Ewan Couper: Degree Show '15

This year's degree show has been something I had hoped to attend for some time since beginning life in Munich, if not leaving Leicester last summer, first and foremost to see the great work produced by the guys over the past five or so months but it would be a lie not to admit to the more sentimental reasons for going. Fortunately I was able to take a couple days off work to attend the night which I was incredibly grateful for being allowed the opportunity to fly over as I've been to the past two degree shows and felt it would be an awful shame if I could not be there to support my own year. Of course I completely respect that I have responsibilities with BMW that would come first over going to Leicester for the show but my overly sentimental outlook on the night aside I still believe that it would've been an incredible disappointment not to attend the night.

The evening itself was pretty packed out with people from all over attending, from industry, past years, lower years and family which I believe is a testament to not only the work you can see below but the general attitude and mind-set that I always felt our year cultivated during our time at university. For me at least it has been wonderful to see these projects grow to what I feel is a monument to those elements that were a real strength in the year group as a whole and not only do I feel that most of the projects achieve a high level of quality from this but there's a large variety and individualism created across the projects in the year as well. Riding the wave of this sentiment it's been great to hear of the level of success in the numerous job positions and art tests that the guys in Leicester have been offered and I think they've been totally deserved.

Of course I'm probably not going to be the most objective in this regard so take my opinion with a generous dash of salt but being genuine, as I so often try to be, I've been surprised and impressive by what has been on display at the degree show and while I don't want to come across as picking favourites there were a few highlights for me personally that I'd like to bring up on here. Ben's Sci-Fi environment was perhaps most resonant with me, not only because I loved the design and aesthetic he brought to his level but there were many elements that touched on where I want to take the FMP when my time comes around so in more ways than one there were many precursor elements that I want to take forward and expand on Using Ben's environment and work as a foundation to move forward from. For the most part the screen design and implementation as well as his use of holograms within his space are definitely areas where I can pick up a lesson or two for my own FMP. I'm also a huge fan of the architectural direction he took emulating Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava, both of whom I suggested to him, so it's been really great to see how he's taken it and ran with the ideas and inspiration he's been able to pull from them.

Rachel's trio of elemental characters were another project I believe has work out really well and after following it through from it's inception it has perhaps been the most interesting one to watch grow over the course of development. While not only a display of great technical quality the design of each character is great and while I may lean towards the aquatic character that is in no way meant as a negative towards the other two and believe me when I say that wasn't an easy call to make. Each character demonstrates a confident grasp of the elemental theme and I'm particularly fond of the lava permeating out of the fire character and the conflict between the bark and skin on the wooded one. What's also really cool is to see how she's abstracted the guys who she's based the characters on, Rachel being the water one and Hannah and Finn are the fire and earth characters respectively and, especially the water character, retain a strong likeness to those three.

A few honourable mentions following on from the pair above, Kat and Anna's character/environment bundle was great fun to experience and oozed such a unique identity will still retaining a great grip on the cyberpunk mood they were gunning for and the concept work produced fro it is just great to look through and follow the growth of the project. Chelsea's game was again a fantastic display of individualism as well as a great example of stylisation which was a nice contrast compared with the rest of the show and of course I appreciate that she also did the under the hood engine work to get the game to a playable level. While I may not have got a chance to play it from what I can tell from most people's comments it was solid little game experience. Raj was perhaps the surprise of the evening, I had followed his concept work to begin with before he went dark as he was reaching production and I have to say while he may have stumbled with his management of he project, and essentially winged the textures in a night, his final outcome was of a pretty high quality. Not only in a technical aspect either, I felt the design was pretty solid with a wonderful Moroccan-esque aesthetic through out his environment, one of Raj's worries was the size of the environment and I believe he's going to continue with it for a little while longer which I'm actually fairly excited about to see where he goes with it.

In general though, while I may have had a few that really stood out to me, the quality was high across the board, Finn and Karol's concept book for the Grimm tale Iron John was filled with wonderful artwork and Kit and Elliott's VR environment was a great experience to walk through and explore. Yet pushing the work aside for a moment or two it was nice to be back, seeing everyone, being in labs and talking about where people are going, their future after university which is incredibly exciting. As my year beings to move on from university I can't help but feel a step or two ahead, this year I have felt myself mentally move on from university, the workplace and just the ability to travel and grow in ways that aren't possible on the course. I feel total ownership over my learning and direction of the subjects, software and disciplines I want to develop my education in, I guess it's a sense of total responsibility over myself as an artist. This in many ways feels as if I have already graduated from Leicester but I am, of course, all too aware that I'll be back at DMU after summer to some degree but I can't escape the feeling that while it may be familiar ground I return to it won't be the same place I left closing in on a year ago now. Returning to Leicester allowed me to soak in that feeling for one last time in labs before the gang graduate to, fingers crossed, bigger and better things which I am grateful to have experienced again leading up to Friday evening. The degree show itself is, in my mind, the culmination and closure of one's time on the course allowing the third years to close the chapter of their time at university and, at least to some degree, I while I still have some time left at DMU I can't help but feel that last Friday I did the same.