Gray's School of Art Masters Course Brochure 2015

3Collaborative Contextual Conversations

Masters Degree Show 2015MFA Contextualised PracticeMDES Contextualised Practice

Gray’s School of ArtRobert Gordon University

Early on in the session we drove out of the Garthdee campus in one of the University’s minibuses, as it is good to get out. New places are always stimulating; they get people thinking about ideas in fresh and different ways. These places, wherever they are, help us with new perspectives. On this day we travelled to a building, on the opposite side of the River Dee, not far away. It had previously been Maryculter Primary School but was now a space we could use. We gathered a table and what chairs there were, sat down and all laughed. We looked around wondering what had happened here, it was smaller than the school that I had gone to but this place had a recognisable atmosphere. We set up our equipment and notebooks ready to discuss

and share our thoughts and ideas of our research mappings, it indeed felt refreshing to open up a discussion in a place that made an influence on our thoughts and perception of things.

Reflecting over the year of the Masters in Contextualised Practice course shows us that all creative practice has its contexts and collaborators. They help to determine and complete the projects and work for all those involved in its development and realisation.

Each of the students here, have developed an individual portfolio of creative practice, which has been enhanced by this attention and application to context and

collaboration. Through their individual skills and processes the students have made important connections between creativity and the world around us, by way of social, political, economic and cultural contexts. As their projects evolved throughout the year it became apparent that a unique value of sharing was being generated. This value opened up many possibilities of collaboration with different colleagues, peers, tutors, professionals, mentors and the public, helping the students to develop and resolve their methods and inquiries. Although the initial authorship stays with the student, it is through these collaborations that a collective ownership in the professional and public realm is

Something about the year

produced. This process creates a trust between those involved in developing the creative work. In essence therefore, it seems important to recognise that this positive value of sharing and trust generated by the students with their collaborators is clearly integral to the success of their creative practices and projects.

During the course this year the students have engaged in and enjoyed collaborations and conversations with Gray’s School of Art specialist tutors and researchers - Andrea Peach, Annette Murray, Jim Buckley, Keith Grant, Michael Agnew, Dr Jon Pengelly, Charlie Hackett, David Blyth, Dr Jon Blackwood, Chris Freemantle, Dr

Nil Gulari, Iain Morrison and myself - as well as Fergus Connor, Arts Development Officer at Aberdeenshire Council, Graham Domke, Exhibitions Curator at Dundee Contemporary Art and Donna Holford-Lovell, Curator of Fleet Collective and all those involved in the development of their individual projects.

Well done to all the students - Anne Murray, Nicole Porter, Giuseppe Pizzo, Nathan Garden, Lauren Milton, Chris Alexander and Jessika Shaw - on their dedication, creativity and professionalism over the year.

Iain IrvingCourse LeaderMFA/MDES Contextualised Practice

Something about the year

From Left to Right: Nicole Porter, Chris Alexander, Anne Murray, Nathan Garden, Lauren Milton, Giuseppe Pizzo, Jessika Shaw

After completing my undergraduate course, I was awarded a series of residencies in Norway, Paris and New York over a two-year period before returning home in 2010 when I set up my own gallery, The Nicole Porter Gallery at 88 King Street, Aberdeen. Since then I have been running the gallery while painting full time.

Nicole Porter

The MFA was an opportunity to challenge myself and explore an area of my practice, which I was keen to gain a deeper understanding of through a studio-based investigation.

My project is focused on the genre of history painting and an investigation into the possibilities that art, in particular painting, has to communicate and represent contemporary historical and political events and ideas. This research has extended into a study of the ability history painting has in today’s society to participate in public debates as well as providing a valuable tool for the documentation of these events for future generations to come.

My aim is to capture on canvas the interaction between political elected representatives within the society they represent. Using imagery from current culture and debate to create a painting, which visualizes these links in today’s society through an exploration of contrasting visual languages within the medium of paint.

The final painting will be exhibited within the Debating Chamber of Aberdeen City Council’s Town House with the local councilors as the audience. The exhibition will then travel to The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh at the end of this year.

studio self portrait

Masters Exposition Gray’s School of Art

January 2015

88 King Street, Aberdeen, AB24 5BA07709123357

[email protected]

“In The Thick Of It” oil on canvas and perspex 115x75cm

“In The Thick Of It” hung in the Debating Chamber in The Town House, Aberdeen - August 2015

“Coallusion” oil on canvas 50x20cm

CREOLOGY (cre-o-logy)

Derived from the Latin word for Create'Creo' and Greek word for The Study of (acertain subject) 'logy' - I created'CREOLOGY' the study of creativity.

