In Pictures: Titash Sen, MA Fine Art: Computational Arts

Titash Sen is a student on Camberwell College of Arts' MA Fine Art programme. Before enrolling onto the course, Titash worked in journalism. Her art practice evolving from her attempts to document the abstract parts of lived experience.

The MA Fine Art course consists of 6 pathways designed to transform a student's individual practice. We asked Titash to tell us more about why she chose to study MA Fine Art: Computational Arts and share the work she has produced so far on the course.

Professionally, I have tried to work with organisations that are committed to social justice. All my work has mostly been created digitally.

Growing up, I did not have enough access to cultural or social capital. Therefore, I am concerned with making knowledge and culture accessible. I think this is why I was drawn towards computational arts.

Towards the end of 2018, I began to work as a journalist with a renowned academic journal that has been published every week since 1959. My job was to make their wealth of knowledge accessible, and I started to do so by trying to translate dense academic articles into visual and interactive forms. This was an excellent learning experience and quite an encouraging one because I discovered that interactives (though a pain to build) are remarkably effective communication tools.

Joining the MA Fine Art: Computational Arts was a natural extension of my exploration into interactive media.

I have always been someone who reads so, unsurprisingly, my practice is heavily influenced by narratives and storytelling. A lot of my work takes shape in the form of visual narratives with surreal elements.

The project that I am developing right now is something akin to a virtual installation. It brings together the personal and professional parts of my practice. I am adapting an idea that I had for a graphic novel a while ago, because I feel it would work better as an interactive. It integrates storytelling, 3D sculpting, world-building, moving images with interaction design and computation. Some of these skills are traditional, while others are very new and many of them are skills that I need to learn. I envision the final product as either a game or an interactive film.

It is in its initial stages still, and I have narrowed down a script. I decided to work on a small, animated pilot (in 2D) to test the narrative and the idea during critiques. I am also teaching myself to build 3D models of the characters in my story and have been experimenting with 3D sculpting from scratch.

The space and the community here at Camberwell are very conducive to making!

It is messy in the way that encourages you to create, and it is always bustling with people in various stages of their practice. Simply inhabiting this space, I find, gives me a lot of energy and joy. The staff and the technicians are very friendly and helpful. You can bring your work to them if you are stuck, and they will do their best to sort out your problem. In fact, if there is something that you need, that is not readily available on campus, they will do their best to help you arrange it. Everyone that I have met so far has been very encouraging and approachable.

If I really had to pick just 1 thing, I think I would say it is the energy of Camberwell that I enjoy the most.