University for the Creative Arts staff research 2011

This publication brings together a selection of the University’s current research. The contributions foreground areas of research strength including still and moving image research, applied arts and crafts, as well as emerging fields of investigations such as design and architecture. It also maps thematic concerns across disciplinary areas that focus on models and processes of creative practice, value formations and processes of identification through art and artefacts as well as cross-cultural connectivity. Dr. Seymour Roworth-Stoke

Homage to 'Hay on the Highway'

This work was commissioned for the Marks of Honour exhibition/project at the Foam Museum of Photography, Amsterdam. Thirteen internationally recognised photographers were each invited to contribute a piece paying homage to a photobook that influenced their work. I chose Hay on the Highway (1993), which looks at farming communities in Finland and asks questions about sustainability, recycling and organic farming. Hay on the Highway inspired my conceptual approach to photography, collaboration, performance and subversion of the documentary genre and I had been searching for this rare book since 1995. For Marks of Honour I produced photographic self-portraits on the road (highway) metaphorically searching for this mythical book, using cardboard signs saying 'Hay on the Highway': this became a performance piece (also referencing my earlier photobook The Hitcher). I combined the new images with my re-representation of the original book, and made boxes from recycled cardboard, etched with the design of the book's cover; the original book was placed in it on a bed of hay along with my images and cardboard signs. The box was then placed in a specially produced hessian sack. For the exhibition my self-portraits were framed on the wall, and the other artwork was installed along with the original book in a vitrine. The book documenting the project, Don’t talk Bullshit, What are You Doing? was published alongside the exhibition, in a limited edition, with a set kept in the Marks of Honour archive. Marks of Honour as a whole constitutes a singular library and system of reference on some enduring influences in contemporary photography. Each work contains the original photobook and its complementary homage. The project was funded by the Foam and private collectors, and has been exhibited at Kaune Sudendorf Gallery, Cologne and the Kassler Photo Festival, Kassel, 2009; The Photographers' Gallery, UK, 2010

The Altogether

The Altogether is a photographic book by the artist Chris Coekin, who over six years has been visiting and producing artwork in a factory based in Sandbach, Cheshire. The factory began manufacturing copper wire in 1834, making it one of the oldest industrial environments in the UK. Unfortunately, due to the economic downturn, the factory closed and the entire workforce was made redundant. The Altogether is an ambitious multi-layered project that investigates the notions of art, work and struggle. Conceptually, it continues and expands upon ideas seen elsewhere in Coekin's photographic practice and in his collaborative working methodology. Along with a series of staged portraits, ambiguous industrial-scapes and still lifes, Coekin has produced music sourced from the factory floor. The Altogether comprises three series of photographic images – The Altogether, Manufactory Pt I and Manufactory Pt II (aka Made In England), and two audio tracks pressed on to a seven-inch vinyl record: Days at the Factories and CuSO4 Shuffle

Influencing the degradation rate of recombinant spider silk in the presence of matrix metalloproteinases

Understanding the degradation behaviour of extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds is essential for predicting and advancing wound healing. Spider-silk based proteins are one type of biomaterial with the potential to be used as a matrix to improve would healing. In addition to good biocompatibility and low-pyrogenicity, silk-based biomaterials have displayed the capacity for controlled degradation, a characteristic that is investigated in this study. In silico studies took target sequences of human matrix metalloproteinase 2 and 9 (MMP2 and MMP9) and compared them to sequences of silk major ampullate spidroin 1 (MaSp1) termini of spider genera: Araneus, Argiope, Cyrtophora, Dolomedes, Euprosthenops and Nephila and the recombinant synthetic mini-spidroin 4RepCT to identify locations for potential mutations to influence the protein’s degradation. Proteolytic degradation has been carried out in vitro with dragline silk fibres of a range of species from distantly related spider families namely Cyrtophora citricola, Dolomedes fimbriatus, Pisaura mirabilis, Pholcus phalangioides and Nephila madagascarensis to confirm the predicted degradation seen from in silico studies. Based on the MaSp1 of Euprosthenops australis, 4RepCT was recombinantly expressed and degraded by human neutrophil elastase (ELNE), MMP2 and MMP9. From the MMP profiles of 4RepCT, 14 mutation sites were identified, with a final seven being carried forward to experimentation due to location within the structured spidroin. Of these seven, two mutations located near the thrombin cleavage site and within the structured C-terminus were successfully expressed in DL41 and BL21 E. coli, respectively. Successfully expressed mutant spidroins were subjected to MMP2 (>1000 pmol/min/μg protein) and MMP9 (>1300 pmol/min/μg protein) concentrations that were approximately 10% of that typically seen in chronic wounds. Spidroins with a mutation in the amorphous region of the spidroin gene increased the degradation rate, degrading 1 mg/mL protein in 30 minutes with both proteases, whereas mutations within the structured C-terminus did not degrade in the same way. This suggests that while introducing target sites can influence the rate of degradation, the sites must be accessible to the protease in question

