As an introduction to the FE course at UCA, Farnham we invited students to the University to take part in a taster day. The schedule included presentations from FE staff on their own practice as artists, designers & practitioners, an opportunity to see some student journal/research files & sketchbooks, a brief introduction to the course, a tour of the campus, a presentation on previous students projects and a project that used the idea of 'self' or 'identity' as its primary inspiration.
Making life-sized heads using a sense of touch alone to describe the form and structure of a head, each student used a range of limited materials including wire, string, tape, straws and pipe cleaners. These 'heads' were then suspended in groups around each studio and a series of drawing tasks as a collaborative exercise took place.
Initially each group of six students worked on one large drawing before coming together as a whole to make one long continuous drawing on a very long sheet of paper. Using line only to describe form in the initial drawings before being asked to work on top of these images in 'negative space' tone only a detailed vibrant and at times quite tribal looking composite image was created.
Exercise 1: Large-scale collaborative continuous line drawing in groups of six. Each student is using a different media of their choice.
Exercise 2: Large-scale collaborative continuous line and negative-space tonal drawing as whole group. Again, each student is using a different media of their choice.
Thanks to everyone who attended, we look forward to seeing you in September 2013.
On behalf of the FE Team,
Chris Roberts (Course Leader for Further Education)