Proud of our research - Nottingham Trent University

Transcription

OPEN:
50 RESEARCH
PROJECTS
exploring the
boundaries
of creativty.
3
College of Art & Design and Built Environment
Nottingham Trent University
OPEN Research Book V7.indd 3
10/11/2010 09:00
4
Proud of our research
In the College of Art & Design and Built
Environment, we are proud of the breadth,
depth and quality of our research, and it’s
underpinning relationship with teaching. Our
community of staff work on projects ranging
from creating products and practices that
change the way we live and work, to developing
philosophies that question the status quo.
Many collaborations and projects stretch
across a diverse range of disciplines and have
an international scope. We have forged strong
research links with organisations in Hong Kong,
USA, South Korea, China and Eastern Europe,
and this collaborative research bears all the
hallmarks of the cultural and creative questions
that derive from those regions.
are building on our achievements and taking
research into fascinating new places, joining
smart materials with integrated design and
environmental concerns with behavioural issues.
I hope you find this publication gives you a
compelling insight into the Schools’ research
and you will take the opportunity to contact any
group or individual that particularly interests you.
Ann Priest
Pro-Vice Chancellor and Head of College,
Art & Design and Built Environment
Nottingham Trent University has a long
tradition of creative and design-led industrial
activity and many elements of our research
echo this excellence.
Over the past few years we have invested heavily
in spaces, equipment and people to support
our research. The researchers, research fellows
and professors whose work features in this book
10/11/2010 09:00
5
Open to all
Since becoming Associate Dean of Research
and Graduate Studies, I have been constantly
impressed and intrigued by the range of highquality research that goes on across the Schools
of Art & Design, and Architecture, Design and
Built Environment.
To support this work, we have received funding
from such diverse bodies as The British Council,
the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council and the European Union.
Our research has been published and exhibited
through a wide variety of outlets reaching out
to fellow academics but also, and possibly more
importantly, to the wider public.
theme extends to an invitation to contact us
through our website or through the details at the
back of the OPEN book.
Professor Steve Goodhew
Professor of Sustainable Technology
and Associate Dean of Research and
Graduate Studies, College of Art & Design
and Built Environment
The OPEN theme of this publication gives this
presentation of our work a structure, not only
celebrating the Objects, Practices, Experiences
and Networks that our researchers work with but
also the openness of the Schools’ relationships
with the world of enquiry. The groups and
individuals that have presented their work are
aware that in common with most printed media,
this publication can only show you a flavour of
the detail of our research and that the OPEN
10/11/2010 09:00
6
10/11/2010 09:00
OBJECTS
7
Our world is filled with objects. The practical
and the useless, the mundane and the aweinspiring, the life-changing and the life-saving.
The objects we see, touch and manipulate
are too numerous to count, too common to
comment upon – unless new or unusual.
Across the two Schools, objects take on a recurring theme. Whether
it’s artists exploring the meaning of everyday objects as they push the
boundaries of creativity, or incredible technological advancements
driving businesses forward, NTU’s research continues to be influential
and pioneering.
In this section, you’ll discover how University researchers are designing
new technologies to protect our homes from flooding and to capture
the sustainable energy potential of the sea. Sustainability, in fact, is
a key aspect of research at NTU. The sheer number of objects that
surround us – not to mention the materials and processes used to
make them – is a cause for concern in our environmentally conscious
world. Our research is informing the debate and developing creative
solutions in areas such as fashion, construction and product design.
Image: Rosemarie Goulding – Body, skin and lace archive.
Photograph: Adrian Ashmore.
10/11/2010 09:00
8
ObJECTS
Designing a sustainable future
Professor John Chilton’s research is driven
by the desire to conserve the world’s natural
material and energy resources and has led to the
development of an innovative and award-winning,
low-carbon structure for a local social enterprise.
Before joining NTU John Chilton worked with
Lincolnshire-based, environmental social enterprise,
Hill Holt Wood, on a two-year project to construct a
low-carbon eco-building using low-carbon construction
materials such as rammed earth walls, reinforced
limecrete foundations, a green roof, wood fibre insulation
and wood shingles; some of which were built by the
disaffected young people who train at the wood. Its
innovative reciprocal frame roof structure was fabricated
from locally sourced green timber.
The project has been a huge success and is seen as an
exemplary form of holistic sustainable development. In
addition to the accolade of a visit from Prince Charles, it
won the KTP ESRC Award 2009 for the Best Application
of Social and Management Science, three Green Apple
Awards and the East Midlands Lord Stafford Award 2009
for Innovation in Sustainability.
The development of sustainable, unconventional
structures is one of the key research strands of John
Chilton, Professor of Architecture and Design.
Professor Chilton developed an interest in nonconventional structures through his PhD at Trent
Polytechnic (as NTU was then known), which included
a trip to Osaka where he presented his work at a
symposium organised by the International Association
for Shell and Spatial Structures.
Since then, those interests have combined in the
development of small-scale sustainable timber structures
and, since 2000, in the investigation of the environmental
performance of enclosures covered with tensile membranes
and, more recently, with ethyl-tetra-fluoro-ethylene (ETFE)
inflated cushions. ETFE, which is strong and light, is the
same material that covers the Eden Project domes.
This work has contributed to the Brussels-based TensiNet
Association’s European Design Guide for Tensile Surface
Structures (2004) and their current ETFE working group.
Professor Chilton’s recent professorial inaugural lecture
was dedicated to the memory of the Swiss structural
engineer Heinz Isler, whose most innovative reinforced
concrete shells – which demonstrate high structural
efficiency and economy of material use – have been
described as structural art. Isler’s opus was examined
within the context of form-finding in structural design
and revealed his influence on the design of contemporary
non-conventional structural forms. Resulting from this,
Professor Chilton believes there is potential for future
research into the application of shell forms for medium to
long-span low-carbon buildings.
Further information
[email protected]
Reference: Forster B. and Mollaert M. (2004), European Design
Guide for Tensile Surface Structures, Brussels, TensiNet.
Image: Heinz Isler model shell, Lyssachschachen,
Burgdorf, Switzerland. Photograph: John Chilton.
10/11/2010 09:00
9
10/11/2010 09:00
10
ObJECTS
Condition monitoring
The ability to effectively monitor the condition
of machinery prevents faults and can save
companies huge amounts of time and money.
As research at Nottingham Trent University
demonstrates, condition monitoring can also be
used to monitor and manage large crowds.
In manufacturing, condition monitoring is a vital process
for ensuring machinery is in optimum working order. It
enables companies to maintain competitive advantage,
reduce costs, increase productivity, improve quality and
prevent faults and accidents.
Dr Amin Al-Habaibeh and Professor Daizhong Su at
the University’s Advanced Design and Manufacturing
Engineering Centre are carrying out leading-edge
research into the design of condition monitoring systems
for many applications, including manufacturing processes
and mechanical systems.
The research involves the characterisation of the process
and the prognosis of health conditions and faults, such
as when to undertake maintenance checks or change
process parameters to keep high quality products.
Several PhD students are currently working in this
area, publishing numerous papers and taking part in
international conferences.
Condition monitoring is not just effective in machinery
applications. The team is also developing systems to
monitor public health and safety. Dr Al-Habaibeh and
Professor Su are collaborating with the Um Al-Qura
University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia to develop automatic
systems for monitoring crowds in the holy cities of
Makkah (Mecca) and Medina, which attract thousands of
worshippers every year.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: Mecca.
10/11/2010 09:00
11
10/11/2010 09:00
12
OBJECTS
Behind the scenes
For Kate Burnett, Reader in Theatre Design,
research plays an important role in bringing
the stage to life and influencing new
generations of designers.
Kate Burnett’s research interests lie in the narratives and
‘theatrical’ possibilities of ‘real’ objects, garments and
places that may be used in performance. Through her
experience of curating exhibitions of theatre design,
she is also inquiring into the re-presentation and
re-reading of this ephemeral art work and considering
how the ‘used’ artefacts, costumes and environments
of performance can still communicate with viewers who
may never have seen the original production.
For me, the practice and teaching of theatre design
is an exhilarating and continuing education.
Through her readership at NTU and schemes such as SPUR
(Scholarship Projects for Undergraduate Researchers),
Kate is currently involving students and graduates in her
research projects and sharing her commitment to the
widest possible application of scenography.
(Continued)
Image: Collaborators UK exhibition at PQ2007.
Sculpture by Ralph Koltai, made by Stephen Pyle.
Photograph: Martina Novozámská.
10/11/2010 09:00
13
10/11/2010 09:00
14
ObJECTS
A rich and varied career
Kate trained at Ravensbourne, West Sussex and Croydon
Colleges and undertook formative placements at Chichester
Festival Theatre and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. She
worked first as a prop maker and painter and has since
designed extensively for regional, national and touring
theatre companies. A rich and varied career has included
designing the original Return to the Forbidden Planet for
the London Bubble, the premiere stage version of The
Snowman at Contact Theatre, Manchester, productions for
the National Theatre’s Education Department and many
other London and regional companies.
An Arts Council England bursary in 1989 enabled her
to spend three months abroad studying the work and
contexts of influential Spanish painters and designers.
Back in England, this led to work with art galleries,
orchestras and festivals, creating often large-scale
projects for schools and communities, as well as
organising exhibitions of design for performance. In
order to interrogate and reflect upon issues arising from
this wide range of work, Kate undertook an MA Art and
Design in Education at the Institute of Education, London
University in 2001; a move which steered her towards
teaching in higher education.
was shown in the new Theatre Collections galleries in
the Victoria & Albert Museum from November 2007 to
August 2008. These exhibitions and their catalogues
have documented a wide range of contemporary practice
and contributed significantly to the growth of Theatre
Design or Scenography as a visible area of research.
Through a series of small exhibitions and installations
in the Nottingham Trent University’s 1851 Gallery she
has introduced the work of influential companies and
practitioners such as WildWorks, Birmingham Opera
Company and Visiting Professor Jenny Tiramani to NTU.
Her recent work has involved deconstructing the set
and costume design process in a craft-based inquiry,
with undergraduate students making CAD drawings, set
model and dress patterns from real 1950s dresses and
photographs of actual sites.
This interrogation of ‘process’ and ‘site’ is contextualised
in the conferences and symposia of the International
Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and
Technicians (OISTAT) and the developmental programme
of the Prague Quadrennial 2011. Kate is currently Chair
of the OISTAT History and Theory Commission, for which
she has co-organised meetings and symposia in Helsinki,
Prague, Seoul and Amsterdam.
Since 1994 Kate has co-organised three exhibitions
for the Society of British Theatre Designers (SBTD) of
which two have won prizes at the international Prague
Quadrennial exhibition (PQ).
Further information
[email protected]
She was project director and curator of a fourth SBTD
national exhibition: Collaborators: UK Design for
Performance that originated in NTU’s Waverley building
in January 2007, represented the UK at PQ’07 and
Image: Remembering Eden, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Community Opera. BBC Studios, Manchester 1995.
Photograph: Kate Burnett.
10/11/2010 09:00
15
10/11/2010 09:00
16
ObJECTS
Snake: an exploration
of connections between
choreography and robotics
An interdisciplinary team bringing together
robotics experts, product designers and a dance
choreographer is exploring how the performing
arts can lead to exciting, innovative new
developments in design and technology.
The University’s commitment to interdisciplinary research
is evident in Snake, a robotic, interactive kinetic sculpture
designed to engage audience participation through dance.
Around two metres high, the machine is constructed from
a series of units like a snake’s vertebrae, each containing
three ‘air muscles’. These custom-made robotic parts
imitate human muscles by inflating and deflating. The
idea behind Snake is to encourage members of the
audience to dance with it by stimulating people’s natural
tendency to express their feelings through movement.
The robotic muscles generate delicate movements in highly
intricate patterns – much like a snake – as an appropriate
response to the dancer. They do this by using sensors to
read a person’s movement, collecting information such as
the proximity between the sculpture and the dancer.
World-class interdisciplinary collaborations
Snake was created by an interdisciplinary team with NTU
control technologist Dr Philip Breedon, choreographer Dr
Sophia Lycouris from the Edinburgh College of Art, and
NTU product designers, Jamie Billing and Tracy Cordingley.
The project continues the fruitful and ongoing
collaboration between Dr Breedon and Dr Lycouris, who
have been exploring connections between choreography
and robotics since their 2002 project, Muscle Machine.
Developed by NTU for Australian performance artist
Stelarc, Muscle Machine is a six-legged robotic structure
controlled by the artist sitting at the machine’s centre.
Snake is connected to a wider research community with
interests in this area. Snake was invited by Professor Mick
Wallis at the University of Leeds to be part of Emergent
Objects, which brought together three projects that explore
design processes through the lens of performance.
Emergent Objects received a Designing for the 21st
Century award of £301,000 from the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Arts
and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), not only to
support the development of each of the participating
projects, but also to encourage extensive dialogue
between the researchers.
This emphasis on regular sharing and intense critical
debate within the School of Architecture, Design and
the Built Environment, leads to substantial new insights
about how knowledge situated in the field of performing
arts can inform the practice of design and technology.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: Ballerina and snake robot. Photograph: Debbie Whitmore.
10/11/2010 09:00
17
10/11/2010 09:01
18
OBJECTS
The best defence
With more than five million UK homes at risk of
flooding at any time, innovative solutions need
to be found to protect people and communities.
A geotechnical engineer at Nottingham Trent
University may have found a simple and
environmentally friendly solution.
The past few years have seen many places around the
UK devastated by flooding, and as climate change takes
hold, the frequency of these extreme weather events is
expected to increase.
Throughout the country, various flood defence
systems have been developed and put in place. But
while permanent flood banks and walls may protect
certain areas that are at risk, the costs of widespread
implementation is prohibitive.
Furthermore, in some areas, waterside views and access
are important and there is a reluctance to curtail these
with permanent flood defence structures. One solution
which has been adopted is the use of temporary barriers
that can be erected when floods are anticipated. While
these can work well, they are reliant on advance warning
and a team of personnel to put them in place, and they
also require storage and transport. In some cases flooding
has prevented access to them at the storage depot.
One particularly innovative solution has been put
forward by John Greenwood, Reader in Geotechnical
Engineering, in the Designed Environment. His idea is
a self-erecting flood barrier.
When not in use the barrier lies at ground level where it can
be used as a walkway and waterside views are not restricted.
The barrier consists of an impermeable membrane. Buoyant
covers are attached to the membrane and when there’s a
flood, the covers rise with the water. As water forces build
up they are resisted by a tie attached to the covers and
linked to the membrane at the base of the trench.
Industrial links
To turn John’s idea into a working prototype, the
University has teamed up with international consulting
engineers AECOM, and Corby-based materials specialists,
PAGeotechnical.
Initial tests to confirm the design principles and then
trials for the production prototype were carried out at the
Environment Agency site at Lea Marston. They proved
the barrier can retain up to 900mm of water.
These trials were supported by the University and industrial
partners with additional funding from East Midlands
Development Agency under the Stimulating Innovation for
Success and Innovation Fellowship schemes.
Advantages over other defences
John’s self-erecting barrier offers distinct environmental
advantages over other defence systems. Not only does
it lie unobtrusively at ground level when not in use and
operates without manual input, the covers themselves
come in short, manageable sections offering flexibility to
adapt to changes in direction or ground topography.
Installation requires only low technology with the
excavated soil placed back in the trench as stabilising
10/11/2010 09:01
19
backfill. If necessary the covers and edge kerbs can be
constructed of materials sufficiently strong enough to
withstand cars and other vehicles.
John and the team see many other applications for the
flood barrier: it could be used to increase the effective
height of existing flood banks without visual intrusion
and without the need for costly additional soil.
Towns and cities such as New Orleans and Hamburg,
both of which are particularly at risk from flooding, could
install the flood barrier as a relatively low-cost second line
of defence in case primary flood defences fail. The barrier
can also be used for the temporary storage of water or
the redirection of flood waters away from critical areas.
It might even be used to reduce the effects of tsunami
waves if the restraining ties are designed to absorb the
shock effects of the waves.
Further information
[email protected]
Reference: Greenwood, J.R., Atchison, P. and Corbet, S. (2008),
‘Demonstration trials of a low cost self erecting flood barrier’,
Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Geosynthetics,
Edinburgh, September 2008.
Images: Flood waters. Photograph: Gerard Williams.
10/11/2010 09:01
20
OBJECTS
The trans-decorative
Cage’s statement: “I have nothing to say and I am saying
