Hugh Baird University Centre undergraduates create history
First year, Digital Imaging and Photography Foundation Degree undergraduates from the Hugh Baird University Centre, recently took a trip to meet Turner Prize nominee Ciara Phillips at Crosby library to help with a project she is currently working on called the ‘Press Room’.
Ciara has been nominated for her solo exhibition at The Showroom, London after creating all kinds of prints from screen prints and textiles to photos and wall paintings. Ciara often works collaboratively, transforming local community venues such as Crosby library.
The ‘Press Room’ is a participatory project using the daily newspapers and online sources, to make a day-by-day record of press coverage leading up to the 29th March 2019, the date set for Britain to exit Europe. The aim of the project is to create a historic piece of art that will be featured in a dedicated room at Crosby library which will become a space for daily observations, cutting, pasting, scanning and copying a wide range of news materials. Each day, a large, printed page will be created and displayed for visitors. By the end of March, a hardbound book documenting the month of news ‘as-it-happened’ by the people involved, will be printed as a record for years to come with the help of Hugh Baird University Centre undergraduates.
Tadhg Devlin, Hugh Baird University Centre, Digital Imaging and Photography Lecturer, said:
This was a fantastic opportunity for the students to work with an internationally recognised artist and to be a part of an interesting and creative project involving members of the local community leading up to the Brexit date. It also challenged their notions of the mainstream media and how stories are represented in these unique times that we live in. By working with Ciara it has made them question their own ways of working and pushed them both intellectually and creatively.
The three-hour session was an opportunity for the students to record and witness the UK’s news coverage as the month progresses. Ciara also taught the students different styles of art and made them evaluate their work and learn tips and tricks that Ciara has learnt along the way.
Gavin Trafford, Hugh Baird University Centre Digital Imaging and Photography Foundation Degree undergraduate, said:
The ‘Press Room’ was a really interesting project to get involved with, it made us look at the news under a microscope and come up with our own interpretation of today’s current affairs. From a photography point of view, it's good to interpret the pictures in each newspaper, depending on their bias.
The Digital Imaging and Photography Foundation Degree is approved by the University of Central Lancashire. For more information on our creative degree courses, please visit: www.hughbaird.ac.uk/subject-area/creative-industries or alternatively call 0151 353 4444.
