The School of Art, Architecture and Design’s annual summer show will launch 29 June.
Date: 11 June 2021
The launch date has been announced for the annual celebration of student work at London Met’s School of Art, Architecture and Design. The show will take place between 29 June and 10 July on the School’s LIVENESS platform, which was launched last year to bridge the gap between digital and physical exhibitions.
LIVENESS 2021 will celebrate the work and successes of the school's students, and showcase how the culture of the school has evolved and thrived in new ways while the buildings were closed or partially closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Just like an on-campus show, the summer show will include an opportunity to see and celebrate work by graduating students.
A programme of live online events will bring external audiences and the school community together. Unlike a physical exhibition, the timings, frequency and nature of the activity will be freed from the constraints of opening hours and wall space.
Networked activity on the website is again expected to include anything from student microsites and blogs, video and music streams, to activities on social media such as Instagram, SnapChat or Tik-Tok. What happens and where will be led by the nature of students’ work, their preferred platforms and ingenuity.
Disciplines represented in the LIVENESS show will include Architecture, Fashion, Fine Art, Furniture and Product, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Design, Jewellery, Photography and Textiles and more.
Leading up to the launch of the main exhibition, from 24 June the School’s Photography BA course will run Strange Days, an exhibition of graduation work. This year the site also features images by the 24 finalists in the national Your People, Your Places, Your Things schools and colleges competition.
Graduating Fine Art BA students mounted an exhibition called Never Going Back at their virtual gallery on Kunstmatrix following their recent Spring Show of work by first and second years. And in the analogue world, banner designs created by Textiles BA students, the School is currently developing an on-site but live-streamed fashion show, details to be announced soon.
LIVENESS follows the successful Echoes in Time Festival in May which saw the School’s Theatre Arts students livestream their final graduation pieces from Shoreditch Town Hall to an international audience. A recording of the show will be available free and on-demand to visitors to LIVENESS. Looking forward, the school is hoping that, subject to the easing of restrictions, the annual MA Show in September will take place at the Aldgate campus.
LIVENESS was developed by Joseph Kolmaier supported by the Projects Office, the University marketing team, and Lucidica, based at The Accelerator, London Met’s business incubator,
Anne Markey, Head of The School of Art, Architecture and Design, said: “Yet again our students, with the unwavering support of our staff, have managed to produce an exciting array of work and events in spite of the challenging and changing circumstances in which we found ourselves.
“Join us at LIVENESS to celebrate a year where we came together again on our campus in Aldgate and engaged with our local communities. Our students planted trees on the Isle of Dogs, illustrated hoardings around Central House, designed banners for Petticoat Lane, conceived monuments for Aldgate, and performed in Shoreditch. You will also be able to view, experience and study the fruits of our students’ creative practice produced online at home, in the studio and workshop, or in their local neighbourhoods.”
The Summer Show will be available on the LIVENESS website from 29 June.
