Tag Archives: Glasgow School of Art

Glasgow School of Art in photos

The Glasgow Reporter was shocked to see the devastation that the fire wreaked on the beautiful Glasgow School of Art (GSA) building, even now some two months after the event. We are sure you will be too if you have not yet had the opportunity of visiting the site. The street outside remains cordoned off and the building closed.

The GSA has set up the Mackintosh Appeal which it explained would help the school be rebuilt:-

The Mackintosh Building suffered a major fire on 23rd May. This appeal is designed to provide philanthropic support to enable the School to recover.

The Mackintosh Building is the heart of the Campus at The Glasgow School of Art, home to many of our fine art students and an integral part of our collective identity. On Friday 23rd May a fire caused significant damage to this iconic building.

It is not yet clear what the financial need shall be, but it is likely to be significant. This appeal will solicit and accept funds from Trusts, Companies and Individuals in the UK and around the world that will be applied at the discretion of the Board of Governors in the most appropriate way in response to this situation. a.horn@gsa.ac.uk

You can donate online through the Big Give.

Peter Capaldi, the latest Doctor Who and an alumnus of the GSA has filmed a video message to staff and students at the GSA just after the fire.

A Message to The Glasgow School of Art from Peter Capaldi from The Glasgow School of Art on Vimeo.

Digital Health Institute unveiled

Leave a reply

Scotland’s new Digital Health Institute unveiled

Scotland’s pioneering Digital Health Institute, a consortium in which the GSA’s Institute of Design Innovation is a key partner, was officially launched in Edinburgh earlier this week to an audience of leading figures in the global healthcare sector and multi-national technology companies.

The DHI, a collaborative partnership between public and private organisations, brings together the country’s leading health and care operators and engages technology businesses across Europe, the United States and Asia to speed up research and development in order to produce innovative new technologies that will transform the quality of people’s lives and help Scotland become an exporter of world-leading products and services.

The event was attended by John Connaghan, Acting Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Director General for Health and Social Care for the Scottish Government and Graeme Dixon, Director-General Enterprise, Environment & Digital, as well as representatives of international companies such as Samsung Electronics, IBM, Philips, Deutch Telekom Celesio, Continua Health Alliance and Lockheed Martin in addition to Scottish based organisations and businesses.

The delegates were given an insight into the DHI’s rapid prototyping model and shown examples of products and services already in the development pipeline, including award-winning video software company Seetok Limited and the ‘BabySam’ pilot which is soon to roll out a secure way for mothers to connect with their babies in neonatal intensive care units being produced in collaboration with Samsung.

The DHI, which is a consortium partnership between the University of Edinburgh, The Institute of Design Innovation at The Glasgow School of Art and NHS 24, is supported by a £10 million five-year investment from the Scottish Funding Council.

Its long-term goal is to use digital technology to tackle the increasing demands on the health and care system in Scotland caused by an ageing population, while at the same time producing a direct economic benefit by securing a share of the global digital health marketplace.

By 2018 the DHI aims to establish Scotland as a world-leading centre of excellence in the field and help produce up to 140 new commercial products and services that will benefit society.

Professor George Crooks, Chairman of the Digital Health Institute and Medical Director, NHS 24 said: “A great deal of effort has been put in by all of the partners in DHI to establish a truly innovative organisation that will have a major impact on health in Scotland. By bringing together best practice from Scotland’s academic and business sectors then collaborating with the world’s leading technology companies and Scottish SMEs we can transform efficiency, improve patient care and solve long-standing issues in the healthcare sector. We already have a number of exciting projects underway and we will see the number increase further now that we are officially open for business.”

BC Cho, Head of Global Enterprise Business Team, Samsung Electronics said: “We have established a unique partnership in Scotland and are already taking the first concrete steps towards exciting new innovations in mobile healthcare. The Samsung team has worked closely with the Digital Health Institute and its partners to understand the particular requirements of health and care, and then help turn them into solutions with value to the organisations and – most importantly – the people who will use them. We look forward to a productive relationship in the years ahead.”

