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Chalk & Talk

Critical PracticeAs part of Critical Practice I participated in a discussion organised by Department 21 at the Royal College of Art. Six independent, bottom-up educational initiatives shared their experiences of experimenting with different systems of teaching and learning, through radically reassessing accepted modes of knowledge distribution. For the future, we aim to compile a manual of good practice to explore horizontal, transparent educational models within institutions.

Hinterland

I will be participating in the Hinterland Symposium at Broadway in Nottingham. This one day event will question the responsibilities of artists when creating work in the public realm. I will be in conversation with Emily Wilczek and Ian Nesbitt from Annexinema and will present the Social Cinema project.

Other speakers include John Newling, Jonathan Griffin, Latitudes (Max Andrews & Mariana Canepa Luna), S Mark Gubb, Joy Sleeman, Richard Grayson, Wallace Heim and Rebecca Beinart.

Broadway 14 - 18 Broad Street Nottingham NG1 3AL

bookings: Tel. 0115 952 6611 or online www.broadway.org.uk

tickets: £12.50, conc £7 .

download:  programme

the object

I participated in Key Ideas one of a series of events organised by the Design Cluster at Camberwell College of Art Design. The series aims to examine issues and theories important to young designers.

Key Ideas: Object tackled the role of the object in contemporary society through multiple readings introduced by different experts via three themes:

Object as Sign

Object as Capital; the Value of Things

The Narrative of Objects

Guest speakers included: Grant Gibson, Neil Cummings, Stephen Hayward, Ralph Ball, Gareth Williams.

 

I spoke in relation to The Value of Things and tried to shift attention from objects to context; these are the notes for my presentation

New School

Performa09 , the Vera List Center and Parsons present the American premiere of Museum Futures: Distributed at the New School auditorium, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY

Museum Futures: Distributed is a machinima record of the centenary interview with Moderna Museet’s executive Ayan Lindquist in June 2058. It explores a possible genealogy for contemporary art practice and its institutions, by re-imagining the role of artists, museums, galleries, markets, manufactories and academies.

The project was commissioned by Moderna Museet Stockholm, Sweden, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2008.

Wysing

At the Wysing Arts Centre just outside Cambridge, I took part in an all-day workshop for artists and students from the Curatorial Course at the Royal College of Art.

It was organized by Kit Hammonds and included Sarah Thornton, and Francis Outred from Christies.

"The Economics of the Art System will take an in depth look at the art market, exploring the financial and cultural economies that drive the industry. From commercial galleries, collectors and art fairs, to the influence of auction houses this retreat will question the value of art as commodity and the commercial influences on artists' practices, as well as considering survival tactics for artists, curators and gallerists."

Whitechapel Guernica

Guernica WhitechapelDear Neil,

Invitation to join the debate

Among the Whitechapel Gallery’s inaugural exhibitions is a commission by Goshka Macuga. Her installation revolves around an event where Picasso’s original painting, Guernica, was installed at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1939.

Guernica was brought over by the Stepney Trade Union Council who approached the gallery for help with their ambition to fight Fascism and to promote a Communist spirit within the working classes. They wanted to use a painting by ‘a famous Spanish painter’ to help enlist volunteers for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War.

Futures seminar

Afterall Showroom seminar

We had a really interesting and lively seminar organised by Pablo Lafuente and Melissa Gronlund of Afterall and Emily Pethwick of  The Showroom Gallery.

Immersion and violence

Thursday the 19th February, I went to listen to an interview at the Goethe Institute between the filmmaker Harun Farocki and artist Kodwo Eshun. Harun screened a rough-cut of a work-in-progress entitled Immersion. Immersion is based on a first-person shooter games engine developed by the US military to train troops for service in Iraq.

Clunky graphics pan, track and zoom to reveal pixilated deserts, palm trees, 'arab' avatars, explosions, smoke and ruined buildings. The games-engine, with head mounted display and (plastic) XM8 interface has been released to a consortium of software engineers and psychotherapists. Cut to a therapist. The therapist is using the software to lead a traumatized soldier back, back to a scene of explosion, mutilation and death, back to site of their trauma.

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