end users.

Youth MuseDr Wendy Keay-Bright has been awardedfunding by Youth Music to work with MUSEon the Listening Aloud project for theacademic year 2012 - 13. The ListeningAloud project will support young people withspecial educational needs and disabilities(SEN/D) to make music using software andtechnology they helped design. Throughoutthe year Wendy will be working with MUSE toco-develop a range of music technology toolsthat use affordable and widely availabletechnologies (like games controllers andsmart phones) to make music moreaccessible. In November, Wendy will also runa workshop entitled Amplifying Ability forScope Victoria, Melbourne. Aimed at peoplewho interact with children and adults withcomplex needs, for example Parents, supportstaff, teachers, and therapists, the workshop

will demonstrate new resources to use whensupporting someone who has difficultyinteracting and participating in activities.

Inaugural Lecture: Professor Clive CazeauxProfessor Clive Cazeaux started this year’sInaugural and Professorial lecture series withdiscussion on Metaphor. Taking place lateOctober, ‘Coming to our senses,metaphorically speaking’ drew attention tothe metaphorical nature of thought, howmetaphor cuts all the way down to ourcapacity to shape and organize thought and,the structure of reality itself. At a time whenSTEM is everything and the arts are nothing,Clive’s lecture demonstrated the importanceof seeing one thing in another.

Gill’s SkillsProfessor Steve Gill maybe on sabbatical, buthe is using this time to re-skill, developnetworks and further his research. In July,Steve attended a one week Arduino physicalcomputing course at Middlesex University tolearn various programming and electronicstechniques. This was followed in August byan invitation to attend the Interaction Beyondthe Desktop seminar at Dagstuhl Castle,Germany. These invitation-only events areaimed at attracting researchers ofinternational standing and participants at thisseminar included some of the world’s mostprominent Human Computer Interaction (HCI)researchers.

Steve also co-convened September’s 4thInternational Physicality Workshop at

Chris Glynn, drawing of Jeptha performance


CSAD MAGAZINE

Birmingham University. The workshopexplored design challenges, theories andexperiences in developing new forms ofinteractions that exploit human physicalinteraction with digital technology. InOctober, he led a group of staff, academicassociates and students to the Isle of Tireewith a view to exploring the possibilities ofcomputer embedded design at the 4th TireeTechwave. Finally, in November Steve willvisit SIPs partners Smalti to explore thepossibility of further collaborations inpartnership with Bangor University.

Natasha in PrintDr Natasha Mayo published an article in theJournal of Visual Arts Practice (August 2012).‘Drawing into Practice’ examines parallelsbetween drawing as a cognitive tool and thesocial and conversational structures of awebsite. Natasha will also appear as afeatured artist in the new book Making andDrawing by Kyra Cane (A & C Black). Finally,Natasha continues to develop the awardwinning Learning and Teaching Resource‘Making the Creative Process Visible’ and isstarting a new collaboration with Valley &Vale Community Arts and Dr Meredith Gattis(School of Psychology, Cardiff University) toexamine the intrinsically creative activity ofchildren drawing.

‘When I Woke’ and ‘Never Never’Co-curated by CSAD Ceramics staff memberClaire Curneen with Lowri Davies, When IWoke was on show at Llantarnam GrangeArts Centre, Cwmbran from the 6th October

- 17th November 2012. The exhibition, whichtakes its title from the a Dylan Thomas poem,featured work by Sam Bakewell, AudriusJanusonis, James Page, Lina Peterson, TamsinVan Essen and Sophie Woodrow andexamined the themes of life, death, sorrowand myth as seen through the eyes of theseinternational makers. Claire also showedwork at Never Never, an internationalexhibition, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, July -September 2012.

Andre Stitt UpdateProfessor Andre Stitt has had work selectedfor a number of exhibitions. His large scalepaintings were included in the Hillsboro FineArt Summer Exhibition, Dublin from July -September, and will be shown in the JohnMoores Painting Exhibition at the WalkerGallery, Liverpool from September - January.Andre was also awarded the specialcommendation prize at this year’s NationalEisteddfod of Wales contemporary artexhibition. In addition to this, Andre wasinvited to present a gallery talk and discussthe work of performance artist John Court atSpacex Gallery, Exeter, in September, tookpart in October’s Cardiff Artists Studios eventand will present his paper ‘Land Marks:Location, Occupation and Representation’based on his recent research project ‘in theWEST’ at the Conference on Landscape, TheExchange, Penzance in December. Furtherperformances and exhibitions in Poland,Carmarthen and Leeds are planned for theNew Year.