Professor Stuart Anderson, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics, said: “We are delighted to be hosting this initiative, which is an opportunity for Scottish expertise in health and care delivery, medicine, informatics, business models and design to work together with industry to help achieve fit-for-purpose integrated health and care in the coming decades.”

Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam of The Glasgow School of Art said: “The DHI is a transformational platform for creating business, academic, and public service benefits. The Glasgow School of Art is proud to be a partner in this enterprise, bringing our expertise in Design to direct innovation in the DHI Experience Labs.”

Alan Stewart, CEO of Seetok said, “We saw the potential of the DHI from outset and have been engaged from its inception. The team have been extremely active in making vital connections and introductions. The DHI looks to be about generating real business opportunities – a very welcomed direct approach. This helps introduce small, innovative companies like us to large scale opportunities, partnerships or collaboration projects where we would otherwise not appear on the radar.”

Background information on DHI is available at http://www.dhi-scotland.com

St Kilda to be recorded in 3D

Leave a reply

One of Scotland’s most remote and spectacular locations is to be recorded in 3D.

A team of experts from the Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation (CDDV), a partnership between Historic Scotland and Glasgow School of Art, have travelled to the UNESCO World Heritage site of St. Kilda to begin digitally laser scanning the site, which lies 41 miles off the Scottish mainland.

Work is expected to take two weeks and will include scanning of the physical make up of St. Kilda as well as the main structures on the islands such as the blackhouses and 19th Century dwellings in Village Bay. The team will also record the more remote archaeological remains of the Amazon’s House and Callum Mor’s House.

The site is being laser scanned as part of the Scottish Ten project, a ground breaking initiative which uses cutting edge technology to digitally record all five of Scotland’s world heritage sites and five international sites in order to better conserve and manage them.

By using the most advanced laser scanning technology, the team can develop exceptionally accurate, down to the millimetre, 3 dimensional archival records of some of the world’s most spectacular heritage sites. This can be used to monitor changes to the structures as well as providing the basis for remote access, education and interpretation resources to allow a much wider audience to experience many of the world’s heritage sites.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop said:-

“The Scottish Ten is a hugely important project, not only for Scotland but also on an international basis.

“Heritage crosses boundaries and tells the story of peoples and nations. Scotland’s expertise in digitally documenting historical sites is providing tangible benefits at both home and abroad and this project will continue to increase our understanding of and help to better care for heritage sites around the world.

“St Kilda is a truly fascinating site by its very remoteness, its stunning landscape and the physical landmarks left by the people who shaped it and I very much look forward to seeing the results of this ground breaking work.”

As part of the trip the team will be using terrestrial laser scanners, GNSS devices and 360% photography to digitally create a detailed 3D model. This will take the form of a two week period of fieldwork followed by processing, examination and interpretation of the data.

David Mitchell, Director of Conservation for Historic Scotland said:-

“St. Kilda poses a number of challenges for the team in terms of its physical make-up, however that it what makes it so exciting.

“We plan to conduct phased fieldwork over the course of the trip which will look at the island’s geographic environment as well as some of its most recognisable structures.

“The technology will allow us to record a never seen before level of detail into the island and its structures which we hope will greatly enhance our understanding of St. Kilda.”

The team has also commissioned airborne LiDAR scanning of the islands which has never been attempted before.

Doug Pritchard, Head of Visualisation at Glasgow School of Art said:-

“The LIDAR scanning has the potential to bring a new dimension to our knowledge of St. Kilda.

“Many parts of the islands are inaccessible by foot so we are looking at accessing a number of areas that have never been surveyed before which could provide some really interesting material about the island and how it developed.”

The island is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland who in partnership with the Ministry of Defence and Scottish Natural Heritage runs a continuing programme of conservation and research on the islands.

Susan Bain, the National Trust for Scotland’s St. Kilda Property Manager said:-

“We are delighted to welcome representatives from Historic Scotland and Glasgow School of Art to St. Kilda.

“This technology has the potential to increase our opportunities to share the island with a much wider audience than ever before and we very much look forward to receiving the finished data.”

By All Means Necessary – Glasgow School of Art

Leave a reply

An innovative student exhibition sparks the interest of ‘arty types.’

