I will be chairing this event at The New Art Gallery Walsall on Thursday 20th March, 2008
The Artists’ Studio at The New Art Gallery Walsall has played host to a number of artists who work in partnership including Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry, current artists in residence Juneau Projects and forthcoming occupants Simon and Tom Bloor.
This support for collaborative relationships mirrors the rise in group-based and collective art practices which have become a familiar part of the artistic landscape over the last decade. However, despite moving into the mainstream, the process of artistic collaboration continues to raise a number of fundamental questions surrounding authorship, authenticity and audience relationships. And whilst artists continue to work with each other, they’re increasingly engaging the skills, knowledge and mind-sets of other creative practitioners such as architects, writers and film makers. This seminar opens up the opportunity to discuss various models of collaborative working and the social, political and creative reasons for doing so. Chaired by writer and lecturer Emma Cocker, a series of discussions will be ignited by presentations from collaborative duo Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie, artists’ collective The Hut Project, occasional collaborators S Mark Gubb and Gordon Dalton, and artist Lothar Götz who has recently collaborated with Caruso St. John architects.
Sunday 2 March 2008
Monday 25 February 2008
It Couldn't Be Made Up
It Couldn't Be Made Up brings together a series of five back-to-back group exhibitions that play on the multiple meanings and contradictory possibilities of the title, which can be read as a declaration of disbelief as well as one of failure. It Couldn't Be Made Up tries to reflect upon the competing drives that underpin artistic practice: the desire to make something happen and the risk that such plans might fall or fail. The title functions as an expression of both astonishment and disappointment; of regret and promise. It might suggest that something is 'beyond belief' or fantastical; or reflect the eruption of make-believe into the space of the everyday. Alternatively it articulates the regret felt at not being able to construct, set-up or make something happen - when something is seen as impossible or doomed to fail.
At Play
Monday 25th February from 6pm - Thursday 28th February
Echoing the fantastical and imagined world of childhood play, the gallery is presented as an immersive space transformed and interrupted by the presence of large makeshift structures; architectural propositions; sound works and light installations. Including work by Katharine Wojcik (curator), Matthew Hayes, Charlie Hood, Emma Kemp, Kate Lawrence
Apeiron
Monday 3rd March from 6pm - Tuesday 4th March
Emerging in the space between science fiction and science fact, artists in this exhibition draw upon the visualisation and explanation of various scientific phenomena in order to create works which blur the line between science and the imagination, the hypothetical and the real. Including work by Andrew Brookfield (curator), Rachel Eite (curator), Ashley Gallant and Richard Sides
Collapse
Thursday 6th March from 6pm - Friday 7th March
The exhibition reflects on how failure might offer a moment of disappointment but also the possibility of unexpected or humorous results; how the breakdown of one kind of logic might allow for the emergence of another. Useless and dysfunctional objects sit alongside works which explore the breakdown of language; mistranslations and glitches in communication. Including work by Jenna Finch (curator), Simon Franklin (curator), Tom Duggan, Toby Everitt, Craig Fisher, Bommsoon Lee, Tracey McMaster, Megan Tait and Naomi Terry
I Can't Believe it's Not Butter
Tuesday 11th March 6.00pm - Thursday 13th March
The exhibition brings together work where first impressions are often deceptive and things not always what they seem. The reassuringly familiar becomes disrupted or disturbed by the suggestion of other possibilities that lurk beneath the register of the initial glance; or by revelations and discoveries which slowly unravel the logic of the original reading. Includes work by Jennifer Webber (curator), Naomi Terry (curator), Laura Clarke (curator), Holly Farrington (curator), Lotti Closs (curator), Sarah Duffy, Emma Firkin, Dan Ford, Rachel Murray, Charlotte Osborn, Jon Palmer, Bethany Phelps, Rhiannon Worgan, Derek Sprawson and Ben Wheele
Snowball
Monday 17th March - Thursday 20th March. Closing event 6pm
Snowball explores the notion of the sketch or proposal as an imaginative zone unrestricted by the limitations of time and resources. Beginning with a series of speculative drawings and plans from seven selected artists, seven further artists will be invited to work as mediators and translators, moving between these disparate practices, making connections and creating new ideas in response. In turn, these will then be responded to in the gallery by the original group of artists, where the process of 'drawing together' or 'failing to see the link' is presented as an ongoing and live event. Includes work by Bommsoon Lee, Ottis Sturmey, Emma Tanner, Stephen Turner, Claire Merriman, Jess Stevenson, Fonny Fung Yin Shum
Interventions and Performances
Throughout the programme there will also be a number of interventions and performances where mistaken identities, secret exchanges and absurd encounters occur in the gallery space and erupt into the public realm. Includes work by Dominique Humphrey, Bill Nguyen and Alia Pathan.
It Couldn't be Made Up is a collaboration between Surface Gallery & Nottingham Trent University.
Friday 11 January 2008
Interrogations : 'Creative Interdisciplinarity'
Interrogations presents a Postgraduate Workshop organised by De Montfort University Faculty of Art and Design and Loughborough University School of Art and Design (supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council).
Speakers Emma Cocker, Nottingham Trent University; Professor Gen Doy, De Montfort University Faculty of Art and Design; Dr. Jane Tormey, Loughborough University School of Art and Design
ABSTRACT: Wandering: Straying from the disciplinary path
In this presentation I am proposing to draw on my interest in the practice of wandering as a means through which to explore selected ideas in relation to interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary approaches to research. It is not intended as a coherent ‘map’ of this area of practice, rather something more like a meander through the terrain: a selective and partial dérive or itinerary in which certain ideas and propositions will be investigated; others bypassed, traversed or condemned (for the moment) to ‘inertia or disappearance’. Referring to other theorists and writers, the practice of wandering and the geographical, spatial or navigational readings it conjures, will allow me to touch upon the potentiality or possibility, but also the problematic of interdisciplinarity. I hope that the motif or metaphor of wandering might bring to mind a diverse range of issues against which to think about interdisciplinarity including perhaps ideas around defamiliarisation and distance; disorientation and uncertainty; curiosity; translation and tourism; trespass and piracy; borders, boundaries and threshold zones; rights of access, belonging and homelessness; reclamation and regeneration; territory and power; invasion and control; even the migration, colonialisation or the diaspora of ideas and practices. Performed according to an ephemeral, unfolding logic; wandering is a model of enquiry whose findings emerge through constant (r)evolution, where observations remain in transitional flux or interminable disarray. It is a framework for encountering and understanding the world and our place within it that retains rather than eradicates the potential for uncertainty and disorientation; that emphasises rather than disables the interplay between facts and fictions, reality and the imagination, theories and anecdotes. The motif of wandering might thus enable reflection on the potential role of the positional and subjective, or the partial and provisional within research practice, re-inscribing them a value within the process of meaning making and the construction of knowledge.