Cathy Treadaway updateCathy has been continuing her research intocreativity and wellbeing: In addition to takingpart in the discussions on drawing andexploring links with the Cardiff University’sSchool of Medicine, Cathy and Helen Watkinsparticipated in a community drawing event atthe Birmingham Botanical Gardens as part ofUrban Flows: Connected Communities, anAHRC funded project Cathy is collaboratingon with Birmingham City University.

With the support of Cardiff Met Seed Funding,Cathy also organised the Making a differencenetworking event at the WMC. The eventbrought together researchers fromBirmingham City University’s User Lab,Cardiff University Brain Research ImagingCentre the Touch Trust, Gwalia and membersof CARIAD to discuss potential researchcollaborations. Finally, in her role as ResearchLeader, Cathy was selected to attend a PRC‘Consultation on strategy’ event to discussthe future of AHRC funding.

Dave Ferry: South African Artists’ Books Two of Professor David Ferry’s originalArtists Books have been purchased for theSouth African Artists’ Books collection,'Belligerent Rock Intrusions' (2008) and 'InLorna Doone Country' (2004). The SouthAfrican Artists’ Books is one of the leadinginternational collections of artists’ booksoutside of the museum sector.

Claire Curneen, St Sebastian 2006 Prof. Andre Stitt with his work atthe John Moores Gallery


The importance of PlayProduct Design and CARIAD researchers havepresented a number of papers and organiseda number events over the past few monthson creativity and play. Dr Gareth Loudonfacilitated a half-day innovation workshop for30 aspiring SME leaders and managers aspart of the Cardiff School of Management’s20 Twenty Leadership Programme. He alsoco-authored papers with Gina Deininger andPaul Wilgeroth that were presented at the 5thInternational Conference on Spatial Cognition,Rome and International Conference onEngineering and Product Design Education,Antwerp respectively.

Gareth and Dr Cathy Treadaway bothpresented papers at the InternationalConference on Design Creativity in Glasgow.Cathy presented her paper ‘No time like thepresent’ and Gareth presented his researchin a paper: ‘Play, autonomy and the creativeprocess’. Both papers have been published inthe conference proceedings.

Finally, Cathy participated in the 4th of aseries of AHRC funded research workshopsinvestigating playfulness and wellbeing inadult life. The University of Strathclydehosted the workshop in conjunction with‘Glasgow Life’ a Scottish government fundedagency promoting community sport andleisure.

David Ferry Around the WorldProfessor David Ferry exhibited his collectionof prints ‘The Stately Aquariums of England'at a number of exhibitions this summer.These included the London Print Studio’sLondon Calling, from July -August in Tehran,a two person show with British artistStephen Mumberson at the Wharepuke PrintStudio and Gallery in Kerikeri, New Zealandand BITE London at the Mall Galleries inSeptember. For this exhibition, David was aninvited artist and also contributed an essayto the Mall Galleries’ catalogue. David hasbeen selected as one of nine artists torepresent Great Britain at the 2012International Print Triennial, Krakow, Poland,a major international exhibition forcontemporary printmaking and graphic arts.The exhibition, which began in Krakow inSeptember, will tour to Katowice, Vienna,Istanbul and Oldenburg during 2013. Davidhas also recently been selected as the UKrepresentative at the Krackor Biennale inGermany, which took place in January 2013.

The Function of ‘Folk’The Third International Illustration Symposiumand Exhibition took place on the 8th and 9thNovember at the Ethnographic Museum inKrakow, Poland. Co-convened by AmeliaJohnstone, the symposium explored the ideaof the illustrator as contemporary ‘folk’ artist.Along with the accompanying exhibition, thesymposium explored themes such as thevisual language and iconography of folkmotifs, the collaboration between publisherand folk artists in India, and the explorationof cultural identities through narrative

illustration. Amelia also presented a paperentitled ‘Illustration off the page’.