it and that is poetry as I needed it.”
Artists within The Transgressive - Decorative
research cluster explore transgressive methods for
interrogating the decorative and ornamental.
Cage, J. (1973), Lecture on Nothing, Silence: lectures and
writings, Wesleyan University Press: Hanover, pp. 109-126.
Researchers in this group explore the intersection and
collision of transgressive and decorative practices;
the meeting point between seemingly contradictory
tendencies or approaches.
‘Transgressive’ here indicates that which is deviant,
degenerate, dissident and unorthodox, while ‘decorative’
describes the ornamental, ornate, over-elaborate,
opulent and pretty. The researchers’ work uses the
subversive potential in the decorative and ornamental by
emphasising acts of making and craft labour.
It subverts and reworks traditional media and formal
languages by the visual and conceptual interrogation of
repetition and pattern, and a concern for the material
properties of object-making and display. For this group
of researchers, the physical experience of the exhibition
encounter becomes specifically located as part of a
critical research method, as well as the culmination of the
research process itself.
For Seán Cummins, these concerns become explored
in relation to questions of spatial-immersion, which is
understood to mean the unification of a within and a
without. Seán’s drawings of explosions and other visual
interference not only represent spatial-immersion but are
also fabricated through a process of meditative immersion
operating according to a strict code of rules. This repetitive
process identifies with a state of nothingness, evoking John
These ideas have been explored in exhibitions such as
Cleave, (The Economist Building, London), Distance, (APT,
Creekside Deptford, London) and Take Her Farther, (The
Wasp Room, Nottingham, 2010).
Craig Fisher’s research involves a material investigation
of various textile and craft processes, in order to question
representations of violence, disaster and gender stereotypes.
Craig sets out to explore the points of slippage between
disciplines and other systems of classification, resulting
in the production of a visual and material language that
shifts between the terms of image and object; craft,
fashion and art; furniture and sculpture; masculinity and
femininity; the functional and dysfunctional.
The contingent possibilities of these categories become
tested through the staging of installation environments
within gallery contexts including Hazardous Materials
(Millais Gallery, 2008), Misadventure (Galerie BK, Bern,
Switzerland, 2008) and Thread Baring: A Portrayal
of Masculinity One Stitch at a Time (Union Gallery,
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA, 2009).
(Continued)
Image: Craig Fisher – ‘Folly & Violence’ (background) and
‘Slippery when wet’ (foreground) – Lycra, MDF, foam, sand, wood,
cotton fabric and acrylic paint, dimensions variable, 2007.
10/11/2010 09:01
21
10/11/2010 09:01
22
OBJECTS
Image: Danica Maier – Unpicked and Dismantled Installation
shots, 2007 as part of Kaunas Art Beinalle: Textile: 07.
Photograph: Gerard Williams.
10/11/2010 09:01
23
The disturbing or unsettling potential of the decorative
for exploring ideas relating to gender roles and sexual
constructs is also evident in the research practice
of Danica Maier, where repetition and distortion
become used as tactical devices for investigating social
expectation and taboo.
Danica was co-curator of Unpicked and Dismantled, the
British pavilion for the Kaunas Art Biennale (Lithuania,
2007), an instrumental exhibition for establishing an
international context for exploring the critical capacity of
the transdecorative within textiles-based practices. This line
of investigation has been further extended during research
residencies at Fundación Migliorisi, (Asuncion, Paraguay)
and VASL, (Karachi, Pakistan with Gasworks, London).
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
10/11/2010 09:01
24
ObJECTS
Future fashions
Advanced technologies in the world of fashion
are opening up new avenues for innovative and
creative knitwear design and manufacture.
For years knitwear has proven consistently popular with
shoppers, largely thanks to its versatility.
That versatility is down to technical developments in
the production of fibres, yarns and, importantly, the
mechanised flat-bed knitting machines with which the
garments are produced.
Such innovations have the potential to lead design, as
designers will embrace the creative opportunity to utilise
and exploit new technologies or processes.
Blending creativity and technology
This newer technology requires knitwear designers
to understand the complexities of the integration of
both fabric and form from the outset, alongside the
considerations of advanced technology, as opposed to
designing fabric and garments in isolation.
Historically, one of the disadvantages of mechanised
machine knitting is that it compromised creativity, with
designs dependent upon the capabilities of the machine.
Currently within the fashion knitwear industry the adoption
of this most recent knitting technology is marginal. Yet
Professor Tilak Dias and Nicola Francis firmly believe
this technology is the future and that a mastery of it is
essential. Their research focuses on fully exploring the
creative and aesthetic potential of this innovation.
During the last few decades however, a technological
revolution has taken place, leading to the development
of fully electronically controlled knitting machines, which
can handle much of the process and produce finished
edges and internal shaping.
This will be achieved by utilising the expert nature of
current fashion knitwear provision within the School and its
specific teaching philosophy. This philosophy relates to the
integration of design and technology, celebrating their codependence to enhance innovation and idea progression.
This integration of design and manufacturing systems
has helped make manufacturing easier, reducing
development time and providing an accessible
technological interface for knitwear designers.
The advanced computerised flat-bed knitting technology
will provide opportunities to further enhance the holistic
approach, stimulate reflective practice and encourage the
development of an analytical methodology to progress
innovative developments within fashion knitwear.
This is particularly important for complex three-dimensional
products where development can be time consuming.
It is now possible, for instance, for the designer and knit
technologist to work expediently towards developing
innovative, complex three-dimensionally shaped garments
or products, suitable for a variety of end uses and markets
either as one-offs or for multiple production runs.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: Sara Peat, BA (Hons) Fashion Knitwear Design and
Knitted Textiles, 2010. Photograph: Andy Espin.
10/11/2010 09:01
25
10/11/2010 09:01
26
ObJECTS
Supporting industry
Many companies tap into the expertise at
Nottingham Trent University to help develop their
products. It is a cost-effective way to harness
innovation from those working at the cutting edge
in a wide range of fields. That is what Burgess
Architectural Products did when it wanted to
improve its raised floor systems.
Raised floors are used in buildings to cover IT and
other communications cables, or to provide ventilation.
A typical raised floor comprises load-bearing panels laid
in a horizontal grid and supported by adjustable vertical
pedestals. These panels are easily removed for quick
access and maintenance.
From this, the team developed and produced a number
of panel prototypes from the highest performing material
compositions. These prototypes have been tested for
their strength and stiffness to meet industry standards.
In addition, a new manufacturing technique will be used
for the production of one of the new designs.
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project between
NTU and Leicestershire company Burgess Architectural
Products was launched to help the company find a way
to create lighter, more sustainable floor panels, headed by
Dr Anton Ianakiev. A KTP is a funded initiative designed
to transfer academic innovation to organisations to help
improve products, services and profitability.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Floor panel deformation. KTP project with Burgess
Architectural Products Ltd.
The existing panels the company use are made from
chipboard. The team started by reviewing a number of
alternative materials. The new material composition had
to be compatible in terms of strength and price and the
team soon settled on a sandwich-like structure built from
various types of foam as a core material, with different
recycled materials as an outer skin.
10/11/2010 09:01
27
10/11/2010 09:01
28
OBJECTS
Digital revolution
A sustainable approach
Digital technologies enable textile and
garment designs to be originated in one place
and produced on the other side of the world,
while advances in fibres mean that the most
fundamental fashion and textile products can
be engineered with the most advanced, but
invisible, technology.
A range of wider concepts also creates parameters within
working groups. Wherever possible, no-waste concepts
of cutting and construction are adopted to increase
sustainability. The ‘movement and form’ of the body
is evaluated to inform garment cutting, shaping and
manipulation. Other group concerns include:
The research of the 2D to 3D group, led by Dr Katherine
Townsend and Dr Amanda Briggs-Goode, is focused
on the interrogation of the technical, aesthetic and
sustainable design relationships that can exist between
2D textile surfaces and 3D garment forms. It supports a
range of enquiries that engage with ways to integrate
established processes with new textile technologies to
create objects that provoke new dialogues and questions
around both the tactile and immaterial properties of
digital craft practice.
Digital technologies allow designers to take on roles that
encompass a wider range of skills than before, facilitating
an integrated, engineered approach to fashion, textiles
and decorative arts.
The combination of 2D and 3D design methods across
a range of sub-disciplines means that colleagues share
experiential knowledge gained through varied routes; a
cross-contamination leading to a holistic approach to
solving surface and structural design problems.
• scale – the use of projection as a tool for exploring
scale and proportion and its effect on form and
patterning techniques;
• tectonic shapes – architectural forms deconstructing
and reconstructing on the body with the material
dictating the outcome, relating fluid areas with
structured areas;
• second skin – integrating patterned surfaces /
structures with the form thus creating new dialogues
between textiles and fashion, looking at the surface
of the dressed and undressed body with the body as
the frame;
• engineered prints – print developed alongside the
pattern development process with strong links to
printing technology.
(Continued)
Images: Amanda Briggs-Goode - Digitally printed textile,
modelled on the stand in 2D/3D No Waste Workshop, 2010.
Photograph: Cat Northall.
10/11/2010 09:01
29
10/11/2010 09:01
30
ObJECTS
Members of the research group encourage each other
to produce experimental, transient and challenging
work, which has resulted in questions that cannot be
asked in isolation. Significantly it has enabled them to
consider how fashion and textile practitioners think,
through the application of apparently similar but
inherently different methodologies.
PhD students in the group also work across the boundary
between the material and immaterial. The group leaders
are supervising a project which synthesises hand and
digital crafting techniques to develop new ways of
generating pattern from the movement of the body using
motion-capture technology. Another parallel project is
exploring the application of sustainable renewable fibres
for constructed, recyclable textiles.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: Katherine Townsend - Digitally printed textile,
manipulated by Tina Downes in 2D/3D No Waste Workshop,
2010. Photograph: Cat Northall.
10/11/2010 09:01
31
10/11/2010 09:01
32
ObJECTS
Recycling rainwater
Environmental pressures and growing requirement
for water means increased demand for systems
that capture rainwater. Scientists at Nottingham
Trent University are looking at ways of developing
effective systems that can be placed underground.
The concept of capturing rainwater and storing it for later
use is well known, but in industrial countries this practice
has generally died away thanks to the availability of
mains-supplied water.
Because of climate change, there is a slowly developing
crisis in the availability of mains-water supplies in the
developed countries. In the UK, for example, the mains
system is under either moderate or serious levels of stress
in most of England south of the Humber.
One possible solution by researcher Dr Anton Ianakiev
is to reintroduce rainwater capturing tanks. The stored
water is good quality but not pure and so is suitable for
things like toilets, washing machines and outside taps.
Ideally the tank should be placed underground in the
garden, clear of vehicles. Being underground in cool, lightfree conditions helps maintain the quality of water and
preserve the tank, which is manufactured from polyethylene
using rotomoulding technology. It also helps minimise
the risk of the water developing legionnaires’ disease.
Structural analysis of the tank is usually carried out
using computer methods like the finite element method
(FEM), where it is easy to specify the necessary boundary
conditions (loads) and obtain the stresses, displacement
and critical load for stability of the analysed structure.
As the thickness of the tank is more or less even it can
be set as a parameter and an optimum value can be
obtained in this way, minimising the weight and the
price of the product.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Design features aimed at reducing stresses
and deformations in plastic water tanks.
CAD Drawing: Anton Ianakiev.
However, for a tank to be placed underground, the
structure needs to be able to handle ground and water
pressure loads.
10/11/2010 09:01
33
10/11/2010 09:01
34
ObJECTS
Wave energy generation
The University’s Advanced Design and
Manufacturing Engineering Centre is one of the
world’s leading research teams in sustainable
wave energy generation for a greener future.
of the PTO to produce electricity compatible with the
UK’s grid at different wave cycles. Research shows
that the system is capable of converting 86% of
captured energy into electricity, marking a significant
advancement over other technology in development
and giving Ocean Navitas a competitive advantage.
Making an international impact
As the world searches for affordable, innovative and
sustainable ways to generate energy, universities
play a vital role in working with industry to develop
new technologies.
At Nottingham Trent University, the Advanced Design
and Manufacturing Engineering Centre is successfully
carrying out research in the field of ocean energy and
improving the way in which captured energy is converted
into electricity.
Benefits for industry
Working with wave power developers Ocean Navitas,
Professor Daizhong Su and Dr Amin Al-Habaibeh have
helped the company develop and improve its generation
technology. The research enabled Ocean Navitas to
construct a critical component – the power take-off
(PTO) system – at full scale and connect it to a 45kW
permanent magnet motor able to supply energy for up
to 66 homes in the UK.
The team also constructed a specially designed hydraulic
wave simulator – the only one of its kind – to test the
system. Input forces, movement and output generation
were monitored and recorded using the University’s
cutting-edge equipment. The test proved the capability
Following this research success, Professor Su was invited
to deliver a keynote speech, jointly authored by
Dr Al-Habaibeh, at the International Ocean Energy
Symposium in 2009 in Harbin, China. A subsequent
paper was published in the IOES-2009 Conference Essays.
The team also received a grant from Research Councils UK
to run a summer research school in renewable ocean energy
in China in collaboration with Harbin Engineering University.
This ongoing collaboration, with its joint research work,
teaching, learning and consultancy, demonstrates the
international influence the University has in this vital field.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Reference: Al-Habaibeh, A., Su, D. and Arman, H. (2009),
An innovative approach for research-informed product
design teaching using wave energy generation case
study, The International Ocean Energy Symposium 2009,
Harbin, China, September 2009.
10/11/2010 09:01
35
10/11/2010 09:01
36
ObJECTS
Of cloth and body
Fascinating research within the School of Art
& Design explores the relationships between
clothes and the human body, pushing the
boundaries in the world of fashion.
Rosemarie Goulding uses research to inform the teaching
of pattern-cutting principles and design appreciation.
Collaborative research initiatives are encouraged and
supported within the School of Art & Design, and
Rosemarie has been an active participant in the 2D to
3D research group. This group explores open questions
about the relationships between textile designs and
the form of the human body. This work has resulted in
collaborative exhibitions in the UK and Hong Kong.
The projection of the 2D drawings historically used in lace
design and production fuse with the body, challenging
the boundaries of the traditional and the virtual design
possibilities within a visual narrative. The passage of
light onto the 3D surface of the body creates new
compositions and affords creative spontaneity as the
drawings and samples are transformed.
The authenticity of the historical drawings, diagrams,
books and samples are placed within an innovative visual
dialogue. The images articulate the embryonic research
journey through a collection of original designs. These
combine traditional skills with new digital possibilities,
taking both out of their original contexts by introducing
outside influences to create a visual navigation of the body
through the textile designs in the cloth or on the skin.
Further information
[email protected]
Challenging the boundaries
Pattern-cutting techniques evolving from craft practice
demand knowledge of the human form: the fit of
a fashion product, styling, proportion and shape. It
necessitates an understanding of the visual dialogue
between the body, and of the fabric form that covers it.
Both manual and computer-aided design techniques
require aesthetic judgements within the creation of new
ideas for drapes and shapes.
Image: Rosemarie Goulding – Transforming shape design.
Recent exhibits have taken influences from drawings and
technical graphs from the School’s lace archive, exploring
the visualisation of mark making on the surface contours
of the body.
10/11/2010 09:01
37
10/11/2010 09:01
38
OBJECTS
Image: Rosemarie Goulding – Body, skin and lace archive.
10/11/2010 09:01
39
10/11/2010 09:01
40
OBJECTS
Addicted to objects
Currently, there is much interest in the study of the
performing object and how it is enriched by other
disciplines such as anthropology and psychology.
“In one way or another,” says Sean Myatt, Senior Lecturer
in Theatre Design, “we are all addicted to objects, unless
you lead an object-free life; but even the Buddhist will
have his bowl for rice.
“Our addiction can take the form of a mobile phone, a
cherished photo, a holiday souvenir or a childhood toy.
Objects help us to understand the history and religions of
the human race, its needs and migrations. They survive
long after we have gone. We are introduced to objects
as soon as we are born and learn to give them meaning;
they have a nostalgic and cultural reference connected
to them and can be used to enrich or dominate our
lives. In childhood, transitory objects help us achieve
independence, something to hold onto while separating
from our mothers. We are nurtured into addiction.”
A lifelong love of objects
Sean’s own addiction to objects started in childhood and
has continued through his profession as a puppeteer,
object manipulator and teacher. His practice involves the
