Art/Practice-Based Research Seminar Series (led by Agata Lulkowska at Staffordshire University)
Catch up on past events in this series, a place for inspiring discussions about art/practice-based research and methods. More details of the whole series: https://www.agatalulkowska.com/seminar-series
Session 1: What is practice-based research?
27th October | 15:30-17:00
Speaker: Dr Agata Lulkowska
This session introduced the series, the formula, guests, and topics. It also initiates the discussion on the practicalities and nature of practice-based research. The session fcoussed on the question of the scope, what makes art-based research different from regular research or purely creative practice. It explored definitions, exceptions, expectations and a variety of potential outputs.
Hosted by Carola Boehm, the International Society for Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education organising virtual social meets, where we come together and chat informally about topics around current challenges for Higher Education and for our Higher Education Futures.
SEASON THEME: Colonisation, Coloniality and Whiteness in the Academy
Led by Dr Thushari Welikala, St. George’s, University of London, UK & facilitated by Prof Carola Boehm, Staffordshire University, UK
Season 4 Online Social Meets focus on how the continuing processes of colonisation, coloniality and whiteness are being utilised by the geo-political Centres to create a particular type of ‘global’ higher education. Colonisation and coloniality are processes that perpetuate the hegemony and the supremacy of whiteness within higher education systems across contexts. Whiteness reflects a set of “narrative structural positions, rhetorical tropes and habits of perception” (Dyer, 1997, p. 12) that enable power structures to continue different forms of coloniality of knowing within higher education institutions, despite the absence of white bodies (Shahjahan and Edwards, 2021).
Audre Lorde (2007) identifies whiteness as a mythical norm that enforces the supremacy of whiteness over others’ life and thought, maintaining the core of white dominance brought on by colonization and enslavement. Whiteness, as the colonial superstructure (Quijano, 2000), operates within current higher education under the guise of global university rankings, globalisation, internationalisation and projects on decolonisation and inclusion, shaping our social and educational imaginary and futurity through colonial ontologies and epistemologies (Christian, 2019).
The global higher education magnifies white supremacy through racial neo-liberalisation, capitalism and competition, constructing particular values and beliefs about what is meant by learning, teaching and Being human. In question here is, how the often invisible and uncontested whiteness moulds the social- cultural and intellectual imaginaries within higher education and their impact on the process of maintaining and continuing the coloniality of knowing, supressing alternative ways of perceiving the world.
References
Christian, M. (2019). A Global Critical Race and Racism Framework: Racial Entanglements and Deep and Malleable Whiteness. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2019, 5(2) 169–185
Dyer, R. (1997). White. Routledge.
Lorde, A. (2007). An Open Letter to Mary Daly, in Sister Outsider. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, pp.57-62.
Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South, 1(3), 533–580.
Shahjahan, R. A. and Edwards, K. T. (2021). Whiteness as futurity and globalization of higher education, Higher Education 10.1007/s10734-021-00702-x
Saturday 16 October 2021, 9am to 5pm Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
Bethesda Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent ST1 3DW
Beyond Preservation: re-evaluating Intangible Cultural Heritage in the UK Ceramic Industry
Global economics and advances in automation technology have radically transformed the landscape of the UK’s ceramic industry in recent decades. Whilst these transitions have facilitated greater productivity, once commonplace skills associated with ceramic manufacture have now been displaced, threatening the continuation of much traditional knowledge. Should such practices, deemed outmoded or economically unviable for contemporary ceramic production be simply relegated to history or the trails of heritage tourism? What value is there in safeguarding this knowledge for the future? How can traditional practices be revived through new modes of thinking and creativity in a digital age?
This symposium builds upon these questions, and highlights specialist skills at significant risk of being lost from the industry, surveyed through recent research for the Heritage Craft Association’s Red List of Endangered Crafts. Making particular reference to North Staffordshire’s intangible cultural heritage*, scholars together with former employees and current representatives from the ceramics industry, will explore a variety of perspectives concerning a re-evaluation of the industrial crafts and their revitalisation through contemporary exchange and adaptation.
Although the symposium will be taking place within a cultural event, it will discuss ways to connect with the local community beyond cultural institutions, so that they can develop, engage and participate in ‘their’ intangible heritage. It is hoped that this event will introduce new ways of valuing industrial ceramics skills that are not influenced by the immutable heritage discourse of experts, by facilitating those that were and are still involved in the industry to articulate the value of their own heritage.
Our Fine Arts department has the pleasure of inviting you to the ‘Staffordshire University Arts Collection Exhibition’ and an exhibition of two of our MAns Fine Art students ‘ Loss of information’
The Staffordshire University Art Collection exhibition showcases some of the work from the University Arts Collection in the Cadman Fine Art Space, featuring the work of past students, staff and even some of our current technical team. Michael Branthwaite and Fine Art Students Eve Travis and Lorna Lakin have been combing through the collection gathering the names and dates and creating a new archive of the collection. To extend their life, and find new locations to share this diverse range of artworks, this exhibition will allow university staff to ‘loan’ artworks from the collection, they will then be installed in their new location and recorded in the archive. As well as the physical collection there is also an entire slide collection and degree show catalogues stretching back to the 1980’s. This project is very much the beginning of a longer-term ambition to track the history of Fine Art at Staffordshire University back to its inception at the Bartlem School of Art in the early 1900’s.