CONTEXT: This is the first event of the 2 year Postgraduate Training project which follows on from the 'In Theory' project last year organised by LUSAD and De Montfort. Its title this time is 'Creative Interdisciplinarity in Art and Design Research'. It will introduce general issues that students would all potentially find useful in terms of concepts, methods, approaches and research strategies relating to the notion of the interdisciplinary. The aim is to interest students in interdisciplinary research - to see interdisciplinarity as a way to enhance and encourage creativity.
Issues to be discussed might include:
• Why interdisciplinarity?
• In what ways is interdisciplinarity useful and stimulating for practitioners and other research students?
• The relationship of theory to practice in interdisciplinary research. Opportunities and pitfalls.
• How to locate and digest suitable interdisciplinary theories and concepts without being overwhelmed, or just resorting to "pick and mix strategy".
• "Translating" from one discipline to another. Should you be "true" to your source or is it better to modify the material you take from other disciplines?
• The problem of illustrating (in your practice) ideas from other disciplines, and how to avoid this.
* Isn’t everything interdisciplinary?
This is the first event of the 2 year Postgraduate Training project which follows on from the 'In Theory' project last year organised by LUSAD and De Montfort. For more information see http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~acdih/interrogations.htm
Speakers Emma Cocker, Nottingham Trent University; Professor Gen Doy, De Montfort University Faculty of Art and Design; Dr. Jane Tormey, Loughborough University School of Art and Design
ABSTRACT: Wandering: Straying from the disciplinary path
In this presentation I am proposing to draw on my interest in the practice of wandering as a means through which to explore selected ideas in relation to interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary approaches to research. It is not intended as a coherent ‘map’ of this area of practice, rather something more like a meander through the terrain: a selective and partial dérive or itinerary in which certain ideas and propositions will be investigated; others bypassed, traversed or condemned (for the moment) to ‘inertia or disappearance’. Referring to other theorists and writers, the practice of wandering and the geographical, spatial or navigational readings it conjures, will allow me to touch upon the potentiality or possibility, but also the problematic of interdisciplinarity. I hope that the motif or metaphor of wandering might bring to mind a diverse range of issues against which to think about interdisciplinarity including perhaps ideas around defamiliarisation and distance; disorientation and uncertainty; curiosity; translation and tourism; trespass and piracy; borders, boundaries and threshold zones; rights of access, belonging and homelessness; reclamation and regeneration; territory and power; invasion and control; even the migration, colonialisation or the diaspora of ideas and practices. Performed according to an ephemeral, unfolding logic; wandering is a model of enquiry whose findings emerge through constant (r)evolution, where observations remain in transitional flux or interminable disarray. It is a framework for encountering and understanding the world and our place within it that retains rather than eradicates the potential for uncertainty and disorientation; that emphasises rather than disables the interplay between facts and fictions, reality and the imagination, theories and anecdotes. The motif of wandering might thus enable reflection on the potential role of the positional and subjective, or the partial and provisional within research practice, re-inscribing them a value within the process of meaning making and the construction of knowledge.
CONTEXT: This is the first event of the 2 year Postgraduate Training project which follows on from the 'In Theory' project last year organised by LUSAD and De Montfort. Its title this time is 'Creative Interdisciplinarity in Art and Design Research'. It will introduce general issues that students would all potentially find useful in terms of concepts, methods, approaches and research strategies relating to the notion of the interdisciplinary. The aim is to interest students in interdisciplinary research - to see interdisciplinarity as a way to enhance and encourage creativity.
Issues to be discussed might include:
• Why interdisciplinarity?
• In what ways is interdisciplinarity useful and stimulating for practitioners and other research students?
• The relationship of theory to practice in interdisciplinary research. Opportunities and pitfalls.
• How to locate and digest suitable interdisciplinary theories and concepts without being overwhelmed, or just resorting to "pick and mix strategy".
• "Translating" from one discipline to another. Should you be "true" to your source or is it better to modify the material you take from other disciplines?
• The problem of illustrating (in your practice) ideas from other disciplines, and how to avoid this.
* Isn’t everything interdisciplinary?
This is the first event of the 2 year Postgraduate Training project which follows on from the 'In Theory' project last year organised by LUSAD and De Montfort. For more information see http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~acdih/interrogations.htm
Monday 10 September 2007
What is critical writing?
Invited contributor to an essay on critical writing by Chris Brown (Reviews Editor at a-n). Other contributors included John Beagles, Neil Mulholland, John Slyce, Joshua Sofaer and Peter Suchin.
"There is a deceptively complex relationship between the artist’s intentions in her work, the curator’s interpretation of that work, and the writer’s response to that presentation. Writers’ approaches to this relationship vary enormously, from careful negotiation to absolute autonomy. And, as writer and lecturer Emma Cocker points out, the context influences this relationship too: “Is the writing intended as criticism, as a form of critique or qualitative judgement; or an interpretation or contextual construct? Is it dialogic or responsive; academic or theoretical; performative or propositional; experimental or speculative, playful or simply a form of reportage that documents or describes a piece of work?”.....'
