A Kaleidoscope of talent at TU Dublin, Blanchardstown Campus, art show reviewed 24th May

Review of TU Dublin, Blanchardstown Campus, art show

Around this time every year, third level programs around the country proudly show off the work of their graduating tech and creative students and one of the best such grad shows is ‘Kaleidoscope’. Kaleidoscope is the show for the Creative Digital Media department at the Blanchardstown campus of Technological University Dublin.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a kaleidoscope can be defined as a constantly changing pattern or sequence of elements and this name perfectly sums up how it feels to travel between the array of experiences displayed in Blanchardstown, each one vying to out-do the next. Projects included VR, AR, 3D modelling, game design, mixed media installations, websites and apps, graphic design, social media campaigns, animation, film shorts and documentaries.

I visited the show on Friday 24th May which is traditionally the quieter day, after awards and prizes have been given out.

The Senior Room

One project in particular that has been receiving a lot of attention is Sayonara Bittencourt’s brilliant web-based project, The Senior Room. Sayonara (Sayo) said the project was inspired by memories of her grandfather and how shocked she was to learn of the 40% increase in support requests from elderly people in Ireland citing loneliness.

On the website you can choose a senior to virtually visit, taking a 360-degree tour of that person’s living room filled with hotspots leading to videos and other content so you can learn from and get to know the senior person you’re visiting. This project was created in partnership with both ALONE and Friends of The Elderly, who Sayo volunteered with during the course of her research.

As well as winning “Project of the Year” at Kaleidoscope, Sayo was also awarded first place in the TUDublin-wide research symposium, a govt of Ireland scholarship and an international student ambassadorship. Not only that but she’s also been offered a position as Junior Creative Designer at Distilled SCH so well done Sayo! She plans to keep the Senior Room project going by adding new rooms and this will include a rural room to see if the issue of loneliness is better or worse outside the city.

Visit The Senior Room at www.theseniorroom.ie

Serenity by Sarah Mooney

Another project winning accolades was the mixed media installation called Serenity. This immersive experience tells a story relating to mental health in Dublin’s club culture and the viewer is placed between four fabric panels for the audiovisual feast to come. The mix of music, projected video and voices retelling the story was quite spectacular and it was clear why this project won the Draiocht sponsored art prize. Sarah will now be able to avail of a studio and professional guidance as well as exhibition space in the Draiocht theatre. Her plans are to take the installation to music festivals which seems very fitting indeed.

Disconnect by Andrew Rahaman

Andrew’s beautifully designed awareness campaign on Alzheimers is supported by the Irish Dementia working group who plan to use it for a nationwide campaign. It features a character called Fergal; a guy in his 40s noticing signs of early onset Alzheimers disease. The informative campaign includes a series of short animations and posters as well as great social media content. Andrew himself would like to work in graphic design now that he has graduated.

Tink AR by Stephen Coyle

Tink AR won the Dept Agency prize of an internship in the top agency along with a trip to their head office in Rotterdam. And it wasn’t just the folks at Dept who found this Augmented Reality treasure hunt impressive. I handed the treasure hunt over to my AR and games correspondent, Aoife Franzoni (aged 10), who had enormous fun hunting down workshop parts around the building to free the game’s main character. Aoife’s verdict was Best In Show!

Mikaela’s Virtual Reality Experience

My own ‘best in show’, however, had to be the Virtual Reality experience in Water Safety and Litter Awareness by Mikaela Egan and developed in Unity. Who would have thought that picking up lakeside litter could be so much fun? And then to become a hero by saving a drowning passerby, well… It was fantastic with great graphics and very easy to use and comprehend.

Michaela believes that Virtual Reality is a great tool for education in a safe environment and so it suits the theme of water safety as you can learn how not to put yourself in danger, without actually putting yourself in danger.

Mobile Apps

One app on display was Ready Veggie Go by Aisling Power which includes video recipes, a ‘vegan or not’ food checker and a restaurant locater. Another lovely food-based app was Gluten Watcher from Aqsa Khalid which allows the user to scan any barcode to see if a project is gluten free or not. Gluten Watcher also has lovely gluten-free recipes. Aqsa (pronounced like the insurance company) said she was inspired by the challenge she faced when cooking for her friend who has coeliac disease.

There was also a host of other amazing projects including the visually stunning animations Anthropocene, Kayak and Limitbreaker. Overall the show had a real street bazaar feeling to it and the three hours I spent there was not enough to see everything. TU Dublin should be very proud of the talent in their Blanchardstown campus.

You can get a real sense of the atmosphere of the show by checking out lecturer Nicola Duffy’s Facebook live video here .

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