CONTEXT

The Institute blog. A collection of information, essays and polemics relating to industry, culture and technology.

Business cannot exist in a vacuum. We examine the nature of ideas, communications and change within our contemporary cultural and technological landscape. We highlight potentially harmful actions and advocate for the freedom, meaning and agency required for human industry to thrive in a complicated and uncertain world.

Institute Admin 1/24/23 Institute Admin 1/24/23

Archive Fever

Five venues across the town kick off a new series of cultural events aimed at the local community.

Loughborough Lates is a new event hosted by five art and culture venues spread across the town centre and campus. Loughborough comes to life with visual art exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events - all free to attend and participate in.

ARCHIVE FEVER

Archive Fever by Josie and Joshua Jones was shown at the Institute Research Lab at Loughborough Lates and will now be premiering on YouTube on Thursday 15th of December. In response to our 2022 Archive Fever exhibitions, this multi-screen installation shows interviews with six artists and contributors about the Leicestershire Museums Collection. Their conversations cover an array of topics, from nostalgia, conspiracy theories, preservation, and the personal responses they had to the objects within the archives. About Archive Fever The films shown in this installation are commissioned by Modern Painters, New Decorators as part of their exhibition programme, also titled Archive Fever.

The project centred around four solo exhibitions by visual artists; Joanne Masding, Jagjit Kaur, Daniel Cowlam and Katie Schwab. These projects began with a series of research trips to the Leicestershire Museums Collection, facilitated by Alison Clague, Senior Curator of the collection. The collection features a range of items relating to the county's history, including; rare butterflies, old farm tools, Victorian costumes, 1970s' Action Man', Neolithic stone axes and 19th-century engravings.

The artists used this research to produce new work inspired by the collection, and a selection of items from the collection were displayed alongside the newly created artwork. About Homespun Joshua and Josie Jones live and work together in Loughborough. They are also known as Homespun. Since graduating from the University, they've been developing as storytellers – mainly through photography and filmmaking, but more recently, this has opened out into all sorts of other creative practices. They spend much time with artists, charities and small businesses, working together on projects. They are part of the Modern Painters, New Decorators team and have documented their art programme for several years.

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Participating venues: Charnwood Arts, the Institute Research Lab, LU Arts, Modern Painters, New Decorators and Sock Gallery.

THE FUTURE

A big thank you to @mpndprojects @sockgallery @lborouniarts @charnwood_arts and all those that turned up and took part. It always tricky to get this kind of thing organised and to get people together but it really is worth it. We met some great people and look forward to more Lates in the future!

#LoughboroughLates Contact mpndprojects@gmail.com for inquiries

Instagram @charnwood_arts @institute_lab @LUArts @mpndprojects @sockgallery

Institute Admin 1/17/23 Institute Admin 1/17/23

An Evening of Art, Design and Technology

Institute was one of the participating venues in the Loughborough Lates launch. The night included visual arts exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events.

Institute was one of the participating venues in the Loughborough Lates launch. Loughborough Lates is a new event hosted by five art and culture venues spread across the town centre and campus. The night included visual arts exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events.

Loughborough Lates is a new event hosted by five art and culture venues spread across our town centre and campus. From 5:30pm on Friday, 16 September, Loughborough will come to life with visual art exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events - all free to attend and participate in. Maps are available at participating venues on the day. Charnwood Arts, Institute, LU Arts, Modern Painters, New Decorators and Sock Gallery, are the venues involved.

THE VENUES AND THEIR EVENTS

Charnwood Arts: 27 Rectory Place, LE11 1UW
Breathe, Create: Exhibition and Activity
The Charnwood Arts ‘Breathe, Create’ sessions are about engaging in mindful creativity. See our ‘Breathe, Create’ exhibition and try one of the activities with artist Khyati Koria Green, 6-7pm. We will also be showcasing the story of Songster, Loughborough's own War Horse, with author Alison Mott and artist Liz Waddell. Visitors can access us via our wheel-chair accessible front door.

Institute: Upper Rooms, 11 Baxter Gate, LE11 1TG
Ambient Visions: Martyn Blundell
A video installation that subverts the conditions in which we usually experience patterns, made up of shifting colour fields and ‘weaves'.