MASTERS PROJECT AIM

With a keen interest in the Maker Cultureand Collboration as Process, I aim Toproduce a unique and personal platform,Element, that allows the user to; Curate,Reflect, Engage and Originate new andexisting creativity via multiple means ofinteraction. Each unique Element allows theuser to; draw, paint, write, sculpt, stick, addand/or subtract - just to name a fewavenues of creative expression. By doing soan individual can learn more about theirown creative personality/identity as well asunderstand that of others, as evidenced byresearch carried out by David Gauntlett(2007 & 2011) and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi(1996). This, in turn, may assist in inspiringnew creativity, curating ideas, forging newcollaborations as well as fostering existingrelations,

Website: www.creology.netFacebook: www.facebook.com/creodesignInstagram: @creodesignTwitter: @creodesignProject blog: csadesign.wordpress.com

Chris is a Designer, Researcher, Academic and Maker and has worked under the guise of Creo Design for the last 5 years producing work independently and in collaboration with the worlds best Creative Practitioners.

Chris has designed, made and manufactured products that have been distributed and sold worldwide. He has also had his work exhibited in Tokyo, Milan, Sydney, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Singapore, Berlin, Edinburgh and London.

In addition to his creative practice Chris is a Course Leader and Lecturing in a range of creative specialisms including, Product Design, Interior Architecture, Digital Arts and Model Making, for the last 10 years. Internationally, Chris has Lectured and talked in Germany, Holland and Belgium.

www.creology.netwww.facebook.com/creodesign

twitter.com/creodesignIntagram.com/creodesigncsadesign.wordpress.com



MASTERS PROJECT AIM





MASTERS PROJECT AIM





MASTERS PROJECT AIM




Derived from the Latin word for Create ‘Creo’ and Greek word for The Study of (a certain subject) ‘logy’ - I created ‘CREOLOGY’ the study of creativity.

MASTERS PROJECT AIM

With a keen interest in the Maker Culture and Collboration as Process, I aim to produce a unique and personal platform, Element, that allows the user to; Curate, Reflect, Engage and Originate new and existing creativity via multiple means of interaction. Each unique Element allows the user to; draw, paint, write, sculpt, stick, add and/or subtract - just to name a few avenues of creative expression. By doing so an individual can learn more about their own creative personality/identity as well as understand that of others, as evidenced by research carried out by David Gauntlett (2007 & 2011) and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996). This, in turn, may assist in inspiring new creativity, curating ideas, forging new collaborations as well as fostering existing relations.

Anne Murray

‘Welcome Home Rhynie Man’ is a Contextualised Project with a symphonic structure that took place in Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, in collaboration with Aberdeenshire Council (Archaeology Team), Northern Picts Project (Aberdeen University Archaeological Department) and Rhynie Woman (artists collective).

Some members of the community had shown an interest in returning

Rhynie Man to the village, however with few people knowing Rhynie Man’s

story and where he was it was difficult to establish a connection. The focus

of the project was to reunite the village with their Pictish Symbol Stone;

Rhynie Man, a stone carved about 1500 years ago ploughed up by farmers

in 1978. The stone was moved in 1988 into the special care of Aberdeenshire

Council and is now based around 40 miles away from the village in

Aberdeenshire Council’s headquarter building Woodhill House, Aberdeen.

The project comprised of four movements; the absence, the invitation, the

journey and the homecoming, through which the community and others

were taken through the symbolic return of Rhynie Man to Rhynie. This

project supported Rhynie Woman through a period of project development

funded through Heritage Lottery Funding and although each collaborator

had different backgrounds, disciplines and objectives, the priority for them

all was to enhance the community’s relationship with Pictish Heritage and

ultimately enhance Rhynie’s presence within Aberdeenshire, Scotland and

beyond as an attractive place to live, work and visit.

The JourneyHand Whittled from the Clashendarroch Forest.

Cherry Wood Staff and Story Stick - Aberdeen to Rhynie

The HomecomingHomecoming Event with Rhynie Woman and Community

Anne’s contribution to the community activities included

conducting object biographical research, creating a film, oral

history recording, walking from Woodhill House to Rhynie,

interactive community activities, developing a cycle route between

Aberdeen and Rhynie, producing a map for the village, gala day

activities, story telling, establishing a blog and twitter feed for

Rhynie Man, creating products for Rhynie Woman to enhance their

practice through the work they do. In addition Anne developed a

Community Narrative Framework which is transferrable to other

communities, situations and projects and which has enabled Anne

to secure a couple of Residencies working with communities after

the end of the course.