Read more on the Interface Section of the a-n website @ http://interface.a-n.co.uk/articles/single/379627
"There is a deceptively complex relationship between the artist’s intentions in her work, the curator’s interpretation of that work, and the writer’s response to that presentation. Writers’ approaches to this relationship vary enormously, from careful negotiation to absolute autonomy. And, as writer and lecturer Emma Cocker points out, the context influences this relationship too: “Is the writing intended as criticism, as a form of critique or qualitative judgement; or an interpretation or contextual construct? Is it dialogic or responsive; academic or theoretical; performative or propositional; experimental or speculative, playful or simply a form of reportage that documents or describes a piece of work?”.....'
Read more on the Interface Section of the a-n website @ http://interface.a-n.co.uk/articles/single/379627
Saturday 14 July 2007
Gallery as Host, Hub, Archive
2007> The purpose of this paper was to propose ideas; suggestions; case examples for further research, and recommended models of practice for the integration of education at a leading contemporary art space in response to the new artistic policy. The intent is to briefly identify the key issues and concerns of the new artistic policy, before proposing and exploring various integrated models of ‘educational’ or ‘participatory’ practice for this new context. The proposals draw on key debates around the notion of ‘participation’ in contemporary art and on the role of the art institution in relation to this, as well as on specific research into national and international models of practice. The intent is to propose models that reflect and respond to the wider international context of contemporary art practice and programming; but which also consider and reflect the particular needs and opportunities presented by the specific local context for the production and presentation of, and for participation in contemporary art in the city. Signalling a shift from the notion of ‘education’ to one of ‘participation’, the proposals within this paper focus upon models whereby the organisation ‘opens and is opened out’ to a broader sense of use and user.
Rules of the Game
I was the organiser of this series of exhibitions in collaboration with Surface Gallery
There is perhaps, an inescapable connection between art and play, where both practices perform at times according to unspoken yet specific ‘Rules of the Game’. Both seep into places where they are not invited; have the potential to create havoc and disruption in the most unlikely of spaces. Play can be used as a means of escape or of immersion: it is a gesture of bored distraction performed whilst whiling away lost hours or empty days. It is the performative action that fuels the formation of fantasy worlds and the creation of alter egos: a means of desirable disorientation or vertigo that transports the player into some other fictional realm or psychological state of mind. Or else play might be seen as a wilful tactic through which to rethink habitual patterns and routine behaviour; where it has a more critical or creative function as a process of discovery and of experimentation; or as a means of subversion or critique. Play might be driven by the uncertainty of chance, or by relentless competition. It can be rule-based or improvisational, recklessly chaotic or strategically controlled.
Since 2006 Nottingham Trent's Fine Art department have collaborated with Surface Gallery on an annual series of exhibitions, through which to encourage and celebrate the breadth and diversity of fine art practices within the programme at Trent. In the last two years Surface Gallery has played host to a series of events, exhibitions and projects by students and staff. In 2007 proposals were invited to explore the connections between art and play, in response to the title Rules of the Game.
Drawing Straws
Organised in collaboration with Surface Gallery
Drawing Straws was a series of exhibitions and events at Surface Gallery in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University. Coinciding with the British Art Show 6 and Sideshow in Nottingham 2006. Students from NTU were invited to submit proposals that address, question or play with the idea of selection. The series of short shows aimed to encourage students to adopt a critical or reflective perspective that engages with current debate surrounding curatorial practice. With the arrival of the British Art Show in Nottingham for the first time, it hoped to draw attention to some of the selection processes that have been used for this and other art activities taking place across the city.
The notion of ‘selection’ may draw upon ideas of inclusion/exclusion; or on the nature of trends and passing phases. ‘Selection’ may demand a questioning of subjectivity and personal choices; a reflection on the politics of visibility/invisibility; musing on the implications of Darwinian theory; or an understanding and exploration of the workings of networks; agendas; rules and criteria. Curatorial starting points might examine modes and methods of selection – from childhood games (from drawing straws, to nursery rhymes or playground chants), to a range of tactics or strategies adopted by both modern and contemporary artists and curators who have adopted more cumulative, relational or critical models of curating.
Since 2006 Nottingham Trent's Fine Art department have collaborated with Surface Gallery on an annual series of exhibitions, through which to encourage and celebrate the breadth and diversity of fine art practices within the programme at Trent. In the last two years Surface Gallery has played host to a series of events, exhibitions and projects by students and staff. In 2006 the curatorial premise, Drawing Straws, explored notions of selection and critical forms of curating
Drawing Straws was a series of exhibitions and events at Surface Gallery in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University. Coinciding with the British Art Show 6 and Sideshow in Nottingham 2006. Students from NTU were invited to submit proposals that address, question or play with the idea of selection. The series of short shows aimed to encourage students to adopt a critical or reflective perspective that engages with current debate surrounding curatorial practice. With the arrival of the British Art Show in Nottingham for the first time, it hoped to draw attention to some of the selection processes that have been used for this and other art activities taking place across the city.
The notion of ‘selection’ may draw upon ideas of inclusion/exclusion; or on the nature of trends and passing phases. ‘Selection’ may demand a questioning of subjectivity and personal choices; a reflection on the politics of visibility/invisibility; musing on the implications of Darwinian theory; or an understanding and exploration of the workings of networks; agendas; rules and criteria. Curatorial starting points might examine modes and methods of selection – from childhood games (from drawing straws, to nursery rhymes or playground chants), to a range of tactics or strategies adopted by both modern and contemporary artists and curators who have adopted more cumulative, relational or critical models of curating.
Since 2006 Nottingham Trent's Fine Art department have collaborated with Surface Gallery on an annual series of exhibitions, through which to encourage and celebrate the breadth and diversity of fine art practices within the programme at Trent. In the last two years Surface Gallery has played host to a series of events, exhibitions and projects by students and staff. In 2006 the curatorial premise, Drawing Straws, explored notions of selection and critical forms of curating
‘Unknown territory: on the possibility and problematic of collaboration
Conference paper at GETTING TOGETHER: STAYING TOGETHER. DEVELOPING COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES AND SPACES held on 25 October 2006 at Broadway Cinema in Nottingham.