Crystal System: Leonie DuBarry-Gurr, Andy Harper and Todd Finnamore
An immersive and accessible sculptural installation with an interactive, contemplative soundscape.

LU Arts: Martin Hall, Epinal Way, LE11 3TS
The Domestic Academics: Finding the time to write and care
This project brings together twenty-three women academics with caring responsibilities, each responding to a call to create a quilt panel reflecting their experience working during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The gallery is located on Pearce Square, in Martin Hall. It is advised to park in the Cope Auditorium car park and walk across Epinal Way. It is directly opposite Cope Auditorium, which is next to Loughborough College.

Modern Painters, New Decorators: Carillon Court Shopping Centre, LE11 3XA
Hosiery Abstracts: Katie Schwab
Katie Schwab is a maker who works with installation, textiles, print and video to explore histories of craft, design and education. For this project, Katie immersed herself in local histories of machine knitting and attended a machine knitting course, learning techniques that have inspired new knitted artworks and a wall-based work. Visitors can enter our gallery via the Swan Street entrance of Carillon Court Shopping Centre.

Sock Gallery: Town Hall, Market Place, LE11 3EB
Our Charnwood and Beyond: Russel Taylor
Russell has an intense desire to capture the joy of the landscape. Working exclusively with acrylics, a completed painting is often a journey of chance! The gallery will be running a competition in the evening with a chance to win an exclusive Sock Gallery prize. Visitors enter the space through the front doors; everything is on one level.

AT INSTITUTE

We exhibited two exhibitions. In Studio 02, a screen based series of five video works by Martyn Blundell and an interactive installation by Leonie Dubarry-Gurr and Andy Harper in Studio 04.

CRYSTAL SYSTEM

There were curious looks on the faces of members of the lab as Leonie and Andy spent the week prior to the launch working on the technicalities of the installation in Studio 04.

An immersive and accessible sculptural installation, Crystal System offers new vantage points from which to come to terms with one's existence, in relationship to the world and others around us. Inspired by crystallised rock formations in the natural realm, Crystal System proposes an opportunity for contemplation via the meditative qualities of refracted and reflected light.In addition to the sculptural elements, the public can interact with a ruminative soundscape which supports contemplation.

Crystal SystemAcrylic, Wood, Light fixtures, Found objects.

Conceived by Leicester-based artists Leonie DuBarry-Gurr and Andy Harper in collaboration with Todd Finnamore.
www.andyharper.co.uk // @isandyharper // www.leoniedg.com // @beautiful__remainswww.monoworks.shop // @mono.works

AMBIENT VISIONS

Martyn Blundell is joining Institute as an associate. He kicks this off with a series of screen based works on display in Studio 02. If you ever wondered what would happen if you were to weave together the view a passenger might have during a series of global road trips, this might be it. They are beautiful, hypnotic and a little trippy! You can view Martyn’s video based art below.

These works belong to a series that has evolved, in part, from the idea of weaving space and time. Ambient Visions is a video installation that subverts the conditions in which we normally experience pattern. Shifting colour fields and ‘weaves' become a kind of metaphor for that feeling you get when travelling; an attempt to convey something of the porous state we fall in to when staring through the window of a moving vehicle. A dream-like travel metaphor.

THE FUTURE

#LoughboroughLates Contact mpndprojects@gmail.com for inquiries

Instagram @charnwood_arts @institute_lab @LUArts @mpndprojects @sockgallery

Graffio Arts 12/31/22 Graffio Arts 12/31/22

REAL: Taking the Initiative with Phoenix Arts

We coached 25 film makers and digital artists with business start-up training to grow their new businesses.

Graffio Arts have just finished the REAL incubation programme at Phoenix Arts in Leicester. 25 film makers and digital artists are now moving ahead with their new businesses.

Course design and leadership : Graffio Arts. REAL initiative coordinators: Nick and Julia Hamer.

REAL Incubation will run from April 2022 to May 2023. The programme includes: Free access to a large co-working space at Phoenix Arts, access to industry standard production facilities, and film / digital art kit, screening and exhibition opportunities, including REAL Film Festival in April 2023, business start-up training to establish and grow your new business, inspiration from established documentary and digital art practitioners, mentoring, coaching, support to introduce their film, art or service to the market and help from experienced professionals to work on a passion project, with a focus on documentary or digital arts.

