Ways of seeing evaluation

Copyright @ 2011 Brunel UniversityThis report summarises the evaluation of Ways of Seeing, a community arts project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and hosted by the Lightbox, Woking, Surrey from 2008-11. The people involved have had remarkable experiences, choosing how to take part in each stage of preparations for a major public art exhibition. All those involved had disabilities, primarily arising from mental health issues but also including physical disabilities. The project was skilfully designed and led to enable them to make a significant contribution, enhancing their well-being and resulting in the Ways of Seeing exhibition which was widely appreciated. The Lightbox is an award-winning museum, housing a permanent local history exhibition as well as touring major art exhibitions. The Ingram Modern Art collection is on permanent loan, with regular exhibitions of work from the collection. Since the Lightbox opened in 2007, it has had a stated intention to promote local community involvement, successfully obtaining external funding to support this work. Ways of Seeing was the most ambitious project to date, aiming to exhibit selected work from the Ingram Collection alongside art created as part of the project by local disabled people. The emphasis on ways of seeing reflected an interest in their diverse perspectives, especially in relation to long term mental health problems. A steering group was set up, with members from local mental health initiatives and an evaluation team from Brunel University. The project started by orientating participants to how art is created and exhibited, with a series of visits and workshops on major art collections and artists’ studios. This stage successfully attracted a range of people and was followed by taster workshops of different art techniques. Then participants examined every item in the Ingram Collection and agreed a selection to inspire their own artistic responses. All-day workshops were convened, covering the same techniques as before and giving everyone space and time to get started. Curation of the exhibition gathered pace as final selections were made from participants’ art works and the Ingram Collection. The exhibition offered opportunities for everyone to have selections of their work exhibited to the public alongside the selected work from the Ingram Collection. A video artist captured the project in film and an MSc occupational therapy student from Brunel University undertook independent interviews of participants. It is clear that this multi-stage and carefully considered approach was highly successful in engaging people who are often excluded from arts events and venues. It was also successful in engaging the public in an innovative and thought-provoking exhibition, challenging assumptions about mental health and promoting the benefits of participation. The willingness of the Lightbox to host and support the project was essential. Based on tolerance, respect and a sympathetic curiosity, with clear and skilled leadership, the project enabled participants to make significant changes in their own lives.This study was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund

An ultra-compact low temperature scanning probe microscope for magnetic fields above 30 T

We present the design of a highly compact High Field Scanning Probe Microscope (HF-SPM) for operation at cryogenic temperatures in an extremely high magnetic field, provided by a water-cooled Bitter magnet able to reach 38 T. The HF-SPM is 14 mm in diameter: an Attocube nano-positioner controls the coarse approach of a piezo resistive AFM cantilever to a scanned sample. The Bitter magnet constitutes an extreme environment for SPM due to the high level of vibrational noise; the Bitter magnet noise at frequencies up to 300 kHz is characterized and noise mitigation methods are described. The performance of the HF-SPM is demonstrated by topographic imaging and noise measurements at up to 30 T. Additionally, the use of the SPM as a three-dimensional dilatometer for magnetostriction measurements is demonstrated via measurements on a magnetically frustrated spinel sample.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

An Analysis of Cointegration: Investigation of the Cost-Price Squeeze in Agriculture

The differences in prices paid and prices received by farmers are examined using cointegration analysis. A Johansen cointegration test between prices paid and prices received revealed that the series were cointegrated. After accounting for technological change, we do not reject a long-run one-for-one correspondence between prices paid and prices received.Demand and Price Analysis,

Drawing on Wilcock: An investigation of the impact of her published work on occupational therapy practice and research

Introduction: Ann Wilcock's published work identifies the fundamental importance of occupation in promoting health, wellbeing and even survival. Despite the implications for occupational therapy, the impact of her work has not been comprehensively explored. This research investigated how her ideas were used in published research from 1993 to 2007. Method and findings: Mixed methods obtained two sets of data. First, qualitative data from a textual analysis of Wilcock's published work were analysed and used to create a glossary and a conceptual framework of her ideas. Secondly, content analysis of 48 research papers yielded 121 citations, which were coded into categories. The findings indicated that her ideas did not appear to be embraced fully by other authors and were sometimes applied superficially. Discussion: The conceptual framework was refined and finalised, to demonstrate how Wilcock's ideas are interrelated. It is presented as a means of developing an accessible occupational perspective for research and practice. © The College of Occupational Therapists Ltd

The Impact of Rising Energy Costs on Representative Farms

Recent increases in natural gas and fossil fuel based energy sources have had a negative impact on the financial condition of agricultural producers across the nation. • In addition to higher fuel costs for trucks, equipment, and irrigation motors, the cost of nitrogen fertilizer is closely linked to energy prices and has also increased significantly. • This study quantifies the impacts of these increases on the economic viability of representative farms located throughout the United States for the years 2005 and 2006.Crop Production/Industries,

An investigation of vegetation and other earth resource/feature parameters using LANDSAT and other remote sensing data. A: LANDSAT. B: Remote sensing of volcanic emissions

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Calibrated Sub-Bundles in Non-Compact Manifolds of Special Holonomy

This paper is a continuation of math.DG/0408005. We first construct special Lagrangian submanifolds of the Ricci-flat Stenzel metric (of holonomy SU(n)) on the cotangent bundle of S^n by looking at the conormal bundle of appropriate submanifolds of S^n. We find that the condition for the conormal bundle to be special Lagrangian is the same as that discovered by Harvey-Lawson for submanifolds in R^n in their pioneering paper. We also construct calibrated submanifolds in complete metrics with special holonomy G_2 and Spin(7) discovered by Bryant and Salamon on the total spaces of appropriate bundles over self-dual Einstein four manifolds. The submanifolds are constructed as certain subbundles over immersed surfaces. We show that this construction requires the surface to be minimal in the associative and Cayley cases, and to be (properly oriented) real isotropic in the coassociative case. We also make some remarks about using these constructions as a possible local model for the intersection of compact calibrated submanifolds in a compact manifold with special holonomy.Comment: 20 pages; for Revised Version: Minor cosmetic changes, some paragraphs rewritten for improved clarit

Therapeutic outcomes in a museum? “You don't get them by aiming for them”. How a focus on arts participation promotes inclusion and well-being

Background: The three year “Ways of Seeing” project was hosted by an award-winning museum and included adults with long-term diagnoses associated with mental health and physical impairments. The participants were involved throughout the project, preparing and curating artwork for a major public exhibition. Methods: Qualitative data were collected to explore meanings of the project from the perspective of participants, the project manager and the public, using interviews, participant observation and comment cards. Results: The project was successful in engaging the participants who had previously often felt excluded from mainstream art spaces. Findings about the benefits of arts participation echoed other studies but participants highlighted some difficulty with the ending of the project. Public perceptions were positive, acclaiming the thought-provoking quality of the exhibition. Interviews and participant observation revealed the importance of egalitarian leadership, mutual trust and the absence of any therapeutic agenda. Conclusion: Developing similar projects would offer opportunities to foster diverse artistic communities and empower people with experiences of disability and mental health conditions