12 August 2008

Shanghai surprise for Dundee design graduate

A Dundee University graduate is set to swap watching the Olympics on television for showing off her own work in China after being invited to take part in one of the world’s biggest art and design shows.

Interactive media design graduate Alison Thomson (21), from Edinburgh, has been invited to display her work at the 7th Shanghai Biennale, which brings together artists and designers from all over the world.

Alison, who graduated from Dundee in June, was invited after submitting work from her final-year student project, which looked at how links develop among the community in the Blackness Road area of Dundee.

'It’s been a really hectic and heady time for me, having put together my Degree Show exhibition, graduated and now this!' said Alison. 'I’ve been sitting watching the Olympics on TV and getting really excited thinking I’m going to be in China in a few weeks time.'

The theme of the Biennale is `Translocalmotion’, examining the socio-economic and cultural implications of urbanization on both the local and global levels, including issues of migration and identity.

This chimes perfectly with Alison’s Degree Show exhibit, `The Blackness Exhibition’, which examined how links between people and the space around them can develop across a community.

'My project was like a case study of Dundee, concentrated in one area around Blackness Road,' said Alison. 'I worked in three businesses - the Balgay Bar, Grant’s butchers, and Anderson’s Hardware - and looked at how these influenced the community, the relationships that built between the customers and with the proprietors.'

'It is amazing what you see when you stop and really examine these things, how people interact with their surroundings. People would come into the butchers to buy a pie, for instance, and still be there half an hour later, having a real laugh. It was like a comedy playground.'

'The project was about capturing the motion of a city, and it worked really well. I’ve got to say a big thanks to all the businesses involved as well, because they could not have been more helpful.'

Alison will now travel to Shanghai at the start of September for the Biennale, which will see artworks displayed all over the city.

'It’s very exciting to be asked to take part in such a huge event,' said Alison.

Later in the autumn she is set to start a Masters degree at the Royal College of Art in London.

'Alison was one of the stars of our Interactive Media Design course at Dundee,' said lecturer Morna Simpson. 'Her work is interesting because it walks the line between Design and Fine Art, and her final-year work can perhaps be best described as Design Ethnography. This is a highly specialised field, and designers with this expertise can easily find work in some of the leading Design and Technology businesses around the world.'

'I'm looking forward to following her career, and I'm sure she will flourish in her Masters Course.'

NOTES TO EDITORS
For more information of the 7th Shanghai Biennale see: www.shanghaibiennale.com.

Interactive Media Design is a collaboration between Duncan of Jordanstone College and the School of Computing at the University of Dundee. This unique blend of disciplines gives students the wide range of tools to meet the design challenges of the 21st century.

www.dundee.ac.uk/design/bsc-interactive-design.php.

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