Skyping Lima - update!

We held the skype session between Newcastle University 2nd year Fine Art students and Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru Industrial Design and Graphic Design students on Friday 3rd May.

The session allowed the students to hold a live discussion based around their own art work, how their course is structured and what they plan to do after uni. Suzanne gave an overview of the Transporter project and why we were working with the 2nd year students, Kitty Langton (student) gave an overview of the 'Strand' module and what they had learnt so far and how it was helping them develop their artwork and Ella Dorton (student) gave an overview of the Fine Art course and how it is taught in England.

This led onto the Lima students giving an overview of their projects and they both compared the differences with the courses i.e. lima study for 5-6 years and specialise in a specific artform and are not able to work cross artforms like in England. Lima students however have a much stronger focus on learning their skill and perfecting their craft before focussing on their own personal ideas development whereas Newcastle students are much more focussed on the concepts of their artwork and tend to learn specific skills as and when they need to.

The students asked specific questions about each others work and posted comments on the Flickr site which you can find here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/67813410@N05/

We are keen to explore the potential for students to take part in an exchange at each other's universities so that they can benefit from the different approaches to art courses.

regards
Transporter project!!

Skyping Lima!

As part of our 'Strand' project with students from Newcastle University we will be doing a skype exchange with students from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru in Lima this Friday (3rd May).

Suzanne and I visited Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru during our residency in Peru in 2011. During our visit we met with some of the tutors who gave us a tour of the different departments and we talked about various projects that they were working on with their students and local communities  and how these might link with our Transporter project- an example of which can be found at - https://www.facebook.com/ArteSurChincha

The skype exchange will consist of the students commenting on each others work, prior to the skype session, through our Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/67813410@N05/ with further dicussion during the skype exchange itself. We will also be exploring how the students programmes compare and differ and learn about each others culture and how they approach artisitc projects.

Here are some examples of the students work and we will post another update on this once the skype session has taken place!!!

Until next time.....

Transporter project!!

Interesting projects!

Hello again, a quick update from the Transporter Project with a list of projects and websites which you may be interested in....

A great community project building a greenhouse from plastic bottles
http://www.the4csne.com/greenhouse.html

Go back to basics and make your own book!
http://theresaeaston.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/print-book-making-36-lime-street/

Uniting new and old technologies, Yvette Hawkins and Susannah Pickering - whose work incorporates books, poetry and traditional crafts - will start a poem thread on Twitter with clothing as the central theme.
http://www.bookapothecary.co.uk/#!blog/cs0g

An interesting article about sustainability
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/mar/18/environment-reporting-arts-council-sustainability

Northeast Permaculture - Since January 2005, permaculture activists throughout the Northeast have been meeting and actively creating a network for mutually supporting each other and advancing permaculture solutions among the wider public in our area
http://northeasternpermaculture.wikispaces.com/

A link to a great project one of our Newcastle University Fine art students recently attended
http://www.felinuchaf.org/

Enjoy the Easter Weekend!
Transporter Project

Newcastle University 'Strand' Project

We are working with 15 Newcastle University 2nd yr Fine Art students as part of our creative exchange element of the Transporter project. The 'Strand' project, which runs alongside the students studio practice, allows us to share information, knowledge and skills learnt during our time in Peru and Berlin (as well as the developments within our arts practices), with the students to help them develop ideas and new skills.

They’ve had some great ideas and are inspiring us with new ideas too- we are encouraging the students to learn a new skill or develop a body of research on a new area during the Strand. They are responding well to this and some are integrating the project into their studio practice as they discover a new interest or area they wish to work in.

We are uploading images of the students work onto our flickr photostream so please have a look and comment to give them feedback on their ideas so far! http://www.flickr.com/photos/transporterproject/sets/72157633054505042/ Any signposts to artists, books etc to help them with their research is welcomed too!

The Student project aims and learning outcomes are - 

•Develop an understanding of different crafts and skills, what role they play in cultural heritage and whether they can inspire contemporary art

•Gain a greater understanding of other art forms

•Experiment and collaborate with other artists/peers.

•Learn, share skills in arts and crafts such as weaving, paper making, pottery, woodwork etc

•Learn new ways of seeing and doing through cultural exchange and researching their own cultural heritage

•Understand issues surrounding sustaining local and international traditional art forms and cultures

•Develop understanding of sustainable arts practise and broader environmental issues

•Question and explore their relationship to their environment.

•Self direct their studies and research

•Group work and critical feedback

•Create a body of research, ideas and experiments which explore new ground for the student

•Create a ‘resolved’ new art work/design/prototype (either individually or collaboratively) for public showing.

Our first week in Berlin....

We have been in residence at Kunst Stoffe for a week now and already feel inspired by the urban landscape, history of the different districts and the general relaxed attitude to life here. We are staying in Prenzlauer Berg and so far have visited the Bauhaus Museum, East Side Gallery (Berlin Wall), taken part in various workshops relating to reusing materials and preserving our environment as well as spending time taking in architecture and public art by bicycle.

  

When not exploring the city, we have been in the studio creating models and prototypes for various ideas which make links between Berlin and Peru. We are creating a large dome shaped sculpture out of discarded plastic, woven posters and billboard papers and an accompanying sound piece  The piece could be transported to different urban spaces where the viewer can take time out of the city underneath its canopy and listen to the orchestral sounds from the diverse nature in Peru. It is very exciting for us to realise ideas during this residency in Kunst Stoffe for sculptures and installation which were originally conceived in Peru. The interesting aspect is that the piece will (hopefully) have resonance and meaning for both places but for different reasons.

