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Events
We had some very exciting news a couple of months ago, which is that the University of Salford will be the main education partner for the BEYOND Conference in November. You can discover more about it via this blog post I wrote for them recently, focusing on creativity at the Olympic Games.
It was my pleasure to co-host the University’s TEDx event again this year, such a remarkable number of people involved!
On 16th November, we’re hosting an event for the AHRC Being Human Festival, giving people a chance to step into the metaverse and explore the world in virtual reality.
It feels like a while ago now, but in March we put a massive amount of energy into the inaugural Digital City Festival, working across the university, closely with the DCF team.
We ran fringe events, took part in the expo, and assisted with a whole range of preparations. I was also very pleased to be part of the steering panel and look forward to the next year!
I was especially proud of the fact that the whole of the university got behind our delivery.
On 28th Feb, my colleagues and I at the University of Salford produced an event called ‘Esports for All’, which brought together colleagues from all over the university to examine how esports can expand into a space where everyone feels welcome.
It was a really fantastic afternoon, with friends from the British Esports Association, British Cycling, and NUEL. We covered so much ground, but most interesting for me was how we brought together people from very different perspectives to talk about the continual expansion of this remarkable world of esports.
Last week, the Digital Health Generation project I have been working on with Emma Rich, Sarah C. Lewis, and Deborah Lupton had a major event in the House of Commons, sponsored by Lisa Cameron MP.
The evening was a culmination of our work over this last year and aimed to kickstart a conversation about how the future of healthcare ensures that young people are at the heart of plans.
Here are some of the slides from the evening.
On Tuesday (18th July) Vice-Chancellor Professor Helen Marshall visited Buckingham Palace for a royal audience with Prince Philip in celebration of our 50th anniversary. Helen, along with University Registrar Alison Blackburn, Chair in Science Communication and Future Media Professor Andy Miah and Lecturer from the School of Computing, Science and Engineering Neil Currie, had the rare opportunity of meeting with the Duke of Edinburgh to discuss our recent successes and plans for the future.
As you may be aware, the Prince has had a long-standing affiliation with the University and was our first ever Chancellor who remained in post until 1991. He spoke fondly of the times he has visited Salford over the years and how impressed he has always been with our strong industry links. The Prince was interested to hear about our growing collaborations in the region, along with our drive for public engagement programmes like the Manchester Science Festival.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Helen Marshall said: “Prince Philip being our first ever Chancellor made this special engagement at the Palace especially poignant. He has always had a very close relationship with the University so I welcomed the opportunity to meet with him just before his retirement. I was delighted to tell him about our strong employment figures and update him on our vision of the future in this, our 50th anniversary year.”
Professor Andy Miah added: “What came across to me was that, while figures like the Duke of Edinburgh have countless patronages and public roles, it felt like he truly cared about his contribution to our University. Salford was a place he could talk about with strong recollections and a sense of purpose about what the university could do.”
We'll leave you with this great image Andy took of the team outside the Palace gates which get top marks for aesthetics..
A couple of weeks ago, the Great Science Share took place at the Manchester City Academy. It was so much fun to be involved with this again as a Steering Committee member and it was a huge event! Here's a glimpse of what we did, under the leadership of Steve Bennett and Lynne Bianchi and here's a great blog from Mariana Salguiero who was my partner in crime for the day, along with Ethan!
I wrote a blog about the @GreatSciShare for @PhysicsNews :) https://t.co/UTk9mvsas3 @DonnaSTEM @andymiah @LynneBianchi @UoMSEERIH @ManCity
— Mariana Salgueiro (@MarianaWith1N) July 18, 2017
Our most spectacular event in Manchester Science Festival is the Salford Science Jam, in which we had an amazing array of events for all the families. This year's production included a plethora of virtual reality systems, co-creation of the amazing Sensory Sound Pit, by European City of Science Artist in Residence, Di Mainstone, a co-commission with the Foundation of Art and Creative Technology, and even Dr Helen Sharman's space suit. More documentation to follow!
Last week, I was in Paris for another City Events conference, at which the focus was on the social responsibility of mega events. While the buzz word around events for the last 20 years has been 'legacy', we tried to unpack this idea a bit and explore further what events can do to make a meaningful contribution to society. I chaired a session which brought together expertise in development, social science, anthropology, officiating, and playing sports.
Some of the interesting ideas were around the role of other role models in sport - such as referees and officials who provide a crucial educative role for young people in understanding the value of rule-keeping. Also, we talked about how sports can contribute to promoting individual rights, especially the rights of the child.
In my summary, I talked about the importance of event organizers looking at the community, talking with it, and understanding what are the most urgent and pressing social issues, so that events can be a vehicle for addressing areas of most need. In the absence of other ideas, this seems a useful process through which to begin any such journey.
After the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the summary report acknowledged the growing volume of practice-based research outputs within the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Unit of Assessment. It also emphasized the need for practice-based researchers to provide clearer detail on the research process underpinning their work, but questions remain about how any given output should be evaluated. As well, while many departments expressed their investment into practice and theory, practice-based outputs constituted less than 5% of the total outputs submitted across all results. Given the increased use of practice-based methodologies within REF2014 UoA36, how should research outputs like exhibitions, documentary films, media art, or scriptwriting be evaluated by the peer review panels? And how should we account for interdisciplinary practice-based outputs, for example work at the intersections of media and performance or media and music?
This free event is hosted by the Creative Futures Research Centre at the University of the West of Scotland, and is co-funded by the MeCCSA Practice Section. It is designed to give peers an opportunity to inform the Research Excellence Framework 2014 in benchmarking quality for the future.
Where: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow When: March/April 2012 TBC
Follow: @CreativeFutur for updates
Last night, I saw Andrew Dawson's Leitmotif at the Unity Theatre. It was a small crowd - a little too small given the outstanding performance from Dawson. It's the kind of piece which is, at times, abstract enough to provoke the minimally sensitive viewer and accessible enough to engage anyone who ever doubted the medium of performance space. Everyone should see this.
The April march in Glasgow against the Iraq conflict has the privilege of being the first substantive entry to this blog. I'm endeavouring to be chronological at this stage, starting with everything so far.
I lived just around the corner from where this photograph was taken. The phrase 'Not in Our Name' reflected the established use of this phrase at the time, which has continued to be used across a number of other campaigns.
Here in Glasgow, the police wanted to ensure that protesters did not reach the M8 intersection, so police walls were set up just at the edge of Sauchiehall Street. The west side of this street was packed, but everything was quite civilized, no violence etc. I've still to work out whether this placard ought to have had a stronger design quality, it being 'artists' and so on.
