THE THOUGHT MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH WALESEDITION 3

Tony Hall | Matthew Bourne | Asif Kapadia

Professor of Learning Disability Nursing, RuthNorthway, has been named on the NursingTimes list of the UK’s most inspirationalnursing leaders.

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In thisedition

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fAircraft Maintenance Engineering graduateNatalie Simpson received a first class honoursdegree and has been named British AirwaysAME student of the year.

The University has been ranked 8th in theWhatUni list of top universities across the UK,voted for entirely by current students.

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Documentary Photography lecturer LisaBarnard has been awarded a $15,000 GettyImages Prestige Grant to complete aspecialist project.

The University has announced a partnershipwith UNICAF to allow Sub-Saharan Africanstudents to complete their degree with USW.

Law graduate and criminal law solicitorSophie Toms became Wales’s youngestDeputy District Judge at the age of 39.

Entrepreneur, racing driver and formerscience minister Lord Drayson has unveiledthe Power Systems Laboratory at USW.

The University and the Welsh Governmenthave launched the National Cyber SecurityAcademy – the first of its kind in Wales – at USW’s Newport City Campus.

USW alumnus Asif Kapadia (see p.8-9) haswon a Grammy, BAFTA and an Oscar for hiswork as director of acclaimed documentaryAmy.

A creative futureVice-Chancellor Julie Lydon reflectson the creative edition of Impact

Freedom, passion and innovation:dance in the performing artsInspiring a new generation ofdancers comes down toopportunities, Matthew Bournetells Impact

A picture tells a thousand wordsAsif Kapadia (HND Film, 1992) wona Grammy, BAFTA and Oscar for hiswork as director of the acclaimeddocumentary film Amy

Creating the BBC’s futureTony Hall argues that an open BBCis central to a new generation ofbroadcasting

Creative industries: Wales’sinternational opportunityWales must look to the wider worldfor a creative living, says Dai Davies

Enabling restrictionsRuth McElroy, examines the role ofcreative industries in a small nation

A national flagship enters itssecond decadeJonathan Poyner argues that theWales Millennium Centre isbuilding a nation by bringingpeople together

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Images on pages 2 and 26 provided by Thinkstock.www.southwales.ac.uk/news | @UniSouthWales

Creating a space for our nextgenerationBen Calvert looks at theUniversity’s new multi-million-pound expansion of its CardiffCampus

Creative education in the city, for the nationMark Jackson tells Impact how aground-breaking new educationpartnership aims to unlockpotential in our schools

Breathing new life into animationThe challenge for animationstudents is to push their learning,argues Jon Rennie

Standing out from the crowdAdvertising Design graduatesAnnalize Haughton and BeckyTownsend talk about being talentspotted by creative agency FST

Women writers and thedisappearing dragonDiana Wallace warns against thevanishing of women’s writing

Language and learningA bilingual creative sector is anasset for Wales, argues Lisa Lewis

Research FocusUSW Impact takes a look at theUniversity’s recent researchsuccesses

It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the latestedition of Impact. We’ve drawn from the widerange of the diverse USW community tobring you perspectives on creativity, fromartistic leaders like Matthew Bourne to thosewho play key roles behind the scenes.

Whether our graduates are winning Oscarsfor their documentaries, publishing books,recording albums – and we’re proud thatthey do all of those things – they are addingboth to our economy and to the societyaround us.

However, it’s not just in the creativeindustries themselves that creative graduatesthrive, often in small start-up enterprises.There are major consultancies, greatbusinesses, all with creative graduates intheir most senior positions. And when I talkto the chief executives of majororganisations, from BA to the BBC, they all say the same thing:

Creativity matters.

I often say to our students that a degree ismore than just a training for a career. Itunlocks potential, it hones the flexibility ofthought that we need to succeed, it equipsus with new ways of looking at the worldaround us. And you can say exactly the samething about the arts and creative industries.Just as universities aren’t solely a link in theeconomic chain or a cog in a governmentalgrowth machine, neither are the arts. And,just like education, creativity is not simply aneconomic sector.

When we hosted Tony Hall, the DirectorGeneral of the BBC, at an event last year wediscussed how important it is to makeexcellence in the arts and the creative

industries available to talented performers ofevery background. These are difficult times.But when things are hard and budgets aresqueezed, culture and the creative industriesshouldn’t be pushed aside as less important.Tony makes the case for the BBC on pages 10-11.

We need to see thecurrent economic crisisas an opportunity. It isn’t only in times of plenty that greatstrides are made in the cultural life of acommunity. The Great Depression gave usthe Blues as a mass art form and it inspiredsome of the great writers of all time, as wellas developing the radio play and bringing in,for the first time, significant and sustainedpublic funding of the arts, from painting tomusic to theatre to architecture. USWalumnus Jonathan Poyner makes the case forthe national arts institutions on pages 16-17.

As you’ll see in this edition of Impact, we’redoing our bit as a University.

Our expanding creative industries campuswill open for business in September. It buildson what we’re already doing with Wales’sgrowing presence in the creative industriesand bringing together all of our creativeindustries provision in one great powerhouseat the heart of the media revolution, as BenCalvert writes on pages 18-19. As the parentof the National Conservatoire, we’redelighted at how well the Royal WelshCollege of Music and Drama is doing, as wesoon celebrate a decade of the College beinga member of the University of South Walesgroup.

Our aim as a vocationally-focused universityis to equip talented students for a career intheir chosen part of the creative industries.Key elements of this education areinteraction with industry, and simulation ofthe professional environment, developing ofan individual’s personal network and profilethrough a close link with the creativeindustries, whether this is through one-on-one teaching by professional performers orwork placements, guest lectures and industrycollaboration.

A significant proportion of these graduatesgo on to perform at the top level in theirfield, including film-makers such as Oscar-winner Asif Kapadia, interviewed on pages 8-9.

Reflecting the diversity of the creativeindustries sector in the portfolio career whichis its hallmark, graduates with USW degreesalso build careers as arts administrators,event managers, therapists, peripatetic musicteachers, classroom teachers and in non-performance roles. Our alumni on pages 24-25 show this variety in action.

The common thread running through all ofthis is the creative talent pipeline for Wales,and for the wider creative community. It’s apart we play with pride.

Professor Julie LydonOBE is Vice-Chancellorand Chief Executive of the University of SouthWales

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A creative futureVice-Chancellor Julie Lydon reflects on the creative edition

of Impact

IMPACT | 5Sir Matthew Bourne

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IMPACT: You are known for bringing theunusual to the stage for your audiences. How do you ensure that your audiences aresurprised?

MATTHEW: Audiences are very important tome, and it’s interesting to see how differentthey can be as we travel around the country.I’ve always wanted to make my workaccessible to everyone, to show youngpeople that dance and performance issomething they can get involved with. It’simportant that people are inspired by myproductions and can identify with thecharacters. We need to keep harnessing thatinspiration and encourage it.

In the early days of the company, peoplewere coming to see our shows with differentexpectations – it wasn’t the ballet they knew,so they were surprised by our take on it. Withthe productions I do, the audience are takenon a journey. They do not need priorknowledge of the show; they just watch andthe story is told. That’s why we are able totake our work around the world.

