FAH Volume 1. 2016
Contents What’s On? 7 Degree Show
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Spotlight On Creative Writing
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Media Production Graduate making a name in Documentary circles! 13 Graduation 14 What does it take to be a fashion intern?
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Getting into photography: Anthony Luvera
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Successes 21
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Congratulations on securing an offer to study at Coventry University! This is FAH – the Faculty of Arts and Humanities magazine. With lots of exciting news and events, this magazine is a snapshot of what’s gone on, what’s coming up and a look at the incredible people that make up this Faculty.
Why choose us?
Get to know us
• Oldest part of the university, dating back to 1843 when it was Coventry School of Art and Design • The top 4 UK university for industrial design courses as voted by the British Industrial Design Association 2015 • The no. 2 UK university for film production and photography (Guardian University Guide 2016) • The top 15 UK university for art and design (Complete University Guide 2016) • Recognised for our international growth efforts having been awarded the prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise • Voted top for personal development in the National Student Survey 2015 • The top 15 UK university for architecture, politics, modern languages and linguistics, fashion and textiles (Guardian University Guide 2016) • Internationally recognised by industry for our award-winning Automotive and Transport Design course
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities’ three schools are: • School of Art and Design • School of Humanities • School of Media and Performing Arts For more news and events follow us on social media
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Come and join Coventry University's Faculty of Arts and Humanities at an exciting time and create your future! Find a course.
Coventry is a rare combination of excellent teaching, great international opportunities and - importantly- strong personal development. As ever, it is the value we're adding to their experience that is making Coventry stand out. Vice-chancellor Professor John Latham
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What's On? At Coventry, you can look forward to countless exhibitions, productions, festivals, industry speakers, competitions and awards. Here are a small selection of events that have happened in the past few months including our Degree Shows 2016! Our annual Coventry Degree Shows started on the 26th April where we welcomed friends, family, industry and the public to join us in celebrating the work of our final year students. Read on for more information.
First Draft As the title suggests, this exhibition was the first opportunity this year for Illustration and Animation students to get a sense of how the real degree show would run and for the students to demonstrate what they have been working on recently. From a mixture of project briefs and creative competitions, the work on show included: the Silent Book Contest 2016, “11 Seconds”, “Comix – Brief Theme Temptations”. Here’s what Illustration student Chante Timothy had to say about the exhibition, “The best thing about the exhibition was seeing it all put together. And people viewing our work.” To view more illustrations by our students visit our Illustration Suite.
Are you a fire raiser? Our Theatre and Professional Practice students took to the stage for three nights to present The Fire Raisers by Max Frisch. Taking their skills and talent, our aspiring actors created a play that is known for being a morality play without morals. The story focuses on Gottlieb Biedermann, a businessman and respected member of his community, who lets two suspicious characters stay with him amidst recent attacks of arson in his hometown. A terrifying comedy about complacency, ignorance and arson. Due to the recent events that happened in Paris and the content of this play, our theatre students did tremendously well to be sensitive when performing a show of this type.
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Forward in Motion Our Dance students have been busy working with professional choreographers Gaby Agis and Christopher Owen for the latest dance festival, Forward in Motion. The students were split into two companies – one worked with Gaby and the other with Christopher. Fine Art, and Fine Art and Illustration students held a joint exhibition in two locations, the newly opened Faculty of Arts and Humanities’ Glass Box Gallery and in The Box at Fargo Village. The students independently organised, fundraised and curated the interim showcase exhibition. The Box Room demonstrated the students’ ability exceptionally well, with the work receiving solid feedback from members of the public both visually and thematically. Erasmus student and organiser, Ryan Williams said “…having different locations created a real buzz around the creative community in Coventry as they took part in an “art crawl”. It was a fantastic way to showcase the students work outside of the studios as it resulted in a wider demographic interacting and enjoying the work. This enabled the students to gain a thorough grounding of what it would be like as real-world artists.”
The group with Gaby reconstructed a piece of her work called Shouting Out Loud which was first premiered in 1984 set to the soundtrack of iconic feminist punk band, The Raincoats. Watch
Working intensively with Gaby, student Sofia Mirza felt it was “…really good to get a snippet of what life would be like in a real company. And the amount of time and effort [that] goes into making a show. It was good to work with Gaby and her style of dance is very similar to what we are used to at Coventry University.”
