neil cummings

the enthusiast has the same relationship to capital as the gift to the commodity

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presentation

As 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.

PARADE

PARADE: public modes of assembly and forms of address

I contribute to Critical Practice, a cluster of artists, researchers and academics hosted by Chelsea College of Art and Design, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. We have a longstanding interest in art, public goods, spaces, services and knowledge, and a track record of producing original, participatory events.

Chelsea College of Art and Design has a large contemporary courtyard at its heart: the beautiful Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground. We collaborated with Polish curator Kuba Szreder to develop a programme of events that explore the diverse, contested and vital conceptions of being in public.

In a bespoke, temporary structure designed by award-winning Polish architects Ola Wasilkowska and Michał Piasecki - assembled in public - we produced a landmark event in an amazing location with a host of international contributors.

Parade challenged the lazy, institutionalised model of knowledge transfer - in which amplified 'experts' speak at a passive audience. Our modes of assembly, our forms of address and the knowledge we share are intimately bound.

See the full programme or images of the amazing events

the educational turn

I will take part in a three day event FL∆G: re-turning the educational turn at Chelsea College of Art and Design

Education is increasingly a key concern for contemporary art practice and its exhibitionary institutions; recent events include PARADE, Documenta 12 and United Nations Plaza, or Transpedagogy: Contemporary Art and the Vehicles of Education at MOMA, and events covened by the Serpentine and Hayward Gallery like de-schooling society, could all be defined as art turning educational.

On the one hand, claiming pedagogic practices as a form of art for exhibition could be seen as a way of idealising art education, or as an attempt to aestheticise education for exhibition. On the other hand, it could be seen as a form of engaged, dematerialised and participatory art practice. Regardless of the hand we choose, the proliferation of interest in the educational turn, demonstrates a new and widespread interest within exhibitionary institutions, art practice itself and sites of art education for self-reflexion.

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

Industrialtownfuturism

In 2006, as part of a group of artists, researchers and academics, I was invited to research and imagine the future centenary of two industrial towns. The project was curated by Jakub Szreder and Martin Kaltwaser.

Both towns evolved from the middle of the last century, and both were planned around the image and function of the factory. Since 1939 Wolfsburg has been the home and global headquarters of the Volkswagen Group, and since 1947 Nowa Huta developed around the formerly Lenin and now Sendzimira steelworks.

The Fordist-factory has dominated these towns.

Critical Forum

Collecting Moving Images
the Nunnery, Bow, London

I participated in a Forum discussion curated by Cinzia Cremona, around the theme of Collecting Moving Images as part of a survey exhibition of recent work.

The Forum was chaired by Cinzia and included
3 pm Collecting: Myriam Blundell collector and curator, and Lucy Bayley from the Contemporary Art Society
4 pm Coffee and Pampero rum break
4.30 pm Circulating: Peter Lewis, Chris Meigh-Andrews and myself

I screened Screen Tests, and talked about working with public media archives and the possibilities offered by copyleft licenses.

We had an interesting discussion (on-line here) on collecting - storage, exhibition the museum and the archive; circulation - gallery or private exhibition, and the 'free' circulation of material via archive.org or copyleft distribution; economics - the differences in a consumer model, or fee based commissions; and more generally the dynamics of private collections, educational archives and databases; and the impact of changing technologies.

Kindival

From 11am to 4pm on Saturday 25th April 2009, I'll be taking part in Kindival an event organised by student campaigner Tom Robbins. It's a series of talks, discussions, exhibitions and performances that explores the theory and practice of kindness.

I'll screen, give-away and talk about Screen Tests. I'll suggest how restriction and scarcity in the artworld can be replaced by generosity and abundance - at least in the political economy of digital artefacts.

It will take place at Chelsea College of Art & Design.

Futures 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.

Afterall & Showroom

Seminar with Neil Cummings
Saturday, 28 March 2009, 3-6pm