The Centre for Research in Interdisciplinary Creative Practice

Environment

The research environment integrates research and enterprise with learning and teaching. In addition to the campus research environment the School has a number of formal and informal partnerships across the region, which include Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Hepworth Wakefield and Huddersfield Art Gallery. Research currently undertaken by staff in the School is recognised as internationally excellent including some rated world leading, recent projects and exhibitions and projects have taken place across Asia, Australasia, Americas and Europe. Our strategy acknowledges the necessity to maintain professional practice standards at the highest international level within an inclusive educational model. Our overall School goal for research is to be a thriving community of creative practitioners and writers, who research, share, co-learn, develop and apply creativity in all contexts, please see the Schools' contribution to the 2010 Research Festival.

The School’s name reflects the breadth of the School’s curriculum and the evolving philosophy and interdisciplinary nature of the creative industries. In 2008 the School moved Fashion, Creative Imaging, Multimedia and Business Design courses into a purpose built specialist creative arts building (CAB) which is a flagship building for the University and the School.  At a cost of £14 million it provides exceptional resources for staff and students, exhibition space and forms the heart of the School’s management.  Technical support is provided by skilled technicians in workshops relating to the School Subject Areas and includes extensive resources in Fashion, Textiles, 3D, Model-making, Fine Art studios and CAD&IT.  The School operates out of four buildings in co-located zones that focus on subject disciplines and the ability to maximise high-level investment whilst at the same time offering postgraduate students the opportunity to work across technical resource.

Conferences 2011/2012

Making Visible the Invisible

Click the titles for further information:

Making Visible the Invisible

A two day conference in May 2011 on interdisciplinary collaboration in data visualisation.

Technologies of Drawing

A two day conference in August 2011, the conference took a far-reaching view of drawing, going beyond a simple opposition between hand-made and digital, recognizing the variety of tools, techniques, devices and procedures that are now available.

Outside: Activating Cloth to Enhance the Way We Live

A one day international conference held in January 2012, the conference was a forum for practicing artists, craftspeople, activists, curators, students and volunteers who are excited by the potential of cloth to enhance the way we live in contemporary society today. 


Insight Palestina: Images, Discourses, and the Image of Discourse

A one day international conference to be held in partnership with the University of Leeds on 7 June 2012. ‘Insight Palestina’ will focus on visual and textual images produced within, and in relation to, the circumstances of the Israel-Palestine struggle. Its aim is to explore and challenge a range of current research approaches to photographic, cinematic, documentary, literary, fine art and other media images. It will look into academic studies and patterns of interpretation which tend to solidify exclusive perceptions of politicised images.

Postgraduate Research 

Through the School of Art, Design and Architecture the Centre currently has 21 PhD holding staff, which is set to increase to 28 by 2012; the School currently has over 30 postgraduate research students. Managed through the Centre the School has funded a number of full-time postgraduate research scholarships in art and design. Successful research projects include Fine Art utilizing digital and curatorial practices, as well as Product Design utilizing digital and virtual technologies. The School has been awarded four AHRC MA scholarships for 2012 and 2013; 2 in Fine Art and 2 in Design.  The School also continues to support a number of Masters by Research fee waivers. Supporting the postgraduate research environment the School has 11 MA programmes entitled ‘Cross-Disciplinary Masters in Art & Design’ acknowledging that the School also has established PG provision of programmes in Architecture. Postgraduate researchers are recognised and valued as essential to the overall research environment to develop high-level research and become members of the academic research community. Additionally the University is actively developing the Huddersfield PGR Experience through a number of initiatives including £75,000 to enable research students to claim up to £500 per project to present at national and international exhibitions and conferences.

Living in a Material World: Researchers' Night at the University of Huddersfield

Friday 23 September 2011 

Living in a Material World is a celebration of the exciting and varied materials research taking place at the University.  With science demonstrations, textile workshops and inspiring talks by world-class scientists. The Night provides the opportunity for the public to learn more about the fascinating world of research into textiles, pharmaceuticals, computing, engineering and health sciences and see how it affects our daily lives. For one night everyone can be a scientist! Researchers' Night is a Europe-wide event bringing together the public and researchers once a year on the fourth Friday of September to celebrate research and show how it impacts on people's lives, events will take place simultaneously in 500 different venues in over 30 countries.  The University of Huddersfield is only one of four institutions in the UK who will be hosting a Researchers' Night event and it is the first one to take place in Yorkshire. Researchers' Night is an opportunity to discover research facilities that are usually not open to the public, to try out state-of-the-art technology, to participate in experiments and to exchange ideas with researchers. Other venues celebrating Researchers' Night in the UK are Natural History Museum in London, The University of Reading and Queen Mary, University of London.

ROTOЯ

ROTOЯ is a two-year programme of exhibitions, public events and talks at Huddersfield Art Gallery featuring the transdisciplinary work of art and design staff from the University of Huddersfield. ROTOЯ showcases a community of artists, designers and curators whose ideas and connective practices migrate and span artistic production, techno-design research, craft and cultural studies. ROTOЯ is located at the pivot between art and design disciplines and society, where points of intersection and engagement are considered and debated from multiple perspectives. The programme signals a unique partnership between Huddersfield Art Gallery and the University of Huddersfield to present a broad spectrum of practices and dialogues. Each exhibition features a number of public events in the form of artist/designer and curator talks, student ambassador tours, reading groups and film screenings.

RADAR

RADAR is published annually by the School of Art, Design and Architecture. The review highlights the interdisciplinary and diverse work taking place in the School, as represented through the selected profiles of our current academics. Encompassing a variety of practices and research interests, RADAR includes a range of early career to established researchers. Its intention is to communicate and signal our research both internally and externally.