The Lansdown Centre leads research in areas where technology combines with creative activity. We investigate how technology transforms expression and interaction.

Research takes place at all levels: MA, MPhil, PhD and post-doctoral.

Staff research feeds into the teaching of the Media Arts programmes. Staff and students exhibit, perform, publish and present work internationally.

The Lansdown Centre provides a stimulating place to develop projects and explore the research themes of the future.

The Centre also hosts the Lansdown Lectures which deal with a wide range of issues arising from the relationship between technology and creative work.

Below are news items from recent research activities. See also Research Projects in the left-hand menu. See Study for MPhil or PhD if you want to study with us.

NEWS [September 2006]

The Lansdown Centre was a significant presence at the 18th International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics in Baden-Baden this summer.

John Dack presented his recent AHRC-funded Scambi project on the music of Henri Pousseur, investigating the concept of the ‘open form’ in the context of the composer’s ‘Huit Études Paraboliques’. Salomé Voegelin and Helen Bendon presented their work ‘The Scene of the Crime’ as practice-based research. Three research students (each is at a different stage of their studies) gave papers concerning their respective projects at the Centre.

NEWS [10 June 2006]

Helen Bendon of the Lansdown Centre had a new exhibition as part of Being There: Detailing the City Experience.

14-23 June 2006
Hoopers Gallery, 15 Clerkenwell Close, London, EC1R 0AA

The exhibition was part of the London Architecture Biennale 2006 and explores collaboration between artists Helen Bendon and Jessica Thom and academic researchers, drawing upon urban sustainability research conducted by VivaCity2020, AUNT:SUE and InSITU.

NEWS [10 June 2006]

Les Cyclistes

David Furnham’s research by practice project Les Cyclistes has been presented in Brighton

3- 18 June daily (except Monday) 11.00 - 6.00pm

Location:
The Peace Statue
Western Lawns
The Promenade
Brighton

More on this project.

NEWS [12 May 2006]

Computers that smell!

Mei Kei Lai (from Macau) and Ruba Haddad (from Jordan) graduated from last year’s MA/MSc Design for Interactive Media. They have written a paper about their final project, Smell Me, which has been accepted for an international conference organised by the British Computer Society. It is very unusual for students on Arts-based multimedia courses to achieve success in this scientific forum.

The students built a system which allows a computer to generate different scents in response to the user’s actions. A series of small games was created, each exploring an aspect of the basic idea. These exploited some of the many difficulties people have in recalling and identifying odours.

This success story illustrates the potential for Masters students to undertake world-leading research at the Lansdown Centre. It highlights the benefits of group-based project work bringing together students from different nations, cultures and design disciplines. Mei Kei has a background in computing, while Ruba's previous degree was in architectural design.

NEWS [12 March 2006]

A full paper on 'Ere Be Dragons has been accepted for the 3rd International Workshop on Pervasive Gaming Applications in Dublin, Ireland, on 7 May 2006 in conjunction with the 4th International Conference on Pervasive Computing.

'Ere Be Dragons was selected for the international ACM Multimedia Conference and Multimedia Art Exhibition in Singapore, 6th - 12th November 2005

It was exhibited as part of the Radiator Festival for New Technology Art, 1st - 4th December 2005, Nottingham, UK

A full paper on the project was presented at the MindPlay conference at London Metropolitan University on Friday 25th January 2006.

See Research Projects for more information, and the Dragons site.

NEWS [5 October 2005]

Having been shortlisted to the final three artists, Helen Bendon has just been awarded The Conversation Gap Award commissioned by Career Innovation (Ci), an Oxford based consultation group. Working with some of the world’s leading businesses, the Ci group recently published global human resources report - ‘The Conversation Gap’ which involved mapping conversations that take place between workers, colleagues, and their managers. Following this report, they instigated a commission to try to think more creatively when addressing some of the issues that the report raised.

Helen presented her project to the Ci group and their partner companies at their annual forum in Annecy, France along with the other shortlisted artists, and will now start working on the projects with the Ci partner organisations which include Marriot Hotels, Glaxo, Oxfam and BT.

NEWS [5 October 2005]

The new season of Lansdown Lectures began on Thursday 29 September by Max Eastley.

Max Eastley is an internationally recognised artist whose work combines kinetic sound sculptures and music into a unique art form.

In 2000 he exhibited six installations at Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery, London. In 2003 he exhibited a large scale sculpture in collaboration with Dave Hunt of the Lansdown Centre.

He is also involved in the Cape Farewell project which brings together science and the arts to raise awareness of the affect of global warming on the Arctic environment. In December he will be exhibiting with other artists from the project at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

NEWS [22 August 2005]

Performing our Practice Practising our Performance : intuition and expertise in the wake of the evidence movements

Lansdown Centre artists Helen Bendon and Salomé Voegelin are contributing to a one-day conference exploring professional practice and identity in health care, psychoanalysis and the arts.

To be held on 8th November 2005. The Old Refectory, University College, Gower Street, London

NEWS [14 August 2005]

Spoilt Rotten

Helen Bendon of the Lansdown Centre exhibited at Oriel Davies from 25 June to 13 August 2005

This exhibition was the final stage of the Young Curators project at Oriel Davies, which has invited eight aspiring curators to design and curate an exhibition from works held at the Arts Council Collection.
Spoilt Rotten features 16 contemporary artists including Paula Rego, Richard Billingham and Sophie Calle, which capture aspects of the playful, developmental and more sinister sides of childhood.
 
