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Drawing Out the Superorganism: Artistic Intervention and the Amplification of Processes of Life
Get PDFThe true slime mould, Physarum polycephalum, is a single-celled organism which spends much of its life creeping around the forest floor feeding on rotting vegetation. Comprised of many cells, all operating within a single cell membrane, this many-headed amoeba possesses a form of proto-intelligence which enables it to operate far beyond its physiological means. Despite having no sensory organs or a brain, the slime mould has demonstrated that it can recognize pattern by anticipating events and is entirely self-organizing, with no centralized control system – purely a mass of cellular cytoplasm pulsing in a synchronous flow.
This chapter examines the behaviours of this intriguing organism as mediated through a series of time-lapse studies designed to draw out inherent processes of life. Responding to given interventions – a series of invitations and interruptions utilizing known attractants and repellents – a performative stimulus/response emerges. The imaging technologies employed amplify the biological world of the slime mould to human spatio-temporal scale. The intention of the studies is to reveal the underlying processes at play within this fascinating and beautiful organism and, through the aesthetic and technological devices employed, to entice other humans to observe and take note.
The edited collection Drawing Processes of Life is the product of artists, biologists and philosophers working together to formulate new ways of representing a new approach to life. It shows how better to represent biological process through drawing and to demonstrate the scientific value of drawing as a method. 78 b/w and 36 colour illustrations.
A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
“From Karl Marx to Karl Lagerfeld”: A longitudinal study of how Vogue China navigated and reflected local and global cultural flows between 2005 and 2015
No full textVogue China is a transnational fashion magazine, a regional edition of one of the world’s most prestigious titles, and a symbol of the globalisation of the contemporary fashion industry. When Vogue launched in China in September 2005 its slogan ‘Vogue, Ultimate Fashion in China’ denoted the magazine’s self-positioning and construction as the country’s leading style arbiter and fashion authority. As a Chinese magazine operating under an American brand name, localised in a Chinese context for Chinese language readers, Vogue China is now one of the most significant fashion magazines both domestically, as one of the most widely-read fashion magazines with a print circulation of 3.4 million and 2.5 million monthly unique digital visitors in 2020 (McHugh, 2020), and internationally, as a platform and communicator of Chinese design to a global audience.
This research represents the first longitudinal analysis of Vogue China’s content and production. It contributes to the field of Media Studies and Cultural Historical Studies, filling a gap in the academic literature on the site of transnational fashion media production. This has been undertaken through a longitudinal study of editorial content published in Vogue China during its first decade (2005–2015). The methodology has enabled an interrogation of how modern Chinese female social identities have been constructed in Vogue China’s content and through its production processes, to understand the complex interplay of cultural and global flows in transnational production. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to decode editorial imagery and texts, to interrogate how local and global cultures have converged and to understand the forces at play in the production process. Semi-structured interviews with key industry insider informants enabled triangulation of the findings.
The research adopted Said’s post-colonial theory of Orientalism (1978) and the post-colonial framing of cultural flows to examine the transnational ideoscape of Vogue China. In so doing it adds to the academic debate surrounding transnational media flows (Appadurai, 1990). The research demonstrates how Chinese and non-Chinese producers interact to construct ideoscapes of Chinese femininities and ultimately define Chinese female social identities.
The research analysed what it means to be a fashionable Chinese woman represented in Vogue China during 2005-15. It revealed how practices of Orientalism, Othering and cultural appropriation are employed by both Chinese and non-Chinese producers to define modern Chinese female identities and construct gender roles that predominantly align with the state’s position throughout a decade in print. It uncovered changes in content and production in the period under study that demonstrate local producers at Vogue China increasingly embraced modern depictions of Chinese culture and promotion of Chinese creatives, challenging the hegemonic Western-centric global fashion narrative and power dynamic
Wearing the Wunderkammer: A practice-led analysis of cabinets of curiosities, examining the quality of curiosity and applying it to a fashion exhibition
No full textThis practice-led thesis examines the philosophical concepts and physical characteristics of cabinets of curiosities to determine how they can be applied to the creation of a contemporary exhibition of fashion. Cabinets of curiosities, also known as wunderkammern, were privately-owned collections and spaces belonging to royals, aristocrats, and affluent scholars—predominantly white, European men—from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The cabinets are often considered precursors to the modern museum (Hill, 1986: 148). Objects within them generally fell within one of two broad categories: naturalia (natural objects) and artificialia (man-made artefacts)(1). Artificialia included items of fashion2, primarily from non-European cultures. Although the reasons for the collection of fashion are not explicit, sixteenth-century scholar Samuel Quiccheberg (2014 [1565]) implied its use as a marker of history and genealogy, as well as a representation of the ceremonies and customs of diverse cultures.