Paul Granjon in AustraliaPaul Granjon spent much of October andNovember completing a collaborativeresidency with Paul Gazzola at theCampbelltown Arts Centre, Australia. ‘TheExperimental Body Extension ManufacturingUnit (EBEMU)’, explored ideas about physicalbody extensions and used discardedmaterials to create prototypes of WearableHybrid Body Augmentations. Granjon andGazzola provided a fully functional temporarymanufacturing unit and a selection of ready-assembled prototypes where voluntaryworkers recruited from the local communitycould contribute ideas for new products andtook part in their construction andpresentation. The resulting work waspresented as part of the Oh I Wanna DanceWith Somebody! festival in Campbelltown.

Amelia Johnstone, The Function of Folk Polychromatic Rotating Goggles


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Research Degrees

New StudentsThis autumn, CSAD has welcomed four newMPhil/PhD students: Martina Cleary, BenEwart-Dean, Emily Jenkins and Sarah Younan.Based in Fine Art’s printmaking department ,Martina’s research will investigate the meansby which the photographic image operates tosignify, construct or preserve individual andcollective memory and Ben will work with DrWendy Keay-Bright to explore how the craftof video-making can be used to improve thesocial communication skills of children on theautistic spectrum. Both Emily and Sarah willbe based in ceramics; Emily’s RIA supportedproject will develop a comparative study ofthe ways in which Welsh Identity has beenexplored in art and Sarah’s AHRC fundedproject will investigate the ceramic object inlight of 3D technology.

Clara in ZambiaClara Watkins has recently returned from aresearch trip to Zambia with Mothers ofAfrica, a Welsh Medical Educational Charitythat trains medical staff in Sub-SaharanAfrica to care for mothers during pregnancyand childbirth. Clara’s research, which is incollaboration with the charity, focuses on thedevelopment of appropriate methodologiesfor informing transformative medical productsolutions in rural Zambia. Clara was able toprogress her own work, carrying outextensive ethnographic research to gain aninsight into local cultures, politics, people andthe difficulties expectant mothers’ face. Thetrip also identified a number of differentprojects for future development.

Enterprise

Olivia goes to Boot CampSupported by Cardiff Met, Olivia Kotsifaattended a one week Fab Lab boot camp inBarcelona. Born out of the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT), Fab Labs(fabrication laboratory) are fully kittedfabrication workshop which gives everyonein the community access to equipment. Theone- week Boot Camp provided training inFab Lab tools and processes by members ofthe Fab Lab network.

Pip at Waddesdon ManorPhilippa Lawrence has completed a verysuccessful SIP with the National Trust’sWaddesdon Manor. They are now keen tocontinue their relationship with the Schooland our students. Philippa has been asked tomake pieces for their collection and summerprogramme within the gardens, and deliver atalk to visitors as a part of the Manor’s publicengagement programme.

Cardiff Design FestivalThis year’s Cardiff Design Festival hasattracted some high profile speakersincluding furniture designer Bethan Gray(who has been nominated for this Autumn’sElle Decoration Award, named as one ofTerrance Conran’s ‘ones to watch’ and hasrecently launched a successful range for JohnLewis) and Tomas Roope of the RumpusRoom (a leading UK web design andinnovation company). Both attended theDesign Festival Party and Best of WelshDesign Awards where three recent CSADgraduates were amongst the award winners.Graphic Communication graduates Joe Smith(winner of two awards) and Julian Deborré,

and Illustration graduates Lauren Nicholasand Dan Peterson were praised for thequality, innovation and imagination of theirwork by the Award judges.

Staff also organised events and contributedto events as a part of the Festival. AmeliaJohnstone spoke at Ignite Cardiff. ChrisDennis curated an illustration exhibition,Charmed, on the theme of unicorns at thePrintmarket Project and co-organisedProject Cardiff, a photography project thatsough nominations and photographed the 50most influential doers, movers and shakers inthe Cardiff creative community. The projectresulted in an exhibition launched at theSenedd on 15 October and a larger show ofthe entire top 50 nominations will beexhibited next spring. Olwen Moseley andAngie Dutton were delighted to be selectedin recognition of their work on the CardiffDesign Festival.