Exhibiting artists: Helen Bendon & Jo Lansley, Richard Billingham, Sophie Calle, Adam Chodzko, Marion Coutts, Graham Fagen, Oscar Farias, Lucy Gunning, Victoria Hall, Liane Lang, Permindar Kaur, Hadrian Pigott, Hayley Newman, Paula Rego, James Rielly, Jo Stockham.

NEWS [29 April 2005]
Inaugural Lansdown Lecture

Bill Gaver, Professor of Interaction Design at the RCA, gave the first Lansdown Lecture on 21 April 2005. His inspiring talk focused on designing systems which enhance the quality of people's lives rather than simply making them more 'productive'.

NEWS [29 April 2005]
Second Lansdown Lecture

Sue Jenkyn Jones, Fashion Leader at Central Saint Martins, gave the second Lansdown Lecture on 28April 2005. As UK contributor to the European Fashion Online project, Sue was able to reveal the huge impact that digital media are having on the way clothing is designed, made, modelled and bought.

NEWS [5 May 2005]
Enrike Hurtado residency

Enrike, of ixi-software, completed a short residency at the Lansdown Centre where he created an endless generative sonic structure which is influenced by the user though an abstract interface.

Enrike has been part of ixi-software since graduating from the Lansdown Centre.

ixi produces experimental software prototypes exploring different ways to manipulate non-conventional sonic processes and structures.

NEWS [16 April 2005]
Praise for short film Duende Divino.

A review in Anglo Spanish Society Quarterly Review, Number 205, Spring 2005 said of Maureen McCue’s Duende Divino:
‘Beautifully filmed sequences of village life, landscape... The music perfectly captures the action throughout the film...the lyrics of each of the poems abound throughout the film and one is only amazed that so much can be conveyed in a work lasting scarcely ten minutes.’

Duende Divino was funded by the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts.

NEWS [3 March 2005]
SALOMÉ VOEGELIN
HELIODOR
11 March - 22 April 2005

Opening Times: Tuesday - Friday 12- 5.30pm
Closed: 24-28 March, 2005
Admission: Free

Unit 2 Gallery
London Metropolitan University
Central House
59-63 Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7PF
T: 020 7320 1948/1970
F: 020 7320 1928
info@unit2.co.uk
www.unit2.co.uk

For her first solo exhibition, Salomé Voegelin, lecturer in Sonic Arts at Middlesex University, presents the sensory installation Heliodor (2005) alongside her recent video, Gallant Boy (2004). Bringing together the disparate worlds of golf and science fiction, leisure and pornography, these works offer an intriguing and satirical take on fiction as reality, challenging the relationships between the aural and the visual, the viewer and the spectacle.

The exhibition has been supported by London Metropolitan University, Pro Helvetia (Arts Council of Switzerland) and the Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain.

NEWS [18 February 2005]
An early prototype of the Lansdown Centre’s collaborative project ‘Ere be Dragons’ will be on show at the Screenplay Festival in Nottingham on 27 February. The project is being developed with Prof Chris Riddoch of the London Institute for Sport and Exercise, and Active Ingredient, a digital arts organisation in Nottingham.

It is funded by the Wellcome Trust under the SciArt initiative.

We are also supported by Hewlett-Packard’s Mobile Bristol project and by the scientific equipment supplier ScienceScope.

See Research Projects for more information.

NEWS [31 January 2005]
The "Scambi" Project held an AHRB-funded symposium on Friday 18th February in the Music Department of Goldsmiths College, London.

It focussed on the relationship between the "open" form and the electronic music of the Belgian composer Henri Pousseur.

The programme included a presentation by Prof. Pousseur. There were presentations on Pousseur’s electronic music and the "open" work by Dr Craig Ayrey of Goldsmiths College, Dr Pascal Decroupet of the Université de Liège, and Dr John Dack. It concluded with a concert:
Caraïbes Asiatocéaniennes (from Voix et Vues Planétaires) and
Hymne à Zeus Ornithologue (from Huit Études Paraboliques)

See Research Projects for more on the Scambi project.

NEWS [2 January 2005]
Hugh Seymour Davies
23/4/43 - 1/1/05

Sadly we have to report the death of our teaching and research colleague, Hugh, who has died peacefully at North London Hospice. He had been ill for a short while.

He was a respected and much-liked member of the Sonic Arts team for a number of years and, in addition to his teaching activities, was about to embark upon the revision of his definitive catalogue of electroacoustic works.

Hugh was also an installation artist, inventor and performer in his own right. He worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen and many others including the Music Improvisation Company and Gentle Fire.

NEWS [12 December 2004]
A Sonic Arts Symposium ‘The State of Affairs II: Listening to Vision – Looking at Sound’ took place on Saturday 4 December at Conway Hall in central London.

See www.sonic.mdx.ac.uk

NEWS [3 November 2004]
Ralf Nuhn’s inter-media installation ‘Glitchy & Scratchy’ from his series UNCAGED is currently being shown at ZKM – the Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The piece is part of the exhibition Algorithmic Revolution at the world-renowned ZKM Media Museum until October 2005.

NEWS [6 September 2004]
Dancing with Angels (a one minute film by Dominique Rivoal) has been selected to appear at the international screening for dance at the Place theatre in November.

NEWS [15 August 2004]
The end of year show for the MA/MSc Design for Interactive Media and MA Electronic Arts took place from 3rd to 5th September 2004 at The Hanbury Gallery in Central London.

http://www.crystallise.org

NEWS [30 July 2004]
The Lansdown Centre has been awarded a Research and Development Grant by the Wellcome Trust under the SciArt initiative together with Prof Chris Riddoch of the London Institute for Sport and Exercise and Active Ingredient, an arts cooperative in Nottingham, for the project 'Ere be Dragons'.