Abstract: For young workers, interning is a strategy for speculating on one’s asset portfolio. Students and graduates undertake internships as a way of maintaining their self-appreciation and avoiding depreciation in a “human capital... more
Abstract: For young workers, interning is a strategy for speculating on one’s asset portfolio. Students and graduates undertake internships as a way of maintaining their self-appreciation and avoiding depreciation in a “human capital regime. ” In this article, we explore the specific example of interning in the creative industries as the self-management of human capital vis-à-vis the human capital theses. Taking three cultural objects and recent representations of the issue of unpaid internships—Intern magazine, an advert for a “volunteering opportunity ” student placement, and testimonies from interns—we analyze how unpaid work in the creative industries and the neoliberal version of human capital entrepreneurship can be seen as embodied by interns.
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In this chapter Emily Druiff (Peckham Platform) and Sophie Hope (Birkbeck, University of London) respond to a set of questions about their collaborative work on the Social Art Map, supported by Creativeworks London. The pair reflect on... more
In this chapter Emily Druiff (Peckham Platform) and Sophie Hope (Birkbeck, University of London) respond to a set of questions about their collaborative work on the Social Art Map, supported by Creativeworks London. The pair reflect on their motives for collaborating, their experiences of the process and challenges it raised for them as a commissioner and director of an arts organization and a researcher in a university. As an example of “creative collaboration” they also explore the meaning and relevance of bridging the gap between research and practice in a political context, which promotes the “creative economy.”
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The commonality between the panel leaders lies in our use of participatory art methods to explore particular contexts (e.g. hospitals, public galleries, call centres, local authorities) in order to explore the material processes and... more
The commonality between the panel leaders lies in our use of participatory art methods to explore particular contexts (e.g. hospitals, public galleries, call centres, local authorities) in order to explore the material processes and conditions of these places with the people who work in them. Hope will present Manual Labours: Building as Body taking Nottingham Contemporary as a case study, Schrag will present Fight Club: Physicality and Office Workers within Glasgow City Council and Shaw will present Hiding in Plain Sight: Moving between Care and Research at Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery. 34 We propose a panel in which we will each present our methodologies, making use of the metaphor of the digestive system to find out what is being ingested, masticated and digested, and by whom, and what is being excreted at the end of our research processes. We are interested in exploring the processes of exchange, interaction and co-production in the process of investigati...
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Book synopsis: Drawing on contributions from practicing artists, writers, curators and academics, Searching for Art’s New Publics explores the ways in which artists seek to involve, create and engage with new and diverse audiences: from... more
Book synopsis: Drawing on contributions from practicing artists, writers, curators and academics, Searching for Art’s New Publics explores the ways in which artists seek to involve, create and engage with new and diverse audiences: from passers-by encountering and participating in the work unexpectedly, to professionals from other disciplines and members of particular communities who bring their own agendas to the work. Bridging the gap between practice and theory, this exciting book touches on issues of relational aesthetics, but also offers an illustrated artist-based approach. Searching for Art’s New Publics will appeal to students studying fine art (especially those with an interest in cross-disciplinary work and public art) and those studying curating.
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Book synopsis: Contemporary visual culture, art, theory and criticism shifted after the end of the Cold War, so that cultural production in both the East and the West underwent radical new challenges. Art and Theory After Socialism... more
Book synopsis: Contemporary visual culture, art, theory and criticism shifted after the end of the Cold War, so that cultural production in both the East and the West underwent radical new challenges. Art and Theory After Socialism considers the new critical insights that are produced in the collisions of art theory from the ex-East and ex-West. The collected essays assert that dreams promised by consumerism and capitalism have not been delivered in the East, and that the West is not a zone of liberation, increasingly drawn into global conflict as well as media presentation of a high-risk society. Academics, artists and critics focus on specific practices and broader contexts for cultural production, highlighting the work of artists in the former Soviet and East European bloc and in the West. The collection reveals that some practices have not changed, and that in a world of globalized consumption, art and theory are not as liberated as first supposed. New practices are discussed: c...