Olwen Moseley organised Be The Boss, amorning of talks for 50 students and newgraduates. The event was supported by theInstitute of Directors, SeeWhatYouMean, Singand Inspire, a representative of the WelshGovernment’s creative culture team andProfessor Brian Morgan (CSM), who allprovided essential advice about setting uptheir own businesses. Olwen also arrangedfor David Berman, the renowned Canadiandesigner and author of Do Good Design, todeliver a talk to CSAD students and present apublic lecture.

in brief in brief

Clara and project workers Olwen Moseley and David Berman


Chris Glynn and Ruth Morgan launched theirchildren’s book, The Gardening Pirates, atWaterstone’s book shop in Cardiff city centre.Chris and Ruth read from the book, andorganised a mass drawing session supportedby several of the Illustration students. The book is designed to act as a resource forteachers to support pirate themed projectson issues such as bullying, growing your ownfood and healthy eating.

At Llandaff, Level 1 textiles studentsexhibited their banner designs for the CSMbuilding on the theme of ‘Fusion’ andCarolina Vasquez organised a screening ofthe Living Streets, an international selectionof short movies on the theme of howchildren, pedestrians, cyclists, cars andlorries can fairly and safely share the streets.The films were shown at different venuesacross Cardiff during the Festival andsimultaneously shown in Barranquilla,Colombia.

Former CSAD Graphic Communication andIllustrations students based at the MorganArcade Studios organised an open studio dayas a part of the Festival and made links witha London and Cardiff design company,Precedent, to help them run theirBodystorming event for design professionals.

The Festival has also been delighted with thedesign community’s response to the call forvolunteers to take part in the annual D&ADBrief-In and Student Portfolio Clinic whichgave design students at CSAD, the Universityof Newport, the University of Glamorgan,

Hereford School of Art and Design, SwanseaMetropolitan University and the University ofthe West of England the opportunity to meetwith designers to scrutinise their portfoliosand give them advice about how theypresent themselves and their ideas.

DoodleNoodle at the Design Festival HQRoyal and Morgan Arcades/Helical Bar lentthe Festival a shop unit to use as a FestivalHQ. This proved very successful andprovided an opportunity to distributinginformation about, for example, the SchoolOpen Days. The Festival has also securedsignificant PR for the School and Cardiff Metthrough major features in, for example, theWestern Mail and on Radio Wales.

This year the Festival worked hard to raisesponsorship and was successful in securingsmall amounts of funding from the DesignCommission for Wales, Cardiff Contemporaryand the Welsh Government, as well assignificant support in kind from the Royal andMorgan Arcades/Helical Bar, HarleyColourprint, Howard Smith Paper and Agfa,Hoffi who again undertook all of the designwork including that of the website, andillustrator Matt Joyce. It has also helpedstrengthen links with organisations such asthe Institute of Directors, the Institute ofWelsh Affairs (whose chairman Geraint TalfanDavies chaired the Festival’s openingdebate), the South Wales Design Circle, theRoyal Society of Architects in Wales, DesignWales and the Association of ContemporaryJewellery Wales.

It has also provided numerous opportunitiesfor our students to network with designprofessionals who also continue to begenerous in giving their time to mentorstudents.

Cardiff Open Art School2012/13 has got off to a hectic start forCardiff Open Art School with the launch ofnew courses and a high demand for places -during the autumn term 2011 COAS ran 8evening courses and had 87 students; thisterm it is running 12 evening classes and has131 students.

This term, Morgan Hall has updated one ofher ceramics courses and is now runningHand Building and Surface Decoration forPottery and Learn to use the Potter’s Wheel ,both of which, along with Laura Lillie’supdated Solarplate Etching course, have soldout. James Green’s Tuesday evening LifeDrawing course has also been revised and isproving popular. Very pleasing too is that thePortfolio Development course is also full.Bookings are now being received for twoweekend courses run by Sarah Edmonds;Book Binding and Festive LetterpressPrintmaking.

