We are an open and inclusive collective of student artists and student entrepreneurs who band together for social contacts, artistic education and stimulation, entertainment and all things pertaining to the advancement of our dreams and careers in media, journalism, film, television, music, sound and video recording and distribution, set design, costume design, lighting design, concert, online innovations, photography, architecture, mixed and multi-media and dramatic performance.
[Pictured above: CCI/Cardiff School of the Creative and Cultural Industries' Associate Dean of the faculty, Professor Steve Blandford sets a healthy example by biking to work frequently from his home near Heath to the new urban Cardiff City Centre ATRiuM campus.]
The Recent University of Glamorgan Move to Cardiff City Centre Encourages ATRiuM Students & Faculty to Bike and 'Go Green'
While the University of Glamorgan has long sponsored a program to get folks out of their petro-guzzling cars and into bikes, walking or onto public transport, the recent move to Cardiff City Centre seems to have been the catalyst to finally motivate ATRium students, staff and faculty to begin biking to class every day.
Watch this very funny video before doing tricks with your new bike!
Leading the movement is Associate Dean of the faculty, Professor Steve Blandford.
While Professor Blandford recently mentioned how he missed the leafy Treforest campus where he served for many years, he also mentioned how certain 'clear advantages' would emerge for staff and students, relative to the move to the new ATRiuM campus.
Among those clear 'advantages' are a greener environment and healthier bodies for ATRiuM students and staff.
Click here for a list of Bike Shops in Cardiff and the Welsh Valleys:
By subsidising the costs of bicycles and safety accessories, the Government is encouraging us all to cycle to work instead of drive our cars.
Under the scheme, organisations buy bikes which employees can ‘loan’ from the organisation.
The bike is paid for out of the employees’ gross salary, which means each pound goes further as it’s not been reduced by tax and NI.
If the employer is VAT registered then VAT can also be deducted, totalling cost savings of up to 50%. So basically, you get twice the bang for your buck and you don’t pay it all at once!
Employers save money too, as well as having the advantage of a healthier workforce. Half of all the journeys undertaken in the UK are less than two miles and nearly three-quarters are under five miles.
Most people get in their cars for these short journeys (not good for your car either), yet these are easy cycling distances and hardly raise a sweat.
What better way to explore Wales than by bike. Cycling along parts of the National Cycle Network, taking in beautiful scenery at a leisurely pace. Follow coastal paths or traffic free trails to parks and attractions.
The National Cycle Network, co-ordinated by Sustrans, has miles of walking and cycling routes and over one-third is completely traffic-free, perfect for all, including families and those new to cycling. For easy cycle routes - click here:
Cycling is a fun, healthy and environmentally friendly way to explore the Brecon Beacons National Park; the magnificent mountain scenery never looks better than it does when viewed from the saddle of a bike.
Whether you want to charge across the high mountains, cruise through the passes, hop easily from pub to pub or just amuse the kids on a sunny Sunday afternoon; there's something here for everybody and it's a great way to escape the stresses and strain of everyday life. For more information, click here
[Pictured above: montage of companies who list careers with the Media Job Site for UK Graduates, Digitalheads.co.uk]
End of an era for the "Welsh Wizard" (silent)
[About this video: Political drama as David Lloyd George resigns as Prime Minister in this 1922 newsreel from Topical News. The film is now owned by the British Film Institute.]
Digitalheads.co.uk is one of the companies visiting Cardiff ATRiuM and looking for Media students to hire and place in new careers.
"digitalheads recruits for the digital industry - all roles, all levels, all online businesses. So whether you’re looking to recruit or to work in the industry, you know where to get a head."
According to Digitalheads.co.uk:
"Graduates are at the centre of everything we do. The e-marketing and e-media industry has grown so rapidly over the past few years that there’s a shortage of new talent to fill the gaps."
"Our aim is to open eyes and doors for students who are passionate about on-line media and who want to blaze a trail in the sector."
[Pictured above: cover of Collected Writings of Rhys Davies, by Meic Stephens. Rhys Davies is an internationally-celebrated Welsh writer who was a native of the Rhondda Valley.]
Introduction to Creative Writing - new course for the Autumn term Event Date: September 27, 2007 6 p.m. – December 21, 2007 – 8 p.m.
Coed Y Lan Comprehensive School, Pontypridd
Come along and develop your knowledge and skills in writing fiction and non-fiction.
If you've got any questions about the event then please contact Claire Watkins from Centre for Life Long Learning on 01443 483650 or email at cwatkins@glam.ac.uk
Aspiring writers are encouraged to contact the Welsh Academy of Writers / Academi for information about writing courses in your area.