The course will be led by Steve and Guy, Directors at Institute/ Graffio Arts, and will include contributions from other industry guests.

Steve Barradell has worked with SME’s through to international blue-chip companies for over 20 years, specialising in business development, project management, marketing and insight for creative-lead businesses. Steve spent six years as a creative business consultant and was an accredited Growth Accelerator Business Coach.

Guy Boyle has spent over 25 years in the arts and has worked across many disciplines; design, digital imaging, branding, animation and film art direction for some of the best-known global brands. Guy spent seven years as an Associate and Senior Lecturer at the University of the Arts London / Central St. Martins, covering design and media practice and has a flair for developing young creative talent through education and industry.

“Our goals for the program were to increase the creative’s understanding of the relationship between personal creative goals and viable commercial opportunities. Now, at the end of the programme, the delegates are taking their first informed first steps into industry.”

As part of the programme, delegates were supported to propose and work on a self-directed ‘passion project’, to develop their portfolio. REAL Incubation will surround you with inspiration to help shape your ideas. Examples of passion projects may include:

A short documentary film or video
An interactive documentary
A piece of digital or immersive (VR/AR/MR) art
An audio or sound art piece
A musical score/key artwork for a film
A treatment/pitch or development product associated with a new project

Some delegates had to develop a service offering or develop their creative practice in relation to commercial activities in different ways. This may require bolstering the ability to secure funding streams or to develop their marketing scope or focus. The key objective of the programme is for the delegates to develop their ability to express their ideas creatively and to find commercial vehicles for this expression.

There are a huge variety of people on the programme and it’s been a humbling experience to witness some of the history and experience of the veteran delegates and the enthusiasm and ambition of the relative newcomers to their fields in documentary film making, video, immersive art and beyond.

We’d like to extend a thank you to Phoenix Arts for helping to make this programme possible, Nick and Julia for making REAL happen and to the delegates for their open minded enthusiasm. You can find out more below.

LINKS

realinitiative.phoenix.org.uk

www.phoenix.org.uk/real-initiative

DEVELOP YOUR CREATIVE BUSINESS

One of our key ambitions at Institute is to help others develop their creative practice and to be creative about how this practice can and will, pay the bills. If you are interested in becoming involved in this initiative in the future, then contact Nick and Julia here. You can find out more about the spread of Institute’s services here.

Graffio Arts 4/25/22 Graffio Arts 4/25/22

Aliens, NFTs and the Art of Sharing

As the land grab for virtual assets continues, 18 ALIENS is a light hearted experiment in physical and virtual sharing.

18 ALIENS & ARtv

18 ALIENS was a light hearted experiment in physical and virtual sharing. We gave away 18 sets of aliens on a first come, first served basis at Beta X in Leicester in March 2022.

Concept, design + production: Graffio Arts. Pixels: Jonathan Feuillet. 3D objects + animation: Jack Ellis. The brains behind the Beta X project: Seed Creativity. Funding: LCB. Beta X project manager: Ady Alexander.

WHAT IS ARtv?

ARtv is an augmented reality content delivery system. Show video or activate 3D objects whenever you point your mobile device at an ARtv symbol. Each symbol can be unique and each can deliver it’s own content. A symbol could be a picture, a graphic or a logo.

Symbols can be displayed anywhere that you can imagine - on a poster, a wall or even as a tattoo. If you’d like to find out how you could use ARtv for your project, then get in touch.

18 ALIENS AT BETA X

These aliens have no monetary value and are comprised of pixels. Each alien was presented as an augmented reality marker on a series of cards. These cards can be shared with friends, family or random strangers, as you see fit, sharing your ownership of the alien. Anyone that owns a card can download the Graffio AR app and point it at the card to summon their alien from a galaxy far away!

The concept of virtual ownership is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. When viewing a movie, we used to purchase a physical product, like a DVD. Now, it is more common to pay a gatekeeper to allow us to stream content. In this interaction, we no longer own a physical object and our access to the content may only be for a limited time. Virtual properties in virtual worlds continue to develop in terms of status and real monetary value.