Sir Matthew BourneOBE is the creator ofthe world’s longestrunning balletproduction, Swan Lake,

and a five-time OlivierAward winner

Sir Matthew Bourne was speaking at an eventto mark 40 years of Rubicon Dance, hosted byUSW.

IMPACT: What first inspired you to becomeinvolved with dance?

MATTHEW: I was lucky to be born to parentswho were fans of theatre and film. I wasbrought up in London and they used to takeus to see shows all the time. But there was noclassical music in the house; no dancespecifically – it was more musical theatre,plays and movies. It gave me a love of thosethings from a very early age and I was alwaysputting on a show.

From the age of four or five, I would gettogether a group of young people in my areaand we used to put on little shows in ourlocal church hall. I didn’t enjoy school verymuch so all of my interests were outside ofschool. I didn’t really know where my futurewould lie; I just knew this was something thatI loved.

IMPACT: Was dance and movementsomething that came naturally to you?

MATTHEW: I didn’t start any formal dancetraining until I was 22, when I went for myaudition at the Laban Dance Centre inLondon. I had enjoyed dancing since I was ayoung boy, and used to copy Gene Kelly andFred Astaire from their movies, but I wasn’tvery good at it to begin with! I think theteachers were more impressed by my passionfor dance, and luckily I hadn’t left it too lateto start learning.

IMPACT: How did you make your own way inthis tough industry?

MATTHEW: I always wanted to have my owndance company, so at the end of my fouryears of training, it seemed natural to me toform a company, which I did with a group offellow graduates. I knew I wanted tochoreograph and creating my own careerpath felt like the best way to go. We began toget some touring dates, and it grew andgrew from there.

IMPACT: Your production of Swan Lake hasbecome the world’s longest-running ballet.Was that the breakthrough moment for yourcareer?

MATTHEW: Swan Lake definitely changed mylife and those of the people involved in it. Itcame as an opportunity for me at a timewhen I really didn’t expect it. I had beencommissioned to do a version of TheNutcracker for Opera North, which wasincredible as I had the chance to create a full-length ballet with a large cast and fullorchestra – something that I could neverhave dreamed of.

I loved working with a Tchaikovsky score, sowhen Arts Council England gave us theopportunity to follow it up with my owncompany and do another Tchaikovsky ballet, Ichose Swan Lake. Initially we planned to do atwo-week run in Sadler’s Wells Theatre andthen tour the UK as an experiment, but ofcourse it took off in a way that wasunbelievable to us, and I’ve never lookedback from that moment.

IMPACT: How important is it that youngpeople have access to dance training?

MATTHEW: If you have opportunities on yourdoorstep it can make all the difference interms of shaping your future in the arts.When I was growing up there was a lovelylady who ran a dance company at the localchurch hall, whose sister played the piano,and I owe an awful lot to her. She encouragedme to put on shows, and to have those sortsof inspirational people in local communitiesis so important.

I was one of the last students at my college tobe funded through a grant from the localauthority, so that early investment in mycareer has since paid off.

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Freedom, Passion andInnovation

Inspiring a new generation of dancers comes down to opportunities,Matthew Bourne tells Impact

yourself, you had to shoot the camera andyou had to cut the film. For me it was kind ofthe end of an era of making film and learninghow precious your material is and reallyhaving to think before you shoot, which isthe opposite of what you would do now,when you shoot and then you think.

I basically spent two years just makingmovies. I worked for people in every differentcapacity. I was a camera assistant, a focuspuller, laying tracking, being first assistantdirector, being in the art department -- doingwhatever it took to learn to write and directmy own stuff.

At that time it was exactly what I needed.There were other courses that weretheoretical but my love and passion for filmmaking came from being on set, and mycourse was literally two years of being on set. A really important part of my journey was thefirst film that I made at university called PizzaMan. My tutor was very supportive of it and Istill love the film. It was a documentary aboutan Italian pizzeria owner in Newport. Thatwas my first documentary.

In the end people loved that film and it couldhave been on TV but it was never goodenough quality-wise, so it never got shownanywhere. But it was really the start of myinterest in documentary film and workingwith people to tell a story from a character’spoint of view.

Asif Kapadia (HND Film, 1992) won aGrammy, BAFTA and Oscar for his work asDirector of the acclaimed documentaryfilm Amy

Telling the storyGrammy, BAFTA and Oscar-winning film director Asif Kapadia reflects on

successful film making

I think films should be exciting and dramatic.Some people say they would never go andsee a documentary at the cinema. I treatthem like dramas. I think that’s the mainthing; make it feel like you're watching adrama, but it’s real.

I didn’t train specifically as a documentaryfilm maker. In fact, my first feature film, TheWarrior, was anything but, telling the tale of aman who renounces his role as an enforcer toa local lord but then becomes the prey in amurderous hunt through the Himalayas. Itwon two BAFTA awards in 2001.

But telling stories through images, ratherthan talking heads, is something I believemakes documentaries like Amy moreappealing to people. The aim is always to getpeople who don’t watch documentaries togo and see it because they want to see agood film and they want to be entertained.Maybe they don’t like Amy Winehouse butthe intention is to get them there for themovie experience.

The beginning is all about the character. It’sabout understanding the character and theirjourney and having lots of layers. In the sameway as if you’re writing a script you want it tohave as many layers as possible. There arelots of questions that you have to answer.That’s what a good script should do, what agood movie should do and what a gooddocumentary should do. It should be about20 different things and not just one. Amycontains sensitive subjects, with debate andaccusations about the singer’s life continuinglong after her death. I admit that at the start Ididn’t know Amy’s story that well.

I knew her music, I knew she was a singerand I had her CDs, but I’d never met her orsaw her perform live. I just felt there were lotsof questions that perhaps, to me, remained

unanswered. Why did her life turn out theway it did? Why is it possible that someonecan die in this day and age in front of oureyes and it didn’t feel like a big shock toanyone? Why was she on stage when shedidn’t look well? I didn’t really understand.I’m interested in making films where I learnalong the way, like the audience. That’s how Ifeel; I’m the audience.

In making the film I spoke to many of AmyWinehouse’s friends and family. With themedia furore surrounding her and theaccusations that had been made in public, Ihad to build trust and understanding beforepeople agreed to talk to me.

You’ve got to spend time getting to knowpeople and spending time looking at themand listening to them, and for me, with Amy,a big part of it was just gaining people’s trust.It was all about trust; it was all about peoplewho thought something awful hadhappened and it was like no one had cared in the world. Nobody seemed to have aninterest in what was really going on. Andthen I came along and they didn’t have anytrust for anyone. So I had to somehow speakto them and listen to them in a way that noone had done before. That was my job.What was interesting with Amy particularly,which I had never done in a film, and in a waywasn’t very difficult, but as a piece of filmmaking it was a departure and a bit of adream because there was no screenplay.There was no document at all. There wasnever a structure; nothing on paper. Itliterally all came out of conversations and I just started making the film.

My career began at the former Newport filmschool, which is now part of the University ofSouth Wales. I studied a two-year HND filmcourse from 1990-92 and everything I shotwas on film -- you had to load the camera

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2016 is a vitally important year for the BBC inWales and beyond. Our current Royal Charterexpires at the end of the year, and we are welladvanced in the process of working with theDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport,and others, on what a new Charter mightlook like. The final decision will be one forParliament, but there are a number ofelements that we feel are very important. I would like to touch on just two here.