The Academi runs events, courses, competitions, including the Cardiff International Poetry Competition, with the support of Cardiff Council and offering a First Prize of £5000, conferences, tours by authors, lectures, international exchanges, events for schools, readings, literary performances and festivals.
Academi is also responsible for the National Poet of Wales project and the Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales.
A sample of Univeristy of Glamorgan / Prifsygol Morgannwg Centre for Lifelong Learning courses currently offered:
Creative Industries:
WRITE NOW – AN INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING Course Length: 12 weeks
This course will develop a student’s knowledge and skills in writing fiction and non-fiction. Students are encouraged to read widely and write independently. Examples of work by established authors will be given.
Participation in workshops as writer and critic are essential. Students will develop a grasp through practice of fundamental writing skills, an awareness of a range of genres and styles in fiction and/or non-fiction and a wider knowledge of contemporary literature.
EW0H01 CREATIVE WRITING * Course Length: 12 weeks
This practical writing course will introduce students to some of the elements of storytelling, and will offer the opportunity to write in different genres, e.g. poetry, non-fiction and scriptwriting.
Students will be introduced to workshop methods; they will look at how to begin story writing, using reading and other stimuli as starting-points to work on story structure and character.
Other topics covered will include how to begin poetry writing, and non-fiction writing, e.g. travel, autobiography. Finally, students will receive a short introduction to writing for film.
EL0H01 ENGLISH LITERATURE * Course Length: 12 weeks
This module will introduce students to the nature, methods and theories of English literary studies. Students will become familiar with the different genres of literary expression, e.g. novels, poems, plays.
The course explores a series of key questions and issues: What do I think I am doing when I read literature? What does literature think it is doing to me? What am I reading? What is a text?
Students will also examine mediums, periods and movements. Further questions will be raised: How do I make sense of this? Where do I fit into this? Students will learn narrative methods, and how to interpret texts. The relationship between author, text and reader will also be analysed.
FM1S02 APPROACHES TO THE HISTORY OF FILM AND TELEVISION * Course Length: 12 weeks
This course provides a broad overview of the development of film and television drama, focusing on a variety of influences and trends including: industry, audience, technology, style, aesthetic, context, national cinemas and ‘new’ cinemas.
Students are introduced to key practitioners, films and programmes which have impacted on the developments of these media from early silent cinema to contemporary film and television.
Theories and ideas underpinning the growth of these media in different time periods and contexts are studied, as are the ways in which we construct and interpret cultural histories.
REHEARSAL FOR REALITY Course Length: 12 weeks
This course aims to provide the student with an introduction to the Forum Theatre techniques for personal and group development. The course covers ‘uses and potential of Forum Theatre’ and students will be able to apply this knowledge to group sessions.
The students will also gain an understanding of the potential of self-development through creative group activity and self-reflection.
DEVISING PERFORMANCE Course Length: 12 weeks
This non-accredited course aims to provide the student with the knowledge to identify, explore and realise the dramatic potential of a visual stimulus and to develop performance skills for personal and group development.
The student will understand the uses and potential of visual stimulus in dramatic work and be able to apply that knowledge to the group sessions.
WORKING ON SCRIPTS Course Length: 12 weeks
This non-accredited course aims to provide the student with the knowledge to realise the potential of sub-text in performance for personal and group development.
Students will gain an understanding of the playwright’s intentions through the study, they will develop the ability to create a character and utilise a variety of performance techniques in order to represent a specific scene.
The student will also gain an understanding of the potential for the self-development through the creative individual and group activity and self-evaluation.
MP1H25 SCRIPTWRITING FOR MEDIA * Course Length: 12 weeks
This course aims to enable students to write drama for radio, television and the cinema. Students will be introduced to the different narrative structures and characteristics of television drama, radio drama and cinema; story development, style, character, dialogue and location will be studied.
The function of documents such as the ‘synopsis’ and ‘treatment’ will be discussed, both for the writer and the producer.
MP2S49 SCRIPTWRITING – FILM * Course Length: 12 weeks
This course aims to develop the student’s screenwriting skills. Each week a variety of approaches to short film will be discussed; students will learn the various stages of putting together their own screenplay, from the conception and expansion of their idea, through fully worked treatments, screenplay drafts, to the finalised screenplay.
By the end of this course, students will have completed two short film screenplays.
This course aims to enable students to develop and expand concepts into a complete dramatic script within a range of theatre genres, as well as further developing and expanding their theatre writing skills.
