UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE

International PhD Scholarship

The Electronic and Digital Art Unit (EDAU), School of Art Design & Performance

 Reference No INT-004MeighAndrews

 Applications are invited for a full-time scholarship available in the School of Art, Design & Performance.  The scholarship is tenable for up to 3 years for a PhD (via MPhil route) [subject to satisfactory progress] and is open to international applicants only.  UK/EU applicants are not eligible to apply. The scholarship will provide £15000 towards the cost of the International tuition fee over 3 years.

 Project Title:  The Exploration and Investigation of Electronic and Digital Space in Artists’ Video

 Project Description: Based at the Electronic and Digital Art Unit (EDAU), which houses an extensive archive of international artists’ video, the project will focus on research and analysis of the potential relationships between physical and virtual space that has been developed by artists working with video over the last 40 years. The specific focus of the project in terms of the artists, works and processes to be studied and examined, and the format of the research outcome(s) would be determined by the student in consultation and with the guidance of the supervisory team. It is envisaged that the selected student will be a practicing artist with an interest and/specialisation in the electronic moving image, but the research may be either practice-based, practice-informed, or entirely academic in its approach and final outcomes.

 Applicants should have, or expect to receive a qualification equivalent to a high class UK honours degree.  

Informal project related enquiries may be directed to Professor Chris Meigh-Andrews: email Cmeigh-andrews@uclan.ac.uk   Tel 01772-893204

Application Forms can be found at: www.uclan.ac.uk/studentships 

Completed application forms should be emailed to researchdegrees@uclan.ac.uk

The closing date for applications to the Graduate Research Office: Friday 13 May 2011 5pm British Summer Time

 Proposed Interview Date: Wed, June 1^st, 2011

Jody Boehnert, Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Dr. Saba Hinrichs presenting some of the ideas developed in our discussions back to the main group

Thursday and Friday this week I attended a fascinating two-day conversational conference Making Visible the Invisible: Art, Design and Science in Data Visualisation, devised and hosted by Dr Michael Hohl at the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. The format of this conference was  experimental,  attempting to try out the potential for a different model to the conventional conference format. Instead of the traditional presentation of papers, the participants were facilitated to engage in a series of conversations and discussions- sharing ideas, knowledge and learning through debate and group interaction. I found this format both demanding and rewarding as it gave me an opportunity to listen and engage with a wide range of individual researchers- scientists, artists and designers, all of whom shared a common set of interests and aspirations, and as a result it prompted me reflect on my own ideas and concerns from a fresh perspective.

Xtea: A video Projection installation and web-based project: 2009-10

Link to Xtea

Recently retrieved photos and documents have shed some light on a previously mysterious period in my Grandfather’s early life. After leaving the army he traveled to Canada to find work in 1922 and planned to establish himself there before sending for his wife and young son (my Uncle Jack- now 89!), but after several years rejoined them in England, having been unable to persuade his wife to cross the Atlantic. It seems he spent some of this period based in Calgary, Alberta working on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and then several years in Kenora, Ontario working for the Keewatin Lumber Company, before returning home to Colchester.

On Monday, Oct 18th I visited Down House to discuss my on-going project to produce a time-lapse web-based installation at Charles Darwin’s former home in rural Kent. I met with Rowan Blaik, head gardener at Down House to discuss the next phase of the project. We have agreed that I will install some cameras to produce test sequences in my preferred locations to produce time-lapse sequences of the ancient mulberry tree at the rear of the house.

It’s my last day in Japan and after breakfast at my hotel I took the subway to Roppongi to visit the National Art Center- an imposing and spacious building designed by Kisho Kurokawa. I viewed an exhibition entitled Shadows, which featured works from the collections of the Japanese national museums by Japanese, European and American artists working in a variety of media-but predominantly photography and painting. I was familiar with most of the Western artists represented, but there were a number of Japanese artists whom I did not know, including Miho Akioka and Jiro Takamatsu. I was also happy to see Krzysztof Wodiczko’s four-channel video projection installation If You See Something… which I first saw at the Venice Biennale several years ago.

After lunch I met and interviewed Itsuo Sakane, pioneering electronic media writer, curator and educator, who has been deeply engaged in ideas about the relationship between technology and art and actively involved in the media art scene both in Japan and internationally since the late 1960’s and has been instrumental in bringing it to the attention of a wider public.