'The word collaboration has slipped with ease into the vocabulary of artistic practice, and into the criteria of funding schemes. Collaboration has come to describe forms of social or relational artistic activity or engagement which might include ‘working with others’, collective action, and participatory practice. It accounts for the practice of artists working together with other artists, as part of a collective or with individuals from other fields. Collaboration marks the mutuality of the relationship between an artist and an organisation or the process of organisations coming together with other organisations or with other groups. It can be viewed as a joint venture that brings together those with shared interests and a common agenda, or instead might be an initiative that bridges any notion of disciplinary lines. In short, collaboration remains a rather vague and abstract term, an ambiguous and slightly slippery concept that perhaps needs to be interrogated with more rigour or criticality. In this paper I hope to try and raise a few questions about the term collaboration, especially in relation to the way it has become part of the rhetoric of the arts sector. I am proposing to indicate a number of projects which I have been involved in and which might be described as collaborations, in order to reflect on both the possibility and also the problematic of this form of practice. I want to try and contextualise some of these case examples by highlighting some the wider debates or ideas through which collaborative practice might be considered, especially in connection to how artists and arts organisations are strategically employing this way of working and in particular how it might connect to the notion of an interdisciplinary practice.'
'The word collaboration has slipped with ease into the vocabulary of artistic practice, and into the criteria of funding schemes. Collaboration has come to describe forms of social or relational artistic activity or engagement which might include ‘working with others’, collective action, and participatory practice. It accounts for the practice of artists working together with other artists, as part of a collective or with individuals from other fields. Collaboration marks the mutuality of the relationship between an artist and an organisation or the process of organisations coming together with other organisations or with other groups. It can be viewed as a joint venture that brings together those with shared interests and a common agenda, or instead might be an initiative that bridges any notion of disciplinary lines. In short, collaboration remains a rather vague and abstract term, an ambiguous and slightly slippery concept that perhaps needs to be interrogated with more rigour or criticality. In this paper I hope to try and raise a few questions about the term collaboration, especially in relation to the way it has become part of the rhetoric of the arts sector. I am proposing to indicate a number of projects which I have been involved in and which might be described as collaborations, in order to reflect on both the possibility and also the problematic of this form of practice. I want to try and contextualise some of these case examples by highlighting some the wider debates or ideas through which collaborative practice might be considered, especially in connection to how artists and arts organisations are strategically employing this way of working and in particular how it might connect to the notion of an interdisciplinary practice.'
Art, Artists, Galleries’
Peer led workshop seminar led by Emma Cocker on’ The Profession: Definitions and Relationships: Galleries, artists, art’ at the engage Summer School, Arona, Italy, 2005.
What I hoped for this session was to set up a discussion space to explore the relationship between artists, art and galleries. I am interested in the possibility of a discussion which takes up some of the debates of the last ten years to examine how gallery education may need to change, challenge, appropriate, or distinguish itself from other models and practices (which might include artistic, curatorial, and social examples). I am interested in how gallery education might need to re-evaluate its languages and values in relation to a changing context in which new models of artistic practice have developed out of or from socially engaged art, through practices that could be framed or understood within the context of Nicholas Bourriard’s term of ‘relational aesthetics’, and through a raft of theoretical arguments that explore the dynamic of encounter, exchange, dialogue, & interactivity. Since gallery education’s emergence as a profession, much has changed in relation to new forms of art practice; and in response to the spectrum of new emergent approaches adopted by artists in relation to art, the institution, and in relation to professional practice. So too, the art institution (ranging from both the art school, the gallery, and similar organisations) has been forced or coerced to make changes to begin to accommodate or operate with these new modes of practice.
What I hoped for this session was to set up a discussion space to explore the relationship between artists, art and galleries. I am interested in the possibility of a discussion which takes up some of the debates of the last ten years to examine how gallery education may need to change, challenge, appropriate, or distinguish itself from other models and practices (which might include artistic, curatorial, and social examples). I am interested in how gallery education might need to re-evaluate its languages and values in relation to a changing context in which new models of artistic practice have developed out of or from socially engaged art, through practices that could be framed or understood within the context of Nicholas Bourriard’s term of ‘relational aesthetics’, and through a raft of theoretical arguments that explore the dynamic of encounter, exchange, dialogue, & interactivity. Since gallery education’s emergence as a profession, much has changed in relation to new forms of art practice; and in response to the spectrum of new emergent approaches adopted by artists in relation to art, the institution, and in relation to professional practice. So too, the art institution (ranging from both the art school, the gallery, and similar organisations) has been forced or coerced to make changes to begin to accommodate or operate with these new modes of practice.
Public Space/Professional Space
Short paper given as part of the event 'Public Space /Professional Space' at the British Pavilion during the Venice Biennale, on Friday 10 June 2005. The event explored the competing demands on the art world - on the one hand provide venues for artists and their professional colleagues – and on the other to engage the wider public: the panel and speakers were invited to respond by exploring whether these are complementary or incompatible demands?