This study includes the identification and compilation of fashion objects in extant cabinets of curiosities collections and historic catalogues, which I suggest has resulted in a significant contribution to knowledge on this subject. Furthermore, while visual and spatial references to cabinets of curiosities have coalesced with fashion in recent exhibitions, retail environments, and advertising, these have not been the subject of critical analysis. My research aims to fill that gap. Although previous studies have demonstrated the relationship between museum experiences and psychology (Uzzell, 1993; Smith and Wolf, 1996; Hein, 1998; Csikszentmihalyi and Hermanson, 1999; Paris, 2002; Bitgood, 2013; Hohenstein and Moussouri, 2018; Meyer et al, 2023), the psychological study of curiosity as it might be applied to curatorial strategies has been only scarcely exercised, and its potential links to fashion are absent. This thesis forges new connections between psychological theory, museology, and fashion display, forming an original research framework that can be utilised by museum professionals in other disciplines who aim to stimulate visitors’ curiosity. The full result of this research is a theoretical fashion exhibition3 that proposes tangible concepts for evoking curiosity, encompassing ideas for exhibition design, object selection, textual interpretation, and public programming.
(1) The use of Latin to categorise the objects is notable. As the universal language of scholars and scientists, Latin underscores the concept of cabinets of curiosities as sites of knowledge. 2I have chosen to use the term fashion, rather than dress or another equivalent, throughout this thesis. My reason for this is articulated in a section of the Introduction, ‘Terminology’
Designing feminist pensions policies: a feminist institutional analysis of the interrelationships between structure, agency and gendered pension outcomes in the UK
Get PDFWomen’s private pension wealth is projected by the Department of Work and Pensions to be 35% lower than that of men’s at retirement. In this thesis I address this pressing and persistent problem through policy design. Pension policies have historically made androcentric assumptions which have failed to acknowledge the impact of gendered imbalances in the wider social environment. To improve projected equality of outcomes, I apply a novel policy approach that takes account of the dynamic interrelationships between the institutional structural environment and women’s individual agency. Focussing on UK based Millennial aged women, I synthesise primary and secondary data to conduct a feminist institutional analysis of how changes such as wage stagnation, student loans and property ownership affect women’s financial futures. In the second stage, I investigate how women exercise agency within the structural environment, identifying enabling and constraining factors and arising policy implications. Insights from these two stages are used to model future policy scenarios in the final stage. I assess the potential impacts of different policy interventions by drawing on the lived experiences of women included in this study. This includes existing policies which claim to improve women’s financial positions and three further policies I develop myself. I conclude that auto-enrolment has increased Millennial women’s reliance on occupational pensions and in so doing has increased the effects of discriminatory employment practices. Moreover, housing costs, unpaid work and parental wealth, intersect to create a gendered, unequal pensions environment. Drawing on the collective findings of this study I construct gender sensitive pensions policy guidelines for future policymakers to use to improve women’s long-term financial outcomes
Layered Visions and the Teleorama: Constructing Sites of Ruination through a Contemporary Drawing Practice
No full textIn this practice-based research project the Teleorama, an historical, miniature optical device, is interrogated as a two-dimensional, drawn, painted or printed form that expands into a three-dimensional layered structure to internally depict a scene or event. This interrogation is brought into a relationship with the subject matter of the spatiality and materiality of modern ruins to address the following principal research question: Can the form of the Teleorama be applied to an investigation of sites of contemporary ruination in order to create immersive drawing-based installations that offer new approaches to fine art drawing practice?
The Teleoramic viewing experience is theorised through ‘layered vision’, a concept describing how the form is constructed to depict a scene from several viewpoints, or distinct spatial locations, and is consequently able to represent multiple moments in time. The Teleorama’s ability to invite the viewer ‘in’ to explore its miniature space is conceptualised through reference to the Picturesque, with which it shares an interest in framing and layering as absorptive devices, evidenced in contemporaneous painting and garden design.
Through constructing maquettes informed by several formal iterations of the Teleorama, and enlarging these to become installations, my practice explores the extent to which such works can convey the fragility and ephemerality observed in my initial encounters with modern ruin sites. The Teleorama’s potential to provide a perceptually and physically immersive experience for the viewer is examined in relation to both its structural form and selected fine art installation practices that employ representational imagery.
