Channel 11/2012

NOV | DEC 12

RESEARCH Translating the future

Editor Rebecca Haroutunian Communications Manager Assistant editor Phil Mills Communications Officer Channel magazine is published every two months by Marketing and Communications.

Channel is available online at www.brighton.ac.uk/channel.

Alongside this publication our online newsletter eChannel is produced monthly at http://community.brighton.ac.uk/ echannel.

For the latest news about the university, please see www.brighton.ac.uk/news.

For an insight into research conducted at the university, see www.brighton.ac.uk/research.

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Front page image Page 22: a researcher works with a 3D scanner as part of the 3D-COFORM project.

Print and reproduction

By L&S Printing Company Limited registered to environmental standard, ISO 14001, This magazine was printed using inks made from vegetable-based oils and without the use of industrial alcohol. 100 per cent of waste material used in production will be recycled.

02  Channel Magazine November | December 2012

Contents News 04–05 Research Roundup

06–07 Doctoral College Studentships 2012

Lead features 14–15 Archiving our Heritage

Features

22–23

08–09 Easing the pain through research

16–17 Delivering inclusive services

10–11 A picture paints a thousand words

18–19 Football 4 Peace

12–13 Screen dance 12–13

20–21

22–23 Unlocking secrets with 3D

24–25 CROME plated research 26–27 Early career researchers

20–21 Fingerprinting stone age behaviour

08–09

26–27

November | December 2012 Channel Magazine 03

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

Comment Bruce Brown Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research)

This issue of Channel brings together research activities and projects from across the university. Together, they illustrate a continuous process that serves to enrich and deepen the university’s intellectual and creative fabric.

They reveal the emergence of new understandings and applications as well as a vibrant spirit of enquiry that is at the very heart of university life – for staff and students alike.

As special places in society universities can help to stimulate innovation and test conventional wisdom in the interests of a better and fairer world. In this respect we recognise just two kinds of research – applied research, and yet to be applied research. In line with this development the infrastructure supporting our work continues to be tested and refined. A significant strategic investment in 20 doctoral scholarships attracted 1011 applications. The advertisement for this initiative is soon to be followed by a similar announcement of 16 researchfocused academic posts. The research sabbatical scheme, now in its fifth year of awards, will be taken to a further stage of refinement and the kind of investment needed to support the advancement of research careers and those at the early stages of developing their research careers will be identified.

In recent months Professors Ashworth, Tomlinson and Woodham were appointed, respectively, as Directors of Research and Development in the Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Arts and Humanities to support the development of impact case studies alongside other aspects of the research infrastructure.

As the world of UK higher education changes, dramatically, there is no doubt that the spirit of enquiry accompanying research will become one of our institution’s most valuable and durable assets. These processes of enquiry-based-learning will help students to build the intellectual and creative scaffolding needed to support them throughout a lifetime’s endeavour and stimulate researchers to examine and test prevailing theories in order to bring new understandings and applications into the world.

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A natural partnership In September 2011 the Research Office (previously known as the Virtual Research Unit) became part of the Economic and Social Engagement department (EASE), bringing its role in supporting research at the University of Brighton closer to the essential end users and collaborators who need to be involved at every stage.

In 2011–12, a total of 187 bids were submitted which resulted in an income of £6.7m, 29 per cent up on the year before. This improved performance has been helped by the introduction of the university’s grant support panel that scrutinises proposals at an early stage. The panel provides mentors and peer reviewers to support applicants in achieving a successful outcome.

Together, the Research Office and EASE team offers a range of professional services which facilitate the successful acquisition of research funding and income from commercial activities. It also engages effectively with community groups and organisations. Working closely with the research office, the contracts and intellectual property team checks and approves research proposals, draws up agreements for successful bids and deals with any contractual issues.

In addition to playing a key role in the development and submission of grants the Research Office is responsible for the co-ordination of the institution’s submission to REF2014, research initiatives (such as the sabbatical scheme) and the University’s ethics framework. http://staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/ro

Headed up by Chris Baker, the EASE department was launched in August 2009 to bring the university’s knowledge exchange activities with business and community groups closer together. Chris added: “Moving the Research Office into EASE anticipates our new university strategy which seeks to connect our research to public, community and economic networks. It is in many respects a natural partnership for this university as it brings together a number of important professional functions. With the increased emphasis on impact growing across the full spectrum of the university’s research, there was never a more appropriate time to bring these functions together.”

There is also a shared interest across EASE in increasing the funding the university receives to support research.

The Research Office has a critical role in helping staff identify funding opportunities and supporting them in the process of writing and submitting funding proposals.

Ethics and Governance The university aims to ensure that its research is carried out to high academic, ethical and financial standards, and that it conforms to good practice in all of these areas. It also has a legal obligation to conform to various pieces of government legislation, and an increasing number of major funders of research, such as the Department of Health and the Research Councils, have either already introduced, or will shortly be introducing ethics or governance frameworks with which they require the university to comply. To facilitate this compliance the university has introduced three-tier ethics and governance review system.

Supporting the career development of researchers The university recognises the demands faced by early career researchers in developing a career in research and has as developed a multi-focal approach to supporting this diverse range of staff, as described overleaf.

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

ECR ambassador Dr Paul Hanna has been appointed to the post of Research Fellow: Early Career Researcher Ambassador.

This new post is funded by the university’s Ambassador Group. Paul is working in the Research Office for a year, alongside his main role as an academic in the School of Applied Social Sciences to develop a network of early career researchers and to represent them at university level, on for example the Research Concordat Implementation Project Steering Group.

Nearly seventy ECRs attended the conference, which included sessions on how to get published, social media for academics: how Twitter, Facebook and other technologies can enhance your research and reaching your potential: how to develop your research career.

Early career researchers who would like to be involved in the design of the programme for next year should contact the Research Office.

Doctoral College The doctoral college is a universitywide initiative that fully supports doctoral studies within the university’s broader research culture. It represents a collective of research degree students, their supervisors, directors of postgraduate studies and specialist research degree administrators. All postgraduate research students are members of the doctoral college.

