Sculpture captures what staff and students love most about London Met.
Date: 12 January 2016
Over 300 staff and students attended a party in London Met's Great Hall in December to witness the unveiling of the 'London Met Cosmos' - a bespoke sculpture celebrating all that's great about the University.
The party, organised by Olivia Beckhurst and Demetria Maratheftis, from the Marketing team, also officially launched the University's new Programme for the Improvement of Student Outcomes (PISO), a range of projects aimed at boosting the experience of students both during and after their time at London Met.
The sculpture is a physical representation of the London Met logo, made up of a series of 81 hollow perspex tubes. Staff, students and alumni were invited to contribute to the sculpture by supplying or making an object to represent what London Met means to them.
The project has gathered some amazing items, some historic, some homemade and some from heartfelt memories. In the Cosmos you can see a bright green apple, a red feather representing Sir John Cass, ID cards of past staff members, programmes from past events and even a completed dissertation.
The idea for the display came shortly after London Met’s TV advert was filmed and came into being as external film company Spectrecom began working with the University and the Cass Projects Office on the project to design the sculpture we see today.
“The London Met cosmos project was a fantastic opportunity to engage with our community of students, staff and alumni,” says Olivia Beckhurst, Brand and Web Officer, who managed the project.
“When we started filming our contributors with their objects it was really nice to see different departments coming together and making connections. At the unveiling of the sculpture, our community was delighted to see the London Met logo come to life and to read about the different stories behind the objects given.”
The sculpture was introduced by Demetria Maratheftis, Head of Marketing, who presented a short film about the making of the sculpture and unveiled the final object. The sculpture is accompanied by a soundtrack of all the contributors describing their object and its meaning.
The party also launched The PISO project. PISO aims to improve the student experience; both in teaching quality and outcomes for all London Met students. The project is made up of six streams which focus on student achievement, student learning, teaching delivery, academic improvement and research and enterprise.
A short video, made by Spectrecom, featured the project leaders explaining their PISO project and how it will positively impact our students. Ultimately, PISO aims to improve outcomes for students, improve the student experience while raising the University’s profile and engaging prospective students.