[email protected]

@annemurraymakesTheRhynieMan.wordpress.com

@therhynieman

Creative Community Narratives

Acrylic Etched Rubbing Boards used at the Rhynie Gala and

Archaeological Open Days

Rhynie Man Pop Up CafeLaser etched acrylic giant

cookie embosser

Rhynie Man Pop Up CafeIllustrated laser cut template

Creative Community Narratives

Rhynie Man in the making - Are you related to Rhynie Man? Could you be the next

lookie-likie?

Nathan Garden

After graduating from the University of Aberdeen in 2013, I came to Gray’s to pursue my practical interest in art, creating a multi-media graphic narrative, The Tragicomedy.

The Tragicomedy follows the life and career of Ant Harland, a fictitious comedian who is guilt-stricken at his career choices which have led him to attain the status of a prime-time TV icon at the expense of his integrity as a performer. He is loosely based on the personalities and jokes of American comedians Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce, and his appearance, as well as the appearance of the other characters who populate the universe of The Tragicomedy, is the result of my research into the styles of various graphic artists and illustrators.

To create this project, I had to develop a style for graphic illustration while learning how to work in a variety of new mediums such as relief, collage, and conté crayons. By venturing into other mediums I created a wider ‘biography’ for the protagonist, using the individual pieces to explore individual episodes in the redemptive phase of his life. For example, I created voice recordings of an ‘interview’ with a fictitious magazine, a small film with a voice of another ‘interview’, as well as experimental comic strips which tried to accommodate a 3-D dimension into the comic medium.

Masters Exposition at Gray’s School of Art -

January 2015

[email protected]

The Tragicomedy.

1. ‘Single figure with bulging mouth’

2. ‘Smirking during the joke’

3. ‘Single shocked figure’

1

2

3

Lauren Milton

Making work that deals with my specific interests - history, medicine, hysteria, mind and body – meant that the NHS archives seemed be a natural location for my research to begin as I aim to explore the Victorian phenomenon of hysteria and the female malady.

My research has led me to asylums and health institutions with a particular focus on experimental treatments for female patients, day-to-day life in the asylum over time, background stories and patient case studies.

As part of my Masters research I have been working with the coordinator of the NHS archives to gain a wider understanding of historical conditions for women, and I have been able to gain access to case studies of women from medical institutions here in Aberdeen. Through working with these archives I have developed an interest in how life and experiences can be documented and saved, and how this information can become manipulated and edited over years. Ideally, I would like to build up my own archive consisting of the women and their stories that I have discovered through my research and show my own understanding and representation of their lives and hardships.

The Grays School of Art MFA is providing me with an invaluable understanding of new research methods as well as supporting me through previously unexplored levels of critical analysis.

[email protected]

Mark making and pattern allow me to layer traces of human presence. Printmaking is crucial to my work as I use traditional processes to allow these layers to build up to create images that evoke a sense of time and state of mind. All this information then becomes visualised through an ongoing series of prints and objects.

Giuseppe Pizzo

93 milesdrive to Aviemore

The Stereotypical Magazine is an online based piece of

publishing with the aim of embracing an audience who

love active lifestyles and in the mean time are sensible to

environmental issues and contemporary social dynamics. The feature stories of Stereotypical Magazine are narrated both with photography and video, but also with the support of explanatory text that has the tendency to have an argumentative tone of voice. The magazine’s genre is the journey and the findings of this whilst on the road. The outcome is usually spontaneous and true to the audience.

This magazine cares about the sentimental part of the society as much as the respect of the environment. In fact the magazine likes to highlight the existing gap between humankind and the awareness of preserving the nature or at least slow down the process of draining the planet resources in the name of a “god called money”. However, the magazine doesn’t want to distance itself from Art and likes to narrate about the subject, always including it within the boundaries of its journey genre.

During the winter 2009 Scotland was enjoying one of its best ski seasons. But in spite of this the Scottish ski industry appears to be under threat due to climate changes.

Therefore, in March 2015 I took a trip to Aviemore to check some of the highest peaks in the Cairngorms Mountains to see how the snow conditions were and perhaps find out what the locals thought about the receding snow season in Scotland.

