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 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 1/31/22 Graffio Arts 1/31/22

Augmented Reality and a Sense of Place

How does graphic design in the urban environment affects your sense of place and how this might change through increased use of AR technology? Discuss!

As part of Design Season and hosted at LCB Depot in Leicester , we were asked to take part in a talk with Dr Robert Harland from Loughborough University and Dr Sean Clark from Interact Digital Arts. We were asked to consider how graphic design in the urban environment affects your sense of place and how this might change through increased use of Augmented Reality technology.

THE PROPOSITION

How does graphic design in the urban environment affect your sense of place? How is this changing through increased use of Augmented Reality technology? What new opportunities does this create for artists and designers? These questions and more will be discussed during this free session involving Dr Robert Harland from Loughborough University, Sean Clark from Interact Digital Arts and the directors of Graff.io Arts. There will also be the launch of Cuttlefish Mapps, a new locally-developed platform for distributing location-based content.

INTRODUCTION

This was the perfect chance for us to unravel our thoughts & idea's about the impact that Augmented Reality will have on communication, the art & design world and culture. Designers are starting to realise that with UX design that there are social/well being implications for their decisions so another discipline in the area of ethics should be brought to the table. With galleries like the V&A experiencing almost x10 the traffic online now, will AR help bring traffic from an online world to experience the physical? Will a city retain the rights to an augmented or virtual world or are we to expect a "land grab" on markers - who is in control? This was also a chance to unveil the Beta for our new Graff.io Arts Augmented Reality app & to demo it on a series of AR artworks.

AN EXCERPT OF THE TALK

We've looked into Augmented Reality and we've thought how do you do this? We've looked into apps that are avail & different technologies, The only way that we could find to really do it is to collab with @swipeandtap. A Leicester based tech company building a prototype Augmented Reality app with us.

We've got some pictures, we can show you some examples of augmented layers later.

We are GA. Small co based in Loughborough, there's only four of us. We do a lot of creative collabs. We say that we're an art shop. This is our opening statement, written about two months ago, And we're finding that it's already out of date.

We are exploring these new areas, which encompass the kind of things that are coming up within that shop experience. If you go to a museum & you're dealing with art in a museum. Or if you're dealing with a shop and you're buying online. There are all these different channels & projects coming up. We've met Sean Clark and formed Gallery Without Walls together. We have Robert ( quote ). There's a lot happening right now locally in Leicestershire. I've worked in London for many years & I'm so glad that I've come back here. I've worked in London for over 20 years and I'm so glad I moved back here - I'm seeing more doors opening here & more easily and more accessibly here.

One of our company agenda's is how can do innovative creative collabs & projects here and not go bankrupt! We're looking at ways of doing this and working out if there are ways possible to stop the "brain drain". Is there any way of doing collaborative projects here and not have to move to the capital. Get as much going on locally as possible.

We've got issues here: We say we are an art shop and we sell online. We also have a problem here where we talk about the real word. What is the real world ?

So we are finding ways that a company, that's traditionally a certain kind of art shop has to change and emerge and go forward. We're looking at all the steps around looking at art and experiencing art and all the things involved in that and how we might have to change with it. That's why we're interested in AR and XR tech, because there are all these different layers.

So this sums up where we're at right now, the genie is out of the bottle! This new tech means things will never be the same.

With Minecraft & Pokemon, the kids are all used to it's commercial. Within the arts, I've been into this since William Gibson in the 90's. It's been in the creative sci-fi and cyber punk mind set for a long time. Now the tech is here for us to finally get on with it !

If we are a company thats looking at selling art or dealing with art, and how does that relate to how a museum or a gallery would deal with it? And the core journeys to experiencing art.

So how do we find out about art?

If there's an exhibition on or a print is online for sale, you don't just wake up and a canvas it lands on your head! you have to find out that it exists. In the analogue world, you might see a physical advert on a bus or get a leaflet & other physical ways that you find out that something's available?

If we were selling stuff online, this might come from a facebook ad or a comment somewhere. If it's a gallery they're putting money into leaflets or it's word of mouth. ~There's all these things going on behind the scenes.

Then how do you decide to see it? If you're online, you might click it - or not. In the analogue space this would be able your initial experience of walking into a gallery space and experiencing the architecture etc. And your REAL experience of the art.

Then your real experience of the work. At this point, we could be looking at how Augmented reality could be used to add more layers to the art. So where you needed for example Paul McCartney to sing there, we could add another layer, we could add Paul McCartney! If it was a painting, we could add an overlay through your phone to give more information about that artist. These things are real tools that help industry and help the arts in different ways. This could be able art or the arts, but we might end up needing teams of people.

So where Robert is talking about physical cities, you've got town planners then engineers, then signage...

If you’d like to talk to us about any of these themes, including augmented reality, gives us a call or email us here.

Graffio Arts 1/24/22 Graffio Arts 1/24/22

Spatial 3D AR Development with Flexi-Modal TV

Experiments in 3D Augmented Reality.

Media technology: Graffio Arts. 3D model/animation: dspall

We have been working with Wigflex and Flexi-Modal TV on some augmented reality installations for the Wigflex City Festival. There are some incredible people involved (listed below) and we’ll let you know more as things progress.

