“The Long Take” by Robin Robertson, a novel in verse on post-war America, is the winner of the 2018 Goldsmiths Prize, which rewards fiction “that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form”. The winner was announced yesterday in a ceremony at the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, and received a trophy made (as in previous years) by Goldsmiths Design students.
You can read more about “The Long Take” and its author on the Goldsmiths website.
For their first brief on the BA Design course, first year students were asked to choose, analyse and define a V&A collection, whether materially, conceptually, politically, or in terms of use or meaning. They were then asked to design one more object that belongs with the collection based on their rationale. Here are some photos from the mini-show exhibiting the outcomes:
The brief is a first reflection on the sessions students have undertaken previously this term in two weeks of introductory Technical Studies, and one week of Methods and Processes. More photos of the exhibition can be found on Flickr.
D//U//A//T, the BA Design final project by Charlie Witter and Tom Gavriel, resulted in a musical performance unlike any other at this year’s graduation show. You can watch the performance in the video above, but what’s the idea and the process behind it? Tom explains:
“The performance was the culmination of a chaotic passage through a shared project which deals with mythic patterns and unconscious wanderings.
Charlie and Tom started to work together once a week by making t-shirts based on characters they would meet along their travels; this would later become an integral part of their practice. In order to further bring their stories and characters to life, they enlisted a group of musicians over Gumtree to become the troubadours of their tales. This group included superhero rapper Mr.Grimez, actor Frederick Roll, guitarist Vitaly Yasinsky and Richard Winstanley from ‘Baffy the Band’. In the first session they entered blindly, with no musical experience, but have become excited about the creation of spectacle and noise.
The creation and seeking out of weird and eerie artefacts has also driven their practice, and for Frederick, the lead tragedian of the tale, backed by his travelling band, they have created a sonic trolley which records and projects cosmic sounds into ordinary spaces.
Moving forward, we are excited to announce this is our first contact made with reality, and there is plenty more to come. D//U//A//T are looking for a band manager, money and the final couple of members for the travelling band to join us on our voyage into the unconscious.
We would also like to thank all of the members of staff at Goldsmiths Design Department – this has only been possible due to the freedom of exploration fuelled within the course.
Finally; we are crazy and we’re not going anywhere.”
You can hear more of the team’s studio sessions on Soundcloud, follow them on Instagram and Facebook, or email them at milesfromsoup@gmail.com.
At last week’s BA Design show M-O-D, visitors had the chance to see an unique eight-minute performance, designed by Liakike Robi for her graduation project and performed by Tru Peñate. #Habitus is a performative dance installation about social media and how it increasingly occupies our daily life, subconsciously affecting our mood and behaviour. Here is the designer herself explaining how the project came to be:
Why did you decide to design a dance performance for your final project?
“I was just following my intuition and passion for dance. At the end of my second year at Goldsmiths University, I knew I wanted to work with dancers for my final project. I’ve also always wanted to continue my practice as a designer in the field of stage and set design. So it made sense to me that the outcome should be something that would combine these two. I had a quite clear vision of what my project had to look like, however, the concept for the performance was more complicated.”
Do you have any experience with dance yourself?
“Before coming to London I was in one dance company back in Lithuania, while on the side collaborating with local artists creating performances in gallery spaces. Here in London, I still go to various dance classes, like breaking, new style hustle, house or jazz. Of course, the preparation for the exhibition and exam slowed down my own practice.”
What was it like to work on designing the performance with your performer?
“Working with another person with a different background is absolutely amazing. On this design course, we are encouraged to work in groups and collaborate. The challenging part of this project was showing that a dance performance can also be a design project- and building a language between me and the dancer, building the piece and making her see the project more as a designer, rather than a dancer.”
Goldsmiths Design Blog 