manipulation of objects to give them life; a reciprocal
play between the performer and the object, imbuing
objects and props with significant meanings.
He has incorporated this into a demonstration / lecture
called Instinctive Object Ramblings: it encompasses a series
of encounters with people, objects and materials, spanning
the period from his childhood to the present day.
It uses a series of nine objects to illustrate how the
different stages of his life are reflected in his professional
practice, and demonstrates how people bestow
associated meanings onto objects. These include: object
number one, a table as a personification of Mother
(as in Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno’s My Mother (1981));
object number two, a chair breaking to represent Carl
Yung’s Psychic Exteriorization theory; object number
three, a wicker chicken as a transitory object; and object
number four, a door as an opening into the interior of our
imagination (Tadeusz Kantor).
The submersion of performing object writing into
other disciplines has meant that to a large extent
it has been an invisible field... it has prevented us
from understanding the intense and revelatory
connections between performing objects as they
have occurred in vastly different times and places.
John Bell (2001) in Puppets, Masks and Performing
Objects, MIT Press: London, pp.203
“We’re willing to accept these new associated
meanings and are challenged to test their boundaries,”
he adds. “Take the work titled An Oak Tree by Michael
Craig Martin, which was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in
1974. This was in fact a glass of water, with a series of
questions and answers attached that gave the reasons
behind its transformation. People viewing the work
were not influenced by the manipulation of a performer
when making their associations.”
10/11/2010 09:01
41
“Consumerism is changing the way we value the
object. Exploring the physical, cultural and poetic
meanings projected onto objects is at the core of
any research or practice in the field of object theatre.
To fully understand the meaning in the object
involves an awareness of the psychological, historical,
anthropological and sociological aspects of objects.
“Teaching object theatre helps students develop an
understanding of the multiple languages at work on
stage and how to control signs, symbols and metaphors
as well as to challenge their perceptions.”
Further information
[email protected]
Image: The man holding the chair is an MA student, the sole actor as
object! Performance of the Pit and the Pendulum (2007), is a devised
promenade theatre work by undergraduate students from NTU Theatre
Design and Mulit-Media programmes and Erasmus exchange students.
10/11/2010 09:01
42
OBJECTS
Sustainable clothing
What we wear has a significant impact on
the environment. An interdisciplinary team
at Nottingham Trent University has carried
out a major study in this area to assess public
awareness and influence government policy.
Sustainable consumption has risen up the public policy
agenda ever since governments signed an agreement in
2002 that committed them to addressing unsustainable
consumption patterns.
European Commission research shows that clothing
accounts for up to 10% of the overall environmental
impact of household consumption.
In Britain, the Department of the Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs launched a series of research projects on
clothing to improve its evidence base, one of which was
awarded to a consortium led by the University.
The project, Public Understanding of Sustainable Clothing,
was led by Tom Fisher, Professor of Art and Design, and Tim
Cooper, Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption.
Demonstrating NTU’s expertise across disciplines, the
team also included anthropologist Dr Sophie Woodward
and Alex Hiller and Helen Goworek from the Nottingham
Business School.
Understanding consumer knowledge
The research had three phases: focus groups, home-based
diary tasks and workshops. The focus groups gauged
consumers’ knowledge of the concept of sustainable
clothing and their ideas and attitudes towards it.
A sub-group was given diary-based tasks and asked to
reflect on why they owned particular items of clothing,
the consequences of how they looked after them, and
how often, why and how they disposed of such items.
These individuals then came together for workshops.
A range of potential changes was proposed to reduce
the negative impacts of clothing purchase, use and
disposal, including:
• buying sustainable clothing such as organic or fair
trade clothes or items designed to last longer;
• washing at 30ºC;
• using eco-friendly cleaning technologies and line
drying whenever possible;
• repairing or adapting clothing to prolong its life and,
when no longer wanted, selling or donating it.
The research found that awareness of the sustainability
impacts of clothing is generally low, with people
associating ‘good’ clothes with fashion, price, quality and
longevity (the latter being associated with quality rather
than sustainability). While ‘newness’ was, for many,
an important purchasing motivation, some expressed
a weary resignation to fashion trends. Many people –
particularly the young – purchased cheap, fashionable
clothing from low-budget retailers, anticipating that it
would not last long in a reasonable condition.
There was evidence of pro-environmental behaviour in
the form of line drying and using charity shops as part
of ‘normal’ routines; although there was reluctance
to washing at reduced temperatures and line drying
because of limited washing machine programme options,
physical space and the British weather.
(Continued)
10/11/2010 09:01
43
Image: ‘Cow’ vintage clothing in Nottingham.
Photograph: Andy Espin.
10/11/2010 09:01
44
ObJECTS
There was also a reluctance to reduce the frequency with
which clothes are washed because of the attraction of
‘fresh’ clothes and a fear of odour. The research found
a desire to repair clothes that were costly or especially
valued. However, the skills that once made clothing
maintenance routine have declined and the cost of
professional repair was widely considered prohibitive.
Although people used charity shops, they did not always
appreciate the distinction between reusing clothing and
recycling fibre, so often threw away cheap clothes.
The research also recommended that the Government
should work with retailers and local councils to increase
understanding of reuse and recycling, diverting textiles
from the waste stream and promoting reuse through
second-hand markets. It also highlighted the need to
work with EU partners to explore fiscal measures and
trade policies to promote sustainable clothing, provide
better labelling on the source of products (such as
cotton origin), and explore increased recovery of clothing
through a ‘take back’ scheme.
The later phases of the research revealed that, once
better informed, many people are open to changing their
behaviour because of the energy impacts of laundry and
the negative social impacts of clothing production.
In summary, the study demonstrated that attitudes to
clothing generally, and sustainable clothing in particular,
are shaped by a multitude of factors, including age,
gender and orientation to sustainability issues. Further
survey-based research to quantify these relationships
would be useful as a basis for policy interventions.
More research is also needed to develop a deeper
understanding of the motivations of different segments
of the population. Government and industry could then
target sustainable clothing strategies appropriately.
Many accept the idea of government intervention
through fiscal incentives and labelling initiatives and
to restrict or prevent the sale of clothing involving
unacceptable social impacts in its production.
A role for government
NTU’s research could have a significant impact if the
Government acts upon the report’s recommendations.
This would mean improving the public’s knowledge
of sustainable clothing practices and developing the
clothing maintenance skills of children and adults,
building information on the clothing’s sustainability
implications into the retail environment and measures to
support alteration and repair services.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Reference: Fisher, T., Cooper, T., Woodward, S., Hiller, A. and
Goworek, H. (2008), Public Understanding of Sustainable
Clothing: Report to the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs. London: Defra.
Agreed production standards were proposed, to build trust
between government, industry and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), while retaining the option of
removing itmes with unacceptable impacts from the market.
10/11/2010 09:01
45
10/11/2010 09:01
46
10/11/2010 09:01
Practices
47
The Schools of Art & Design, and Architecture, Design
and the Built Environment are home to a large
number of researchers working in fields as diverse as
construction, textiles, product design and the visual
arts. Despite this varied, seemingly incongruous range
of subjects, all researchers share common ground:
they are experienced, passionate practitioners: doing,
making, shaping, exploring, designing, building,
manufacturing, communicating, provoking, inspiring.
Thanks to a lively, stimulating culture, researchers are pushing the
boundaries – developing new products, technologies and artistic works
that truly are making a major impact on our world.
In this section, we have pulled together some of the most intriguing
and important research from across the two Schools, reflecting a wide
range of practices: design, artistic, spatial, professional, sustainable
and material. You’ll see how our respected researchers are influencing
the design of low-carbon buildings, giving marginalised people a
voice, helping sufferers of deep-vein thrombosis and exploring beliefs
and rituals through major artistic pieces.
Image: Andy Love – Development still from animated narrative
moment “In the forest that sits at the edge of the world”.
10/11/2010 09:01
48
PRACTiCES
The moral maze
Are the moral facts ‘out there’?
Chartered surveyors, architects, engineers
and many other professions agree to act
in a ‘professional’ way. But what does this
actually mean? And how do we decide if
certain behaviour within these professions is
morally wrong? These are the thorny questions
being tackled by Dr Andrew Knight, Head of
Construction Management.
Dr Knight argues that when considering whether any moral
statement is true or false, the relationship between moral
facts and moral beliefs is crucial. “A moral realist would
argue that moral facts exist ‘out there’ in the world and the
true value of our beliefs is dependent on these moral facts.
Moral relativism is the theory that there are no moral
absolutes, that what might be wrong for one person is
not necessarily wrong for another.
Dr Andrew Knight, Head of Construction Management at
NTU, believes that individual professionals are often put
in difficult dilemmas where the choices they face – look
the other way or whistle-blow and potentially end your
career – are very uncomfortable.
In 2004, the Office of Fair Trading uncovered price fixing
among contractors. Also discovered were instances of
agreements between contractors to pay those who didn’t
win contracts. These practices were illegal, but were they
also immoral? And what about anticompetitive practices
that were within the law? Are these immoral too?
These questions go to the heart of Dr Knight’s research.
His aim is to illustrate the complexities involved when
people simplistically proclaim that professionals should
‘act morally’, as if there are unquestionable standards we
can always consult and easily apply.
“However, if moral facts are ‘out there’ where are they
and how do we access them? As an alternative, a nonrealist would argue that moral facts are mind-dependent,
which ultimately appears to support the proposition that
if collusion is wrong, it can only be wrong for me.”
“It can be seen that most forms of ethical theory
which result in moral relativism can be considered
counterintuitive and highly problematic if one of the
functions of morality is for humans to live flourishing
lives. So what is the alternative? Is ‘collusion is wrong’
universally true and not just true for me? Is it made true
by an external morally relevant fact? The point is that
many of the things we blandly proclaim as ‘immoral’ or
‘unprofessional’ are actually deeply problematic from
a philosophical point of view and ultimately this might
explain why people get into trouble when trying to make
ethical decisions in practice.”
The truth is not necessarily out there. However, by having
a more rigorous and informed understanding of the
theory, at least professionals – and students who hope
to become professionals – will be in a better position to
evaluate the decisions with which they are faced.
Further information
[email protected]
10/11/2010 09:01
49
10/11/2010 09:01
50
PRACTiCES
A clearer view
Our thermal environment is just as vivid and
complex as our normal view of the world.
The ability to see images that represent those
complexities enables NTU researchers to
interpret and improve the energy performance
of buildings.
Homes and other buildings lose heat during winter and
gain heat in the summer. The facades of these buildings
act as barriers or filters, helping regulate the places
where we live, work and play. Thermographic, or infrared,
images allow us a unique view at the thermal weaknesses
and strengths of our buildings.
The services that help heat and cool our buildings are
also a fundamental part of the spectrum of investigation
that thermography can undertake. From the relatively
mundane such as investigations centring upon the
efficacy of pipe flows to the more complex analysis of the
switching of heating units.
The application of thermography can help in many
different ways, from answering simple questions – why
is a particular room in a home always cold in winter?
– to more complex issues, such as how can we change
our behaviours to improve energy efficiency with the
minimum of effort and expenditure.
By harnessing the power of thermographic imagery,
scientists hope that they can help people and companies
make simple, cost-effective changes to their homes and
buildings in order to become more energy efficient.
Research carried out with University of Plymouth’s School
of Psychology, companies such as Homebase and more
publicly oriented organisations like the Eden Project, has
seen NTU scientists focus on this behavioural question.
Householders have taken part in surveys both before and
after they had viewed thermographic images of their
homes. The energy measures taken by those householders
who have seen the images compared to those who
haven’t, have been compared (Goodhew et al, 2009).
Further information
[email protected]
Reference: Goodhew, J., Goodhew, S., Auburn, T., De Wilde, P. and
Pahl, S. (2009), ‘A preliminary investigation of the potential for
thermographic images to influence householders understanding
of home energy consumption,’ ARCOM September 2009.
10/11/2010 09:01
51
Traditional terraced housing.
Missing ceiling insulation viewed from inside a property.
Heat loss from a large greenhouse.
Modern detached property.
Images: ‘Red Alert’ Daily Telegraph of 26th March 2006.
10/11/2010 09:01
52
PRACTICES
The art of gardening
The work of Professor John Newling focuses on
the transactions between people and places –
and how the practice of gardening can restore
a set of values in society and bring about a new
sense of civic responsibility.
John Newling’s work has been published extensively and
is critically acclaimed nationally and internationally.
The Professor of Installation Sculpture’s practice is part of
a widening evolution of new strategies for arts production
and dissemination that emerged in the mid 20th Century,
and continues to create new knowledge and expressions in
this century. To this end, Professor Newling has innovated
the possibilities and benefits for art in a renewed social and
conceptual framework within the public domain.
For many years now he has investigated the material
transformations that evolve from the transactions that
weave between people and places. His most recent
research has been in the production and critical evaluation
of human transactions within the natural environment.
In the course of this research Professor Newling has
grown the world’s first hydroponic (growing without
traditional soil) vineyard in a disused church, constructed
unique soils from particular texts and is developing a
process for converting liquid soil into drinkable water
in a laboratory. He has also grown beech trees in a soil
formed from the historical documents and names of
people where the trees will eventually be planted, spent
a year growing a lemon tree as a permanent art work for
the Lincoln collection, is preparing soils for the landscape
of a new square in Peterborough and has grown food
amid the roots of trees on the streets.
A metaphor for living
Professor Newling’s art of gardening is an attempt, at a
grass roots level, to restore a set of values to materiality;
values which are immanent in the complex workings of
nature, and which are revealed in practice as a code of
conduct, where gardening becomes a metaphor for living.
He believes that on the common ground of ecological
sustainability, art can both enrich and nurture a new
belief in the social value of civic authority, based on our
shared responsibilities as gardeners of the public domain.
Notable projects such as Chatham Vines (2004-2006),
The Noah Laboratory (2007-2009), Peterborough Soil
(2008-2010), The Clearing (2009-2010) and The Lemon
Tree & Me (2009-2010) construct and form responsibility
in which meaningful and material ecologies are unified in
the artistic value of ‘looking after’.
An ethical and aesthetic setting grows around the simple
act of looking after the living material elements of each
project, an ecology of values which, in every sense, can be
considered local to the attempts to transform material.
(Continued)
Image: John Newling – The Clearing, A Hinterland commission.
Photograph: Jonathan Casciani.
10/11/2010 09:01
53
10/11/2010 09:01
54
PRACTiCES
The immediate situation includes the tactile and
material encounters, the sustainability of the action,
the micro-politics of gardening, the re-appropriation
of time and the sanctity of place. This local
disposition emphasises quality over quantity.
Professor Newling’s projects contain the seeds
of a social ecology – a generative programme of
intensive care based on the simplest of values
– which are second nature to the gardener and
enriched by the cultural compost of the artist.
WAR
Further information
www.john-newling.com
References: Newling, J. (2006), Chatham Vines, London:
ArtOffice. Newling, J. (2009).
The Noah Laboratory; constructing soil, 1st ed., Lincoln The
Collection. Newling, J. (2010).
Peterborough Soil, Installation at Peterborough Museum and
Art Gallery. Newling, J. (2009).
The Clearing (Part 1), a commissioned project by ‘Hinterland’,
Arts Council England. Newling, J. (2010), The Lemon Tree,
Living composition at Lincoln The Collection.
Image: John Newling – The Lemon Tree.
10/11/2010 09:01
55
WARNING - RESOLUTION NOT GREAT
10/11/2010 09:01
56
PRACTiCES
Making a splash
Celebrity endorsement and cool crossovers
The wellington boot has, until recently, been
considered an unspectacular item. But is there
more to the humble welly than first meets the eye?
And what can it tell us about our own identities.
Once a symbol of the establishment, favoured by green
welly-wearing Sloane Rangers, the brand has, latterly
extended its reach to more diverse social groupings, in
part through celebrity endorsement and crossovers into
the world of pop music and summer youth festivals.
In 2005, the wellington boot had a renaissance. Featured
in Vogue, worn with hot pants by supermodel Kate Moss,
and reinterpreted with a snakeskin effect by designer
Jimmy Choo, suddenly the welly was cool again.
In an interesting research strand, Reader in Fashion Dr Alison
Goodrum has deconstructed the wellington boot, examining
its changing fortunes, she says, “from my position as a fashion
theorist, I’m interested in the way that material objects can
carry and communicate often conflicting cultural meanings.”
A glimpse at the history of the wellington shows how it
