Last term, three groups of students studying BA Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at London College of Communication used the Stanley Kubrick Archive. They created responses and displayed them in the ASCC and the Typo café.
The students researched material in groups during several pre-booked sessions. They then booked individual research visits to explore further.
Out of this research, each group focused on a particular theme or area of Kubrick’s films or work. The themes inspired their response. The three very different displays all highlighted different aspects of the Kubrick archive.
One group focused on Kubrick’s depiction of women in his films. They drew parallels between the female characters and the film sets and props. They looked at the set design for the Korova Milk Bar in the film A Clockwork Orange. They found photographs of a model posing for the design of the furniture. In response they created their own designs with the genders reversed. These were shown alongside the photographs and a poem by Margaret Atwood.
Another group focused on the development of ‘the Kubrick stare’. They looked in the archive to find when Kubrick and other script writers had described the stare. They exhibited these along with film stills showing the stare and created a film and a zine.
The group exhibiting in the Typo café display case went down a slightly different route. Instead of looking at an aspect of Kubrick’s work, they used archival material from the making of the film Dr Strangelove to explore the issues around nuclear weapons and nuclear power today. They displayed some of Kubrick’s own notes and photographs alongside their own photographs and an interview they conducted with a nuclear power industry professional.
It was great to see the archive being used to inspire such varied responses.
This term we are running a similar project with students from MA Photography, and we will be running the project again with BA Documentary Photography students next year.
Questions?
If you have any questions about our collections or activites, please contact us at archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk.