UAL Showtime
It’s that time again. Art school graduates everywhere are nervously knocking back stubby bottles of beer in their studios as the public descend on their final shows. I imagine most of them are privately nursing a mixture of anxiety and relief.
The final shows are a difficult time for many art students, especially in disciplines which are judged heavily on their visual content. A well planned (and positioned) show can be the difference between having your business card box emptied and being unfairly ignored. I particularly feel sorry for those students who get shoved next to a door or at the arse-end of a warren of studios under a buzzing light. Not good.
Still, if you’re a graduate at University of the Arts London you will always have a fall-back plan. The new version of Showtime has been launched this summer with loads of new features and a slick new layout. Showtime offers all graduating students of UAL an opportunity to a have a free online presence to augment the work from their Degree shows. When I think back to my Degree, I can only wish that an altruistic service such as this was in place. It was (and still is) up to many course leaders and students to independently organise a web presence themselves. In some cases this is relatively beneficial. But in other cases it can create another level of stress and ambiguity for the average student at an already difficult time. In actual fact, Showtime actively encourages students to build on their web presence by connecting up with other course related content – both internal and external.
The new version has incorporated better social media functionality, larger images and more diverse way of incorporating mixed media content. I can’t readily think of many other art schools that are working as progressively as this online during the Degree shows season. The University has endured some recent grumbles from the media, so it’s a testament to their new media team for allowing good sense to prevail and letting the work of their students shine.
As good as Showtime is, you can’t beat seeing the work first-hand. So if you are in the London at the moment, make sure you catch some of the shows over the coming weeks. It’s well worth it. Even to just to see what the latest haircuts look like.