Creative Futures 1 - Monday 2nd March

Introduction and Welcome: Estelle Thompson

William Aston Hall, 10.00: She’s late. What a great way to start the week, setting a fantastic example of always being punctual. To be fair, she’s here, she’s just not got onto the stage yet. I think I will take this time to point out how, considering we are mostly art students and creative people, the programme is not very well made. I can’t help but think that someone else would have done a better job at ensuring the words are legible and the images are not pixelated. Just my opinion.

William Aston Hall, 10.20: She’s started her speech! Estelle thanks many people including students that have helped and the staff. She tells us that this year, creative futures is more open to the whole community, with some lectures being open to the general public and some schools and colleges may be coming to some of them. This is great, we have this unique opportunity to learn things we wouldn’t normally in lectures, why shouldn’t more people have this opportunity? However, I do think that, since it is ‘Creative Futures’ some of the lectures perhaps don’t make sense for us. I understand that it is more inclusive, so there is more variety in the lecture subjects, but I feel that they should mostly be applicable to students studying Art, Design and Media subjects.

Creative Futures, Programme Overview: Mike Corcoran

William Aston Hall, 10.25: Mike Corcoran is here to talk about the unique opportunity we have here (as I said above), he has five pieces of advice for this week:

1. Speak to people! Try to speak to as many people as you can, you could meet an important contact or someone interesting.
2. Go to as many lectures as possible! Don’t just go to the ones applicable to your work, go to any which might be interesting, they could affect your own working method.
3. Immerse yourself in the week! Go to the fringe events, ask questions and participate in discussions.
4. Network! Don’t be afraid to talk about your work to others.
5. Get to work on the dream! Start now.

Crewe, Its Part in My Downfall: Bedwyr Williams

William Aston Hall, 10.30: “I hate Crewe, I use it as a metaphor for all that is bad in my life” That’s a bit of an extreme opening, maybe he’ll expand on that. Bedwyr Williams continued to talk about hating Crewe (doesn’t mention it again in his talk though), loving being Welsh and his own work. I’m a little lost, he made a film about a hotel in Colwyn Bay which is made with 70^O angles, it was something about running into a corner and your face turning into a 70^O angle? Very strange. The film was also something about a fish wanting to see what it was like to swim around Colwyn Bay without the sea. The ideas are great! They are just super weird.

William Aston Hall, 10.50: He has decided that gallery curators are the new ‘dudes’, no one cares about being the artist anymore, they want to be the curator. I don’t think he likes curators. For an exhibition, he made a gingerbread curator and butchered it…

William Aston Hall, 10.55: He never studied art, he didn’t want to read about it, he wanted to do it. This is something I can actually understand, even if the research side of things is very important.

William Aston Hall, 10.58: “I don’t like craft” Does he like anything? Seems he hates the whole world. “If a teapot isn’t a teapot, what is it?” That’s a silly thing to say. It seems that he prefers that he work says something, that it’s not just decorative.

William Aston Hall, 11.20: I’ve stopped listening properly, he’s a bit of an odd person.

William Aston Hall, 11.22: He did show us his newer work first, though! He said he did it specifically so that we get bored or tired, we get bored or tired of his older work, not his newer work. So it’s okay really. Sort of.

William Aston Hall, 11.25: He’s still talking. He said something about a mouse and a ferry? How did we get from Crewe to this? This makes no sense. They turned the lights off a while ago, so it’s making notes tricky.

William Aston Hall, 11.27: I think he’s nearly finished now, nearly.

William Aston Hall, 11.30: Well that was a strange lecture with a strange artist, he had some interesting, conceptual ideas that made you think, but I can see why I don’t do fine art now.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall… Finding the Evidence to Help Your CVs and Applications Shine: Andrea Hilditch

Catrin Finch G29, 13.25: The projector is wonky.

Catrin Finch G29, 13.30: Andrea says that we don’t always use our best evidence in CVs and applications and that we need to think about the version us we are reflecting: the lazy you; the shy you; or the proactive you (the answer should probably be the proactive one, unless you are applying for the job of a sloth). When you are digging for evidence for applications or CVs, there are a few situations you should try to think of:

• When you have worked as a part of a team
• When you have coordinated or organised
• When you have mentored or supported
• When you have led or managed
• When you have created
• When you have communicated, demonstrated or presented

You should use all of these situations with the acronym STAR: Situation – where or when it happened; Task – what you did; Action – an action that you did personally; Result – the positive outcome. Also when talking about your achievements on a CV, you should drop the “I” as it gives more focus on what you actually did, but for an application form, use “I” as it tells more of a story and allows you to take ownership of what you did.

Catrin Finch G29, 14.00: My pen lid is broken.

Catrin Finch G29, 14.10: Some final advice from Andrea Hilditch:

• Keep your email address professional
• Make your point and give evidence
• Choose positive and proactive words
• Don’t ‘data dump’ and try to fit every little detail in
• Have a consistent layout and content. You can add some flair, but ensure it doesn’t take the focus away from the information.
• Grammar and punctuation is important

Catrin Finch G29, 14.22: Lecture is finished, that was really useful for job applications. Even though I knew a lot of what she said, she inspired me to start keeping track of the things I’ve done for my CV.

How to be a Graphic Journalist: Darryl Cunningham

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.00: Darryl considers himself a cartoonist. He has had a fascination with buildings and cityscapes since he was a young child.

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.05: They’ve turned the lights off. How am I meant to make notes properly?

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.06: They turned them back on!

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.07: They’re off again.

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.10: Darryl Cunningham studied at art school, but worked as a psychiatric nurse with people with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar and addictions. He decided that he was good at being a psychiatric nurse, so started a three year training course, but stopped after two years. He had a complete collapse. He couldn’t even leave the house, he was too ill. Art brought him back. He put comics he’d made online and received a lot of views and emails. Publishing companies wanted to publish his first book: Psychiatric Tales. The aim of Psychiatric Tales is to educate the public on what different mental illnesses look like and what they are like for people with them

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.15: He’s so softly spoken, I could fall asleep. It’s so peaceful. He says that while writing psychiatric tales, he was listening to science podcasts, this inspired his second book, Science Tales. The aim of this book was to educate people about subjects that are often misunderstood by the public and to talk about myths and mysteries.

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.20: His ideas are really interesting in terms of subject matter, it is a way of educating the public on topics that they may not come into contact with on a day-to-day basis.

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.28: Oh dear, I stopped listening for a minute and now he’s talking about economical things and money? Oh dear. As it turns out, he’s talking about Supercrash, his third book. It is about the economy. He uses cartoons and graphics to get information across to the readers.

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.36: I like his limited colour palettes, they are muted, but quite striking. His type is all in a handmade font from his own writing. From this, I believe that you can use any subject you are interested in for your own work.

Nick Whitehead Theatre, 15.41: Finished for the day!