Invited Speakers: Stephen Beddoe, ARTQUEST; Emma Cocker, educator/academic; Declan McGonagle
Invited panel members include: Laura Ford, artist; Marjorie Althorpe Guyton, Arts Council England; Elpeda Hadzi, artist; Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg, exhibitions curator, Dunkers Kulturhus, Sweden; Elizabeth Anne McGregor, director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia; Paul Stone, a-n commissioning editor, UK
'My intent is to ask what we mean by these terms professional and public, these indefinable, amorphous spaces and definitions? Is it possible to homogenise the range of professional interests that might make up the art sector? Can the diversity of individuals forming a global audience for the arts, be contained within the single definition of ‘public’? I propose to look at the possibility of co-existing perspectives and agendas; and to reflect upon the tensions within the model of the public/professional binary opposition ... Certainly there are competing demands on the art world, however these demands are neither simply complementary or incompatible but contradictory, complex, confusing, problematic, and perhaps rightly so. Both professional and public realms are contained by rules and bureaucracy; codes of practice and behaviour; particular languages and expectations. Like advocates of certain interdisciplinary practices, I believe in the importance of stepping out of these zones at times to have a look around, and engage in wider conversations; to create, as W.J.T Mitchell might argue (though speaking in relation to visual culture) turbulence, disturbance, and moments of indiscipline, uncertainty, or even spaces for “un-professionalism"'
Invited Speakers: Stephen Beddoe, ARTQUEST; Emma Cocker, educator/academic; Declan McGonagle
Invited panel members include: Laura Ford, artist; Marjorie Althorpe Guyton, Arts Council England; Elpeda Hadzi, artist; Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg, exhibitions curator, Dunkers Kulturhus, Sweden; Elizabeth Anne McGregor, director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia; Paul Stone, a-n commissioning editor, UK
'My intent is to ask what we mean by these terms professional and public, these indefinable, amorphous spaces and definitions? Is it possible to homogenise the range of professional interests that might make up the art sector? Can the diversity of individuals forming a global audience for the arts, be contained within the single definition of ‘public’? I propose to look at the possibility of co-existing perspectives and agendas; and to reflect upon the tensions within the model of the public/professional binary opposition ... Certainly there are competing demands on the art world, however these demands are neither simply complementary or incompatible but contradictory, complex, confusing, problematic, and perhaps rightly so. Both professional and public realms are contained by rules and bureaucracy; codes of practice and behaviour; particular languages and expectations. Like advocates of certain interdisciplinary practices, I believe in the importance of stepping out of these zones at times to have a look around, and engage in wider conversations; to create, as W.J.T Mitchell might argue (though speaking in relation to visual culture) turbulence, disturbance, and moments of indiscipline, uncertainty, or even spaces for “un-professionalism"'
Spectral electrical
Undergraduate Project curated whilst Education development Manager at Site Gallery
See http://www.sitegallery.org/education/view.php?id=67
Jan - Apr 2004
Research and development project with undergraduate students exploring the connections between technology, art and the paranormal
What do we dematerialise into on the web? Are there derelict sites of the web, ripe for hauntings? In this electronic nothingness where do the traces linger, reform, multiply? Is technology a tool for capturing ghosts? Is everything coloured with a patina of its past inhabitants and histories? Are images only dead skin? Is dust the ghost of ourselves? Are projectors ghost detectors? Where is memory and experience located? Is subliminal messaging a kind of possession? Apparitions, revisitations, traces, echoes, flashes from the past. Are ghosts the afterimages of life, of individuals burnt into the fabric of the world? Hypnosis. Seeing differently. Seeing slower. What kind of a message can be picked up in the photographic blink? Ghosts in the machine, millennium bugs and computer viruses. Are we the real electronic ghosts? What function does the television play? Is it the unwanted visitor, unwittingly invited over the threshold? Is it a conduit for the supernatural, a channel for spiritual voices? What happens in the gaps of transmission? Does it establish an electrical static, the fear frequency, the 19Hz, or does it eradicate possibilities with its constant vibrations? What is the nature of ‘liveness’ on the web and TV? Does it establish doubles, doppelgangers, or an evil twinning to occur? Time travel, walking through walls, travelling along wires? Pepper’s Ghost. Magic lanterns, Hollywood Cinema. Ghostbusters. Has the supernatural been sanitised? Where is the ectoplasm and luminous paint?
Project Information: Spectral Electrical is the third in a line of innovative undergraduate projects at Site Gallery, bringing together students from 4 regional universities to share ideas, collaborate and make new work. Following the successes of quark antiquark and Hey Presto, Spectral Electrical examines new approaches for working in collaboration with undergraduate students. Between January and May 2004 students from Fine Art and Film & Video at Nottingham Trent, Sheffield Hallam, Derby, and Lincoln University (Hull School of Art & Design) took part in a project exploring the connections between art, technology and the paranormal, in conjunction with the exhibition, Haunted Media. The resulting work was screened on the projection window at Site Gallery over the weekend 28 May – 1 June.
The project took the form of discussions, presentations and a production period for making new work. Online spaces provided a focus throughout this project: in the form of the Spectral Electrical forum for discussion and sharing ideas; as a space to create and display work; and as contested locations through which to question and explore the connections between technology and the paranormal. Throughout the project the forum has been a crucial space for discussion, sharing ideas and posing questions for debate. The discussions have included topics from online communities and loneliness; to subliminal messaging and after images; from Buddhism & vibrations; to ideas around telegrams, fake websites, & online mediums.
‘Give and Take: the possibility and problematic of transcultural exchange’
The text was commissioned by engage, (international association of gallery education) for Issue 13 of their scholarly journal focussing on Globalisation; and was used to reflectively explore and contextualise a large-scale international collaborative research project (F.A.M.E.: Forum for Alternative Methods of Education) in relation to global debates around education practice; to a global gallery education audience alongside research by international scholars, curators and artists. F.A.M.E was a large-scale international research network project that involved research into pedagogical approaches to adult education through transcultural exchange with European partners, including the University of Barcelona and Helsinki University. The essay was used to interrogated the proposition that transcultural exchange would necessarily result in higher quality educational provision for adult learners, and pitched the theoretical concepts of a cultural ‘third space’ of hybrid practice, against the value of local specificity and individualised, bespoke programming. It was written as a critical interim response during the F.A.M.E project, following a series of international seminars and presentations, to explore key questions in relation to the notion of ‘good practice’, including whether the championing of such ideals might result in formulaic and repetitive programming which failed to embrace risks by reiterating only tried-and-tested models of practice.
Read more at engage review, Globalisation, Issue 13 – Summer 2003, ISSN 1365-9383
Read more at engage review, Globalisation, Issue 13 – Summer 2003, ISSN 1365-9383
Hey presto
Curated education project with Fine Art undergraduate students
Hey Presto was an innovative new project in partnership with regional universities which aimed to offer support, encouragement and a focus for undergraduate students. Exploring links between magic and art the project brought together the activities of artists & professionals with a selected group of undergraduates to produce new visual responses towards this field of discourse which would later form part of an exhibition at the gallery. Hey Presto conicided with the exhibition, Con Art: Magic/Object/Action, which set out to explore the links between magic and art in contemporary visual arts practice; examining magicians’ and artists’ shared imaginations; and the relationship between the visual arts and strategies of deception/perceptual illusion.
