LCC Head of College blog

A pop-up cinema powered by four bikes and eight legs and a bike zoetrope creating an animation captured on a rotating bicycle wheel are just two exciting events taking place during London College of Communication’s Green Week. Ethical artists Plastic Seconds and the Skip Sisters will also be inspiring students to create colourful jewellery from scavenged rubbish. The worst Christmas presents ever are the subject of an installation – “Lucky Skip” – by local artists Garudio Studiage.

Five days of green pop-up exhibitions, workshops, screenings, and talks start on Monday 6 February at London College of Communication which aims to encourage students to share ideas for improving sustainability in their creative practice and at home.

Head of College, Professor Sandra Kemp, says: “LCC is a world leader in communication, media and design education and I’m delighted that our students are also innovating in green thinking. At the heart of what we’re doing is inspiring and educating students to go on to lead in their industries in the future.”

Confirmed speakers include: Sophie Thomas, leading sustainable designer and Founding Director of communications agency, Thomas Matthews; Paul Hamilton a graphic designer for Greenpeace; and Leo Murray a filmmaker and member of the anti-airport expansion campaign group, Plane Stupid.

University of the Arts London and London College of Communication’s Green Week is part of the nation-wide People and Planet Green Week.

See London College of Communication’s full Green Week schedule.

Holly Attrill, a third year on the BA Creative Advertising Strategy course at London College of Communication, has gained great success in global student advertising competitions the One Club (winning Silver), Steve Henry and Young Glory (winning a Bronze). Students are requested to post their briefs and come up with ideas for ad campaigns. The brief can be conceptual, print, TV, ambient as long as it is a creative solution to the problem. Attrill is now working on new submissions for One Club and YCN.

Attrill says: “When working on these briefs, the course taught me to look at things from a wider perspective. We are incredibly fortunate to have multiple industry figures in the College to talk to us and give workshop ideas for briefs. This is also great for networking because that is crucial within the advertising business. The course really helps you think creatively and explore ideas in great depth; my complete method of thinking has been developed over the last three years.”

For anyone starting a creative course like Advertising, Holly’s advice would be to make the most of being in London. “There is so much inspirational material to be found even within a square mile of Elephant and Castle. Secondly always ask questions and talk to everyone, you can only gain from starting a conversation.”

Holly’s expanding portfolio can be found at cargocollective.com/hollyattrill

‘Size Zero’, a film created by MA Graphic Moving Image graduate João Monteiro, is runner up in the 2011 Disposable Film Festival (DFF). The music for the film was written by current BA Sound Arts & Design student Peter Mckerrow.

The animated film examines the obesity epidemic and was created at LCC as part of a collaborative project with research students Luca Savorelli and Davide Dragone from the London School of Economics (LSE).

The DFF celebrates the artistic potential of disposable video: short films made on non-professional devices.

See more of João’s work on his website

Listen to Peter’s work on www.petermckerrow.com

Jack Lee, a recent graduate from London College of Communication’s BA Graphic & Media Design course, opens a new exhibition this evening (2 February) where he will display a series of striking graphic design works created while studying at the College.

His artworks are expressed in conceptual and bold presentations, demonstrating his exploration with grids, geometric shapes and letter forms. The exhibition features original artwork, large-format posters and silkscreen prints, alongside commercial works for clients and development progress.

If you’d like to attend the exhibition details are as follows:

What Else Is There: Jack Lee Graphic Work and Play
03–05 February 2012
10am–6pm
McCoy Studio, The Rag Factory, 16–18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ

Private View
02 February 2012
6pm–10pm

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Lord Chris Smith talks to students at London College of Communication

Lord Chris Smith was at London College of Communication today (31 January) to talk to students from BA Media & Cultural Studies and MA Media, Communications and Critical Practice about cultural policy and the creative industries.

