- Work by over 300 students across 19 programmes presented online as part of Postgraduate Showcase 2021
- Programme of physical and digital presentations and events runs until 23 September
- Projects range from a 3D visualisation of the spike protein on the CoV-SARS-2 virus to an elegiac film on abandoned properties in the Outer Hebrides; sustainable interior design; an open source knit design that encourages communal making; a project looking at how to improve access to all sanitary products; and proposals for the adaptation of Greek Thompson’s Egyptian Halls.
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The Digital Platform for The Glasgow School of Art’s 2021 Postgraduate Showcase launched this evening, (Thursday 9 September) with an event exploring collective practice facilitated by Alexander Cromer, “storyteller, researcher, master of ceremonies, and designer of experiences”, and featuring contributions from Fran Edgerley (of 2015 Turner Prize-winning Architecture collective Assemble); Jeni of 2021 Turner-Prize nominated collective Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) and Santini Basra of And Then design agency. The Postgraduate Showcase also includes a programme of physical and digital presentations and events that started in August and will run through until early October.
Featuring work by over 300 students graduating from 19 1-year taught Masters programmes, the showcase demonstrates the creativity and innovation for which GSA students are famed not only in their practice, but in the way that they have responded to the challenges facing the world today.
“It is my pleasure to introduce our 2021 Postgraduate Digital Platform,” says Professor Penny Macbeth, Director of The Glasgow School of Art. “Through the Digital Platform our students from across the world are sharing an incredible range of innovative and creative projects, many of which respond to the challenges facing today’s society such Climate Change, Sustainability, Health, Race, Social Injustice and what a post Covid world should look like.”
“The opportunities which have opened up through the development of our digital showcases over the last two years are exciting, and our students have seized them, harnessing the potential not only to share their work more widely, but to explore new ways of making for the digital domain.”
“Physical presentations remain an important part of any showcase,” she adds. “This year with the easing of some Covid restrictions we are delighted to have been able to stage a programme of physical exhibitions and events for the Postgraduate Showcase offering different and complementary ways of engaging with the work of our postgraduate students.
The digital and physical events created by graduating students include: Rachael Ryder’s film Gestures, which documents moments/ conversations/ Scottish-Irish heritage in Glasgow’s East-End with the Barras Market community; When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Art a Communication Design exhibition taking place in SaltSpace 1-7 October; an animation reimagining hotels in an unspecified future Glasgow (17 September at 3pm) ; The Orange Sofa, (14 September at 10pm) an event by the Art Writing class of 2021; a panel talk on daylight and its effect on human mental health, well-being and the economy organised by Interior Design students (19 September at 3pm); a short film showing some behind the scenes footage to contextualise the design processes that go into creating audio, video games, virtual installations, and music composition by Simulation and Visualisation students (September 16 at 4pm); and The Long Note:(21 September at 7pm) readings and performance recorded @ David Dale gallery, and the launch of the online The Yellow Paper edition 2 https://theyellowpaper.org.uk/
Mackintosh School of Architecture
Students who achieve a sufficiently high standard in the final year of the Diploma in Architecture are able to proceed to a Masters degree in which they develop ideas arising from their previous year’s work.
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| MArch student, Xinyu Liu’s, proposals for the Egyptian Halls |
MArch student, Xinyu Liu, has researched one of Glasgow’s most celebrated and neglected historic buildings – Greek Thomson’s Egyptian Halls
“In general, proposals for buildings designated as architectural heritage tend to be very conservative in design, meaning that the architect’s primary approach is to reinstate them to the original state typified by the approach of ‘architectural conservation’.” says Xinyu Liu. “My research suggests the value of architectural heritage should not be confined to this strict recreation of the past and that we should challenge conservative approaches to architectural heritage.”
“Adapting buildings to new purposes, while retaining their historic character, allows enhancement of their value by taking on the challenge of new, contemporary functions.”
For Greek Thomson’s Egyptian Halls, which was A-listed in 1966 and has lain empty for more than forty years, Xinyu Liu proposes an adaptive reuse which would see retention of the original façade with a new contemporary art gallery created inside (continuing the theme of reworking Thomson buildings at the CCA).
