Matthew Murray's Evaluation of Arts Council of England Creative Development Award

Murray was successful in gaining funding from Arts Council England which allowed him to 1. I attended a number of professional development activities - Photogravure Master class at the Centre for Fine Print Research Bristol, Lith, Cyanotype, alternative processing, workshop at The Centre for Art and Photography, photo etching and screen printing workshops These alternative process workshops have ensured a greater understanding of historical & alternative techniques. The chemistry, materials, handling of the techniques that are capable of realizing unique qualities of tone, texture, definition & presence. 2. Experiment with new collaborators, explore, investigate, research and understand a new methodology and inform and develop a new visual language. I was able to explore landscape through textural & tonal characteristics of early photography processes, referencing early 20th century paintings made at Arenig, Fawr, Wales and especially the work of J.D. Innes and Augustus John. 3. I was able to develop a dialogue and build new networks with prominent artists, curators, gallery directors and master printers in the UK & internationally including Roger Watson, Curator Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, artist Richard Billingham, Nicola Shipley, Director of GRAIN Projects, Will Troughton Curator of Photography, National Library Wales and David Drake, Director Ffotogallery, Wales & Diffusion Festival, Hans Rooseboom Curator of Photography, Rijksmuseum, Maartje van den Heuvel, Curator of photography, Special Collections, Leiden Institute, Martin Barnes Senior Curator of Photographs at The V&A Museum, London, Addie Elliott, Director at ElliottHalls Gallery, Amsterdam. 4. The extended period of creative development for me as an artist and my practice was vital. I was able to free up valuable time from my academic & commercial projects. This gave me the opportunity to challenge my present methodology and introduce new working practices that were informed through research engagement with other practitioners, curators, writers and historians

It would be a Pleasure : Augmented Reality and Engagement in a Heritage Context

The interchangeability, confusion and conflict of what constitutes audience engagement has a long history, with much disagreement concerning boundaries and definitions. Dewey states that it is a mistake to see the artist as active and the audience as purely passive, and argues that “the active engagement of the audience is required to fully realise any work” (Dewey 1934). This predates the notions of “interactive” or “participatory” as understood today, but highlights the longstanding appreciation of the role the audience plays in the consumption of artworks. A sentiment echoed by Duchamp (1957) stating that “the spectator adds his contribution to the creative act”. The research project presented at EVA 2017 seeks to offer a model for engagement, that of pleasure, which explores methods to motivate active participation

Saddleworth: Responding To A Landscape - Exhibition Elliott Halls Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Martin Barnes Senior Curator of Photographs The Victoria & Albert Museum, London gives his view on Murray’s Saddleworth: Responding To A Landscape. Saddleworth is the result of a five-year creative journey by Matthew Murray, fuelled by his desire to build an extraordinary and entirely new body of work. This venture into landscape photography became an exploration, a personal study, almost becoming therapeutic to Murray, as he traversed his own private life changes. What evolved and then became paramount to Murray’s exploration of these ever-changing scenes, was how photography translated the landscape. Here his manipulation of natural and artificial light challenged the representation of the traditional landscape through both photography and painting. The result is a photographic odyssey, which captures not only the astonishing and beguiling beauty of this moorland landscape, but also the dramatic ephemeral changes caused by the season, or simply the hour that each image was taken. “I wanted to produce a series of landscape photographs that I believed to be beautiful in their own right and by doing so hopefully challenge preconceived ideas about the moor. Documenting the moors landscape as picturesque and beautiful, concentrating on light composition and nature reveals a true appreciation of the beauty of the moors, from wonderful long summer days to snow storms in the depth of winter. This is what Saddleworth says to me. Every trip I have taken to the Moors over the last five years has encapsulated each season, weather and cloud pattern, rain, sunshine, snow and the sense of the bitter cold of that emotive landscape.” - Matthew Murray 2017 “I quickly saw how amazing the landscape is and how the shadows and cloud formations can change quickly and drastically. It was only after viewing the very early contacts from my initial shoots that the photographs reminded me of the 17thCentury Dutch painter Jacob Van Ruisdael,whose work I had seen at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2006. Having never photographed a series of landscapes before this series, it was a massive departure from my normal portraiture and street photography work, the work developed overtime and was very organic. Shooting these landscapes it was clear that I was inspired by Ruisdael’s work.” - Matthew Murray 201

ROTOЯ Transdisciplinary Dialogue and Debate: A Public Engagement Case Study

In 2011, the University of Huddersfield commenced a partnership with Huddersfield Art Gallery, to offer a public engagement exhibitions programme, entitled “ROTOЯ”. Featuring the art and design work of University staff, this series of exhibitions, public events and talks acts as a platform for disseminating and communicating practice-based-research, showcasing a community of artists, designers and curators whose ideas and connective practices migrate and span art and design production. For ROTOЯ, interpretation acts as a pivot between academic research, interpretation and public engagement, where points of intersection are considered and debated from multiple perspectives. In 2013, we hosted a symposium at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, which questioned how we measure the role and effects of public engagement in art and design. This paper presents the ROTOЯ public engagement exhibitions programme as a case study of public engagement in light of these questions