To see the full album, click here.
Caucasian Chalk Circle – ‘Terrible is the temptation to do good’ Nineteen Performing Arts students took to the stage of The Caucasian Chalk Circle directed by lecturers Sonia Ritter and Helena Lamprell. The original production by Brecht had over 60 characters but our brave students took this fantastic challenge to retell an epic story with original music, vigorous theatrical colour and dynamism. Written in 1944, as the catastrophes of World War II were rocking Europe and changing the perimeters of socialism; a servant girl steals the baby of an aristocrat in the fictional country of Grusinia. Through folk-style storytelling, the play exposes the profound dilemmas of ownership and justice in a time of political anarchy.
An original dance piece was created with Christopher titled Broken Fall Organic. By doing strange, unorthodox and bizarre activities like hanging off a tree once a day, making a nest, screaming 3 times a day, documenting consciousness; Fraser O’Donovan and his group “…began to explore movement through filming ourselves, how we acted and approached the class, we soon found our theme of ‘lad culture’. From this we based our piece…This went extremely well and came together quick. Me, the lads and Chris bounced off each other.”
Glass Box Gallery The School of Art and Design's new exhibition space, The Glass Box Gallery on Earl Street in Coventry is for students to showcase their work. Since its opening there have been exhibitions on display by Fine Art, Graphic Design, Photography and Communication, Culture and Media students. Predominantly used by the School of Art and Design this venue is open to a myriad of courses in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities wishing to exhibit. Fine Art Course Director, Rachelle Knowles thinks this is a “…fantastic example of how students are using the space to develop and test their broad range of skills including: how to install work in an art gallery, curating an exhibition, team work, marketing and presenting themselves to a new audience.”
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Degree Shows 2016 Degree Shows 2016: check out the highlights from last year’s Degree Show!
This Creative City
Degree Show Private View
Performing Arts Festival
Fashion
Can’t make it to Coventry? Why not come and meet our students and lecturers in London at Free Range and New Designers during the summer months? This is a great opportunity to see why choosing Coventry University as your first choice to study the creative arts is the right decision!
#CoventryShows Want to join the Degree Shows 2016 conversation? Make sure to use #CoventryShows! Keep up to date with this year's Degree Shows by following us on:
Every May we hold our annual Coventry Degree Shows' Private View where final year students of art, design, media and humanities courses showcase their final major projects and portfolio to potential employers, creative professionals, friends and family.
facebook.com/covuniarts
twitter.com/CoventryFAH
To find out more information check out our website.
www.covdegreeshow.co.uk
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instagram.com/coventrydegreeshows
Spotlight On Creative Writing
Writing creatively is an art in itself. The School of Humanities has lots of opportunities for its students to get involved in writing, from poetry to screenwriting to articles in the magazine – Coventry Words. Coventry Words (CovWords) first started out as a society, then a magazine which has expanded into a website for all the writers of Coventry University to join. Whether you become a student of English and Creative Writing or a student in the School of Art and Design, or School of Media and Performing Arts; if you enjoy writing and meeting new friends join the CovWords Magazine Society.
Poetry is a law unto itself Named in honour of the late poet who was one of Coventry’s best loved voices, students from across Coventry University have a chance to enter their poetry into the annual Fred Holland Poetry Prize. Hundreds of students enter the contest to win the top prize of £1000 and the latest winner came from the Faculty of Business and Law. Law student, Harry Evans’ poetry won because of his quirky portrayals of life and love and was awarded his cash prize by trustee of the Fred Holland Trust, David Smith.
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Media Production Graduate making a name in Documentary circles! Award Winning Whilst continuing to study at Coventry University, Meera won the Royal Television Society Award! As a young film-maker Meera is reaching for the stars and turning her dreams into reality. “The feeling was amazing,” she said. “It is such a prestigious award. I really hope I can share Transindia around the world.”