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| Jekaterina Ancane has focussed on Cowcaddens |
In her research Jekaterina Ancane has focussed on Cowcaddens – a neighbourhood located within Glasgow city centre, yet segregated by elevated roads and an unwelcoming ground floor car park underneath the modernist housing estate’s piers which presents a Glasgow specific issue of disintegration of the urban fabric as a result of post-war development. “The area that suffers from vacancy and alienation, resembling a stalled industrial quarter,”says Jekaterina. “It asks for interventions that would unite the neighbourhood with the rest of the city centre.”
School of Design
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| Jodie Barnicle-Best – Small things, nicely done |
Fashion and Textiles designer, Jodie Barnicle-Best, is committed to a responsible, ethical and people-centred approach in her knitwear practice. In Small things, nicely done she has created an interactive knitwear approach exploring the celebration of small moments of joy and visual interest found in the ‘everyday’. Her collection, centred on knitted panels connected by the wearer, encompasses open-source design and communal making.
“I hope to to ensure that the garments created are not only made to last – through quality locally sourced materials – but are designed to last, through increased functionality and by creating an attachment to the garment through community and wearer engagement in the process of its creation,” she says
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| Alicia Milton – Stayin Inside |
In Stayin Inside MDes Graphics student, Alicia Milton, aimed to reconnect people across the UK through shared experiences of continued lockdowns imposed in response to the global pandemic.
“As we began 2021 in yet another strict lock-down I felt a large sense of grief for the year that I could have had at Glasgow School of Art,” says Alicia. “Meeting my course mates face-to-face, sitting down to group tutorials with all our tutors, exploring the buildings facilities, and spending days in the Caseroom and printing to my heart’s content.”
She decided to undertake a postal project using a booklet with questions and blank pages, which was sent out to peers, friends, and old tutors. From the responses she created work that focused on trusting the process of experimentation.
“Through this project, I felt a real sense of connection seeing the marks and illustrations made by the respondents, and it was a fulfilling experience,” she adds.
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| Kaoru Takemoto illustration |
MDes Illustration student Kaoru Takemoto has created a series of prints based on semi-autobiographic memories of childhood and fragments of her childhood memories.
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| Ruibao Li – Paper Cuts 7 |
For MDes Photograpy student Ruibao Li the Covid-19 global pandemic meant much of his work was developed through experiences of living in a limited and restricted space during long periods of physical and emotional isolation throughout lockdown. His photographic publication of still life images “Paper Cuts” features assemblages, with the knife – sharp and stiff and a blank sheet of paper – light and soft.
“Through introspection and critical reflection, I saw my images as a metaphor for my recent experiences. Conversely, or even perversely, through the enforced limitations imposed on me, I discovered a new way of making work and a form of creative liberty through the making of this work.”
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| David Ross – new interior objects of domestic craft. |
MDes Interior Design student, David Ross, brings a background in product design to his interior design work. Recognising the increasing uptake of domestic craft activities seen during the COVID pandemic lockdowns, and the need driven by climate change to reconsider the materials we use and our relationships to the objects we surround ourselves with, his project proposes a series of interior objects to be crafted in and for the domestic environment, using waste material and other environmentally responsible materials.
David observed and interviewed skilled craftspeople in Glasgow and Argyll before going on to propose his new interior objects of domestic craft.
School of Fine Art
Students on three programmes, MLitt Curatorial Practice, MLitt Fine Art Practice and MLitt Art Writing are showing work in Postgraduate Showcase 2021
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TREE PALACE Installation shot of The Palace of Humming Trees, an exhibition of works by artist Jack O’Flynn and writer Maria Sledmere curated by MLitt Curatorial Practice student, Katie O’Grady Photography by Sean Patrick Campbell. |
THE PALACE OF HUMMING TREES was a collaborative project between artist Jack O’Flynn, writer Maria Sledmere and MLitt Curatorial Practice student, Katie O’Grady, which took place from April to August 2021. It was showcased in an exhibition at French Street Studios, Glasgow, featuring new works from O’Flynn and Sledmere which travel through poetry, sculptural entities and dreams of impossible possibilities.
Intertwining themes of ecological thought, world building and re-enchantment the group sought to un-ravel the question: how can we act and think in this present moment to ensure positive change to our relationship with the world around us?
