Role
Andrew Pepper draws in space.
He is a senior lecturer in Fine art teaching across all three years of the BA (Hons) course providing group and individual tutorials, workshops, lectures and seminars. He also contributes to the Master of Fine Art course; is an internal PhD examiner and external PhD examiner at other institutions.
Andy is year leader for first-year fine art where he works with a staff team of practising artists to support curriculum development, coordination and course delivery. He has a particular interest in supporting students during their transition into a university learning environment.
Trained in advanced personal tutoring, Andy coordinates and delivers pastoral tutoring developed within the school’s personal, academic tutor framework.
Career overview
His research as a Fulbright Scholar (New York) and Lionel Robbins Memorial Scholar (London) contributed to the submission of the first PhD in fine art at the University of Reading. This early example of practice-based doctoral research consisted of a holographic thesis - creative artefacts (spatial holographic drawings) alongside supportive documents. This work is currently held in the MIT Museum holography collection.
He was founding publisher and editor of The Creative Holography Index, the international Catalogue for Holography and has acted as consultant and advisor for several gallery and museum initiatives involving holography.
As director of the Shearwater Foundation holography program and the International Holography Fund, both USA-based funding organisations, he coordinated financial support for artists and international creative holography projects. This provided him with an extensive, global overview of creative and educational holography developments. He worked extensively with international advisory panels to coordinate the award and distribution of more than a million US dollars to artists and creative practitioners.
He acted as director and chair of Art in Holography 2, an international symposium held at the University of Nottingham, which helped facilitate early critical discussions around the process and practice of creative holography.
Before working with NTU, he was part of the initial staff team which developed post and undergraduate courses at the newly formed Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Germany.
Research areas
Andy’s work with holography, projected light and installation has been exhibited in group, and solo shows internationally.
His current research interests explore the luminous unsupported mark and its peripheral view, developed through works using holography and installation.
Of particular interest is the progress of critical and cultural discussions around creative holography and its use by artists.
Andy curated the ‘The Unsupported Mark – Drawing with Holography’ exhibition at Gallery 286, London, UK. Based on his research interests, he selected work by 20 international artists (spanning almost 40 years of development) from the Ross Collection, London, in an attempt to explore how artists have examined and exploited the luminous, unsupported, mark, both physically and conceptually.
His research into spatial drawing, creative holography and its critical development within practice has been published in Art Monthly, Leonardo Journal of Art, Science and Technology, The Encyclopaedia of Modern Optics, New Scientist, Campaign and a range of international exhibition catalogues.
He has recently acted as an invited special arts issue editor for ‘Holography A Critical Debate within Contemporary Visual Culture’ published by MPDI Switzerland. He also contributed a chapter on ‘The Gallery as a Location for Research-Informed Practice and Critical Reflection’.
He regularly carries out peer-reviews for MIT’s Leonardo Journal.
Andy has contributed papers to TILT (Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching), NTU’s Course Leaders conferences and the University’s practised-based research conferences. Presentations have focused on curriculum development, student transition into self-directed study, personal tutoring within long modules, critical engagement with fine art, innovative practice and emerging themes in learning and teaching.
He has most recently coordinated and delivered online materials to support mixed ability student engagement in self-directed research and independent practice development in fine art level 4.
Andy has delivered cross-course online workshops for the recently initiated NTU JOIN series of creative provocations and adapted this for presentation to specific staff course teams within the School of Art and Design.
External activity
Andy has undertaken external examining for several of the key MFAs and PhDs in creative holography. These include:
Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montford University, Loughborough.
School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Department of Photography, Royal College of Art, London.
College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Australia.
He has acted as an external course validator for the University of Salford, Manchester, UK and the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Andy has worked with the UK Fulbright Commission, and the Sutton Trust, as a student mentor, to support student mobility from underrepresented applicants, as well as acting as a reader for the UK Fulbright Summer School.
Recent exhibitions include:
- Enough is Definitely Enough, General Practice, Lincoln; Oceans Apart, Salford; Pineapple Black, Middlesbrough, UK.
- Art in Holography: Light, Space & Time, Aveiro City Museum, Portugal.
- Analogue Ensemble: Extending the Frame, Whitstable Biennale, Studio 3 Gallery, University of Kent, School of Arts, Canterbury, UK.
- Documents Alternatives #3, BSAD Gallery, Bath School of Art and Design, Bath, UK.
- The Unsupported Mark - Drawing with Holography, Gallery 286, London, UK.
- Documents Alternatives #2, Verge Gallery, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
- Documents Alternative #1, Airspace Gallery Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
- Aura Kinetica, Currents New Media Arts Festival, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
- The Alternative Document, Project Space Plus, University of Lincoln, UK.
More details at www.apepper.com
Press expertise
Creative Holography, Illusion, Holograms, Pepper's Ghost