SCCI celebrates launch with opening event and new exhibition

The celebration was held in the newly opened Marshgate building at UCL East where SCCI showcased some of its state-of-the-art spaces and highlighted teaching and research by its academics and programmes.

Attendees included staff from UCL East, as well as UCL School for Social & Historical Sciences, UCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities, and IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society and key external partners and collaborators such as the V&A, Stratford East Theatre and London College of Fashion.

On display was a showreel of student work from the Media BA, a VR experience using content from the Immersive Factual Storytelling MA, and the Memory Bike - a bicycle-mounted recording and listening station and digital acoustic archive which supports the documentation and recording of local voices and everyday soundscapes.

Guests were invited to visit specialist spaces such as the Black Box, a mixed-media studio space, and the Media Conservation Studio. The studio is one of two unique spaces at UCL East supporting teaching and world class research in the Conservation of Contemporary Art and Media MSc which focuses on conservation of contemporary sculpture, installation, time-based media works of art and design, including conceptual, performance, digital and mixed media works.

The evening also saw the opening of the inaugural exhibition ‘Power!’ in the Culture Lab, a teaching and sharing space which works with collections from UCL and beyond to support and nurture a new generation of curators. The exhibition explores the meaning of power through the diverse collections of UCL, alongside everyday objects from our homes and communities.

Speeches were given during the evening by Stella Bruzzi, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, and Haidy Geismar, SCCI Director. Haidy said:

“Our new school for the creative and cultural industries is here to support art and creative practice, and our combined interests in media, heritage, public history, collections and conservation here at UCL. We are literally a concrete argument for the importance of arts, humanities and social sciences not only within the university but beyond. We are already demonstrating the pathways from the university into the sector and evidencing the value of our disciplines, practices, research skills and questions to society.”