Implementing the Concordat The Concordat, which was produced by Research Councils UK and Universities UK, sets out the expectations and responsibilities of researchers, their managers, employers and funders.

It aims to increase the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers in the UK and to improve the quantity, quality and impact of research for the benefit of UK society and the economy.

It provides a framework for career development based around seven shared principles.

The university has developed an action plan to address the shared principles which will assess adherence to the Concordat and address areas for improvement from local cultures to central departments. A project steering Group chaired by Professor Andrew Lloyd, Dean of The Faculty of Science and Engineering is overseeing the implementation of the action plan.

Further information on the Concordat and the university action plan is available on staffcentral. http://staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/ro/

HR Excellence in Research Award Brighton is one of 12 new UK universities to be given the European HR Excellence in Research award from the European Commission. A total of 50 UK universities have so far been recognised for this work on promoting career development.

The award acknowledges the universities’ alignment with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for their Recruitment. For the HR Excellence in Research Award, the University of Brighton will be listed on the European Commission website of acknowledged institutions and will be able to add the HR Excellence in Research logo to any publications or online material to show that its plans for career development are robust.

The future’s bright In September the university held its third Future’s Bright conference which focuses on the personal, professional and career development of early career researchers (ECR). The conference programme was based on suggestions made by a steering group of ECRs from across the university.

Our postgraduate research students benefit from their membership of the collaborative and supportive doctoral college community.

Researchers are part of a community that reaches across subject boundaries and professions, broadening and strengthening their research experience.

With strong connections to regional, national and international research networks, to industry, to public services and to professional associations, the doctoral college provides opportunities for collaborative working and alternative funding streams including through studentships, scholarships and consortium bids.

Professor David Arnold, Dean of the Doctoral College, explained that the University of Brighton is committed to research that has real-life positive impact. He added: “Research students at Brighton benefit from our commitment to innovative multi- and interdisciplinary projects supported by supervisory teams with an appropriate range of experience and expertise. It is an exciting place to be as the Brighton Doctoral College attracts talented researchers from all over the world, and our projects and addressing some of the most pressing social, economic, cultural, and medical or health issues of the day.”

November | December 2012 Channel Magazine 05

FEATURE

DOCTORAL COLLEGE STUDENTSHIPS 2012 Our doctoral college studentships support full-time PhD study over three years – starting in the 2012/2013 academic year – for projects across a range of topics.

The studentships were open to UK/ EU and international candidates. The projects on offer to the 2012 cohort ranged across the arts and humanities, life and physical sciences, and the social sciences areas.

Following a hugely successful marketing and advertising campaign – a first of its type for the university – over 1,011 applications were received from which 20 outstanding students have been selected for the research projects.

Outlined here are three of them.

I PREDICT A RIOT In the area of social sciences a project on Youthful delinquencies: crisis, marginality and resistance was available and was awarded to University of Brighton lecturer and research fellow Suzanne Hyde.

Professor Peter Squires explained that Suzanne Hyde was one of the researchers appointed to undertake, oversee and analyse the fieldwork with both rioters and police following the August 2011 riots.

He explained that Suzanne has a wealth of experience working with and researching young people rendered ‘marginal’ in contemporary Britain. She will now have the opportunity to explore the experiences, explanations and rationalisations from a more considered academic context.

Suzanne added: “I have been working for the Guardian newspaper on the joint LSE/Guardian Reading the Riots project during the past academic year.

The riots were dismissed by politicians as the actions of ‘feral youth’, but going beyond such knee-jerk reactions to investigate more closely the riots or disorder was a hugely exciting research project in which to be involved.

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“I am hugely grateful for the award of this studentship which feels like a coming home to my local research and teaching community. It offers the potential of a springboard to explore and understand the riots in more depth and to bring my experience of the Reading the Riots project to the university to share, learn from and build on this experience with colleagues.”

FEATURE

ELIXIR OF YOUTH? Vishal Birar, has been selected to research a life and physical science project to answer the question ‘Does SIRT1 or cytostasis underlie the antiageing activity of stilbenes? For a while some researchers thought SIRT1 – sometimes known as the skinny gene – might be the key to the fountain of eternal youth because dietary restriction (DR) prolonged healthy life in mammals.

Recent evidence highlights the promise of pharmacological approaches that may mimic DR and a particularly interesting candidate in this regard is the stilbene Resveratrol.

Dr Lizzy Ostler, Principal Lecturer supervising this project explained that it will build on the pioneering research already undertaken by the university into the chemistry of ageing, adding: “We will be making synthetic analogues of compounds that show promise in extending healthy lifespan, in order to understand their biological role, with the eventual aim of developing treatment to prevent the frailty and degenerative diseases that occur with old age.”

Vishal Birar, who is looking forward to working at the university and to studying in an international environment commented: “My research plan, funded by this scholarship, will help the research community to open new doors in anti-ageing drug discovery.

This studentship will address the SIRT1 activation and proliferative effects of Resveratrol which are dependent on different structural motifs.”

DRAWING ON RESEARCH Curie Scott has been selected for an arts and humanities research project on Drawing as a pedagogical tool in medicine and the allied health Professions. Curie said: “I am delighted to have this amazing opportunity. This expands my interest in the use of visual images in teaching and I am excited to be able to join others at the edge of both arts and science.

I have already started collecting reading material for it and look forward to being a part of the vibrant community in Brighton.”

Dr Philippa Lyon, who will be supervising the project added: “This project will enable the research connections between the Faculty of Arts, the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the Clinical Research Centre for Health Professions to continue to flourish. In Dr Curie Scott, our successful candidate who was a medical doctor before starting her academic career, we have the embodiment of the interdisciplinary creative and scholarly outlook needed to progress such research investigations.

“Curie’s exceptional potential emerges not only from her educational track record, being medically trained and currently working as a health professional lecturer, but also from the time she has spent developing and deploying innovative methods in higher education as a teacher, gaining a Teaching Excellence Award. She is able to combine an open-minded and conceptual curiosity towards the collaborative potential of drawing and medicine with considerable theoretical grounding and practical experience.”

