Fire at Glasgow School of Art

It was with great sadness that last night I was informed about the fire at Glasgow School of Art. 

Four years ago I was in the historic building when a fire broke out and caused excessive damage. It is an experience that I will never forget and I still get a very physical and emotional response when I think about it. The people of Glasgow and beyond showed exceptional resilience, generosity and determination to restore the important building and support the students who were effected. This is evidence of the huge impact that the building has had on many people, not just those who have had the privilege of working in the building. I hope that the same fighting spirit can be mustered once again. Thankfully, the 2014 fire did not cause any deaths, and I am relieved to find out that the same is true of the latest fire. My heart goes out to Glasgow and the GSA community. 

Opening of the Reid Building

GSA staff and students piled out of the Mackintosh Building and moved over the road to official opening of the Reid Building along with thousands of invited guests.



A lively duo of Johnny Roger and Sam DeSantis acted as compares for the opening proceedings, introducing speeches by the current and former GSA Directors, Scottish funding council and GSA alumni, Robbie Coltrane.




Makar and GSA alumni Liz Lochhead played her part by writing the words to the song that the talented GSA choir performed with excellence.

From past student, to present and future as a current Architecture student and youngster from a local school were given the honour of launching the Rube Goldberg machine.

Neil McGuire gave a running commentary of the knock on effect style machine as it whizzed around the building, finishing with the release of balloons and confetti.

With the formalities over, we were invited to share a celebratory drink, enjoy some delicious street food, and explore the Reid building.

I particularly liked the installation by Petter Yxell, with its strong connections to architecture, the built environment and history.

 

For more on the opening of the Reid building, here are a few links

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/arts/news/robbie-coltrane-planning-to-write-his-life-story-1-3370117

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/song-confetti-and-tears-as-new-art-school-building-is-officially-opened.23927786

https://twitter.com/GSofA

The Library of Lost Books

       

For more information visit http://thelibraryoflostbooks.blogspot.co.uk

How to succeed at Art School - animation by Thomas Slater and Andy Baker

As you may know, I am the Project Researcher for a project funded by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) called The Anatomy of Employability. It is a collaborative project between Glasgow School of Art and Bucks New University.

One of the concepts we have been thinking about is success.

What is success?

What makes a successful artist?

How do you measure success?

I have just found a witty short animation by Thomas Slater and Andy Baker which provides 5 rules to follow in order to succeed at Art School.

GSA Pecha Kucha XIV

I would like to invite you to
GSA Pecha Kucha XIV

Wed 30th Jan 2013 (tomorrow)

GSA Student Union,
468 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3LW

6pm

Speaking are: Helen McCormack, Graham Lister, Helen Shaddock, Alistair Payne, Maeve Dickson, Emily Penn, Jamie Sunderland and Duane Harrison

get your FREE tickets from http://gsapk14.eventbrite.co.uk/

(but i've never been when they have checked for tickets so chances are you can come along without one!)

Hope to see you there!

GSA video Archive

The entire GSA Video Archive is now at:
http://www.gsa.ac.uk/visit-gsa/video-archive/

The GSA Archive has grown to include 84 videos of public lectures and events organised by The Glasgow Urban Lab, Architecture Friday Lectures, Fine Art Friday Events, Exhibitions talks and events, and more!

You can now watch the entire series of Architecture Friday Lectures from 2010-11 and various Friday Event lectures dating from 2006-11 – including notable talks by architect Steven Holl, artist and kinetic sculptor Susumu Shingu, designer Ben Kelly, artist and GSA graduate Christine Borland, artist and GSA graduate Roddy Buchanan, Urban Lab lecturer Graeme Evans, artist Martha Rosler, and more! There are two talks each featuring Roger Wilson and Thomas Joshua Cooper, a fantastic research presentation by Alistair MacDonald, and two talks by recent UK Fullbright Distinguished Chair Ann Markusen.

Here is the very impressive full list of all that can be viewed:

Mackintosh School of Architecture Friday Lecture Series
2011
11 Mar Rick Mather, Rick Mather Architects Recent Projects
04 Mar Prof Robert Tavernor, LSE Cities Visualising the City
25 Feb Alan Pert, NORD Architecture Future Nostalgia
04 Feb Charlotte Frank, Schultes Frank Architekten The Lightness of Stone
28 Jan Neil Porter, Gustafson Porter Contemporary Landscape Design
21 Jan Jonathan Sergison, Sergison Bates Architects Concept Construction
14 Jan Julian Lewis, East Adjusting Places
07 Jan Emanuel Christ, Christ + Gantenbein Architekten Plans

2010
26 Nov Wiel Arets, Wiel Arets Architects Recent Projects
19 Nov Tom Emerson, 6a Architects We Were Never Modern
12 Nov Jonathon Woodroffe, S333 Architecture + Urbanism Projective Cities
22 Oct Stephen Witherford, Witherford Watson Mann Architects London Edges - The Adaptive City
15 Oct David Kohn, David Kohn Architects Jujitsu Urbanism
08 Oct Jonathan Speirs, Speirs Major Associates Light: Dark: Creativity
01 Oct Frank Barkow, Barkow Leibinger Architekten Digital Kraftwerk