A NEW WAY TO DO 3D IN AUGMENTED REALITY

The prototyping shown here takes advantage of the transparency features of augmented reality for iOS. You are viewing a video file of an animated 3D model rather than a 3D model sitting with the space. The model had previously been animated and rendered. This animated video is playing on the screen with a transparent background giving the appearance of a 3D object.

Notice the people walking behind the iPad screen, clearly visible through the transparency of the video. When you want to define how a 3D scene should appear within a space, this is a very practical way to curate the size and relationship to the viewer. For projects where interaction with the object, control of behaviours and size should be in the viewers hands as priority, then real 3D models are the way to go. See our 18 ALIENS project for an example of this.

FESTIVAL MUSIC

Actress, Adam Curtain, Adam Pits, Aicha Audiobahn, Ben UFO, Call Super, Congi, Coralie, Daisy Godfrey, Danielle, Darc City, Daseplate, desmond, Dudley Strangeways, Frost, Geoim, G3CKO, GiGi FM, Hizatron, Ido Plumes, JAY, Kay Fabe, Kassian, Kiara Scuro, Lisene, LNR, Lone & Esqueezy, Lukas Wigflex, LvndLxrd, Metaphi, Midland Niks presents the best of black bandcamp unreleased featuring: NVST, Parris, Peach fuzz, Peder Mannerfelt, Perspective, Pete Beardsworth, R.O.S.H, Snowy, Son of Philip, Sonja Moonear, Stem, Sybertekh, Tamer Sallam, Toe Syszlak, Unbound, Vandall and Yazmin Lacey.

FESTIVAL VIDEOS, ART AND PERFORMANCE

Alice Nimier, AVVA Studio, Baba Swettham, Diogo Olivero, Dspall, Gabriel Balagué, Julia de Martino, Ixian Optical, Manjit Sahota, Marija Marc, Mathilde Avogadro, Multimodal, NINA NANA, Oil Productions, Olly animator, Poets Against Racism, Prefix studios, Render Gal, Simone Salvatici, Will Plowman and the award winning artist Wolfgang Buttress.

Graffio Arts 1/23/22 Graffio Arts 1/23/22

An Exhibition about Technology and Worthless Art

More and more of our experience of the world is going to be mediated and that includes our experience of the arts.

We were asked by LCB if we had anything for an exhibition for their Lightroom Gallery. AREXTRA Street had just launched as posters aimed at the general public. Those posters were printed onto durable, self-adhesive vinyl, designed to be plastered across empty shop windows. How would we take that into a gallery situation? Would it be appropriate?

FROM THE STREET TO THE GALLERY

AREXTRA [Street version] was a vehicle that used augmented reality to increase exposure to the arts for the general public. This was a system where people walking through the streets of the city could experience the arts without having to visit a gallery. The audience had now changed and now expected to be confronted by the arts.

This was an opportunity to engage with some of the big questions that arise from augmenting art. In this situation a 2D representation of the work is recognised by the technology and used as the platform for augmentation. Traditionally a piece of work within a gallery is considered to be an object. That object is assumed to be loaded with cultural worth. A set of factors are used to agree a monetary worth.

Augmented reality doesn’t play by these rules.

A painting, traditionally using a canvas as the place where paint is applied is now read as an image. Our understanding, development and agreed rules of engagement with painting have changed over time. It could be argued that painting was used in illustrative terms, as imagery at certain points in history but through the 20th century we have developed a sophistication and engagement that recognises the application of paint to a surface as a the battleground where an artists fights through their practice.

The results of this are hung on a wall where this creative fight, the development of their practice is evidenced and forms part of a larger conversation.

AR ignores the physicality of the work and uses a snapshot as the basis for something else. The viewers experience is largely of this something else.

To draw attention to these issues we stripped the art of traditional cultural and monetary value- we called each piece a marker (the thing that AR technology recognises). We printed these onto sheets of paper of a unified size and pinned them to the wall. After the exhibition these sheets of paper had performed their job and were destroyed. Viewers could view the exhibition with our AR app and explore the augmented reality layers- the new focus for this work in this context.

We used Lewis Carroll’s excerpt from Alice in Wonderland to highlight the idea that the genie is out of the bottle. New media technology continues to change the way we interact with the world around us. More and more of our experience of the world is going to be mediated and that includes our experience of the arts.

How would we like to proceed?

CONTEXT

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

Archive Fever

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

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

THE FUTURE

An Evening of Art, Design and Technology

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.

THE VENUES AND THEIR EVENTS

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.

AMBIENT VISIONS

THE FUTURE

Aliens, NFTs and the Art of 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.

WHAT IS ARtv?

18 ALIENS AT BETA X

THE POSTERS

ALIEN PERSONALITIES

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

Augmented Reality and a Sense of Place

THE PROPOSITION

INTRODUCTION

AN EXCERPT OF THE TALK

Spatial 3D AR Development with Flexi-Modal TV

We have been working with Wigflex and Flexi-Modal TV on some augmented reality installations for the Wigflex City Festival. There are some incredible people involved (listed below) and we’ll let you know more as things progress.

A NEW WAY TO DO 3D IN AUGMENTED REALITY

FESTIVAL MUSIC

FESTIVAL VIDEOS, ART AND PERFORMANCE

An Exhibition about Technology and Worthless Art

FROM THE STREET TO THE GALLERY

THE MARKERS