is a peculiarly British form of boot. As the eponymous
name suggests, a leather version was popularised by
Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, in the early
1800s. The fashion style of the Iron Duke was emulated by
aristocratic admirers in a clear case of what fashion scholar’s
term the trickle-down effect: the percolative flow of a novel
style from the upper classes to the popular majority.
Centuries on, and the class discourses surrounding the
wellington boot are all-pervading. The Hunter brand of boot,
for example, is synonymous with a classist vision of patrician
Britain. Hunter produced the original green wellington, as
worn by members of what was coined the Green Welly
Brigade, a style-based tribe of the 1980s comprising
upwardly mobile city dwellers keen to signal their social
distinction through the adoption of prestige garments.
“This is the wellington boot as both fashion accessory
and, simultaneously, as utility wear,” Dr Goodrum adds.
“The meaning of clothes has the capacity to change over
time and space.”
Gait-altering, squelching and odorous, the actual wearing
of wellingtons can be a rich sensory experience. A related
point is that wellies (and the semantics here are key,
being referred to in the diminutive) frequently invoke
an emotional reaction from the wearer. Often linked
to childhood, wellies are examples of the way in which
clothing is infused with non-physical properties to do with
nostalgia for lost times, people and places.
“My unpacking of the wellington boot here is intended
to show off the cultural approach that flavours my wider
research on the subject of fashion and identity. My book
The National Fabric: Fashion, Britishness, Globalization,
develops this approach and exhibits my interests in
Britishness, cultural geography, rural fashion and class.”
Further information
[email protected]
Reference: Goodrum, A. (2005), ‘The National Fabric: Fashion,
Britishness, Globalization’. Oxford: Berg.
Image: Joules Wellies: Image courtesy of Goodrum, A. and
Hunt, K. (2010), ‘Framing Rural Fashion: Observations from
Badminton Horse Trials’, Journal of Visual Communication, Sage.
Photograph: Fields of Fashion.
10/11/2010 09:01
57
10/11/2010 09:02
58
PRACTiCES
Better sustainable buildings
Research into sustainable construction is
helping East Midlands professionals design
and build a low-carbon future.
Dr Chinwe Isiadinso’s research focuses on sustainable
construction practice, and specifically tools and
mechanisms that enhance the sustainable environmental
performance of buildings.
When RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) East
Midlands commissioned NTU and Nottingham-based
Marsh:Grochowski Architects, Dr Isiadinso was tasked
with investigating how best to judge and evaluate
low-carbon buildings.
This involved defining what a low carbon building means,
examining the differences in building types, the range of
environmental assessment methods and the complexities
associated with low-carbon design.
Dr Isiadinso, who is a Construction Management
Research Fellow, was also able to explore the various
approaches to setting up and running award schemes,
looking at aspects such as environmental legislation,
assessment tools and identifying the appropriate criteria
for developing a low-carbon building design scheme.
In addition, she interviewed and surveyed a number
of influential figures in the construction industry who
had published articles or contributed to sustainable
construction initiatives within the last ten years.
low-energy enthusiasts, sustainable energy consultants,
client advisers and installers of renewable technologies.
Her research suggests that appropriate architectural
design, renewable technologies, post-occupancy
evaluation and numerical evidence are vital for designing
and constructing low-carbon buildings.
Research that makes an impact
Workshops and roadshows were set up to present the
research findings to professionals in the East Midlands as
well as creating awareness of best practice for developing
low-carbon buildings. The workshops were designed in
partnership with professional bodies; the Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Chartered Institute
of Building (CIOB).
The University took part in three roadshows organised
by the East Midlands New Technology Initiative (NTI),
as well as presentations at continuing professional
development programmes organised by RICS and
CIOB. Through these activities, NTU has been able to
work closely with construction professionals, transferring
knowledge and helping to improve best practice for lowcarbon building design in the region.
Further information
[email protected]
The representative survey sample included academics,
building services engineers, architects, developers,
10/11/2010 09:02
59
10/11/2010 09:02
60
PRACTiCES
The narrative moment
New media artist Andy Love creates digital
paintings of unusual, dream-like worlds and
characters, influenced by children’s stories.
When displayed in a gallery, Andy Love’s digital paintings
occupy what he calls the traditional niche of classical
paintings in that they depict an illusionary space with
characters that in some way capture a narrative moment.
It is capturing these narrative moments in cohesive and
recursive digitally created worlds that is at the heart of
Andy’s work.
from Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansonn*, where
Moominmamma, distracted by memories of her summer
garden and disinterested by her new kitchen, draws flowers
and an apple tree on the wall then drifts into the drawing
and falls asleep behind the tree where no one can find
her. The idea of an imaginary world so viable that one
could step into it despite being made of charcoal lines and
scribbled shading is very powerful indeed.
Within my projected and screen-based works, the nature of
the illustrated surface – the mark of the ink pen, the cross
hatch and inky wash – are co-opted, adapted and reapplied
throughout. The use of the overt handmade mark across
every surface lends the work to a deep analogue that
runs alongside the digital nature of the scenes.
“How long is a moment?” he asks. Say, for instance, the
work depicts a clearing in a forest on a spring evening.
Motes drift through the twilight air, a creature sits leaning
against a tree blowing over a cup of coffee to cool it
before taking a sip. He brushes lint or a dead leaf from
his thigh and pauses noticing a mote floating high above
before returning to his coffee…
“This enquiry will continue to evolve; the moments will
continue to lengthen and deepen cycling seamlessly,
endlessly into the twilight of the gallery.”
The focus of the work is of believability not realism; to lift
the audience into a complete otherworld of the narrative
and to be in no doubt that however unusual, the world of
the story is complete, actual and seamless. Beyond that,
as in the real world, if you exit stage left sooner or later
you will enter stage right; in these worlds you will arrive
back on stage somewhat quicker.
* Jansson, T. (1978), Moominpappa at Sea, Puffin: London, p.150.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Andy Love – Still from the animation bluecat in
‘tea not coffee’.
“The nature of these moments, the source of the
moment’s imagery, is that of the children’s story
book; the grim fairy tale, their illustrations and often
their adaptations into animation. There is a scene
10/11/2010 09:02
61
10/11/2010 09:02
62
PRACTiCES
“Not too long ago, in the forest that sits at the edge
of the world, the father of all cats and the father of
all dogs meet to compare the relative merits of their
favourite beverages. They rest on an abandoned sofa
and disreputable dining chair with an unstable leg…”
Andy Love – Development still from animated narrative moment
“In the forest that sits at the edge of the world”.
10/11/2010 09:02
63
10/11/2010 09:02
64
PRACTiCES
Technical textiles
Sensors in clothes that can inform the future
design of functional fashion, and digital jewellery
are two of the exciting projects carried out by an
interdisciplinary research team.
Since 2008, researchers within the Schools of Art
& Design, and Architecture, Design and the Built
Environment have been working across disciplines to
develop new knowledge and understanding of technical
textiles and wearable technology.
This expertise has been brought together to create a new
interdisciplinary community, led by Dr Amanda BriggsGoode and Dr Philip Breedon, motivated by the need
to develop critical thinking, methodologies and product
concepts in these exciting areas.
One of the projects sees the research team using a novel
stretchable sensor embedded into embroidery, weave and
knitted fabrics. Working with pattern-cutting experts, the
team can use this technology to develop functional fashion.
In addition, the team is interested in developing its own
solutions to textile stretch sensing, with early prototypical
knitted sensors tested and showcased in musical
performances with a custom-fitted garment worn by a
cellist. These two complementary strands of the stretch
sensing research project, Aeolia,, provide a rich platform for
the interrogation of design process and the relationship
between function and aesthetics in emerging fields.
The results of this work have been presented widely at the
World Textiles Conference, Futurotextiel, The Industrial Trust,
The Worshipful Company of Drapers, the Fashion and Textile
Association, New Media Scotland, the MIT Media Lab,
the British Council in Milan and the House of Lords.
Digital jewellery
Further research by the team involves digital jewellery.
In this project, handcrafted jewellery is fitted with
wirelessly networked nodes that act as social proximity
devices and props for further design exploration
ensemble, a networked jewellery and sound installation,
was shown in Shetland in summer 2010 as part of a
groundbreaking exhibition dedicated to digital jewellery
and the processes of craft in design.
As a result of this work, the research group is extending its
capabilities for supporting students and research in the
areas of embedded and tangible computing, interaction
design, technical textiles, wearable technologies and
smart design. The group is building a portfolio of projects
that demonstrate cutting-edge knowledge in both
pragmatic issues and conceptual frameworks that are
necessary to bring ideas to life.
The work has also been generously supported by Merlin
Robotics Systems and external research grants from the
Scottish Arts Council, the Alt-w Award (administered by
New Media Scotland), and by the Drapers’ Company.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
10/11/2010 09:02
65
Image: Technical textiles, Aeolia project.
Photograph: Cat Northall.
10/11/2010 09:02
66
PRACTiCES
Scan2Knit
Using the power of 3D scanning technology, a
new technique to improve the prevention and
treatment of deep vein thrombosis and other
vein-related conditions is set to become a
commercial reality.
Veins are the thin-walled blood vessels that return blood
from the body to the heart. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
and a failure of the vein valves in people’s legs frequently
cause high pressures, known as venous insufficiency.
These can result in swelling, aching ulcers that are
unpleasant, painful and often malodorous sores.
There are around 450,000 people in the UK prone to leg
ulcers and 130,000 elderly patients (1.5% of the elderly
population) have active ulcers at any one time. The cost
of this to the NHS is over £600m a year, while the costs
for treating venous insufficiency are even higher because
there are 1.5m sufferers.
By capturing a patient’s leg profile using a 3D body
scanner, it’s possible to produce a fitted compression
stocking that is bespoke to the patient and will deliver
a range of accurate pressures and gradients. The
garments are made to a predetermined pressure using
a computerised flat-bed knitting machine that requires
minimum human intervention.
In order to turn the research into a commercial
reality, the technology has been licensed to Advanced
Therapeutic Materials. It’s hoped that Scan2Knit
technology could soon be helping the hundreds
of thousands of UK patients who suffer with these
unpleasant and costly vein-related conditions.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Pressure profile of the leg.
The key to healing a venous ulcer is sustained graduated
compression. Currently this involves applying four layers
of compression bandaging to a person’s leg once or
twice a week.
Creating more effective treatments
However, a new technique has been developed by NTU’s
Professor Tilak Dias and Professor Charles McCollum of the
South Manchester Teaching Hospitals. Their Scan2Knit
technology removes the uncertainty from the engineering,
manufacturing and prescription of compression stockings.
10/11/2010 09:02
67
10/11/2010 09:02
68
PRACTICES
Still unresolved
The Visual Arts research group Still Unresolved
brings together a number of artists whose work
explores ideas of uncertainty, irresolution and
open-endedness in contemporary art and culture.
Focusing on the provisional and contingent in art practice,
the activities of the Still Unresolved group place emphasis
on those forms of knowledge and research located at the
level of process or performance in the act of making.
The intent is to show the implicit parts of making work
within creative practices focusing on research, scholarly
activity and practice itself, emphasising and exploring this
at the level of subject, methodology and form. This strand
loosely gathers a range of perspectives and practices
to explore ideas including provisionality, instability,
improvisation, liminality or in-betweenness, camouflage
and appropriation. It also seeks to critically recuperate and interrogate
subjectively felt experiences such as failure, doubt, deferral,
indecision, disappointment, uncertainty, boredom, denial,
hesitation, indecision, restlessness and wonder.
Under the title Not Yet There, Emma Cocker’s research
investigation around wandering, irresolution and
restlessness is made manifest through experimental
art-writing projects, academic essays and conference
papers. A Sisyphean model of failure and repetition is
interrogated in the chapter Over and Over, Again and
Again featured in the books Contemporary Art and
Classical Myth and Failure. The contingent and restless
space of drawing is taken as the focus within essays
for Drawing a Hypothesis – Figures of Research and
Hyperdrawing: Beyond the Lines of Contemporary Art.
Ben Judd’s research explores marginalised belief systems
and ritual practices, where his own role as both participant
and observer is put under scrutiny. Research projects have
included a two-month residency in Colombia where Ben
fabricated the contradictory movement I Will Heal You,
and a residency at the Banff Centre, Canada (2009) where
he worked with a psychic and a shaman to interrogate
different perceptions of place.
In 2009 he performed Observance at the Barbican Art
Gallery in which he produced a ceremony based on
Wiccan witchcraft. Concerning the Difference Between the
Delights of Pleasure and True Happiness further explored
notions of belief, immersion, ritual and performance and
was shown at the Swedenborg Society, (London, 2010).
This exhibition also included new work by Derek
Sprawson from his project The Island of 20000 Saints,
an ongoing exploration of ideas around pilgrimage
through topographic and cartographic representations.
Joanne Lee’s research, conducted through photography
and creative non-fiction, attends to a ‘microaesthetics’ of
the urban everyday and develops Nigel Thrift’s assertion
that “what counts as knowledge must take on a radically
different sense.
(Continued)
Image: Emma Cocker – FieldProposals, produced as part of
‘Art Writing Field Station’, East Street Arts, Leeds, 2010.
10/11/2010 09:02
69
10/11/2010 09:02
70
PRACTICES
It becomes something tentative, something which no
longer exhibits an epistemological basis but is a practice
and a part of a practice.” The research is performed and
disseminated through an independent imprint, the Pam
Flett Press. Elements of the work have been presented
in Sensuous Knowledge 5: Questioning Qualities, Bergen
National Academy of Arts and Living Landscapes: An
international conference on performance, landscape and
environment, University of Aberystwyth.
Dr Rob Flint’s practice investigates how sound –
particularly speech – affects what we see. Since 2006
he has collaborated on works including Generator,
a Breaking Ground Commission, (Ballymun, Ireland
2006) and the recent performance, Soundproof
(Five Years Gallery, London).
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
References: Cocker, E. (2010), Over and Over, Again and
Again, in Wallace, I.L. and Hirsh, J. (eds), Contemporary Art
and Classical Myth, Ashgate Publishing Company: Aldershot.
Cocker, E. (2010), an excerpt from Over and Over, Again
and Again, in LeFeuvre, L. (ed.), Failure, Documents of
Contemporary Art, MIT: Whitechapel.
Cocker, E. (2010),The Restless Line, Drawing, in Gansterer,
N., (ed), Drawing a Hypothesis - Figures of Research, Jan Van
Eyck Academy: Verlag Springer.
Cocker, E. (2011), Distancing the If and Then, in Sawdon, P.
and Marshall, R. (eds), Hyperdrawing: Beyond the Lines of
Contemporary Art, I.B.Tauris.
Image:
Christine
Sullivan
Image: Lorem
ipsum
dolourand Rob Flint ‘Sound Proof’
(performance) in ‘Field Recording’ at Five Years Gallery, London,
March 2010. Photograph: Edward Dorrian/Five Years Gallery.
10/11/2010 09:02
71
10/11/2010 09:02
72
PRACTiCES
Unheard voices
Since 2003, Dr Tom Hughes and Alina Hughes
have been carrying out research in some of
Transylvania’s partially deserted Saxon villages
and hearing from their marginalised inhabitants
whose voices often go unheard in the face of
Western conservation projects.
After the fall of the Communist dictatorship in Romania
in 1989, a mass exodus left around 240 villages partly
deserted in Transylvanian.
As a result, conservation Non-Government Organisations
(NGOs) labelled the villages’ degradation as a crisis –
despite incoming Romanians and Roma people to the
villages – perceiving them as a unique and valuable part
of European heritage.
Conservation interventions have been ongoing in the
Saxon villages since the early 2000s by governmental
bodies and NGOs based in Western Europe. Seven
villages were designated World Heritage Sites, while
others benefited from international funding. Romanian
conservation legislation now covers the area and recently,
the Romanians started promoting the area as an
international tourist attraction.
Amid this activity, and largely not featured within massmedia and political communications, are the locals’
voices. As early as 2003 and subsequently, local studies
by Tom and Alina found cultural tensions, with many
villagers’ development aspirations and modernisation
work at odds with conservationists’ heritage-centred
approaches. Some inhabitants have found their hopes
of reaching European standards of living through
new-liberal enterprise, undermined by conservationists’
projects and lobbying power.
Furthermore, some locals see a new form of oppression,
associated with a perceived Western European
hegemony, in the foreign NGOs’ interference with the
inhabitants’ own ways of inhabiting and expressing
themselves through their own homes. The researchers
believe that the conservationists’ expressed aim to
educate the locals in appreciating the heritage of a
bygone culture may be read as confirmation of such
concerns. Heritage, a relatively recent phenomenon
in Western Europe, is arguably now being exported to
Eastern Europe through education – or re-education.
In parallel, ethnic and identity frictions, primarily between
the local Romanian and Roma populations, have been
noted by the researchers, with social injustice typically
directed at the Roma. Some live in abject living conditions
showing they have not been the focus of either the
conservation or modernisation projects.
To date, the researchers continue to examine the
influences and political forces that are affecting the fabric
of the villages’ environment and the lives of the people
who live there.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
10/11/2010 09:02
73
10/11/2010 09:02
74
10/11/2010 09:02
EXPERIENCES
75
A photographer explores the death of his
father through the lens of his camera.
A school pupil steps into a virtual past to