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- ELECTRONIC SUPERHIGHWAY 2016–1966, THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY, LONDON, 29 JANUARY–15 MAY 2016 - KERRY GUINAN, LIBERATE ART POLITICAL PROGRAMME AND PRESS RELEASE EVENT, TEMPLE BAR GALLERY AND STUDIOS, DUBLIN, 15 FEBRUARY 2016 - TOMORROW WAS... more
- ELECTRONIC SUPERHIGHWAY 2016–1966, THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY, LONDON, 29 JANUARY–15 MAY 2016 - KERRY GUINAN, LIBERATE ART POLITICAL PROGRAMME AND PRESS RELEASE EVENT, TEMPLE BAR GALLERY AND STUDIOS, DUBLIN, 15 FEBRUARY 2016 - TOMORROW WAS A MONTAGE, COOPER GALLERY, DUNCAN OF JORDANSTONE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, 30 OCTOBER– 18 DECEMBER 2015 - DISOBEDIENT OBJECTS, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON, 26 JULY 2014–1 FEBRUARY 2015
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Book synopsis: An in-depth guide to the collaborative projects by a duo of groundbreaking artists, Lucy + Jorge Orta Pattern Book: An Introduction to Collaborative Practices identifies the artists' multilayered methods and the social,... more
Book synopsis: An in-depth guide to the collaborative projects by a duo of groundbreaking artists, Lucy + Jorge Orta Pattern Book: An Introduction to Collaborative Practices identifies the artists' multilayered methods and the social, political and pedagogical impacts of their work over the last 20 years. Lucy + Jorge Orta have used art making as a tool to bring serious humanitarian issues to the forefront. Touching on themes as wide-ranging as community, social inclusion, dwelling, architecture, nomadism, mobility, sustainable development, ecology and recycling, the Ortas have used collaboration and education to produce beautiful objects and situations that look critically at pressing political and social matters. Lucy + Jorge Orta Pattern Book explores projects that the artists have co-produced with community groups in locations as diverse as Johannesburg, Melbourne and Nottingham. With commentary by esteemed writers, thinkers, critics and curators including Sally Tallant, Jan...
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Subplots to a City explores new approaches to art, culture and urban development. In Certain Places, led by curators Charles Quick and Elaine Speight, is a programme of interventions and events that has since its inception in 2003... more
Subplots to a City explores new approaches to art, culture and urban development. In Certain Places, led by curators Charles Quick and Elaine Speight, is a programme of interventions and events that has since its inception in 2003 examined how artists can contribute to the development of a city, in this case Preston in the North West of England. Over the years it has worked with regional, national and international artists - including Jeppe Hein, Becky Shaw, Blast Theory and John Newling - and developed temporary projects, hosted artists' residencies, and throughout organised public talks about art and place.As a case study Subplots to a City provides a useful resource for those interested in place-based art, while also contributing to the critical discourse surrounding such practices. Alongside images, project outlines and reflections from artists, audience members and collaborators, the book includes texts by Speight and Quick, and contributions by specialists from various fie...
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The commonality between the workshop leaders lies in our use of art methods to explore particular contexts (e.g. hospitals, public galleries, call centres, local authorities) in order to explore the material processes and conditions of... more
The commonality between the workshop leaders lies in our use of art methods to explore particular contexts (e.g. hospitals, public galleries, call centres, local authorities) in order to explore the material processes and conditions of these places. Our workshop explores these methodologies by playing with the metaphor of the digestive system to find out what is being ingested, masticated and digested, by whom and what is being excreted at the end of this process? What is the impact of this shit? How is it distributed and made public? Playing with the conference theme of ‘eating’, this workshop extends the metaphor to ask what position the artist-researcher might hold within the digestive system, particularly when the artist-researcher is embedded within a particular organisation or environment in a residency-type situation. This workshop invites participants to explore how they fit within the metabolic system of the specific body/field in which they work, using the metaphor of the ...
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Residency involved working with residents of the Crossfields Estate, Deptford. Results published on a Web site: http://sayingno.org/wp/
WORKSHOP. The commonality between the workshop leaders lies in our use of art methods to explore particular contexts (e.g. hospitals, public galleries, call centres, local authorities) in order to explore the material processes and... more
WORKSHOP. The commonality between the workshop leaders lies in our use of art methods to explore particular contexts (e.g. hospitals, public galleries, call centres, local authorities) in order to explore the material processes and conditions of these places. Our workshop explores these methodologies by playing with the metaphor of the digestive system to find out what is being ingested, masticated and digested, by whom and what is being excreted at the end of this process? What is the impact of this shit? How is it distributed and made public? Playing with the conference theme of ‘eating’, this workshop extends the metaphor to ask what position the artist-researcher might hold within the digestive system, particularly when the artist-researcher is embedded within a particular organisation or environment in a residency-type situation. This workshop invites participants to explore how they fit within the metabolic system of the specific body/field in which they work, using the metaph...