Whilst existing two-dimensional art practices address the modern ruin as a subject matter, this research proposes that the multi-layered, semi-enclosed structure of the Teleorama can be used as a basis from which to create immersive drawings of such sites. As such, I propose ‘installation drawing’ as a novel art form that allows for the physical experience of space and apprehension of a remote, virtual place. This dual ability suggests installation drawing as a model that might be adapted to confer this dynamic viewing experience to wider subject matter (and through varied media) by practice-based researchers in the field of Fine Art and beyond across other disciplines
Ten Texts on Sculpture 2: Robert Gober and the Part Object
No full textThe second of a series of reading group podcasts on sculpture. In this episode we talk about Hal Foster’s ‘An Art of Missing Parts’ from 2000 where he writes about Robert Gober’s sculptures as dioramas and primal images. The text is an explicitly Freudian, psychoanalytic reading of Gober’s work and Matt and Andrea have different views on how appropriate that is. Because of the theatrical nature of dioramas, Matt and Andrea also speak about Michael Fried’s famous (and famously derided) critique of Minimalism, ‘Art and Objecthood’ from 1967
Thinking beyond circles: Developing visual research methods for circularity in design education
Get PDFThis paper presents a case study of a material-lifecycle design project developed between educators, researchers and industry. Communicating and conceptualising circularity presented an opportunity to expand the reach of the research into a curriculum intervention. The project invited graphic design students to visualise a product lifecycle for a circular textile industry client - Piñatex. This paper explores the challenges of communicating circular lifecycles to non-expert audiences. It is acknowledged that there is a need for new kinds of designers in practice-based research. Therefore, the paper presents examples of new knowledge that visual communication methods, more traditionally taught in graphic design programmes can bring to research. Drawing on practicebased iconic research methods, which in contrast to theory-driven research enabled the production of images as a means producing knowledge about visual communication. Through an after-action review, the research demonstrated three surprising approaches to communication of circular processes that typically creates diagrams with icons in a circular shape. Through working with non-experts, the research exposed the client and the research team to range of visual approaches, namely, symbolic, non-circular and quantitative visuals. The research found that visual communication methods have the potential to play a pivotal role in development of new visual languages for circularity. It concludes that visual research methods can bring different design disciplines closer and build a stronger educational base for the transition to a circular economy
Heart of the Nation: Migration and the Making of the NHS
No full textGroup touring exhibition created by The Migration Museum curated by Aditi Anand and Ghafar Tajmohammad. ‘Heart of the Nation: Migration and the Making of the NHS’ explores the stories of the many people who have migrated to the UK who have contributed towards its success. There are many artists who have contributed towards this exhibition. My contribution has been a set of photographs that I made of healthcare workers in Brent in the 1990's.
The exhibition includes photography, oral histories and an interactive music and video installation co-created by seven NHS workers exploring themes of care through singing and storytelling.
"From the very beginning, people have come to Britain from all over the world to make this grand vision for a better society a reality. But their vital role has largely been ignored.
This national touring exhibition from the Migration Museum shines a light on the stories and experiences of people who have come to Britain to work in the NHS through photography, film, oral histories and an immersive experience that brings together singing and storytelling.
Second Report - Transforming Collections: Reimagining Art, Nation and Heritage
Get PDFTransforming Collections aims to enable digital search across collections, to uncover patterns of bias in collections systems and narratives, to reveal hidden connections, and to open up new interpretative frames and ‘potential histories’ of art, nation and heritage4. Whose voices, bodies and experiences are centred and privileged in collections? This project is underpinned by the belief that a national collection cannot be imagined without addressing structural inequalities, contested heritage and contentious histories embedded in objects. In 1999, the late sociologist and cultural theorist Stuart Hall posed the question ‘Whose heritage?’. Hall called for the ‘unsettling’ and ‘reimagining’ of heritage and nation. Nearly 25 years on, the need to critically question and transform notions of ‘heritage’ and ‘nation’ remain as urgent as ever.
Led by UAL in close partnership with Tate among our 16 partners across the UK, the project seeks to surface suppressed histories, amplify marginalised voices, and re-evaluate artists and artworks long ignored or side-lined by dominant narratives and institutional practices. We want to imagine an inclusive, evolving, (re)distributed ‘national collection’ that builds on and enriches existing knowledge with multiple and multivocal narratives, to critically connect and imaginatively disrupt collections, and transform them
The Site-specific Intervention as a Transitional Phase of Reconstruction: A Syrian Context
Get PDFDrawing upon my experience as a Syrian migrant from Aleppo, this practice-based research seeks to reassess the important contribution of hammams (public baths) and bimaristans (traditional ‘hospitals’) to a Syrian cultural identity and collective memory. It focuses on two historical sites in the old city of Aleppo: hammam Yalbugha and bimaristan Arghun. These structures were both badly damaged during Syria’s civil war, and are currently unusable and left to fall further into ruin. Reflecting upon the significance of such hammams for the local community – and their connection to bathing – the thesis addresses how temporary interventions within such structures might articulate questions of healing, affect and participation through the use of water (the supply of which they are entirely dependent). The contention is that these interventions would aid the processes of memory reconstruction through the reciprocal interactions they engender.
Such a proposal takes place within the context of a continuing water crisis in Syria, where the historically significant water supply infrastructure has been partially destroyed, and the supply of water has been both targeted (through acts of war) and politicised. In emphasising the importance of water in terms of its relation to rituals of bathing crucial to a collective memory, the research seeks to bridge between function and aesthetics in the design of interventions that explore the notion of usership and the application of speculative design ideas to real-world problems.
As such, the thesis not only examines these buildings as artefacts, but will research how a process of temporary rehabilitation might utilise water through mnemonic devices, while providing solutions for water collection in order to make the interventions self-sufficient. The proposed site-specific, temporary architectural interventions (as prototypes) are intended for the transitional phase of the rehabilitation process, but also aim to inform the longer-term restoration of these important cultural artefacts. The propositional design practice utilises condensation systems to collect water for the local community and those involved in the reconstruction process, and in so doing evoke poetic connections to embedded memories through sound and other sensory engagements.
The early stages of the research focus on documenting the current condition of the structures and the historical development of sophisticated water infrastructures within Aleppo. The presentation of this material – integrating maps, photographic documentation, texts and video footage – is an integral part of the practice. The later stages involve the design of the interventions, realised through drawings, models and scaled prototypes