Guidance and support will be given throughout the entire process, as scripts are taken from conception to completion. On completion of this course students will have developed their skills as writers, and will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the historical development of theatre writing.
The module explores a range of Gothic texts published over a period of thirty years. Students will investigate the developments in the form and will examine whether it is possible, or desirable, to reduce the Gothic to a set of characteristic conventions.
Students will observe how the Gothic often self-consciously makes reference to issues such as sexuality, class, and identity. The module also explores definitions of ‘Evil’ and how the Gothic uses this labelling in order to establish either politically, radical or reactionary perspectives.
Writers explored include Radcliffe, Lewis, Keats, Coleridge, and Mary Shelley.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – THE CAMERA IN THE CITY Course Length: 12 weeks
The course provides an introduction to traditions of street photography, (i.e. photography whose subject matter is urban life in the streets, pubs, markets and other public spaces). The course explores the work of street photographers who have worked in Paris (Atget, Brassai), New York (Bernice Abbott, Weegee) and Cardiff (Bert Hardy, Daved Hurn).
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY Course Length: 10 weeks
This course requires students to have basic PC skills, and to be able to use a digital camera. Students will learn the fundamental principles of photography, digital camera control and picture composition.
They will learn how to transfer images to a computer, and the basics of computer image correction and enhancement. The course will teach the student about camera control (eg shutter speed) and how to deal with difficult lighting (eg getting exposure right).
The course will also look at photographing people (eg family events and social gatherings), sporting events and movement, and holiday and travel photography.
DE0H04 WORKING WITH DIGITAL IMAGES Course Length: 12 weeks
This module will enable students to acquire basic knowledge and skills in digital image manipulation using suitable software tools. Students will learn how to restore photographic images and selectively colour monochrome images.
The module will also examine how to use a variety of tools to digitally enhance, ‘merge and blend’ and selectively copy and paste images.
This module can also be run as non-accredited.
For additional info please contact Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk
The Skillset Screen Academy Wales (SSAW) is a new partnership for high-level training and education that focuses on the film industry.
Date for your diary . . . SSAW event for new and returning students
The Skillset Screen Academy Wales (SSAW) warmly invites new and returning students* to an evening at Cineworld Cinema, Mary Anne Street, Cardiff on the 18th of October 2007
New students - wondering what advantages being an SSAW student will offer? returning students - want to find out more about collaborating with other SSAW courses on your graduation films, or find out about what you can expect this year in terms of masterclasses and festival visits?
Then join us for one or all of the following…
5-7pm (Bar) A speed-networking event for students from different SSAW courses (meet the collaborators for your graduation films!)
5pm (Cinema) A screening of the best animation films from 2006 and 2007 graduates
6pm (Cinema) A screening of the best live action films from 2006 and 2007 graduates
7pm (Cinema) An industry masterclass on film and animation in Wales
8pm (Bar) A networking reception with students and with SSAW Industry Panel members
Space for 170 students and staff.
To book your place (please specify which elements you would like to attend) email hannah@screenacademywales.org before the 15th of October
* Students starting, or returning to, film and animation courses at the International Film School Wales (University of Wales, Newport), Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries (University of Glamorgan), School of Digital Media (Swansea Institute of Higher Education) and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. To check you are an SSAW student click
Are you a member of the AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media? Why not? It’s free and some your friends are joining – so what are you waiting for?
Just what are the Five Primary Aims of AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media?
Our Five Primary Aims
1) We are an open and inclusive collective of student artists and student entrepreneurs who band together for social contacts, artistic education and stimulation, entertainment and all things pertaining to the advancement of our dreams and careers.
2) We devise and launch events and projects related to media, journalism, film, television, sound and video recording and distribution, set design, costume design, lighting design, concert, festival and special events promotions, online innovations, presentational graphics, photography, architecture, mixed and multi-media, dramatic performance, public speaking, performance art, individual or collaborative projects and other diversions.
3) We assist each other in developing and perfecting our art forms and professions.
4) We sponsor, attend and promote artistic, educational and social events, including imagined, narrated, fictional, real and virtual.
5) We assist one another in developing our artistic and professional portfolios, and we share these creations at various networking opportunities; with all these activities, we commit ourselves to the promotion and refinement of our own as well as our colleagues’ artistic portfolios and professional dossiers.
Is AIM a political or religious organization?