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Research Interests:
Some of the tangled roots of contemporary socially engaged art can be found embedded in the complex histories of community arts in the UK. It is therefore worth recalling the criticisms made by community artists about the implications of... more
Some of the tangled roots of contemporary socially engaged art can be found embedded in the complex histories of community arts in the UK. It is therefore worth recalling the criticisms made by community artists about the implications of their professionalization back in the 1970s and 1980s. In this chapter, I consider contemporary commissioning practices of socially engaged art alongside observations that Su Braden (1978) and Owen Kelly (1984) made about the depoliticization of community arts through ‘grant addiction’ and the dangers of professional artists ‘taking the arts to the people’. I begin by recapping on why community arts by the 1980s was criticized as becoming increasingly professionalized. I then introduce five recent commissions to illustrate the ongoing fluidity and complexities of artists working with others by focusing on the role the ‘aesthetic third’, intersubjectivity and uncertainty play in structured, funded projects. I conclude by reflecting on the implications of professionalization on the form and content of contemporary socially engaged art practices in relation to what went before.
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For young workers, interning is a strategy for speculating on one’s asset portfolio. Students and graduates undertake internships as a way of maintaining their self-appreciation and avoiding depreciation in a “human capital regime.” In... more
For young workers, interning is a strategy for speculating on one’s asset portfolio. Students and graduates undertake internships as a way of maintaining their self-appreciation and avoiding depreciation in a “human capital regime.” In this article, we explore the specific example of interning in the creative industries as the self-management of human capital vis-à-vis the human capital theses. Taking three cultural objects and recent representations of the issue of unpaid internships—Intern magazine, an advert for a “volunteering opportunity” student placement, and testimonies from interns—we analyze how unpaid work in the creative industries and the neoliberal version of human capital entrepreneurship can be seen as embodied by interns.
Research Interests:
In this article, we present our current research into the body and mind at work, with a particular focus on experiences and implications of enjoyment and love of work within the culture sector. This research is developed through the... more
In this article, we present our current research into the body and mind at work, with a particular focus on experiences and implications of enjoyment and love of work within the culture sector. This research is developed through the project Manual Labours that explores the historical conditioning between the body and mind in the so-called immaterial labour conditions. The project aims to identify positive and negative affective labour and the role that physical relationships to work can have in helping conceptualise current working conditions. The enjoyment of work leads to complex differentiations between work and life. This article explores the implications of exploitative labour conditions as self-employed or salaried passionate workers are internalising and developing a sense of ‘un-alienated’ ownership over their wage labour.
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Book synopsis: More on Pest: The three Pest publications are the outcome of a 12-month international research project on how artists can work within alternative spaces by Preston-based artists Rebecca Chesney, Robina Llewellyn and Elaine... more
Book synopsis: More on Pest: The three Pest publications are the outcome of a 12-month international research project on how artists can work within alternative spaces by Preston-based artists Rebecca Chesney, Robina Llewellyn and Elaine Speight. The research took Pest to many artist-led projects throughout the UK as well as Toronto, Budapest, Lille and Amsterdam. The third and final publication deals with artist-led projects initiated in the public realm and includes artwork by Martin Hamblen and text by Sophie Hope and Pest.
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In ‘Participating in the Wrong Way? Four Experiments by Sophie Hope’, Hope documents and reflects on the projects she carried out from 2006-2010 as part of her doctoral research into cultural democracy and the commissioning of art to... more
In ‘Participating in the Wrong Way? Four Experiments by Sophie Hope’, Hope documents and reflects on the projects she carried out from 2006-2010 as part of her doctoral research into cultural democracy and the commissioning of art to effect social change. The four Logbooks explore the complexities of socially engaged art and how participating in the ‘wrong’ way might throw light on the parameters of commissioned art. ‘Het Reservaat’ (Logbook #1) was an experiment in time travel with residents in a Dutch new town. During ‘Critical Friends’ (Logbook #2) a group of participants of public and collaborative art became the critical evaluators of the commissioning process that aimed to engage them. The ‘Performative Interviews’ (Logbook #3) delve deeper into the compromise, censorship and cancellations experienced during commissioned art projects. The final experiment in the series, the ‘FUNding FACTORY’ (Logbook #4) illustrates the culmination of these projects through a collective experience on the cultural production line.
