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Art as Metadiscipline (art/everything else)
No full textIn recent decades artists have increasingly worked with the problems and modes of enquiry of other disciplines and fields. The findings, styles of thought, and habits of operation and conduct of the sciences, sociology, mathematics, literature and education, amongst others, have become resources for reworking and expanding. They are used to probe questions of power, imagination and invention. This condition has multiple roots. Some are to do with the changing terrain of post-conceptual art and its multiple tendencies including an engagement with sciences and the adoption and alteration of their working methods. This includes approaches ranging from treating disciplines and their objects as “found objects” to elaborating techniques of mutual interest. Others rework the idea of art into a process of learning and becoming in education or in forms of political and ecological direct action or speculation.
These tendencies suggest that art is fragmentarily emerging as something that might be called a metadiscipline: a mode of work whose operation includes both working in other disciplines and to act upon them.
This chapter examines aspects of art as metadiscipline through three case studies: Nina Wakeford, Critical Art Ensemble, and Kader Attia
Truth by FRAUD
No full textWhat kind of claims can art make to truth? FRAUD's work on critical minerals makes such a set of claims, so it is good to ask what happens when they go at the question through art
Activating concrete: participatory design for DIY skate dots. City Mill Skate’s practice-based methodology at the UCL east campus
Get PDFThis article is about the participatory research processes used by City Mill Skate in London, UK, where public consultation was used to enhance meanwhile space on a university campus. The project aimed to promote equality in sport participation and in designing for the public realm. Through a program of community engagements beginning in the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns, co-designed model ‘skate dots’ became full scale skateable architecture. Designing spaces for skateboarding can open up a paradox between the disruptive and the institutional as many facilities are ‘DIY’ - built by skateboarders. Participatory design enacted skater-made material concepts to change the use of a university campus. DIY urbanism effects the ‘ownership’ of spaces which in turn impacts experiences of belonging. This research offers important insights into how relations of culture, place and learning can inform our understanding of community action. This paper documents practice-based methodologies that encourage a diverse set of contributors, acknowledge the need for safe public spaces, increase biodiversity, and attempt to respond to the unique set of environmental concerns that govern public/private parks. By employing strategies and tactics, the research methodology seeks to include insights from groups who have been under-represented in the construction of skateboard facilities
Blobbing Along: A Reflexive Review on How Menstruating During Fieldwork Affects Practice
Get PDFThis article examines the intersection of menstruation, productivity, crip theory, and fieldwork, highlighting a gap in existing literature that focuses on the physical implications of menstruation in field-based disciplines but neglects the psychological effects, particularly premenstrual syndrome (PMS), on qualitative research methods. This oversight reflects a broader issue: the tendency to frame menstruation within a neoliberal productivity discourse that prioritises efficiency and output over well-being. The author advocates for a paradigm shift that includes menstrual leave, greater menstrual literacy, and prioritising rest. Through a reflexive analysis of the author’s own fieldwork notes, the article offers a personal narrative exploring how menstruation influenced research practices. This reflection aims to encourage other menstruators to examine their own experiences, challenge the pressures of productivity, and adopt a more holistic, ethical approach to academic work. Ultimately, the article calls for a rethinking of how menstruation is understood in academia, emphasising care and ethical responsibility over mere productivity
From neoliberalism to neoexclusionism: how grassroots faith communities are resisting division and crossing borders
No full textThis chapter draws on empirical research with a range of faith-based youth and community workers in England and Scotland. Emerging themes include promoting inclusion and striving for justice in faith-based work; asset-based approaches to youth and community practice that reclaim grass-roots co-production; challenging neoliberal discourses of ‘deficit’ and ‘risk’; and recreating civil-democratic and dialogical spaces. We argue that in recent years, neoliberalism has morphed into something more sinister that we term neoexclusionism, where discourses of division and fear have been politicised with marginalised groups further stigmatised. Our research demonstrates how faith-based youth and community workers seek to resist this oppressive culture, which echoes dark facets of human history, by bringing people together to resist division and fear
“Bigger lows, but higher highs”: A qualitative exploration of the similarities and differences in quality of life of middle-aged and older autistic and non-autistic adults
Get PDFBackground: Autistic adults often report lower subjective quality of life (QoL) than non-autistic adults. Despite older age also often being associated with lower QoL, little is known about the first-hand experiences of, and influences on, QoL for middle-aged and older autistic adults compared with their non-autistic peers.
Method: Thirty-three participants (autistic n=15, non-autistic n=18) aged 50-89 years completed semi-structured interviewed that explored their QoL. Responses were thematically analysed, and themes were compared to identify similarities and differences between groups.