While it’s true that our ultimate goal is WORLD DOMINATION balanced with INTRINSIC FULFILLMENT nuanced with MEANINGFUL / MEANINGLESS PLEASURE enhanced by INCREDIBLY GREAT STYLE / LACK OF STYLE, and the inevitable material / spiritual gains / losses that accompany these goals, AIM respects the fact that we’re all on similar / different and interesting / mind-numbingly-boring paths; to this end, we neither affirm, deny or espouse any one political view or religious / non-religious, irrational / rational viewpoint.
Is AIM an arts club, a social fetish, a secret society, or a Cult of Personality?
It’s all of these things and none of these things. It has never existed and it has always existed. If it ceased to exist tomorrow, in the GREAT UNIVERSAL SCHEME OF THINGS, hardly anyone would care.
How do I join?
Email our Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk
When Dr. Mark collects a sufficient number of interested students’ names and details, he will announce an initial organizational meeting.
He’ll probably call or write to you before the end of October 2007, just in time to plan your Halloween costume.
Please include at least your name, alias, email address, mailing address, interests, Zodiac sign, your favourite ice cream flavour and hat / rollerblade size. Dr. Mark will use his extraordinary intuition to guess in which century you were born.
Where will the meetings be held?
The first meeting will be held at either ATRiuM or Ty Pont Haearn in the Cardiff City Centre. ATRiuM students and Ty Pont Haearn residents will host the first meetings to assist the launch of our collective.
Later meetings will held in Newport, London, Aberystywth, Port Meirion, Castle Harlech, Salisbury Plains, among the Roman ruins of Caerleon and the Norman ruins of Ogmore Castle, online, via pod-casts and video-conferences, in eventually in Copenhagen, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Toronto, Prague, Southern Italy, Barcelona and Amsterdam.
Conversations will take place in the past, present, future, conditional, imperative, pluperfect, and in other dimensions.
Can anyone be a member of this collective?
Well, the collective intends to include all interested residents of Ty Pont Haearn and other local student residences, communes, and shared living arrangements in the Cardiff City centre area.
Students or faculty can be affiliated with ATRiuM, UWIC, Coleg Glan Hafren, Cardiff University, Swansea University, Swansea Institute, Newport School of Art, Media and Design, or other institutions. Enthusiastic, dynamic and artistic friends and families of these students are also welcome to join.
What will be the social and political ethos / mythos of this collective?
Our collective will vacillate between historical notoriety and contemporary obscurity. We will foster greatness and encourage Misfits and other Outcasts. Invariably power struggles, nepotism, clicks, sub-groups, spin-offs, copycats, crass commercialism and other controversies will overtake our collective.
Obviously some of us are destined for Greatness; what will become of our collective?
Our Great Leader and Esteemed Founder Dr. Mark will attempt to arbitrate petty in-fighting and common resentments between members, including jealousy and jousting / fencing / armed pistol duels and mud-wrestling /cock fights; but eventually he too will tire of the fuss and choose to instead balance his check book and go into the West with the other Elves. Product line extensions, copyrighted residuals and returns, film franchises, Japanese language comic book series based-upon-our-lives and computer games will go on forever.
Are the members of this group either successful, aspiring or wannabe ‘Media Whores?’
Yes.
What will be the first projects of our collective?
a) We will organize and elect / appoint officers. All members will have important titles and hold multiple posts. Powdered wigs and celebrity entourages / limousines are optional.
b) We will launch a project to create and produce glossy 8x10 headshots, personal and group biographies, news releases, and promotional gimmicks of our ever-more glorious and celebrated selves. And this is only the beginning! Next we’ll develop video calling cards, websites and blogs, and various innovative ideas yet to be conceived or exploited.
c) We will organize and plan a variety of domestic and international trips, events and study abroad projects; we will involve ourselves in fund raising, grant writing, and other activities to fund our projects.
d) We will enhance our current research and study with activities including TV & Film Retrospective Screenings, exhibits and performances, speeches and debates, parties and festivals, media and print ‘guest articles and appearances, etc.
e) We will always call ourselves the ‘AIM Collective’ and we will write endless Manifestos. We will do this mostly because we like the sound of the word, ‘Manifesto’.
We are the spiritual and artistic heirs of many enigmatic icons, including but not limited to D.W. Griffith, the Marx Brothers, Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe, Che Guevara, Billy Holiday, Victor Hugo, Luis Buñuel, Michelangelo, Jacques Brel, Bertol Brecht, Edith Piaf, Grace Jones, Simone Weil, Louie Armstrong, Flip Wilson, Arthur Godfrey, Jackie Gleason, Walt Disney, Merv Griffin, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Donna Reed, Al Jolson, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Joel and Ethan Coen, John Dewey, Marcel Proust, Elvis Presley, The Artist Formerly-known-as-and-once-again-known-as Prince, William Shakespeare, Sir Salman Rushdie, porn star John Holmes, Buckminster Fuller, John Waters, Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright, and too many others to list.
