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Materialising dissent: Pussy Riot’s balaclavas, material culture and feminist agency
Full text linkThis chapter explores the specific material qualities of the balaclavas made and worn by the Russian feminist performance group Pussy Riot. The balaclavas are analysed as objects of activist feminist materiality with reference to the ‘feminine’ qualities of the materiality itself (tights), also to processes of material engagement (hasty hacking, the home made object), both materiality and making seen here as the manifestation of feminist dissent. In the essay What is a Feminist Object? Feminist Material Culture and the Making of the Activist Object, (2016) Alison Bartlett and Margaret Henderson propose a feminist system of objects within which the material culture of feminist activism is defined by the primacy of the object’s political agency. Bartlett and Henderson identify four major categories of feminist objects: corporeal things, world-making things, knowledge and communicative things, and protest things. I examine Pussy Riot’s balaclavas in relation to the identificatory criteria of each of these categories, as such presenting the balaclavas as objects of material culture with feminist agency
Developing critical thinking and professional identity in the arts through story
No full textThis chapter presents an account of a practice-focused research study conducted in an arts education college in England. Narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) informed both the methodology and the collection and analyse the data. The study explores direct experiences using story, critical dialogue and narrative inquiry in a Community of Enquiry (Lipman, 2003). The intent is to encourage students of the arts to think critically and creatively, improving their motivation to read and write about the arts. A secondary aim of the study is to explore the formation and identity of the artist. The study is essentially an attempt to fuse horizons of educational research and practice (Scott and Usher 1996, pp.21-22) through practice-focused research. It reports the findings of two pedagogical interventions. The first intervention, designed as a Diary Project, asked students to keep a diary of their experiences of the critical thinking interventions used in the study and to reflect upon and present an account of these experiences, including any changes in their ways of thinking, as they engaged in critical thinking interventions. The second intervention took the form of a Book Club where students, lecturers, and other education practitioners met each week to discuss narrative accounts of the lives of artists. An overarching Community of Enquiry (Lipman, 2003) was used to structure and facilitate critical dialogue across the interventions
Untitled, 2020: Three Perspectives on the art of the present
Full text linkThe output was a selection of 12 of Barker’s narrative etchings that were exhibited in an exhibition that was designed to explore various influential strands in relation to international contemporary sculpture. See pages of the catalogue/record of the exhibition. Research process: An allegorical visual narrative had been developed by Barker to communicate the experiences associated with buying a house; an at the time distressing situation, because he was also a life long socialist. The research consisted of the making of a series of imaginative drawings in response to the experience. Once the drawings were completed, 12 were developed as prints, using etching and aquatint processes. Research insights: The exhibition of this work placed Barker’s outcomes in an international context. His long-term involvement with visual narrative and focus on the development of visualising processes that enable everyday situations to be given mythical status, was cited as a reason his work had been selected for this exhibition. An exhibition that also included artists of proven international stature, such as Edward Kienholtz and David Hockney. Dissemination: Barker’s 12 etchings were chosen by the artist and curator Thomas Houseago as being of seminal importance in his own development as an internationally recognised sculptor. The Pinault Foundation produced exhibition brochures in both French and English and a multilingual 224 page catalogue was produced to showcase and contextualise the work that had been selected
The Chris Graham Collection
Full text linkThe output is an exhibition and accompanying catalogue featuring a large body of work which covers staff and students, past and present of Leeds Arts University. As part of the University’s ongoing celebration of its heritage, the output offers an exhibition of a collection that honours the creative outputs solely of this institution. The University’s historic 1903 Vernon Street Gallery hosts a celebration of works that span Graham’s career, from the former Jacob Kramer College, through to the now Leeds Arts University. The exhibition aims to celebrate the vitality of work produced by staff and students at the University, whilst also marking a milestone in a continually evolving collection that builds on the legacy of our Head Librarian. Presented in the exhibition output is a carefully curated selection of 43 works from 25 artists from The Chris Graham Collection, representing the broad and vibrant output of the institution. The collection is detailed in full at the end of the accompanying catalogue
Educating risk: How fear of failure is stifling creative practice within Higher Education
Full text linkThe presentation explored how creative play, free from assessment
can manifest itself in learning about animation practice. There is an increasing concern within higher education that students are
no longer prepared to take risks, try new things and develop their practice
