June 2013 – BeOpenFuture

Sound Art and Noisy Hand Dryers Get Equal Hearing at BE OPEN’s Sounding Space Symposium at Chelsea College of Art

18 June 201312 March 2019Ekaterina Vekova

6-7 June saw a host of sound aficionados gathering at Chelsea College of Art’s Sounding Space symposium for discussions centred around the BE OPEN Sound Portal. This event was both a showcase for work produced by UAL students, who have been using the Portal to develop sound art, and marked the culmination of BE OPEN’s year-long exploration into sensory design.

The Portal is a state-of-the-art, ambisonic space, devised by BE OPEN, Arup and the London Design Festival. UAL students have had an opportunity to explore it in three quite different ways, with the results of their work being played in the Portal during the Symposium. Pieces ranged from fictional conversation, to the sounds of microphones being dragged along the floor, to rhythmic drumming and singing.

BE OPEN Reveals Details of Its New Education Initiative to Accompany Young Creatives Through Studies to Career

7 June 201312 March 2019Ekaterina Vekova

BE OPEN, the social and cultural initiative committed to creativity and innovation, has unveiled its long-term programme to support young creatives and institutes. An extension of the Foundation’s Inside the Academy programme, which has created a series of independent projects linked to education and awards, this new extended scheme involves a ranking system, Master’s Program Prize and a Young Talent Award.

Academic and journalist Roberto Zancan, who is curating the programme, spoke about the scheme at an international press briefing on 6 June, held at Chelsea College of Art in London. He was joined by Jay Osgerby of Barber Osgerby and Shay Alkalay of Raw Edges who will be part of the judging panel for the Young Talent Award. Both spoke with enthusiasm about BE OPEN’s decision to support creative education in such a fundamental way and particularly about the opportunity that the funding supplied by the Young Talent Award would give designers to focus on their work for a full year, a crucial opportunity to develop one’s thinking and test creative ideas.

About the BE OPEN Sound Portal

7 June 201318 March 2019Ekaterina Vekova

The Sound Portal was a landmark project for the 2012 London Design Festival. Created as an immersive space that focused on the idea of ‘design you can’t see’, it was sited in Trafalgar Square 19-23 September 2012.