discover his city ravaged by violent rioting.
A stroke patient moves the corner of her
mouth for the first time in months.
Research at Nottingham Trent University is groundbreaking,
fascinating and highly regarded throughout the wider academic
community. But behind the journal articles are real human
experiences. University research has the power to reach out and
changes people’s lives – even if they do not realise it. Whether
people are challenged by a piece of art, inspired to learn by an
innovative virtual world or rehabilitated by a new technology, the
impact of NTU research can be felt in all areas of society.
In this section, as well as discovering the research mentioned
above, you can read about how one academic is uncovering
architectural histories in Oman and India, how the student
experience is evolving and how NTU is working ever more closely
with Chinese businesses and universities.
Image: Max Kandhola – Series from Field notes, water colour, pen and ink drawings,
Punjab, India 2004-2006.
10/11/2010 09:02
76
ExPERiENCES
Smart materials help patients
smile again
Research into smart materials for clinical use
could soon help thousands of patients with
severe facial paralysis.
For people who suffer facial paralysis, whether caused by
injury, infection or stroke, the results can be devastating
both from a functional and cosmetic perspective.
Paralysis at the corner of the mouth affects speech and
swallowing, and the patient can lose saliva, making them
feel uncomfortable in public.
The SMA is controlled by an electronic control interface
and power supply. The interface measures the active
potential of the healthy zygomatic muscle and produces
a signal to control the operation of the SMA. The research
centres on making the entire device implantable, similar
to a pacemaker or deep brain stimulator.
A research project carried out by Dr Philip Breedon and
an associate clinical professor at Nottingham University
Hospital, is exploring the benefits of using smart materials
to replace the function of facial nerves and bring back
some of the movement the patient has lost.
This work is viewed as the first stage in assessing both
the strengths and limitations of SMAs towards resolving
biomechanical problems and relieving disability. Already
the concept has developed in both complexity and
variety, and smart material applications using SMAs
and ionic electroactive polymers are being explored and
developed for other clinical needs.
The revolutionary technique involves what is called a
shape memory alloy (SMA) that, in conjunction with
reconstruction, can allow a patient to regain limited but
active movement at the corner of their mouth.
Currently, passive reconstructive methods consist of
implanting strips of tendons to recreate a normal facial
expression at rest. However, this does not allow the patient
any movement in the implant area. This ongoing research
and development is investigating how SMA can supplement
the passive technique. The SMA would be anchored
at the paralysed corner of the mouth, connecting with
the cheekbone and simulating the action of the major
zygomatic muscle, which lifts the corner of the mouth.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Philip Breedon – Face.
10/11/2010 09:02
77
10/11/2010 09:02
78
ExPERiENCES
Electronic clothing
A scientist at NTU has developed fabric sensors
that can be knitted into clothing for a wide
range of groundbreaking applications, from
healthcare to computer games.
Wearable electronic sensors is a rapidly growing industry
and is often used in healthcare to monitor vital signs such
as heart rates and breathing.
Until now, traditional sensors – or transducers – have been
limited because of discomfort for the wearer, bulkiness and
low reliability due to poor contact with the body. These
are usually constructed by sewing electroconductive fibres
onto a fabric or applying special coating and stretchable
electroconductive stripes to garments. These methods
tend to be costly, take a long time to manufacture and
often result in low quality performance.
A more innovative approach has been taken by
Professor Tilak Dias. His concept is based on integrating
electroconductive materials into the actual structure
of a garment during its manufacturing process. These
fibre-meshed transducers are seamlessly integrated into
clothes, making them more comfortable and, hopefully,
more effective.
If successful and commercially viable, this new
generation of transducers could be used for continuously
measuring a patient’s breathing in a comfortable way
and be used in the lucrative sports performance market.
These types of garments can also be used to capture
body posture and movement, which has a range of
healthcare benefits, such as helping patients who
are recovering from a stroke. They might also create
new experiences in computer gaming, as gloves with
transducers could replace traditional control pads.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Glove for controlling PCs.
Courtesy of Engineered Fibre Structures Ltd.
The main aim of Professor Dias’s research is to create the
knowledge base on the electrical characteristics of knitted
structures made from electroconductive fibres and to evaluate
the application of latest flat-bed knitting technology for the
construction of these unobtrusive transducers.
10/11/2010 09:02
79
10/11/2010 09:02
80
ExPERiENCES
Interactive arts
An immersive inflatable classroom that gives
young people a flavour of work-based learning,
and stage lighting controlled by a person’s
voice, are just two of the exciting and pioneering
interactive multimedia projects led by Professor
Chris White in the School of Art & Design .
Professor Chris White is a researcher in the area of
narrative and interactive arts, a subject encompassing
theatre, film, television, gaming, animation, multimedia,
virtual environments and immersive screens, lighting and
projection art.
The projects she has recently been involved in have, to
some extent, crossed many of the boundaries of these
specialisms. These explorations are to do with how we
view and spectate, in what environments we best engage
with different types of cultural material, and the synthesis
of practices that are becoming more relevant as the
crossover of media not only challenges what we see, but
how we see it, and what new devices might be involved.
One of the projects Professor White is leading involves
developing materials and interfaces for young people to
experience work-based learning. These have been created
by the research team and students of the Nottingham
Skillset Media Academy. The experiment explores how and
whether a meaningful learning experience for 16-year-old
studentscanbecreatedina360ºimmersivedome.
One of only a handful of specially designed ‘inflatable
classrooms’, the dome will be fitted with a special 360º
projector that can transform the space into all sorts of
virtual environments, be it a film set or a surgical theatre.
The dome will tour Nottinghamshire and can also be
used to host live or recorded interviews with professionals
from any industry. This will allow students to experience
work-related learning in places and with people they
might not otherwise have access to.
Talking to Lights
Another project, Talking to Lights, involves automated
moving lights which are used in live performance and
music events. The researchers have developed a control
mechanism whereby the lighting designer can talk to the
light unit to move the lights and change their attributes.
This piece of work is in collaboration with WhiteLight, one
of the UK’s leading entertainment companies.
Across all Professor White’s projects there is a common
theme about new technologies and how they might be
used in new ways. This has led to a book, The Poetics of
Imagineering, with Professor Alison Oddey. The purpose
of their new journal, called Scene, is to showcase the work
of artists and technicians.
It has also enabled collaborations in sustainable working
practices in the entertainments worlds; studies into the
development of projection art; new developments in LED
light and screens, and transferable knowledge to encourage
health span technology based on Chinese medicine.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Images inside the dome. Photograph: Tim Chesney.
10/11/2010 09:02
81
10/11/2010 09:02
82
Experiences
New teachings
knowledge and competencies required by employers after
studying RICS-accredited postgraduate conversion courses.
University is not just about what students learn
but also the way they learn. Many academics
across NTU conduct widely published research
into teaching that involves new technologies, the
way universities engage with students and the
changing landscape of the traditional classroom.
Elsewhere across the group, Dr Rob Flint has been
developing a Reflexive Archive, which looks at how
e-learning could collaboratively and inter-institutionally
support the delivery of talks by professional practitioners
into the fine art curriculum.
Although pedagogic research across the Schools of
Art & Design, and Architecture, Design and the Built
Environment is diverse, members of the research group
share a common commitment to improving the student
experience based on sound, rigorous research principles
underpinned by pedagogic theories.
Student engagement
Technology-enhanced learning and teaching
As the Schools move towards a greater use of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT), the use of
technology to enhance the learning and teaching experience,
is of an increasing area of interest for many academics.
One of the projects in this area involves Dr Joanna Poon,
working with Paul Royston and Professor Mike Hoxley,
in creating a good practice guide for the development
and use of blended learning for Built Environment
undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
The evaluation will focus on courses accredited by the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the
Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). A similar project
for the RICS involves University researchers aiming
to investigate if real estate graduates have the skills,
Other projects include the use of ICT in the teaching
of craft skills, cultivating communities of practice
among students both within courses and internationally,
and e-portfolios.
Dr Christine Hardy (with Colin Bryson at Newcastle
University) is investigating student engagement to
access the student experience and voice. The premise
behind the work is that engagement by the individual is
essential if students are to persist with their studies and
learn well. This is centred on the sense of what being a
student is and how they perceive their experiences.
Educators can foster this sense through their approaches
to learning and teaching and by creating an appropriate
culture and environment. Good relationships, cultivating a
sense of belonging and enhancing community are crucial.
Dr Hardy is also one of the founder members of the
RAISE (Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student
Engagement) Network, which has around 60 members
from across the sector. This network creates opportunities
for beneficial scholarly discussion, creating collaborative
projects, sharing best practice and lobbying for
investment and better policies locally, sectorally and
across the international community.
10/11/2010 09:02
83
Reframing the classroom
Little study has been undertaken to coherently link
the design of physical learning spaces with learning
achievement, while the body of research which explores the
nexus between virtual and physical learning environments
and student learning achievement, continues to evolve.
Dr Michelle Pepin leads the cross-University Social
Learning in Physical Spaces (SLiPS) project, which
explores these relationships.
Research looks at social learning: social interaction,
engagement and concomitant learning and behaviour,
and the relationships between these at every level. Social
learning as a term has become widely associated with
‘virtual learning’ and communities of practice through
their ability to facilitate and / or replicate (or mirror)
alternative ways to share and ‘learn’ in a more flexible
format than ‘face-to-face’ engagements.
Extensive case study research and development across
the University supports the recognised benefits of this
kind of learning, while a recent symposium organised
at NTU titled Reframing the Classroom explores the
changing notion of learning landscapes and the role,
space and place of the ‘classroom’ for the future.
Academic writing and literacies
Across the Schools many colleagues are working on
academic writing: Julius Ayodeji is involved in Writing
Across the Curriculum, Leslie Arthur writes on the visual
essay and Dr Hardy (with Lisa Clughen from School
of Arts & Humanities) is working on Writing in the
Disciplines. All colleagues have presented their findings at
international conferences and have published widely.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
10/11/2010 09:02
84
Experiences
A photographic trilogy
Photography Programme Leader Max Kandhola’s
work explores deeply personal themes – including
the death of his father – in an attempt to question
the complexities of life and the human condition.
Max Kandhola sees his work like extracts from an ongoing
journal or diary entry; a meditative engagement, silently
documenting life’s hidden details and meticulously
mapping his encounter with the mundane and banal.
Over the past 15 years, Max’s photographic process has been
primarily biographical. In positioning his photography within
a historical context – in documenting the Punjabi diaspora
in England – he has focused on his family as representatives
of British postcolonial culture. The themes he explores
through his photography include ancestral narratives
in relation to history and heritage; archives of memory,
place, and landscape; and death, dying and trauma.
Illustration of Life
In the mid-1990s, Max embarked upon a personal odyssey
to map his family heritage. Illustration of Life, the first part of
a trilogy, is a photographic document of his father’s struggle
with cancer. This documentary critically explores the visual
representation of the inescapable nature of human mortality,
it was also intended to provoke an original comment on the
shifting cultural aesthetic of the interpretation of death.
As well as observing and documenting the final four hours
of his father’s life, Max also collected fragments of hair,
blood tissues and urine and photographed them. Alongside
these images, which are often brutal and anthropological in
recording the fact of death, his accompanying text discusses
aspects of Sikh ritual and religion as a process.
“The process and method of my engagement is forensic,”
he says, “but I also work within an established pictorial
and symbolic tradition of photography. In this way, my
working process is a reflexive gesture with respect to the
nature of the photographic trace.”
Flatland, A Landscape of Punjab
In the Sikh tradition the scattering of ashes in running
water symbolises a physical reintroduction of the body
back into the land. In part two, Flatland, A Landscape
of Punjab, Max uses this metaphor as an exploration of
land as resurrection of the body. Against the backdrop
of Punjab’s landscapes of rivers, cities and uncharted
villages, the works metaphorically explore themes of
memory, migration and aspects of the Sikh diaspora.
“My photographs in Flatland, always avoid the usual
iconographic pictorial references to culture and ethnicity
associated with representations of India,” Max explains.
“I reframe the Punjabi terrain in the idiom of traditional
European landscapes through my experience of the
particular qualities in English suburban gardens that can
be seen to overlap with the diasporic Punjabi’s relation to
his homeland and displacement.
“The absence of figures is a metaphor for me, whose
memory and presence is visibly etched through the
legacy of farming and agriculture on the surface of the
land. The work constitutes a photographic discourse on
isolation and arcadia, a fantasy of sacred, rugged terrain
surrounded by meadows and pastoral land rather than
the reality of urban city life.”
(Continued)
10/11/2010 09:02
85
Image: Max Kandhola – Research and field notes painting untitled
from the series Flatland A Landscape of Punjab 2003-2006.
10/11/2010 09:02
86
ExPERiENCES
Food, Clothes and Shelter
In the final part of the trilogy, Roti Kapra aur Makhaan,
(Food, Clothes and Shelter), which Max is currently
working on, the photographer will document the
mundane and the vernacular using new family portraits
alongside archive from the 1950s.
There are significant metaphors and associations with
the title and words that bring different meanings and
understanding to the term within contemporary shifting
cultures. The quotation is from a 1970s Bollywood film,
and was used by former Indian Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi to comment on the development and growth of
the working people of India in 1970, and most recently
by the late Benazir Bhutto for the PPP (Pakistan People
Party), that there will be bread, clothing and shelter for all.
Roti Kapra aur Makhaan is a term for new beginnings, a
cultural reference in discussing ancestral homes, ontology
of the family through portraiture, and material culture.
Max adds: “In mapping geographical roots, the
topography of change from first to third generation
Sikhs from the Punjab will present both recognisable and
unfamiliar metaphors through narrative in discussing
change, the mystical, and mythological antidotes while
referencing old and new ideologies of extreme views and
perceptions on life.”
Further information
[email protected]
References: Kandhola, M. (2003) Illustration of Life,
1st hardback ed., Dewi Lewis Publishing: Stockport.
Kandhola, M. (2007) Flatland: a landscape of Punhub,
Dewi Lewis Publishing: Stockport.
10/11/2010 09:02
87
Image: Max Kandhola – Series from field notes, water
colour, pen and ink drawings, Punjab, India 2004-2006.
10/11/2010 09:02
88
ExPERiENCES
The nature of learning
Dr Michelle Pepin is responsible for teaching and
learning across the School of Architecture, Design
and the Built Environment. Her own learning and
research experiences have helped shape her desire
to create a better student environment.
“PhD study is more than merely a programme of research,”
explains Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator Dr Michelle
Pepin. “To say it is a journey of self discovery does not do
it justice. The research is framed, shaded, nuanced and
coloured by the influences that collide to make you who
you are. The process is at once intellectually challenging,
stimulating, interesting – all the things that you would
assume postgraduate study at this level to be.”
Dr Pepin’s PhD took her on a journey. As a student growing
up under apartheid in South Africa, she witnessed first hand
campus demonstrations and riots against a governing
system that denied the majority of people their rights to
humanity. Her employment led her to work with homeless
people and broken communities, where she saw forced
displacement and people physically torn from their homes.
Finding a voice for experiences
Her move to the UK in 1999 finally gave those
experiences a voice in a PhD that brought together
issues of human shelter, the meaning of home and her
enduring concern with peace and conflict. “My PhD was
my own catharsis, allowing me to step outside of the
lived experience,” she adds.
“A PhD opens doors you would not necessarily have
considered otherwise; it also makes you review what it is
you truly want to do. Perhaps my change of direction was
largely as a consequence of it being too painful to continue
on the path that the PhD in its ‘discipline’ would take me.
As a student over an extended number of years, I had
been the victim of some horrendous teaching experiences
but also privileged to come across some truly inspirational
individuals at Nottingham Trent University; some of
whom I am now lucky enough to be able to work with as
colleagues. It is at this point that I decided that research
into teaching was an area that I wanted to pursue.”
Students are sometimes surprised to learn of the extensive
research undertaken to inform the practice of teaching.
They are more commonly familiar with the kind of
research that informs and advances the subject or
