I am passionate about thinking through the arts as an artist, critic and arts educator. Based in Cambridge, I completed my PhD as a Foundation Scholar in French Philosophy, at Jesus College. I was the founder and co-organiser/curator of the trans-disciplinary Making Sense colloquia and co-editor of the series of Making Sense books. I am the author of 'Making Sense: Transformative Therapeutics' and the co-editor of 'Deleuze and the Schizoanalysis of Visual Art'. My art writing and publishing has appeared and been disseminated in various genre and media: criticism, literature, poetry, journalism; in newspapers, magazines, radio, web, blog, conferences and colloquia. My main focus is thinking through doing, research through practice, arts based research. I think through my fingers and 'make sense' of my existence through participating with my own art practice. This is what I wrote about in my PhD thesis and it provides the focus, methodology and source for my intellectual, competitive and aesthetic enquiry.
Making Sense utilises art practice as a pro-active way of thinking that helps us to make sense of... more Making Sense utilises art practice as a pro-active way of thinking that helps us to make sense of the world. It does this by developing an applied understanding of how we can use art as a method of healing and as a critical method of research. Drawing from poststructuralist philosophy, psychoanalysis, arts therapies, and the creative processes of a range of contemporary artists, the book appeals to the fields of art theory, the arts therapies, aesthetics and art practice, whilst it opens the regenerative affects of art-making to everyone. It does this by proposing the agency of ‘transformative therapeutics’, which defines how art helps us to make sense of the world, by activating, nourishing and understanding a particular world view or situation therein. The purpose of the book is to question and understand how and why art has this facility and power, and make the creative and healing properties of certain modes of expression widely accessible, practical and useful. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/making-sense-9781472573186#sthash.bp1wfgoo.dpuf
This book creates assemblages of theory and practice, between thinking and creating, where art pr... more This book creates assemblages of theory and practice, between thinking and creating, where art practice is seen as itself a form of schizoanalysis. The purpose of this volume of texts is not only to explicate and apply schizoanalysis, but also to question its place in Deleuze and Guattari's thought and think how it relates to other parts of their thinking, by using art as the motor of criticism. Chapters are directly influenced by a continuing engagement with Deleuzean theory, where the aim is to not just interpret but to 'use' the theory. The following scholarship thus creates 'assemblages' of theory and practice in a way that provide a radical freedom of expression, by applying and activating the insights provided by a schizoanalysis of the visual arts. As a consequence, with our aesthetic consideration and application of schizoanalysis we are collectively bringing into being a new methodology or a different way of looking at things which will help to create a new paradigm of work in the field.
Ian Buchanan is Director of the Institute for Social Transformation Research, Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, Australia. He is the author of Deleuzism (2000) and the editor of Deleuze Studies.
Lorna Collins is an artist, critic and arts educator based in Cambridge, where she completed her PhD as a Foundation Scholar in French Philosophy, at Jesus College. She was the founder and co-organiser/curator of the trans-disciplinary Making Sense colloquia and co-editor of the series of Making Sense books. Her provocative practice as an artist (in paint, film, installation and performance) drives the motor that lies behind all her existential and epistemological (philosophical) enquiries.
This book is a collection of essays and creative expressions, written and produced in response to... more This book is a collection of essays and creative expressions, written and produced in response to the second Making Sense colloquium, which was held in 2010 at the Centre Pompidou and the Institut Télécom in Paris. The contributions to the volume represent the ongoing aim of Making Sense: providing a voice that is at once theoretical and practical, scholarly and inclusive, a bridge between modes of thinking and modes of doing, especially within the contemporary context. The book draws together thinkers and practitioners engaged in the worlds of art, aesthetic philosophy and contemporary theory, to form an interface between artistic creation, theoretical debate and academic scholarship. Critical essays sit alongside images and articles that present shorter bursts of ideas and generate a sense of the installations and performances in which they originated. Several chapters focus on the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, the keynote speaker at the second Making Sense colloquium, whose contributions to this volume outline his own interpretation of Making Sense.
This volume of texts and images has evolved from papers given at the inaugural Making Sense collo... more This volume of texts and images has evolved from papers given at the inaugural Making Sense colloquium, which was held at the University of Cambridge in September 2009. The chapters collected here reflect the multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary sense made at this event, which became something of an artistic installation in itself. The essay 'Making Sense' by Jean-Luc Nancy provided the grand finale for the colloquium and is also the culmination of the volume. The collection also includes articles that expound and critique Nancean theory, as well as those that provide challenging manifestos or question the divide between artist and artisan. The volume contrasts works that use texts to make sense of the world with performance pieces that question the sense of theory and seek to make sense through craft, plastic art or painting. By juxtaposing works of pure theory with pieces that incorporate poetry, prose and performance, the book presents the reader with a distillation of the creative act.