 Our artwork is all being created using the material supplied by Kunst Stoffe#s waste centre and its many rooms filled with everything from plastic toy parts and old jigsaws, to huge reams of paper, wood/metal/cloth and tile rooms filled to the brim and an abundance of electrical and domestic items. The centre is open to the public to purchase materials which are privately donated or received from large companies locally.

 We are exploring the link between nature and the urban environment and the point at which these two co-exist and will be looking to the architecture of Berlin, and its unusually high amount of green spaces (for an urban centre) and creating artwork that reflects this. We are interested in the idea of valuing the handmade, tactile approach to art making and being resourceful in order to highlight ideas around sustainability and what it means to be ‘connected’ to your environment.

Recycling is a normal part of daily life in Berlin rather than an afterthought or a 'chore' and the city has a feeling of resourcefulness and creativity that you don't necessarily see elsewhere; quirky cafes using hay bails as seating, large scale graffiti that are regarded as artwork rather than spoiling the landscape or beach cafes on top of buildings.  This could be due to the high quantity of artists, as there are disused buildings full of studios in abundance and it feels like everyone is always doing something or there is always events/festivals happening not too far away.

SEE OUR FLICKR SITE FOR MORE IMAGES...

LAMAS SIN FRONTERAS / Lamas without Borders - Event review:

To pick up from the last post, and although we’re back in the UK still trying to digest our Peruvian adventure, we will tell you how the Lamas Sin Fronteras event was received on 6^th November.  Firstly, this type of event, mixing art forms - traditional with modern, including participatory activities, was unprecedented in the San Martin region. We organised the event in partnership with Sachaqa Centro De Arte and Proyecto Cultural/Lamas Council (http://www.turismolamas.com/ and http://www.lamastrespisos.com/ ).

The event aimed to celebrate the culture of Lamas and the San Martin Region and bring the idea of different culture and crafts to the forefront of people’s minds. We presented a mix of traditional and modern art practices from the local area as well as from Lima, the UK and Switzerland in order to showcase the differences and similarities. Demonstrations from local artisans sat alongside workshops and exhibitions by students and local and international artists as well as music and traditional dancing from local young people. We also included a presentation of traditional crafts from around the world (by Sam Taylor as part of the en-compass project - www.en-compass.ac.uk) and a demonstration of Yoga which was something brand new to this audience.

100’s of people gathered over the course of the day in Lamas’ main plaza and looked, questioned, learned, relaxed and took part.

Later in the day, after people had time to take everything in and (hopefully) feel inspired, we arranged a Factory Night. This concept involves bringing creative people together in an interesting space, venue or site and allowing them to talk and exchange ideas. It works very well in the UK but we were nervous of how it would be received as people told us that Peruvians are very shy. We needn’t have worried though as after we announced to the crowd the concept of Factory Nights they really got involved. They loved the art materials and spread out all over the plaza and drew, sketched, took photos, it was like a big art making session! It made a great end to the day. Lamas Council was so happy that they want the event to run every year and are set to make it an annual get together of any creative people to exchange ideas and experience art on the street

 
See more images on flickrTRANSPORTERproject

HELLO and INTRODUCTION to theTRANSPORTER project

Hello, welcome to our blog for the Transporter Project!

We hope we can provide an interesting read for those of you who wish to follow us on our adventure - due to start officially in 2 weeks time when we'll be flying off to Peru! See below for more info.... and if you would like to see more images of our research an artwork then please follow us on flickr too

Background:

As artists having grown up during the introduction of the world wide web, the digital age and globalisation, we feel it is just as important to value and utilise the local, handmade, personal side to creativity. We know that the desire for the original and bespoke is a growing market as people begin to understand the impact mass production is having on the environment and local business. It is this interest in getting back to basics, valuing tradition, learned artforms, skilled crafts and working with the environment around us, that has led to the development of 'Transporter'. We want to look, learn and develop new work that goes back to the artist as maker and collaborate with others to raise the profile of local traditions that make an area, place, and country unique.

Overview of project:

The project will allow Suzanne Hutton and Sam Taylor to be artists in residence at Sachaqa Art Centre (SAC) in Peru and deliver an engagement programme. We will conduct research, create new work and explore sustainability; looking at customs, traditional arts practices and skills and their relationship to the environment. We will spend time with SAC's founders, their resident artists and the local communities sharing skills, knowledge and inspirations in order to develop our own arts practises. From this research and dialogue we will create new collaborative art works whilst working on a variety of other projects in Peru.

On our return to the UK we will evaluate our time, continue to develop work in the studio, curate an exhibition and related talk and deliver a number of creative sessions and presentations to artists and students at The Shed Gateshead, Gateshead College, Newcastle University and International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (The En-compass Project) in order to pass on knowledge and gain feedback on what we have learnt. The idea is that this is the 1st Phase in an ongoing research project to collate information about traditional crafts, skills across the world and compare creativity within cultures, whilst highlighting issues around sustainibility and the environment. There is also a FlickR page set up called 'TRANSPORTERproject' which will hopefully act as an online sketchbook where others can comment on our finds.

Main aims of TRANSPORTER project:

• To develop our artistic practise through collaboration with artists (in residence, local artisans and community members), developing new skills in local indigenous artforms and crafts

• Develop links between young people and artists from different countries

• Share and transport knowledge between artists/communities and countries

• Learning new ways of seeing and doing through cultural exchange, researching intangible cultural heritage

• Assisting with development of eco village as a way to research and create new work

• Highlight and raise the profile of sustainable arts practise and people’s relationship to their environment.

• Experiment and promote collaboration across cultures and art form.

• Produce a publication and exhibition as a legacy

• Promote further development exploring the idea of sustainable arts practise and learning from traditions.

• Develop rednile’s international links and Factory Nights programme

This project has been funded by Arts Council England with additional support from rednile projects, Sachaqa Arts Centre Peru, VARC and Newcastle University.