The project was developed to enable students from regional universities to develop ideas and provided the context for further dialogue and discussion. A programme of practical sessions encouraged them to consider and expand upon the approaches and themes of exhibition using the galleries digital and photographic production facilities. Input from specialists supported the theoretical development of the project. Examining the shared languages of art and magic; presentations from curators, artists, theorists and magicians addressed issues including illusion and deception, sleight of hand and special effects. Contributors included performance artist Dr Roland Miller, Forced Entertainment member, Cathy Naden; artists Kyprianou & Hollington; theorist Andy Hubbard; psychology researcher, Dr John Frisby and Dr Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive
Hey presto was the 2nd stage of development project work with undergraduates at Site Gallery. The gallery had already undertaken a small scale pilot project in the previous year called quark antiquark which aimed to explore the links between visual art and scientific practice. Feedback from both projects has suggested that this model is successful in engaging real dialogue between the gallery and a student audience:
"The opportunity for collaboration has challenged and diversified both my studio practice and theory, essentially extending the possibilities of communication outside the context of the studio space...The possibility to engage with materials and technologies both familiar and new, has opened up opportunities for experimentation".
"It was good to be involved in making new work outside of my studio practice, not only to have a break and some reflection time from ongoing work, but to have the challenge of new ideas and a deadline to work to".
Hey Presto was an innovative new project in partnership with regional universities which aimed to offer support, encouragement and a focus for undergraduate students. Exploring links between magic and art the project brought together the activities of artists & professionals with a selected group of undergraduates to produce new visual responses towards this field of discourse which would later form part of an exhibition at the gallery. Hey Presto conicided with the exhibition, Con Art: Magic/Object/Action, which set out to explore the links between magic and art in contemporary visual arts practice; examining magicians’ and artists’ shared imaginations; and the relationship between the visual arts and strategies of deception/perceptual illusion.
The project was developed to enable students from regional universities to develop ideas and provided the context for further dialogue and discussion. A programme of practical sessions encouraged them to consider and expand upon the approaches and themes of exhibition using the galleries digital and photographic production facilities. Input from specialists supported the theoretical development of the project. Examining the shared languages of art and magic; presentations from curators, artists, theorists and magicians addressed issues including illusion and deception, sleight of hand and special effects. Contributors included performance artist Dr Roland Miller, Forced Entertainment member, Cathy Naden; artists Kyprianou & Hollington; theorist Andy Hubbard; psychology researcher, Dr John Frisby and Dr Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive
Hey presto was the 2nd stage of development project work with undergraduates at Site Gallery. The gallery had already undertaken a small scale pilot project in the previous year called quark antiquark which aimed to explore the links between visual art and scientific practice. Feedback from both projects has suggested that this model is successful in engaging real dialogue between the gallery and a student audience:
"The opportunity for collaboration has challenged and diversified both my studio practice and theory, essentially extending the possibilities of communication outside the context of the studio space...The possibility to engage with materials and technologies both familiar and new, has opened up opportunities for experimentation".
"It was good to be involved in making new work outside of my studio practice, not only to have a break and some reflection time from ongoing work, but to have the challenge of new ideas and a deadline to work to".
Con Art: Talks & Tricks
Curated One Day Conference
16 Feb 2002
Extending the debate around magic and art’s shared imaginations and strategies, the conference explored ideas of illusion and deception; examining the notion that art can be interpreted as a hi-brow confidence trick, in which a willing audience is deceived by artists who confer value onto hollow objects. Embracing historical and contemporary perspectives the event included presentations by the following artists, theorists and magicians: Jonathan Allen (in conversation with Paul Kieve), Marisa Carnesky, Professor Edwin A Dawes, Dr Mervyn Heard, and Fay Presto and will be chaired by Susan Hiller.
Presentation Abstracts Summaries
Jonathan Allen & Paul Kieve debated the shared imagination of the magician and the artist; discussing their paths to magic, and both the meeting points and diversions in their creative processes. Mapping the relationship between art and magic their conversation highlighted the shared languages and strategies of these practices.
Edwin A. Dawes examined the spectral stage manifestation with reference to the Artist’s Dream Illusion playlet by David Devant, which is the inspiration behind Jonathan Allen’s new work Device and Illusion. The presentation examined the cultural context and technical development of the stage manifestation using Devant’s version and other examples of Pepper’s Ghost illusions.
Dr Mervyn Heard's presentation, The Mirror of Ink, explored auto-suggestion and the visual image by examining how the impact of an illusion or visual 'show' lies not so much in the quality of technical expertise employed, but the ability of the magician, artist or film maker to manipulate the spectator’s imagination by subterfuge or other subtle means. Exploring ideas around auto-suggestion, disorientation, and misdirection- the presentation examined how the magician deploys such strategies to produce great phenomena from simple visual sparks - or even from nothing at all. For "Seeing what is not there lies at the foundation of all human culture" -Tuam, Yi-Fu
Fay Presto performed an illustrated presentation (with tricks) on perceptions of magic and close-up conjuring, examining the role of the performer and concepts of stage-craft and illusion
Marisa Carnesky extended the debate around magic and performance with reference to recent Live Art projects which merge art and magic. Using her own practice as a starting point, Carnesky examined the work of other Live artists who have fused the traditions of magic and illusion, performance and new technology within their practice. This included footage from her work Jewess Tattooess and an exploration of her most recent development project ‘Carnesky’s Ghost Train’, which involves collaboration with an illusionist and combines live art with mirror illusions, video projections, smoke and fire tricks. Carnesky also referenced the work of other live artists who incorporate a mixture of magic illusion, new media, showmanship and real actions.
16 Feb 2002
Extending the debate around magic and art’s shared imaginations and strategies, the conference explored ideas of illusion and deception; examining the notion that art can be interpreted as a hi-brow confidence trick, in which a willing audience is deceived by artists who confer value onto hollow objects. Embracing historical and contemporary perspectives the event included presentations by the following artists, theorists and magicians: Jonathan Allen (in conversation with Paul Kieve), Marisa Carnesky, Professor Edwin A Dawes, Dr Mervyn Heard, and Fay Presto and will be chaired by Susan Hiller.