November | December 2012 Channel Magazine 07

FEATURE

EASING THE PAIN THROUGH RESEARCH Every year over 16 million people in the UK need to manage their back pain and, of these, around seven million NHS patients will consult their GPs for help.

Professor Ann Moore, Director of the Clinical Research Centre for Health Professions and Professor of Physiotherapy at the university, has designed her musculoskeletal research to underpin the work of the allied health professions both in the NHS and in private practice, and including osteopaths.

One pressing issue is the quality of the data that the researchers have available to work with. Here Professor Moore has worked to enable health professionals, particularly physiotherapists and more recently osteopaths, to collect high quality data in practice.

Physiotherapy standardised data collection tools (SDC) have been developed for use in NHS and private practice.

These SDC tools included forms to collect patient data as well as information around presenting symptoms, management and treatment at first, second and subsequent appointments and final outcome(s) of care.

They were agreed by a nominal group and a series of comprehensive pilot studies followed.

08 Channel Magazine November | December 2012

This innovative work led to investment by the Physio First organisation that has approximately 4,200 members in the UK. A new tool was developed for the organisation that has since been used by individual practitioners and also by physio first for eight snapshot surveys.

Similar work was undertaken for the osteopathic profession where the information gathered using the developed osteopathspecific tool was used by the regulator General Osteopathic Council (GOsC). The findings have provided the regulator with a range of patient views on the quality of osteopathic patient care. It has used this information to refocus the information it gives out to the public. It has also led to the development of revised General Osteopathic Council Osteopathic Practice Standards that will take effect from 1 September 2012.

The sharing of research findings with clinicians has also been an area to benefit from Professor Moore’s efforts. She explains: “It’s very important that we get information out to practitioners in a user-friendly way; it’s about getting reports that are of reasonable size for them to digest in day-to-day practice.”

According to Karen Middleton, Chief Health Professions Officer at the Department of Health: “It’s absolutely imperative that everything we deliver in the health service is evidence based, is best practice, and is the most effective and efficient treatment and intervention that we can possibly deliver.

Research enables us to make sure that the allied health professionals are delivering all those things. It’s also important to stimulate innovation.”

Under Professor Moore’s leadership the University of Brighton facilitated the formation of the National Physiotherapy Research Network, recently merged into the Allied Health Professions Research Network. The creation of the new network, of which Professor Moore is the chair, will mean allied health professionals being able to work together more closely in the fields of research.

In a partnership between the University of Brighton, Southampton University and King’s College, London, the network can use 23 research hubs across the UK and Republic of Ireland, in its work. It has representation from a range of health professions in addition to physiotherapists, including occupational therapists, podiatrists, speech and language therapists, dieticians, radiographers and orthoptists. From this broader membership base, the network can facilitate more sharing of expertise and allow the most to be made of the research resources available across the allied health professions.

With millions of adults in the UK suffering from musculoskeletal problems at some point in their lives, Professor Moore’s work on new approaches to research trials, improved data collection tools and greater cross-working amongst allied health research professionals has the potential to benefit the lives of many people across the UK.

FEATURE

November | December 2012 Channel Magazine  09

FEATURE

A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS Research undertaken by John Howse, Professor of Mathematics and Computing and Dr Gem Stapleton, Reader at the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, has helped to develop a visual language for global telecommunications leader Nokia.

The visual language has replaced an ambiguous and ineffective communication methods available to Nokia. As a result, Nokia is able to provide better privacy protection for millions of users of its smart phones and other services.

Members of the university’s Visual Modelling Group have previously worked closely with Nokia on a pilot study designing concept diagrams that were used successfully on its Smart-M3 project – a project to design software to allow cross-platform interoperability.

Using concept diagrams avoided problems with ambiguity by presenting complex data in a visual way. They represented the work succinctly which, in turn, produced accurate communication that was easily understood by Nokia’s stakeholders.

Following the success of the Smart-M3 project, Nokia then turned to the university to help in the critical area of privacy. Every time someone uses an app on their smart phone they send data back to their service provider and phone manufacturer. It is essential, both to Nokia and its end users, that data are used correctly.

Allowing data analysts access to personal information can lead to legal problems.

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Professor Howse explained that in privacy engineering, Nokia had to communicate with software engineers, lawyers, marketing people and senior management. Trying to get a common language capable of being understood by such a diverse mix of technical and non-technical people was difficult.

He continued: “Add to the mix that Nokia also had people with different native languages and the resultant ambiguity and communication problems only increased. And that’s where the university’s research proved invaluable.”

Concept diagrams were used to specify requirements concerning data processing, where data is collected from end-users as they interact with Nokia’s services including those from smart-phone applications. Concept diagrams are now used by Nokia to show how data needs to be processed together with how the data is affected by various privacy-related transformations.

Dr Ian Oliver, Nokia’s privacy engineer, added: “Gem and her team at the University of Brighton have actively changed the way that the people at Nokia communicate, address problems and generate solutions together.

This has significantly reduced development times, reduced errors in systems specification communications and ultimately benefited the end consumer in a quality product.”

FEATURE

In order to promote the use and impact of these diagrammatic logics, software tools have been developed by the university in association with the University of Auckland, New Zealand, to support the modelling process. In particular, techniques for automatically drawing Euler diagrams – which are like Venn diagrams – have been designed and implemented to allow users to interact with the diagram drawing process. Users can sketch diagrams on a touch-screen device and the software will recognise the sketched syntactic components and generate automatically a well-formed version of the diagram.

Without the involvement of Brighton, Nokia would still be facing communication problems. Instead, the formal, diagrammatic communication methods now used have helped Nokia to change its working practices significantly. Nokia has rolled out the use of concept diagrams across its privacy engineering work that has taken place since 2011. It can now share complex information in an intuitive and accessible way and also avoid costly delays in production.

Trying to get a common language capable of being understood by such a diverse mix of technical and nontechnical people was difficult.

