LU Arts Presents Englishes – A Conversation

Join LU Arts this January for an afternoon of presentations, discussion and film screenings constructed around artist Nicoline van Harskamp’s preoccupation with investigating the global use of English by non-native speakers around the world.

Having already made a series of video works focusing on the subject, the artist continued her research at Loughborough University where she was invited by Radar to make a new work in collaboration with its linguists. A new work, Apologies and Compliments, was made as part of the commission and will be screened alongside other videos from the series known as Englishes, an on-going a project that seeks to provoke questions about the features and possible declinations of a future global English.

Screenings will be accompanied by presentations from experts in the fields of linguistics and art. Nicoline van Harskamp will host a conversation between invited artists and academics who will act as first respondents to the issues represented in the works before audience members and guests are also invited to contribute to the session with their remarks and opinions.

The event will be taking place on Friday 27th January at the LU Arts Project Space on the 1st Floor of the Edward Barnsley Building from 1pm – 5pm. Tickets can be bought via the LU Arts website below:

http://www.arts.lboro.ac.uk/radar/events/event/englishes_-_a_conversation

Weekend of Weird at the Martin Hall

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LU Arts is remaining in the Halloween spirit this November with a weekend long exploration of everything Weird, hosted in the Martin Hall Theatre on Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th November.

A Weekend of Weird brings together writers, performers, filmmakers, artists, publishers, academics, enthusiasts and celebrants to ask: what is the Weird? Where did it come from? Where is it going?

The Weird is an emerging field that encompasses literature, film, music, art and performance. Its world is subtly strange, uncanny, irrational, inexplicable, questioning our everyday environments and perceptions and implying that our world is far more bizarre and disturbing than we would like to believe.

The weekend will comprise panel discussions, live performances, film screenings and a specialist book fair. It is organised by Radar in collaboration with Nick Freeman and Dan Watt from Loughborough University’s School of the Arts, English and Drama.

A Weekend of Weird centres around a series of main panel discussions with contributions from John Hirschhorn-Smith, Andrew Michael Hurley, Timothy Jarvis, James Machin and Mark Valentine. These sessions will be interspersed with live performances and a series of specially curated film programmes.

For this programme Radar has commissioned new works by Joey Holder, Ben Judd, Tai Shani and artist collective Reactor. There will also be screenings of work by Sidsel Christensen and Pauline Curnier Jardin.

Full programme information can be found on the LU Arts website here:

http://www.arts.lboro.ac.uk/radar/events/event/a_weekend_of_weird

Play Loughborough – Online

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Back in August Radar hosted the Play Loughborough event in the town centre as part of their Market Town commission, which involved a day of game-jamming with artist Ruth Catlow. Loughborough residents created drawings and shared their thoughts on the future of their town. The output from the day was then transformed by Ruth into the characters, landscape, rules, obstacles, and objectives of an interactive online game. Radar are now very excited to announce that this game is now online and ready to be played!

Ruth has already created two levels for the game which you can play straight away by visiting the Play Your Place website here. But the fun doesn’t stop there – the games are open for anyone to edit and remix as they like! So why not sign up for free and create your own game level? If you need a little help, check out these tutorials for help and hints on the process. You can also find video samples of gameplay from Ruth’s levels here if you’re looking for some inspiration!

Play Loughborough!

market townLoughborough University’s very own arts collective Radar will be issuing an open invitation to everyone in Loughborough this Saturday (22nd August) to join in with a unique day of public game-jamming on a theme of contemporary topics.

Create online games for the health and prosperity of everyone in Loughborough… or to start a total catastrophe… It’s your choice.

Take up the challenge of answering questions about your town through conversation and drawing and see your ideas turned into interactive online games. Artist Ruth Catlow, who co-devised the Play Your Place concept, will lead the day and help the imaginative citizens of Loughborough to develop a collective vision for a richer, emancipated life for the town.

The event takes place in at the Market Town Corner in the Carillon Court Shopping Centre in the heart of Loughborough town centre between 10am to 5pm, and is open to all – young and old alike. No booking required at – just drop by and join in!

For further details visit the Radar Market Town page here:

http://www.arts.lboro.ac.uk/radar/

On the Radar… DIY & Anarchist Publishing

1363LU Arts Radar, supported by the LU Communication, Culture and Citizenship Research Challenge, are presenting a thought-provoking discussion about the world of underground publishing next Wednesday (6th May).

The discussion is headlined by Richard Cubesville, a journalist, and is the force behind One Way Ticket to Cubesville zine, a vehemently DIY slice of anarcho-absurdism in existence since 1987, and Stevphen Shukaitis, an academic at the University of Essex and is the coordinator of the Minor Compositions publishing project, which bills itself as a series of interventions and provocations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life.

Both these presenters are actively engaged in forms of publishing that differ markedly from the industry norm – but they differ from one another too.  This presentation and discussion of their approaches will illuminate the political significance of alternative publishing, against the backdrop of a rapidly changing publishing world.

There will also be a mini-exhibit of zines before and after the session.  The event is free and open to all, and starts at 5pm in the LU Arts Project Space in the Edward Barnsley Building.

Ecosystem Design Service Workshop

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How would you create a design if your client was a native wetland plant species? What are its wants, needs and desires, and how does it connect to the humans which utilize its services?

