Winner and runner up of Student Award 2012 announced!

We are very pleased to announce that the winner of this year's Student Award, Reflect:on Learning Experiences in Art, Design & Media, is Lydia Hardwick from the Royal College of Art.  She wins the first prize of £300. Congratulations Lydia!

The runner up is Bradley Bailey from Bath Spa University and he will receive the runner up prize of £100, well done Bradley!

We would like to thank all the students who took part in the competition this year; the work is of a very high standard. Submissions were not formally assessed; the winner and runner up were selected via an online voting system and we are very pleased that 843 voters took part to register their preferences.

The award, now in its seventh year, provides a unique opportunity for students to showcase their work alongside a range of UK institutions to a global audience. Students were asked to focus on their experiences of learning in art, design and media and submit an image or piece of multimedia (visual / audio / film / etc) accompanied by a short statement that reflects the epiphanies, inspirations, enablers and opportunities that are part of the experience of higher education.

Lydia and Bradley's entries and statements are reproduced below. You can see all the entries in the online gallery.

The Epiphany Head

The Royal College of Art sets your brain on positive overload. I sometimes feel my head will swell and burst. You are constantly fuelled by information and innovation provided through lectures, visiting speakers, critiques, conversation with your peers, exhibitions, technical workshops… 

My piece is a visual summarisation of my reaction to this information-dense environment. The material qualities are loose and roughly produced, demonstrating the fast flux of information, settling into little colourful simultaneous epiphanies around my head. I purposeful chose the figure to be straight and wearing grey, to show how my body can sometimes feel flat and static in comparison to the activity running though my head.

Lydia Hardwick
Ceramics
Royal College of Art

Work placement
Video

This is a hand-drawn Animation I created about the work placement I did in March 2010. It’s all about the experience of my first day on the job. I worked for a week with a freelance Health Journalist. I  wanted to learn how she successfully set up her business and works freelance.

This was a valuable work experience for me, I gained business knowledge and advice for ways in which I can setup and start my own career as a freelance animator. She’s also a contact I’ll always have and will hopefully be able to work with again in the near future. Work experience has been a big part of my learning in higher education.


Bradley Bailey
Creative Media Practice
Bath Spa University