November | December 2012 Channel Magazine  11

FEATURE

Screen dance – a ‘dance for camera’ which is relatively new but has significantly gathered momentum – is an art form of which Professor Liz Aggiss is a leading exponent. She has been described as the Vivienne Westwood of the dance world; fearless, satirical, funny, powerfully disturbing, dominant and yet vulnerable. She has acquired a longevity and notoriety as a screen dance artist-scholar through continuous application and re-evaluation of this art form.

Her research within screen dance strives to cross the fourth wall – the imaginary and invisible wall at the front of the stage through which the audience sees and experiences the action. Her research seeks to bridge the distance between performance and viewer and, by doing so, provokes an active audience experience that challenges preconceptions on the language and delivery of dance.

The methods used to achieve this are many and varied. The viewers’ knowledge, expectations and experience are widened by the use of original dance language that repositions the dancing body. The content is underpinned with dramatic visual interpretation and uses a range of hyper and sound effects – know as foley – added at the editing stage.

This combination creates a direct impact on the viewers’ senses that provides them with fresh and original viewing experiences.

Professor Aggiss devises and masterminds presentation methods which include fictionalised histories and guerilla performance plants – the act of spontaneous, surprise performances in unlikely public spaces to an unsuspecting audience.

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MOTION CONTROL This film was produced with an Arts Council England/BBC Dance for Camera Award.

The BBC wanted to address the problems of presenting dance on television by inviting collaborative teams from the disciplines of film and dance to propose original ideas that were neither stage adaptations nor could be performed live.

First broadcast on BBC2 in March 2002, Motion Control concerns itself with a dynamic partnership between a computer-operated motion control camera, and performer. This screen dance film tests the boundaries of dialogue between camera and performer, camera and space, and camera and sound.

It has raised the international profile of screen dance from the UK and in particular from Brighton.

The film has received numerous international awards, including Czech Crystal Golden Prague Television Award 2002, Honourable Mention Paula Citron Award Toronto 2002, Special Jury Golden Award World FilmFest Houston 2003, Best Female Film Mediawaves Hungary 2003, worldwide screenings, and further has helped South East Dance to be recognised as a specialist screen dance organisation.

Pictures courtesy of MatthewAndrews.

FEATURE

BEACH PARTY ANIMAL Beach Party Animal is a concentrated 24–hour portrait of Brighton beach life. It is scattered with guerrilla performers who seamlessly infiltrate an oblivious and equally unconventional public. It was commissioned

by South East Dance and is in direct contrast to Motion Control. This work combines real life within formal cinematography and guerrilla set-ups. It was shot on location on Brighton seafront and investigates human behaviour.

Made in 2011, Beach Party Animal repositions the documentary form to create a screen dance choreo-mentary, and tests the conventions of time, and a naturalistic dance language. This film has been screened extensively and is featured on the ArteTV documentary on Professor Aggiss.

DIVA This screen dance research project considers past and present to question the possibility of recovering the impossible. It is set in a graveyard and develops a script that considers the human desire to create icons from history. It challenges the art form by creating ‘authentic’ archival material and embedding it into a documentary style screen dance. Diva received the Jumping Frames Hong Kong Screen Dance Award in 2008.

Professor Aggiss’ films and associated texts are accessible online, through written scripts and DVD publications, and comprise a world-renowned body of work. Her work has impacted on the development of screen dance – from reaching youth dance to professional practitioners and the general public – and within education, from schools to postgraduate students around the world.

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LEAD FEATURE

The University of Brighton Design Archives comprises 20 nationally important collections. It provides a major resource for pioneering design-related research by Brighton academics and students, as well as national and international researchers from all five continents.

Established in 1994 the Design Archives provides a rich visual and documentary resource for research into design and designers; national and international design policy; the design profession globally; and social, economic, cultural and business history.

Established in 1992 the Screen Archive South East (SASE) is a public sector moving image archive that captures many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from the early days of screen history to the present day and serves as a rich and invaluable historical resource.

The Design Archives began with the deposit of the Design Council Archives – which was then the world’s most important government-funded design promotion organisation. They have subsequently been joined by a further 19 collections including those of the worldwide bodies responsible for product and graphic design: the International Council of Graphic Design Associations and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

In 1996 the Faculty of Arts was awarded a Getty Archive Program archives three-year grant of $189k which resulted in the appointment of Dr Catherine Moriarty as curator together with an assistant and support for an archive development programme. At the time this grant was the Getty Archives Program’s largest award in Europe.

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The Screen Archive South East (SASE), founded by Dr Frank Gray in 1992, was joined by the Design Archives in the mid 1990s. SASE is a collaborative endeavour between the University of Brighton and the West Sussex Record Office. SASE collects, preserves, digitises, researches, documents and promotes screen heritage in one region. It develops and maintains its public collection, including magic lantern, film, video, digital media, for the benefit of individuals, scholars and communities. Dr Gray’s writings on regional film archive culture and its advancement in a digital age have shaped the course of SASE of which he is now director.

Dr Gray’s involvement with national audiovisual policy has contributed to a transformed situation for publicly-funded film archives in England. He was called to speak to the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2006 to provide evidence for part of its enquiry, ‘Caring for Our Collections’. He served as a member on the UK Film Heritage Group, chaired by the British Film Institute, which prepared the ‘Strategy for UK Screen Heritage’ that he subsequently presented to the government.

In late 2007, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport announced that it would invest £25 million in this strategy. This represented the largest public award ever made to the sector.

Archive film...serves as our time machine.

It takes us to the past and we see and feel memories connecting with history.

LEAD FEATURE

This period witnessed the introduction of the new medium, the establishment of the corporate structures required for an international film business and the construction of the first purpose-built cinemas. His research has also underpinned his curation of public screen heritage exhibitions that explore the relationship between place, history and film.

Dr Gray’s exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery in 2002 – ‘Kiss & Kill: Film Visions of Brighton’ – was pivotal in introducing the concept of a film festival for Brighton that would link contemporary production with archive collections and history. As a result, Cinecity was launched in 2003 and continues to this day.

As Dr Gray explains: “Archive film is a very important part of our national heritage. It serves as our time machine. It takes us to the past and we see and feel memories connecting with history.”