This essay builds an argument that leads towards an understanding of the paradox of touch. When t... more This essay builds an argument that leads towards an understanding of the paradox of touch. When the immediacy of a tactile sensation and—its logical contrary—the mediated or metaphorical connotations of a ‘touching’ experience, are juxtaposed, we arrive at a paradox, which I expose in relation to the aesthetic encounter. I do this by examining my experiences of the works and process of Cuban performance artist Ana Mendieta, and Ståhl Stenslie’s employment of haptic technologies. Engaging with these very different artists enables me to open a multi-dimensional discussion about touch. To elaborate this discussion, I draw together several key ideas: the haptic sense in the aesthetic experience, haptics, empathy, aura and synaesthesia. Juxtaposing these ideas, and applying them to my chosen artists, demonstrates the value of considering the paradox of touch. It does so because my expansion of this theme reveals how touch signifies our mimetic capacity—as humans—to empathise, to be affected, to react and repeat. A key consequence of the paradox of touch is its facility to redistribute binary logic, whereby two opposing or contradictory notions can be realigned to co-exist and, potentially, cooperate. I argue that this ethical transition evolves from the haptic aesthetic experience. Thus my original intent to juxtapose Mendieta and Stenslie develops into a larger conversation about the role that touch has to play in this aesthetic experience. My application of the paradox of touch then begins to demonstrate how we co-exist in the world, with other people.
This essay consists of three parts: the first argues that Deleuze's moral philosophy in The Logic... more This essay consists of three parts: the first argues that Deleuze's moral philosophy in The Logic of Sense provides an ethical model of counter-actualisation; the second shows how three different practices of art therapy offer a means to effect this counter-actualisation and thereby demonstrate the restorative power of art; the third explores how such a power might form part of what Guattari calls the ‘ethico-aesthetic paradigm’ (Guattari 1995).
Making Sense utilises art practice as a pro-active way of thinking that helps us to make sense of... more Making Sense utilises art practice as a pro-active way of thinking that helps us to make sense of the world. It does this by developing an applied understanding of how we can use art as a method of healing and as a critical method of research. Drawing from poststructuralist philosophy, psychoanalysis, arts therapies, and the creative processes of a range of contemporary artists, the book appeals to the fields of art theory, the arts therapies, aesthetics and art practice, whilst it opens the regenerative affects of art-making to everyone. It does this by proposing the agency of ‘transformative therapeutics’, which defines how art helps us to make sense of the world, by activating, nourishing and understanding a particular world view or situation therein. The purpose of the book is to question and understand how and why art has this facility and power, and make the creative and healing properties of certain modes of expression widely accessible, practical and useful. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/making-sense-9781472573186#sthash.bp1wfgoo.dpuf
This book creates assemblages of theory and practice, between thinking and creating, where art pr... more This book creates assemblages of theory and practice, between thinking and creating, where art practice is seen as itself a form of schizoanalysis. The purpose of this volume of texts is not only to explicate and apply schizoanalysis, but also to question its place in Deleuze and Guattari's thought and think how it relates to other parts of their thinking, by using art as the motor of criticism. Chapters are directly influenced by a continuing engagement with Deleuzean theory, where the aim is to not just interpret but to 'use' the theory. The following scholarship thus creates 'assemblages' of theory and practice in a way that provide a radical freedom of expression, by applying and activating the insights provided by a schizoanalysis of the visual arts. As a consequence, with our aesthetic consideration and application of schizoanalysis we are collectively bringing into being a new methodology or a different way of looking at things which will help to create a new paradigm of work in the field.
Ian Buchanan is Director of the Institute for Social Transformation Research, Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, Australia. He is the author of Deleuzism (2000) and the editor of Deleuze Studies.
Lorna Collins is an artist, critic and arts educator based in Cambridge, where she completed her PhD as a Foundation Scholar in French Philosophy, at Jesus College. She was the founder and co-organiser/curator of the trans-disciplinary Making Sense colloquia and co-editor of the series of Making Sense books. Her provocative practice as an artist (in paint, film, installation and performance) drives the motor that lies behind all her existential and epistemological (philosophical) enquiries.