Research Interests: Engineering and Film
Book synopsis: Emotional Cartography is a collection of essays from artists, designers, psychogeographers, cultural researchers, futurologists and neuroscientists, brought together by Christian Nold, to explore the political, social and... more
Book synopsis: Emotional Cartography is a collection of essays from artists, designers, psychogeographers, cultural researchers, futurologists and neuroscientists, brought together by Christian Nold, to explore the political, social and cultural implications of visualising intimate biometric data and emotional experiences using technology.
Research Interests: Psychology and Film
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Abstract: For young workers, interning is a strategy for speculating on one’s asset portfolio. Students and graduates undertake internships as a way of maintaining their self-appreciation and avoiding depreciation in a “human capital... more
Abstract: For young workers, interning is a strategy for speculating on one’s asset portfolio. Students and graduates undertake internships as a way of maintaining their self-appreciation and avoiding depreciation in a “human capital regime.” In this article, we explore the specific example of interning in the creative industries as the self-management of human capital vis-à-vis the human capital theses. Taking three cultural objects and recent representations of the issue of unpaid internships—Intern magazine, an advert for a “volunteering opportunity” student placement, and testimonies from interns—we analyze how unpaid work in the creative industries and the neoliberal version of human capital entrepreneurship can be seen as embodied by interns. Keywords: internships, labour, unpaid work, social capital, human capital, self-management
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Where do we situate the Balkans? The question might seem to refer to geography but each definition has political, ideological and social impli-cations that are much more extended and perplexing. The analysis of the meaning that the... more
Where do we situate the Balkans? The question might seem to refer to geography but each definition has political, ideological and social impli-cations that are much more extended and perplexing. The analysis of the meaning that the Balkans bears in contemporary art ...
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In this article, we present our current research into the body and mind at work, with a particular focus on experiences and implications of enjoyment and love of work within the culture sector. This research is developed through the... more
In this article, we present our current research into the body and mind at work, with a particular focus on experiences and implications of enjoyment and love of work within the culture sector. This research is developed through the project Manual Labours that explores the historical conditioning between the body and mind in the so-called immaterial labour conditions. The project aims to identify positive and negative affective labour and the role that physical relationships to work can have in helping conceptualise current working conditions. The enjoyment of work leads to complex differentiations between work and life. This article explores the implications of exploitative labour conditions as self-employed or salaried passionate workers are internalising and developing a sense of ‘un-alienated’ ownership over their wage labour.
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A visual timeline of significant contributions to Socially Engaged Practices. "All histories are subjective. We cannot hope to fully capture the timeline of socially engaged artworks over the past half- millennium, but we can present... more
A visual timeline of significant contributions to Socially Engaged Practices. "All histories are subjective. We cannot hope to fully capture the timeline of socially engaged artworks over the past half- millennium, but we can present a highly subjective one that acts as a starting point for inquiry. In the spirit of the collaborative underpinnings of ‘new genre public art’ we present selected, intertwined histories chosen by five individuals. These individuals operate from diverse locations within the eld, and their selections reflect varied interests -- from activist to aesthetic, from historical to happenings. While the legacies of socially engaged art stretch back much further, the boundaries for this timeline are 1950 - 2015 to allow for a relatively focused chronology of an already complex and expansive topography"
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Socially engaged art has, for some, become a professionalised, freelance funded form of labour. It is work that involves emotional labour, empathy and compassion, demonstrated by the trust that is often needed between (paid) artists and... more
Socially engaged art has, for some, become a professionalised, freelance funded form of labour. It is work that involves emotional labour, empathy and compassion, demonstrated by the trust that is often needed between (paid) artists and (unpaid) participants in order for projects to develop. In order to preserve the already precarious funding of this industry there is a tendency to promote the positive and successful aspects of these projects. This article explores how the imperative to present the work in a positive light has led to a culture of silence and individualised absorption of failure when things start to go wrong. Through a re-examination of a series of Performative Interviews, the article reflects on this playful method for speaking out about unfinished, cancelled or compromised socially engaged art jobs. In doing so, the theatrical frameworks of both the socially engaged art job and research interview are brought into focus.