discipline, but do not necessarily know that the manner in
which that information becomes packaged and delivered,
in other words taught, is also informed by research.
Dr Pepin’s multifaceted area of research spans an
immense field of study about how we learn. An added
layer of complexity to this is that while this research is
frequently generic in that it pertains to all learning, it
also has a discipline-specific dimension which brings
challenges that often only those immersed within the
discipline are able to apprehend.
Dr Pepin’s life and research experiences have shaped
her life and desire to improve teaching and learning for
students. Her story, she says, is a snapshot of the nature
of learning and the place of the PhD within this.
Further information
[email protected]
10/11/2010 09:02
89
Image: Imizamo Yethu outside Cape Town, South Africa
“Where do the children play”. Photograph: Michelle Pepin.
10/11/2010 09:02
90
ExPERiENCES
Architectural expressions
The work of Professor of Architecture and Design
Soumyen Bandyopadhyay, has made a major
contribution to the study of architecture in Oman
and India and how it reflects culture and society.
Professor Soumyen Bandyopadhyay’s research concerns
the study of architecture as an expression of culture and
society in two important geographical regions, Oman
in the Middle East and India. This research interweaves
architectural history, the history of ideas and the
development of historical theory, all of which provide the
foundation for his teaching and research.
In Oman, a terrain vague for historians of Islamic
architecture and a region that had remained
underexplored for a long time, Professor Bandyopadhyay
has discovered the influence of persistent pre-Islamic
culture on the country’s vernacular architecture.
An Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
supported project on the decorated prayer niches of
central Oman has shown the intrusion of Iranian and old
Arab concepts of time and a conflation of celestial and
physical topographies.
Extensive research for this project was carried out at the
oasis of Manah in central Oman, followed by the World
Heritage Site of Bahla and the oases of Nizwa and Bowshar.
Professor Bandyopadhyay has published widely on
aspects and components of Omani architecture and its
morphological and typological characteristics, making an
important contribution to the development of historical
theory for that region. He is listed as an expert by the
International Oman Studies Centre in Germany and he has
published a major monograph on Omani oasis architecture.
Indian explorations
Professor Bandyopadhyay’s work concerning the modernity
in Indian architecture has lead to an AHRC-funded project
involving the production of a detailed documentation related
to the artist Nek Chand’s Rock Garden of Chandigarh.
The Rock Garden evolved as the ‘other’ Chandigarh,
as the city took shape as the capital of Indian Punjab.
Beyond the obvious fusion of Eastern and Western ideas,
modernity in Indian architecture has also shown interest
in the development of form, tectonics and narratives
appropriate to the socio-cultural context.
An overlapping area of research interest for the professor
is architectural design research, centred on approaches
to design within a historical context and exploring
whether context is capable of acting as the holistic
design generator. His book on site and composition in
architectural design is due to appear in 2011 and he is
interested in topography, its myriad conceptions and
especially its close analogy with the human body and skin.
Further information
[email protected]
Reference: Bandyopadhyay, S. (2008), Manah: Omani Oasis,
Arabian legacy; architecture and social history of an Omani Oasis
settlement. Muscat & Liverpool: Historical Association of Oman &
Liverpool, University Press.
Image: A traditional dwelling in Manah Oasis in Oman.
Photograph: Soumyen Bandyopadhyay.
10/11/2010 09:02
91
10/11/2010 09:02
92
Experiences
Design practices, critique
and sustainability
Design research at NTU draws not only on design
practice but also on the human sciences in order
to understand people’s relationships with objects
and how to design for a more sustainable future.
Over the last few decades design research has been
influenced by a variety of forces. It has moved away from
a ‘dual’ character, where systems theory and applied
psychology generated scientistic approaches that could
be contrasted with historical / critical approaches. It is no
longer possible to draw such clear distinctions. This is a
positive development, given that design simultaneously
deals with things and people’s engagement with them.
Work in human-computer interaction design and
ergonomics, where the experience of ‘users’ has
long been a key concern, has concluded that a linear,
mechanistic approach to design is not necessarily
effective in producing positive user experiences.
In parallel, a range of influences has led to design
research reaching across what could once be called the
production / consumption divide. Fields as diverse as
banking, product design and politics conventionally seek
to capture the ‘voice of the customer’.
Concerns over environmental sustainability gives urgency to
understanding how people experience things and what they
do with them, given that our consumption of goods and
services has a significant impact on resource consumption
and therefore on environmental sustainability.
Design research can synthesise these influences,
acknowledging the academic disciplines and commercial,
ethical and political standpoints they arise from. Design
itself, as a practice, is in a good position to do this given
that it bridges between production and consumption and
that it requires just such reflexive synthesis, albeit often
operating intuitively rather than explicitly.
Studies of technology and consumption in sociology,
geography and anthropology offer approaches and
frameworks that can help design researchers to do this
work of synthesis.
Design research at NTU
Research in the Schools of Art & Design, and Architecture,
Design and the Built Environment reflects these
influences, drawing both on design practice and the
human sciences named above, investigating people’s
engagement with objects in everyday life, as well as in
contexts of production.
For instance, Sabine Hielscher’s study of haircare
practices, in collaboration with Boots The Chemist, throws
light on details of everyday habits that are implicated in
resource consumption but inaccessible to conventional
market research.
Her design-led approach is mirrored in the work of Tom
Fisher, Professor of Art and Design, on the ways people
reuse packaging, published as Designing For Re-Use: The
Life of Consumer Packaging in 2009.
Inspecting these subjects in this way has close
relationships to work in material culture studies, with the
important difference that design research can involve
10/11/2010 09:02
93
researcher-engagement with the materials that make up
this culture. For example, in an ethnography of women’s
shoe designers, Naomi Braithwaite has learned the craft
of shoemaking alongside extended engagement with
both practitioners and the shoe industry.
The importance of objects in this research process mirrors
Matthew Malpass’s ongoing work to investigate what
have since the 1990s become called ‘critical’ approaches
to design. Using an approach that integrates ‘critical’
moves, objects are used to illustrate the role that satire,
ambiguity, familiarity, fiction and rhetorical use play in
affording critique and speculation through design.
Such combinations of approach make it possible to
develop research that uses a design sensibility to capture
the fugitive qualities of our experience of the material
world, as well as the representation and ‘unworlding’ of
consumption that is now to some extend ‘immaterial’.
This has implications both for design practice – with
consequent potential for commercial application –
as well as offering new ways of looking at how our
consumption of goods consumes resources.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Reference: Fisher, T. and Shipton, J. (2009), Designing For Re-Use:
The Life of Consumer Packaging. London: Earthscan.
Images: Matthew Malpass – A chair: Something to sit on?
Produced as explorations into product archetype and perceived
affordace. 2008. Photograph: John Legge.
10/11/2010 09:02
94
Experiences
10/11/2010 09:02
95
10/11/2010 09:02
96
ExPERiENCES
Narrating the past
Imagine revisiting the city you know in a different
point in history, a time when civil unrest and riots
fill the streets. Using new techniques in virtual
reality technology, researchers at NTU are creating
immersive, interactive worlds that put participants
right at the heart of the stories they are discovering.
During the past decade the use of virtual reality technology
in the reconstruction of historical sites has seen a rapid rise.
The focus of interest has been on developing an accurate
reconstruction so viewers can have an experience of ‘being
there’. However with advances in technology the viewer can
now take a more active role, where he or she can listen and
interact with elements within a virtual world.
In Narrating the Past, the viewer enters into a threedimensional interactive experience set in Nottingham during
the 1830s’ Reform Bill riots. The riots, which took place after
proposed reforms to the electoral system were defeated in
the House of Commons, led to widespread damage in the
city, and included the burning down of the famous castle.
In order to create the immersive experience, Senior
Lecturer in Digital Creativity Roma Patel and Deborah
Tuck, Senior Lecturer in Video Production, have used the
traditional narrative language used in film and theatre,
adapting it to create interactivity and a greater sense of
presence in the virtual environment.
A unique experience
The project investigates fundamental principles of
narrative required to create immersion and presence, as
well as methods of embedding intangible social histories
into these environments. The researchers’ approach to
the narrative architecture can be compared to promenade
theatre, where the audience inhabit the space, rather than
just watching. They move around to view the action and
sometimes interact with it. As a result, everyone who takes
part experiences something different.
In the virtual environment of Narrating the Past a sense of
place has been created. As the participants wander through
they encounter video and audio narratives that are designed
to immerse them further into the virtual experience. These
narratives are small ‘story–worlds’, which don’t follow a
linear story or are related to the larger plot.
This research was carried out in partnership with the
National Centre for Citizenship and the Law’s Galleries of
Justice, Nottingham Museums and Galleries, and Broadway
Cinema and Media Centre. One of the aims of the research
is to provide a platform for dialogue and knowledge
transfer among the staff at heritage sites, cinemas and
media centres, as well as for academics to promote further
collaborations and mutual understanding in the field.
The outcomes from the research are not limited to heritage
sites, the techniques could easily be applied to performance
and installation art, film-based media and theatre.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Reference: Tuck, D. and Patel, R. (2008), Narrating the Past, in
Dunn, S., Keene, S., Mallen, G. and Bowen, J. (eds), Electronic
Visualisation in the Arts, The British Computer Society: London.
Image: Deborah Tuck – Map of the ‘story-worlds’.
10/11/2010 09:03
97
10/11/2010 09:03
98
ExPERiENCES
Collaborative design
and manufacture
Collaborative design and manufacture by
utilising advanced internet and computer-aided
engineering technology has been a major
research interest of the team led by Professor
Daizhong Su in collaboration with professors
from the School of Art & Design .
The application areas of the research include development
of a web-based collaborative working environment for
mechanical design and manufacture, furniture design,
supply chain management and product design.
The technologies utilised include Grid computing,
semantic web, mobile and wireless computing, data
management, parametric design, virtual reality, as well as
artificial intelligence such as knowledge-based systems,
genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks.
There have been seven PhD projects in this research area
conducted or being conducted by Mark Wakelam, Nariman
Amin, Shuyna Ji, Jianchen Hou, Yu Xiong, Yongjun Zheng
and Jian Feng, supervised by staff members from Product
Design, including Professor Daizhong Su (Director of
Studies), Paul Johnson, Leslie Arthur and Dr Amin AlHabaibeh; and Professor Judith Mottram and Professor
Tom Fisher from the School of Art & Design .
The research attracted external funding from
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), Information
and Communication technology (ICT) Carrier, National
Science Foundation of China and industry. Professor Su
has been invited to give keynote / invited speeches at
seven international conferences including Web-based
Collaborative Working Environment and Sustainable
Furniture Design, 18th CIRP Design Conference –
Competitive Design, Cranfield, March 2009, and Web-based
Collaborative Working Environment and its Applications in
Collaborative Design and Manufacture, Istanbul.
As a guest editor, Professor Su edited special issues in
this research area for three refereed journals including
International Journal of Production Research (Volume 46
No.9, 2008) published by Taylor & Francis, International
Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management
(Volume 17 No.3, 2009) published by Inderscience, and
Key Engineering Materials (Volumes 419-420, 2010)
published by Trans Tech Publications.
The research team has been invited to join six international
consortia for application on EU framework grants.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
References: Su, D. and Zheng, Y. (2008), Utilization of the
collaborative working environment for online computer aided
mechanical design (UMTIK 2008), Istanbul, 2008.
Su, D. and Casamayor, J. (2009), Web-based collaborative
Working Environment and Sustainable Furniture Design, 18th
CIRP Design Conference – Competitive Design, Cranfield, 2009.
Su, D. and Zheng, Y. (2008), Utilization of the collaborative
working environment for online computer aided mechanical
design [keynote speech], (UMTIK 2008), Istanbul, 2008.
10/11/2010 09:03
99
Image: Jack Barker, BSc (Hons) Product Design,
2010. Developed in collaboration with JB Hydro’s.
10/11/2010 09:03
100
ExPERiENCES
Open curriculum
The Open Curriculum research cluster within
Visual Arts explores the histories and futures
of critical Fine Art teaching.
The Open Curriculum cluster looks at Fine Art practice
in relation to group and collaborative activity, and the
philosophy of critical pedagogy.
Activities range from developing and testing case studies
of an innovative open curriculum, to the philosophical
and theoretical interrogation of these approaches,
specifically through the writings of Jacques Rancière,
Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich.
Researchers place creativity at the centre of their
activities, advocating teaching and research that values
speculation and risk-taking, and emphasising the
productive properties of failure and error. Their research
is characterised by a student-centred, holistic and
singularly open experimental approach to the curriculum.
It is outward facing and examines the relation of the
art school as an institution to the social, political and
economic ecologies and networks of the city and beyond.
Seán Cummins’ scholarly activity is concerned with
Martin Buber’s notion of encounter that recognises the
possibilities of and for the space between the participants
of group events. Seán’s presentations include Space for
Critical Encounters (Nottingham Trent University, 2009)
and What do you study…? (ELIA / Columbia College,
Chicago, 2010), co-authored with Dr Rob Flint and
Joanne Lee.
Dr Rob Flint’s pedagogic research addresses how
the ‘exterior’ context of practice can form part of the
‘interior’ curriculum content. Rob has received research
funding through the Champions of Academic Enterprise
scheme (2008/09) and – with Lucy Renton (Kingston
University) – from the Higher Education Authority Art &
Design Media Subject Centre (HEA-ADM) for Reflexive
Archive (2007/08) and Reflexive Practitioner (2009/10).
Joanne Lee’s contribution to the work of this cluster draws
upon her earlier research into creative resourcefulness
and is developed via an inquiry into Jacques Rancière’s
contention that “Whoever looks always finds. He doesn’t
necessarily find what he was looking for, and even less
what he was supposed to find, but he finds something new
to relate to the thing that he already knows.”*
Her work will form a chapter entitled Without a Master in
the forthcoming book Learning from the Masters, and has
been presented at conferences.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
*Rancière, J. (1991), The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons
in Intellectual Emancipation, translated by Kristin Ross, Stanford
University Press: Stanford, p.33.
References: Lee, J, Flint, R and Cummins, S (2009) Learning
from the Masters, iPED 4th International Inquiring Pedagogies
Conference: Researching Beyond Boundaries, Academic
Communities without Borders (2008) Reflexive Archive: Contexts
of Practice in Art & Design, CTLAD, New York, Flint, R, Renton, L.
(2010) Keeping the Curriculum Open, CTLAD, Berlin.
Images: Fine Art studio seminar ‘Show and Listen’.
Photograph: Seán Cummins.
10/11/2010 09:03
101
10/11/2010 09:03
102
Experiences
Photographs: Fred Perkins.
10/11/2010 09:03
103
10/11/2010 09:03
104
ExPERiENCES
Sustainable product design
With many industries searching for ways
to become more sustainable, research by
Nottingham Trent University is leading the way
in product design that is both innovative and
more environmentally friendly.
Director of Studies Professor Daizhong Su leads a major
research team focused on sustainable product design.
Supported by Research Councils UK, Higher Education
Innovation Funds, and a number of industrial partners,
the team is producing research that is making a major
impact around the world.
On a wider scale, Professor Su and Research Fellow
Jose Casamayor are part of a pan-European research
consortium called myEcoCost, which looks at developing
technology to measure environmental impact. This
pioneering project includes researchers from Germany,
Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
Among the projects are those focusing on sustainable
mechanical product design, sustainable assessment of
products and ways to measure consumers’ ecological
footprints. These take the form of PhD projects and are
supervised by leading figures such Professor Daizhong Su,
Leslie Arthur, Paul Johnson and Professor Tim Cooper.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
The research produced by the team often attracts the
support of industry. A project to develop more sustainable
lighting has caught the interest of a Spanish SME and
UK high street pharmacy Boots The Chemist. The latter
company is also interested in the group’s research to help
them become more sustainable.
Image: Lighting product designed and developed by NTU
and Ona company, who are owners of the design.
Professor Su has also received a grant from Research
Councils UK to run a research summer school in sustainable
product design in collaboration with the University’s partner
institution, Harbin Engineering University, China.
10/11/2010 09:03
105
10/11/2010 09:03
106
Experiences
Art, design and colour thinking
Colour used to be seen as one of the proper
concerns of painting within Western art, albeit
often subservient to drawing. For Professor of
Visual Arts Judith Mottram, these fundamental
building blocks have both been of interest,
with colour in particular coming to the fore
more recently.
In 2003, Professor Mottram started work in this area
with a study of how the artists Liam Gillick and Catherine
Yass used colour. Over the past two years she’s become
involved in two other related projects: one looking
at colour and urban design, the other at colour and
contemporary art practice.
The background to both projects is an interest in how we