Presentation Abstracts Summaries
Jonathan Allen & Paul Kieve debated the shared imagination of the magician and the artist; discussing their paths to magic, and both the meeting points and diversions in their creative processes. Mapping the relationship between art and magic their conversation highlighted the shared languages and strategies of these practices.
Edwin A. Dawes examined the spectral stage manifestation with reference to the Artist’s Dream Illusion playlet by David Devant, which is the inspiration behind Jonathan Allen’s new work Device and Illusion. The presentation examined the cultural context and technical development of the stage manifestation using Devant’s version and other examples of Pepper’s Ghost illusions.
Dr Mervyn Heard's presentation, The Mirror of Ink, explored auto-suggestion and the visual image by examining how the impact of an illusion or visual 'show' lies not so much in the quality of technical expertise employed, but the ability of the magician, artist or film maker to manipulate the spectator’s imagination by subterfuge or other subtle means. Exploring ideas around auto-suggestion, disorientation, and misdirection- the presentation examined how the magician deploys such strategies to produce great phenomena from simple visual sparks - or even from nothing at all. For "Seeing what is not there lies at the foundation of all human culture" -Tuam, Yi-Fu
Fay Presto performed an illustrated presentation (with tricks) on perceptions of magic and close-up conjuring, examining the role of the performer and concepts of stage-craft and illusion
Marisa Carnesky extended the debate around magic and performance with reference to recent Live Art projects which merge art and magic. Using her own practice as a starting point, Carnesky examined the work of other Live artists who have fused the traditions of magic and illusion, performance and new technology within their practice. This included footage from her work Jewess Tattooess and an exploration of her most recent development project ‘Carnesky’s Ghost Train’, which involves collaboration with an illusionist and combines live art with mirror illusions, video projections, smoke and fire tricks. Carnesky also referenced the work of other live artists who incorporate a mixture of magic illusion, new media, showmanship and real actions.
Imaginary Borders
Curated education project with young people
Imaginary Borders/Shared Spaces was an exciting new digital arts project which took place over Saturday 12, Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 Oct 2002. The project was linked to the exhibition, Imaginary Balkans at Site Gallery; a ground breaking group show of work by Serbian and Croatian artists.
Imaginary Balkans is a ground-breaking exhibition curated by award-winning artist Breda Beban, bringing together Serbian and Croatian artists. The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the book Imagining the Balkans by Maria Todorova which traces the relationship between the reality and the in fiction of the Balkans. It refers to a space where certainty has collapsed; the notion of the centre has been displaced; and where the process of defining borders has been deemed an aggressive or exclusive act. The exhibition represents an intimate search to reclaim abandoned places and previous identities; and a desire for a re-imagined space after a period of unrest. “It is an attempt at reopening and reworking the plot to find somewhere else to go from” Many of the works in Imaginary Balkans focus not on the larger political situation, but on a return to simple things -objects and activities, ritual and processes- that relate to the everyday and to the individual experience in relation to recent ‘history’.
Taking up some of the themes of the exhibition, the project set out to explore the idea of borderlands, pathways and the city through the shared activity of mapping, navigtion and conversation between young people in the Britain and the Balkans (Sheffield, UK; Dubrovnik, Croatia and Tuzla, Bosnia & Herzegovina).
Over the two weekends a group of young people will work alongside artists Edina Husanovic and Mitra Memarzia to learn new creative skills and to explore the city through maps, walks, digital imagery, text and discussion. Walking and mapping Imaginary Borders explores the potential of mapping and walking as a way of experiencing geographical spaces and the city. Examining the practices of contemporary artists using this as the conceptual root of their practice, the project will involve 3 groups of young people engaging in a series of walks and actions. These 'events' will be determined through discussion and dialogue between the centres and will combine personal pathways, prescribed routes and simultaneous actions. Using maps of the cities as a starting point the group developed plans for a walk based on areas that they considered to have a significance within the city, and undertook as set of walking activities. Similar activities took place simultaneously in Dubrovnik and Tuzla. Connecting online with young people in the Balkans; ideas of communication and distance, unknown territory, short cuts and personal stories of the city space will be exchanged.
The three day project on 12th, 19th and 20th of October 2002 comprised of series of presentations and practical workshops. The programme was designed to introduce a group of young people to new creative and conceptual languages of exploration of the city space through maps, walks, digital imagery, and discussion. The conceptual basis of the workshops relied on the ideas of communication and distance, unknown territory, short cuts and personal stories of the city space. The practical side consisted of the workshops in photography, image manipulation , on-line chatrooms as well as drawing and writing.
The resulting images were displayed as a video piece on the projection window at Site Gallery on 28 February, 1 and 2 March.
quark antiquark
Curated education project with Fine Art undergraduate students which explored the link between art and particle physics
“The project set up a really interesting visual platform. The students have all got a lot out of it and the knock on effect in the studio has been really beneficial. Is this a platform for future collaborations?” Duncan Higgins, Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University
“quark antiquark was an extremely useful project for the students to take part in, providing an interesting and relevant focus both in terms of creative work and professional practice. It has also offered an added dimension to the culture with the Fine Art Studio” Penny McCarthy, Lecturer at University of Hull
quark antiquark aimed to draw together the activities of the visual arts and those involved in particle physics. The aim was to produce a visual response to this area of scientific practice. Scientific practice would seem intent on finding answers or establishing ‘truths’. Yet its enquiry is rooted in concepts that are abstract, inconceivable: communicated through languages that are obtuse and obscure; scripted as though in code. Art, it could be argued, shares some of these agendas and tendencies: posing questions in the abstract, offering answers that are drafted in languages often peculiar to the visual arts or responses only in the form of further visual enquiry. quark-antiquark involved undergraduate visual arts students from Derby, Hull, Nottingham Trent, and Sheffield Hallam Universities who worked to produce new visual artwork for exhibition on the projection window at Site Gallery (April 2001) and at Jodrell Bank Science Centre (Summer 2001).
