Ms Laura Copsey

About

I'm an experimental illustrator, educator researcher from East Anglia. I have taught in other community and university education contexts before joining the Illustration Animation Team at Kingston. My own practice is interdisciplinary and collaborative, blurring with my background as a therapist and musician. I use objects, cameraless photography, moving image, collage and sound to explore traces of human endeavour from history, from heritage locations, traditional trades or in museum collections. Often undertaking projects or collaborations with small museums - in the past Bluetown Museum (Isle of Sheppey), Lowestoft Maritime Museum and The Museum of English Rural Life.

I design and facilitate collaborative fieldwork expeditions, workshops and experiences - most recently aboard a boat with Sail Britain for 'the life of islands'. My research interests include: expanded illustration methods / historic sites and their stories / the use of para-fiction / site specific and 'time' specific ways of working / creativity and wellbeing.  I continue to explore alternative methods of pedagogy and mutual learning.

I worked with House of Illustration as illustrator in residence in 2021. My collaborator (Philip Crewe) and I created a para-fictional museum of artefacts related to working class Londoners linked to the New River, who's names and occupations we discovered in the archive. We also exhibited and curated prints made by the New River itself with the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration during London Design Festival 2022 and Open House London Festival.

Academic responsibilities

Lecturer in Illustration Animation

Qualifications

  • MA Experimental Communciation (RCA)
  • BSc Occupational Therapy (UEA)
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Teaching and learning

I lead the Level 4 Presentation module which aims to support students to develop professional skills through collaboration and client facing live briefs. 

Qualifications and expertise

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Undergraduate courses taught

Research

Colouring in: The Past-  cross college project with UAL Camberwell in collaboration with Recycle Archaeology and Dr Helen Wickstead, 2022

Life of Islands - Project leader with Sail Britain, 2022

New River Folk (Museum) - Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration x London Design Festival 2022

New River Immersions (exhibition) Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration x London Design Festival 2022

New River Folk – Translating The Past And Navigating Para-fiction – Transitus Conference. Falmouth University 2022

Time specific illustration: Drawing experience with light - Illustration Research Method Symposium, Kingston University 2021

Para-ficfion and the archive - Archives Symposium, UCA 2020

Publications

Number of items: 6.

Article

Copsey, Laura [Interviewee] and Crewe, Philip [Interviewee] (2022) Copsey and Crewe Narrative Extraction Services. Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration : Journal,

Conference or Workshop Item

Copsey, Laura and Crewe, Philip (2022) New River folk (re-enactment as translation). In: 12th International Illustration Research Symposium : Transitus: Illustration as Crossing Ground; 15-16 Jul 2022, Falmouth, U.K. (Held online). (Unpublished)

Exhibition

Copsey, Laura [Curator], Taylor, Rachel Emily [Curator] and Wickstead, Helen [Curator] (2022) Illustration X Recycle Archaeology Student project (UAL & KSA). Colouring In : The Past : A Symposium. .

Copsey, Laura [Artist] and Crewe, Philip [Artist] (2022) New River Folk. .

Copsey, Laura [Artist] and Crewe, Philip [Artist] (2022) New River Immersions. .

Still/Graphic Work

Copsey, Laura [Artist] (2023) A New River Offering. (Print). 75 x 18 cm. Scanned chemigram photographic print on paper made from river water, oil, soap and garlic.

This list was generated on Wed Sep 13 06:50:08 2023 BST.