might be serious about colour in art and design in the
contemporary period, where the knowledge of colour
science, perception, human development and materials
has moved on so far from that which supported late 20th
Century practice. The extent to which novel or surprising
colour manifestations are presented in contemporary art
and designed objects is limited and it appears that there is
a predominance of highly saturated primary or secondary
colours in the visual field. The subtleties of combining
primary with tertiary or quaternary colours is absent, as
are the rhythms and playfulness of repetition and just
noticeable differences. There is a possibility that this is
allied to the emergence of digital colour as a touchstone
for visual experience.
The Genius of Grey is a collaborative project with Professor
Tom Jefferies from Birmingham City University using
case studies of architectural and urban designers. “We
are looking at the level of conscious engagement with
colour knowledge and theory in contemporary design, and
what barriers might there be to using colour to add to the
legibility and liveability of urban environment,” Professor
Mottram explains. “Colour in urban space and architecture
is typically either a by-product of building processes,
where the palette develops from the natural condition of
materials, or a clearly applied medium with a designed
objective. With the increased emphasis on the value of
place, where does colour fit? Traditionally, locally sourced
building materials produced the colour and identity of
place. Does this model still hold in a globally scaled world?
Does colour have implicit or transferable meaning through
everyday exposure? The slippage between specific colours,
their media and meaning will be addressed.”
In a similar vein, Contemporary Art and Colour Thinking
is a collaboration with the Rev Dr Richard Davey, which
is bringing together a symposium of participants in a
series of events to draw up an agenda for colour research.
The two main themes that are emerging are colour’s
“challenge to science’” through the collision of light waves,
variable physiologies and the propensity to interpret, and
a re-articulation of the intellectual work embodied in the
thinking of the maker in this particular context.
The framing of the themes as a challenge to science is a
deliberately provocative labelling of the problem that is
continuing to keep colleagues interested in making works
with coloured stuff, or writing about the making or scrutiny
of them.
10/11/2010 09:03
107
The desire to find practical solutions to the inability of
digital imagery to replicate the nuances of manually
mixed subtractive colour is indicative of the nature of
the contemporary problem with colour. The principle of
mixing before application, and of adjusting or allowing
further mixing upon a surface, reminds us that there is
a unique and rarefied expertise that might yet generate
challenges to technological progress by asking awkward
questions. The role of contemporary art as the asker of
such challenges might perhaps have spin-offs in the world
of things, objects and practical applications, as well as the
more usual, to a contemporary mind, contribution in the
world of ideas.
Both of these projects are ongoing and reflect the
conundrum of the field in the slippage between
intention, interpretation and perception – these are the
fundamentals that make engagement in making and
enquiry so beguiling. Despite colour’s basis in wavelength,
the apparent norms of developing colour terms in
language development, and the physiology of the human
eye, cultures do interpret and use colour in different and
distinctive ways; while the ability to discriminate some
colours is extremely variable, and the interpretation and
linkages between objects and their colour are multifarious.
This problem perhaps is where colour gets its space
for manoeuvre and where art and design can still be
enthralled by it.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Judith Mottram – Genius of Gray (October section),
digital image, size variable, 2010.
10/11/2010 09:03
108
ExPERiENCES
International connections
and partnerships
Many of the problems facing the world today
can only be tackled on an international scale,
and so Nottingham Trent University is proud
to have forged powerful and influential links
with several Chinese institutions in the areas
of product design, manufacturing and
sustainable technology.
The Product Design team at the University has
established partnerships with a number of Chinese
research institutions, including Harbin Institute of
Technology (HIT), Harbin Engineering University (HEU),
Chongqing University, Tianjin University, Shanghai
Maritime University, Chongqing Jiaotong University
and the State Key Laboratory of Mechanical
Transmission (SLMT).
The Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering
Centre has also established strong links with these
partners, jointly conducting research projects and
welcoming visiting Chinese scholars every year.
Research collaborations between NTU and Chinese
universities have proved incredibly fruitful over the years.
With a grant received from the Natural Science
Foundation of China, and the industrial support from
Holroyd UK and the British Gear Association, the centre
and SLMT carried out research into worm gears, which
led to a number of research publications.
Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering
Centre recently applied for an international fellowship to
support a professor from SLMT to carry out research at
NTU to develop a condition-based maintenance system
for agitators.
Leading the way across the world, NTU and its
Chinese partners in Harbin have jointly organised
the International Conference on Advanced Design
and Manufacture (ADM) since 2006. The ADM is an
important and high-quality conference, producing many
highly respected research papers.
Following the success of the yearly conference, NTU and
HEU are going to jointly organise the Summer Research
School of Sustainable Product Design and Renewable
Ocean Energy in Harbin. Leading experts are scheduled
to give lectures, and researchers from across the UK and
China will be taking part.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: Left to right: Professor Kai Xue, Dean of Mechanical
and Electrical Engineering College of Harbin Engineering
University, China; Paul Johnson, Head of Product Design, NTU;
Professor Datong Qin, Director of Key Laboratory of Mechanical
Transmission, Chongqing University, China; Professor Daizhong
Su, ADM Conference Chair and Head of Advanced Design and
Manufacturing Engineering Centre, NTU; Ms Marisa Wyganowski,
Project Officer for Asia-Invest and IT&C Programmes Delegation
of the European Commission to China & Mongolia.
10/11/2010 09:03
109
10/11/2010 09:03
110
10/11/2010 09:03
NETWORKS
111
We live connected lives. Email, the Internet
and mobile phones bring disparate people
around the world together. Business,
industry and economies are linked like
never before, bringing new opportunities
for exciting partnerships.
We are all part of many differing and converging networks, both real
and virtual: of family, of friends, of community, of colleagues. Within
the Schools of Art & Design, and Architecture, Design and the Built
Environment, artistic, industrial and multidisciplinary collaborations
are driving research. Academics are working with their peers to
push creative boundaries and tackle urgent issues in areas such as
manufacturing and healthcare.
In this section, you’ll see how the theme of networks – like a network
itself – weaves in and out of University research, whether it is
specialists coming together to create more sustainable products, a
virtual space for sharing digital culture, or intelligent robots using
insect-like teamwork to solve industrial problems in remote locations.
Image: Tree. Photograph: Katja Hock.
10/11/2010 09:03
112
NETWORKS
Archives, collections and practices
Museum links
The city of Nottingham is synonymous with the
lace industry, and Nottingham Trent University is
proud to house a large collection of lace samples
and books; it’s a unique archive that is helping
students and researchers understand design and
discover influences in the city’s historic past.
Two PhD students are currently working on projects
related to the collection.
Part of the long heritage of the School of Art & Design in
educating creative practitioners is its close relationship to
industry – particularly textile and clothing manufacturers
which are characteristic of the Nottingham area.
From its beginnings in the mid 19th Century, one of the
most significant industries was lace manufacturing in
Nottingham. To support teaching, the School worked with
industry to build an extensive collection of lace samples,
pattern books and text books from the UK and the rest of
Europe. With subsequent donations and acquisitions this
collection now comprises some 75,000 items.
The research team that is developing it, led by Dr
Amanda Briggs-Goode, are using the collection as the
basis of a number of lines of enquiry – and it has the
potential to support more.
The University won an award from the Arts and Humanities
Research Council (AHRC) in 2007 to digitise a catalogue
of the collection. The objective of this ongoing project is to
produce a resource that will be available online and make
it possible to search using visual, design-led terminology as
well as historical and process-based search terms.
One student is working with Nottingham’s Castle Museum,
which has its own extensive costume and textile collection,
to determine the contributions that artists can make to
museum exhibits.
The other PhD student is taking a practice-based, case-study
approach to the relationship between contemporary creative
practice in art and fashion. This project is taking advantage
of the School’s research networks by working with the
Natural History Museum to describe the classification of
patterns present in the lace collection, and in this respect
supports the development of the online catalogue.
The research related to lace presents particular challenges
and focuses upon pattern and the primary design qualities
of repeat, scale, line quality, texture and representational
qualities, demonstrating a matrix of complex relationships,
combining pattern, texture, holes and depth.
This approach is about placing design thinking at the
centre of the analysis, enabling designers to use the system
in ways that are intuitive and focused around the visual
elements. This research has engaged with demonstrating
how our national heritage can inform our design
understanding and aid future art and design practice.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Lace from the Nottingham Trent University,
School of Art & Design archives.
10/11/2010 09:03
113
10/11/2010 09:03
114
NETWORKS
Swarm robotics
The way insects work collectively inspires a
branch of robotics called swarm robotics. By
analysing this type of behaviour, scientists can
create robots that work together intelligently to
overcome obstructions and provide a valuable
resource for industry.
Co-operative transport looks at how a swarm can move
an object too large or heavy for an individual agent to
push. A research project supervised by Dr Philip Breedon
is addressing the more fundamental question of how can
a swarm initially identify an individual object.
The research looks at how a swarm of robots capable of
assessing the size, shape and weight of objects blocking
their the way, could decide whether or not it is worthwhile
moving an object or simply ignoring it and moving round it.
The findings could have a significant impact on industry.
For companies repairing and maintaining structures or
systems in inhospitable or remote environments, a swarm
of robots could be used, instantly reacting to any faults or
changes and vastly reducing system downtime.
As part of a PhD project that Dr Breedon is supervising
much of the research work already carried out focuses
on the use of artificial pheromones. This is based on the
behaviour of ants, who produce pheromones to direct
each other. During testing the robots, unaware of their
environment, searched and retrieved items of different
sizes and shapes. Using the Miabots’ real-time motioncapture tracking system, it is possible to see how quickly
and efficiently the robots can complete varying tasks.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: The Miabot.
This three-year project involves an industrial collaboration
with Merlin Robotics based in Plymouth. The aim is to
use their mobile robotic platform, the Miabot. Up to 20
Miabots are being programmed and tested in different
scenarios where they will search and forage.
10/11/2010 09:03
115
10/11/2010 09:03
116
networks
A longer life
The Network on Product Life Spans hosted by
NTU brings together hundreds of academics,
policy specialists and other influential figures
from industry and government to attempt to
tackle society’s throwaway culture and move
towards a more sustainable future.
One of the key elements in the debate on environmental
sustainability is the amount of energy and materials used
in modern industrial economies. This has led to demands
for a more efficient use of resources.
For several decades the term throwaway society has
been used to draw attention to the prevalence of shortlived consumer products. Some are quickly outmoded
due to changes in fashion or technological advance, a
growing number are either intentionally disposable or not
designed to be reparable because of cost, while others
are not durable because consumers are unwilling or
unable to pay the higher prices implied by better quality.
The causes of obsolescence are complex; evidence that
many discarded products are still functional suggests that
responsibility for Britain’s throwaway culture is shared, to
one degree or another, between producers and consumers.
NTU is taking a prominent role in this debate by hosting
the Network on Product Life Spans, a group comprising
several hundred academic researchers and specialists
from industry, government, policy think tanks and civil
society organisations.
The Network was first formed through a grant from the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC) in 2004, which enabled Tim Cooper, Professor of
Sustainable Design and Consumption, to bring together
people with interest and expertise in the life span of
consumer products. A series of events were held over
the following four years which enabled members of the
Network to discuss the origins of the throwaway culture
and explore some possible solutions.
From this, several specialist interest groups were formed
in order to focus on specific areas, such as design for
longevity and public policy. Further events are planned,
one of which will follow publication of Longer Lasting
Products, an international collection of papers presenting
the latest thinking in this field. Edited by Professor Cooper,
the book has chapters written by 17 contributors, with
sections on design, law, marketing and user behaviour.
Emotionally durable design
One of the interests shared by members of the Network
is a life-cycle approach to design and marketing. As
sustainability rises up the policy agenda, a growing number
of producers are now legally required to take responsibility
for discarded items. As a result, manufacturers and
retailers are finding it no longer possible only to focus on
the point of sale. Designers have consequently begun to
consider ‘emotionally durable design’, an approach that
seeks ways of encouraging owners to want to keep their
possessions for longer. Similarly, marketers have started
to think about more sustainable business models that
might enable their companies to achieve profitability
other than by ‘shifting boxes’, such as offering more
comprehensive after-sales services.
10/11/2010 09:03
117
Such new thinking will have little impact, Network
members argue, unless cultural change supplants the
dominance of consumerism and supportive public policy
measures are introduced. Greater knowledge is needed
of the economic and environmental costs of replacing
possessions with ever-greater frequency, alongside the
assumed benefits.
There are links here with the idea that increased
consumption does not necessarily result in an improved
quality of life, something which is gradually entering
mainstream public policy debate. Until recently
governments have shown little interest in product life spans
and, indeed, introduced scrappage incentives for cars and
boilers during the recent recession in order to encourage
consumption – despite criticism that Britain’s ecological
footprint already exceeds that judged to be sustainable.
More positively, the Department of the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has responded to the
emerging interest in product longevity by commissioning
research into product life times for the first time. The
Network on Product Life Spans at NTU will ensure
that academic expertise is available to inform the
Government’s subsequent deliberations.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Cover from Tim Cooper (ed.) (2010) Longer
Lasting Products, Aldershot: Gower.
10/11/2010 09:03
118
NETWORKS
Spatial practices
Within Visual Arts, the Spatial Practices research
group focuses on how space and the public realm
are ‘performed’ through creative practice.
The Spatial Practices research cluster explores the
relationship of the lived body to its environment and
the technologies or apparatuses (social, technical and
political) that mediate this experience.
Technology and Art), most recently in relation to Tracing
Mobility, a pan-European series of symposia and
exhibitions taking place in Warsaw, Berlin and Amsterdam.
This series was launched with a symposium at
Nottingham Contemporary art gallery in May 2010 and
performances across the city, which investigated the
impact of electronic networks and increased migration
within contemporary neoliberal society.
Working alongside other Humanities and Science subject
specialist areas, the aim is to create artwork within
an interdisciplinary dialogue between artists, cultural
practitioners, sociologists, computer scientists and urban
planners around the changing nature of public space.
Extending the concerns of this cluster, Andrew Brown’s
research focuses on the social body, within projects that
fuse the written and spoken word, image and sound,
often within live contexts. In recent years, this research
has been co-ordinated as part of the collaborative
project Open City, where public actions and interventions
become used as strategies for exploring the possibility of
decision, disorientation and dissent.
Research explores how the development of a networked
infrastructure has transformed both experiences and
conceptions of time, space and distance, how these
changes impact on the way that lived environments are
shaped and defined, and how they are then negotiated
or navigated by individuals.
Emma Cocker’s research practice investigates models
of wandering and performed stillness in the public realm.
She has written essays on the work of artists for whom an
interrogation of landscape operates parallel to questioning
the controlling, striated cartographies that habitually map
contemporary subjectivity and social identity.
Environment is considered as a construct that is produced
or performed through the making of artworks that
themselves perform within this space in new and
experimental ways. The Spatial Practices research group
has initiated a number of significant collaborative projects
with other partners working locally, nationally and
internationally including the Arts and Humanities Research
Council (AHRC) workshop Performing Space.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Frank Abbott has developed a range of projects and
performances in dialogue with Radiator (Festival of
Image: Frank Abbott – `From Here to the end of my garden….`
Images from an evening performance with hand held video
projection. First Play Berlin-`Hebbel am Ufer Theatre (HAU 2),
Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany. 13 October 2006. Commissioned
by Radiator Festival.
10/11/2010 09:03
119
10/11/2010 09:03
120
networks
Images: Andrew Brown – from the series
‘The Way Back’ (since 2008).
10/11/2010 09:03
121
10/11/2010 09:03
122
NETWORKS
Turning design concepts into reality
Industrial collaborations between product