Firstly, all parties agreethat the BBC has animportant role inrepresenting all parts of the UK.

For the first time this year the devolvedadministrations in Wales, Scotland andNorthern Ireland will have a formal role in the Charter process.

The BBC’s role in the nations is twofold.Firstly to represent that nation through itsprogramming, by informing people aboutwhat is going on around them, to educatepeople about their local community and theinstitutions taking decisions that affect them,and to entertain people through the tellingof stories that represent their life.

Secondly, the BBC can act as a catalyst forinvestment in the creative community. Notonly by helping to sustain a vibrant localcontingent of producers, directors,technicians, editors, journalists and digitalexperts, but by entering into partnershipswith local institutions, public bodies and theindependent production sector.

There is no better example of this than thework we have been doing in Wales in recentyears. Our specialist drama studios opened atRoath Lock in Cardiff in 2011. Since then thestudios have gone from strength to strengthand are now the permanent home of flagshipdramas Doctor Who, Casualty and Pobol yCwm.

And this success has been a catalyst for theremarkable transformation of the creativeindustries in Wales – a sector capable ofattracting Hartswood, the makers of Sherlock;Fiction Factory, makers of Hinterland; Fox,

makers of The Bastard Executioner; andPinewood, whose new studios mean moreinvestment and jobs, and more sustainedeconomic activity for Wales.

Meanwhile, we have been working onambitious plans to build a new headquartersin the centre of Cardiff. Outdated technologyand high running costs have made itnecessary to leave our home of 48 years inLlandaff. The new building will contribute tothe redevelopment of the area around CardiffCentral railway station and will house over1,000 staff. The latest impact study estimatesthat our decision to relocate will unlock morethan a £1bn of economic value over the next10 years.

Just as importantly, we estimate there will beover 50,000 public visits to the building eachyear and it will be a clear and visible sign ofan open BBC engaging in the heart of theWelsh capital.

This idea of an open BBC is one that I want tomake central to our plans for the nextCharter period.

In September 2015, I set out plans forcreating an ‘Open BBC’ for the internet age.Open in a way that will allow our audiencesto shape our services.

I believe that the single most importantquestion we need to ask in the debate aboutthe BBC’s future is not about our relationshipwith government or politicians, but with ouraudience. Our overwhelming responsibility isto ensure that the BBC of the future will servetheir best needs and interests.

Our relationship withthe audience has neverbeen closer but newtechnology will make iteven easier to respondto their needs.

We are already working on plans to consultaudiences about our services andprogrammes.

Meanwhile, we want to use technology todevelop new services that are genuinelycollaborative. We have proposed a new IdeasService that will become the new home ofknowledge for our most passionateaudiences – ranging across arts, science andculture. An open platform, drawing oncontent and knowledge from across thewhole of the BBC, together with the expertiseof Britain’s best cultural and scientificinstitutions and the active participation ofour audiences.

We want audiences to not only consume, butalso contribute, share and celebrate ideasand content on the new service. LikeStargazing Live, we want it to benefit fromhaving thousands, maybe even millions, ofpeople involved.

Opening up the BBC to its audiences is thebest way of guaranteeing the independenceand accountability they need, as well asensuring the quality and creativity they trustand rely on.

I don’t doubt that the next Charter periodwill see as much change and progress aswe’ve seen since the current Charter cameinto effect in 2007. However, I believe theBBC will be best placed to respond to thesechanges if we remain committed to servingall audiences throughout the UK; reflectingand reporting on their lives in an open andconfident manner. Alongside this, if we canharness the power of technology, we cangive back even more to the country with ourvision of an open BBC for the internet age.

Lord Tony Hall isDirector General of theBBC, a Life Peer in theHouse of Lords, and anHonorary Doctor-Designate of the

University of South Wales

Creating the BBC’s futureTony Hall argues that an open BBC is central to a new generation of

broadcasting

BBC Broadcasting House

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Taking the music industry as an example,artists who might, through regularappearances in the UK Top 20, appear to besuccessful are unlikely to be breaking evenfinancially from record sales. Even the widerUK market does not generally provideenough sales income to bring about viability.Those artists who survive into the long termusually do so by selling well internationallyand successfully exploiting each aspect oftheir career. It’s a similar story in film.

The Welsh Government has the laudableambition for Wales to be a major player in thecreative sector, both the commercial part of itand in the Arts. To do that we all have toenvisage Wales of the future sitting in themidst of a worldwide market for its creativegoods and services, and a worldwideaudience for its artists. We have to worktowards that vision.

In the final analysis, creative economies workbecause of talent. Some people are born withexceptional gifts; the rest of us have to justwork hard. Talent needs to be nurtured and,for universities like USW who specialise inthis sector, the nurturing includes anunderstanding of how the disciplines of art,technology and business come together tosustain an industry.

Although talent is the essential component itdoesn’t translate into success without beingpart of a collaborative process; sometimes avery complex one. This collaboration shouldbe at the heart of the university experiencefor those who wish to make a living in ourindustry. USW has all the resources and skillsto replicate the complexities of thecommercial creative world outside within itsown organisation.

To quote a Welsh Government document:‘Good ideas can be overtaken by better ones.Markets quickly won can be lost just asquickly. New skills are needed all the timeand sometimes more quickly than oureducation system and training provision canmatch.’

It was always true that new mediatechnology developments createdopportunities for both business and the arts,but never more true than today. Just as filmin the 1920s was seen by artists as a way ofexpressing themselves and business as a wayof making a buck, digital now gives USWstudents the same opportunity and choice.

Anyone in doubt about the role oftechnology and business in the creativeworld need only go back to those statsquoted at the beginning of this piece.Looking at a more detailed breakdownshows that the single biggest creative sub-sector is software and second is marketing.Between them, these two sectors make upover half the creative industry economy at£50bn.

So the future economy of this small countryof ours will need creative techies and techycreatives, entrepreneurial creatives andcreative entrepreneurs, entrepreneurialtechies and techy entrepreneurs. That’s whatUSW can do for Wales.

Dai Davies is a world-renowned musicproducer and amember of USW'sCreative Industries

Advisory Panel

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It’s common practice when writing aboutthe creative industries to gain the reader’sattention with statistical evidence of the UK’ssuccess in growing the sector at anastonishing rate. So here goes...

Figures released by the UK Government inJanuary 2016 show Gross Value Added (GVA)for the creative sector at £84bn and for thecreative economy as a whole at £133bn. Itaccounts for over 5% of the UK economy andemploys 2.8m people. The sector’s growthcontinues to be substantially higher thanoverall economic growth, generallymanaging to exceed 5% a year.

Growth over the lasttwo decades shows an increase from £32bn in 1997, £57bnin 2006 to £84bn in2015.The real life benefit for Wales is that ourcreative economy workforce here has grownto 75,000* and the opportunities that the UKas a whole enjoy are there for Wales to share.

The Welsh Government took the decision totreat this as a priority sector by developing itsown industry expertise and by creatingspecialist funds. These include £30m for TVand film and £3m for digital start-ups.

The film and TV sector’s progress has beenwidely noted in the media. Three studios plusthe BBC’s facility at Porth Teigr areoperational where none were before;Pinewood, Dragon and Swansea’s BayStudios.

