Students get Interactive with Arduino

BA (Hons) Interactive Design were delighted to welcome back two of their recent graduates, John Revel (pictured below) and  Joan Planas, who came back from their native Spain to deliver a fascinating workshop in Arduino.

The workshop was given to level 2 and 3 current students, and was designed as an introduction to this exciting and innovative hardware, covering basic programming in Arduino and processing code.

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.  It's intended for artists and designers and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments (Arduino website), which is intrinsic to Interactive Design.

During the course of the 2 day workshop, students produced mini synthesizers and sound reactive lights, as well as pressure pads to detect weight, and motion sensors. All of this will feed directly into the projects of levels 2 and 3.

As the workshop took place during November, the above image shows Programme Leader Clive McCarthy's Arduino take on Movember!

So successful was this workshop, the first of the current season of visiting lecturers from industry, that John and Joan will be returning to continue the workshop in the new year.

Interactive Design will be exhibiting work with Arduino at next year's Kinetica Arts Fair in London 27 Feb - 3 March 2013.

Jewellery and Object students host their first Christmas sale

Students across all 3 years of our BA (Hons) Jewellery and Object programme have shown their entrepreneurial skills by hosting their first ever Christmas market sale across the Brayford campus this week.

Over the past few weeks they have been spending every spare moment designing and crafting a whole range of jewellery items to raise money for their Degree Show next summer.  Early indications show that they have been very successful.

Items include earrings, brooches, necklaces, some of which have a rather apt festive flavour to them.  You can even buy items inspired by their recent Upcycling project, such as the Nespresso coffee capsule bangles (seen here below), which they displayed both at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven in October, and at both UCAS Design Your Future fairs in Manchester and London last month.

In fact two of the students, third year Emma Clark, and second year Fiona Parkinson (seen above with Programme Leader Dr Sarah O'Hana), attended the Manchester event, and were actually busy making some of the festive brooches on the stand.  Visitors and fellow exhibitors alike were very curious to see what was going on and all commented how lovely it was to see students actually "making things".

The above images show Emma cutting out her design on the copper by hand.

The Christmas sale continues today in the Architecture building on the Brayford campus, 11-3.

Arslan Elver of PrimeFocus talks to Animation students

Arslan Elver, lead animator at Prime Focus and a mentor at Animation Mentor, recently delivered a master class in character and creature animation for current students of both BA (Hons) Animation in the School of Art and Design and students of BA (Hons) Media Production within the sister School of Media.

As well as sharing his experiences and working practices in projects such as Narnia, Golden Compass and Harry Potter movies, Arslan covered a list of golden tips and tricks in ‘how to develop a show reel  and presented ‘A difficult but rewarding journey for getting the ultimate prize: landing a job in animation industry’.

Arslan’s visit was a success for students in terms of networking with industry professionals and setting a direction for  their own career path in animation and we look forward to him visiting us again.  

Arslan Elver’s background

June 2011 - Present - PrimeFocus Film, London
Mirror Mirror - Lead Animator

May 2006 - May 2011 - Framestore - Senior Animator
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
Clash of Titans
Where The Wild Things Are
Primeval 3
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
Walt Disney's Underdog 

Visit Lincoln | Meet Lincoln

Current students from BA (Hons) Creative Advertising course are playing a central role in the creation of a new marketing and advertising campaign to promote the city of Lincoln as a quality business and tourism destination.

'Meet Lincoln' was launched by a group of businesses within the Visit Lincoln Partnership (VLP). Whilst the main focus of the current Visit Lincoln is to increase the volume of leisure and short break visitors to Lincoln, Meet Lincoln will focus on raising awareness of the city as a place to meet, host conferences and bring events into the area. 

Visit Lincoln Partnership manager, Emma Tatlow, worked with the University of Lincoln’s School of Art & Design and asked third year Creative Advertising students to come up with a 'big idea' to promote Lincoln as a place for meetings and events.

Emma said: "Working in collaboration with the university on this project is really exciting.  Whilst 'Visit Lincoln' has developed a brand for the city, the students were asked to take this to the next level and come up with a creative concept for business tourism that could be applied to a range of media - such as print advertising, exhibition stands and online ads.

"The students have thrown themselves into the project and I'm impressed with the depth of their homework researching the target audiences and thinking carefully about Lincoln's unique selling points, and how the city can best be promoted to a business audience.