Free as a sheep - Outer Hebridies trip

Surfing in Scotland

Thinking HubFord Transit Hicube

X98 FDF95,000 miles - clocked

Spirit of 67 - Inter and Celtic meet again

www.giuseppepizzo.co.ukwww.stereotypicalmag.com

Jessika Shaw

“Culture influences both the conscious and the

subconscious mind. Culture determines attitudes and

actions, and in doing so provides identity as well as a

sense of community. Culture is the hand that preserves

the existing as well as being the matrix for the new.

Each individual cultural activity, every artistic

discipline, forms part of this process of affirmation

and renewal.”

My Master’s project explores Aberdeen as a city, the way it exists at present, its past, as well as the future of the city. I’m particularly interested in the cultural development of creativity within city spaces and I aim to find ways in which this can be done in the city and how my practice can encourage this type of development as well as bring the creative community together.

My practice usually consists of typographic work as well as a combination of handmade elements mixed with digital media. During this project so far my practice has still stayed very true to myself; however, I have experimented in city interventions, different styles of mapping a place and traditional methods of photography. I am currently undergoing collaborative work with various creatives, including local writers.

[email protected]

cityofcreativeculture.tumblr.com

Analog Aberdeen

Analog photography has such a magical

aesthetic to it; whether it is the spooling

of the film, the finding of the grain, the

physical photograph or just all the happy

accidents that come with it.

THANK YOUWe would like to thank all those individuals and organisations who have collaborated with the students in the development of their projects over the year, including –

Gray’s School of Art CommunityAberdeen City Council Alex SalmondAdam DantSandy MoffatShane Strachan - Creative WriterNathan Brown - Creative WriterDerek Stewart - Literary Scholar/Creative WriterNavigate CollectiveArtistic Pathways City WideUniversity of Aberdeen Oral History ArchivePenny Taylor : Taylored Curiosities - DorsetBenjamin Kline - Tenacious Toys - New York, USAAngus McEwan - WormitAnne Murray - Making Connections - HuntlyRadim Malinic - Brand Nu - London

Chris Dobson - Alto - EdinburghJames Donald - PickOne - EdinburghAkinori Oishi - Osaka JapanJit Hee Goh - Ziqi - SingaporeKatie Tang & Mike Doney - TADO - SheffieldJamie Stubbs - Mimic - PortsmouthPaul Vincett & Becky Johnson - Stitches and Glue - LondonJackson Aw - Might Jaxx - SingaporeGerry Roarty - DundeeGiuseppe Pizzo - Stereotypicalmag - AberdeenGordon Kydd - Kydd:Design - BallochRichard Page - UME-Toys - NottinghamFrank Jansen - West Boylston, MA, USAAaron Martin - Angry Woebots - USAGavin Strange - JamFactory - BristolTimo Wirtz - Das Mo - Germany

Donna Holford-Lovell - Fleet Collective - DundeeFrederik De Wilde - Brussels, BelgiumSimon Atkinson - AyrPieter Michels - Gent, BelgiumSteptan Konig - GermanyPaul Farquharson - Fife, DundeePhoenix Perry - New York, USAEma Anel Sauramo – GermanyKirill Obolenskiy - StirlingDaniel Henshaw-Dann - LeicesterMichael Agnew - ArtistNikolae Globe - ArtistJessika ShawMattia Spiga - The Stereotypical MagazineAdrian Roudergue - Surfer in ThursoDaniel the Celtic fan

Kieran and Mitch in AviemoreRoger in CallanishAnthony Barber in Port NisNorman Mackenzie in Carloway Roberto Mancini - Football ManagerCallum Kellie - Grays School of ArtSerdar Karhemans - Thesis Wordpress expertJacqui Venturini - Second camera assistant and painterRhynie Woman - Artist CollectiveAberdeen City and Shire, Moray and Angus Council’s Archaeology teamAberdeen University Archaeology Department - Northern Picts ProjectRhynie Primary School, the archeological dig team and community of RhynieRachael Jobs

Carol AnnRon BranderMary BourneRoss SimsJoel GardenDanielle GardenSarah Begg - The GatehouseMartin Parker - The Gatehouse

Designed by The Gatehouse Design and Print Consultancy at Robert Gordon University

www.graysartschoolaberdeen.com

Collaborative Contextual Conversations

Gray’s School of ArtRobert Gordon UniversityGarthdee CampusAberdeen AB10 7QD

Documents

Gray's School of Art Masters Course Brochure 2015