Culture

As well as seeking out new knowledge and exploring the challenges in society today, universities also have an eye to the past. We have several projects dedicated to preserving and celebrating our culture for future generations, whilst helping us to better understand the present.

You can protect heritage and promote the cultural riches of tomorrow by supporting the University of Brighton.

Capturing culture forever

A project led by the University of Brighton is bringing information technology experts across Europe together with museum curators, archaeologists, librarians and conservationists to explore the digital capture of collections and artefacts. The collaboration is paving the way for works to be recorded in 3D so that people will be able to see them from every possible angle on their computers.

Initial experiments are being conducted on sculptures and works of art where images are digitally captured and processed into a 3D record, using a mixture of methods including taking measurements from photographs and using laser-scanning tools.

In an exciting development, members of the public in Brighton & Hove have been invited to take photographs of sculptures and monuments to create a permanent record of the city’s heritage. It is hoped that this crowd sourcing approach will be rolled out on a national basis – anyone with a digital camera can join in.

Archiving the past

The university has long recognised the importance of properly organised archives to safeguard the future of materials and information and to enable students and researchers to use the collections in their studies.

Our Design Archives, managed by the Faculty of Arts, are an internationally significant resource focusing on British design and global design organisations of the twentieth century. The archives support the work of scholars and students from many academic disciplines researching the designed environment, the design profession and design practice. Materials from the archives have been showcased by the BBC and at Tate St Ives.

The archive itself received national recognition through funding awarded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Other examples of archives maintained by the university include the Aldrich Archive, which focuses on the invention and use of online retail technology in the 1980s and is being used by colleagues in the Business School for research and teaching. The recently established Chelsea Archive will chart over 100 years of history of the Chelsea School of Sport and look to the future. As well as printed material, this archive will include oral histories, video interviews and digitised photographic records from alumni, staff and friends.

Widening access to fine art

Colleagues in the Faculty of Arts are working to introduce local pupils to fine art. With the changes in higher education funding, there is concern about the future of subjects such as fine art, printmaking and painting, especially since so few schools have access to the equipment and expertise which can help ignite the interest of future artists. Our academics and students spend time with local schoolchildren, helping them to develop basic fine art skills and showing them round the studios at the university.

Furthermore, the university hosts the Aldrich Collection of contemporary art which was established by the Aldrich family to generate awareness of and interest in visual arts and seeks to make such materials accessible to the wider public.