Creative Advertising Programme Leader, Gyles Lingwood said "The first round of creative concepts that the students presented were really strong. We shortlisted six that would have all worked well as different marketing campaigns. But the winning idea really captured our imagination by using inspiring individuals from the county's past right through to the present day.

"Now we have the ‘big idea’ this winning concept will now be passed to a local design agency to develop into a workable design. Once this has been done we will reveal whole Meet Lincoln marketing and communications campaign".

Gyles continued, "It is really important for our students to work to a real, ‘live’ brief. The 'Meet Lincoln'project gave our students the opportunity of working with a client and using creative thinking and communication skills to solve a real commercial problem.

"We have such a pool of talented young people at the university, and the work that the students have done on this project will bring a tangible benefit to businesses in Lincoln and Lincolnshire."

The above images show the rich cultural heritage of Lincoln such as the historic Cathedral and Castle and the modern vibrant part of the city down on the Brayford Pool, the beautiful marina in the heart of the city.

Lincoln graduate makes a bang at international film festival

Last weekend a short documentary film made by BA (Hons) Contemporary Lens Media graduate, Cory Marsh whilst at the University of Lincoln, 'Sleight of Hand' was screened at Bang! Film Festival in Nottingham.

The festival selects films to highlight important contemporary issues within today’s society, and ‘Sleight of Hand’ provides a unique glimpse into the life of Walter Sleight, a renowned 90 year old magician from Lincoln. Described as “charming and poignant”, the film combines vintage television footage, magic tricks, jokes and heart breaking intimacy.

Celebrating the spectacle of the short film genre from across the region, country and globe, bang! is the East MidlandsPremier Film Festival and Cory’s short documentary was showcased alongside established and upcoming filmmakers and directors from around the world.

Following his graduation from the University of Lincoln, Cory successfully completed an internship at award-winning production company, Partizan Pictures, and has been working on exciting freelance projects, including a project with celebrity chefs Mike Robinson and Valentine Warner. Cory has now been offered a prestigious role with one of the largest post production companies in the UK.

He said: “Now I am very much looking forward to the future, and am confident that I can use all of the skills that I developed at the University of Lincolnand apply them to the real world, when I'm working with great production teams in London.”

On Cory’s achievements, Adam Verity, Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Contemporary Lens Media, said: "Cory proved to be an excellent student, and his final year film work in particular demonstrated not only great creative and visual talent, but also technical expertise. We are not surprised that his work is doing so well at international film festivals such as Bang! In Nottingham, and that his career in London is progressing so well. It's fantastic to see our talented graduates achieving their career goals - and we wish Cory and all of our Alumni continued success." 

Pictured above is Cory with Walter.  Cory's film is now available to view on Vimeo.  The rest of above stills are all taken from the film itself.

tudung-lovers

tudung-lovers

Potential students visit Lincoln at UCAS Design Your Future Fair at London ExCel

Last week, just under 5,000 young art and design students, looking for ideas as to their University choices, attended the annual Design Your Future exhibition, organised and hosted by UCAS, which this year was held in exhibition hall S1 at ExCel in London Docklands.

Students were able to visit stands from all the major art schools in the UK to discuss study options in Art, Architecture and Design, as well as to see examples student work. Both days were extremely well attended and we were kept busy the entire time.

Representing the College of Arts' Schools of Architecture, and Art and Design were Art and Design Admissions Officer Natalie Mawson (above left), Art and Design Faculty Officer Lisa West (above right), and 3rd year current Architecture student Molly Judge (above centre), as well as Marketing and Recruitment Officer, Laura McCarthy (below centre).

UCAS also organised a series of workshops which were also well attended; the most popular topic tending to be Perfecting your Portfolio advice, which the University of Lincoln, along with other Universities, presented to hopefully potential applicants.

Of particular interest this year on the Lincoln stand was the stunning display of work from current students of BA (Hons) Jewellery and Object, including items of upcycled jewellery which had recently been exhibited as part of a joint upcycling project with BA (Hons) Product Design in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, as part of Dutch Design week last month.  The items which became quite a talking point were the bangles created from used Nespresso coffee capsules, shown below, which attracted a lot of interest, but in terms of design, but also in terms of sustainable design.

If you missed the show, there's another chance to visit it, this time at Manchester Central Convention Complex on 26-27 November.  You will need to book via UCAS and there is a small admission charge.

Come and meet us in Manchester on stand 41 - we look forward to seeing you.