COAS Learn to use the Potter’s WheelDoodleNoodle at the Design Festival HQ


CSAD MAGAZINE

School News

CSAD New building - work beginsThe demolition of ‘B’ block on the LlandaffCampus is now complete, taking only a fewshort weeks from the first bulldozer arrivingon site to the building being reduced torubble. Work has now begun in earnest onthe construction of our amazing new ArtSchool building. As construction gets underway, images will be regularly posted on theSchool’s website and people can keep up-to-date with progress via a live web-cam at the site.

Made in RoathMany CSAD staff, students and alumni tookpart in this year’s Made in Roath Festivalfrom 12 to 21 October. PhD Student andCOAS Tutor, James Green led a Hunt for theMythical Golden Duck to promote COAS. Theadventure was open to all and encouragedparticipants to draw the wildlife on andaround Roath Park Lake. The HowardGardens Library hosted The Library Project,various new graduates showed work in andaround Northcote Lane, and Chris Dennisstaged an exhibition of his embroideredartworks at Moko Tattoo Studio. Newgraduate Bob Gelsthorpe took part in SHOrts,a film screening of short movies andanimations at The Sho Gallery and exhibitedwork at 38 Glenroy Street alongside otherCSAD alumni including Sam Aldridge andFreya Dooley. Other students and graduatesto show work as part of the Open Houseevent included Jackie Shackston, James Greenand PhD student Sarah Younan, whoexhibited work resulting from the study sheis undertaking with the National Museum’s

archives. CSAD Alumni Dr Sara Moorhouseand Paul Wearing of Fireworks showedceramic work at 32 Kelvin Road and BACeramics graduates held an exhibition at theMilkwood Gallery. Finally, Bill Chambers ran aCreate an Artists’ Book session at PenylanLibrary.

‘Portal Exhibition’ for CSAD Ceramics GraduatesBA Ceramics Graduates Jo Barlow andChelsea Cooney have been selected for thisyears ‘Portal Exhibition’ at LlantarnamGrange Arts Centre. The exhibition, whichincludes work by the UKs top ceramicsgraduates, will be shown at the Arts Centreand Oriel Davies. Chelsea’s work examinescontemporary behaviour, looking at theexaggerated, humorous and carnivalesqueworld of nightlife, whilst Jo’s installation isconcerned with the profound effect societaladvancement has on local and globalcultures.

Philippa Lawrence SubWOOFER Philippa Lawrence showed work as part ofthe subWOOFER with Ancient and Modernexhibition held at the Spike Island pop-upSpace, Bristol in August. The exhibition wasthe third in a series of pop-up exhibitionsorganised by members of the Spike Islandcommunity in a new temporary gallery spaceand aimed to showcase and experiment withthe breadth of activity that goes on in thebuilding.

CSAD Ceramics reviewThe CSAD Ceramics exhibition in Seattleearlier this year has been reviewed inCeramics Art and Perception. The reviewerwrites in glowing terms about the quality ofwork on display: “… A vibrancy is apparentthroughout the pieces shown… A measure ofrisk taking is apparent … Each artist hasfound their stylistic voice … discovered theirstrengths and run with it. For a brief momentin time, the creative forces of the NationalCentre for Ceramics, Wales, have found theirway across the ocean and illuminatedSeattle.” The exhibition was organised byIngrid Murphy and Dr Natasha Mayo andcoincided with NCECA 2012.

Green Apple Gold Award WinnerThe Quay SA1 Waterfront Swansea projecthas been awarded Gold at July’s Green AppleAwards, which honour excellence insustainable construction, design andinnovation of products and architecturalpreservation. The project was undertaken bythe Coastal Housing Group with Cardiff Metas a named partner. The Green AppleAwards are hailed as Europe’s longestrunning environmental awards.

Howard Gardens GalleryThe Gallery programme for the autumn termstarted with the 2012 Masters Exhibition. On show was work from our Fine Art, MDes,Ceramics and Product Design Masters levelsprogrammes; the exhibition catalogue isavailable to download from the School’swebsite. This was followed by the WJECFoundation Awards 2012 which included

in brief

Hunt for the Golden Duck, James Green


examples of work from 16 UK FoundationStudies Courses.

