Category / Fusion

Audio Testimonies Symposium at BU (online)

conferences, Fusion

Dr Panos Amelidis, Dr Tom Davis from Experimental Media Research Centre, BU and Dr Thomas Gardner from Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice, UAL, hosted the first Audio Testimonies Symposium at BU on 4-5th July 2020.

This symposium was an attempt to consider the role of Audio Testimony in artistic practice, and explored the ways in which artists use sound to enable new forms of testimony, and create new artistic configurations, which engage public consciousness. The event featured two keynotes and workshop sessions spread over two days.

Keynote 1:  The symposium was opened by a keynote presentation by John Young, Professor of Composition at De Montfort University, who reflected on recorded audio testimonies as agents of meaning through electroacoustic music. Professor Young started from the notion that sound recording is a significant act in itself, and discussed some of the ways in which he has used a range of audio testimonies to explore the experience of war.

Keynote 2: A second keynote presentation was by Amy Wlodarski, Professor of Music at Dickinson College, USA, who talked about her experiences of listening to audio Holocaust testimonies and how she have come to think about the relationship of listening to recorded traumatic memories, specifically the relationship between the witness and the interviewer.

Workshop sessions: Participants worked in small discussion groups of 4-5 people, in which they gave short presentations about how their work related to the theme of the symposium. Participants also brought material that connected their practice to audio testimony and presented this to the group in order to draw links between their own creative practice and emerging themes.

On day two participants attempted to collaborate creatively within their groups and explored ways of presenting their findings and experiences back to the main body of the symposium. The outcomes were amazing successful given that they were constructed in such a short time frame and included, poetry, reflective writing, performance, edited audio, pre-recorded testimonies and more.

The groups were coordinated by six group facilitators: John Young (keynote speaker) Salomé Voegelin (Professor of Sound at the London College of Communication), Cathy Lane Professor of Sound Arts at the London College of Communication and Director of CRiSAP), Dr Mark-Peter Wight (Post-Doctoral Research Arts at the London College of Communication), Dr Thomas Gardner, Dr Tom Davis and Dr Panos Amelidis.

Refugee Week – British Academy Funded Project – LGBTQ Refugees’ and Asylum Seekers’ Support Needs

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion themes, Grants Academy

 

This week it is  Refugee Week and here in the Faculty of Media and Communication this is significant as we have just started our new British Academy project ‘Understanding LGBTQ Refugees’ and Asylum Seekers’ Support Needs through Listening to Autobiographical Storytelling’.  Although I have recently written about Queer Youth Refugees in Documentary Media and Ieuan and I have a forthcoming article on The Undocuqueer Movement in the journal Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture this project offers a great opportunity to asses support needs and influence policy, with an aim to develop links between diverse help providers across the UK.

The project has a duration of 15 months with a symposium taking place in a year’s time, yet already through early conversations with NGO help service participants we are beginning to learn about the needs of LGBTQ refugees. For example, this morning I was in conversation with  Mark Lewis of Hoops and Loops in Cardiff. If you look at this interview on BBC Wales which includes commentary from Jo Stevens MP its clear that there is much to be done.

In the era of Covid-19, when many of us are feeling isolated, psychologically compromised, and wondering whats happening next, its clear that this is equally impacting on asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom have little support, or live in conditions that could hardly be considered as welcoming.

Christopher Pullen (Department of Media Production) and Ieuan Franklin (Department of Humanities and Law).

Recipient of the VC Fusion Prize 2019 publishes in top Events journal

Fusion, Publishing, student research

Events Management graduate Sabine Töppig, who received the VC Fusion Prize in 2019, has just seen a paper based on her dissertation published by the International Journal of Event & Festival Management. The IJEFM, an Elsevier Journal, is one of the two top events management journals (Scopus CiteScore 2018 – 1.73; Scopus CiteScore Tracker 2019 (updated monthly) – 2.14).

