News / 03 Mar 2023
Visual Communication students collaborate with writer Roger Cowell
BA (Hons) Visual Communication
BA (Hons) Visual Communication
BA (Hons) Visual Communication students have once again collaborated with local writer Roger Cowell.
Author Roger Cowell lost his central vision in 2019. Shortly after this he began writing about his experiences of ‘variable vision’ and the vivid hallucinations he frequently experienced on his daily walks. In 2021 he invited BA (Hons) Visual Communication students to respond to excerpts of his writing. Appear, Disappear, Reappear was an exhibition documenting the resulting creative collaboration between Roger and Leets Arts students.
This year Roger has once again collaborated with BA (Hons) Visual Communication students, and the 2023 exhibition of work inspired by Roger's experiences will on display at our Blenheim Walk site of Leeds Arts University, kicking off with a panel discussion about the work, involving Roger and the project team, taking place on Wednesday 8 March at 2:30pm.
Over the past three years Roger has been writing a book about his experiences, parts of which describe the visual effects and hallucinations he has encountered along the way. These have included visions of octopuses, Pharos and startling moments of full-colour visual clarity. Second-year students were given the opportunity to meet with Roger, and these direct conversations alongside his written accounts have inspired the work for this year's exhibition.
Roger Cowell
Once the exhibition of student work had been installed at Blenheim Walk, Roger visited the University to experience the work in its public form, giving the students the opportunity to talk through what they had made. The next stage of the project will move the work to Roger’s house so he can look at it in a more controlled and familiar visual environment. This will mean he can view the work in the softer evening light which often allows him to experience far stronger visual effects than at other times.
Erin Williams, BA (Hons) Visual Communication student
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