Progress has come through this proactiveWelsh Government strategy, delivered by asmall specialist team supported by advisorsrecruited from industry. ‘Soft’ loans areemployed as an incentive, but are notenough on their own. Wales has managed topresent itself as a strong choice throughgood work on location support, good accessto skilled technicians and creatives and -- ithas to be said -- proximity to London andHeathrow.

Former Minister for Economy, Edwina HartAM, deserves praise for encouraging aculture of decisiveness and a ‘can-do’ attitudein the sector support team. Other regionsand countries have soft loan facilities and taxbreaks too, so getting this work into Wales isa tough and competitive business.

It’s also worth mentioning how Wales’ssubsidised broadcast sector has contributedto developing talent. For a small channel, S4C has given many directors theopportunity to hone their skills and each of those will have a team of freelancetechnicians, creators and actors supportingthem.

In another area of Welsh language artistry,2015 was the year that saw the first release ofan album sung in Welsh on a major label,Universal. This is a landmark for Welsh music,and a great achievement for GwennoSaunders. Along with artists like Coloramaand Cate LeBon, her work originated throughthe Welsh language, is now crossing over to apotential world audience. I feel these artistscan trace a musical lineage back to pioneerslike the Furries and the Gorkies, which isperhaps some indication of how long it takesfor a distinctive music scene to evolve.

In general though, despite these successesfor Wales, we do not live in a world whererecognition within a small country issufficient to maintain a viable career in thecreative sector. I would discourage anyonefrom thinking in terms of a Welsh musicindustry or Welsh film industry. Even thinkingin terms of a UK industry is at best limitingand at worst financially unviable. These areworldwide markets with content diffusedeverywhere, often in an instant.

With the exception ofsubsidised arts andbroadcasting, Welshbased and trainedcreatives have to lookto this wider world fortheir living.

Creative Industries: Wales’sinternational opportunityWales must look to the wider world for a creative living, says Dai Davies

*2013 figures

This was brought home to me in an essay bya Canadian scholar, Zoe Druick, whoseresearch on the television industry in Torontodemonstrated that indigenous televisionprogramme making was becomingincreasingly geared towards selling to the UStelevision market, hence lots of formattedproperty shows that made Toronto look likeany American city. Very little output seemedto be representing Canada to Canadians,which isn’t a problem if you think that thecreative industries should be driven byeconomic considerations alone.

In many parts of the post-industrial world,the increased prominence of creativeindustries policies has meant that aneconomic agenda has loomed large ingovernments’ evaluations of how mediatedart forms such as cinema, games or televisioncan provide jobs, support economic growth

and lever both national and internationalprivate finance. However, small nations’creative industries should never be reducedsolely to the financial benefits they bring.A nation’s media and art forms contribute toa people’s imagination, their intellectualhorizons, and a sense of themselves.

In places as diverse as Canada, Catalonia,New Zealand, and Wales, there is animportant cultural debate ongoing about thepublic and civic value of the media inrepresenting a nation to itself. The BBC’s ownCharter, currently under review, commits it to“representing the UK, its nations, regions, andcommunities.” Yet, as research undertaken bythe Institute for Welsh Affair’s Media PolicyGroup makes clear (and to which our Centrecontributed), there have been enormous cutsto television programming for Wales acrossBBC and ITV which are greater than thecorresponding reductions in any other partof the UK.

Investment in the BBC’s flagship dramastudios in Roath Lockdemonstrates how themajor player in Wales’screative industries caninvest in change whenit perceives a strategicimperative to do so. But no matter how impressive and game-changing those facilities may be for makingTV dramas like Doctor Who for network, theydo little to improve the visibility of Wales onour television screens. In a similar way, thereare economic benefits to be gained fromCardiff and Wales’s increasingly internationalreputation as an excellent, skilled place inwhich to shoot Hollywood cinema andtelevision, from Harry Potter and the DeathlyHallows (dir. David Yates, 2010) to Da Vinci’sDemons (BBC Worldwide Productions, 2013-

15), but without a sustainable and diverseindigenous film industry the Welsh creativeindustries would be so much poorer.

There are ways to achieve both goals. A good example here is the national andinternational success of Fiction Factory’s Y Gwyll/Hinterland, transmitted on S4C inWelsh, and in both bilingual and Englishversion on BBC Wales and BBC Fourrespectively, and exported to numerouscountries including Denmark, Germany and the USA.

One of the biggestchallenges facing smallnations is theirinvisibility.

That’s one reason why the Centre hostsevents that critically assess the contributionsof major cultural institutions such as NationalTheatre Wales. The creative industries areuniquely capable of making small nationsvisible to the rest of the world. Becomingambassadors not just for excellentproduction values and compelling aesthetics,but also for giving a window onto a worldthat is different from the dominant nations’mainstream.

The creative industries in small nations canenrich us all when they provide us with thatoriginality of vision that comes from a strongsense of place and an openness to sharingthis with the rest of the world. The way toachieve this, it would seem, is not to aspire togreater homogeneity of output, but, as theDanes have done so effectively in theirexport of Nordic Noir, to retain a sense ofdifference.

Dr Ruth McElroy is theDirector of the CreativeIndustries ResearchInstitute at theUniversity of South

Wales

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When the Centre for Media and Culture wasestablished at the University a decade ago,there was a clear sense that Wales was notunique in facing particular challenges andopportunities due to its status as a smallnation. Rather than turn inwards, an openexchange with other small nations, manywith their own minority languages anddistinct culture, seemed like a betterapproach. But what counts as a small nation?

Well, common measures used includegeography or population size; Bray andPacker, for example, note that over half theworld’s “sovereign states have populationsbelow five million, and 54 have populationsbelow 1.5 million,” hence, they argue, “theworld is a world of small states” (Bray andPacker, cited in Hjort and Petrie 2007:4). Butsmall is also a measure of relative power,often in relation to the power of much larger

neighbouring nations. So Canada may beone of the world’s largest states measured bygeography, but its relation of power with itspowerful neighbour, the USA, means thatsome Canadians argue their culture andmedia industry share characteristics withother small nations.

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An enabling restrictionRuth McElroy examines the role of creative industries in a small nation

Image: © S4C Y Gwyll/Hinterland

to Wales in 1994, I have seen the markeddifference in my native country’s aspiration;we have a stonger spirit and confidence inour nation, which I believe has been madepossible by a focus on culture, for it is culturethat unites. At its core, this message is thesame whether you are building a family, ateam, a company, a nation, or even a globalrelationship.

The inscription on the front of WalesMillennium Centre in Cardiff Bay presents thewords “Creu gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais awen”taken from the poem by Gwyneth Lewis. Anapproximate translation is “creating truth likeglass from the furnace of inspiration”. Theword ffwrnais also means cauldron or pot.When ingredients are combined, heated andagitated in a ‘ffwrnais’ they create somethingsuperior to the individual ingredients alone.This was one of the key intentions for theexistence of the Centre -- to be a place thatbrought people together and allowed themto focus on something that unites, that isculture. This summer, for instance, the Centrewill launch a brand new biennial musicfestival, the Festival of Voice, drawing in artistsand visitors from across the world. With aneclectic range of music over 10 days, thefestival will no doubt appeal to an incrediblydiverse audience, bringing everyonetogether over a shared love of music.

Art and culture hasstood the test of time;always evolving butnever fading.