October’s exhibition, 2012 Building Wales,organized by the Design Circle showcasedimages and thoughts behind the constructionand development of “A Welsh Landscape” byCoombs Jones Architects+Makers, thewinning entry from the inaugural NationalEisteddfod pavilion competition. The termends with Soundings: thought over time,featuring work by Susan Ryland HelenThomas and Michael Beiert and a one-weekpainting exhibition organized by the Fine Artdepartment.

Illustrious IllustrationIllustration student and graduates have beenfeatured in a number of exhibitions this term.Held at the Milkwood Gallery in conjunctionwith the Cardiff Design Festival Swan Lakewas part of the Pointe Blank Projects devisedby the Birmingham Royal Ballet and curatedby Claire Hartley. Contributors were invitedto create an original artwork based on thestory of the ballet and gradates Ellen Leber,Dan Peterson, Ed Fairburn, James Swain andLucy Freegard were amongst the selectedartists included in the exhibition.

Also in conjunction with the Design Festival,graduates James Swain and Ruth Mansleyand current students Simeon Davies andLayla Holzer were selected to exhibit inCharmed and exhibition inspired by theUnicorn, and George Morton, Lucy Mageeand Jacob Cozens all contributed to theproduction of Off the Chain magazine.

Finally, Lucy Freegard and Thomas Reeswere included in Pick and Mix, and exhibitionin London.

Ceramics UpdateThe ceramics department is continuing todevelop its award winning Learning andTeaching Resources which are now availablethrough Open Access Websites: Jorum,Merlot, TES and CSAD’s National Centre forCeramics own Virtual Learning Website:http://www.ceramics.cardiffmet.ac.uk.

Cardiff OpenThe work of 40 artists were shown as partof the Cardiff Open, a city centre exhibitionshowcasing the best contemporary art andpractice in the area. Amongst the selectedartists were Illustration student Layla Holzer,research student Sarah Younan, BillChambers and numerous CSAD Alumniincluding Sam Alderidge, Bob Gelsthorpe,Mike Murry, Ruth Mclees and Liam O’Connorto name but a few.

The winner is…Fine Art Printmaking MA student FlorenceWalkey won the Frank Brangwyn MemorialPrize for an outstanding print at this year’sRE Open. The new printmaking exhibitionrun by the Royal Society of PainterPrintmakers (RE) promotes the best incontemporary printmaking and spotlightsnew talent. Florence’s A Thousand Pieces ofFlesh and Bone was selected from over4,000 entries with the best 200 beingfeatured in the supporting exhibition at theBankside Gallery, London. Recent MA

graduate Ian Wilkins also had work featuredin the show.

Fine Art graduate Alan Goulbourne is one oftwo recipients of the John Gingell Awards,which were established in honour of an artistwhose impact on art education began atCSAD over four decades ago. John Gingell(1935-2007) was a pioneering andpassionate artist and arts educator. His ownwork crossed many media from painting,performance, installation, to sculpture andpublic art and, in accordance with John’swishes, the prize will continue his legacy bysupporting the career development ofemerging artists. Administered by g39 andthe Gingell family, the award will providesupport towards the development of a bodyof work culminating in an exhibition at g39,Cardiff in the summer.

Textiles Go Live!This year Textiles students are benefitingfrom a number of live modules and otheropportunities. Lead by Sally Grant, studentsare working with one of the leading woollendesign companies, Melin Tregwynt, as a partof the company’s 100th anniversarycelebrations. Company owners, Eifion andAmanda Griffiths, who have developed thefamily business into an international brand,spent a day with the students, explainingtheir design ethos and discussing the longhistory of the Welsh woollen industry. Thestudent brief focuses on ethical andecological issues, innovative responses tomaterials and processes, and giving wool acontemporary twist in line with the British

Dan Peterson, Swan Lake


CSAD MAGAZINE

Wool Board’s high profile campaign toconnect the ancient fabric with youngconsumers and designers.

Organised by Dr Cathy Treadaway, Level 6textiles students will be working on a ‘live’project with Festive Productions Ltd. acompany based in Cwmbran thatmanufactures seasonal decorations andgiftware. Mr. Jonathan Hughes, CreativeDirector of the company, introduced thestudents to the brief in September and theproject will culminate with the selection ofdesigns to developed and used by Festive intheir international trade showrooms. Selectedstudents will be given work experienceopportunities with the company.

