Arts Degree Show 2023

Volume Zero 2023

Volume Zero is the starting point for both new beginnings and celebrating the work of the past year, of bringing people together to take the conversation forward. It is our attempt to create a new narrative for Architecture and Education based on sustainable and responsible choices, saving of resources, reuse, ecology, wellbeing and displaced communities. The Degree Show chronicles the becoming of designers at university and symbolically presents fresh architectural understanding in symbiosis with maturely articulated spatial awareness.

The third-year’s brief encourages students to reflect on the spaces of confinement and their potential to be overcome through architecture. The role of architects in addressing the issue of confinement, in spaces such prisons, hospitals, asylums, etc. is a key question raised by the brief. The privatisation of these confinement spaces has raised concerns about the potential for exploitation and abuse and has sparked a debate about the role of architecture in promoting social justice. The brief challenges students to consider how architecture can be used to create spaces that are not only functional, but also promote human dignity and well-being.

The second-year projects focused on one site to consider what heritage means beyond the buildings we see. The locally listed and redundant Co-op buildings in Carr Street in Ipswich were our focus, researching the history of the Co-op movement and its evolution, critically appraising proposals for the site and exploring alternative solutions to help regenerate a part of the town in need of re-imagination.

Finally, the first-year students' projects focused on experimentation in different media, exploring international food-related themes and architectural influences within the local context of Ipswich. Their final projects focused on a House/Restaurant hybridisation, fusing international influences within the vernacular of Fore Street, Ipswich.

Volume Zero is our journey, our responsibility, our commitment and can be viewed in the Foyer of The Hold, 22 June to the 3 July 2023.

The BA (Hons) Digital Film Production final year students will be screening a selection of short avant-garde, drama, and documentary films. Their work explores a variety of themes and subjects, based on original scripts and a range of creative ideas.

An array of styles and techniques are on show here, ranging from documentary on contemporary issues to the vivid and inventive use of composition, movement and montage in drama and experimental forms. Their hard work has involved the creative and expressive use of locations, collaboration with actors, the utilisation of VFX, and direct engagement with both local and international communities and businesses. 

These films demonstrate the expertise that students have acquired through individual and collaborative projects, undertaken over the three years of their degree. Students on the Digital Film Production course graduate from the University of Suffolk with a comprehensive set of technical, aesthetic, and interpersonal skills that prepare them well for the challenges of an ever-changing workplace and cinematic culture.

BA (Hons) Digital Film Production will be exhibiting on the ground floor of the Arts Building and at their Showcase event on Weds 21 June from 6pm at King St Cinema, Ipswich.

The journey to the Degree Show for this year’s final year Graphic Design and Graphic Illustration students has not been a typical one. The first year of their course involved lockdowns, being taught online and with only partial access to the Arts Building and its facilities. Regardless of this, they embraced their university experience. Although they returned to some sort of normality in their second year, as the last of the generation of students whose undergraduate studies have been impacted so severely by the Covid-19 pandemic, they should be incredibly proud of all that they have achieved.

As in previous years, the work on display will be reflective, critical and professional, and will be as diverse as the students’ individual personalities. Outcomes will demonstrate skills in branding, book design, illustration, packaging, placemaking, and much more besides. The industry project will once again feature exceptional ideas and designs and conclude in commendations awards from our partners at BBC Studios. Alongside this, students will be showcasing their graduate portfolios, demonstrating they are ready to step out into the world of employment and postgraduate education, and to start shaping the world of visual communication that surrounds us.

BA (Hons) Graphic Design and BA (Hons) Graphic Design (Graphic Illustration) will be exhibiting on the first floor of the Arts Building.

This year’s Fine Art Degree Show marks the culmination of our students’ creative journeys at University of Suffolk in which they have experimented with a wide range of media and processes over a number of years. The Class of 2023 cohort has not been afraid to take risks, learn from mistakes and experiment with new ways of working in the studios, workshops and in public exhibitions and commissions.

It is a magical time of year to see our large, light and airy studios transformed to showcase an exhibition of thought-provoking painting, printmaking, interactive sculpture, drawing and installation. Here, you will find works that observe and question our experiences and viewpoints of the world. They reference issues such as local and global landscapes; perceptions and realities of accessibility; the everyday; neo-gothic; memory; abstraction and expressive mark-making.

BA (Hons) will be exhibiting on the second floor of the Arts Building.

See more of all of our Students work by following Fine Art Instagram .

The Photography Graduates of 2023 began their journey with us under the shadow of the global pandemic that saw them spend the majority of their first year working from home. The work they have made through these challenging times and for this show is a testament to their resilience, commitment, and creativity.

Each has produced a new and significant body of work based upon thoughtful visual curiosity and academic rigour: this show represents their engagement and relationship with contemporary photography which in turn enables them to communicate with us all.

This group of graduates present their individual and collective views of the world that we inhabit today with thoughtful, deliberate, and challenging imagery.