It provides a point of unity with the power toforge relationships between countries whilstalso building proud, confident nations with astrong sense of identity. And so, to return toBear Grylls, “if leaders unite, and they don’tdivide”, we must focus on what it is thatunites, and that is, I believe, culture.

Jonathan Poyner (BA (Hons) CombinedSciences, 1987) is Strategic Director ofBusiness Operations at the WalesMillennium Centre

IMPACT | 17

‘Leaders unite, they don’t divide’. Sageadvice from Bear Grylls to Mike Tindall duringITV’s series Mission Survive. As businessleaders and parents alike will testify, thatsame advice applies as much in our day today lives as it does in the jungle. The trick isto find something that people can focus andagree on, that they will all buy into. In thecorporate world, this would be the vision andmission – which should be ambitious andinspiring if one is to be sustainable and havea successful future. If our message ismotivational and resonates with many on anemotional level, engagement is enhanced.But how is this level of emotional connectioncreated, which fosters a sense of unity?

At the end of 2015, the Chinese Presidentvisited the UK at the invitation of the UKgovernment. Prior to that, the Chinese Vice-President visited as part of the People toPeople Dialogue – choosing Tate Britain inLondon and various cultural landmarks inWales, including our National Museum andthe Wales Millennium Centre, as the venuesto host the delegations and further developunderstanding and relationships. At theconference, Jude Kelly, Artistic Director at theSouthbank Centre, described how,throughout our entire human history,regardless of culture or continent, we havealways drawn, painted and sculpted, asindicated by, for example, cave drawings,carved antlers and decorated temples. Itwould seem, therefore, that what our

respective governments have sought tofocus on for the UK/China engagement hasbeen art and culture. These are areas of ourlives that define what it is to be human,offering us the most fundamentalopportunities to engage with andunderstand each other, creating brands forour respective nations which, althoughunique, can be universally understood.

Our government inWales has recognisedthe value of culture innation building. I have seen documents going back to the1960s which recognised the importance ofculture in building a national identity andbringing people together. Our Assembly hasbeen established for around 15 years, andsome of the earliest initiatives supported bythem have included sport, heritage,education and the arts. In short, there hasbeen a continued focus on our culture, in itsbroadest sense, highlighting its pivotal rolein society.

Our leaders have recognised the importanceof culture in unity and fostering betterunderstanding between people, and, as therecent UK/China People to People Dialoguevisits demonstrate, culture plays a key role inbuilding and strengthening relationshipsbetween nations. Having travelled the worldwith the army for 10 years prior to returning

A national flagship in itssecond decade

USW Alumnus Jonathan Poyner argues that the Wales Millennium Centreis building a nation by bringing people together

16 | IMPACT

IMPACT | 19

Creative industries students are a uniquebreed and they work best when they are in acommunity of other creatives, includingthose with different skills and approaches tothem. They collaborate by nature, and oftenwithout any invitation from us to do so. Theiruniversity experience has to bring together,under one roof, the development ofcontemporary practical and technical skillswith a sound knowledge of how theirindustry works, and the behaviours to match,if they are to make any headway in theirchosen professions. Having led a creativeindustries faculty for much of my academiccareer, I am all too aware of the increasingdemands being placed on our graduates,and, as a consequence, the need foruniversities to up their game when it comesto providing the very best opportunities.

Having taken up my post at the University ofSouth Wales a little over 12 months ago, I can see, with a fresh pair of eyes, the naturaladvantage that Cardiff has to offer studentsstriving for careers in the creative disciplines.There is a unique opportunity for students towork with those creative industry players,both large and small, which are on their owndoorstep in a capital city that is itself theheartbeat of creativity in Wales. Yet Cardiff iscompact enough for there to be everyopportunity to be noticed in the sector; theindustry is hungry for new talent and ourgraduates must be well placed to takeadvantage of this.

The new facilities weare creating aredesigned with industry in mind.It will be a ‘porous’ facility, a space where thefront door is always open to industry, andwhere professionals feel they can come, usethe facilities, share their ideas and show theirwork. It has to be a venue for creativity aswell, fulfilling its primary purpose as a first-class educational facility. To strengthen thisindustry connection we have appointed anadvisory board made up of some of theleading players in UK creative industries.

In my opinion the recipe for ‘creating’ thevery best creatives has three crucialingredients which we are seeking to providein our new facility. Firstly, creative industriesstudents need to work with up-to-datetechnology in order to gain the practicalskills demanded by industry. Our newbuilding will have these facilities inabundance. There will be new fabricationworkshop facilities to support media,performance and design courses and model-making facilities for animation. It’llinclude extensive design studio facilities for illustration, advertising, graphiccommunication, TV and film set design andinterior design as well as fashion courses.

The second part of the mix is giving studentsaccess to skilled and knowledgeable staffwho continue to work in and with industry.Students need to know what ‘good’ looks likein the industry right now, and we can countamong our staff, professionals who continueto be at the peak of their careers in media,fashion, music and animation.

Finally, creative industries students need tolearn in an environment which encouragesthe right behaviours for the industry andfosters original thinking. Often in theirprofessional lives they will work withcolleagues from across disciplines, and that isexactly what our new space will achieve. Itwill be a professional space that facilitatesproject working with peers across subjectareas and also with industry professionals onlive projects. We look forward to welcomingthe next generation of creative industriesstudents to our new campus when it opensin September 2016. We also hope that it willbe a joyous and playful space of serious fun.Please pop in and see what we do. You will bevery welcome.

Dr Ben Calvert is ProVice-Chancellor forLearning, Teaching andStudent Experience atthe University of South

Wales

An artist impression of the new ATRiuM 2 space which will open in autumn 2016.

18 | IMPACT

Creating a space for ournext generation

Ben Calvert looks at the University’s multi-million-pound expansion of its Cardiff Campus

We have been trying to get this right in thework we have undertaken for our multi-million-pound expansion of our ATRiuMbuilding in the heart of Cardiff City centre.This is a very different project to creating‘normal’ teaching spaces, precisely becausethe outcomes we are trying to achieve are sodistinctive. We’ve designed spaces in whichpeople can be both imaginative andprofessional, and that they want to be in. Allwithin a stone’s throw of the new BBC WalesHQ and the drama village at Porth Teigr. Thisexpanded creative industries facility makesus the largest provider of creative industrieseducation in Wales; offering something verydifferent from that at the Royal Welsh Collegeof Music & Drama, which is also part of ourUniversity of South Wales Group.

community of creative practice in theimmediate neighbourhood or anywhere inthe world that wants to join with us – anextensive physical and digital network basedon an ‘open arms’ set of values.

Albert Einstein oncesaid that “creativity iscontagious, pass it on”.In the right spaces, itcan spread like wildfire. Like the workings of a brain, signals pulsefrom one studio space to another, triggeringnew ideas, actions and innovations. In adecent creative space it is impossible toseparate out the process of creativity, or eventhe outcome or artefact, from the space inwhich it happens. They are two sides of thesame coin.

People who work in the creative sector andthe arts don’t need to be told that space isimportant. Space reinforces or even createsbehaviour. Creativity is part process, parttechnique, and a big dose of feeling. Sospaces need to allow technical and artisticprocesses to happen effectively – we needthe right kit in the right place – and to also beplaces that stimulate thought, discussion,challenge, collaboration and originality.Creativity works best when people bounceideas off one another, so space needs toallow for routine, regular interaction andexchange.