Philippa Lawrence has three events fortextiles students to learn more aboutprofessional opportunities post graduation.Eleri Evans from the National Museum Waleswill talk about working in the museums andgalleries education sector. Charlotte Kingstonfrom Craft in the Bay will also provide a talkand students have been invited to attend aCraft in the Bay workshop delivered by JuliaGriffiths Jones who works with wire, metalsand textiles. Finally, Philippa has alsoarranged for three former Textiles studentsto deliver three professional practice lectures.

Finally, former student Abi Trotman, nowworking as an Exhibitions Coordinator &Education Officer at the Washington Gallery,Penarth, has invited Textiles students tostage an exhibition at the gallery next April.

David at the London Design FestivalProfessor David Ferry had work featured inSeptember’s London Design as arepresentative of one of the official designpartners of the Festival, the London PrintStudio, in an exhibition called Reincarnation.

Michelle, Angharad & Amelia run theHalf MarathonCongratulations to Michelle Brown, AngharadJones and Amelia Johnstone who bothcompleted the Cardiff Half Marathon inOctober. Michelle ran the 13 mile halfmarathon to raise £160 for Macmillan CancerSupport and Angharad completed the coursein 2 hours, 19 minutes to raise £175 forCAFOD, a charity working with local partnersand communities, responding toemergencies, promoting long-termdevelopment and raising public awareness ofthe causes of poverty. Amelia and productdesigner Pete Hathaway ran in aid of theAlzheimer’s Society. The pair devised a wayof illustrating while running and created onedrawing per mile using a scrolling sketchbookmachine named ‘Pheidippides’ after theAncient Greek message-carrying marathonrunner. Amelia, Pete and Pheidippides alsohope to take part in next year’s New YorkMarathon.

Artists’ Books CollectionHoward Gardens Library launched its Artists’Books collections on the 18th October. Thelaunch included a talk by Emma Adamson,Head of the Library Division and TanyaPeixoto, book artist and owner of the Londonbookartbookshop.

Mothers of Africa Staff, students and friends producedsponsored squares using the themes ofeither ‘Mothers’ or ‘Africa’ for a quilt underthe direction of Maggie Cullinane in aid of theMother’s of Africa charity. The main activitiesof the charity revolve around visits to Sub-Saharan Africa countries to provide trainingfor anaesthetic medical staff at the front-lineof maternal care. The quilt, which is currentlyon show as part of the Mother’s of Africaexhibition in the Pierhead Building in CardiffBay, raised over £856.

Also in aid of Mothers in Africa, CSADProgramme Administrators Angharad Jonesand Vikki Jenkins organised a Zubmathon inOctober. Around 30 people attended theSaturday class to Zumba for charity andraised over £865. Well done to everyonewho took part!

Amelia Johnstone, Pete Hathaway & the Pheidippides Machine A section of the quilt made for Mothers of Africa


Summer term 2013

The Art of Screen Printing Advanced level (5 weeks only) Mondays, starts 22 April, 6.30 - 8.30pm £75.00

Solarplate Etching (5 weeks only) Mondays, starts 22 April, 6.30 - 8.30pm £100.00

Book Binding (4 weeks only)Mondays, starts 13 May, 6.30 - 8.30pm £85.00

Intermediate/Advanced Painting in Oil & AcrylicMondays, starts 22 April, 7.00 - 9.00pm £120.00

Introduction to DSLR PhotographyMondays, starts 22 April, 7.00 - 9.00pm £150.00

Relief PrintmakingTuesdays, starts 23 April, 6.30 - 8.30pm£135.00

Life Drawing Comes AliveTuesdays, starts 23 April, 7.00 - 9.00pm£125.00

Life DrawingWednesdays, starts 24 April, 4.30 - 6.30pm £125.00

Learn to Use the Potter’s WheelWednesdays, starts 24 April, 6.30 - 8.30pm £150.00

Exploring DrawingWednesdays, starts 24 April, 7.00 - 9.00pm £120.00

Developing your PortfolioThursdays, starts 25 April, 4.30 - 6.30pm £165.00

Hand Building & Surface Decoration for PotteryThursdays, starts 25 April, 6.30 - 8.30pm £150.00

