Welcome to the Writing-PAD Centre Wales.

WritingPAD Wales Symposium 2011 and JWCP articles for Volume 4 issues 2 and 3

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the 2011 Writing-PAD Wales symposium held at Swansea Metropolitan University on 1 April. Everyone who presented papers and those who attended the full day to co-write articles will be put forward for a special Wales double issue of the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice (JWCP). This event celebrated and promoted writing that is happening in art, design and performance across Wales, with delegates from A&D institutions
across the Writing PAD network.



Information for co-writing participants. Please prepare for Friday 8th April:

We now need a few things from your team of co-writers:
Could your contact send us 3 things:

1. a list of who is in your group
2. the title of your article for JWCP
3. The time/date you have arranged to exchange emails.

Reminder:
Can you be ready to send your email of (anything that you want to share with your co-writers) up to 1000 words on your chosen question
to each other at an agreed time on Friday 8th April.

Please note down the deadline for completed articles for JWCP volume 4, issue 3, of June 3rd 2011.

Information for presenters.

The final deadline for your completed articles of up to 5000 words, for JWCP volume 4, issue 2, is April 21st 2011.

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Archive: Structure of the day:

9.45am: coffee.

10.15am: Welcome from Professor Andrea Liggins,
Dean of the Faculty of Art & Design, Swansea Metropolitan University

Introduction and mapping of the day from Julia Lockheart,
Writing PAD Director, Goldsmiths, University of London

10.30am: cultural props: All delegates are asked to bring and present examples of their own writing tools (2-3 minutes each):

1. A tool for preparation/research/developing general ideas;

2. A tool for drafting or writing/ narrowing ideas

3. A tool for editing

These tools are to swiftly communicate something of the your writing process to the group and can be as imaginative, open and fun as possible. It is hoped that by a discussion of these tools we will all get some understanding of colleagues' writing styles which will be focussed on in the later collaborative session at 3pm.

11.00am – presentation strands begin.
15-20 mins per presentation given back-to-back. After presentations there will be 20 minutes of discussion. We will have a wall of post-its with possible ideas for writing questions/research ideas.

11.00am - Strand 1:
Brian Fagence (Glamorgan) Writing art, revealing distinctive modes. How may storytelling and scriptwriting reveal the distinctiveness of form for one media amongst many? This study will explore the processes of creative writing used in the transmedia development of The Fallow Narratives, to expose, explain and develop our understandings of other modes of communication from their (often) textual beginnings.
Richard Knapp (SMU) - Developing the narratives of the disengaged - a discussion of the Beacons for Wales funded Teen Talkback Theatre project in which students and staff at SMU used writing for performance techniques to develop a performance with young people from Barnardo's Cymru. The presentation will also discuss future plans to use digital storytelling techniques with Students and the young people from Barnardo's to record their experiences of engagement.

12.15am - Strand 2:
Desdemona McCannon (Glyndwr) - Towards the Hybrid Essay. Illustration is a discipline that uses text as a springboard for imaginative exploration of knowledge. My paper will look at evidence-based ‘Visual Essay’ workshops with students at NWSAD (Glyndwr). These explored visual strategies for organising and editing research and for fostering critical vocabularies.

Annie Grove-White, (co-writer, Kirsten Hardie) (UWIC/Bournemouth) - This session aims to explore and share the collaborative work of two UK Graphic Design courses that have created a unique undergraduate research symposium to help students develop and disseminate their final year dissertation.
The session considers how the symposium can help to advance and celebrate learning; how it can develop communication skills, confidence and student responsibility and pride in their work. Through illustrative examples and student evaluations it considers how students’ creative skills are used to develop presentations and posters to communicate their research to colleagues cross institution. It questions if students and staff can better understand research when it is shared visually and liberated from its traditional written-only manifestation read by few.