Grafters: Industrial Society in Image and Word

Nothing compared to photography when it came to capturing the Industrial Revolution. As Britain’s society changed, techniques in photography developed, enabling workers to capture their own lives for the first time. Visitors will witness how the working classes went from objects in photos, to heroic representations of industry and finally to photographers themselves. The exhibition highlights unseen images from important photographic collections. This is an exhibition on loan from the Peoples History Museum, Manchester. The exhibition is in partnership with Ian Beesley, with original works by the poet Ian Macmillan. Grafters is a photographic exhibition comprising predominantly of images from the Peoples History Museum photographic collection and Bradford Museums & Galleries photographic collection along with individual contemporary photographers including Chris Coekin

Chewing The Cud

Chewing the Cud is an exhibition by the British artist Chris Coekin. The work within the show represents projects that he has produced over a twenty-year period. Each series of work within the exhibition and accompanying newspaper provides the viewer with an insight into his evolving and working methodology. Photography is coekin’s primary media, slipping in and out of genres, camera formats and processes. Along with his images he often uses archives, ephemera, text and audio. This multi layered approach touches upon documentary, ambiguity and conceptual fine art photography resulting in narratives that are an intriguing mix of fact and fiction. His contextual ideas are often based upon personal experiences, collaborative processes and the notion of the ‘everyday'

Tak Two Coos

An exhibition of work produced by Chris Coekin included within the group show 'Modern Ornithologies' for the Format 2017 Photography festival. The word ornithology refers to the study of birds, but in this case extends to the many activities around the fascination with these animals and their world. The projects in this exhibition deal with the primal bond between men and bird, and the practices that arise from this complex relationship. Orrantia has created a dialogue between this work and the hundreds of historical objects found within the Pickford's House collection. Referencing photography and video projects from the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Turkey and Japan. These bird stories take us from New Zealand, across to China and Mongolia, the Middle East and Europe, making us aware of the global connections and resonances between them.The reading room at Pickford's House Museum has a copy of all of the books on the exhibition. In this room invited artist Chris Coekin has made a bespoke installation of his project Tak Two Coos. The work includes a series of collages that playfully appropriate and reinterpret the images and text found within the classic Observer's Book of Birds. It continues his exploration into the notion of reality representation within an everyday environment. Artists: Ricardo Cases, Stephen Gill, Yohei Kichiraku, Anaïs López, Mark Mattock, Martin Parr, Leon Reindl, Maria Sturm and Cemre Yesil, Chris Coeki

Keynote

The Royal Photographic Society has organised a conference 'Concerning Photography'. The aims are to bring contemporary photographic artists together so that they can share and discuss their personal approach to research and practice. Keynote speakers include: Chris Coekin, Melinda Gibson, Melanie Manchot, Peter Mitchell and Paul Reas

Knock three times

Chris Coekin's family has a long tradition of socialising in Working Men's Clubs. As a child Chris was taken to many clubs in his hometown of Leicester and during family holidays around England. Many of these clubs have long since disappeared. Working Men's Clubs were originally set up for the support and education of the working man. Knock Three Times is set in the Acomb WMC York where Chris first photographed in 1996. The club, and its members, symbolise the working class community at large. By using metaphorically driven images and archive ephemera, Chris explores his cultural roots and identity. The vivid, ambiguous, and often autobiographical images reflect his recollections of visiting WMCs as a child. They interrogate the complexities associated with growing up within a working class culture, ideas of masculinity, relationships and its work ethic. The notion of 'common sense' provides the foundation for a narrative that looks beyond the surface appearance of WMCs

Manufactory and The Altogether

This multi-layered project investigates notions of art, work and struggle. It was made in collaboration with factory workers who are not normally engaged with artistic practice. The 1834 factory is one of the UK's oldest industrial environments; it recently closed, making the workforce redundant. The exhibition comprises three photographic series, and a vinyl record. The Altogether focuses on the manual workers themselves. The series takes its name from a little-known trade union: in considering how to portray the workers, I found inspiration in the iconography and theatricality of union banners, and appropriated many of the stances they portray. Manufactory Part I investigates the overlooked industrial space, where a collision between nature, toil and the manufacturing process has occurred, resulting in a metamorphosis that has created a geographical micro-environment. Manufactory Part II (aka Made in England) developed from Part 1, as during my explorations I started to unearth old manual tools, which become symbols of a 'lost work force'. These 'finds' were then photographed floating on a bed of black industrial oil. Days at the Factories and CuS04 Shuffle are reverse sides of a vinyl record, and were produced using audio recordings from the same factory. My aim was to subvert the ambient sound from the factory floor and turn it into something more musical. Days... includes the men in the factory reciting a verse I wrote, which references various agitprop writings, and literature by George Dodd, a 19th-century chronicler of industrialism. CuSO4... appropriates the atomic element diagram for copper as the basis for a musical score. Exhibition audiences are invited to play the records (emphasizing ideas of collaboration and performance) on vintage record players – using a technology essentially unchanged since its inception. The work was originally funded by the Arts Council UK, and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and has toured globally