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Cultural Formalism: The Enquiry of Cultural Aesthetics
Get PDFThe study of ‘forms’ is readily associated with the tradition of Formalism in art criticism whereby plastic modes of aesthetic expressions are central to its investigations. My interest in probing cultural forms stems from the question “how might the aesthetic focus of Formalism be applied to cultural analysis?” That is, if forms of arts receive heightened attention for their expressive configuration and manifestation, what about positing enquiries directed at forms of living and ways of life which are nothing short of aesthetic expressions? By asking this question I’m also offering a hypothesis about the concrete existence of ‘cultural form,’ and how it comes with the demand for clarifying certain attentions. Such accentuations orientate us towards discerning and describing forms of cultural experience. Hence a theory of cultural form emerges in marking out modes of attention that indicate certain interests and priorities. Indeed, I suggest that the body of work cohering around (impersonal) senses, affect, “structures of feeling,” and social aesthetics has always already, to varying degrees, pertained to enquiries of cultural form. This essay draws on an array of theoretical work that invoke the aesthetic forms of culture and a mode of enquiry pertaining to cultural aesthetics
Compassionate assessment policy design: Rethinking assessment through a trauma informed lens
No full text“COVID-19 has been a wake-up call on crisis in higher education” (Thompson and Carello, 2021:2). This rupture sparked critical reflections in the sector about how we might “reimagine assessment for good” (Sambell and Brown, 2021 p.11). There has been growing interest in compassionate pedagogies and assessment to respond to ongoing times of crisis, yet there is a gap between wanting an ethos of compassion and the reality of policy and practice (Andrew et al., 2023).
This paper presents research into conceptualising compassionate assessment policy design as part of the 2021 QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project – Belonging through assessment: Pipelines of compassion. It grew from an exploration of how compassionate assessment necessarity acknowledges the unique experiences and histories that everyone in our educational communities brings to assessment. The praxis of compassionate assessment requires an empathic understanding of wider social and emotional contexts, informed by the ways oppressive policies can harm staff and students (Shevrin Venet, 2021).
The research applies trauma informed principles to analyse assessment regulation documents at three UK arts institutions, to determine if the policies embodied compassion for students and members of staff. Influenced by policy archaeology (Scheurich, 1994), we draw upon Hummer et al.’s (2009) principles of trauma informed care to create a framework for compassionate assessment regulations and policies. Each member of the research team read and applied the four fields of the trauma informed care framework to the documents: connect, protect, respect and redirect. The research group conducted two cycles of coding the regulations using a shared document and engaging in an iterative, dialogic process that enhanced the interpretation of the four fields from an arts education perspective.
Four key tensions with trauma informed principles are identified. 1) Regulations often utilise punitive actions to manage the assessment process. 2) Decisions about the assessment process are typically based on a notion of fairness and equality rather than equity. 3) The students’ agency in the assessment process is not facilitated, nor is the student voice apparent in the regulations. 4) Finally, signposting is lacking for students who need to salvage a failing assessment, meaning students are not encouraged to feel hope. We propose a set of reflective questions to provoke a review of policies and regulations that challenge assumptions and normative practices, and support institutions in designing more compassionate assessment policy
Circular design with next gen materials: Guidebook
Get PDFThe aim of this guide is to support decision making when using
next gen materials in circular textile design. This guidebook was developed as part of the 'New Composites' research project funded by the Future Observatory
Graphic Politics: A visual history of activism and resistance in the Arab world from the middle to late twentieth century
No full textThis doctoral study is situated in the broader context of design for social and political change, exploring the overlap between visual communication design and political engagement in the Arab Middle East and North Africa (the Arab world), with a specific focus on revolutionary uprisings from the end of the Second World War until the early 1980s. The research provides an alternative view, facilitating a deeper understanding of Arab politics through an Arabcentric and visual communication design perspective, addressing a gap in knowledge attributed partly to the reliance on Western-centric approaches to theorizing and analysis, especially in relation to the study of Arab politics. In addition, the study fills a gap resulting from the large number of studies that explore the history of radical politics in the Arab world from singular disciplinary historical, political, economic, or social perspectives, but rarely an integrated disciplinary perspective incorporating visual communication design.
