National Theatre, Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PX
Spring term
Staging Mixed Reality: A Theatre Design Symposium
March 5, 2020, National Theatre, London
Join world leading designers, directors and theatre companies, as well as leading academics, for a one-day symposium considering the practical and creative possibilities of mixed reality and virtual worlds in theatre and performance. This theatre design symposium will focus on the ever-evolving field of mixed reality performance, where it will examine how the multiple layers of reality are constructed for performance through innovative digital environments.
Keynote by Arnold Aronson (Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Columbia University)
Contributors: Suzanne Andrade (Co-Artistic Director of 1927) / Sophie Jump (Senior Lecturer in Theatre Design at Wimbledon College of Arts and Co-Artistic Director of Seven Sisters Group) / Roma Patel (Scenographer and Installation Artist at Digital Set Design; Founder at Makers of Imaginary Worlds) / Dick Straker (Video and Projection Designer at Mesmer; Lecturer of BA Digital Theatre Design at Wimbledon College of Arts)
Mixed Reality Panel with Toby Coffey (Immersive Storytelling Studio at National Theatre) and Steve Jelley (Dimension Studio).
Convened by Dr Matthew McFrederick, Professor Eileen Hogan and Professor Jane Collins.
Project partners: National Theatre and the Jocelyn Herbert Archive.
Book your place. Learn more about Research at Wimbledon College of Arts.
Autumn Term
Blame the Tools: Crafty Robots, Well-behaved Implements and Disobedient Devices
October 8, 2020, online
There has been a long-standing recognition in the arts, humanities, and the social sciences, of the importance of tools and implements, and the ways in which they are used to create, transform and enhance objects. The character of these tools—the ways in which tools are handled, the skills and practices that underpin and enable their use and application—has received less attention. Yet it is the character of the tool and its embodied use, that becomes critical in the creation of—and our encounter with—objects and artefacts.
Together with practitioners and academics from across disciplines, this symposium invites makers, curators, crafters, designers, historians, artists, collectors, architects, storytellers, users and social scientists to share understandings of the tool from multiple viewpoints:
How might digital technologies create new affinities with traditional tools and craft practices, and provide distinctive new ways of creating and encountering material objects?
What is the importance of imagination and adaptation in the use of traditional and non-traditional tools?
How does tool use contribute towards structures and practices of co-making and social agency?
And what part does it play in circular economy?
Keynote: Phil Ayres, architect, researcher and educator. He is Associate Professor at CITA, which he joined in 2009 after a decade of teaching and research at the Bartlett, UCL.
The day will be chaired by Mark Hooper, an award-winning editor, writer and consultant.
The symposium is convened by Dr Jason Cleverly and Professor Adrian Friend.
Project partners: King’s College London and London Craft Week.
Tickets: Free
For more information visit the event page.
About Research at Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon (UAL)
Research at Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon (UAL) is the home of our research degree and taught postgraduate students, Professors, Readers and Fellows, and visiting tutors, as well as established research centres and research networks. Central to the success of our department is the quality of its research provision, the calibre of staff and students, and the existence of sustainable partnerships and collaborative arrangements with external institutions, organisations and key individuals in the cultural sector and beyond.
Design identity by Workform.
