Universities Showcase
The Bristol800 universities showcase provided an opportunity to learn about some of the many fascinating, inspirational and innovative collaborations taking place between academics, researchers and students at Bristol’s two universities and organisations and individuals in the city.
All sessions were free, with the exception of the Darren Henley lecture and the Magna Carta concert. Some were for invited guests only.
The outline programme was as follows:
Thursday 10 November 2016
Darren Henley: Cultural Education
Arnolfini
Darren Henley, CEO of Arts Council England, gave a lecture on “How investment in cultural education for young people today will create the world-beating cities of tomorrow” to launch the Bristol Cultural Education Lecture Series. This was followed by a panel discussion.
Friday 11 November 2016
The Future of University/ Cultural Partnerships
Watershed
Bringing together cultural organisations and universities, this all-day conference looked at the current state of partnership working in Bath, Bristol and Plymouth – with a case study on HE involvement in Hull City of Culture 2017 – and where this can go in the future.
Bristol is Open/ Data Dome
At-Bristol Planetarium
The Data Dome is an ultrahigh definition immersive display environment. Barney Smith, interim CEO of Bristol is Open (BIO), gave an introduction followed by examples of content produced exclusively for use in domed spaces and planetaria.
Concert to mark Arts Council England’s 70th Anniversary
Arnolfini
To mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of Arts Council England (ACE) we presented a lecture by Sir Christopher Frayling, former ACE chair, and the performance of a specially commissioned piece of music by Liz Lane, a part-time senior lecturer at UWE and winner of Researcher of the Year 2016. Musicians included members of Lydbrook Band and RSVP Bhangra.
Saturday 12 November 2016
Productive Margins Showcase
Cabot Circus
The Productive Margins programme brings together communities and academics in Bristol to co-produce research that explores how regulation constrains and enables engagement in decision making. In these drop-in sessions local projects were showcased, using games and performance to encourage participation and engagement in ideas around loneliness in older people, life chances for families in poverty, spaces of dissent and everyday utopias.
Mark Cosgrove: From the Kinetoscope to Virtual Reality
Watershed
Mark Cosgrove, Watershed’s Curator of Cinema, outlined the fascinating history of film and the moving image. He is a mentor on the MA/MFA Curating course at UWE and this session included contributions from the course leader, Matthew Partington, and Dave Taylor-Matthews, a current student.
Bringing an Archive to Life
Workshop and Talk, University of Bristol Theatre Collection
The small group workshop gave an opportunity to explore the Bristol Old Vic Archive held at the Theatre Collection; the talk shared the Bristol Old Vic’s plans to protect and share the heritage of Britain’s oldest theatre and bring its archive to life.
The BBC, UWE and Bristol’s Wildlife Film-Making Talent
Watershed
The Series Editor and new Series Producer of the popular BBC1 show, Springwatch, explained how the BBC and UWE’s flagship wildlife film-making course are working together to create the next generation of wildlife programme makers.
Circumstance: ‘yesterday you’re still dreaming’
Bristol Harbourside
This was a piece of Ambient Literature in which the phone in the user’s hand became the vehicle for a new kind of story, somewhere between listening and performing.
Art, Science and Our Future Material World
Watershed
Designer Tom Metcalfe presented the work of his recent micro-residency that explores ideas of craftsmanship, sustainability and the future design of our material world. This was followed by a panel discussion on the future of composites. For the rest of the afternoon people could drop in to view the work and speak to the researchers.
Singing and Aphasia: Meet the UWE ReVoice Choir
Colston Hall Foyer
UWE ReVoice is a community choir for people affected by aphasia and their carers, run and supported by volunteer music therapy students, staff from UWE and local speech and language therapists. In addition to the choir’s performance, there was a talk explaining the research behind the benefits of singing after a stroke. Volunteers were on hand to answer questions and to encourage new members to join.
Learning Ships: Bristol Loves Tides
Arnolfini
The Bristol Loves Tides project puts Bristol’s young people together with educationalists, academics and creatives to pose questions about the past, present and future of the tidal landscape. This session featured short films and some interactive discussion.
The Bristol Magna Carta, 1216
800th Anniversary Concert
St James Priory
Bristol’s 800th anniversary concert included choral works from the time of the sealing of the Magna Cartas of 1215 and 1216 performed by Bath’s Chandos Singers. The programme was interspersed with historical insights from Peter Fleming of UWE. All proceeds from this event went to Freedom from Torture.
Tom Abba: Conversations With the City
Arnolfini
Tom Abba, Associate Professor in Art & Design at UWE, discussed the ways in which Bristol offers a different perspective on the value of university art education; an alternative to the ‘salary’ measure of graduate success.
Romancing the Gibbet
Arnolfini
This interdisciplinary project used locative digital media to place the user at four eighteenth-century execution sites. After an introduction to the project, participants were invited to step outside to relive the terrible last days of Captain Goodere and Matthew Mahoney in 1741.