"Beyond Discipline"

"BEYOND DISCIPLINE" - 8-12 January 2018

exploits in cross and multi-disciplinary practice

Creativity transcends disciplines, often with unexpectedly successful results and there is a distinct zeitgeist at the moment which is that boundaries and definitions of what it means to be a creative are blurring. Today artists and designers studios are reconfiguring the landscape, disciplines are dissolving and many contemporary practitioners now defy classification. ‘Beyond Discipline’ is a week-long lecture programme with keynote delivered by leading international practitioners and theorists who welcome, celebrate and work in cross and multidisciplinary ways.

Sign up to one lecture per day, spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Prepare to be challenged, delighted and excited about what kind of practitioner you might become.

MONDAY - LARA FURNISS - "Beyond discipline" - http://www.larafurniss.co.uk
13:30 - 15:00 Peak Lecture Theatre

With a BA (Hons) degree in Interior Design from Manchester Metropolitan University, and a Master of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lara has 20 years' professional experience working across many art and design disciplines throughout the UK, Europe and the USA, including sculpture, installation, interior, architecture, exhibition, event and scenography.

Lara has worked within a wide range of design studios as well as running her own studio and working as freelance designer, and projects range from experimental devised theatre to multi-million pound events.

Lara’s research interests have emerged directly from her art and design practice, as well as her current experience as an academic within Higher Education. Her PhD study examines the processes of 21st Century design studios which do not define themselves by discipline.

TUESDAY - LISE AUTOGENA - http://www.autogena.org
13:30 - 15:00 - Peak Lecture Theatre

Lise Autogena is a Professor of Cross Disciplinary Art at Sheffield Hallam University's Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute

Her work often features lengthy and complex development phases involving forming diverse communities of artists, business people, scientists, and children, who come together to work on each project. She says:

“From the outset, I am often not sure whether it will be possible to realise my rather Utopian projects. I nevertheless commit years of research and development. Risk is an important part of my work, and the long term potential of my projects is important to me.”

Autogena is probably best known for the Sound Mirrors project inspired by the derelict acoustic mirrors at Denge, England which aims to create two new sound mirrors on the coast of England with France which will enable people on either side of the English Channel to speak to each other. Other recent projects include; ‘Foghorn Requiem’, a musical performance to mark the disappearance of the foghorn from the UK’s coastal landscape. Conducted from afar, the requiem is performed by the Souter Lighthouse Foghorn, three brass bands and an armada of vessels at sea, sounding their horns over great distances, in accordance with a musical score and, ‘The Thor Heyerdahl Globe’, a spherical LED “globe” and visualisation platform for live global information connected to climate change and migration.

WEDNESDAY - ASSEMBLE - James Binning - http://assemblestudio.co.uk/
13:30 - 15:00 - Adsett 6620

In 2015 Assemble broke the mould when they won the highly coveted Turner Prize who on winnign famously said “For us it’s not that important: it’s an academic discussion. We are more interested in doing good projects.” (the Guardian)

Assemble are an 18-or-so strong collective who work across the fields of art, architecture and design. They began working together in 2010 and are comprised of 18 members. Assemble’s working practice seeks to address the typical disconnection between the public and the process by which places are made. Assemble champion a working practice that is interdependent and collaborative, seeking to actively involve the public as both participant and collaborator in the on-going realisation of the work.

THURSDAY - FIXPERTS - "Disappearing Design" - Dee Halligan - http://www.fixperts.org
13:30-15:00 - Pennine Lecture Theatre

Too often design education funnels bright, imaginative minds towards places where they are the least useful – into the corporate design teams of commercial companies, or the rarefied world of galleries and one-off production. The best people trained in solving problems are rarely connected to the people who have problems to solve.

Fixperts challenges young people to use their imagination and skills to create ingenious solutions to everyday problems for a real person. In the process they develop a host of valuable transferable skills from prototyping to collaboration.

"The idea behind Fixperts is to connect designers with people who could do with a little help in their lives, from disabled people to the elderly," says James Carrigan, who is also co-founder of Sugru, a self-setting rubber product that lets you fix, modify and improve things. "It's interesting to think what kind of impact a designer can make on somebody's life in about an hour and a half."

FRIDAY - YVONNE DRÖGE WENDEL - "Relaational thingness" - www.yvonnedrogewendel.nl/index.html
14:30 - 16:00 Pennine Lecture Theatre

Dröge Wendel, who’s solo show has just opended at Amsterdam Art week, is concerned with the relationship between people and objects, and the quest for challenging new ways of relating to things setting up experimental encounters that aim to capture what it is that objects actually do. ‘Things’ have been a source of inspiration for scientists, designers and artists for centuries. Where others try to find answers, Dröge Wendel is engaged in making the questions tangible and personal and her intention is to allow for open-ended results. In 2016, Dröge Wendel was awarded the prestigious Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Art. The jury unanimously praised Dröge Wendel for her originality, vitality and innovation, and her both playful and philosophical research into the relation between man and things.