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Critical Practice

Gates of Heaven

Thames, RotherhitheGates of Heaven

 

Sunday 20th November, on my way to the Critical Practice Walk and Talk at the Royal Observatory. The walk (we were to meet at at 1pm) started at the Prime Meridian, Longitude 0° Latitude 51° 28' 38 N........ even if it rained. The walk was entitled from Science to Culture........

 

Anyway, on my way there I stood stunned before the gates of heaven in Mile End, and the walk unfolded through banks of fog pierced by sparkling winter sun, like in a Turner painting. Beautiful.

 

See Man on a Plate

Writing throught......

Critical Practice

 

Writing through the already written is an evolving and experimental :-) curatorial practice. It takes the form of something-like a treasure hunt, the most recent trial was in central London. We are developing the treasure hunt as part of Critical Practice, a cluster of artists, researchers and academics hosted by the CCW Graduate School at Chelsea College of Art and Design. 

Critical Practice have a longstanding interest in art, public goods, spaces, services and knowledge, and a track record of producing original, participatory events.

legacy publication

PARADE Critical Practice

 

See more of PARADE and Critical Practice

PARADE booklaunch

Working SessionPARADE: public modes of assembly and forms of address

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

In a bespoke, temporary structure designed by award-winning architects we produced PARADE a programme of events that explored the diverse, contested and vital conceptions of being in public.

PARADE was so successful we were able to produce a legacy publication, the book will be launched on Thursday 3rd March at 5.30 pm with a conversation about public protest with Joseph Heatcott, in the lecture theatre at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Maybe see you there?

What is to be done?

With other leading academics, artists, curators and writers I contributed to a symposium coorganised by Lanchester Gallery Projects and the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry.  What is to be Done? explored events at Coventry School of Art and Design 1968-72 and the wider counter culture context of the 70s. It examined radical regional art education and its legacy, particularly in relation to contemporary experimental institutional and pedagogical practice. The event coincides with a retrospective of the work of David Rushton, founder editor of Coventry-based Analytical Art in the 1960s and Art & Language member from 1972 to 1975.

I talked about the work I do as part of Critical Practice, and especially the Parade project.

El Ranchito

ArnolfiniI contribute to Critical Practice and following Parade we have been invited to participate in El Ranchito. We went to Madrid to begin to research the context for the invitation. El Ranchito is a cultural experiment launched at the Matadero in the city of Madrid.

 El Ranchito aims to achieve the following objectives:

Money/Space/Art

On Friday I'll contribute as part of Critical Practice to an informal discussion on the relations between Money/Space/Art as part of This Is Not A Gateway 2010.

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.

Interview

Peter Maloney is a researcher working on the impact of technology within learning environments. This is an edited text of a conversation from Thursday 3rd June 2010, the full research will be published soon.

Peter Maloney: Neil, I’m interested in the origins of the Chelseawiki, and the benefits of FLOSS software development as a model for creative practice,………… among other things. So, in 2004 students you had been working with started up a wiki, can you say a little about how that came about?

N: Yes, I think it was 2004, it’s all still archived on the Chelseawiki if you need to check! It grew out of two things – a group of undergraduate students began to collaborate together, Ian Drysdale, Tom Neill, Trevor Giles, Daryl Stadlen and Wei Ho Ng, and I gave a series of lectures and seminars – called something like Free Culture. The seminars introduced ideas from Free Libre or Open Source Software [FLOSS], and explored how these might impact on art’s practice and organization.

PARADE

Working SessionPARADE: 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, and don't miss the legacy publication

images

Boadilla babesMansillaintermediae knowledge planBrian's medalTrigoCamino 2009