This Ecosystem Service Design workshop will be given by Zack Denfeld from CoClimate (coclimate.com/). Participants will be introduced to the concept of ecosystem services, and will identify a particular animal, plant or biospheric flow as a client that they believe is undervalued. We will then use service design strategies to imagine and prototype new connections between humans, technology and the natural environment, culminating in a series of insights and patterns that will be collated, synthesized and disseminated following the workshop. Participants will leave with a set of tools for thinking creatively about specific environmental opportunities and challenges, and a set of metaphors for conducting design research with non-human clients.

Afterwards, Nowcasting artists James Bridle and Rachel Jacobs will be joined by Dr Candice Howarth – Senior Research Fellow Climate Action & Cultural Systems at Anglia Ruskin University – and Professor Mike Wilson – Loughborough University, The School of the Arts, English and Drama – to discuss their approaches to working with data to develop new narratives and experiences.

The workshop is aimed at researchers and practitioners within the fields of art, design, engineering and environmental sciences. It will be taking place in the LU Arts Project Space in the Edward Barnsley Building on Wednesday 15th October from 1pm – 4.30pm, with the discussion afterwards commencing at 5pm (ending at 7pm). As space for both sessions is limited, prior booking is necessary, which you can do via these links:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ecosystem-service-design-workshop-tickets-13284744027

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nowcasting-talks-tickets-13285091065

Take a Step into the Future with the Prediction Machine!

themachineWhen you visit the Library Cafe this month you might be surprised by the presence of a strange machine that promises not coffee, but predictions!

The Prediction Machine is a cross between an end of the pier fortune telling machine, a TV weather forecast and the TARDIS from Doctor Who. The machine uses the meteorological data from Loughborough University’s weather station to print out predictions based on the weather now and what is being predicted for the future.

The Prediction Machine is an interactive installation which has been developed using the input of a series of workshops, creating a dialogue around the changes in weather and climate, and has been created by the artist Rachel Jacobs in collaboration with Matt Little, Ian Jones (Sherwood Wood), Matthew Gates, Robin Shackford, Juliet Robson, Dr Candice Howarth and Dr Carlo Buontempo.

It will be on display in the Library Cafe from today for a fortnight. This will be followed by final public event that will marks changes in the climate that are experienced by the local residents and users of the machine over the duration of the exhibition. More information about this event will be announced later on the LU Arts website.

For more details about the installation, visit the artists’ website here:

http://www.thepredictionmachine.org/

On the Radar: Evoking Emotion

radar logoRadar, Loughborough University Arts, the Design and Emotion Society and international innovation agency DesignThinkersGroup have teamed up to offer an afternoon workshop, Evoking Emotion, this Friday, 13th June, that will examine experience driven design.

This free event is aimed at design professionals, artists and academics, who are interested in creating emotional connections through objects and experiences. It is a great opportunity to network and share ideas.

Three speakers will share their research and outputs generated as part of Product Pleasure, a programme of artists’ commissions exploring how products can create sensorial, emotional and meaningful experiences.

Commissioned artist Cécile B. Evans will reflect upon How happy a Thing can be, a new sculptural and video based work informed by the research of Dr Samantha Porter, Senior Lecturer at Loughborough Design School.

Designer and researcher Mark Selby will share his research investigating ways that material objects might shape our engagement with personal experiences.

Game designer Holly Gramazio will draw upon her experiences of making work for public spaces, exploring the intersection of game design with other cultural forms.

The event begins at 1pm and closes at 5pm. It will be followed by drinks and a light buffet in which speakers and audience can carry on the conversation.

Places for this event are limited and should be booked online.

On the Radar – Prediction Machine Workshops

radar logoRadar, the University Arts program, is beginning a series of workshops next Monday which will develop a dialogue around the changes in weather and climate that we are now seeing.

If you are a resident of Loughborough or a student or staff member at the university and have experienced the way that the climate has affected the environment, the National Forest, your garden, allotment, farm or even just the trees on the streets then we would be very interested in working with you to see how we can mark and record these changes. The sessions will include opportunities to work with leading climate scientists and an excursion to the university woodlands.

The workshops will be held on the second Monday of every month between May to September 2014 (12th May, 9th June, 14th July, 11th August & 8th September) in the Loughborough University Arts Project Space in the Edward Barnsley Building, from 5.30-7.30pm.

You can book your place for the May workshop here and the June one here.

On the Radar – How Happy a Thing Can Be

radar logoThis Wednesday, 30th April, Radar will be launching an innovative new exhibition down at the Design School.

Cécile B. Evans focuses on how contemporary society values emotion: its production, hierarchy and representation within culture. She often sources material from fields such as science, film or the internet, and is interested in building structures with no hierarchy.

For this exhibition, Cécile will be presenting a new two-part work that incorporates both sculptural and video elements, involving 3D printed sculptures which will be presented in coordination with a video featuring three objects – a comb, a screwdriver, and a pair of scissors – animated to carry out a series of choreographed gestures that imply they are being pushed to their limits.

How Happy a Thing Can Be is a co-commission with  the Wysing Arts Centre. The work has been informed by the design tool Real People, developed by Dr Samantha Porter, Senior Lecturer at Loughborough Design School. Cécile has worked in collaboration with Cay Green to design the objects and been assisted by students Craig Parr and   Courtney Taylor.

The exhibition is launched on Wednesday evening at 5pm. It will then be open to visitors daily between 9am-5pm until Friday 9th May. Please note, however, that the exhibition will be closed during the Bank Holiday weekend (Saturday 3rd May – Monday 5th May).