Friday Event Lectures
2011
11 Mar Roderick Buchanan From USA '94 to London 2012
04 Mar Richard Layzell Falling Phoebe
04 Feb Louise Welsh Robert Louis Stevenson and the Theatre of the Brain

2010
26 Nov Madelon Hooykaas Revealing the Invisible
19 Nov Sonia Boyce LEAP into uncertainty
12 Nov Vanessa Place Notes on Conceptualism
29 Oct Professor Ann Markusen Creative Placemaking
22 Oct Eamonn McCann Putting the wrongs of the Northern Ireland conflict to rights
15 Oct Christine Borland SimBodies, NoBodies & Me
08 Oct Dr. Thomas Röske The Prinzhorn Collection - Past and Present

30 Apr Lewis Biggs Hello? Liverpool Biennial & the Visual Art Ecology of the City
23 Apr Maria Thereza Alves urgent and not so urgent possibilities
05 Mar Ben Kelly Ben Kelly Design: International Orange + Rural Studies
05 Feb Roshini Kempadoo State of Play: Photography, Multimedia and Memory
29 Jan Jimmie Durham The Usual Song and Dance Routine with a few...
15 Jan Steven Holl Recent Works
08 Jan Susumu Shingu How should we live tomorrow?

2009
20 Nov Siobhán Hapaska Artist Talk
27 Nov Mariele Neudecker The Air we Breathe is Invisible
23 Oct Kortney Ryan Ziegler The Creative Intellectual: Troubling the...
02 Oct Chris Wainwright, Thomas Joshua Cooper & Roger Wilson A Conversation Regarding Journeys

20 Mar Tetsuo Kogawa Pirate Aesthetics of the Mini-FM
06 Mar Faith Wilding Cyberfeminism Interrogates Biotechnology...
13 Mar Silvia Ziranek The Z of How
06 Feb Claire Doherty The Event of Situation: Contemporary Art, Place and Time
30 Jan Lauren Dyer Amazeen Art Performance

2008
05 Dec John Morrison Autonomy & Identity : Independent art in Glasgow 1955-1965
28 Nov Ron Broglio Minor Art: Becoming-Animal
14 Nov Martha Rosler Artist's Talk
31 Oct Craig Richardson Landscape as Conceptual Art
24 Oct Thomas Joshua Cooper The World's Edge: The Atlantic Basin Project

25 Apr Melanie Gilligan Recent Writing and Performances
22 Feb John Smith Lecture and Screening
25 Jan Yvonne Spielmann Video: A New Technology & a New Medium
18 Jan Ursula Biemann The Maghreb Connection: Counter-Geographies in the Sahara

2007
23 Nov Joanne Sharp Imagining the Subject of Geopolitics
16 Nov Damian Sutton Time (and) Travel in Television
09 Nov Jan Verwoert From Appropriation to Evocation
26 Oct Hayley Newman Performing Performance
19 Oct Eyal Weizman The Architecture of Occupation (Presentation of 'Hollow Land') (audio only)

02 Mar Chantal Mouffe Agonistic Politics and Artistic Practices
02 Feb Stephen Graham Dreams of Omniscience: Urbanization & the US Revolution in Military Affairs (audio only)

2006
1 Dec Oliver Ressler An Ideal Society Creates Itself (audio only)
24 Nov Andrew Hussey Paris Underground: Reading and Writing the 'Situationist' City
17 Nov Chad McCail Work
27 Oct Simon Starling Autoxylopyrocycloboros (audio only)
20 Oct Michael Albert Realizing Hope: Life Beyond Capitalism

Research Presentations and Collaborative Events
2011
18 May Stephen FarthingThis is Drawing
6 Apr Ann Markusen 'Arts & Culture as Regeneration: Four UK Cities Experiences'
21 Feb Graeme Evans Creative Cities, Creative Spaces? Form and Function
02 Feb Ülar Mark, Toomas Tammis, Martin Aunin, Margit Aule
BOOM. ROOM. New Estonian Architecture
26 Jan Claudia Zeiske with Nuno Sacramento the town is the venue


2010
24 Nov Art and Activism: The Aberdeen Climate9 jury trial
20 Nov Roger Wilson An Art School Perspective
17 Nov The Nine Trades of Dundee
28 Oct Simon Manfield in conversation with Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan (audio only)
10 Nov Barry Esson Music is about more than just music
06 Oct Henry Coombes Artist's Talk

26 Apr Simon Critchley Symposium: The Infinite Demand of Art
16 Apr Jan Verwoert Why are conceptual artists painting again? Because they think it's a good idea
15 Apr Joseph Leo Koerner Hieronymus Bosch: Enemy Painting
1 Mar Alistair MacDonald Designing with Ageing Populations: UK/Japan research Dialogues

14 Dec 2009
The Mackintosh Symposium Lectures and Panel Discussions
Andy MacMillan The Building as Document
Benedetta Tagliabue Mackintosh and Miralles
Pamela Robertson Mackintosh and Glasgow
Professor William J. R. Curtis Materials of the Imagination : The Glasgow School of Art
The Mackintosh Symposium Morning Panel Discussion - Part 1
The Mackintosh Symposium Afternoon Panel Discussion - Part 2

2008
7 May Chandraguptha ThenuwaraSpaces Giving Shade (audio only)

2006
16 Oct Dan Graham Pavilions