On Thursday 17th August, we’ll have an exciting away day visiting the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality (CCIXR) Technology Centre, Aspex Gallery and studio spaces at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard.
CCIXR is a £7 million Centre which opened last year and is the UK’s first purpose-built facility to bring together a whole suite of the very latest XR technologies under one roof to support innovation in virtual, augmented and extended realities.
CCIXR offers world-class XR training, research and development, addressing a critical skills shortage in this fast-moving industry and supporting the creation of high-value jobs regionally, nationally and beyond.
The UK has a world leading digital economy, is 5th in the global innovation index and currently exports £18 billion in cultural exports. Most recent DCMS data shows the increasing strength of the UK Creative Industries, Digital and Cultural Sectors. Since 2010, Creative Industries in the UK has expanded by over 53%, the Digital Sector by 33% and the Cultural Sector by 38.5%.
To find out more about CCIXR at the University of Portsmouth, please click here.
We'll also visit Aspex Gallery, located in Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays, behind the Loch Fyne restaurant in the historic Vulcan Building.
Their current exhibition, ☰pa●○pa☴, Rae-Yen Song is a show which brings together drawing, sculpture, costume, moving image and family collaboration. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s father, shining a light on a life that resisted colonial realities and found an alternative way of being through paths of Eastern spiritualism, science fiction, video gaming, and 1970s psychedelia.
The exhibition features a new moving image work created in collaboration with Song’s father, and using volumetric video filmed at the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Realities (CCIXR). Experimented further through gaming technologies, it depicts the artist’s father practising his Tai Chi routine, wearing a costume and mask made by Song. These garments are multi-functional, serving as both robes and armour. They simultaneously imply performance and anonymity, exposure and refuge – and are exhibited here as sanctified relics. The moving image is presented as a view through a portal – a transportative opening, which we can see but through which we cannot pass.
More info on the exhibition can be found here.
We'll be joined by Ricardo Reverón Blanco, Curator & Programme Manager for Aspex to show us around the exhibition and talk more about their current opportunities supporting artists and creatives through 121s - which is also available to Isle of Wight based artists!
Our final stop will be at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard to visit two very different studio spaces.
Artist Pete Codling is a contemporary British Artist based in Portsmouth with a portfolio in charcoal drawing, public art and sculpture. He was recently commissioned by Southampton City Art Gallery for ‘Creative Connections Southampton’ which brings together collections by the National Portrait Gallery & Southampton City Art Gallery exploring and celebrating people whose stories are linked to Southampton. Pete Codling worked with students from Cantell School in Southampton to explore these works through portraiture using charcoal. He also presented ‘Kinship’ - a large-scale drawing inspired by the local story of 4,000 child refugees from the Basque country arriving in Southampton by steam ship during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
Those that came along on the Southampton away day will remember the artist talk which he gave at the gallery. This is a brilliant opportunity to learn more about Pete's creative practice, commissions and take a sneak peak inside his studio.
Also at the Historic Dockyard are Creative Producers Crying Out Loud. Crying Out Loud bring memorable experiences from extraordinary visual theatre makers to audiences of all ages across the UK. Since its inception in 2002, Crying Out Loud has toured productions, created development opportunities for artists, curated seasons and festivals, founded networks and developed one-off special events.
Their space makes for a really interesting case study for anyone looking at historic sites to use for studio space. Crying Out Loud's Artistic Director, Rachel Clare is a resident on the Isle of Wight and have been working with partners to bring a new performance to this year's Ventnor Fringe - 'Taroo'. A Parkour and circus comedy show telling stories from streets all over the world. With a fusion of acrobatics, Chinese pole and urban street moves. Performed and created by Moroccan circus artist Said Mouhssine – a free runner, stage director, actor and stuntman and featuring local young people in a special collaboration with Sasha Biloshisky’s Funk Format.
So, if you're interested in new digital technologies, visual and immersive arts, and artist studios in historic sites - then this away day will be right up your street!
The ferry travel for this away day is very kindly supported by Wightlink.
Spaces are limited to x20 for this away day - so don't delay in booking your place by 14th Aug.