How it works, firstly please come and enjoy the exhibition! 10-17:00 22-25th September. On the 28th September you are welcome to the closing event 17:00-18:30 to enjoy some refreshments as well as the MAns exhibition. At the event we will be on-hand to take details of the work University staff want to loan and will then work with estates to have it brought to you and installed.. ( We will need full name, email and a room number.)
This year we are expanding the range of accepted submissions to artworks, performance, video submission, and other non-conventional forms.
Potential Topics:
Representation
Local vs global
Crossing boundaries
Accessibility
Platforms for dissemination
Collective voice
Art as activism
Quiet voices
The need for Diverse Voices’ inclusion into the conversation on communities and communication has never been more urgent. Connecting communities only makes sense when a variety of experiences share the stage in a respectful and engaging way, building a network of support and understanding between disciplines and different forms of expression. Building upon the success of last year’s edition, we are excited to invite participants from around the globe to engage in the discussion, in the hope for a more integrated approach to knowledge generation.
The deadline for submissions is FRIDAY 17th DECEMBER 2021.
The proposals should include: Title, up to 5 keywords, abstract (250 words), author name, affiliation and short bio (50 words) + if relevant, sample of the artwork/description/still/video.
All the proposed submissions must respond to the brief and be linked, in one way or another, to the ideas of communities, communication and diverse voices. All the creative work must be copyright free.
We encourage submissions from Early-Career, PhD students and independent researchers and artists. The conference is organised by the Department of Media and Performance, School of Digital, Technologies and Arts at Staffordshire University and will take place over two days 19-20 May 2022.
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) is an interdisciplinary network of academics, scholars and students researching all aspects of electronic dance music culture (EDMC). The DRN acknowledges that, from proto-disco through what is today labelled “EDM”, from the practice of the DJ to the present ubiquity of dance clubs, the aesthetics, politics and cultures of electronic dance music permeate underground and popular movements.
As an educational and research network, the DRN facilitates information exchange, resource sharing and collaboration among international researchers of the genres, identifications, aesthetics, technologies and other manifestations of EDMC. Researching techniques and locales, scenes and events, ethnicity and gender, production and distribution technologies, digital arts, drugs, sexuality and other subjects, members hail from various disciplines, operate in many different global locations, and employ diverse methodologies.
BCB returns to the Potteries from 11 September to 17 October 2021 and includes an ambitious programme of exhibitions, installations, events and hands-on activities.
A showcase of work by recent Staffordshire University MA Ceramics and BA (Hons) 3D Designer Maker graduates takes place in the main festival hub at The Goods Yard.
Associate Professor Anna said about the BCB: “As always, this important biennial activates the streets and buildings of our city, providing an opportunity to discuss the heritage and future of our relationships with ceramics.”
The British Ceramics Biennial 2021 takes place from 11 September to 17 October. See the full programme of events and plan your visit –https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/
22 Sept 12:00-13:00 Research Seminar in Media and Performance
Our next online research seminar in the series for the media and performance department will feaure three of our current PhD candidates nearing their early progress reviews with subjects in arts, media and film as below
Tim Anderson: “Reconfiguring the Gesamtkunstwerk: Composing with sound and video across media”
Francisco Mazza Filho: “Re-Sounding the Screen: Politics and Poetics of Acoustic Territory in Contemporary Documentary Film”.
Awat Ali: “Getting an identity for Kurdish nation through cinema beyond victimhood”
Presentations will be 15 minutes each followed by 5 minutes questions. Feel invited to come along and support the students and invite others who might be interested.
Contact Associate Professor Dave Payling for more info on email: D.Payling at staffs.ac.uk
Our new C3 Centre is all about new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities.
And we discussed theses issues at our official launch, which happened on Friday 18 June 2021. The YouTube video is now available below.
Browse through, skip, speed up or listen during a lunch time break. We also had fun at our virtual pub, which sadly is not part of the YouTube experience.
Included in the video is our introductory panel discussion where you can get to know (some of) us; and our concluding panel debate about why we think research in the arts is so important for our regions.
As part of the event we had various showcases of our work, which was not recorded as part of the video, but some of the work can be viewed on our website at http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/ .
We welcome you to become part of our collective narratives, exploring with us some of the questions that we have been asking in our research projects.
Feel invited to the launch of our newest of our Research Centres, the C3 Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities.
Our C3 Centre is all about new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities.
Online event
Friday 18 June
4.00pm
There will be introductory panel discussions where you can get to know us; panel debates about why we think research in the arts is so important for our post-pandemic resilience; and we will showcase of some of our work. In all of these sessions we welcome you become part of our collective narratives, exploring with us some of the questions that we have been asking in our research projects. For both our researchers and our partner communities, there will also be the opportunity to continue chatting in our Virtual Pub, which will remain open until 20:00 (bring your own drink).
The C3 Centre is one of the newest of Staffordshire University’s Research Centres. It provides a single overarching structure for all staff working with our creative partners through the medium of arts and culture, in relation to the creative and cultural economy, society and sectors. In short, we are less ‘about the arts’ but more about ‘through the arts’. The Centre provides a structural framework for activities that reflect the search for new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities. It focusses on those areas of Ceramics, Creative Industry and Creative Communities that make our region so impactful through its creative engagements.
Be part of our community by registering for this launch, where together with external audiences we will explore research, innovation and new creative insights via panel debates, showcases and online spaces for networking.