Meera Darji graduated with a First Class Honours in Media Production in 2015 and is now studying her MA in 21st Century Media Practice at Coventry University. This girl has made quite a name for herself during her undergraduate course where her short documentary “Struggle With Life & Race Against Time” won her the 2013 Brighton Film Festival Prize. Not to let herself become complacent, her work for the 2015 Degree Show saw her produce and direct a new documentary called Transindia. In your final year, Meera believes that not being afraid is key, “All of our ideas are imaginative and sometimes seem impossible. But actually, when you think about it, students have the whole year to begin production, research and to gather all the materials.” Transindia is the true story of the Hijras, the transgender community in India. Hijra is a person who adopts a gender role that is neither male nor female. Historically Hijras were much accepted in society where they would reside with the King and Queen as protectors of the land. Due to colonisation and misconceptions over the years, Hijras are now an ostracised group in India. What Meera tried to do is explore their history and lifestyle and how attitudes have changed dramatically, “It was also crucial to me that I was capturing the truth, rather than reconstructing reality…to perpetuate the fact they are humans too [that] have a voice. They belong to a tight-knit community and are trying to make ends meet with what they have. I wanted to give my audience an insight into their true lifesyles.” View trailer
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Graduation Every November our graduating students return to Coventry University for a special ceremony in Coventry Cathedral to celebrate with their friends and families the achievement of earning their degree. Somewhere we hope you’ll be in the next three to four years depending on your course! For more photos of the happy occasion, click here.
Coventry student turned Hollywood visual effects guru The last graduation saw one of our alumnus receive an honorary degree at graduation. You may not have heard of him but we bet you’ve seen films like Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America to name but a few – Christopher Townsend is the genius behind the amazing graphics you see on the big screen (with his amazing team of people of course)! Chris graduated with a degree in graphic design in 1988 and because of his outstanding work in film related visual effects, he received an honorary doctorate of arts. Chris attributes his success to the forward thinking Coventry Polytechnic and being in the right place at the right time. It was one of the few colleges that embraced computer design and because of the skills he acquired with work experience from China, Australia and Singapore; Chris found himself as Technical Director at George Lucas’ visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Following on from his successful 11 years at ILM, Chris worked on Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Jurassic Park is the reason he got into the film industry in the first place! Now a freelance Visual Effects Supervisor for feature films, Chris can add to his blockbuster collection: Iron Man 3, Captain America: The First Avenger, Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, The Day After Tomorrow, Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Hulk.
Image: Danny Choo
Chris Townsend
If you want to know what it takes to work in visual effects (VFX) - Chris helps design shots, figure out how to create and execute them, and then help deliver them to the highest possible standard. “I’m very fortunate; my role allows me to be involved in all aspects of the film making process, from pre-production, working with the Director and key creative team during the script writing and story boarding stage, through to photography, actually shooting the film on set with the cast, to post production, where we create the VFX for the final film.”
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What does it take to be a fashion intern? At Coventry University and in particular the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, we understand that experience in your chosen field is paramount to being successful after graduation so we are committed to giving students as much opportunity as possible to gain invaluable industry skills and experience. Work experience can range from one day to one year. Let us introduce you to Heather Panes, a fashion student currently out on a year’s internship with NET-A-PORTER. Whenever an opportunity presented itself to Heather she would be chasing her dream and “…catching up with [university] projects in the night. It seems like a lot of hard work, but if you start interning as early as possible it will be easier to do what you want later on.”
The great thing about what I do is that I get access to every studio, and speak to people from every department. I’ve been thinking about what job I would like to return to at NET-APORTER, it is important that I can meet different teams and do some projects with them…Once I have completed my work placement and graduated I will have ticked off all the requirements for a Junior Retail Co-ordinator before becoming a Buyer. I end the day with a drink on the Thames with amazing views of the mish-mash of architecture. I love that in London there’s always something new to see, and so many free things to do!
