Huge crowds attend biggest Degree Show to date

Amidst the late May heat, a record crowd flooded through the halls of the building for the show’s largest display in many years.

From the moment you entered the New Adelphi, you were greeted by an energetic wave of colour as the final year installations stood proudly for all to see.

From the numerous plinths across the Atrium hosting the exceptional craftmanship of our BA Costume Design students to the maze of mounted photographs decorating the fifth floor from BA Photography, every inch of the building was filled with students’ work.

The School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology’s annual student showpiece event hosted 15 programmes this year, with work from BSc Creative Computing featuring for the first time and the building was as lively as ever with MA Dance students treating the audience to pop-up performances and a special ‘Exhibition of Sound and Music Production’, featuring work from Music students throughout the night to a sitting audience.

The show was officially opened by Professor Allan Walker, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology, who addressed the crowds in the Atrium.

Paul Vivian, Lead for the Degree Show and Director of Art and Design at the University, said: “Tonight was an incredible presentation of final year work, emphasizing the relationships we have with industry and the cultural sector in the UK and beyond.

“This year’s opening night has certainly been our busiest I’ve experienced in the last five years.”

The display of our BA Costume Design students instantly grabbed people’s attention in the Atrium. Final year student Eabha Scullion presented her designs, which were based on ancient aspects of Irish culture.

She said: “The whole idea of the design was to take those ancient aspects and present it to a modern audience.”

Fellow student Lara Marley’s design presented the artist Francisco Goya creating ‘The Black Paintings’. 

She said: “I wanted to bring to life the artist’s mental journey that he showed through his art.”

On her course, Lara added: “The support from the lecturers has been amazing. There is such a variety of things that you can create.”

Also exhibiting on the ground floor were our BSc Games Design and Production students. Conall Murray was exhibiting his game Tank Mania, which has recently received plaudits from the developer Game Republic.

On his course, he said: “I’m really pleased with how the course has gone for me. It’s been mainly group projects, but there have been some individual elements as well. It’s been a good balance of art programming, writing and a portfolio module as well. I feel like I’ve definitely expanded my skillset for games design and am far more capable at using the tools we need to programme.”

Fellow student Jack Pullen was talking through his game Last Orders to guests. Inspired by the acclaimed puzzle title Papers, Please, the game is set in a nuclear bunker where the player controls a bartender, interacting with customers to advance the gameplay.

He said: “Our group really wanted to do a bar game and when we workshopped it, we found that it would be interesting to make it more of a political-simulation title because if you look through history, there’s so many examples of big political revolutions starting in bars and cafes.”

Across the floor, BA Animation were exhibiting student films in the Studio Theatre, and on the second and third floor, some of the best work from all programmes was featured across the walls.

The exhibition in the Band Room (3.02) featured a rolling screening of students work’ from across BA Creative Music Technology, BA Popular Music and Recording and MA Music for one night only.

Some of this work included re-sound and re-scored scenes from hit films such as Toy Story 2, Lord of the Rings and Drive.

The fifth floor was a hive of exhibition work, featuring meticulously presented displays from BA Graphic Design, BA Interior Design, BA Photography, BA Film, TV and Stage Design in addition to more on-screen work from our Animation students.

BA Photography student Shea McGimpsey was presenting her eye-catching portraiture work.

She said: “With my photography, I’m trying to explore the versatility of femininity and here with these photos, we have a little bit of fantasy, deep and dark tones as well as a heavy contrast. It’s to accentuate the figure as well as the personality of the women that I’m photographing.”

Further along the corridor, BA Film, TV and Stage Design student Jennifer Horridge’s display was very popular as guests looked over her work inspired by the Taylor Jenkins Reid novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Jennifer created a standing architectural model of Evelyn’s apartment in addition to a range of props that would be utilised for a film adaptation of the book.

She said: “I did a lot of research into architraves of the time period, the wall moldings and the general architectural styles for inspiration, before focusing individually on each room and giving it a bit of a personality."

On the course, Jennifer added: “The course has honestly been so great. I’ve loved it so much, and I wish I could do the three years over again.”

Towards the end of the corridor was BA Interior Design student Jacob Russell, who was talking through his designs for an interior revamp of a former ragged school in Manchester.

Jacob’s visual style and colour palette for his design was inspired by the work of L.S. Lowry, whose paintings depictured the industrial landscapes and working-class communities that sent their children to the schools.

He was particularly proud of his model, which was inspired by a deconstructed shoe, as it tied into his intended repurposing of the building.

“The idea is that you would be able to go into the building and make the shoes that used to be made for the ragged school children. Schools, families and participants could go in and learn about the building whilst making the shoes.”

Up on to the sixth floor, guests could walk through and observe the work of our BA Fashion Design students up close as the outfits were presented along a runway, before making their way through the very busy BA Fashion Image Making and Styling and BA Fashion Business and Promotion exhibits and the mazy white walls for the BA Fine Art showpieces.

BA Fine Art student Eli Clack was showcasing her work.

She said: “I created a video piece rubbing mud on myself to visualise how dirty we have made nature. Not enough people have the sense of urgency to react to climate change so that was my inspiration for the piece.

General viewing for the show begins from today (Friday 29 May) until Wednesday 3 June with the building open from 10am to 5pm on weekdays, 10am to 4pm on Saturdays and closed on Sunday 31 May.

Reporting from Loughlan Campbell and Lily-Mae Cooper. Gallery images below courtesy of FutureWorks.