LSAD VISIT #2

The beautiful home of Limerick School of Art and Design

I had my second visit to the 4th year Visual Communications students at LSAD on Monday. Each of them - 30 in all - presented their initial concepts to me and their lecturer Eamon Spelman, for the Visual Fiction project. Here is a list of the stories they are using as inspiration:

'On The Devil's Disc' - Kevin Barry

'Deer at Rest' - Thisbe Nissen

‘Room 313’ – Nuala Ní Chonchúir

‘The Lottery’ – Shirley Jackson

'Hills Like White Elephants' – Ernest Hemingway

'Champagne' - Chekhov

'The Moon' - Colin Barrett

'The Model' - Guy de Maupassant

'Finishing Touch' - Claire Louise Bennett

'The Story' - Cathy Sweeney

I was totally impressed with the development concepts they came up with as well as their in-depth interpretations of the stories they were asked to read. With thirty students and ten stories, three have the same story to work from and the diversity of their responses was wonderful.

The students plan to create everything from videos, to a Chekhovian Snapchat, to animated gifs; from a graphic novel in poster form, to a smoking kit. One student plans to have an installation featuring receipts, inspired by Colin Barrett's story 'The Moon', while another will make a tabloid newspaper poster based on 'The Model' by Guy de Maupassant.

I can't wait to re-visit the class on the 2nd of March, with Stinging Fly editor Declan Meade, to view the finished pieces.