Over a 3 month period there were a series of presentations and discussions led by artists as well as scientists, and practical sessions where visual artists introduced aspects of the work and some of the processes, techniques and approaches that were integral to their practice. Artists involved in the project at Site Gallery included Luke Jerram, Tracey Holland, Penny McCarthy and James Pyman. Students had the opportunity to discuss and research into the motivations, methods and models of particle physics. They also had access to Site Gallery’s professional quality digital and photographic facilities throughout to develop individual visual work in response to the project.
The way that the project could be developed was open. Some students approached the project through a visual examination of some of the questions posed through particle physics; others focused upon the exploration, exploitation, appropriation of those models, languages, structures and systems; a visual deconstruction of the seemingly impenetrable codes and concepts of this field of scientific practice. The images that were produced during the project were presented as a collaborative piece, but also reflected a diverse range of responses to the notion of particle physics and to this field of scientific discourse. Touching on issues of memory, perception, the natural world, and notions truth and beauty; the work produced reflected both the diversity and complexity of the concepts and ideas explored during the project.
Reality shifts
Curated education project
Reality Shifts was an exciting photography project based around the exhibition by Anneè Olofsson at Site Gallery. In her work at Site, Anneè Olofsson presented images from a zone between sleeping and waking where reality is somehow twisted to reveal its darker under side. In this world the boundaries between fact and fiction are blurred and nothing is what it at first seems. Strange characters play out odd stories, familiar objects trans form into absurd shapes and mysterious situations unfold.
Over 3 days a group of young people worked with photographer, Imogen Powell to explore the exhibition and create their own responses to it using the gallery’s high quality studio and camera equipment. Drawing on the work’s reference to film and cinema, as well as its connections to other contemporary art; they worked together to create a series of images which were shown on the projection window at the gallery.
Exploring themes such as dreams, disguise, concealment, portraiture, and performance; the group learnt how to use different lighting techniques, studio approaches; and cameras; as well as a range of printing processes. The resulting images transformed Sheffield’s streets into the locations for bizarre cat-and-mouse chases; Film Noir antics and mysterious rendezvous.
Reality Shifts was an exciting photography project based around the exhibition by Anneè Olofsson at Site Gallery. In her work at Site, Anneè Olofsson presented images from a zone between sleeping and waking where reality is somehow twisted to reveal its darker under side. In this world the boundaries between fact and fiction are blurred and nothing is what it at first seems. Strange characters play out odd stories, familiar objects trans form into absurd shapes and mysterious situations unfold.
Over 3 days a group of young people worked with photographer, Imogen Powell to explore the exhibition and create their own responses to it using the gallery’s high quality studio and camera equipment. Drawing on the work’s reference to film and cinema, as well as its connections to other contemporary art; they worked together to create a series of images which were shown on the projection window at the gallery.
Exploring themes such as dreams, disguise, concealment, portraiture, and performance; the group learnt how to use different lighting techniques, studio approaches; and cameras; as well as a range of printing processes. The resulting images transformed Sheffield’s streets into the locations for bizarre cat-and-mouse chases; Film Noir antics and mysterious rendezvous.
Families of Steel
Curated education project
Site Gallery, Sheffield
Families of Steel was a collaboration between Site Gallery and the Magna Millennium Project which brought together school groups and members of the steel working communities, with photographers Jane Sebire and Clive Egginton, to produce a series of portraits of steelworkers and their families. The aim of the project was to give young people the opportunity to find out more about their local heritage and to encourage individuals from the Steel Industries to play a part in recording their own histories for future generations.
Photographs produced during the project formed part of an exhibition at Site Gallery, and a large scale public siting in which the images were displayed on massive billboard hoardings throughout Sheffield and Rotherham during May 2000.
4 schools from Sheffield and Rotherham took part in a series of workshops at Site Gallery and at Magna. The aim of the workshops was to encourage these young people to begin to think about their local heritage and about the process of recording history. They were given the opportunity to work with professional photographers and were introduced to portraiture through practical workshops using large format camera equipment and through reference to other photographers working in this area.
The actual portraits of the steel workers (seen in the exhibition and on the poster sites) were taken by the the young people from the schools on location at the old Templeborough Steel works in the heart of the regions Steel making community. There was plenty of opportunity for the steelworkers and their families to share their stories and for the school groups to ask questions about life in the steel industry. This process of discussion and conversation between the steelworkers and the school groups had a massive impact on the way in which the young people perceived local heritage and history, opening it up out of the archives and enabling it to be seen as a living process. It also enabled the steelworkers themselves to play a key role in telling their own histories, ensuring that their industry, their lives would continue to be made visible to younger generations in the future.
Site Gallery, Sheffield
Families of Steel was a collaboration between Site Gallery and the Magna Millennium Project which brought together school groups and members of the steel working communities, with photographers Jane Sebire and Clive Egginton, to produce a series of portraits of steelworkers and their families. The aim of the project was to give young people the opportunity to find out more about their local heritage and to encourage individuals from the Steel Industries to play a part in recording their own histories for future generations.
Photographs produced during the project formed part of an exhibition at Site Gallery, and a large scale public siting in which the images were displayed on massive billboard hoardings throughout Sheffield and Rotherham during May 2000.
4 schools from Sheffield and Rotherham took part in a series of workshops at Site Gallery and at Magna. The aim of the workshops was to encourage these young people to begin to think about their local heritage and about the process of recording history. They were given the opportunity to work with professional photographers and were introduced to portraiture through practical workshops using large format camera equipment and through reference to other photographers working in this area.
The actual portraits of the steel workers (seen in the exhibition and on the poster sites) were taken by the the young people from the schools on location at the old Templeborough Steel works in the heart of the regions Steel making community. There was plenty of opportunity for the steelworkers and their families to share their stories and for the school groups to ask questions about life in the steel industry. This process of discussion and conversation between the steelworkers and the school groups had a massive impact on the way in which the young people perceived local heritage and history, opening it up out of the archives and enabling it to be seen as a living process. It also enabled the steelworkers themselves to play a key role in telling their own histories, ensuring that their industry, their lives would continue to be made visible to younger generations in the future.
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