Both the SASE and the Design Archives are relatively small in scale but they have transformed and expanded the nation’s wealth of both analogue and digital cultural capital in the areas of screen and design heritage and pioneered its accessibility online.

The Design Archives include approximately one thousand linear metres of paper documents, 100,000 black and white photographs, 1,500 posters as well as other record formats.

Both archives engage with research questions as a daily activity, interrogating the content of the archive, its delivery mechanisms, and the future role of archives in the broadest possible sense. The curators initiate and promote collaborative activity through a programme of publication, exhibition and seminar projects. The information is in constant demand from national and international organisations and individuals for use in publications, lectures, exhibitions and television broadcasts.

Through research into the visual wealth of design and film archives, and the associated production and dissemination of digital assets, the archives have created unique content that has had an enriching effect on viewer experiences, and has transformed current understandings of our material environment.

Dr Gray is an historian of early film. He has investigated systematically the history and the cultural, economic and technological origins of early film production and consumption in Brighton from 1895-1914.

We know that it is through the web that we’ll reach new audiences.

Dr Moriarty believes that the value of a dedicated team with expert knowledge of the collections and technical standards is invaluable. She added: “We know that it is through the web that we’ll reach new audiences and it is in this exciting space, the interface between the university and the rest of the world, that we see so many opportunities.”

The Design Archives have developed exciting crosssector relationships with museums, professional organisations and other archives. Listed by Design Week as among the five key design research collections in the UK.

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FEATURE

DELIVERING INCLUSIVE SERVICES

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FEATURE

Researchers from the School of Environment and Technology and School of Applied Social sciences have been looking into the way a range of services are delivered to the lesbian gay bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities.

The results of their research have led to an improvement in service planning and, by providing better opportunities for LGBT people to identify and communicate their diverse needs to service providers, local and national policy has been influenced and changed. There were two main studies underpinning this research – Count Me in Too, and Suicidal Distress in LGBT Communities.

Count Me in Too (CMIT) was an award-winning project led by Dr Kath Browne, which examined marginalisation, exclusion, disenfranchisement and need among LGBT people within Brighton & Hove. Initially the university was approached by Spectrum – an LGBT community forum that promotes partnership work, community engagement and community development.

Their concerns were that, although Brighton is portrayed as the gay capital and being a safe and tolerant place, there were still areas of poor or misinformed service that needed to be addressed. It was believed that there were LGBT groups that were isolated and being missed by mainstream service providers.

Arthur Law, Spectrum coordinator with the CMIT project explained that there were swathes of people where there was no group support available. He added: “For example, there isn’t a group for elderly lesbians or for disabled LGBT people. So when we asked ‘who do we think is marginalised in the community?’ we came up with about 30 groups of people.”

A key to the success of this project was its participatory approach. The academic researchers worked together with all beneficiaries to ensure services could be better designed to reflect the diverse LGBT needs.

It began with using focus groups and a large-scale survey, combined with targeted focus groups, to ensure inclusion of hard-to-reach groups. These included LGBT people with shared identities, such as older people, young people, black and minority ethnic people, parents, hate-crime survivors and deaf people.

The study found that while some LGBT people have benefitted from anti-discriminatory legislation and the tolerant urbanity of Brighton & Hove, others – particularly trans and bisexual people – continue to experience exclusion. In addition, the needs of LGBT people in the areas of mental health, safety, housing, drugs and alcohol were also identified as not being met.

The Understanding Suicidal Distress in LGBT communities (SD) project built on population-based research that has established that LGBT people are significantly more likely to think about and attempt suicide than the general population. SD emerged as a knowledge exchange project supporting the work of a suicide prevention worker at MindOut – a mental health service run by and for LGBT people in Brighton. It was led by Dr Kath Browne and was conducted in collaboration with MindOut and Allsorts.

This study aimed to provide a better qualitative understanding of experiences of suicidal distress amongst two groups seen to be at particular risk, LGBT people with mental health problems and LGBT youths. It looked at the relevance of negative coming out experiences; occasions of institutional – family, media, religion, employment – discrimination; and homophobic or transphobic bullying in triggering suicidal attempts.

Also considered, was the impact of the double stigma of not only being stigmatised in the mental health system because of sexuality, but also in the LGBT community for having mental health problems. The study identified the importance of access to LGBT-sensitive, but not necessarily LGBT-exclusive, services for those who were in the early stage of identity construction. These people may be reluctant to identify as LGBT because of the negative constructions to which they were exposed.

Overall, the research has resulted in better understanding of LGBT experiences which, in turn, has helped to shape multi-agency approaches not only to service provision but also to the need for involvement of these diverse end users.

We have been in contact with the government’s equality unit who are interested in using the research, and particularly the way the research was undertaken, to develop their own agendas around the new equalities act.

Dr Kath Browne, lead researcher for CMIT

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FEATURE

A football kick-about united two enemies in the trenches on Christmas Day 1914 after months of fighting and killing. The game has the power to bring people together because it is universal, breaks through language barriers and brings out the humanity in people. Football 4 Peace (F4P) aims to build bridges and promote peaceful coexistence in conflict-torn communities, divided towns, villages and neighbourhoods.

Throughout the 1990s, researchers at the University of Brighton had identified that sport could provide the catalyst to intervene where cultural conflict exists. It was from this research that F4P emerged. Its significance lies in the way in which sport can foster intercultural understanding and harmony. In partnership with the British Council, The Football Association and the German Sports University in Cologne, the Football 4 Peace scheme began modestly in 2001 in Israel.

It encompassed a handful of villages in the Galilee region of northern Israel and involved sending four volunteer student football coaches and one staff member from the university to set up basic football coaching camps for Jewish and Arab children. Ten years later, stretching from the northern border with Lebanon down to the southern Negev Desert, F4P facilitates 14 cross community sports partnerships (CCSPs), bringing together 40 Jewish and Arab communities and approximately 1500 children.

In November 2011 the Israeli sports minister, Limor Livnat, addressing a public conference of international sports professionals, talked of Football4Peace’s work in bringing Jewish and Arab children together with Palestinian and Jordanian children: “In ten years of activity, amazing and wonderful experiences were accomplished and strong ties and friendships were established between children who are different from each other almost on any parameter – language, ethnic origin, nationality – but who share together their love of football.