The paper, jointly authored with her supervisor Dr. Miguel Moital, explored the techniques, outputs, and outcomes of circulation management at exhibitions. For those who are unable to access the full published paper, a word version is deposited here.

Commenting on the process leading to the publication of the paper, Sabine said:

“It was great to continue working with with Miguel beyond the submission of my dissertation, to adapt it to journal standards, carry out additional research and examine circulation management at exhibitions in even greater detail. Collaborating with him helped me refine my academic style, broaden my horizons in terms of research methods, and navigate the peer-review process which requires a lot of expertise and flexibility to meet reviewers’ demands. It was also valuable to gain an understanding of the academic publishing system by experiencing it firsthand.”

From a personal perspective, Sabine said:

“It is an amazing feeling to see this paper published. For me, it represents the journey I have been on and how much I’ve learnt about both academia and events during my time at BU. I am pleased to be able to share my excitement for the exhibition industry with others, who can hopefully use this paper to complement their knowledge and learning. Knowing that this paper may be cited in the future or used by practitioners to inform their circulation management decisions feels surreal but incredibly fulfilling.”

Commenting on the achievement, Dr. Miguel Moital said:

“I am immensely proud of Sabine’s achievement.  Sabine did a great piece of research for her dissertation and when challenged to work with me on turning the dissertation in to a paper, she did not hesitate. She diligently navigated the steps and challenges that come with submitting and revising a paper. It has been a pleasure working with her. Congratulations, Sabine!”

Dr. Carly Stewart, Head of Department, said:

“The entire team at the department of Sport & Events Management is delighted at the news that Sabine’s paper has been published in such a high standard journal. Concluding her brilliant academic journey at BU by publishing in such high quality journal for our field is a credit to Sabine’s determination and intellectual capability. On behalf of the department, I would like to congratulate Sabine for her achievement.”

 

Publishing the article follows from two other activities related to the dissemination of her dissertation research:

Presenting a paper at the annual International Conference of Strategic Innovative Marketing and Tourism (ICSIMAT) , in Chios, Greece.

Presenting my dissertation research at an international conference

Delivery of a guest lecture to MSc events Students:

VC Fusion Prize winner delivers guest lecture to MSc Events students

Sabine received the Fusion Prize from BU’s VC Professor John Vinney at the 2019’s graduation ceremony:

AdvanceHE Webinar: Facing the Future – Dual role of the academic

Fusion

We have been notified of the following AdvanceHE webinar, which is open to those at member institutions only:

Facing the Future – Dual role of the academic

As part of our enhanced range of member benefits for the 2019-20 academic year, we are running a series of webinars which cover the themes of ‘facing the future’ and ‘global perspectives’, and will focus on creating and sharing new knowledge as well as an opportunity to engage in discussion with colleagues from Advance HE member institutions globally.

The fifth webinar of the Facing the Future series is entitled ‘Dual Role of the Academic’. The objective is to provide thought-provoking, forward-looking ideas and to stimulate discussion on the balancing research and teaching. The current global pandemic provides an opportunity to pause and consider our roles and future careers.  How prepared are you for the future, what skills do you already have that can be enhanced as we start to work differently?  The webinar on “The dual role of the academic”, provides a provocation to take action to think about your own future.

The webinar will look at different lenses of the dual role of the academic. Speakers will address the challenge:

  • balancing research and teaching – how do you balance the two and maintain career development?
  • 3rd space academics, industry experience vs academic career – how do you re-establish a career within academia?
  • Professoriate: leadership and management vs. research or teaching.

The webinar will take place on Friday, 24th April 2020, commencing at 14:00 for one hour.

For more information and to book, please see the AdvanceHE website. You will need to register to access the booking system.

This post is for information only. Bournemouth University is not responsible for the content or any other aspects of such external websites

 

PalaeoGo and Dino Doodle: a few quid short!

Fusion, HEIF

Funding is tough in higher education and many great ideas fall short of just a little bit of money to makes something cool a reality. This could be one of them. 

