Recent events
Intersections, Association of Art Historians Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2-4 April, 2009
As part of the Networked Cultures: Politics of Connectivity session organised by Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer, I presented a paper titled, What Ever Happened to Cultural Democracy? After introducing the paper I worked with five volunteers from the audience to present a conversation I had scripted between five ‘critical friends’.
Alex Hodby played Paulo Friere; Lee Rodney played Jacques Ranciere, Helge Mooshammer played Ivan Illich, Rachel Ashcroft played Sheila Rowbotham and Lynne Fanthome played Trinh T. Minh-ha.
The script, along with the other papers given that day, will be available on the Networked Cultures website soon.
http://www.networkedcultures.org/
Thanks to all who participated.
Nutopia. Exploring the Metropolitan Imagination, Morgan Arcade, Cardiff, 2-3 April 2009.
Jennie Savage brought together an international mix of people to present papers, lead walks and facilitate workshops during this amazing two day event that was held in a recently closed down clothing shop in one of the old shopping arcades in Cardiff. The symposium was part of a long-term project Jennie has been doing in the arcades and the centre of Cardiff, which is currently a building site as streets and buildings are cleared to make way for the large new shopping mall.
As part of the event, I contributed by hosting a drinking game with a small group of participants from the symposium as a way of writing ‘The Arcade Treaty’ which we presented back to the group the following day. We sat in The Cottage pub on St Mary Street wearing animal noses and took it in turns to suggest points for the Treaty which the group drank to if they agreed. This exercise revealed how absurd the decision-making process is, the difficulty of coming up with alternatives and the various ideologies of the individuals involved. We wondered if Barak Obama, Gordon Brown and other world leaders were using a similar methodology to solve the economic crisis during their G20 meetings.
Malcolm Miles was the Cat, James Hill was the Dog, Katy Beinart was the Duck, Karen Said was the Mouse, Vahida Ramujkic was the Wolf and Sophie Hope was the Rabbit.
Dan and Paula took the notes for the Treaty
Thanks to all who participated.
http://www.arcadesproject.org/
Science Museum writing workshop with Tony White
I attended a workshop led by Tony White as part of his writing residency at the Science Museum. We used The Listening Post installation by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin at the Museum as a starting point and used the ‘cut-up’ method to write pieces of fiction. During a launch event for Tony’s new story, Albertopolis Disparu (available for free as a beautifully designed booklet at the Museum) a few of us read extracts from our stories. Albertopolis Disparu and a selection of the workshop participants’ stories, including my ‘Saving America’ have been published on the Science Museum website:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/art/writer_in_residence.aspx?keywords=writing