I’m a painfully ordinary and dismally plain wallflower: can I join?
Yes.
I’m a fabulous reincarnation of Mother Teresa, P.T. Barnum, Madonna, Cher and David Bowie: can I join?
Yes.
I’m heterosexual / metro-sexual / gay / lesbian / transgender / asexual / celibate / neuter / spayed, all-of-the-above or unsure: can I join?
While your sexual orientation / relationship status / dating availability are immensely interesting / mind-numbingly-boring to all of us, we recommend that you share the intimate details of your life only with qualified gossip-mongers, literary agents, and assorted predatory paparazzi, until we get to know you better.
I’m naïve, innocent, pompous, moody, broke, or morally bankrupt: can I join?
Yes.
AIM seems to intentionally side-step answers while asserting ambiguities and ambivalent stances; do you have any core values?
YES!
We value humour, and we try to always take ourselves seriously / not take ourselves (or others) too seriously.
We value creativity and we like to pay our bills and get along with others; we are constantly seeking ways to avoid Writer’s Block, balance our check books, and have fun.
We value mutual respect and consideration for others. These simple values guide all our other activities.
We value having and nurturing within ourselves a good attitude and productive work ethic; but if we can’t be optimistic and helpful, we can always be spiteful and distracting.
We value kindness, altruism, and transcendent human equalities; we also recognize and delight in our ruthlessness, compassion, competitive spirit, neo- Machiavellianism, and related vagueness.
How will it benefit me to join this group?
Only you can answer that question. Generally, you will sound smarter-than-your-mates, make more friends, have better sex, consume less fat, sodium and sugar, have whiter teeth, you will lose weight, gain muscle, look better, feel better, gain self-esteem, and eventually make more money or not care about making more money.
Remember, the more people put into something, the more they seem to get out of it. Some folks are never happy, and as Abraham Lincoln supposedly said, “ People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Who will run the collective?
This group will be run entirely run by student members. Dr. Mark and other faculty, University staff, Advice shops, Resident Hall Activities Coordinators, and qualified volunteers will also advise and help as needed.
Who is the Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, and why do we call him that?
Dr. Mark Leslie Woods is the fabulous author and initiator of this collective, and we owe him our lives! Also, he likes to wear wizard capes and over-stuffed animal costumes, clown make-up, clever disguises and gangster suits, and he really likes weird titles and decorative headpieces and likes wigs, hats, plumes, crowns and space helmets.
While he prefers to play the head, he has occasionally been the horse’s ass.
Okay, so just who is this Man-behind-the-curtain, Dorothy?
Dr. Mark Woods is the Ty Pont Haearn Resident CCI Senior Welfare Tutor:
Dr. Mark is a filmmaker and scholar from Miami Beach, Florida, who has recently completed his Ph.D. in Film Studies.
His long and diverse background in the arts and creative industries allow him to offer advice and guidance to many different students:
He studied performance voice and keyboards and attended a Theatre & Drama Program for the Arts. He sang 1st Tenor with regional opera company choruses, and has done back-up vocals for Gospel, Bluegrass, Jazz and Folk concerts.
He studied Film Production Technology and worked on the Miami film production crews of feature films starring Will Smith and Monica Potter.
He has worked on both independent and studio productions, film festivals, and music videos and television & radio advertising campaigns in Miami, New York and California. He is currently studying the
He edits 9 blogs and three award-winning websites.
His specialties include Welsh, Italian and European Minority Language Cinemas, Hollywood & Cult Films, Feminist & Gay cinemas, Broadway Musicals, Horror, Mythology & Fantasy films.
Dr. Mark is a student of Latin, Welsh, French, Italian and several other languages. He lifts weights and is an unreformed Romantic / Socialist / Hippie / Health Nut / Jesus or Krishna Freak / Pagan / Anti-war agitator / Satirist.
Dr. Mark is friendly and helpful and a bit of a perfectionist, and he engages in shameless self-promotion, so let that be a lesson to you all!
Why is ATRiuM spelled with three initial swollen letters, followed by two sick, humiliated and bent-over letters, followed by a mountainous and glorious final letter?
Good question.
I am sleep-deprived / hung-over / brain dead, so please tell me again: How do I join?
Email our Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk
