WMG and the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies (CCPS) at the University of Warwick, are delighted to announce two innovative arts projects commissioned as part of their pioneering ESRC funded research impact project on supply chains.

The study (www.mychainreaction.co.uk), which launched in July is led by Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy, Janet Godsell, and has been designed to investigate our knowledge and understanding of supply chains and how we relate and interact with them on a daily basis. “The project’s success depends on public participation; the artistic commissions are critical to raising awareness and inviting people to reflect on the issues and stories that participants are sharing with us,” says Ruth Leary, research team member and Principal Teaching Fellow (CCPS).

The research team invited submissions from artists and arts organisations in response to the project themes and findings and winning proposals from Pangaea Poetry and Unfold beat off stiff competition in the process.

Both commissions will explore and embody important aspects of the MyChainReaction research and will be showcased at the forthcoming Global Supply Chain Debate, to be hosted at the University of Warwick from 10^th-11^th November 2015.

Pangaea Poetry is a group of poets based in the West Midlands who use a combination of the spoken word and digital technology to bring poetry to more people. They are developing a series of short videos containing elements of performance, audio and visual effects inspired by some of the initial research findings and narratives shared on the MyChainReaction website along with live slam poetry performances and workshops in the lead-up to the Global Supply Chain Debate.

In contrast, Unfold, brings together a collection of designers and creative technologists from backgrounds such as cognitive science, creative coding and design and festival production. Using design thinking, data mapping and laser cutting techniques they plan to build a captivating physical installation that will signify supply chain data and interconnectivity and invite audiences to experience its structure and complexity in a playful and immersive way.

Speaking about the commissions Professor Godsell explains: “When we launched MyChainReaction it was with the aim to both measure and increase levels of public knowledge and understanding of what a supply chain is and how we, as individuals are an integral part of them locally, nationally and beyond.

“The artistic commissions are integral to this aim and we are delighted to be working with two such innovative organisations who have taken a very different approach to the brief. Pangaea had really thought through how to engage a broader audience with supply chains and their proposal represented an exciting transmedia approach with both physical, virtual, social and printed representations of the supply chain themes.

“Meanwhile, Unfold, who will be working on their commission in collaboration with WMG, represent a group of challenging and critical creative practitioners whose proposal embodied so many of the key messages from the study and encompassed a range of highly creative ways to bring them to life.”

Carl Sealeaf from Pangaea Poetry commented: “We were absolutely thrilled to hear that we had been selected. We really want our project to inspire people to think creatively and actively about their involvement in, and influence over supply chains, and for them to make more considered choices by better understanding the significance supply chains play in their lives, and how they can influence supply chains in a way that’s beneficial to the world.”

Philo van Kemenade from Unfold concludes: “This is a very unique opportunity to get involved in a forward thinking research project. MyChainReaction already makes the concept of supply chains personal by letting people share stories that are relevant to them. Through our work we want to take this one step further; we will visualise pieces of data and the relationships between them to make characteristics of a system intuitively accessible and will directly involve all attendees of the Global Supply Chain Debate in the artwork itself.”

ENDS

 

For further information about the study and to take part visit www.mychainreaction.co.uk and download the Participant Information Leaflet. Alternatively contact Professor Janet Godsell at j.godsell@warwick.ac.uk

 

Notes for Editors

• The University of Warwick is one of the UK’s leading research universities. It is consistently ranked in the top 10 of all the University league tables produced by UK national newspapers, and is ranked 7th among the UK's 100 universities for quality of research
• About WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group)

• WMG was founded by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya in 1980 to help reinvigorate UK manufacturing. From its inception, WMG’s mission has been to improve the competitiveness of organisations through the application of value adding innovation, new technologies and skills deployment, bringing academic rigour to industrial and organisational practice.
• Today we are one of the world’s leading research and education groups, with over 500 people working across six buildings on the Warwick campus plus collaborative centres in ten countries. We have an annual programme of £180m which includes industrial and in-kind support.
• An academic department of the University of Warwick, we are at the forefront of innovative technology, leading major multi-partner projects to create and develop exciting new products, services and processes that can lead to major breakthroughs and be of huge benefit to organisations. These projects have seen us impact a wide range of sectors including automotive, aerospace and defence, digital, construction, energy and utilities, finance, food and drink, healthcare, IT, pharmaceutical, and rail.

• The Centre for Cultural Policy Studies was established in 1995, the Centre provides a focus for teaching and research in cultural management, cultural policy, media and communications, social enterprise and the creative and media industries. Its distinctive approach is to engage with the practical realities of working in the cultural and media industries while having critical oversight of the ideological, strategic and conceptual questions which lie behind professional practice. This approach is shaped by an ongoing commitment to preparing postgraduate students for careers in the culture, media and communication industries.

 

The Centre is run by a multi-disciplinary team of full-time staff supported by a range of distinguished practitioners and visiting experts. The Centre has awarded over 500 Masters degrees with students going on to PhD at Warwick. Its alumni network is truly global. The expertise at the Centre is regularly called upon for research and consultancy work.

• The study is led by Professor Janet Godsell and is undertaken in collaboration with Ruth Leary, Principal Teaching Fellow, from the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies at Warwick. It is being funded through the University of Warwick ESRC Impact Acceleration scheme and has been reviewed and given favourable opinion by the University of Warwick’s Biomedical and Scientific Research Ethics Committee (BSREC): REGO-2015-1473.

Alex Buxton
Communications Manager
Tel: 02476 150423
Mob: 07876 218166
a.buxton.1@warwick.ac.uk