This book is a collection of essays and creative expressions, written and produced in response to... more This book is a collection of essays and creative expressions, written and produced in response to the second Making Sense colloquium, which was held in 2010 at the Centre Pompidou and the Institut Télécom in Paris. The contributions to the volume represent the ongoing aim of Making Sense: providing a voice that is at once theoretical and practical, scholarly and inclusive, a bridge between modes of thinking and modes of doing, especially within the contemporary context. The book draws together thinkers and practitioners engaged in the worlds of art, aesthetic philosophy and contemporary theory, to form an interface between artistic creation, theoretical debate and academic scholarship. Critical essays sit alongside images and articles that present shorter bursts of ideas and generate a sense of the installations and performances in which they originated. Several chapters focus on the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, the keynote speaker at the second Making Sense colloquium, whose contributions to this volume outline his own interpretation of Making Sense.
This volume of texts and images has evolved from papers given at the inaugural Making Sense collo... more This volume of texts and images has evolved from papers given at the inaugural Making Sense colloquium, which was held at the University of Cambridge in September 2009. The chapters collected here reflect the multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary sense made at this event, which became something of an artistic installation in itself. The essay 'Making Sense' by Jean-Luc Nancy provided the grand finale for the colloquium and is also the culmination of the volume. The collection also includes articles that expound and critique Nancean theory, as well as those that provide challenging manifestos or question the divide between artist and artisan. The volume contrasts works that use texts to make sense of the world with performance pieces that question the sense of theory and seek to make sense through craft, plastic art or painting. By juxtaposing works of pure theory with pieces that incorporate poetry, prose and performance, the book presents the reader with a distillation of the creative act.
This essay builds an argument that leads towards an understanding of the paradox of touch. When t... more This essay builds an argument that leads towards an understanding of the paradox of touch. When the immediacy of a tactile sensation and—its logical contrary—the mediated or metaphorical connotations of a ‘touching’ experience, are juxtaposed, we arrive at a paradox, which I expose in relation to the aesthetic encounter. I do this by examining my experiences of the works and process of Cuban performance artist Ana Mendieta, and Ståhl Stenslie’s employment of haptic technologies. Engaging with these very different artists enables me to open a multi-dimensional discussion about touch. To elaborate this discussion, I draw together several key ideas: the haptic sense in the aesthetic experience, haptics, empathy, aura and synaesthesia. Juxtaposing these ideas, and applying them to my chosen artists, demonstrates the value of considering the paradox of touch. It does so because my expansion of this theme reveals how touch signifies our mimetic capacity—as humans—to empathise, to be affected, to react and repeat. A key consequence of the paradox of touch is its facility to redistribute binary logic, whereby two opposing or contradictory notions can be realigned to co-exist and, potentially, cooperate. I argue that this ethical transition evolves from the haptic aesthetic experience. Thus my original intent to juxtapose Mendieta and Stenslie develops into a larger conversation about the role that touch has to play in this aesthetic experience. My application of the paradox of touch then begins to demonstrate how we co-exist in the world, with other people.
This essay consists of three parts: the first argues that Deleuze's moral philosophy in The Logic... more This essay consists of three parts: the first argues that Deleuze's moral philosophy in The Logic of Sense provides an ethical model of counter-actualisation; the second shows how three different practices of art therapy offer a means to effect this counter-actualisation and thereby demonstrate the restorative power of art; the third explores how such a power might form part of what Guattari calls the ‘ethico-aesthetic paradigm’ (Guattari 1995).
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Books by Lorna Collins
Ian Buchanan is Director of the Institute for Social Transformation Research, Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, Australia. He is the author of Deleuzism (2000) and the editor of Deleuze Studies.
Lorna Collins is an artist, critic and arts educator based in Cambridge, where she completed her PhD as a Foundation Scholar in French Philosophy, at Jesus College. She was the founder and co-organiser/curator of the trans-disciplinary Making Sense colloquia and co-editor of the series of Making Sense books. Her provocative practice as an artist (in paint, film, installation and performance) drives the motor that lies behind all her existential and epistemological (philosophical) enquiries.
Papers by Lorna Collins
Ian Buchanan is Director of the Institute for Social Transformation Research, Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, Australia. He is the author of Deleuzism (2000) and the editor of Deleuze Studies.
Lorna Collins is an artist, critic and arts educator based in Cambridge, where she completed her PhD as a Foundation Scholar in French Philosophy, at Jesus College. She was the founder and co-organiser/curator of the trans-disciplinary Making Sense colloquia and co-editor of the series of Making Sense books. Her provocative practice as an artist (in paint, film, installation and performance) drives the motor that lies behind all her existential and epistemological (philosophical) enquiries.