MA Week 58 - “Changing Lives” : the 9th Manchester Metropolitan University PGR conference

Reflection on “Changing Lives” : the 9^th Manchester Metropolitan University PGR conference, 22^nd February 2017

Getting there and setting up

And so the big day arrived. I wasn't sure if my swollen foot and my stamina would last the day out, but in the event they did. It was an early start but I made it to Manchester in good time. A couple of unexpected problems: the boards were not the tall ones I'd been promised and there were no name labels. I worked with what I had although the pieces would have looked better if I could have hung them higher.

 

Feeling quite proud next to my installation

 

Attending some of the talks

There were two viewing and judging phases for the artworks, so I did a bit of mingling and attended some of the talks. I fell into conversation with, and subsequently attended a talk by, a Healthcare Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) called Lorna. She had used phenomenology to generate a methodology to investigate nurses' experiences of the quality of patient care. Her work involved being-ness and what it means "to be". It was fascinating to think that some similar ideas and approaches underpinned both her research and my own. Does the recognition of this open an entry route for interdisciplinary research?

Speaking of interdisciplinary researchers - so was the first keynote speaker, Sam Illingworth, a Science Communication lecturer at MMU. He used one slide for his 40 minute keynote, which was impressive! A former physicist, he realised the need to communicate how science can empower society and to interact with people using that "science". He uses poetry and broke into verse several times during the talk. He was hugely engaging and clearly a natural performer. The only thing that grated was his use of the terms "experts" and "non-experts" when talking about co-creating knowledge (the latest research buzzphrase, evidently). The “experts” are the scientists, e.g. researching flooding, and the “non-experts” are the people who experience whatever the experts are investigating, e.g. having their houses flooded. To my mind it's the other way round.

Some of the lightning talks (3 minutes and one slide to explain your research) were interesting. Most of them had too much information on the slide in my humble opinion. The one that won had a picture of a water lily and a message about happiness. The research was about pain management and trying to restore happiness. Well thought out and accessible.

I also attended one of the sessions of talks in the afternoon and learnt variously about the North West’s early motor clubs, the role of public libraries in delivering life long learning activities, and the novel “Fight Club”. Such an incredible variety of research and all really interesting, particularly the Libraries talk.

 

Meeting others: engaging with other attendees

After Lorna’s talk in the morning I went back to my installation. I was right at the back of the artists’ area and I felt like it was the worst position, but there was little I could do about it. I would have liked much more footfall round the exhibition. My main aims were (a) to invite people comment on what they saw in the pieces, and (b) to canvass opinion about whether the paintings and the prints worked together or were too disparate.

 

Looking down on the exhibition space
My installation was right at the back, near the red framework

 

My first conversation was with Kathryn, a Manchester-based artist who is interested in Psychogeography. She picked up on the fact that the paintings formed a map, which I was pleased about, and commented that the prints had a kind of texture, like fabric, and that they looked like they could be unpicked. Another conversation, with Chloe, a sports science PGR, provided another viewpoint. She thought of the paintings as a journey; the map might depict a physical journey, which is responded to via the colours of the painting at the higher level, and then by the "tiles" at the most detailed level. So plenty of food for thought from those two conversations.

Both Kathryn and Chloe thought the paintings and prints worked fine together, as did Philippa, a fashion PGR who was exhibiting next to me and who is investigating the gendering of clothing.

I had a long conversation with a PGR called Jennie from MMU who is also using psychogeographical techniques, but responding via poetry rather than visual means. It was fantastic to speak to someone who “got” what I was trying to do and who did something similar but using a different genre to create outcomes.

Mohammad is a pharmacology PGR at Aston University. I struggled to explain my process and my research to him; I think he expected the map in the paintings to be literal and wasn’t clear why it wasn’t. It made me realise what an Arty/Psychogeographical bubble I’ve got myself into! A learning point. I was gratified, though, that a physical science student like him made the effort to visit the art exhibition.

The main part of my installation that people were drawn to were the tiles. I hung back from my display a bit and saw an international student have a good look at them, and another touch them. There is something tactile about the tiles and this is definitely an area to take forward.

 

Meeting others: talking with other artists

It felt like it was a really nice group of artists exhibiting – twelve in all - and everyone seemed to be showing something quite different. A few of the others had more interactive exhibits than mine, and these generated more interest amongst the attendees. I could see why - being able to do or handle or experience something is probably more interesting than looking at something.

One of the artists, Stacey, is using art to interact with dementia patients in care homes. She has been making and collecting a series of objects to open up conversations with such people and has also created a wallpaper backdrop, intended to simulate a familiar lounge environment. Her installation effectively formed a pop-up front room and I sat there with her for a while, which was lovely and calm.

Another artist, Lin, was doing something with the sentience of plants. Her installation was interactive and very popular. A designer called Sean from the University of Huddersfield is investigating ways of simplifying and extending Braille, and invited everyone to write their name in Braille.

"Ann" in Braille

 

 One of the most interesting conversations was with Howard, who is investigating the gentrification of Elephant & Castle in London using drawing. He is using processes of mark making and erasure to depict the palimpsest of uses of the area. His work is quite psychogeographically based. We had both found it difficult to do text based research (reading/writing) alongside visually creative work. There seemed to be some real similarities in our work and our approaches, which is probably why this particular conversation was so interesting.

Summary of feedback and reflections

• It was a long, tiring day but interesting and useful
• Take everything I need to put up the work, including laminated abstracts
• I need to be much clearer in my explanation of my processes and outcomes for non-artist audiences – “escape the bubble” of my own specialisms
• Lots of researchers are interested in place/space/psychogeography- this is good!
• Think about doing something more interactive next time??
• The tiles were the most successful part of my installation 
• The paintings and the prints work fine together and there is no tension about exhibiting two different media side by side