Crypto currencies are on the rise and NFT systems, designed to protect the intellectual property rights of creators are now a part of a frenzied land grab of virtual assets. Meta seeks to control our experience of the Metaverse. As these new frontiers continue to develop should we stand back and ask what we want from virtual worlds? How do we want to interact with each other? What do we value? Is it all about individual or corporate ownership? Remember when we used to share?

THE POSTERS

ALIEN PERSONALITIES

To establish the idea that each alien was an individual and worthy of collection, each alien had a backstory created. These were brief introductions with a name and a biography that was part hard sci-fi and part, a tongue-in-cheek riff on popular culture.

ALIEN BEHAVIOUR

The aliens had individual sounds, breathed and performed different actions when touched. Some would react if you got within a certain distance from them.

AUGMENTED REALITY AND YOU

A new world is opening up and if things play out in the ways that we are told that they will, it will have an enormous impact the ways that we do things. The increased use of augmented reality technology into our every day lives will likely be accelerated by brands like Apple that are investing huge sum of time and money into transforming our relationship with their current technology. We know this stuff is coming and its likely that we’re going to be using it as an addition or substitute for the technology that we current use. The day that augmented reality glasses become adopted as a mainstream device, is the day where mobile phones may start to look the quaint product of a previous generation.

The 3D aliens in this project use technology that is only currently, universally available on Apple devices although large parts of the project also worked on Android devices. We tend to create projects that have mixed functionality, so that they are as inclusive as possible.

If you’re interested in using some form of AR for a project, we can help you work through the kind of options available. Once you understand the basics and the limitations become clear, the fun starts as you consider all the things that you could do. There is incredible potential for new types of engagement, user journeys, brand associations and relationships to physical locations with augmented reality.

Want to do something incredible with AR? Tell us what you want to do!

Graffio Arts 1/3/21 Graffio Arts 1/3/21

AGATA TOMASZEK GETS TO THE CORE OF THINGS

Agata Tomaszek discusses A Window to Reality

Agata is a graphic design undergraduate at DMU and ex intern at Graffio Arts. Agata has been developing her typography practice and married it with Art Nouveau for an unlikely performance at our studio for the final part of A Window to Reality.

THE INTERVIEW

Agata was interview by Graffio Arts in January 2020.

Thank you for your performance: A Window to Reality #006

Thank you very much for the opportunity - it was a great experience and something completely new to me. So it was really great to take part in this project.

Can you tell us about the thinking behind what you've just done?

I study graphic design and behind design I am also interested in architecture. Modernism is one of those movements that I really admire. Because of the form, the structure and all of those very strict principles and rules that are applied to all of those projects. But recently I also got really attracted to Art Nouveau. It's the opposite really the form is really fluid, organic. It's focused really on the ornaments, the decorations. In this case "decoration" became the key word for the whole project. So you could also call it "de-coration" - so getting rid of everything that is core (the rules and the principles) and leaving only the visual elements.

You've got CORE at the centre and you've ignored the core? ( ~ 2 mins )

Exactly. I've kind of built a frame around it and it also is linked with Art Nouveau. The tiles that were very popular to use in that movement. So it's ignoring the core and building the decoration all around it.

Brilliant. You're a Graphic Designer- have you ever done anything like this before? ( ~2.20 mins )

No it was completely new thing and a huge challenge! As a graphic designer I am used to working with a computer so it takes a quite a bit of time to prepare a piece. in this case - designing a typeface, working on the composition & the context - so the challenge was to perform everything and bring it all to life.

We've given you a four hour window. How did you approach the performance? How much of your work was pre-prepared and how much was improvised? ( ~3mins )

It was mostly pre-prepared. Because it's not art- it's mostly design - so it has to be planned to look good. However, there was a lot of improvising- as it was my first experience, I wasn't sure what to expect. So it was hard to imagine it in a big scale on a wall. So I would call it pre-prepared work but also a bit of improvising.

Have you ever used augmented reality or come across it before?

I have heard about it, seen some examples but never worked with it. I think it's a great way to engage the audience and get people interested in what we do - in this case typography.