“One cannot exaggerate the importance of these experiences in reducing stereotypes and fostering good neighbourhood and brotherhood in a place where once ignorance and fear thrived.”

Following more than a decade of experience with CCSPs, a distinctive model for coaching has been developed based on a set of core values – neutrality, equity and inclusion, respect, trust, and responsibility – which are included in an innovative coaching manual.

The manuals are issued to all volunteers and are central to the programme to train local teachers and coaches in the Football 4 Peace methodology.

Football 4 Peace also now operates in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, facilitating a cross-border project. This project uses football to bring together children from both sides of the border regardless of background and religion. Football Association of Ireland Development Officer, Steve McNutt, commented: “A lot of the time when the kids are playing football it is all about winning. In this programme it is all about sharing – making sure your friend is getting enough time on the ball; making sure they are being treated fairly.

Most of the players will probably stop playing football when they are 15 or 16 but they will still have those values for the rest of their lives.”

International development of the project occurred further in 2009 when Football 4 Peace began operating in Jordan and in 2010 the scheme was introduced in Palestine. The F4P model has been adopted in Spain and South Africa and is currently being considered for implementation in Cyprus, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

As the programme enters its second decade, more volunteers are being trained in Brighton and at international venues. Through them, the methods developed by the F4P team in one of the world’s most troubled regions can be disseminated to a wider group of users to use in their own peace-building initiatives.

In all projects, young people enjoy learning and playing football together in non-threatening settings. The activities and coaching devised by the initiative promotes interaction, allowing longer-term relationships and cross-community understanding to flourish.

One cannot exaggerate the importance of these experiences in reducing stereotypes and fostering good neighbourhood and brotherhood in a place where once ignorance and fear thrived.

Limor Livnat, Israeli sports minister

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FEATURE

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FEATURE

Professor David Nash, a geographer in the School of Environment and Technology, received a Research Challenges Award from the University of Brighton in 2011. The Pioneering Research Challenge offered an award of up to £50,000 for a large, innovative project which was ambitious, and had potential for high scientific and user impact.

Professor Nash was awarded over £43,000 – with travel support from the University of Oslo – to investigate the long-distance transportation of stone materials used for tool-making by early modern humans in central southern Africa during the middle stone age.

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Working with archaeologists from Norway and geologists from Brighton and Botswana, it was hoped to show that early modern humans in southern Africa had developed behavioural traits such as long-term planning by around 100,000 years ago. Planning depth – the ability to formulate strategies based on past experience and to act upon them in a group context – is seen as a breakthrough adaptation in human evolution. What follows are behaviours such as the acquisition and long distance transport of resources, and the establishment of exchange networks and trade.

Stone artifacts made from silcrete dominate the middle stone age archaeological record in southern Africa and, consequently, provided the primary avenue through which to explore the development of this modern behavioural trait. Silcrete is a highly resistant flint-like material which is formed through the cementing of sediments by silica-rich solutions.

By using geochemical data it was possible to ‘fingerprint’ the sources of silcrete used for tool-making at White Paintings Shelter in the Tsodilo Hills – a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest Botswana and one of the most important middle stone age sites in central southern Africa.

High quality quartz and quartzite is freely available at Tsodilo Hills and was used for tool manufacture but, interestingly, 55 per cent of the artefacts excavated by archaeologists at White Paintings Shelter were made from chert and silcrete. To successfully fingerprint the silcrete sources, all silcrete outcrops within 150km of Tsodilo Hills, together with sites south of the Okavango Delta, were surveyed and sampled.

The results of the geochemical fingerprinting demonstrated that the majority of the silcrete used for everyday tool manufacture at White Paintings Shelter was transported from surprisingly distant sources – in some cases up to 295km away. In addition, a pattern of raw material acquisition during the middle stone age was identified – early modern humans seem to have collected silcrete from the same areas for at least 40,000 years.

FEATURE

Professor Nash explained that the study introduces an approach which can now be used to explore a wide range of aspects of stone age behaviour. He added: “Our results demonstrate that planning depth, a key behavioural trait, can be added securely to the repertoire of underlying capabilities of middle stone age people. The early modern humans who used White Paintings Shelter were clearly aware of the available resources at Tsodilo Hills, anticipated a need, and procured silcrete from at least 220km away for routine tool manufacture.

“This represents a ‘costly’ strategy for resource acquisition and suggests that these people made two conscious decisions. First, despite having ready access to local quartz and quartzite at Tsodilo Hills they chose to import silcrete. Second, they opted to use silcrete from south of the Okavango Delta rather than silcrete of equal quality from sources much closer to home.

“The reason for making these choices is, as yet, unresolved. This procurement strategy could be purely economic or may be related to territorial or symbolic factors. Knowledge of the landscape, locations of silcrete quarries and movement routes between outcrops and White Paintings Shelter must have been communicated. It is difficult to imagine this communication being possible without facilities for in-depth planning and advanced language.”

What cannot yet be inferred from the results is whether transport of raw materials was undertaken by individuals or groups. Neither is it possible to establish how frequently raw materials were transported to Tsodilo Hills during the middle stone age.

Refinement of the fingerprinting approach is now required to determine the specific sites where silcretes were quarried.

An expanded field range will allow the pinpointing of quarry sites beyond the scope of this study. With data from additional archaeological sites, it may allow identification of regional interactions, combined networks, territorial control of raw material resources or even cultural affiliations for a much wider region to be identified.

It is difficult to imagine this communication being possible without facilities for in-depth planning and advanced language.

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LEAD FEATURE

State-of-the-art technology revealing hidden secrets behind some of the world’s masterpieces was on show at a world-first exhibition at the university’s Grand Parade gallery in August.

The technology can assist curators by scanning fragments and then planning how they can be pieced together through a virtual reconstruction from the jigsaw puzzle of remains. Using this approach conservators were able to undertake the difficult task of rebuilding the iconic Italian statue, La Madonna di Pietranico, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 2009.