To follow Heather’s journey read her blog: fashioninternlondon.wordpress.com
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Where to find support for placements? To help students find work placement opportunities, all our courses incorporate modules on professional practice with time-out to seek experience. In the Faculty we have a dedicated employment team. Whether you're looking for year-long placements or work experience in the School of Art and Design, School of Humanities, School of Media and Performing Arts, our employment team can help prepare and assist you. This professional service exists to support the Faculty's students and graduates on career and enterprise opportunities throughout their time at university and six months after graduation. Services include help with but not limited to: • CV and covering letters • One-to-one sessions • Career roadshows • Employer engagement • Advice • Portfolio reviews
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Getting into photography: Anthony Luvera Many of our academics originally came from industry and Anthony Luvera, Course Director for BA Photography is no stranger to the ‘ins and outs’ of the photography industry as a testament to his successful career. We interviewed him to ask where his passion for photography came from; recent projects, tips on taking self-portraits and why so many choose to study photography at Coventry. Where did your love of photography start? When I was 14 years old a teacher at school gave some equipment to my best friend and me, and we set up darkrooms in the bathrooms of our homes. We taught ourselves how to develop film and print black and white photographs, we then began advertising photography courses in our local newspaper. We soon had adults arriving at the front door looking rather confused when they realised they’d signed up to be taught photography by two teenage boys! A few years later I applied to go to university to study a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing. I did an option module in Photography and was so inspired by the photography lecturers that I changed my program of study to BA Photomedia. From that moment on I saw myself as a photographer - not just a student and threw myself into the course and my career. Most memorable project you’ve completed so far? Why? This is a tough question. I have had a varied portfolio career as a photographer for over twenty years. I’ve worked in fashion, theatre, commercial photography, art, documentary and education. It’s the work I’ve been doing since 2002 with homeless people in cities and towns across the UK – including London, Belfast, Colchester and Brighton – that is at the core of my practice now. Assembly is a recent project of mine working with over 50 homeless people living in Brighton between 2013 and 2014. This body of work is composed of photographs made by participants, Assisted Self-Portraits, digital sound recordings, and an installation of research about support services provided by councils across the UK. I even worked with a community choir of people recovering from addiction issues and homelessness as part of this project - which was great fun! Much of my work involves working with subjects as participants to collaborate and co-create work about their lives and the things they are interested in. Another project I recently created is called Not Going Shopping, which focuses on the experience of homosexual people living in Brighton and Hove. As a gay man, creating this work seemed to me to be a useful way to further my inquiry into collaboration and at the same time provide an opportunity to confront my own views of queerness. I’ve recently returned from the Not Going Shopping exhibition on the streets of Malmo in Sweden, where we also produced a 16-page newspaper about the work that was distributed freely across the streets of Malmo and Copenhagen. Left: Collaborative Portrait of Sarah Magdalena Love from Not Going Shopping (2013-2014) by Anthony Luvera
Documentation of the making of Assisted Self-Portrait of Ben Evans from Assembly (2013-2014) by Anthony Luvera
You focus mainly on self-portraiture. What do you find the most interesting thing about photographing self-portraits? What 3 tips should students remember when taking selfportraits? I have explored self-portraiture in my work a lot over the years. Mostly though it has been through facilitating subjects to create their own self-portraits, rather than me photographing myself - although I have done this too. I call this work ‘Assisted SelfPortraits’ and ‘Collaborative Self-Portraits’. Sharing my skills with subject participants is at the core of my practice as an artist and in many ways this comes out of an interest in the critiques of documentary and community photography. When creating self-portraits or any kind of portrait really, I’d suggest the following three things: 1. K eep it simple – the composition and all of the technical elements you use to create the images. 2. Consider what story you want to tell - all photographs tell stories and all photographers are storytellers. Even though photographs may seem to tell truths about places, people and events, what they do best is spark the imagination of the people they are created for. Your role as a photographer is to guide your audience to think about the things you want to say through your images. 3. Play! Have fun – photography is a process of experimentation. Take loads of images and every time you press the shutter, explore another view on your subject by getting closer, including or excluding different elements in the frame, or changing your point of view. All photographs are the culmination of a series of decisions you make about how you use the equipment and how you relate to your subject. It’s decisions like these that are like the words on the pages of the stories you tell through your images. 13
The BA Photography course has grown exponentially and is one of the most popular degrees offered in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. What makes it so appealing? Can you give examples of what students have been up to recently? As Course Director for Photography I am extremely proud of what the photography team has achieved with the growth of the course to date and we are excited about its continued development. Photography as a profession occupies a dynamic space across a number of industries ranging from photojournalism, publishing, fashion, documentary, art, to various commercial applications. This is what makes photography one of the most exciting forms of visual representation and our degree is built for the 21st century. The rapid technological transformation of the medium has enabled the production of images to be more widespread and more accessible than ever before, and this throws up many discussions and areas for consideration that we unpack with students to develop their skills to be able to use photography as a tool for creative expression and visual communication. Collaboration, facilitation and experimentation are at the heart of the course ethos, with students engaged as co-creators of learning situations and approaches tailored to develop their specialist photographic knowledge. This includes taking part in the open photography classes delivered on the course with contributions from networks of photographers and experts from across the globe. Our classrooms are opened up at every level of the degree, enabling learning to take place alongside professional practitioners, international subject specialists and wider learning communities. By graduation, students are technologically fluent, theoretically literate, critically rigorous and context aware, and are prepared to take their place in the future generation of photographers.