through place. This is problematic as it stifles creative play, experimentation,
the development of new knowledge and ultimately innovation. Clifford asserts that, “Teaching students to take risks as a means of learning and motivation facilitates learning and increases effort in academics” (Clifford, 1991). Encouraging students to take risks, stimulates and creates an environment where uncertainty and ambiguity arise; because of this students have to learn to be critical and reflect upon their learning. A key aspect to developing risk taking to encourage all involved in the activities to discuss their learning and that of others. As such it’s vital that learners are equipped with strong communication skills to articulate their thinking. Creative play allows the student to exercise and test out skills without the
fear of failure, or indeed assessment. The current research explores how can we develop a community of practice where creative play can be fostered to allow students to acquire skills that can be applied to other projects (transferrable skills), Winthrop & McGivney suggest, “Content is not learnable if communication skills are not in place, and critical thinking operates on content, not in a vacuum. In
this way, the skills build on and reinforce one another.” Winthrop & McGivney (2016)
Dancing for good
Full text linkDevised to coincide with the final month of the run up to the US Presidential Election, the exhibition comprises two pieces. The most noticeable: 2 Inflatable Air-dancers, 2020 , are located on the front lawn of the PS1 house and will be hard to miss. Air-dancers assume the form of the popular promotional tool for retail outlets, comically flapping around to draw the attention of passersby and beckon them towards the products or services that they promote. These Air-dancers are emblazoned with a national call to work together and turn the page on a difficult time. They flap pathetically, yet with hope, outside the gallery, creating a conflicting feeling of political possibility and potential absurdity.
Exercise Your Rights is a two-channel video installation (22min) that will play on loop in the gallery window (accessible outside, during gallery hours, from the front porch of PS1). This work is a tongue-in-cheek exercise video demonstrating a series of exercises dutifully carried out over a Zoom call between the UK and the US, to “evoke a positive experience in electoral democracy.” The project was disseminated at Public Space One Iowa City, US between 2 October and 03 November 2020
Non-traditional students and Practical Wisdom a perspective from a practitioner-researcher
No full textThe investigation into the experiences of ‘non-traditional’ students in art and design began with an initial pilot study that was supported by The Institute for Learning (IfL); The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS); The Education and Training Foundation (ETF); and the University of Sunderland Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (SUNCETT). Subsequently, Leeds Arts University supported the development of the research that underpins this chapter.
The issues related to the experiences of non-traditional students have been investigated and analysed from a practitioner’s point of view. I have worked as an Access to HE tutor and course leader and wished to use the insight I had gained from many years of experience to inform the research. Calucci-Gray et al. (2013) have argues that there has been an increased impact of research on educational policy but this has been unsatisfactory. This is because it has been carried out by universities on teachers in schools (and colleges) rather than with them. This has led to research that is not engaged with by practitioners and a gulf exists between research findings and the practices in the classroom (or in this case the studio). As an Access to HE educator I aimed to prepare students for undergraduate study, but I also wanted to understand how these students experienced higher education when they made the transition from further to higher education. This understanding would enable Access to HE teachers and those working in higher education to better understand the needs of this group of students and maybe lead to some changes in practices. I appreciated the life experience, wisdom and other capacities or capitals these students had (O’Shea, 2014) and aimed to discover if these were beneficial to the Access to HE students’ undergraduate education. The purpose of this chapter is to explore how practitioners can value and develop the capacity of students to draw upon their own practical wisdom. Phronesis or practical wisdom is an intellectual virtue of deliberation based on the desire to act in the best interests of the self and other people. The stories told by ‘non-traditional’ students, are analysed through narrative inquiry revealing the ways in which they deliberate about their education. This approach uses narrative as a means of capturing experience and argues that the ability to narrate our own experience is integral to phronesis. The conclusions drawn from this study are not easily turned into generalisations or ‘truths’ as they are contingent on the contexts in which the narratives are produced. Narrative is a representation of experience which is mediated by the social and cultural positions of the narrators and their audiences. This study found that some students were adept at using their practical wisdom; making courageous decision to leave their careers and re-enter education in order to improve their lives for themselves and their families. The implications for those of us who work with ‘non-traditional’ students are that we should think about the strategies that encourage them to deliberate well for themselves and others; where instances of phronesis are celebrated rather than curtailed. The value of this approach is that it aims to promote the capacity of deliberation in students and educators, so they become wise and active agents in helping construct positive educational experiences