1.15pm Lunch and networking - over lunch we will encourage discussion about the wall of questions. We hope to create a number of possible co-writing groups. (we would like your help)

2.00pm - Strand 3
Mary Davies, (co-writer, Howard Riley) (SMU)
- The Visual Dissertation: Further Thoughts: This paper presents a review of a series of case studies into students working with the Visual Dissertation, a form of assessment offered to students studying in the School of Art and Design. The review is contextualised in the current debate on cognitive style as a construct, with particular reference to the Visual Cognitive Style and its influence on how students learn. Finally, it considers future avenues of research for this fruitful area of research.

Kene Igweonu (SMU) - Writing as/for/in performance (open to the possibility of collaborating with any other participant interested in the theme).

3.00 - Towards collaboration: Workgroups to explore possibilities for collaborative writing themes and develop writing projects.


4.30 - Plenary session in which ideas are presented by representatives
from writing groups.




5.00 - end of day; (refreshments, drinks, nibbles included at appropriate points)



Short Biogs for the presenters:

Dr Mary Davies is a Study Support Tutor at Swansea Metropolitan University, Wales, U.K. Her research includes collaborative projects and publications focusing on links between students learning difficulties and cognitive style in the School of Art and Design. Current interests, linked to her teaching practice, is in approaches to developing students’ academic writing in a workshop setting.

Brian Fagence is a lecturer of Critical Studies and Scriptwriting in the Division of Animation, University of Glamorgan. He has lectured for eleven years in animation and moving image studies. His current PhD research explores how story and script creation engages with and may reveal of animation and transmedia development.

Annie Grove-White is Director of Student Development and a Principal Lecturer in BA Graphic Communication at Cardiff School of Art and Design, UWIC, Cardiff. She holds a National Teaching Fellowship of the University of Wales and is using that opportunity to establish an All-Wales Centre for Creative Pedagogy in Art and Design with other colleagues across Wales. Her research interests are particularly in learning and teaching in art and design and include the effectiveness and value of audio assessment, and how heuristic tasks can promote student creativity.

Kirsten Hardie is a HEA National Teaching Fellow and Principal Lecturer, Arts University College at Bournemouth. Kirsten’s teaching, scholarship and research operates across a range of diverse fields internationally. Her activities extend to a significant number of collaborative and advisory roles across HE, including External Examinerships and committee membership of numerous organisations.

Kene Igweonu is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He teaches performing arts at Swansea Metropolitan University where he is also the Coordinator of the Centre for Innovative Performance Practice and Research - CiPPR. His current research and practice focus particularly on somatic practices in performance training, issues of identity in performance and cross-art practices.

Dr. Richard Knapp is the Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Humanities and Head of the School of Performance and Literature at Swansea Metropolitan University. His main areas of interest are Community Engagement and Shakespeare as dramaturg. Dr Knapp developed numerous community-based projects involving staff and students at SMU. His most recent work has been with Barnardo's in theTeen Talk Back Theatre project funded by the Beacons for Wales initiative.

Desdemona McCannon is Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture at NWSAD (Glyndwr), delivering the core critical and contextual modules. She also teaches Illustration at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The challenges inherent in teaching the divergent skill sets associated with creative and critical thinking led to the ‘Visual Essay Project’, the subject of her presentation.


Howard Riley is Professor of Visual Communication and Head of the School of Research & Postgraduate Studies at the Dynevor Centre for Arts, Design & Media, Swansea Metropolitan University, Wales, UK. He has published in the areas of visual semiotics, generative art and multi-modality. His drawings have been exhibited in Australia, Malaysia, Finland and the UK.

Contact:

Jo Walter
Faculty of Art and Design / Cyfadran Celf a Dylunio
Dynevor Centre for Art, Design and Media / Canolfan Celf, Dylunio a'r Cyfryngau Dinefwr
Swansea Metropolitan University / Prifysgol Fetropolitan Abertawe


Julia Lockheart
WritingPAD Director
Senior Lecturer Centre for English Language and Academic Writing
Goldsmiths, University of London

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