This document summarizes Rebecca Farley's proposed social media project for Tate Research called "Basic Design" aimed at engaging audiences with the "Basic Design" exhibition at Tate Britain. The project would involve creating a virtual "Basic Design Summer School" on platforms like Tumblr and Twitter by inviting participants to complete 3 visual exercises inspired by Basic Design. The exercises focus on line, shape, and color and are based on historical instructions. The goal is to test new social media tools for Tate Research, uncover new histories of Basic Design, and generate public discussion around art education approaches.

1. Engaging audiences with
‘Basic Design’: a social media project
for Tate Research
Rebecca Farley
ICCHS Postgraduate Research Conference
29 May 2013

2. Hidden Collections

3. Hidden Collections
Workshops, Birmingham and

4. The Hidden Collections ‘Image’ Group
• Rachel Anchor, Univ. of Leicester, School of English -
PhD on the Crimean War in the public imagination
• Rebecca Farley
• Lorna Hards, Birmingham City University - PhD on
Public Art Strategies in Birmingham
• Ian Marshman, Univ. of Leicester, Archaeology and
Ancient History - PhD on the use of signet rings in
Roman Britain
• Rebecca Norris, Univ. of Cambridge, History of Art -
PhD on art patronage in the Venetian Terraferma (14C-
16C).

5. Tate Research
• Art history, conservation, museum studies
• Cultural theory and cultural policy
• Art education
• Research Centres
• Research Projects
• Tate Papers – online research journal
• Fellowships, placements, research posts

6. Hidden Collections Residential
Nottingham, April 2013

7. Art School Educated / Basic Design

8. Basic Design

9. Image Team visit to ‘Basic Design’
display, Tate Britain, April 2013

18. Hidden Collections / Basic Design
Project aims
• To develop public debate and discussion around the
‘Basic Design’ exhibition.
• To test new social media tools not currently used by the
Tate Research Team.
• To unearth new content and histories that refreshes the
discussion around ‘Basic Design’ as an arts education
approach.

19. ‘Basic Design’ - themes and ideas
Artist-educators –
mapping links and
influence
Basic
Design
alumni –
oral
histories
Richard
Hamilton - six
degrees of
separation
Women artists
- under-
representation
Visual
exercises –
digital
games
Basic
Design
Summer
School

20. Summer School, Scarborough, 1956

23. ‘Basic Design Summer School 2013’
• A virtual summer school: June – July 2013
• Based on 3 visual exercises inspired by Basic Design
• An invitation to take part – incentive of Tate Membership
(?)
• Exercises framed as simple instructions or prompts
• Managed, promoted and presented through online and
social media activity
• Range of complementary platforms
• Target audiences

24. Exercise One: Point
1. Take a plain, white
sheet of paper and a
die
2. Draw a line across
the centre of the paper
3. Throw the die and
try to hit the line
4. Mark the point at
which the die lands
5. Repeat actions 3
and 4 (a number of
times)
6. Consider the
relationship between
the dots on your paper.
‘Random Points’. Artist: Gillian Hargreaves.
Probably based on an exercise set by Richard
Hamilton. Source: National Arts Education
Archive/VADS.

25. Exercise Two: Shape
‘Take a square and
personalise it’
(reported verbal instruction
by Victor Pasmore)
‘Exercise-Shape’. Unknown Artist.
Probably based on an exercise set by
Victor Pasmore. Source: National Arts
Education Archive/VADS

26. Exercise Three: Colour
Experiment with a
colour’s range and create
a dynamic, energetic
mass, by repeating and
overlapping a simple
shape (such as a letter or
number) in different tonal
variations of the colour.
Based on an instruction from
Maurice de Sausmarez (1964)
book ‘Basic design: the dynamics
of visual form’, included in the
Tate Britain display.

27. Hidden Collections / Basic Design
Target audiences
• Current art students
• Basic Design alumni
• Tate Collective
• General Tate
• Tate Research networks

28. Hidden Collections / Basic Design
Platforms
• Tate website (Blogs) – research context
• Tumblr – image submissions, virtual exhibition
• Twitter – project promotion, image submissions
• Email – targeted invitations (alumni), image submissions

29. Tate Britain: Basic Design: join the tumblr Summer School
Tate Britain Basic Design
On display until September 1st 2013
Basic Design is a display at Tate Britain which explores a new and radical approach to training
in art schools introduced in the 1950s, and the role it played in revolutionizing art education
across Britain. As approaches to art education are reconsidered today, it is time to ask how
significant it was and what we can learn from it.
Formal exercises, focused on line, shape and colour, were a key part of the training, intended to
develop underlying artistic skill. Three exercises, set over the next six weeks will give you the
opportunity to develop your skill and give your opinion on how art should be taught.
Join in, use your imagination and win Tate membership for a year!
Complete the exercises, tweet them using #basicdesign or upload them to tumblr, and we will
reward the most original and interesting responses with Tate membership!
For more information and instructions for exercise one go to:
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/visit-archives
or http://basicdesign13.tumblr.com/
Tumblr Summer School
2013
• Proposal now with Tate
• Possible delivery June -
July
• Hidden Collections /
AHRC project report

31. The Hidden Collections experience
• Tate Research
• Social media platforms
• Virtual teamwork
• ‘Art School Educated’
• Partnership working

32. References
• ‘Basic Design’ – Tate Britain display and catalogue
(2013)
• de Sausmarez (1964, Studio Vista: London), Basic
Design: the dynamics of visual form
• National Arts Education Archive/VADS
• Tate Collection
• ‘Tate Digital Strategy 2013-15 Digital as a Dimension of
Everything’

33. Images courtesy of Tate Collection:
• Slide 11: Victor Pasmore, Points of Contact No. 2, 1964
• Slide 13: Richard Hamilton, Five Tyres abandoned, 1964
© The estate of Richard Hamilton.
• Slide 14: Wendy Pasmore, Oval Motif in Grey and
Ochre, 1961
• Slide 20: Session of group criticism, Scarborough
Summer School, Yorkshire, c.1956 © Estate of Tom
Hudson
• Slide 30: Alan Davie, Celtic Dreamboat (1965)
• Other images: views of Basic Design display, Tate
Britain, 2013 © Rebecca Farley

34. Thank you.
Rebecca Farley
ICCHS
r.farley@newcastle.ac.uk
http://rebeccafarley.wordpress.com