IN INDUSTRY LAST UPDATED : 12 JULY 2017
Former students of our School of Visual Communication have recently teamed up with internationally acclaimed artist Mat Collishaw, to use Virtual Reality technology to take audiences back to the dawn of photography, through an interactive exhibition entitled 'Thresholds'.
Listed in The Guardian on 14 July as one of the 'Weeks best exhibitions', Thresholds is a fully immersive portal to the past. Birmingham City University staff, former students and external artists have been working together to create a link between the city of Birmingham, the University and the past, re-activating a photography archive that could have been lost in time.
The exhibition, situated in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, is based around the 1839 work of British scientist, William Henry Fox Talbot, when he presented his photographic prints to the public at King Edward’s School, Birmingham. Visitors can walk freely throughout a digitally reconstructed room, and will be able to touch the bespoke vitrines, fixtures and mouldings; even the heat from a coal fire will be recreated. Infrared sensors will track visitors’ movements, creating ghostly avatars that indicate their position and enhance the feeling of travelling through time.
Our School of Visual Communication has a strong reputation and background in the field of research, improving and communicating knowledge throughout the University, the City and the wider community and Thresholds is a perfect example of this.
The School of Visual Communication has further input into the exhibition, with the work of Photography lecturer and Professor of Photography and Moving Image, Ravi Deepres. Running alongside Thresholds and part of the same exhibition is Obscurra; a collaboration between award winning film maker, photographer and artist Ravi and BAFTA winning director, Michael Baig Clifford. Together, they have worked together to explore the intersections and common conventions between art and cinema.
Running until the 19th August at Birmingham Open Media, is an exhibition created by former Photography student Jo Gane. “A Whitehouse in Paradise Street” explores what may be the first Daguerreotype image made in Birmingham and potentially in England, again, highlighting the importance of photography in the region and complimenting the 'Thresholds' exhibition.
As you can see, research and practice form the cornerstone of our teaching and learning here at the School of Visual Communication and our talented and practising staff will use their knowledge to help you to reach your goals and to further your knowledge of your chosen subject.
Open until 6 August at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Thursday – Sunday, 10am – 4pm, aspiring photography students are being encouraged to go along to Thresholds and take a look, as the exhibition is so important, it may well become an archive in its own right.