Results: Both autistic and non-autistic groups reported similar QoL experiences, but with subtle differences. Social support from family and friends was important for both groups. Both noted shrinking social networks with age, but the non-autistic group was often less satisfied with their social lives. Concerns about health and sleep changes were common, but autistic participants often mentioned persistent mental health issues affecting their wellbeing. Autistic individuals also highlighted sensory sensitivities and difficulties with change. Receiving their autism diagnosis was significant for autistic participants, aiding self-acceptance. Acceptance of age-related changes was common in both groups, but the autistic group was more willing to seek support, while the non-autistic group often saw asking for help as losing their independence.
Conclusions: These findings highlight similarities and differences in aspects relevant to QoL for middle-aged and older autistic and non-autistic adults. While many similarities were found, the autistic group reported subtle differences in their experiences. Experiences such as social connectedness and coping with change could be targeted to improve the QoL of ageing autistic adults
Being a therapist in a time of climate breakdown
No full textThis review of the new anthology, Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown (2024), identifies its broad relevance for psychotherapeutic practice. The book is an urgent call to bring climate justice, political justice and social justice into the therapeutic arena. The timely publication spans intellectual discourse, research, paradigmatic positionality, applications in practice and lived experience, moving with a tide towards delivering therapeutic support as a form of resistance at a time when our secure social, political and environmental bases are crumbling. It is an important contribution to psychotherapeutic discourse that troubles traditional Western notions of subjectivity and mental health interventions, bringing the issues of climate breakdown to the centre of ideas about subjectivity and emotional wellbeing. Overall, this book challenges us to think about our own responsiveness to mental health and provides a springboard to think about bringing our theory, practice and research into the 21st century
Kwapatakwapata! Young Malawian girls trapped in predatory odysseys
No full textImmigration continues to be a significant subject of political and public contention. The link between immigration and politics has become increasingly prominent in recent years, instigating the rise of different political parties and ideologies, both in the Global North and Global South. Immigration can also be described as the lifeblood of Brexit, the election of Donald Trump in the US. In the UK, immigration remains of of government’s priority pillars.
While immigration remains a topic of both global policy and public interest, the focus is usually on barring ‘immigration’. Consequently, the nuances of child migration, as told through the stories of the children and young people themselves, are often overlooked. The experiences of unaccompanied minors and other young migrants are frequently lost in broader immigration discussions, leading to a gap in understanding about unaccompanied minors or child migration in general. Yet, it is well documented that child migrants continue to face precarious realities. Media reports highlight the rescue of unaccompanied minors and adolescent girls among those crossing the English Channel and the detention of children in the US. Immigrants continue to be targeted with terror attacks, mob justice, racial and xenophobic fuelled attacks. Despite the appalling reports on the plight of migrants, there is still a lack of literature on the stories and experiences of unaccompanied minors and migrant children and young people especially girls and young women.
This chapter, therefore, seeks to address this gap by examining the lived experiences of child and young migrants, starting from the inception of their journey, partly through the lens of intersectionality. It positions immigration and asylum seeking as multifaceted phenomena rather than single-journey social phenomena, acknowledging the multiple levels of exploitation and inequalities faced by children and young people
Living Your Animal: Listening to Wild Gender and Sexuality
Get PDFThis paper identifies specific failures in listening within analytic practice, particularly as experienced by queer and trans patients, as illustrated through a psychoanalytic paper on cruising and anonymous sex. The discussion focuses on three recurring themes in analytic theory that often pathologize transgressive gender and sexuality: the discourse on “part-object relating,” the fixation on etiology, and an outdated approach to trauma, along with the assumption that wild gender and sexuality are inherently theatrical and ritualistic. The author advocates revisiting Jung’s ideas on sexuality through a queer interpretation of animal references in The Red Book and proposes a playful redefinition of the anima as animx—representing psychic discoveries related to gender and sexuality that possess a numinous quality and bring vitality. A brief film sequence illustrates Jung’s observation that one does not merely have a sexuality and spirituality—they have, or they possess, us. The proposed queer Jungian epistemology of gender and sexuality supports a less heroic vision of the analyst’s role, one that embraces discomfort as a catalyst for transformative change in both participants of the analysis
Harming children: the effects of the UK puberty blocker ban
Get PDFThis paper presents an analysis of data from trans children and young people and their parents following the imposition of a UK-wide ban on puberty blockers for this group. The consequences of this ban on trans and non-binary children and young people are analysed revealing very serious adverse effects, less than a year after its imposition, including sharply declining mental health, increased depression, social isolation, anxiety, stress, self-harm, school avoidance and suicide ideation. The ban appears to be a particular worry for children who are currently known only by their identified genders who fear being coercively outed. Parents themselves also report corresponding increases in levels of stress and worry about their children’s well-being and the possibility that they might attempt suicide. Increasing levels of transphobia and social exclusion since the ban’s imposition were also reported. The data presented here questions the entire rationale and ethical basis for the puberty blocker ban, providing hard evidence that it is both dangerous and unjustified given the significant level of harm it is causing