Creativity is an open and often playfulprocess best fertilised by sharing andcollaboration, so people need to be able tobump into one another informally as well asformally, talk about each other’s work,undertake peer review, challenge each otherand have a lot of fun in doing so. Thatincludes the space being consciously open tothe outside world and welcoming to the

Our new partnerships all have a strong focuson employability. They aim to ensure that wecan provide young people with theappropriate skills and understanding neededto develop successful careers in the creativesector.

It’s vitally important that we continue todevelop our relationships, business andeducation, so that young people develop theskills and experience needed to preparethem for employment.

We encourage students to look beyond the‘stars’ – the singers, dancers, actors – whohave their 15 minutes of fame, and thinkabout the entire industry of people workingacross a diverse range of roles; those whoactually make the large and smallproductions happen.

Utilising opportunities developed throughthe education partnership within the schoolcurriculum, we aim to enhance pupils’understanding of the careers available in thesector, and help them make more informedcareer choices.

This will help develop their confidence inproblem solving, innovation and creativity,which are all essential skills for any career inthe 21st century, thanks to the fast-changingemployment market.

Mark Jackson is Head of the School of Art andDesign at the Universityof South Wales

IMPACT | 2120 | IMPACT

The University of South Wales has beenannounced as a founding partner in theCreative Education Partnership Cardiff. Itsinnovative new proposal will bring togethersome of the biggest names from the Cardiffcreative industries in order to promotecreativity at the heart of learning.

Our partnership will forge close working linksbetween Cardiff Council’s educationprovision and the capital’s successful creativesector. A brand new secondary school in thewest of the city, scheduled to open inSeptember 2017, will act as a ‘pathfinderschool’ to showcase the pilot scheme.

USW will act as the Higher Education lead inthe partnership, which aims to offer real-world learning pathways to Cardiff’s childrenand young people, as well as studentmentoring, work experience and careersadvice on how to make the most ofopportunities in the creative and culturalsector.

Joining USW and Cardiff Council in thepartnership are Cardiff and Vale College;Creative & Cultural Skills UK; AmgueddfaCymru – National Museum Wales; BBC Wales,Wales Millennium Centre and Welsh NationalOpera.

The creative economy is a priority area forthe Welsh Government and is now one ofWales’s fastest growing sectors. Recentstatistics show that the number of peopleworking in this industry in Wales increased by52% between 2005 and 2014, with nearly50,000 people now employed by the sector.

The growth in thecreative economy inCardiff in particularpresents an excitingopportunity to connectstudents with a vibrant,dynamic andinnovative sector.

The University is committed to transformingthe lives of young people and unlocking theirtalent. As both a key player in Wales’sgrowing creative industries sector and amajor provider of teacher training, USW istremendously excited to be the HigherEducation partner in this initiative.

It is essential that we help the nextgeneration put themselves in the strongestpossible position to benefit from Cardiff’sgrowing creative economy. A young person’ssocial background should not be adetermining factor in deciding whether ornot they can build a successful career forthemselves.

This initiative builds onthe University’s recentpartnership withCreative & CulturalSkills, the Sector SkillsCouncil for a number of areas within thecreative industries. This commitment makes USW their onlyHigher Education provider in Wales.

The agreement aims to enhance dialoguebetween industry and education providers,along with providing a range of additionalopportunities for USW students and staff thatsupport the development of creativeindustries in the UK economy.

Cardiff is well placed to develop innovativeschemes such as the Creative EducationPartnership between schools, businesses andother bodies in the city.

Creative education in thecity, for the nation

Mark Jackson tells Impact how a ground-breaking new educationpartnership aims to unlock potential in our schools

22 | IMPACT

Breathing new life intoanimation

The challenge for animation students is to push their learning, argues Jon Rennie

The animation industry has had a new lease of life in the UK since the creation of theanimation tax credit, alongside the high-endtelevision credit three years ago, and this hassince been extended to the computer gamesindustry and now children’s programming.

There has been a desire to push creativeindustries as a major export industry for theUK and this has been especially significant inWales, where a number of large productionshave been attracted, not only by thesefinancial incentives, but also by the skilledcrews and artists available locally. For ourown company, Bait Studio, which producesmotion design and visual effects, alongsideour animation production arm Cloth CatAnimation and interactive publisher ThudMedia, this has meant we have been able toattract large international projects to ourstudio and provide a high level ofemployment for our local crew.

We have had a greatly beneficial relationshipwith the University of South Wales for anumber of years, providing advice andsupport to staff and also supporting studentswith animation work experience andsponsoring the end of year awards.Technology has changed considerably since Ientered the industry and, when I graduatedfrom the University’s Newport campus in2002, there were few opportunities locally fordigital post-production work. Keeping pacewith the rapid development in CG and 2Danimation has meant that students need awide knowledge of software and techniquesalongside their traditional skills, whichinclude life drawing with pencil and paper.

We have employed a considerable number ofUSW graduates over the years and continueto hire junior staff regularly. It’s important tous to have an active and industry-focuseduniversity in the local area. The creativeindustries are at a challenging time, wheredigital services are outpacing traditionalbroadcasters, who are investing less.

There are opportunitiesfor Wales and itsconsiderable talentpool to be at theforefront of newdevelopments. High-end drama series attracted to the areaare already providing new opportunities forus in visual effects support and ouranimation work has been seen around theworld. We’re looking at how we can usedigital platforms to experiment with newcontent, and give opportunities for newartists to have their designs and styles seenby a wider audience.

For the University, technology is now at apoint where students can learn software andskills semi-independently using onlinelearning and tutorials. The breadth ofsoftware and hardware available, and thelevel of cross-collaboration between each,means that the traditional core skills are evenmore important for providing students with ahigh-quality grounding in the basics ofcompositing, animation or film making.

IMPACT | 23

In the end, all visualarts are in service tothe story and thedesign message and so the individualtechniques used are nolonger an excuse forpoor content.

I didn’t have the benefit of online learningand had to teach myself using manuals, butall of that study would have been for noughthad I not been taught the language of filmmaking that had begun over 100 yearsbefore.

As I write these lines, the visual effects Oscarhas been won by a British production,featuring superb invisible effects thatenhanced the story. All of these effects canalready be done using technology availableto the students, so their challenge over thenext decade is to learn how to push theirlearning, to pick up new software andunderstand its innovations without needingspecific tutoring.

Wales, and its student talent, could certainlybe the next source of pioneers in animationand visual effects and we’re looking forwardto being at the forefront of a new generationof digital storytellers.

Jon Rennie (BA Film,Video andPhotographic Art,1999-2002) is a BAFTAwinner and Managing

Director of Bait Studio,Cloth Cat Animation and

Thud Media

Tot the Tiny Tugboat, created by Cloth Cat Animation

IMPACT | 25

IMPACT: you were spotted at the Design &Advertising Design (D&AD) awards. Howdid this happen?

BECKy: We were invited to take part in apitch for D&AD boot camp last year andafterwards, we were introduced to someonethat was looking for a creative team. Wepitched our portfolio to him on the spot andthe next day we received an email asking ifwe would be interested in applying for theroles at fst.