The exhibition showed how new techniques have been developed to record artefacts with complex surfaces. 3D-COFORM, as the project is known, promotes state-of-the-art 3D tools and expertise within the cultural heritage sector, and is the product of international collaboration between curators, computer scientists, archivists, art historians and archaeological specialists.

The scanners, on loan from the Breuckmann GMBh and the universities of Bonn in Germany and Leuven in Belgium, enable academics to take the most accurate and comprehensive image of an artefact or piece of art. One of the dome-shaped scanners, built at the University of Bonn, has 11 cameras and 198 lights that take 25,000 images from different combinations of views.

The 3D technology has already exposed brush strokes on The Young Anthony – a painting of the young Van Dyck by Rubens – that suggest it was, in fact, a self-portrait. It is also being used to determine whether cracks in Michelangelo’s statue of David are getting larger.

The University of Brighton’s Professor David Arnold, overall coordinator for the project, said: “3D technology provides more complete documentation than traditional photography and the Bonn multi-view dome enables optically complicated objects to be recorded and examined in ways that have never before been possible.”

Images from three 3D scanners, developed by a partnership led by the University of Brighton, are questioning hundreds of years of history. Chisel strokes revealed on the Pietà di Palestrina, for instance, suggest that at least some of the sculpting was carried out by someone other than Michelangelo – perhaps an apprentice.

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The multi-view dome is transportable and can be taken anywhere in the world to capture images of objects which would not be released by cultural institutions, perhaps because they are too delicate to transport. The University of Brighton invited members of the public to bring along cultural objects and have them scanned as part of the exhibition.

The scans helped to analyse traces of the original layers of colour on the statue, while 3D models provided shape and form for the creation of new internal supports. Working together, conservators and technologists achieved a remarkable restoration.

The technology, coupled with 3D printing was also used to build a replica of the Kazafani boat which was excavated from a tomb in Turkey.

The boat, which dates to the twelfth-century BC, was handmade from pottery and is too fragile to be moved. So, when the boat was requested for a travelling exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington, the Cyprus Museum, in Nicosia, decided to make a replica.

The boat was carefully scanned and modelled, and, using rapid prototyping technology, a physical copy was made. This replica was then painted to recreate the original colours, surface markings, evidence of past damage and even previous restoration.

LEAD FEATURE

When the exhibit was included in the exhibition planned for Brighton, some obstacles were presented to its travel since, somewhat unexpectedly, the replica was treated as a cultural artefact in its own right despite being a modern fabrication. The digital model was therefore shipped to Brighton and another replica, about half size, was printed in the Faculty of Science and Engineering and painted by Martin Brett, a Fine Arts graduate from the class of 2012.

One exhibit showed how 3D models of the temples of Abu Simbel in Egypt, could be created from photographs taken before they were moved from their original location. The university is also collaborating with artist Peter Webster who sculpted the new Steve Ovett statue on Brighton seafront. The university is using photogrammetry to produce a 3D model of the previous sculpture of Steve Ovett, which was stolen from Preston Park in 2007 and believed to have been melted down. The group has made an appeal for photographs of the original sculpture, to help with the 3D model.

From helping to rebuild a stolen statue of Brighton athlete Steve Ovett to identifying brush strokes on a Rubens painting, this technology is enabling us to examine and record objects in ways that have never been possible before.

The exhibition at Grand Parade caught the attention of many and was widely featured on local television and radio and in the local and national press.

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FEATURE

The research undertaken by Professor Jackie O’Reilly, Director of the Centre for Research on Management and Employment (CROME), provides a bridge between both professional and academic knowledge on managing changes at work and in employment. It blends sociology, organisational studies, labour studies, gender studies and family studies, producing cross-cultural comparisons of labour markets and people’s work experiences.

Professor O’Reilly’s work focuses on three main areas: equality and diversity, fairness at work and labour market transitions. The aim of her research is to have an impact at local, national and international level by bringing together researchers, policy makers, employers, unions and other lobby groups and, ultimately, having an influence on the future organisation of the labour market to make a difference to people’s lives.

Annette Cox from the Institute of Employment Studies, the employment and labour market research and consultancy organisation, recognises the importance of practical research: “Any research has to demonstrate it can improve the quality of decision making.

It must be valued by policy makers in improving lives of citizens and the UK economic recovery.”

Professor O’Reilly’s work looks to understand how labour market transitions affect the opportunities available to people – whether it is a young person looking for a job, families juggling with childcare, or older people wishing to remain in work later in life.

She looks at what the employers’ needs are, how employment legislation affects the way jobs are designed, the social policies affecting families with caring responsibilities and who is available to work and when. These factors will vary between men and women and the social support they can rely on.

Professor O’Reilly added: “Understanding the intersection between what companies need in terms of skills and workers also requires us to understand how families are, or are not, available to take up paid work and on what terms and conditions.

“Our research particularly focuses on international comparisons so that we can learn from practices in other countries as to what enables people with caring responsibilities to stay on in employment, or where a lack of these public provisions forces people to drop out of work, and what the consequences of this are for both firms and families.”

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Brighton-based employer American Express has 65,000 workers globally and Vanessa Blackburn from the company supports an informed approach to taking decisions affecting the workforce: “Research helps us understand what work-life balance and work-life effectiveness really means and what we can then do from a policy and practice, and culture perspective to bring that to life.”

Professor O’Reilly recently reported the findings of EU-funded research into fairness at work, which concentrated on how households in Europe combine work and care, and what transitions people made in the labour market. Part of the research provided information on both parents in a household and traced their combined pattern of employment over time.

FEATURE

Looking at the UK the research showed a strong number of traditional male breadwinner families, a core where both parents were working full time and a significant amount of part-time shorthour work which is where a lot of British women are employed.

The picture in other countries differs.

In Denmark full-time working by both parents was most common. In Spain, although there was a small core of full-time working by both parents, the majority were the traditional male breadwinner families showing that women generally found it difficult to return to work once they had had a child.