Room one
Full text linkThe output is a creative project, a collaboration between book designer, Fletcher and photographer Richard Higginbottom. Room One was created for the Index Visual Arts Festival in response to Yorkshire Sculpture International, where primary observations of how sculptural works are viewed within a gallery setting informed the photographic methodology. The exhibition was a response to the book created in response to these themes. Research process: Through a series of observational research, Fletcher and Higginbottom identified how sculptures are viewed in a gallery setting. They then translated this experience to both the photographer’s methodology of taking photographs of sculptural forms and the books design. Research insights: The research explored the use of the form of the book to emulate the experience of viewing, opening up questions around physical experience and the book form as a mode of communication. The exhibition explored how the book form and book design is translated to a physical environment, emulating the viewing experience of engaging with sculptural forms to the gallery walls, a direct reference to the book created alongside the exhibition. Dissemination: The project was disseminated via a book launch and exhibition at Village, Leeds, 12 September – 29 September 2019
Under an artificial sun
Full text link‘Oh yeah, I would have been a coal miner, I would think, if I hadn’t had tuberculosis when I was 12.’ Tom Jones, Singer-Songwriter
Under an Artificial Sun focuses on materials in the Stannington Children’s Sanatorium collection held at Northumberland Archives. This collection contains a wealth of material including: patients medical records and reports, radiographs, educational logbooks from the Sanatorium School from 1906 – 1970, a Matron’s Day Book from 1906 – 1933, photographs, ephemera and a collection of twenty-six oral history interviews with former patients recorded in 2013. The project is a collaboration between Leeds Arts University researcher, writer and filmmaker Debbie Ballin and Dr Janice Haigh, Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at Sheffield Hallam University.
Many of the children hospitalised at Stannington Sanatorium with tuberculosis were from working-class backgrounds and had been living in extreme poverty. In addition to medical treatment, hospitalisation included a multitude of emotional and developmental experiences. Under an Artificial Sun investigates connections between this historical material and contemporary debates around attachment, resilience, creativity, boredom and institutionalisation within childhood studies. It seeks to uncover stories of the emotional legacy of hospitalisation; examine experiences these children may not otherwise have been exposed to and to explore how hospitalisation may have shaped their lives in unexpected or seldom-discussed ways.
The medical and social aspects of hospitalisation at Stannington Children’s Sanatorium are well documented. The research builds on this body of work to create a more textured understanding of the experience of major illness in childhood and the way it shapes us as adults. The research informs the development of a new multi-disciplinary work that will weave together new and existing oral history testimony, writing and archival material. Practice-based methodologies will be utilised to tell detailed and layered stories about hospitalisation in childhood to enrich our understanding of this experience.
The project is supported by a Wellcome Trust Research Bursary Award, Northumberland Archives and Leeds Arts University
Soft Pictures – re-making the Hattersley
Full text linkThe exhibit ‘Soft Pictures – Re-making the Hattersley at Futurescan 4: Valuing Practice, University of Bolton, 23rd-24th January 2019, comprised a collection of created work based on a site-specific investigation of the derelict weaving shed at Sunnybank Mills, Farsley, Leeds, United Kingdom (UK), from 2014-present. Specifically, it focused on two old Hattersley looms which were left in the space.
The work is a product of an exploration of thinking through practice. This has evolved around the relationship between my textile practice and the subject matter which pre-occupies it - the transient nature of the derelict (both building and machine). This is investigated through the prism of making, un-making and re-making, as a means of opening up a dialogue between textile and place. Derelict buildings are deconstructed spaces, in a state of entropic transformation and open to many interpretations. The investigation of this perception of change (or decline) through textile practice aims to unpick ideas of entropy and alterity and how this is interpreted. Time spent on the site progressed my initial documentary response of the ‘Soft Picture’ (Calderoni 2013) to a more active direct engagement with the space and machinery, resulting in the prolonged process of wrapping a loom. This was initially inspired by the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude but rapidly became more about the meditative act of binding the machine. Further experiments around the machine entailed making casts of machine parts, as if cataloguing for a museum, and then taking the parts themselves and re-coating them in bright colours, re-making them into Meccano-like toys. All are active processes of making and re-making as a means of striking up a conversation with the un-making state of the site itself. The processes of making, unmaking and re-making have served to raise both physiological and philosophical questions for further exploration. The site is due for demolition in summer 2019 which will facilitate yet another journey of making investigations