Camberwell BA Painting student James Rogers has been awarded £2,500 by UAL’s Student Enterprise and Employability (SEE) department as part of their Mead Scholarship and Fellowship scheme which aims to support UAL students and recent graduates in the pursuit of excellence through the development of their creative practice.
Open to those in their second year of study, students are invited to apply for Mead Scholarships which will contribute to their final year projects. Of 41 applicants, James was one of just three awarded a Scholarship for his project James Rogers Future Poetries, a poetry/technology-based startup exploring the relevance of these future technologies, and their potential as a language to communicate contemporary ideas of living.
We asked James about his work and what winning the award meant to him.
James’ work serves as an investigation into the times, the spectacle, and the various systems of control mediating this, particularly their delivery through modern and future technologies.
Congratulations on winning a Mead Scholarship – can you please tell us how you feel about it?
I feel 100% thank you, I’m now charged and excited to realise James Rogers Future Poetries.
Can you tell us about how the project you won for and how the award is going to contribute to this work?
The scholarship has been awarded to assist me with James Rogers Future Poetries which conducts investigations into systems of control, specifically those involving technology and spectacle.
The scholarship will primarily be used to construct a 3D printer, similar to one that I constructed before but more complex. This will be used to begin printing an ever improving artificial imitation of the human body. By using five extruders as opposed to one, I will be able to use up to five materials in the printing of one object. This will allow me to use carbon fibre in places like the skeleton, electrically conductive filament for a nervous system, and water-soluble filament, which can then be dissolved to create a circulatory and accumulatory system.
On top of this I will be able to realise Anatomies and Technologies, An Atlas of man and machine by James Rogers. This compendium will illustrate various interactions between man and machine, as well as various experiments, and procedures offered here at Future Poetries, all of which are performed by me.
Looking back at your time at college, what is your favorite memory from your degree so far?
The lyrics to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips, after playing it on repeat whilst working in the Future Poetries laboratory.
As you are about to going into your third year, what are your plans for the summer, and then when you’re back at college?
I have just finished a residency with Badrick, this involved working at Lubomirov-Easton for a month; this is on for a few more weeks. I’m also in the process of confirming a show for next month, alongside beginning the Mead in August, which will be an intense month or two. Following this I will establish James Rogers Future Poetries and upload it to the http://world.
James Rogers’ residency exhibition at Lubomirov-Easton project space with Badrick, working together as Badrick and Rogers, ‘The new amalgamation feeder, the bumper car complex, and the realisation of the imaginary man.’ runs until 25 July 2015. Read about the residency in the Wall Street Journal.
Find out more about James’ Future Poetries on the project’s Instagram account.
Find out more about the other Mead Scholarship and Fellowship winners on the SEE webpage [PDF].
Find out more about studying BA Painting at Camberwell on our course page.