PalaeoGo is a concluding HEIF project that puts extinct animals into your smart phone using Augmented Reality.  The idea was to enhance visitor experience at museums and science outreach in general.  We have generic Apps in the app stores (App Store, Google Play) as well as a couple of bespoke ones specific to museums, The Etches Collection (App Store, Google Play) and Winchester Science Centre (App Store, Google Play) as well as a BU Campus version (App Store, Google Play). They bring dinosaurs to life and are hugely popular with children. 

Perhaps the work we are most of proud of is that with Kingsleigh Primary School. In December 2019 we ran an outreach event which saw us take our PalaeoGo apps into school and we ran a dinosaur colouring competition alongside. This saw Year Two children compete for the prize of having their drawing come to life in a video. The community response was huge, and the school were happy with the outcome.   

So, impressed with the idea and aware that once the project was over, and we had lost our talented digital artist Cameron Kerr (something which has now happened), such interventions would no longer be possible we began to plan a solution.  We put our minds to trying to create the pipeline which would take a scanned piece of artwork from a child and produce their own video as the end product. In this way a school where ever they are in the World could run their own dino colouring competition. We now have that code all primed and ready as illustrated in this video, and we are looking for a talented web developer to package it all into a neat school/child friendly website, preferably pro bono.

So, ideas and/or offers of help are needed on how we move this brilliant idea into something that kids across the World can interact with.  Answers on a postcode to the frustrated PalaeoGo team. 

PBS America, Ichnology and Poole Harbour

Fusion

Yesterday a film crew from Windfall Films spent the afternoon in Poole Harbour filming some experimental ichnology.  Ichnology is the study of trace fossils and is something that Bournemouth has an international reputation for.  The production company are working on a documentary for Nova and are currently following our research team as they bring forward new research at White Sands National Park.  As part of this they filmed a sequence yesterday involving the use of primitive transport technology.  Think of a wheel-less wheel barrow used to transport butchered mammoths and giant ground sloth remains and you have the idea.  We were experimenting with different designs and trying to work out what the trace fossil record looks like for each.

The Bournemouth team consisted of Hannah Larsen a PhD student who braved the bitter cold to go shoe less on the mudflats and a first year undergraduate student Gary Packwood who volunteered to help.  It was a nice example of fusion in action.

New publication by NCCA academics and students in the top journal

Fusion, open access, student research

The SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences (“SIIMS – a broad authoritative source for fundamental results in imaging sciences, with a unique combination of mathematics and applications”), an influential Q1-journal with a significant Impact Factor and SJR indicator, has just published the paper “Automatically Controlled Morphing of 2D Shapes with Textures” authored by NCCA academics and students. This multidisciplinary paper proposes a novel theoretical and practical framework resulting in a suite of mathematically substantiated techniques important in the context of 2D imagery, artistic design, computer animation, and emerging streaming and interactive applications.

The paper has a rather long and non-trivial history related to the fusion of academic and student research. Initially, NCCA UG student Felix Marrington-Reeve (“Computer Visualisation and Animation” course, Level 6) undertook his R&D project within the “Innovations” unit and got some interesting results. The 8-page paper written on the basis of his project and co-authored with his supervisors Dr Valery Adzhiev and Prof Alexander Pasko, was, however, rejected in 2017 by two international conferences (they were prepared to accept a short version but the authors thought the work deserved a better fate).

After Felix’s graduation (he started working in a leading production company Framestore) Dr Oleg Fryazinov and PhD student Alexander Tereshin joined the project team. A lot of additional theoretical and practical work had been done, and in February 2019 the radically modified and extended 30-page version was submitted to SIIMS. After two-stage rigorous peer-reviewing process, in October 2019 the paper was accepted by this prestigious journal.

References:

  • Tereshin, A., Adzhiev, V., Fryazinov, O., Marrington-Reeve, F., Pasko, A. (2020). “Automatically Controlled Morphing of 2D Shapes with Textures”, The SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 78-107. DOI: 10.1137/19M1241581
  • Full text of the paper: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/33366/