First year students from the School of Visual Communication kicked off the year and their first module with an exciting “magical mystery tour”.
Students were boarded on to separate coaches and taken to one of five mystery locations, which included Leeds Royal Armouries, the Black Country Living Museum, Oxford, Iron Bridge and Coventry. This was an excellent chance for students across our Photography, Graphic Design and Illustration courses to connect with each other and create contacts for future interdisciplinary collaborations.
After being split into groups of three, each group explored their location and were asked to find an object of interest. The object of interest formed the basis of their first project which involved them using the object as a stimulus to make something.
One of our students, Chloe Pettitt, was part of a group that went to Coventry and whilst there they visited Herbert Art Gallery and Coventry Cathedral. She chose a grand piano in the gallery as her object of interest and the other two members of her group chose a clown that was in the gallery and stain glass windows from the cathedral.
Combining all of their objects of interest, they created an immersive walk in piece for their final piece that included stain glass windows made from light gel and tissue paper and sound effects featuring a laughing clown. When asked about her highlight of the project, Chloe commented:
"I enjoyed being in a group and developing ideas and inspiring each other. I’ve never had an experience like this, I was happy throughout it and even happier with how it turned out. I have learned so much about structures measurements, planning, light and working in a group!"
The project ran over five weeks and was an opportunity for students to have complete creative freedom over their work. As their first university project it was also a way of helping them settle into university level learning, where students have much more responsibility over their individual studies. Lecturer Lara Furniss was a key organiser for the module and commented on the high calibre of work students produced:
"Seeing the work was a highlight, it blew me away. It was great to see our students collaborate and think in a different way and to see them excited about what they’d produced."