Living in a world brimming with unease by climate crisis and extreme inequality – brought upon by extractive capital, far-right strategies and carceral logics – they sought to communicate a different model of awareness
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MEGAN LUCILLE BOETTCHER: AND WE WALK Project curated by MLitt Curatorial Practice student Rosie Gilbertson Photograph by Samuel Carty |
And We Walk: Of Inconsolable Memories and Crucified Pleasure. – was an artwork by a performance artwork by artist Megan Lucille Boettcher curated by MLitt Curatorial Practice student, Rosie Gilbertson
Having sought legal justice for her rape and failed, Megan Lucille Boettcher makes a silk dress from the papers documenting every painful memory. It references the frustrating and familiar question ‘what was she wearing?’ with icy defiance. Conforming to gender norms through the almost bridal-style dress, Boettcher poses the question: is experiencing sexual violence a female gender-norm.
On 6th August 2021, wearing a dress handmade from the papers of her failed rape case, artist Megan Lucille Boettcher walked through Glasgow for 12 hours. Part healing ritual, part protest, part participatory event, the project aimed to continue conversations about women and gender-variant people’s safety. The walk was followed by a film screening and panel discussion at The Pipe Factory.
In 2020, there were 52,210 rapes reported to the police in the UK. Of these, only 1.6% resulted in a charge or summons. Rape Crisis estimate that only 15% of victims reported their assault to the police in England and Wales. In June 2021, the government published the ‘end to end rape review’ in which it is stated that prosecutions and convictions for adult rape have fallen by 59% and 47% respectively since 2015/16. These figures, which suggest a decriminalization of sexual violence, were the starting point for this project; it was born out of anger.
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Alison Piper: still from The Stone Age A film shot digitally by cinematographer, Kirstin McMahon, with shots by the artist on double perforated standard 8mm and elements of 16mm celluloid animation |
MLitt Fine Art Practice student, Alison Piper, was the inaugural recipient of GSA’s Niamh Forbes Postgraduate Fine Art Scholarship. Her films Duck Daze and Free Period have been broadcast on BBC Scotland and picked up awards at film festivals in the UK and internationally. She was recently commissioned by the Edinburgh International Book Festival to make a film in response to T.S Eliot award-winning poet Jen Hadfield’s new collection The Stone Age.
“I was lucky to be selected by Shetland-based poet Jen Hadfield to make a film in response to her new collection The Stone Age.”
“I took this opportunity to expand my practice as an artist filmmaker within a professional landscape. The Stone Age responds to Hadfield’s synthesis of human and non-human experience and explores who we are as individuals, and who we are in relationship to the places we call home.”
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Greta Martyniuk: Trauma 2 Watercolour, ink and oil on paper, 145cm x 90cm, 2020 |
Polish contemporary painter Greta Martyniuk’s works are characterised by their unsettling and surreal imagery depicting the dehumanising aspect of the recovery process. Focusing her works on the topic of Trauma, she works in watercolour, ink and oil producing works which show figures in distressing situations, surrounded by strange settings to awaken the curiosity of the viewer. She creates the paintings as she goes, producing spontaneous compositions which explore the relationship between the medical, the body and the mind. Greta’s paintings challenge the viewers’ perception of the recovery process, while encouraging them to engage emotionally with the works.
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Eilidh Reilly: She’s a Sweetie Materials sugar and metal Work as shown in the 2021 MLitt exhibition in the Stow Building August 2021 |
In She’s a Sweetie MLitt Fine Art Practice student, Eilidh Reilly, borrows from the fairy-tale narrative to explore how poverty and patriarchy intertwine. Her work conjures thoughts of childhood and homeliness, of commodity and ownership, of violence and cannibalism.
Firmly entangled with the tradition of working-class woman as story-teller, there is a sense of magic and play in the work, an unstable beauty that appears to be melting away before your very eyes; like wandering through a dark and twisted Alice’s Wonderland. We experience all the sickly-sweet wonder of the contemporary Disney fairy-tale as we rejoice in the sparkling sugar, the light pouring into and reflecting off each sculpture, the smell of childhood and candy-floss in the air. But the longer we stay the more we witness the violence in the work, it come in waves, like the nausea after a sweetie binge; this is when the sinister shapes of folklore and old wives tales take hold. And we realise that, here, we will not find our happily ever after.
