The Slade School of Fine Art defines itself as a research-orientated institution with an emphasis on experiment and investigation, the outcome of which need not conform to the constraints of any pre-existing model. This is especially the case at graduate level, exemplified in the results from six separate weeks of concentrated activity by clusters of students electing to work under the respective umbrellas of specific research themes: speed, light, time, colour, scale and space. Each concept was chosen as specific to fundamental concerns recurrently addressed by visual artists, yet broad enough to allow for approaches deploying a variety of methodologies and reflecting a range of interests.

For this purpose, by relocating from a normal studio environment to the more spacious provision of the Slade Research Centre, Woburn Square, and from the individualism of personally-centred practices to a more collective endeavour and shared discourse, the prospects for extending the limits of the subject (Fine Art) as a whole were potentially enhanced. Each of the over-arching themes was further inflected by talks and demonstrations from both Slade staff and external contributors (such as Dominic Tinley or the cognitive neuro-scientist Dan Glaser from the Wellcome Institute), where there was an identifiable overlap with their own research.

Each session was completed with a concluding discussion to view and evaluate the work produced. The ethos of a workshop environment allowed the participants time, space and opportunity to produce either finished works or to lay the foundations for future development without any immediate pressure to arrive at a fully-resolved conclusion. The images and other information in the publication below are evidence of these outcomes, and constitute a sample of results rather than a comprehensive collection.

Project was published by Slade Press: Speed, Light, Time/Colour, Scale, Space: A Two-Part Programme of Graduate Research.