designers and industry at NTU are helping turn
innovative design ideas into marketable products.
Dr Anthony Crabbe has been developing knowledge
transfer collaborations in design between the University and
regional businesses. These collaborations have given him
the opportunity to learn far more about the cross-disciplinary
activity of developing design concepts into marketable
products. One area of design expertise he has developed is
rotational moulding, a process used for large plastic products
such as containers, roadwork equipment and furniture.
From the outset, his approach has been to explore the
potential which computer-aided design software gives the
product designer the opportunity to optimise design and
the moulding tools used to make the products. As such,
his work is more akin to engineering design than product
styling, as illustrated by the design of an electrician’s ladder
(pictured), moulded from thermoplastic.
“The advantages of this design are that the ladder is nonconductive, it doesn’t corrode, it can be manufactured in a
single, relatively inexpensive process and the same mould
can be used to make both sides of the ladder,” he explains.
The design was optimised to ensure the ladder was strong
enough to meet the required British standard.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Anthony Crabbe – The Ladder Drawing.
10/11/2010 09:03
123
10/11/2010 09:03
124
NETWORKS
Green on top
Popular in Germany over the last 30 years ,
green roofs are set to become more common
across UK cities over the next few years. Ongoing
research within the School of Architecture,
Design and the Built Environment is helping to
improve the way they work and shape local and
national policy debate.
Green – or living – roofs provide a number of significant
technological, functional and aesthetic advantages.
As the name suggests, green roofs are made by growing
sedums, grasses, wild flowers, shrubs and even trees on
the roofs of building. Firstly they act like a protective
blanket, reducing the expansion and contraction of roof
membranes, which increases the roof covering’s life span.
Green roofs also dampen noise and help insulate
buildings against extremes of cold and particularly heat,
while providing a welcome habitat and stopping-off
place for birds and insects.
These oases of green also help reduce dust and carbon
dioxide in built-up areas as well as retain higher humidity
levels. They act as temporary sponges in periods of heavy
rainfall, which reduces the pressure on drainage systems
and the potential for flooding.
For a city’s inhabitants they provide peaceful havens of
calm or places for recreational activities above crowded
streets. They also counterbalance what has been called
the ‘heat island effects’: the phenomena whereby
cities are several degrees higher than the surrounding
countryside and thus can help mitigate against the
effects of climate change.
Reducing hot summer air temperatures means reducing
the need for air conditioning in hotels, offices and flats,
while solar panels work better on cooler green roofs
than elsewhere.
Research that continues to grow
Thanks to continuing research, historical problems
of roots damaging the roof, effective drainage and
appropriate weight loadings, have been resolved. These
types of roof can now be designed and constructed to a
higher, quality-assured standard.
Nottingham Trent University is leading the way in green
roof research and even boasts an experimental green
roof on one of its City site buildings, as well as 3000
square metres of sedum roof on the newly refurbished
Newton Building. The research itself is focused on two
key areas: the heat differentials between standard and
green roofing, and helping to shape local and central
governmental policy development and the promotion
and enforcement of these types of roofs.
With space on city streets at a premium, green roofs –
which tick all the boxes in terms of aesthetics, functionality
and sustainability – will increasingly become much more
common throughout the UK.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Sedum on the roof of Newton Building,
Nottingham Trent University.
10/11/2010 09:03
125
10/11/2010 09:03
126
NETWORKS
Fields of fashion
Is there such a thing as rural fashion? What does
it look like? Where is it located? Who wears it?
The Fields of Fashion research cluster brings
together a number of academics from diverse
backgrounds in visual and creative arts, who all
share a common interest in fashion and rural life.
As far as the study of fashion is concerned, it is tempting
to draw an alliance between the ‘unnaturalness’ of the
city and the ‘unnaturalness’ of fashion. Meanwhile, rural
spaces and places – the countryside – are imagined as
being mired in anti-fashion with utilitarian workwear and
traditional costume being the order of the day.
Part of the work of the Fields of Fashion team is to consider
the provenance of these arbitrary classifications – and to
problematise them. The cluster asserts that rural spaces are
as nuanced and sophisticated as urban sites and practices.
One strand of research activity involves the tracking of rural
fashion trends in contemporary designer collections and
on the British high street. Of late, fashion designers have
raided the country wardrobe for inspiration, so that quilted
tweeds, brogues and Barbours have become de rigeur.
These items of country clothing are adapted to the
needs of today’s fashion consumers but, so too, have a
long history, rich in symbolic meaning. A further strand
of research therefore makes an historical study of rural
clothing, tracing the stories behind specific garments.
The contention is that clothing is socially and politically
charged and that micro studies of individual items of
country apparel – notably equestrian dress from the early
1900s – provide avenues into broader discussions regarding
contemporary gender, culture and identity issues.
From the green welly brigade to our
green and pleasant land
Fields of Fashion has pursued this research via a
collaborative relationship with the National Sporting
Library in Virginia, USA, successfully securing a John H
Daniels Fellowship at its Centre for Horse and Field Sports
to conduct archive work on historical riding apparel.
The equestrian world provides inspiration for yet another
research strand, which is characterised by dynamic,
ethnographic fieldwork. The Fields of Fashion team has
carried out market research at high-profile equestrian
sporting events such as the Badminton Horse Trials and
the Olympia International Horse Show. As much about
the spectacle of consumption as the spectacle of elite
horsemanship, pop-up shopping villages have become
an integral part of the horse trial circuit. Fields of Fashion
research considers this phenomenon and proposes the
idea of the ‘field as mall’ – analysing what happens
when the countryside turns marketplace and becomes a
temporary site of trade and commercial exchange.
From the ‘green welly brigade’ to ‘our green and pleasant
land’, the projects hosted under the Fields of Fashion
banner set out to understand all aspects of fashion in –
and of – the rural.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Gun socks at Badminton Horse Trials.
Photograph: Fields of Fashion.
10/11/2010 09:03
127
10/11/2010 09:03
128
NETWORKS
The cultural significance of
aspirational foods and dining
in 1970s Britain
The food of the 1970s is easily identifiable and
often seen as something vulgar and kitsch.
But the subtext and nuance underpinning the
recipes and ingredients in the era are cultural
signifiers beyond their individual components.
Food is a personal, economic, social, fashion-led, nutritive
experience, which is also emotional, ceremonial and
physical. From Brillat-Savarin and his first notions of
taste through to Barthes, Goody, Mintz and Rozin, the
dialogue about the socially transmitted information in
foods, recipes and dining as cultural signifiers and visual
indicators of society, has developed.
British culture, fashions and history can be analysed by way
of culinary undercurrents, seen through the photography
and writing in key cookery books. Using a guide identified
by Elizabeth Rozin in the early 1980s, the three essential
elements: ingredients, characteristic flavours and modes of
preparation can be analysed in more detail.
The main changes and influences which occurred during
1970s dining were a direct reflection of the political and
societal adjustments taking place. Functionality and
pleasure, part of the current, modern food equation were
first brought together in the 1970s when food moved
away from just necessary calorific intake.
Women moved into the work place and became more
socially liberated in everything from clothes to jobs.
Kitchen appliances and ready meals cut food preparation
time. Foreign travel became much more accessible to the
masses. Package holidays allowed families to go abroad
and experience difference cultures and cuisines. Freezers,
allowed seasonal food to be sold and served at any
time of the year, while new recipes offered the option
to add newly introduced ingredients. Fashion embraced
‘otherness’ and the exotic which became de rigueur in all
aspects of taste and choice.
The 1970s presented a defining moment in modern food
history, a marker in time when alternative consumption
and radically new perspectives became more accepted
and a new hybrid food category emerged. Aspiration and
displays of ‘taste’ had new, clearly defined rules.
Time to get out the candelabra
The dinner party was the culmination of all aspects
of dining, behaviour and culture in the 1970s and by
analysing the instructions and codes in cookery books,
there is a plethora of data as social commentary.
The parallels can be drawn between the nuances in
such dining extravaganzas and Le Grand Couvert at the
French Courts in the 18th Century. The rituals, values,
aspirations and preoccupations mirror one another in
unexpected ways. Both cultures, in their respective era
were negotiating their own concepts of identity, new
abundance and novelty which shaped both cultures and
their behaviour around food with many similar outcomes.
Further information
[email protected]
Image: 1970s casserole dish.
10/11/2010 09:03
129
10/11/2010 09:03
130
networks
Exploring global spaces
Though Photography researchers in the School
of Art & Design pursue diverse lines of enquiry,
there are clear themes and motifs – particularly
an interest in global spaces – that are
represented across the group.
In attending to the relationship between photography
and traditions of landscape representation
Photography’s artists and researchers aim for a critical
investigation of a globalised world based on a wide range
of cultural backgrounds.
Max Kandhola’s work has, since the 1980s, focused
on his family as representatives of British postcolonial
culture. Using drawing, photographic processes and
photographs, Max’s work reflects on themes such as
ancestral narratives in relation to history and heritage,
archives of memory, place and landscape framed in an
overall concern with death, dying and trauma. Working
with matter, the stuff of life and death such as blood
and ashes, as well as with photography, his projects
Illustration of Life and Flatland a Landscape of Punjab are
an exploration of land as resurrection of the body.
Fiona MacLaren’s work engages directly with recent
sites of conflict through inspecting the critical capacity
of visual art in the processes of reconciliation and
memorialisation. Her work parallels the transformation
of space and the perception of spatial experience
with the instrumentality of memory to reveal ‘slippage’
in our construction and representation of the past.
She is currently working on a series of sound and video
works centred on European ‘sites’ of memory and
memorial architecture.
Dr Katja Hock produces bodies of work that through
representation of architectural spaces and landscape
frames and refers both to human presence and
transience. She focuses on institutional spaces and
woodlands that mark shifts of power in European
locations, such as those vacated by the WWII armies
of occupation in Germany.
Avoiding picturing people, she seeks to prompt the
viewer to reflect on their experiences with such sites,
allowing spaces for their imagination to enter the
photographic field.
(Continued)
Image: Periphery. Photograph: Fiona MacLaren.
Dr David Reid’s enquiry is grounded in a spatial
practice shaped by everyday encounters with specific
environments. Through such enquiry moving image
and sound recordings are employed to explore the
relationships between landscape, nature, local and global
ecologies, and creative practice.
10/11/2010 09:03
131
Image too low res to go full page
10/11/2010 09:03
132
NETWORKS
Her work raises questions around the properties of
photography to be both an impartial record while also
drawing on the emotions and personal histories of the
viewer, blurring the boundaries between photography as
objective witness and as personal testimony.
At the same time it highlights the continuing function
of the medium in recording and shaping the process
of change and in extending our understanding of our
relationship to our physical and cultural surroundings. Her
work and installations include projections, conventionally
framed and presented images, and sound, taking into
account the specificity of the exhibition venue.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: RAE Brueggen. Photograph: Katja Hock.
10/11/2010 09:03
133
10/11/2010 09:03
134
NETWORKS
Building links
Academic research within the School of
Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
is highly regarded and plays an important role
in shaping new advances and providing
practical support and guidance for a range
of industry professionals.
Nottingham Trent University academics edit one of the
UK’s leading research journals in the field of Architecture
and the Built Environment.
In the last Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 – the
peer-review mechanism by which university funding
is allocated – the journal was ranked fifth. Structural
Survey is co-edited by Professor Mike Hoxley and Dr Mark
Shelbourn, both of the School of Architecture, Design and
the Built Environment.
In its 28th year, Structural Survey provides practical and
up-to-date material for building surveyors, structural
engineers, building services engineers, architects and all
those responsible for the appraisal and refurbishment
of buildings. It is one of three journals published by
Emerald that is made available to all members of the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and has been
endorsed by the professional body as “a particularly
useful journal for building surveyors”. Professor Hoxley
has been editor for 11 years with Dr Shelbourn becoming
co-editor in 2008.
indication of the growing maturity of the profession of
building surveying and of its research base.”
Professor Hoxley, Professor of Building Surveying, has
also recently written the Good Practice Guide to
Building Condition Surveys, published by the RIBA
(Royal Institute of British Architects). The guides are
designed to provide architects and other construction
professionals with practical advice and guidance on a
range of topics that affect them and the day-to-day
management of their businesses.
This book is the tenth guide to be published by RIBA
and introduces the core knowledge and essential skills
needed to undertake building condition surveys. Looking
at many practical case studies, it explains the equipment
and skills that are needed and highlights the critical
defects to look out for.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: The Link Building and the Old Chemistry Theatre,
City site, Nottingham Trent University
The editors say: “We are both delighted that Structural
Survey was so influential in the most recent RAE. It is an
10/11/2010 09:03
135
10/11/2010 09:03
136
networks
10/11/2010 09:03
137
10/11/2010 09:03
138
NETWORKS
Research and practice in
graphic communication
Researchers have been investigating novel ways of
communicating graphically, and developing graphic
design manuals concerning the best means of doing
so across different cultures and languages.
Douglas Wilson has been working closely over the past three
years with the celebrated artist Sir Peter Blake to create a book
“Alphabets”, in which Blake presents in a discursory way, his
vast collection of 2D and 3D letter forms and the artworks he
has developed from them. The book then combines both an
exhibition of artwork (much previously unseen) and a rationale
for the development of the work. Douglas has managed the
entire conception, design and production of “Alphabets”, which
will be published as a special limited edition collector’s book at
the end of 2010.
Dr Anthony Crabbe has been investigating the use of imagery
and diagrams to present theories of time and number. In
analyzing the construction of the space-time maps which
physicists use to present the concepts of relativity theory, he
has shown that it is possible to model event relationships in
space-time as effectively with Euclidean geometry as with the
non-Euclidean geometry of Minkowski, if one chooses to use only
light metres to measure the intervals between events, instead of
the Minkowski combination of light metres and light seconds.
Further information
[email protected]
[email protected]
Image: Sir Peter Blake from Peter Blake ALPHABETS.
Text by Mel Gooding. Published by D3 Editions.
10/11/2010 09:03
139
10/11/2010 09:03
140
NETWORKS
The folksonomy
An inspiring new website for digital culture and
creative practices has been created by School of
Art & Design academic Simon Perkins.
The Folksonomy – www.folksonomy.org.uk – is a
knowledge commons and social bookmarking tool for
digital culture and creative practice.
The brainchild of Simon Perkins, as part of his research,
the Folksonomy simplifies the process of clipping
references and features photographs, videos and
published documents.
The Folksonomy is simultaneously a device for engaging
with and a product of digital culture. It acts as a teaching
tool for supporting the generation of ideas and digital
culture creative practice. The research project is of a broader
practice that extends from creative technology and design
teaching and is focused on the nature of knowledge
construction within digital culture environments.
Simon says: “The process of conceptualisation can be
seen as an emergent process that involves the constant
re-projection of prior understanding onto new and
changing circumstances. The Folksonomy tool aims to
support this type of tactical interaction through its use of
linking and association.”
Further information
[email protected]
Image: Simon Perkins – Stellarscope Constellations 2010.
One of the unique aspects of the site is the way content
is categorised, as it simultaneously belongs to multiple
and sometimes contradictory categories, encouraging
the viewer to make new discoveries. This sits in stark
contrast to the more traditional logic conventionally
employed by libraries and computer operating systems
where books and files are organised according to a linear,
centralised and hierarchical form.
10/11/2010 09:04
141
10/11/2010 09:04
142
Further information
We hope the selection of projects in this book has
given you an inspiring insight into the incredible and
fascinating research carried out at Nottingham Trent
University. To find out more about any of our projects,
or to explore potential research collaborations that
could benefit you or your organisation, please
email us at [email protected] or visit
www.ntu.ac.uk/research
University Research & Graduate School
College of Art & Design and Built Environment
Nottingham Trent University
Burton Street
Nottingham
NG1 4BU
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)115 848 2177
www.ntu.ac.uk/research
Design: Dandy (www.dandycollective.co.uk)
10/11/2010 09:04

Proud of our research - Nottingham Trent University

Transcription

Similar documents

Power, Steering Proxes R888 sticks to the track whilst you stick to

Get info about What Is The Song Roulette By System Of A Down About

Inside Weddings Winter 2010 - International Event Company

Unparalleled built into every home.

Crazy, Sexy, Cool

South Shore Stars

read a sample chapter

TestAS

fall activities - We Support Our Local Schools

Leaders must have high self-awareness