ANNALIzE: We really weren’t expectingeverything to happen so fast! I think a bigpart of it was putting ourselves out there andmaking sure we were displaying work wewere proud of.

IMPACT: What type of projects are youworking on in your roles?

BECKy: We can’t go into detail about thework we do, as with a lot of agencies we haveto sign no disclosure forms uponemployment. As fst is a smaller agency, ourroles are very hands-on, and we are expectedto contribute fully at every stage of a project.

ANNALIzE: So far we’ve had experience increative concepts and roll outs for variousB2B campaigns. Every week we’re working onsomething new, gaining more and moreexperience with every brief.

IMPACT: Why did you chose to studyadvertising design?

BECKy: When applying for university Ioriginally planned to apply for art courses.However speaking to students on the courseand attending open days definitely changedmy mind, they all spoke highly of thelecturers and the course as a whole.

ANNALIzE: The whole idea of universityappealed to me, but due to lack ofconfidence it seemed so unattainable. Ieventually plucked up the courage to choosethis particular course because it would allowme to be creative, while still giving me theknowledge and skills I needed to break intoan exciting industry and start my career.

IMPACT: How did the course prepare youfor industry?

BECKy: Nothing can prepare you completelyfor what you’ll face upon entering the realworld. However the course instilled into methe fundamental knowledge of how to buildan engaging campaign and solve theproblems of my clients. University gave methe confidence to stand up and pitch myideas, which is an important part of ourindustry.

ANNALIzE: The main thing the courseprovided me with was confidence. Theconfidence to believe in my own opinionsand ideas, to craft and improve my creativeconcepts and to stand up and pitch them tomy peers. We had several opportunities towork with live clients and briefs from localagencies, and this was great experience. Wedealt with clients first hand and got honestfeedback which is so important.

IMPACT: Any hints or tips for anyonegraduating this year who wants to get intoyour industry?

BECKy: Don’t pigeon hole yourself. If you’re adesigner try to experience copywriting, ifyou’re a copywriter get a crash course inphotography, the more you can add to yourskillset the better position you’ll be in onceyou’ve left. Also, try and get as much agencyexperience as you can -- I really regret notdoing this while I was still a student.

ANNALIzE: Get to grips with the software assoon as possible! I started the course with nosoftware knowledge whatsoever, and I forcedmyself to learn it as quickly as possible. Also,have an online platform, make sure your CVand LinkedIn is always up to date. The moreeager and clued up you appear, the moreappealing you are to potential clients; peoplelike to see creatives with a spark about them.

Their project, entitled Born to be Mild whichcombined Becky’s copy writing skills withAnnalize’s talent for design, won them theircurrent roles at the company.

Impact caught up with the girls as they cometo the end of their first year in the job.

IMPACT: Tell us about your roles so far?

BECKy: I was hired as the copywriting half ofthe creative team. During our first few weekswe were really thrown in at the deep end andwere put on different projects so that theycould see our different skill sets.

ANNALIzE: I work more on the visual side ofjobs, doing a lot of design work as well ascreative concepts. As Becky has mentioned,the first few weeks we were thrown in at thedeep end, working on projects separately,which was definitely tough at first, but it hasreally allowed our strengths to shine throughand give all of us a better idea of ourindividual skills and where we fit within the company.

24 | IMPACT

Standing out from the crowd Advertising Design graduates Annalize Haughton and Becky Townsend,

both 21, were talent spotted by creative agency fst at their end of yeargraduate show in 2015

IMPACT | 27

Women Writers and theDisappearing Dragon

In Erica Wooff’s novel Mud Puppy, theprotagonist Daryl sculpts a solid lifesizedragon out of mud on the banks of the RiverUsk in Newport. Not only is this not what theUS businessman who commissioned theartwork is expecting (the original plans werefor a glass and steel structure), but, as it ispublicly unveiled, the mud dragon is alreadyslipping away, washing back into the alluvialmud, drawn by the tide into the naturalworld of pure energy.

Wooff’s mud dragon is a wonderfullysuggestive metaphor for the unexpectedpossibilities of art, and how it may escape orexceed the ways in which we try to quantifythe contribution of the creative industries tothe national culture.

It’s also a metaphor forthe ways in which artcan both symboliseand critique notions of nationhood.The dragon is built out of the land of Walesitself, the earth and water from which weevolved, and returns to it.

Published in 2002, Mud Puppy is part of apost-devolution flowering of women’swriting in Wales. Writers such as Wooff, TrezzaAzzopardi, Rachel Tresize, Tiffany Atkinson,Fflur Dafydd, Tiffany Murray, Angharad Price,Zoe Strachan, Maria Donovan, Mary Ann

Constantine, Nikita Lalwani, Catrin Dafydd –joined an earlier generation – Menna Elfyn,Ruth Bidgood, Christine Evans, Stevie Davies,Siân James, Catherine Merriman, SheenaghPugh – in producing fiction and poetry whichrepresents the creative potential of Wales tothe world.

Indeed, women’s writing has never been sovisible or so vibrant in Wales. It was GwynethLewis, the first National Poet of Wales, whowrote the poem which shines in letters sixfeet high on the front of the WalesMillennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, puttingwomen writers right at the centre of thenation. The outgoing National Poet isanother highly-regarded woman poet, GillianClarke, and the editors of the major journalsin Wales are currently all women: EmilyTrahair at Planet, Nia Davies at Poetry Walesand Gwen Davies at New Welsh Review.

In addition we have the thriving andinvaluable Welsh women’s press, Honno,established in 1986. Honno’s popularanthologies have given new names a firstchance at publication and their WelshWomen’s Classics series, edited by JaneAaron, Emeritus Professor at the University ofWales, republishes neglected texts by Welshwomen, bringing them to a new generationof readers.

Here at the University of South Wales thewomen students and alumni of ourpostgraduate Creative Writing programmeshad a bumper year in 2015. They garnered asheaf of prizes and awards, including theManchester Poetry Prize (£10,000) for LucyIngrams and the Troubadour InternationalPoetry Prize (£5,000) for Barbara Marsh.

It seems that womenwriters have come along way and that theircontribution to Wales’screative industriescannot be doubted.And yet, Daryl’s disappearing dragon offersus a metaphorical warning. Because MudPuppy is about to go out of print and itspublisher, The Women’s Press, is no longeractive. As Honno’s Classics series reminds us,women’s writing has had a disturbingtendency to vanish from view. We need to bevigilant to stop that happening to this newgeneration of writers.

Diana Wallace isProfessor of EnglishLiterature at theUniversity of SouthWales where she

teaches and researchesmainly women writers

Diana Wallace warns against the vanishing of women’s writing

26 | IMPACT

IMPACT | 2928 | IMPACT

The great Welsh historian John Daviesargued that Wales is an artefact created bybroadcasting; we can probably extend themetaphor now to include the creativeindustries as a whole, one of the fastestgrowing sectors in Wales and one of thepriority areas of development for the WelshGovernment.

Culturally, the creative industries provideopportunities to express, mediate, andconvey the broad diversity of who we are andwhat we think. It is the sphere in which wediscuss the matters of the day, from theeveryday mundane to the deeperphilosophies of life. For many of us in Walesthe creative industries are constructed in andthrough two languages, and subsequentlyhave a strong Welsh language dimension. Inthis context cultural content has a directcorrelation with the economic imperative;that is, Welsh language culture contributespositively to the economic picture, and interms of employability bilingualism is anasset.