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Jim Campbell: Flow Oil and mixed media on canvas 160 x 150 cm |
Jim Campbell’s studio practice draws from explorations into mining and mining processes, and the detritus in the carbonised landscape left behind. He uses materials echoing those encountered in a mine environment, pulling together the painting methods and subject matter; sealing the canvas with a clear solution retains the raw colour and allows the paint, heavily mixed with linseed oil and dark siccative of harlem, to seep in, staining. Oil, water, crushed and liquid charcoal, burnt wood, crushed coal, rust and found objects are incorporated.
Innovation School
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| Lydia Stewart – The Green Pages app |
MDes Innovation & Service Design student, Lydia Stewart, has looked at issues relating to climate change and the circular economy.
In her Master’s thesis ReRooting Together she explores regenerative land practices in Moray.
“Throughout this year I continued to wonder why some people engage in climate positive practices while others are afforded the privilege of ambivalence or disassociation?” says Lydia. “What can be done to foster greater social engagement within our individualist society?”
“By leveraging the individual for collective strength, a bottom up approach to community development poses an interesting speculation: what does a future look like where collective action and mutual benefit bring people into cooperative co-existence?”
In The Green Pages app she proposes a digital network empowering people to directly invest in their communities for a sustainable, citizen and community led future.
The collaborative Circular Fashion Box project meanwhile encourages consumers to “wear the original” and trade in for “new pieces” – keeping societies consumptive nature in consideration while moving to a more sustainable mindset and diminishing the idea of independent ownership and waste.
In a live project Empowering Patient-led Rehabilitation Lynda also with a Scottish partner organization to re-evaluate the services provided for Neurological Rehabilitation at a local treatment facility. The final outcome was centred around empowering practitioners with better tools for engaging with patients and understanding the unique needs, wants, and desires of each individual; resulting in a bespoke and co-created treatment plan in which the patient feels in control of their progress and has full transparency of their experience within the healthcare system.
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| Martyna Sykta – Inter–Bodies |
In her final project Inter–Bodies MDes Design Innovation & Citizenship Martyna Sykta, attempted to redesign the conversation about gendered unsafety.
“The world in which more than 736 million women have been subjects to male violence calls for meaningful debate about safety that takes place between people of different genders and positionalities,” says Martyna. “However, the discussions we currently have are often restricted by the constraints of patriarchy and reproduce the image of women as problems for male-dominated society, highlighting their difficult experience of harassment, victimhood, vulnerability and dependence on male surveillance.”
Her design-led exploration into gender and safety was grounded in a feminist perspective and seeks to propose new vocabulary and contexts for discussing the subject .
“The crucial part of my exploration was working with women who have experienced gendered unsafety and capturing their lived experience during storytelling workshops,” she adds
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| Kirsten Nicholson’s Vacant Toolkit: A Creative and Community Led Planning Process |
MDes Innovation & Service Design student Kirsten Nicholson has addressed the issue of enabling communities to bring derelict land into use.
One third of the Scottish population live within 500 metres of a derelict or vacant landsite. Such sites make up 7% of our urban landscapes, in part due to a legacy of de-industrialisation across Scotland.
“Although a visible issue in our cities and towns, there is a lack of solutions aimed at helping their rejuvenation,”says Kirsten. “These sites visibly represent missed opportunities in Scotland’s urban landscape – spaces which could be reclaimed for economic, social and environmental benefits.”
In her Vacant Toolkit: A Creative and Community Led Planning Process Kirsten aims to empower communities to define their own needs and visions, rather than imposing a solution upon them without consideration. It encourages grassroot action rather than a result which aims to respond to a community without fully understanding, or being part of, the locality.
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| Vinishree Solanki’s STEP Zero for Net Zero |
Vinishree Solanki, a MDes Design Innovation & Service Design student, has explored the role of design in supporting SMEs and local businesses in their net zero journey. STEP Zero for Net Zero, is an early intervention workshop for SMEs facing ambiguity and lack of guidance. The workshop embodies in itself, the idea of net zero transition from a state of uncertainty to positivity. It is rooted within a proposal which urges the environmental sector to reimagine the net zero narrative and reframe its status quo.
