I was lucky enough to visit the GSA degree show twice this weekend! I was a little dubious about the whole thing knowing it was taking place at Skypark and not the Garnethill campus. I think using Skypark as a art institution doesn’t work, is a bit too clean looking! However, as a venue, I thought they did a great job. Everything was made to look professional, all the rooms were bright and clean, as if gallery spaces, the work laid out to the GSA high visual standard and there was no chance of getting lost!
On the opening night I went along with a Product Designer, which meant we had to go and see the PDE show (something which I wouldn’t normally see). I must say I was very impressed with the high standard of work the PDE students had produced. Although all we saw was the finished prototypes I was mighty impressed by it all.
The PDE students who stood out to me were Ronan McAllister who had created ‘Vaxion: Vacuum Climbing’, “a small lightweight system which includes 2 vacuum pads joined by climbing rope to 2 stirrups, and a small backpack.”[Ronan McAllister] I thought this was awesome! Such a fun thing (I hope it was created for fun!) I imagine it must be a little daunting at first to use as you’re just suctioned onto the wall! But imagine the possibilities when you can crawl along the ceiling!
Another one which caught my eye was ‘Attack Panic’ by Sandy Campbell. A device which notices when you’re about to have a panic attack through biometric signals, the theory is it calms you before you hit ‘fight or flight’ by ensuring your breathing is controlled. Now I’m not so sure how I feel about this one. I totally understand that the best medical cure for a panic attack is controlled breathing, but having a device tell you you’re about to panic I think would only make me panic more. All I have to do is think about an attack for me to panic, having a device confirm my fear, I can’t help thinking it would only make things worse. However I’m always willing to give these things a go!
On the Saturday I visited the show with my fellow Mdes classmates. In Visual Communication I was mesmerized by Stella Wan’s “Farewell but not Goodbye’ -Alistair Savage’…. the way the peaceful music coincied with video on screen couldn’t have been more perfect. I honestly could have watched it for hours if I wasn’t dragged away to look at TEXTILES!
So lets get onto the TEXTILES DEPARTMENT! Holy Smoke! I’m totally impressed at what those students have achieved, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the textiles show just gets better every year!
Ones which really stood out to me were Kathy Beckett, who took a brightly coloured scientific approached to knitted textiles [http://cargocollective.com/kathybeckettdesign] and Sylvie McGowan who had the most beautiful display of printed textiles. She had set up her with washing line and hung her collection using little pegs, really has to be seen to be appreciated. [http://cargocollective.com/sylviemcgowan].
Now onto the WEAVE, those girls did me proud! Siobhan Smith and her wild colours; Navi Kaur and her gorgeous soft blankets; Stacey Keen and her stunning menswear collection [http://stacey-keen.tumblr.com/]; Fiona Deans and her soft feminine shapes; Min Zhong who quite righty won The Gillian Purvis Award for travel [zhongminweave.blogspot.com] and Caroline Cameron [http://caroline-cameron.tumblr.com/] who’s work “is intrinsically linked to the challenge of rejuvenating traditional woven techniques in order to produce innovative modern fabrics.” A well deserved prize for innovation if you ask me!
Well done one and all. Major congratulations 🙂 you did it!