News - May 2012

London Met at Clerkenwell Design Week

London Metropolitan University is supporting Clerkenwell Design Week with a programme of exhibitions and events during the exciting annual event from the 22-24th May. This year it’s a matter of visiting villages as selected work from the award- winning Aldgate Project is displayed at two of Clerkenwell’s showrooms.

At The Gallery on Great Sutton Street there will be a display of student work from a project led by Marianne Forrest and Heidi Yeo which explored 'design and urban intervention'. Films from Foundation Architecture and Interior Design students as part of Aleks Catina and Hector Arkomanis’s Shelter For Everyday Events project will be screened throughout the event. At 1pm on the 22nd May at The Gallery there will be a lunchtime presentation by artist and designer Paul St George, Programme Leader in Media at The Cass, on why creativity in the public realm matters more than ever. He will draw on his experiences with the Telectroscope, one of the most significant pieces of public art in London in recent years, and with 'animated street art project' for the Aldgate Project.

Also on the 22nd May there will be a display at Humanscale of projects led by Janette Harris from the BA Interior Design course that explore 'hidden spaces’ within the Whitechapel area. At 3pm the project will be judged by an eminent group of experts and the winning student will win an internship with BDG architecture + design.

Clerkenwell Design Week is a three-day festival celebrating design's creative richness, social relevance and technological advancements through an exciting programme of workshops, presentations, product launches and debates. The week also features all the elements you would expect from a festival, including exhibitions, installations, street entertainment, music, food, parties and receptions. It is the ideal opportunity for the creative design community to meet new and existing clients in a relaxed yet inspiring environment. Last year over 24,000 registered to attend and more are expected this year.

Michael Upton, Academic Leader at The Cass, said “We’re delighted to be supporting this event again – its important to our students that they are involved with the great annual cycle of festivals in the city . London Metropolitan University prides itself in helping students build careers, and Clerkenwell Design Week is an excellent opportunity to exhibit and network as well as see what’s happening in the design industry in the areas great showrooms.”

Clerkenwell Design Week 2012
22nd- 24th May 10am - 9pm

Various venues around Clerkenwell

Pre-register to attend at:
www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com

May 17, 2012

Cass welcomes acclaimed Illustrator

The Cass (The Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design) is delighted to announce the appointment Bruce Ingman as Senior Lecturer in Illustration.

Bruce is an internationally acclaimed award winning author and illustrator. He attended the Royal College of Art and studied illustration under Quentin Blake. His first book, When Martha's Away was published in 1996 to huge critical acclaim, it won the prestigious Mother Goose Award for the Best British Newcomer to Children's Picture Books and the V&A National Art Library Illustration Award. His partnership with author Allan Ahlberg has yielded many successes, including The Runaway Dinner, Previously, The Pencil (Winner of the Redhouse Children's Picture Book Award, Time Magazine Children's Book of the Year ), and Everybody was a Baby Once. He has recently illustrated Ronny Rock starring in Monster Cake Meltdown and Ronny Rock starring in a Thousand Tiny Explosions written by Merryn Threadgould. His next collaboration with Allan Alhberg Hooray For Bread is published by Walker Books in March 2013. He is an Ambassador for the House of Illustration, the world’s first dedicated home for the world’s most accessible art form.

As well as teaching the Faculty’s illustration students, Bruce has a busy summer ahead including appearances at book festivals West Cork Literary Festival and Story Fest. He will also be exhibiting -and delivering a masterclass to accompany the 'Take Five Illustrators' exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.

Talking about his appointment Bruce said, “I'm thrilled to be joining Sir John Cass in what seems to be an exciting period of transformation. I hope I can contribute to helping make the Cass a leading international centre for the study of illustration.”

May 9, 2012

Spring Clean for Famous Collection

For most students, a request to take part in some extra curricular spring cleaning at their University would be treated as a joke at the best.

Not so for the students in the Furniture restoration area at The Cass, who have just taken part in the major annual cleaning of the Frederick Parker Collection of Chairs.

The world famous collection, housed in a dedicated gallery at Commercial Road, is home to 193 chairs (140 on view) dating back to 1650.

Once a year a group of volunteers are required to use specialist techniques and materials to keep to collection looking great and in good condition.

Sue Newton-Short, Senior Lecturer in wood and conservation science, who led the operation said, “This is not a once over with a duster and Mr Sheen- but an important aspect of maintaining a world class collection, requiring specialist skills and knowledge. In fact I advise students to include this experience on their CVs. They all approached the task in a most professional manner and achieved a fantastic result. The gallery looks beautiful!"

The Chair Collection is owned by the Frederick Parker Foundation, a registered charity whose aim is to maintain a collection of chairs for students to study at close hand their history, development, design, construction and restoration. The Foundation seeks to promote and encourage the study of furniture history and in particular the design and development of British chairs.