Can you see any interesting uses within graphic design for augmented reality? ( ~4.30 mins )

I guess it's kind of a new technology - it's obvious that designers use animation to make their work more dynamic. I think AR or mixed realities are a way to create an interaction between the viewer and the design. It's a completely different approach & hopefully I'll be able to use it more in the future as a way of designing things.

It's immersive and it also allows sounds & motion to be included which adds to the immersive experience. We are trying to understand how much of a lifespan these techs will have - how long do you think AR and XR will be around for? ( ~ 5.30 mins )

It's really hard to predict. It's a way to go because nowadays we live in the spirit of zero waste, and being ecological. I think it's a way of performing arts that doesn't harm the environment - you can duplicate it as much as you want and it's accessible through different channels. Also we are surrounded by technology - so we crave new experiences more and more. So it's also a way of surprising and even shocking people, in the way that the arts can do. I think there's a big future for this movement.

We've talked about so many use cases - children are growing up where tech is just part of everyday life. People are almost expecting some of these extended realities now. So some of the thinking we are putting into using these technologies is to do it in an ethical way, a wholesome way that adds an extra level that adds to art and design that is good and doesn't detriment the person that's using it.

You've now done this very interesting performance, it's going to be live on the high street and anyone can download our Graff.io Arts AR app, and trigger your performance in augmented reality.

What would you like your work to say to someone that is seeing it for the first time? ( ~ 7.30 mins )

I'm not sure what I would like it to say but for sure, I hope it's something that will catch peoples attention. Because typography is a thing that is not very popular - it's something that surrounds us everywhere but we don't notice it - especially as art. So I hope that it's going to change the perspective that people perceive typography and I hope that they're going to enjoy it.

Another part of the project is to help repurpose the empty shops on the high street. I don't know if you have any thoughts on the empty shop situation - whether the arts could help or improve or enhance that in any way? ( ~ 8.30 mins )

I think that reason the high street is getting empty is that the popularity of web. People prefer to shop online because this way they avoid the possibly of not finding what they need or being able to compare prices. So it seems like online shopping provides better user experience. However bringing art to the streets I think it would encourage people to get out more and experience things as a community, together. To give them something to talk about, and it's something that this online community is not able to provide for them. Besides that I also think that art is one of those few things that is able to bring people together, so I think it's an awesome idea!

It's interesting, some what you're talking about are the way that many people are seeing the evolution of cities and towns. That they are becoming a place for humans to interact and have human experiences. To get away from digital communities and have real communities. It's experiential, the idea of coming into a town centre and having experiences now, real physical experiences, is important. What would you like a town centre to become ? ( ~10mins )

I think the most important thing is to make it sociable. if you go out you're going to meet people and interact with them - so we don't perceive each other as strangers. It would just be nice to have a good experience together. Not just walking around because we have to - it should be a pleasurable experience.

Within that pleasurable experience, what is art, what do you think create that experience - it is pleasurable to create, or to view or both? ( ~ 11 mins )

I think it's both creating and experiencing. For sure it's important to the environment to influence our mood. But also it gives us a reason to go out and to know that you can expect to see things that inspires you - or it gives you a topic to discuss with other people. So I think it's not only what you see but how you interact with it.

For sure. Then the idea of building on previous generations, taking what we've learned and doing the next thing. Then the idea of the generations coming along and seeing that these things are possible - maybe becoming inspired that maybe a child could maybe take your work in and that might trigger them to look at Art Nouveaux, or graphic design and they might even look at going to university? ( ~ 12 mins )

That would be amazing! I hope that it inspires people, if not it's just an interesting thing to look at - to bring the life back to the streets.

Maybe the arts could do that, who knows? It certainly seems to form a richer experience for humanity. There's another aspect to the arts - can art be good for health and wellbeing, it's it just the act of creating art or design, or could it be the act of experiencing as well?

I think experiencing as well, because that's the reason to slow down. Slowing down is something that we really really need in our lives right now. If you walk down the street and you just stop to look at something, and it can bring you some other thoughts or references, and I think that is a great purpose of art, the experience that it brings you.

“ In this case “decoration” became the key word for the whole project. So you could also call it “de-coration” - so getting rid of everything that is core (the rules and the principles) and leaving only the visual elements.”

— AGATA TOMASZEK