You are invited to a series of talks by current PhD students in Fine Art at the University of Worcester whose work is currently on display as part of the Haptics exhibition in the Art House on Castle Street.

The talks will take place at the Art House. Guests are welcome to visit the exhibition at any time during Art House opening times (10 – 6).

All Welcome.

– Dr John Cussans – Senior Lecturer in Fine Art

Through My Eyes

Wed Sep 22     Andrew Shaw      15.00 – 16.30

Andy Shaw is a visual artist based in the West Midlands. In October 2015, at age 51, he was relieved to finally receive an Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis. Shaw’s work, on display in the Haptics show, is titled “Through My Eyes”. It refers to the ways in which his brain reacts to external experiences e.g. sounds, visuals, noises and smells. Visually depicting how all of these external stimuli contribute to, what Shaw describes as what it’s like for ‘my non-neurotypical brain to go into a “Meltdown”.’

Shaw explains that he creates this work as a way of externalising these feelings and emotions.

“I have created visuals that explore the totally immersive aspects of the acuity of visuals needed to show how my day to day world is perceived. The work has developed into a multi-layer experimental video, layering sound and visuals”, he has said.

Shaw’s depiction of the senses overlapping and fighting over one another, portrays the human experience as chaotic. For Shaw, this work is all about articulating the intensity of a meltdown. Asking, what does it mean to be human when you are hyper aware of everything occurring around you all at once…

POST-HUMAN

Mon Sep 27     Myles Mansfield     15.00 – 16.30

Myles Mansfield PhD’ project explores what it could mean to be Post-Human through the medium of kinetic sculpture, investigating a post-human future where our descendants exist may in a virtual computer world without bodies, as suggested by the writers N Kathryn Hayles and Hans Moravec.

Mansfield’s work offers a purposefully unnerving aesthetic, taking heed from dystopian influences. By capturing the adolescence of his futuristic cyborgs, Mansfield leaves us thinking more critically about the contextual story lines of his artwork. Possibly leaving us to question; if children are already becoming increasingly more adept at the same technology their parents struggle to understand – Are we already raising the post-human generation?

Creating Myth in Artistic Studio Practice through Fictional Narrative

Wed Sep 29     Karen David    15.00 – 16.30

Karen David’s PhD research examines fictional narrative as a tool for practice-based research.

The Commune of the Viable Essence (CoVE) is located in a fictional architectural floorplan with pods representing areas of specific research such as Healing and Transformation. Here residents search for a Viable Essence; a term coined by Clement Greenberg.

Key research texts are Burrows and O’Sullivan’s Fictioning: The Myth-Functions of Contemporary Art and Philosophy (2019) and Lambert-Beatty’s Make-Believe: Parafiction and Plausibility (2009).