He gave an overview of the development of the creative sector over the last decade and a half. He spoke about the establishment of the first serious policy review connected to what was perceived to be the value and importance of the creative sector during his time as Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport in the late 90s and early 2000s. Throughout the talk Chris was passionate about the value of creative education and the importance of media, communications and cultural industries not simply to the economy but to more intangible aspects of national well-being.

Read the rest of this entry »

LCC Senior Lecturer in Photography, Sophy Rickett, has her work shown at the exhibition ‘Critical Dictionary’ at WORK from 27 January until 25 February.

Critical Dictionary declassifies selected terms in a playful manner to emphasise the open-ended, provisional and unfinished nature of language. The exhibition is inspired by Georges Bataille’s infamous anti-dictionary for the dissident Surrealist journal Documents.

More work of Sophy Rickett can be found on her website.

Dr John Wynne, Senior Lecturer in Sound Arts at LCC made a radio piece called The True Language. It will be broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday January 31 during a programme called Short Cuts which starts at 3pm. The theme of this show is Lost for Words.

Wynne, also Research Fellow with CRISAP, was recently commissioned by the BBC to make the piece based on materials from his work with speakers of the endangered indigenous language Gitxsanimaax in northern British Columbia, Canada.

More information on John Wynne’s work can be found on his website.

Channel 4 news anchor Jon Snow controversially called for tighter regulation of newspapers at the annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture at London College of Communication on Monday 23 January. Watch the full lecture above or read more here on our blog.

Dr. Salomé Voegelin, Senior Lecturer in MA Sound Arts, has been featured in Swiss weekly French language magazine L’Hebdo as part of an article entitled ‘the ten swiss who make London move’. Voegelin talks about the advantages of working within her field in London. Read the full article via L’Hebdo.

Jon Snow speaking at the 2012 Hugh Cudlipp Lecture, photograph by Connor Matheson, London College of Communication

Jon Snow controversially called for tighter regulation of newspapers at the annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture at LCC on Monday 23 January 2012

Full transcript available

Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow speaking at the annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture at the London College of Communication (LCC) on Monday 23 January, called for tighter regulation of the press: “Until now the written press has suffered from not having a proper regulator,” he said. “We must get away from the PCC, and exclude serving editors.” He also argued for the wholesale abolition of the UK libel laws saying that we should be able to defend reputations under the Human Rights Act.

Also in his lecture entitled ‘Why we are poised for journalism’s finest hour’. Snow explained why – as journalism finds itself the subject of scrutiny like never before and we await the findings of Lord Leveson’s public inquiry – he believes ‘We are poised for journalism’s finest hour’.  Defying the doom-sayers he explained why the explosion of online media rather than being the final nail in the coffin for journalism is a ‘window of opportunity’ for journalists. The issue of how to monetize information in the digital age not withstanding, Snow said ‘Journalists have never had more access, more information – or frankly, been more important. If we seize this moment as an opportunity, it will herald a brighter future for us all.’

Snow was the eighth speaker at the annual lecture, where Paul Dacre, Michael Grade, Andrew Marr, Alastair Campbell and have been guest speakers in the past. Snow, 64, says he was honored to be asked to speak at the “high profile lecture”, especially as he is not a print journalist.

The winner of the £1000 Hugh Cudlipp Award for Journalism 2011 was also announced last night. Ben Bryant, a City University journalism graduate, won this year’s award  for features about gang culture published in the London Evening Standard. He is now with the Telegraph.

The award is for UK journalism students who have written a series of articles “in the Cudlipp tradition of exposing a wrong or investigating and depicting a social issue in a comprehensive way,” explained Charman. The articles must have been published in a national, regional or local paper between 1 December 2010 and 30 November 2011. Charman explained that Hugh Cudlipp was one of the great pioneers of popular tabloid journalism, “Cudlipp championed the idea that important social and political issues could be presented in an attractive, compelling way which would be understood by working people.”

The full transcript  is available via the link below:

Jon Snow Hugh Cudlipp Lecture 2012 Transcript

Or download the PDF

Read what people said about the lecture on Twitter at #lcccudlipp

Full video recording available soon.