EVENT: Critical Ecologies, Thursday 11th July 2024

  • Thursday 11th July 2024
  • Catalyst CA2 Creative Lab
  • 10 am – 5pm

Critical Ecologies is an opportunity for academic and non-academic staff to come together and share research in alliance with communities and ecologies.

We have two exciting keynote presentations, and space for 6 presenters from within the University to share their research. In creating this fledgling research hub we are acknowledging the need for an open and respectful space where we can build (and rebuild) an interdisciplinary research culture. We also aim to centre nature recovery and environmental justice within these interdisciplinary conversations.

4 July Snap Elections – What our C3 members think

“Welcome to Stoke-on-Trent”, Student Projects 2017 (*)

Last week, Rishi Sunak called for a General Election to be held on Thursday 4 July 2024, saying it was “the moment for Britain to choose its future”. Our C3 members have their on thoughts on what this future ought to look like, and what they see to hope in various party manifestos. Here are some:

Carola Boehm, Professor of Creative Industries and Creative Communities at Staffordshire University:

“As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the UK general elections, all I could think about was: Could this be the return to “Cool Brittania”? I arrived in the UK at the beginning of 1997, and thus, I experienced the rush of immense hope and giddiness that caught the country as  Labour swept into power after a decade of austerity. This giddiness had at its core an appreciation of British creative outputs, both in terms of the biggest Creative Industries of music and film, as well as the art scene of designers. It was the time when the likes of Noel Gallagher were invited to No 10, where there was a real and explicit effort to turn the UK into a cultural powerhouse, as the Blair government recognised the cultural moment that could help the whole country get back to its feet. These were the years of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Ginger Spice wearing the Union Jack at the Brit Awards, Austin Powers, and Vanity Fair covers of “London Swings Again”, Blur, Pulp and Notting Hill.

Since then, we have had various Creative Industry strategies and policies, which I would suggest are, at worst, uninformed and, at best, lack aspirations. So when this election was called, my mind snapped immediately to the question of whether any incoming government is aware of how much the creative sectors contribute to our daily lives in the UK. Will it be at the forefront of their thinking, that it was our UK Creative Industries that tended to grow faster than any other sector in the UK;  that pre covid, 12% of our total exports of services were from the Creative Industries, and that boosting the Creative Industries was the fastest economic leveller than any other policy implemented, with, for example, West Midlands Creative Industries jobs growing by 38.9%, whereas all jobs only grew in that region only by 10% (Figures DCMS 2011-2017).   So my hope for any incoming government is that they understand the power of the Cultural and Creative Industries and invest in the country by putting policies in place that allow us all, up and down the country, to re-imagine and experience another era of Cool Britannia. In the words of Austin Powers, we have lost our mojo, so wouldn’t it be groovy to get it back?”

Anna Francis, Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice:

“After 14 Years under the current administration it is certainly true to say that I will be looking carefully at the messages of all parties concerning arts and culture and particularly arts education, and who has access to it. The latest report by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (May 2024) set out the important role the creative and cultural industries play in health and well-being, community development, and education, but also set out the worrying statistics in terms of the underrepresentation of people from working class backgrounds in employment within every area of arts and culture.

The stripping of the arts from school curriculums, and the significant undermining of the role of arts and culture in our society that we have seen in recent years is certainly having an impact on who feels able to take up a career in the arts.

Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour Creatives Conference, in March 2024 directly addressed these issues and I think we should all be observing with interest how this may be acknowledged within Party Manifestos ahead of the election.”

Sarah Page, Associate Professor in Social Justice and Social Learning:

“With austerity cuts and the cost-of-living crisis significantly impacting people and particularly the most vulnerable, inequalities have seemingly widened. For example, more people have needed to use foodbanks, while others have seemingly misused their privileged positions with illicit covid lockdown parties and visits to second homes when travel was not permitted. Such injustices have led the public to question the authenticity of some policy makers, who have one rule for the public and another for themselves. I wonder whether now is the time for leadership that better understands and address the inequalities gaps in Britain, and is prepared to challenge price extortions that we have been experiencing?”

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(*) If you were the artist that designed above posters, we would love to add credits to the image. Contact us on c3centre@staffs.ac.uk

Rebellious Research is Back!

Led by one of our C3 Centre members, Agata Lulkowska, a new third season in the Rebellious Research Seminar Series (previously known as art/practice based-research seminar series) is now published and available to download and share.

It runs on a last Wednesday of each month starting in October, via MS Teams, at 3:30-5pm UK time.

More details and the programme can be found in the links below or the downloadable PDF.

https://www.agatalulkowska.com/seminar-series
https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/files/2023/09/Rebellious-Research-2023-2024-Seminar-Series-003.pdf

The C3 Centre at our Research Conference’23

C3 Centre members will be presenting on various sessions at the upcoming Research, Innovation and Enterprise Conference on 24th and 24th of May 2023, this week.