Meanwhile, in Visionary Hub the issue of access to sanitary projects is highlighted. Working with fellow students Alessandra Pizzuti, Federica Bruschi and Mihika Mehra, Vinishree looked beyond the current actions of the Scottish government to address period poverty by making the period products free. The team aimed to start a conversation about access to the broader range of sanitary products including baby nappies and adult incontinence pads, and about moving towards more environmentally sustainable products and solutions.
School of Simulation and Visualisation
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| Sarah Iannucci’s visualisation of the Spike Protein (pink) of SARS-CoV-2 as it binds to the ACE2 protein (green) on cells in the human body, “like a key fitting into a lock” thus providing a gateway in for the virus and to enter and cause infection |
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has focussed everyone’s attention on the hidden world of viruses. The emergence of new variants such as Beta and Delta, affects us all: some variants spread more quickly and some are less affected by vaccines. But why?
Teams of scientists around the world, including the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, are tracking the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2, but to understand why the mutations they report have the effects they do requires an expert understanding of the details of how SARS-CoV-2 functions, something which the majority of us do not have. For most of us, the reason these mutations will affect us is hard to visualise.
In response to this Sarah Iannucci, an MSc in Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy student at The Glasgow School of Art (School of Simulation and Visualisation) and University of Glasgow (School of Life Sciences), set out to explain the hidden workings of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, particularly those on the viral spike protein.
She built the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation Explorer, an interactive web application using illustration, animation and interactive 3D models to explain why SARS-CoV-2 mutations have the effects they do, with users able to view and interact with visualisations of variants of concern and their characteristic mutations.
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Holoanatomy – lung scene: anatomical labels can also be added to the lung model. If the heart model is then rotated, these labels will rotate with model, giving a clearer view of labelled structures. |
Fellow MSc in Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy, Felicity DeBari Herrington, has created HoloAnatomy Application & HoloViewer.
“Early exposure to science, technology, engineering and maths has been suggested as a key way to encourage young people into STEM fields” says Felicity. “Digital visualisations have been used to help educate young people on a variety of anatomical topics, and can be beneficial to students’ learning experience, both in terms of knowledge acquisition and student engagement.”
One such 3D visualisation technology that is now being explored for its educational use is holographic projection. However cost has been identified as one of the main barriers to its use. The development of cost-effective approaches to holographic visualisation can help to remove financial barriers to access this novel approach.
Felicity has developed a hologram-based anatomy application in combination with a cost-effective holographic projection system, suitable for educational environments. She used innovative visualisation methods to produce her HoloAnatomy application, which enables students to interact with 3D anatomical models using a voice command system. The app can be viewed on the tabletop HoloViewer, which was built using cheap and readily accessible materials and could be easily reproduced by a person with basic DIY skills.
“These developments represent a step towards the use of low-cost digital holographic projection in anatomy education, something that will hopefully help to encourage the engagement of young people with anatomy in the future,” she says.
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| Still from Fraser MacBeath’s film Tiugainn Dachaidh |
In Tiugainn Dachaidh MDes Sound for the Moving Image student, Fraser MacBeath, has created an elegiac and haunting film highlighting depopulation of the Outer Hebrides. Featuring images of the natural environment and abandoned crofts on his home isle of Lewis , the film also has an immersive soundscape featuring archive recordings and innovative sound design and music – all mixed in 3D sound.
“The Outer Hebrides are among rural communities throughout the world that are experiencing population decline. Out of any Scottish local authority region, The Outer Hebrides is where this is most significant,” says Fraser. “From 1901 to 2001 the population has fallen by 40% . More recent figures show that population is predicted to decline by a further 16% between 2018 and 2046 while the rest of Scotland is set to increase by 2.4%. The Outer Hebrides comprise more than 70 islands but only 15 remain inhabited today.
“Culture is often an undervalued element in talk surrounding sustainable development, but if we lose our relationship with our natural environment It makes it far easier for us to leave.”
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For further information
Lesley Booth,
0779 941 4474
press@gsa.ac.uk