The creative industrieshave their own intrinsicvalue as producers ofhigh quality contentand materials, but theyalso have a broaderremit in terms of theirpublic value ineducational andeconomic terms.

Serving an important social and communityfunction in Wales, parts of the creativeindustries create events and narratives thatbind communities and reflect theirexperiences and aspirations. Welsh-languageperformance culture has a well-establishedhistory in this respect, with a variety ofcompanies, including a national theatrecompany, leading the way in Wales as well as putting Wales on the global stage. In this context the creative industries drivewhat we do communally – we watch TV,listen to the radio, participate in fashion,attend the theatre etc. But the creativeindustries are also institutionalised in waysthat represent the nation, bringing value toit, for instance through S4C.

S4C has performed wonders in a time ofgreat economic uncertainty, enabling Welshindependent television companies to leadthe way in terms of provision and having areal impact on economic recovery. Inproviding the platform for Welsh languageanimation, S4C has paved the way for aremarkably successful and rich animationculture in Wales. During the 1980s successessuch as Super Ted (Siriol) and Sam Tân orFireman Sam (Bumper Films), were marketedworldwide. This tradition continues todaythrough collaborative productions such asBoj (2014), between Cardiff based animationcompany Cloth Cat Animation, PeskyProductions (UK) and Kavaleer Productions(Ireland) which debuted on CBeebies, S4C,ABC Australia as well as several otherbroadcasters around the world. In this wayinvestment in the Welsh language hascreated new knowledge-intensive creativeindustries.

Welsh language media production, throughWelsh broadcasters BBC Cymru Wales andS4C, has had an important role to play instrengthening the infrastructure for thelanguage. In addition to the rich Welshlanguage provision produced for S4C,landmark productions such as Y Gwyll /Hinterland, produced by S4C, independent

company Fiction Factory and BBC CymruWales, show the success and the potential ofjoint multi-lingual productions in the UK andbeyond. Continuing from the successes seenin animation, the ability to produce work intwo languages, through back-to-back Welsh /English productions, has resulted in Y Gwyll /Hinterland being sold to 30 territories acrossthe world. The evidence of the appeal of theWelsh language version (watched withsubtitles) signifies an interest in the culturaland linguistic aspect of the experience as aninherent part of the drama itself – dramawith local flavour and a global reach. Thisformula heralds a growing tradition forwriting and production across broadcastmedia that represents the nature of a trulybilingual country.

The importance of thecreative industries toWales cannot beunderestimated,economically, sociallyand culturally.

Working closely with industry, the Universityof South Wales has a strong role to play in thedevelopment of the creative industries inWales, facilitating the narratives about whowe are, and how we see ourselves in relationto the world. The role of the Welsh languagein this is imperative, facilitating arepresentation of the culture of the nation inall its diversity. Working with Coleg CymraegCenedlaethol, the University ensuresplacements and projects with industry are acore part of the undergraduate experience.Through industry ties our students are ableto benefit from a range of Welsh and Englishwork experience opportunities, a response tothe growing demands of a thriving bilingualcreative industry in Wales and thesignificance of multilingualism the worldover.

Dr Lisa Lewis, Reader in Theatre andPerformance at theUniversity of SouthWales

Language and learning A bilingual creative sector is an asset for Wales, argues Lisa Lewis

30 | IMPACT

USW

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discover new clean fuel source

Dr Gareth Owen, senior lecturer in inorganic chemistry,is leading a three-year research project which aims todiscover new ways to form a clean source of fuel bymimicking the chemical reactions in plants. As part ofthe programme, funded by a £191,000 grant from theLeverhulme Trust, a team led by Dr Owen is looking tocopy processes carried out during photosynthesis toincrease the production of hydrogen.

“Photosynthesis is one of the most importantprocesses in nature - it’s the starting point in the foodchain and replaces oxygen in the atmosphere,” he said.

“Nature does this by just using just water, carbondioxide and sunlight. The efficiency of suchtransformations which occur in nature are astonishing,while scientists have attempted to mimic them overthe years, they have been met with limited success.”

Complementing work that is already being carried outworldwide on so-called ‘artificial leaf projects’, the USWresearch team is looking at new ways to significantlyincrease the amount of hydrogen that can beproduced by using chemical processes to break downwater into its constituent parts – hydrogen andoxygen. The process requires a complicatedcombination of metals and specifically-designedmolecules called ligands, and making sure they are inexactly the correct positions for the whole process towork,” Dr Owen added.

“The aim of the research programme is to expand theefficiency of the process, which is currently quitelimited. This could obviously have a major impactglobally. Being able to reduce water to its constituentcomponents - oxygen and hydrogen - could producean infinite source of clean energy, which is the ultimateaim of researchers working in this field.” @USWResearch

Graduate Research Office is among topfive UK universities

The results of the latest International StudentBarometer survey show that the University’s GraduateResearch Office ranks amongst the top five universitiesin the UK for international student support. Theworldwide barometer also positions the GraduateResearch Office’s support for international studentswithin the top 12 participating universities worldwide.The Student Barometer surveys international studentsstudying across the globe.

Respondents are asked to reflect on aspects of theirexperience and institution, assessing satisfaction levelsand enabling participating universities to benchmarktheir performance.

Dr Elaine Huntley, USW’s Postgraduate ResearchManager, said: “The results of the recent InternationalStudent Barometer demonstrate the consistent high-quality support service available to research studentsacross the University.

“The Barometer provides invaluable insights into ourstudent experience and reinforces the importance ofproviding a one-stop-shop for advice and support toour research students.”@USWResearch

Low NOxTechnology – Helping Glassmanufacturers reduce pollution levels

USW Engineering research, funded by the Carbon Trustand the EU, has led to the development of patentedfurnace design which enables glass manufacturingcompanies to reduce their emissions of Nitrogen Oxide(NOx).

This technology can be applied to both End Fired andCross Fired regenerative glass furnaces, reducing theNOx emissions from these furnaces to a level belowthat required by current local and European legislation.The technology has been trialled with manufacturers inEurope, showing highly positive results. The originalresearch was conducted by the University’s Faculty ofComputing, Engineering and Science in collaborationwith French gas supplier, GDF Suez (now called ENGIE)and a Scottish burner supplier, Global CombustionSystems.

The USW team is led by Professor Steve Wilcox, Head of Engineering and Director of the University’sEngineering Research Centre. @USWEngineering

Dermatology product helps plasticsurgeons improve patient care

Computing research carried out by Peter Plassman andCarl Jones, from the Faculty of Computing, Engineeringand Science, has led to a successful new product tohelp doctors improve patient care. The 3D LifeViz™Mini, compact 3D camera is used for skin analysis andsimulation of the face. This is particularly useful forplastic surgeons, dermatologists and aesthetic doctorsto improve their patient’s follow-up care using differentmeasurement capacities allowing before-aftertreatment comparison in 3D.

The product was developed by University of SouthWales spin-out company Photometrics Imaging, withan industry partner from France. It is the first portablecamera system capable of skin analysis and simulationand was awarded the prize for 'Best Aesthetics Device'at the 2015 Paris Aesthetics Show.Peter.plassmann@southwales.ac.uk

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