Assisted Self-Portrait of Ben Evans from Assembly (2013-2014) by Anthony Luvera
All of our students are supported throughout the process of gaining valuable experience in the professional photographic industry and they benefit from our longstanding relationships with regional, national and international media producers, galleries and museums, including: • The BBC • Birmingham Open Media • GRAIN • The Photographers’ Gallery • The National Portrait Gallery • Photofusion • Belfast Exposed Photography Our students have worked with photographers as far afield as New York with such luminaries as Annie Leibovitz, GQ and Vogue photographer Chris Floyd, World Press Award winner Peter Dench, Simon Roberts and Martin Parr.
Aizak Buyondo by Anthony Luvera for The World in London, The Photographers Gallery (2012 14
Award winning students
Saudade by Natalia Fadejeva and Siyana Kasabova
Out of Time by Aaron_Sehmar
• N atalia Fadejeva won the Master Photographers’ Association Retoucher Award in 2014 • I mogen Wall was shortlisted for the Association of Photographers Student Awards in 2015 • R ebecca Woodall, Aaron Sehmar, and Natalia Fadejeva and Siyana Kasabova all had their work featured at the Pingyao Photography Festival in China in 2015 • B oth Aaron Sehmar and Rachel Bint were selected for the prestigious showcase exhibition, New Art West Midlands 2016. Aaron Sehmar was selected as the best photographic artist on show in the exhibition and for this he was deservedly awarded a prize of £1000.
Uninvited guest by Jenny Swerdlow
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Successes Both students and staff continue to pursue recognition for their work and their skills, here's some of the recent successes within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities over the last few months.
Smart insulin pen to improve lives Product design graduate Adam Haynes’ design for Cambridge Consultants won the recent Red Dot Award: Product Design award. The KiCoPen was up against over 5000 design entries and won for its smart insulin pen concept and is something that could help millions of people affected by diabetes to manage their disease more accurately and easily.
Graphic design gets fresh Martin Bird is both a lecturer of Graphic Design and founder of design company Bird Creative. Martin’s design for an exhibition catalogue entitled ‘A Midland Education’ by Coventry alumnus and Turner Prize nominee George Shaw won The Fresh Awards in the Best Brochures & Catalogues category. George studied for his Foundation Diploma at Coventry.
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Showing in London and Tokyo ‘Bootsies’ is the work of photography student Emilie Taylor. Bootsie was Emilie’s grandmother’s nickname for 90 years. The series documented the life of Bootsie after the death of her husband of 65 years. Emilie’s work was exhibited in the Portrait Salon in London and in Tokyo during the Reminders Photography Stronghold.
Student becomes Superyacht UK Young Designer The elite of the elite go to the London Boat Show, so to win a prestigious award here is a pretty good feeling! Something Automotive and Transport Design Dastinas Steponenas knows all about as he scooped the top prize in the Superyacht UK Young Designer. He had to create from scratch, for over 36 hours, his boat design concept live at the Show in front of three British yacht design and naval architect companies representatives.
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For more information on the Faculty of Arts and Humanities www.coventry.ac.uk/fah
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