Looking towards the end of working life, encouraging people to work beyond 65 through age discrimination legislation is not as straightforward as it seems. Working with Professor O’Reilly, David Lain, Research Fellow at Brighton Business School, has found in his research into this older segment of the population that we should learn from the US. There, despite having legislation since 1986, the poorest are often unable to work beyond 65 because of low levels of education and health. David Lain explains: “This has implications for the UK; if we are extending age legislation it won’t help everyone – poorer pensioners will find it harder to remain in the employment market.”

Professor O’Reilly explains: “Our research feeds into how employers can manage effective and efficient organisations that treat people fairly. It also informs policy makers about which types of policies have been taken up and which work. We also work with non-government organisations which are interested in improving the working conditions for young people, for parents and for older workers.”

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FEATURE

SHAKIN’ ALL OVER Early career researcher and senior lecturer Pierfrancesco (Piero) Cacciola has won an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) research grant worth £117,000. The research project will look at vibrating barriers for the control of seismic waves (ViBa); starting in January 2013 it will run for two years. The EPSRC First Grant Scheme is designed to help talented academics apply for research funding at the start of their careers.

Piero’s partner for this research is LaMSID (Laboratory for the Mechanics of Ageing Industrial Structures) in France which is a joint EDF/CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) research unit. Piero started working formally with them in June 2009 when he received a two-month CNRS scholarship to work at LaMSID on the simulation of artificial earthquakes.

The project will explore the possibilities of reducing vibrations in structures during seismic activity, by using vibrating barriers. These vibrating barriers are positioned in the soil away from other structures and are tuned to reduce the vibrations to neighbouring structures through a structure-soil-structure interaction mechanism.

Piero explains: “Up to now, the control of seismic vibrations has been addressed through local solutions for example with the use of isolators or dampers. But these can be too costly and invasive to make them feasible for existing structures.

“The approach proposed by this research represents a step-change in seismic vibration control by considering novel, non-localised solutions that are able to reduce the vibrations to a cluster of buildings.”

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Part of the research will be experimental and will be conducted with the new structural dynamic devices of the university’s School of Environment and Technology. The school has invested in the necessary equipment to enable the study of vibrations on model prototypes including a Quanser Shake Table. The table will be used extensively in this project to simulate the effect of earthquakes and to test the effectiveness of the vibration barriers.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL Dr. Gary Stidder, School of Sport and Service Management, is an ex-secondary school physical education teacher who has come to the early career research programme following a successful and productive career in which he has co-edited several books on physical education and sport.

Gary’s main academic interest includes gender issues in Physical Education, Outdoor Education theory and practice, and mentoring in initial teacher education. In July 2008 Gary was presented with a national award from the Association of Physical Education for his contribution to research and scholarship in the field of Physical Education.

FEATURE

Gary is co-editor (with Sid Hayes) of Equity and Inclusion in Physical Education and Sport – a fully revised and updated new edition of which was published at the end of August 2012. The book expounds the premise that an essential component of good practice in physical education is ensuring inclusivity for all pupils, regardless of need, ability or background.

It fully explores the theoretical and practical issues faced by physical education teachers today.

Gary recently spoke out against the government’s post-Olympics plan to reintroduce competitive school sports. Gary added that it is not the role of PE teachers to produce the next Olympic gold medallists.

He continued: “Do we blame our drama teachers in schools if we fail to win Oscars?

No we don’t. There is misconception that PE is synonymous with sport and that PE teachers just coach sport. PE teachers in this country are there to provide the foundations for physical literacy and to educate and include all young people on the importance of healthy active lifestyles.”

Gary is also the co-founder of the University of Brighton’s pioneering Football 4 Peace project in Israel which has been operating since 2001 (see page 18).

MATERIAL GIRL Early career researcher and senior lecturer Kirsty McDougall works on developing fabrics with a traditional or fashion look which possess unexpected and innovative functions.

Kirsty has been working with a team of experts in textiles, architecture, nanotechnology and engineering to develop a new intelligent textile.

This textile can be embedded into structural systems to sense movement and warn of potential structural failure. The structural health monitoring system will indicate the exact locality and extent of any damage.

It does this by monitoring and analysing electrical impulses generated by conductive nano fibres in a flexible textile membrane.

Kirsty’s role is to develop and test a textile weave that can successfully incorporate the strain-sensitive conductive carbon nanotube polymer.

Another area of Kirsty’s research explores the sustainability of UK woven textile production by examining the use of British wool within woven textiles. In recent times, the majority of wool used in the clothing production was sourced in Australia or New Zealand. Many of the apparel fabrics made from British wool have had a niche market due to their heavy weight and texture.

Through her company, Dashing Tweeds, she explored the production methods of fabrics from raw wool to final cloth. Findings suggested that there were more sustainable ways to produce cloth by using materials produced closer to home.

This included using lower environmental impact methods in farming, in dyeing and by reducing transportation. The resulting fabrics have been shown in the Future Fabrics Expo in London, an exhibition of sustainable and ethical fabrics in current production. This has also led to a presentation at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sustainability and Ethics in Fashion.

Kirsty explains that to design these textiles she has to visualise the structure in 3D. She added: “You have to work out how a thread is going to travel through a set of threads and where it is going to go after that. It is building up the threads into a structure.”

Kirsty won a Jerwood Contemporary Makers Prize in 2010 and was winner of Textile Brand of the Year 2012 at the Scottish Fashion Awards.

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Events INAUGURAL LECTURE Miltos Petridis Logos & mneme Thursday 29 November 2012 Huxley Lecture Theatre University of Brighton 6.30pm

OPEN DAYS Grand Parade campus (Brighton) Graphic design and illustration.

Wednesday 7 November Hastings campus Applied social science, business, computing, education, history and joint honours, broadcast journalism, broadcast media, digital post production, radio production, television production.

Saturday 10 November Grand Parade campus (Brighton) Fine art, performance and visual art (dance), performance and visual art (theatre), music and visual art. Photography.

Wednesday 14 November Grand Parade campus (Brighton) Fashion and textiles. Design and craft.

Wednesday 21 November Grand Parade campus (Brighton) Photography, moving image and sound arts.

Graphic design and illustration.

Wednesday 28 November

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