Top award for Finglas graduate

AN EMERGING talent from Finglas has picked up Draíocht’s inaugural Creative Digital Media Graduate Award.

Ashling Smith was one of this year’s graduating students from the Creative Digital Media degree programme at the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB).

The award was open to all graduating students but Ashling’s piece, Vision, was selected by CEO of the Digital Hub Development Agency, Fiach MacConghail, on behalf of Draíocht following a short-listing process.

MacConghail explained that he chose the Finglas native because of the sculptural and painterly quality of her work.

“It’s immersive multi-media form which integrates sound, image and text,” he added.

“It is ultimately a considered work blending creativity and art.

“The artistic intention of the piece highlights the vulnerability and joy of making art.”

Aisling’s piece, Vision, is an audio-visual installation representing artists and celebrating creativity, through visuals and sound-based media.

The project is achieved through projection mapping and a five-piece structure.

It is based on the voices of anonymous creatives with different backgrounds sharing their stories on what creativity means to them.

Speaking with Draíocht’s marketing team after the award Ashling, who moved to Wexford with her parents and five siblings when she was 10, talked about her creative background.

“School was always difficult for me, but I did love art class,” she said.

“I could work on stuff for hours in art and felt comfortable in what I was doing.”

Ashling began working on her art portfolio as a teenager.

She attended a course in Killester College and eventually went on to Stillorgan College where she learned digital media.

“I got a quick grasp on web and graphic design and decided that this is what I wanted to do.

“I ended up in Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB) studying Creative Digital Media, where I studied a wide range of things such as Film Making, Photography, Web Design and Graphic Design.”

Ashling decided to set herself up as a freelancer and eventually got a few jobs while studying in college.

These days, she manages to juggle her personal creative work with designing websites and managing social media accounts.

“It’s great when I have a client who trusts me to lead their brand and reach out to their audience,” she said.

“It’s is nice to have a day job that is also creative.”

As the winning graduate, Aisling will have a six-week residency in Draíocht Studio next summer and the opportunity to exhibit new work as part of PLATFORM 2019.

It’s something she’s very much looking forward to.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with Draíocht and have my exhibition displayed at PLATFORM 2019,” she said.

”I will be having a six weeks residency with Draíocht and my exhibition, with two other artists, will be on for 12 weeks.

“I am really excited for this opportunity and have a year to decide on what I like.

“Ideas that I have will be a similar theme to my installation piece Vision.

“I will use the six weeks in Draíocht to build the installation and set it up and before that will prepare content I feel work best for me.

“Now I am scoping out ideas and can’t say for sure what I will have for next year, but I am excited to explore that.”