This is a body of knowledge relating to Arab culture and identity, developed through the study of its visual language of dissent and relying on a unique research methodology that expands our understanding of the interdisciplinary overlap between visual communication design and political engagement. This multi-layered interdisciplinary approach is also one of the study’s main contributions to knowledge, drawing on theories from multiple disciplines as the basis for its descriptive and analytical frameworks. In other words, providing an alternative visual perspective that facilitates a deeper understanding of Arab radical politics through an Arab-centric and visual analysis of materials developed by politically engaged visual communication designers whose work reflected the ideologies and sentiments of the time
Whiplash Memorial
Get PDFWhiplash Memorial is a transdisciplinary research-project exploring the layered histories of North Kensington through memory, architecture, and storytelling. Imagined by wealthy Victorians as an upper-middle-class neighbourhood, the grand houses quickly became working-class houses. North Ken’s history is of race riots, slum conditions, social cleansing and regeneration. The Westway cuts through this landscape, passing my childhood home on one side and Grenfell Tower on the other
Theatrical Assemblage in Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s 45th Parallel
Get PDFPaper delivered as part of a curated panel called: Assembling Absence: Performance, scenography and the politics of dis/appearance
The panel explored the displacement of the figure of the actor from the centre of the theatrical stage concomitant with the ‘scenographic turn’ in contemporary performance. It interrogated how theatrical assemblages effect a redistribution of presence, displacing the actor-performer from the centre of attention or even from the stage altogether. The panel aimed to historicise this aesthetic phenomenon as a significant shift in the configuration of theatre as a space of appearance by demonstrating that the decentring of the figure of the actor in an ‘aesthetics of absence’ (Collins 2015) is indirectly related to the political disappearances that have characterised the coextensive historical period – the disappearance of people not only from the mise-en-scène of the theatrical stage, but from the lived reality of history.
Theatrical Assemblage in Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s 45th Parallel explored the political potentiality of the ‘aesthetics of absence’ in Laurence Abu Hamdan and Forensic Architecture's practices of investigative theatre. Examining the deployment of scenarios and assemblages to demonstrate how absence is made present in Earwitness Inventory and 45th Parallel, Allen focuses on how the actors in the (real) stories of violence Abu Hamdan tells appear in absentia in order to activate the scene of their own disappearance
Where do you know from? Developing Critical Pedagogy in Fashion
Get PDFOn-going conversations between students and faculty at London College of Fashion, UAL, highlight adverse and distressing experiences within the learning environment. These qualitative experiences add context to quantitive data within the institution, which reveals a persistent awarding gap. Starkly racialised, this data reflects disproportionate outcomes in educational attainment and experience for students of colour.
This data, alongside student-centred conversations, becomes foundational to the development of ideas and actions to improve the learning environment, both in determining what is missing and identifying pedagogic principles to enact change. Using a research model developed by Eugenia Zuroski in 2018 entitled, Where Do You Know From? educators Carole Morrison and Teleica Kirkland initiated workshops to centre students’ identities and implicit knowledge to determine what is required of both student and institution to develop a sense of belonging. This paper will discuss research development and the first phase delivery of its implementation
Strangeness: A Collaboration with Human and More-than-Human Bodies
No full textStrangeness: a Collaboration with Human and More-than-Human Bodies is a text about and inspired by the work of Swiss sound artist Raphael Stucky. It was commissioned for the catalogue Humification, by the Kunsthaus Wallis and published with edition fink on the occasion of his winning the Manor Kunstpreis 2024. editors Laurence Schmidlin and Mealle Tapp
Head, Heart and Hands
Get PDFLeigh Clarke takes us on a tour of the workshops, a creative hub of the RA Schools, where tutors facilitate thinking through making – and much more