digital surface

The Personalised Surface within Fine Art Digital Printmaking
Symposium

Wednesday 4th July 2007
Chelsea College of Art & Design

The symposium The Personalised Surface within Fine Art Digital Printmaking, was held at Chelsea College of Art & Design on Wednesday 4th July 2007, to mark the beginning of the two year research project of the same name, funded through the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The intention was to stage this symposium at the beginning of the project in order to engage key individuals and institutions from the outset with the ideas of the project and to open up means to exchange knowledge and ideas with that community as the project develops. In this way, dissemination is built into the project rather than be seen as an aspect of reporting at the end.

The symposium brought together eight prominent speakers to bring their insights to the issues of the symposium. They were, in order of presentations, Brad Faine, Director of Coriander Studio, Gill Saunders Senior Curator (Prints)Word & Image Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, Dr Paul Thirkell, Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE, Professor Naren Barfield, Head of Research and Postgraduate Studies, Glasgow School of Art, Professor John Hyatt, Director of MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University, Tim Head, Artist and lecturer Slade School of Art UCL, Dr Tim O’Riley, AHRC Research Fellow, Chelsea College of Art & Design, and Peter Kennard, Senior Tutor Photography, RCA and his collaborating partner, Cat Picton Phillipps.

The symposium was conducted before an invited audience of approx 40 academics, artists, curators and research students, from across the country. In total 11 HEI’s were represented alongside representatives from Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, ICA, Northern Print, Tate and the V&A. Participation was encouraged through the structure of the event, with chaired discussions at the end of each pair of presentations and ample time allowed for networking and informal conversations. All speakers were invited to join a plenary session at the close of the event.

Evaluation results gathered from participants indicate that the event was very well received. From a total of 26 submissions received, 97% felt the presentations were very good/excellent, 89% rated the level of debate as very good/excellent, and 93% evaluated the symposium overall as very good/excellent.

Paul Coldwell