Friday 22 April saw Glasgow’s art lovers flock to the top floor studio at uber-cool hangout, The Art School, to witness a special exhibition of recent work by artists Jackson Marlette and Robin Leishman.

The two students in their final year at Glasgow School of Art put together the unique event, calling it By All Means Necessary, in a matter of weeks, and greeted the many guests with a cold beer and a polite eagerness to discuss the concept for the exhibition:-

“The idea was to show that massively differing personal inspirations can sit side by side in a harmonious habitat through linking imagery,” said Robin.

“We wanted to show that art doesn’t need to be consciously curated together to work collaboratively in this sort of space. There just needs to be an overlap in passion to allow the work to make sense together, and in our case what links our work is the psychology, imagery and military motifs.”

Indeed, walking into the exhibition space, sparse but for the adorned walls, visitors were confronted with two very different fine art styles.

Jackson Marlette’s work used primarily paint and spray paint on canvas (materials that are sometimes considered ‘primitive’ in a contemporary sense), and focused on memory and paranoia.

The most striking aspect of his work was the imagery of guerrilla militia and live arms, set against a background of vivid primary colours and erratic brush strokes to create a contrast between the unsettling and the childish. Needless to say, the result was disturbing, yet captivating.

Like Jackson, Robin’s work also focused on childhood and memory, however the materials used in his case included photography, and pine and steel etchings.

A favourite among visitors was a mural of photographs showing toy soldiers carrying a wounded comrade away on a stretcher. The photos had been stitched together with thread to create one large, touching scene.

Robin said: “I wanted to explore the relationship that we all form with inanimate objects in order to stimulate an organic memory of the past.”

“It’s privately a shrine to the memory of my father. By using the military toys that he once played with as a child, I was hoping to create a bridge to a man that I never knew by developing a relationship with his possessions, and using their motifs to engage in a visual dialogue.”

If the effect of By All Means Necessary was to show that different styles of art can exist in the same space harmoniously, linked only by one single inspiration, then the brief was undoubtedly met.

Guests at the exhibition marvelled at the unique notion of a joint showcase, and Leishman and Garrett have certainly caught the attention of Glasgow’s art luvvies, which will surely stand both artists in great stead for the future.

You can next see Robin Leishman and Jackson Marlette’s work displayed at the Glasgow School of Art’s Fine Art degree show from June 11- 18.

Scotland on show in Oklahoma

Leave a reply

Scotland’s leading innovation in conservation and digital technology will be showcased at the World Creativity Forum in Oklahoma City on 16th and 17th November.

David Mitchell, Director of Conservation at Historic Scotland and Doug Pritchard, Head of Visualisation of Glasgow’s Design Studio have been invited to present their work in digitally documenting and visualising cultural heritage. Their work came to international attention when a joint team scanned the four presidents of the United States at Mount Rushmore this year.

This is part of the Scottish Ten project which uses cutting-edge technology to create exceptionally accurate digital models of Scotland’s five UNESCO designated World Heritage Sites and five international sites.

Scotland is a member of the Districts of Creativity, a network of 12 creative and innovative areas stretching from the USA, through Europe to India and China. The forum will bring together participants from 34 US States and 14 countries who will be focusing on a number of topics looking at creativity and innovation.

Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture said: “It is great to see Scotland showcase this innovative technology on a world stage.

“This cutting-edge digital technology will help preserve important historic sites for future generations and will encourage the development of new international partnerships in the areas of culture, tourism and technology.”

David Mitchell said; “The international community knows Scotland for its culture and perhaps for its technological innovation in the past – we are keen to show that Scotland remains a dynamic and innovative country that is respectful of its cultural heritage but can also use it as a springboard into the future.”

Doug Pritchard said: “Glasgow School of Art and Historic Scotland have created a wonderful partnership which brings together two public bodies and in some respects divergent skill sets to create something innovative and exciting. As a Canadian with Scots blood it is exciting for me to part of this and continue the legacy of innovation – Glasgow School of Art is known the world over and we hope for a positive reception”.