A showcase of radical student interventions; co-created in response to different research questions
We are living in a time of transformation. The boundaries between art, design, and everyday life are changing, and with them our capacity to make meaning.
Critical Collaboration is an innovative, interdisciplinary, three-week module undertaken by all Postgraduate School of Arts students at UWE Bristol. The module invites students to connect with one of seven live research strands, to explore pressing cultural, social and ecological challenges. The module nurtures critical thinking, driven by the exchange of knowledge and experience across different creative disciplines.
Showcase at Arnolfini
In Making Meaning, Making Change, Arnolfini is showcasing a selection of radical student interventions, co-created in response to different research questions. Learning alongside leading academics from across the School, students have playfully pushed the boundaries of their disciplines. Here, they have considered their collective role in addressing systemic issues of inequity, crisis or concern, activating real change within both a local and global context.
Making Meaning, Making Change invites you to join the students in their critical collaboration, creating a space for meaningful conversation.
With special thanks to the participating students, module leaders Dr Sofie Boons and Professor Shawn Sobers, and the research-active supervisors: Associate Professor Tom Abba, Dr Judith Ashton, Dr Rebecca Bell, Lizzie Harrison, John House, Huma Mulji, Professor Carinna Parraman and collaborative partner Sophie Scott (Ginkgo Projects).
Research-Active Supervisors
The students exhibiting in Making Meaning, Making Change are responding to the research themes of the following research-active supervisors:
Dr Tom Abba
Dr Tom Abba leads UWE’s Digital Cultures Research Centre, based at Watershed in the centre of Bristol. His research addresses the intersection of technological innovation, immersive experiences, and narrative form.
Professor Carinna Parraman
Professor Carinna Parraman is Professor of Colour, Design and Print, and Director of the Centre for Print Research. She is a specialist in colour printing; 2.5D (texture) printing; photomechanical methods for image making; new creative approaches for inkjet printing; photomechanical print history; and colour theory and perception within the fields of fine art, design, and industry.
Lizzie Harrison
Lizzie Harrison is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in Sustainable Fashion and Fashion Futures. Her current research projects include Towards Prefigurative Fashion (2025–27), exploring alternative fashion systems created by communities to serve their own fashion needs, and Laundry Justice (2022–), exploring off-grid clothing care with vehicle dwellers in Bristol.
Huma Mulji
Huma Mulji is a Senior Lecturer and artist working across sculptural installation, photography, collage, and drawing. Her work engages with the city and its collective memory against the backdrop of globalisation, migration, state power, and fractured histories. Her deliberately awkward works stand as inconvenient witnesses to time and place while critically exploring material and form.
John House
John House is a Senior Lecturer, photographer, and curator. He has a fascination with vernacular imagery and the banal, and uses photography to explore the wider contexts offered through representing everyday moments, reflecting on the beauty that can be found in the seemingly mundane.
Dr Rebecca Bell
Dr Rebecca Bell is Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture across Art and Design. She is currently researching pastoral materialities and embodiment. Through a three-year project, she is exploring ideas of landscape and making/unmaking in the Anthropocene through writing and painting practices.
Dr Judith Aston
Dr Judith Aston’s core research interest is in the application of different approaches to narrative within filmmaking, interactive, and immersive media. She is interested in ways of knowing across both Western and non-Western cultures, informed by growing up in multicultural Leicester, conducting ethnographic fieldwork in India, and living and working in Indonesia and Spain.
Sophie Scott
Sophie Scott is Associate Director of Ginkgo Projects, an independent public art and cultural producer. Alongside managing a portfolio of projects, particularly within the commercial sector, Sophie develops projects that bring business and cultural interests together through exhibition and arts-led activities.
Photographs by Holly Peterson.
The Postgraduate School of Arts at UWE Bristol
The Postgraduate School of Arts is a vibrant and growing community of innovative graduates, committed to pushing boundaries, telling new stories, and forging fresh connections across Bristol and beyond. Artists, animators, designers, filmmakers, and journalists are collectively supported to deepen and expand their practice during twelve months of productive, student-centred development.
The curriculum brings together diverse voices and perspectives, promoting a creative learning environment where students share, contribute, and thrive. The impact of our interdisciplinary approach is evidenced by industry-leading postgraduate satisfaction, and the careers of our award-winning graduates.
Image by: George Beaven, Raisa Ruitenbeek, David Judson, Vihan Sharma, UWE.