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Be challenged: join OCA's MA students on a study visit in Oxford - The Open College of the Arts

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Be challenged: join OCA’s MA students on a study visit in Oxford

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.

stephen wMeet OCA MA Fine Art tutors Angela Rogers and Caroline Wright for a study visit to the Stephen Willats exhibition at Modern Art Oxford followed by the Archigram exhibition in Oxford at 12 noon on 2nd June 2013. There are some off site works by Willats that can be viewed during the morning, before we meet up as a group. The visit is a chance to see the work of a British contemporary artist who from the 1960’s until today, has situated his pioneering practice at the intersection between art and other disciplines such as cybernetics, systems research, learning theory, communications theory and computer technology. In so doing, he has constructed and developed a collaborative, interactive and participatory practice grounded in the variables of social relationships and settings. Willats’ creates multi-sensory, multi-dimensional environments to encourage viewers to engage with their own creative and cognitive processes. Using the everyday as a site of investigation, his work presents a vehicle of exchange through which viewers can re-examine and transform the way they perceive the fabric of existing reality. Born in London in 1943, Stephen Willats was one of the very few serious representatives of international Concept Art in England during the sixties and seventies. His visually intense works explore the nature of human interaction, communication and connection between individuals and communities. Conscious – Unconscious, the artist’s fourth exhibition at Modern Art Oxford continues a connection with the gallery, which began in 1968. This latest exhibition examines social interaction, the influence of technology on daily life and the way we look at and think about our surroundings.

Unique to this exhibition is The Oxford Community Data Stream, a new commission that presents alternative and highly personal perspectives on life in Oxford through a collaboration with residents of Kennington and Blackbird Leys. The final work is shown in three parts; at the gallery and also in each of the participant neighbourhoods positioned in the window of the Agnes Smith Advice Centre at Blackbird Leys, and in the foyer of the Kennington Village Hall. Stephen Willats has also made a series of short films in Oxford over the last year called People and Diagrams. These are on display on monitors in city centre shop windows.
Also showing on 2nd June is the show ARCHIGRAM Beyond Architecture REMIX 2013 and we have set aside an hour to view this show in the programme. Archigram are showing a remix of their original 1967 exhibition Beyond Architecture – an intervention of multi-layered sound and projection that was presented throughout the galleries. 
As though the sights and sounds of vibrant city locations such as Piccadilly Circus, London, have been transported to the Piper Gallery, this new exhibition presents thousands of images, sounds and music from popular culture, condensed together in one gallery as a multimedia installation.Archigram Beyond Architecture REMIX 2013 includes projected images collected since the late 1960’s and integrates a montage of music and sound that overlaps to create an intense visual and audio experience. 
Archigram were a collective of radical young architects working in London in the late 60’s. They proposed alternative possibilities for the design of cities in reaction to the modernist idea and the broader social and political context of the time.
For a place on this study visit please email enquiries@oca-uk.com. All OCA students are welcome to attend this visit, though existing and pending MA students will be prioritised.

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Posted by author: Jane Parry

One thought on “Be challenged: join OCA’s MA students on a study visit in Oxford

  • I am a photographer who has never done a study visit before and I will be like a bit of a fish out water but on the other hand I have been told that I must attend these groups, can you please email the details of how and when we meet. I am an existing student (OCA no. 502412) Peter Swan-Durham

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