Find out more about the collection here

May 4, 2012

Cass Senior Lecturer’s Film Premiere

Who is Community?, a new film by artist Bob and Roberta Smith, who teaches Fine Art at The Cass, and Director Tim Newton, will receive its world premiere on the 15th May at Stratford East Picture House. Smith and Newton’s film, part of a commission by the Art on The Underground Central line series, tells the story of an extraordinary fictional meeting between the father of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, and the German theorist, Hannah Arendt. In the film, Arendt and Coubertin meet on the Central line and fall in love. The film is told from the perspective of the community of Stratford and draws upon the cinematic style of silent comedies.

Alongside the film, Who is Community? includes a number of large artworks on display in Stratford Underground station. These artworks, originally painted by Bob and Roberta Smith, include characters from the film and explore ideas brought to light in the project. Painted cut-out figures of Hannah Arendt and Pierre de Coubertin are also on display at various cultural venues around Stratford, including Stratford Circus, UEL, Theatre Royal Stratford East and The Nunnery.

Who is Community? explores themes of public space, social interaction and well-being, as well as the democratic values that Coubertin hoped to advance through sport, and the revival of the ancient Olympic games. Arendt is known for her ideas on freedom as something that is constructed in the community, when its members bring their uniqueness to a shared space. In bringing the characters together, Smith and Newton suggest a synergy between the ideas of Coubertin and Arendt.

From October 2012, the film is shown on the Stratford Cinema Kiosk, a specially designed structure that is modelled after an original ticket kiosk that was installed at Hainault station in 1948. These kiosks, known as passimeters, were introduced to the Underground in the early 1920s.

Also showing: Leytonstone, a film made by Tim Newton and Bob and Roberta Smith about the community of Leytonstone. Trimming Pablo - a fictionalised account of Picasso's visit to the 1950 Sheffield Peace Congress. The film is directed by Tim Newton and features a cameo from Bob and Roberta Smith.

For futher information contact:
Art on the Underground
art@tube.tfl.gov.uk
020 7027 8694
www.art.tfl.gov.uk

May 3, 2012

Cass design student gets ahead

Jay Taylor, who studies BA Design in the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design, has delivered marketing materials and strategies for the University’s recent successful Get Ahead Conference.

At the event students at London Metropolitan University got the chance to boost their employment prospects and study skills at a special event “run by students, for students.”

The Get Ahead conference, held in the Graduate Centre on Holloway Road, offered a range of sessions to help sharpen students’ employability, including interview techniques and self-branding.

There were also workshops on improving research skills, effective approaches to studying and advice on how to get the most from your dissertation.

Jay said: “I’m really proud to have been involved in the Get Ahead conference. It gave me the chance to apply the techniques I’ve learnt on my course to a real project.”

Read the full story here

April 24, 2012

Through the Looking Glass at me Collectors Room in Berlin

21.04.2012 to 13.05.2012

The exhibition “Through the Looking Glass” is the product of the collaboration with three young curators of the MA course Curating the Contemporary, taught by the London Metropolitan University and Whitechapel Gallery London, coordinated by Nico de Oliveira.

Read more...

April 18, 2012

Assa Ashuach Studio at Exnovo Show in Milan Design Week

Assa Ashuach, course leader for MA Product Design at The Cass will show a selection of his 3D interactive, tabletop objects and lighting in Milan. The products are designed to be open to play, interact and personalise using the Digital Forming software technology.

Assa Ashuach Studio in London specialises in industrial design and research within the manufacturing tradition and the studio unique digital design methodologies. Assa is the co-founder and creative director of Digital Forming ltd.

Show address: Dream Factory, Corso Garibaldi 117, 20121 Milan, Italy, MM Green Line (stop Moscova or Garibaldi)

Private view: Wednesday the 18th from 7pm (invitation required)

April 17, 2012

Prize winning work to be displayed at Saatchi Gallery

Elizabeth Auriol Peers, an alumna of The Cass, has recently won four prestigious Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council Awards. The winning work will now be displayed at the Saatchi Gallery. The successful artist and silversmith, who graduated from BA (Hons) Jewellery and Silversmithing in 2008, and is now an artists in residence at The Faculty has won the following awards:

Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council SILVER Award 2012 (3D) Design - Finished Pieces, Silversmiths
Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Award 2012 Chasers, Senior
Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Award 2012 Silversmiths, Senior
Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Award 2012 (3D) Design - Finished Pieces, Silversmiths

The first two were for a piece entitled Double-skinned and the second pair for James.

Both works will be on show at ‘Collect’, the famous contemporary crafts fair from the 11th-14th May at the Saatchi Gallery, London. Elizabeth has also recently been commissioned to make a ‘Rosewater Dish’ for the silver collection of Worshipful Company of Weavers.

Taking about the announcement of her awards she said, "It was an amazing week-the best ever. I was totally over the moon.”

April 14, 2012