It is still time to sign up for free at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/staffordshire-university-research-innovation-and-enterprise-conference-23-tickets-522644542897

Key events include a session on getting to know the C3 Centre, with a panel including:

  • Carola Boehm, Panel Chair, Co-Director
  • Music and Sound (Marc Estibeiro) (www)
  • Philosophy, Film and The Environmental Humanities (www)(Patrick O’Connor)
  • Ceramic Cultures, Practices and Debates (Neil Brownsword) (www)
  • Practice as Research (Agata Lulkowska)
  • Art and Design Research Group (Ian Brown)

And in a keynote slot, we also have members exploring the tensions between research, teaching, internationalization and regional impact.

Co-chairs:

  • Carola Boehm, C3 Co-Director & Professor of Creative Communities and Creative Industries
  • Jackie Reynolds, C3 Co-Director & Research Impact Manager

And Panel Members:

  • Michael Knowles, PhD Researcher & Film Producer
  • Giulia Lapucci, PhD Researcher & Cultural Researcher, University of Macerata
  • Jodie Gibson, Visiting Fellow & Arts & Culture Professional
  • Nick Gratton, Lead for Civic Engagement and Evaluation & Associate Professor of Community and Civic Engagement
  • Anna Francis, Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice

We also have individual presentations from members, including

  • Dan Lewis: Designing Emotions: Strategies for Furniture Designers
  • Jackie Reynolds: Building Research Impact
  • Rebecca Nunes: Eco-alliances: imaging the other-than-human to create advocacy for the environment
  • Giulia Lapucci: Collaboration at the Centre: building a Constellation to share and disseminate knowledge
  • David White: The design, development and pilot study of a marine ecological simulation for education or environmental changes on marine life

Registration is free at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/staffordshire-university-research-innovation-and-enterprise-conference-23-tickets-522644542897

 

Practice-Based Research: Writing 300-word statements and Developing your (also REF) Portfolio

Prof Ian Brown, Co-Director of C3, will lead two sessions focussing on practice-based or practice-as-research.

When:

  • 8th Feb 2023 – 2-3:30pm: Overview of Practice-based research (and related published research) along with a session on writing 300 word statements.
  • 1st March 2023 – 2-3:3p: developing a portfolio.

More details will be announced on our C3 MS Teams channel, or contact Prof Ian Brown.

Catch-Up: New Civic Imaginaries (#2) Andrew Stubbs and Becky Nunes

In this session, we consider existing strategies for cultural production that masquerade as avantgarde, while potentially in fact perpetuating an ideological status-quo. The role of the auteur is implicated in these strategies and examined in both presentations. The question is asked: what sort of art is really  needed for our future societies?

In this session:
Wednesday 2 March 2022, Room T101

  • Dr. Andrew Stubbs: Talent Managers and their Indie-Auteur Clients: Understanding the Conematization of Television
  • Becky Nunes: 15 Minutes of Fame. Andy Warhol, Facebooks and the Work of Luke Willlis Thomspn

 

Upcoming Profs in the Pav with Ian Brown

Celebrity and the Attention Economy: how popular culture can commodify an audience’s attention

 

Event

 

Professor Ian Brown will base his presentation on a series of artworks produced as part of artists’ group Common Culture (Ian Brown, David Campbell, Mark Durden). The work uses appropriation and the ready-made to engage audiences in a critical assessment of a celebrity culture which functions by commodifying its audience’s attention, leading to questions on its cultural and social value.

OMG I love common culture !!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️  and ME, The Total Show were made in response to an American internet celebrity who capitalized on the intimate relationship he had built with his online followers by trademarking the name ‘Common Culture’ to brand, promote and sell a range of products.  The Die Raum gallery was turned into a Common Culture shopfront, with logo, weblink and an accumulation of graphic stickers based on the online posts of the celebrity’s fan base. The Rampa gallery collates appropriated and translated material into an enclosed interior space for consumption. The two exhibitions involve a parodic mimicry of the internet celebrity’s commodification of his audience, himself and his products. This explores how the aesthetics, interactions and transactional intimacy built by internet personalities are ruthlessly deployed to convert followers into consumers and attention capital. 

OMG I love common culture!!!!♥♥♥♥ Die Raum, Berlin, Germany. 29th Feb — 19th April 2020 

Gallery Website: http://www.dieraum.net/index.php?/exhibitions/2020-0045-common-culture/

ME, The Total Show Rampa, Porto, Portugal 30th April – 29th May 2021

Gallery Website: https://www.rampa.pt/event/me-the-total-show/