Introduction to DSLR PhotographyThursdays starts 25 April, 7.00 - 9.00pm £150.00

Introduction to Painting in Oil & AcrylicThursdays, starts 25 April, 7.00 - 9.00pm £120.00

Summer holidays 2013

Unpacking your digital SLR Saturday 6 July, 10.00 - 4.00pm £75.00

Digital Photography - creating yourportfolio (5 weeks only) Wednesdays, starting 3 July £75.00

Screen printing masterclass with Chris LloydTo be announced

Letterpress Printmaking workshopSaturday 27 July, 10.00 - 5.00pm £85.00

Solarplate Etching Studio Printing Day (for those who have complete the evening course previously)Saturday 27 July, 10.00 - 4.00pm £75.00

Relief Printmaking: Studio Printing Day (for those who have complete the evening course previously)Saturday 3 August, 10.00 - 4.00pm £75.00

Cardiff Open Art SchoolIt doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced artist, arepreparing a portfolio to apply for an art, design,architecture or creative industries course or if you’ve neverpicked up a pencil or paintbrush before, we’ve gotsomething to offer you. What all our staff and studentshave in common is their passion for art and design sohere’s what we’ve got planned for Spring and Summer2013 - it would be great if you could join us.

All the courses are run at our Howard Gardens Campus and unless otherwise

stated run for ten evening sessions. Full course details, profiles of our tutors and lots of

images of student work can be found at http://cardiff-school-of-art-and-design.org/coas/

You can simply book and pay over the phone on 029 20416628 or send in a cheque made payable to

Cardiff Metropolitan University with the enrolmentform available on the website to

Cardiff Open Art School, Cardiff School of Art &Design, Howard Gardens Campus,

Howard Gardens, Cardiff CF24 0SP.

Follow COAS on Twitter at @CardiffCOAS or join ourFacebook group Cardiff Open Art School at Cardiff

Metropolitan University.

CSAD MAGAZINE

Doctorates and Research Degrees

MPhil PhD Professional Doctorate in Art Professional Doctorate in Design Professional Doctorate in Ecological Building

Practices

Taught Postgraduate

Postgraduate Certificate in Professional &Research Skills: Art & Design

Master of Fine Art (MFA) Master of Design (MDes) Master of Design (MDes) SADI MA (Cardiff School of Art & Design)

Art & ScienceArtist Designer MakerCommunicationDeath & Visual CultureEcologiesFine ArtIllustrationPhilosophyPhotographic PracticeProduct DesignTextiles

MA Ceramics

MSc Advanced Product Design

www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/csadwww.cardiffmet.ac.uk/studywithus

Cardiff School of Art & Design, Howard Gardens Campus, Cardiff CF24 0SP

Tel: +44 (0)29 2041 6154 Fax: +44 (0)29 2041 6944 email: [email protected]

Cardiff School of Art & Design, Llandaff Campus , Western Avenue, Cardiff CF5 2YB

Tel: +44 (0)29 2041 6070 Fax: +44 (0)29 2041 6640 email: [email protected]


Undergraduate

Cardiff Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art & Design) (Bridgend) - allied programme only

Foundation Degree in Applied Art & Design (Bridgend)

Foundation Degree in Ceramics (Cardiff and The Vale College)

Foundation Degree in Contemporary TextilesPractice (Cardiff and The Vale College)

Foundation Degree in GraphicCommunication (Cardiff and The Vale College)

Foundation Degree in Sustainable BuildingPractice (Bridgend, Pembrokeshire, LlandrilloCollege, & Coleg Powys)

HNC Building Technology and Management(Ystrad Mynach)

HND Architectural Design & Technology BSc (Hons) Architectural Design

& Technology BA (Hons) Artist Designer: Maker BA (Hons) Fine Art BA (Hons) Ceramics BA (Hons) Textiles BA (Hons) Graphic Communication BA (Hons) Illustration BA (Hons) Product Design► BSc (Hons) Product Design

► BA (Hons) Photographic Practice (Bridgend)

cardiff school of art & design magazine - issue 3

Documents

design degrees

design institute

school isalready

thesamsung art

sadi ways

visibility of sadi

sadi fitsinto

new csad building