Building a Small Cinema: Resisting Neoliberal Colonization in Liverpool

In its stated aim of “creating cinemas not supermarkets,” the Small Cinema project voiced its alterity to the recent redevelopment of Liverpool’s city center and those of other former industrial cities throughout the Midlands and the north of the UK. These regeneration projects addressed the problem of a shrinking manufacturing base by replacing them with service industries, a move which has entailed the privatization of vast tracts of public space. Conversely, the building, functioning, and general praxis of the Small Cinema project suggests a mode of practice that more accurately fits within the paradigm of a collaborative commons than a capitalist marketplace. The project’s exemption from market criteria grants it the freedom to pursue public over private goods, thereby constituting a point of resistance to the ongoing neoliberalization of the city and changes to government policy that make it increasingly difficult for non-profit projects to exist. Historically speaking, cinemas have been accessible to the working class in a way that other artistic media have not. However, while the history of film as a tool for political subversion is well documented, less attention has been paid to the physical construction of independent cinematic space, its programming/running, and its potential as a node of resistance to neoliberal colonization. This paper uses the case study of the Small Cinema project in Liverpool as a means by which to understand how cinematic spaces can counteract the effects of policies that continue to have such a detrimental impact on the arts and education, as well as social health and well-being

Exploring musical expectations: Understanding the impact of a year-long primary school music project in the context of school, home and prior learning

This article reports on a year-long project carried out in three UK primary schools, which aimed to understand the expectations and experiences of children participating in a series of workshops delivered by the chamber music organisation, Music in the Round. Through drawings, discussions, questionnaires and observations, the children's developing musical identities and skills were explored, alongside the teachers' and parents' understandings of what the children gained from the workshops. The project raises questions about the evaluation and impact of musical interventions of this kind, and about the ways in which children acquire musical self-efficacy from encounters in school and home

‘It makes me feel alive’: the socio-motivational impact of drama and theatre on marginalised young people

An in-depth, longitudinal, idiographic study examined the impact of theatre and drama involvement on marginalised young people. Semi-structured interviews, at three separate time points over 2 years, were conducted with four young people (15–21 years of age) involved in a theatre project. Interpretative phenomenological analysis suggested that drama and theatre create space and support for the authentic self, and provide optimal conditions for promoting growth and resilience through voluntary engagement in a positive activity. In particular, the analysis highlighted the pivotal role of interpersonal relationships and a nurturing environment in re-engaging young people. Some participants’ accounts also suggested that drama provides a uniquely engaging and therapeutic way to reflect on, express and explore experiences. The results are discussed in relation to core psychological processes underpinning self-development and key directions for further research

Responding to a landscape: Symposium at MAC in association with the Matthew Murray Exhibition

RESPONDING TO A LANDSCAPE 24th November 2017, 9.30am-5.30pm Matthew Murray Will be speaking at the Responding to A Landscape Symposium at mac - Birmingham. The symposium has been planned in conjunction with the exhibition Matthew Murray’s Saddleworth; Responding to a Landscape, premiered at mac Responding to a Landscape will explore, debate and review the evolving relationship between artists and photographers and the landscape. We will hear from a number of perspectives, from acclaimed practitioners for which landscape is a recurring subject, a social and environmental concern, a research and archive practice and an essential departure. What does landscape and our natural world look like and mean to photographers and artists today? The symposium has been planned in conjunction with the exhibition Matthew Murray’s Saddleworth; Responding to a Landscape, premiered at mac, Birmingham. Murray is interested in depicting the landscape based on what he feels rather than what he sees. His landscape work is a personal story and odyssey. His Saddleworth is the result of a five year creative and sensitive journey that captures the beauty of the moorland landscape. The symposium invites acclaimed and outstanding photographers, artists, writers and photography historians to talk about their work and relationship with the landscape. Those speaking alongside Murray include; Richard Billingham, Chrystel Lebas, Jem Southam, Camilla Brown. The practitioners will talk about how they have approached landscape and their unique relationship with it. Landscape photography has a long and significant history and today approaches have perhaps never been so broad with practitioner’s motivations and aesthetic concerns been varied. Some document, others work with more abstract concerns; Some work collaboratively, others in isolation; Some are working on environmental concerns and others more personal stories. During the Symposium we will hear from the perspective of the photographer, curator and academic. They are motivated by landscape for many different reasons. We will hear from and celebrate those that create self-initiated projects and commissioned bodies of work and see a range of photographic practices that are at the cutting edge of photography now. The project is supported by GRAIN Projects, Arts Council England, Gallery Vassie, mac Birmingham, Pirate Design and the University of Gloucestershire. http://grainphotographyhub.co.uk/portfolio-type/responding-to-a-landscape-2