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Grace and harmony
No full textIn Grace and Harmony Thomasson is joined by a small group of performers for a musical theatre experiment. The work uses song and dance to describe the fantasy and sometimes awkward reality of trying to gracefully move in and out of social encounters. Having learnt the song and dance routine separately, they come together in public to perform for the first time, and do their best to move in time and sing in harmony
Endless love
No full textAn exhibtion of paintings and installation, as well as a performance of Security, 2023, during Berlin Art Wee
Solving fashion's product returns: How to keep value in a closed loop system
Get PDFA sobering reality The impact of the fashion and textiles industry on the environment has, by now, been well documented: it accounts for 5% of global emissionsa and consumes 93 billion cubic metres of water annuallyb, as well as other non-renewable resources. It is also a source of pollution, releasing 500,000 tonnes of microfibres into the ocean from washing processes each yearc. However, the part which fashion returns play in the environmental footprint of the industry has not been fully understood until now. E-commerce, for all the opportunities it brings to the fashion industry, has also resulted in a growing wave of fashion returns, which is an issue that affects the online channel far more than bricks-and-mortar retail. COVID-19 had a part to play in this, as consumers turned to online channels when stores were shut, and retailers extended their returns windows to stay compelling and competitive, e.g., John Lewis (35 days from store reopening), Marks & Spencer (90 days) and TK Maxx (30 days from store reopening)d. As such, clothes were no longer tried on in stores prior to purchase, and instead at home, automatically increasing the likelihood of returns. While there are many other reasons for consumers buying online and returning at a higher frequency than before, one thing is for certain: the economic and environmental costs of returns can no longer be ignored. Although offering free returns has been a way for many retailers and brands to drive sales in the past, the cost of encouraging and processing returns is turning out to be very high. The UK fashion industry is estimated to lose at least £7 billion in 2022 due to returnse. However, what is most concerning about returns in the long run is their environmental impact. UK returns are estimated to generate about 750,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2022, out of which 350,000 tonnes come from reverse logistics processesf . There is also a significant amount of waste generated, as fashion returns that cannot be resold, reused or recycled may be sent to landfill or incinerated. To ensure the sustainability and long-term value of the fashion industry, it is therefore critical that all fashion industry stakeholders come together to set new standards and processes for a less wasteful future. Industry stakeholders need to rethink pre-consumer and postconsumer engagement and address operational topics such as sizing issues, reverse logistics emissions, to accelerate the journey towards a more responsible industry. This could be done through the use of new technologies (e.g., electric vehicles to reduce transport emissions, process automation to make returns handling more efficient), and advanced analytics solutions to truly understand the causes for returns and how to reduce them in the most effective way possible. Retailers and brands can either choose to in-house the implementation of these technology solutions or to work with strategic partners and technology providers to address this agenda. Data solutions are also needed to create transparency across the industry, so that all stakeholders can have a clear view of their emissions at each step of the product journey, including the returns process
Nuclear colonialism in Maralinga
Get PDFNuclear colonialism is a uniquely 20th-century form of imperialism. It destroyed countless lives and cultures, permanently displaced people and traditions, and launched an endless desire for the development and testing of weapons with ever-increasing destructive capabilities. Its most lasting consequences, however, persist in the DNA and lands of its Indigenous victims. In the decades since the first nuclear detonation in 1945, Indigenous peoples around the world have been disproportionately affected by the intergenerational trauma of the atomic blasts – their lands repeatedly colonised, irradiated and abandoned. As remediation and repatriation of nuclear landscapes increase, an important question emerges: is a land poisoned by atomic blasts still the land it once was
H Blocks: An architecture of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland
No full textA place of incarceration and liberation, political debate and historical denial, the H Block cell units of Long Kesh/Maze prison in Northern Ireland housed members of both Republican and Loyalist military groups during 'The Troubles' and are now considered 'icons' of that conflict. The H Block's dual status as an articulation of and resistance against power mean that the area is still one of the most contested sites of conflict in Europe. Based on a long-standing site-specific investigation, and drawing on a range of sources from architectural plans to photographs of street protests, H Blocks explores the material relationship between the prison as a built articulation of power and its inhabitants, highlighting the ethical and political roles that architecture can play in situations of conflict. It also addresses the afterlife of such sites after the end of conflict and how they can adapt to the changing cultural meanings of their space. The book demonstrates how the conflicted histories of the prison are configured in its design and destruction, and the inhabitation and attempted preservation of the site itself, revealing how its architecture is bound up with questions of power and resistance, embodiment and attachment, witnessing and remembering, the materiality of history and its commodification
Caminhando, em luta pelos territórios da existência
Get PDFOver the last few years, the people of Barroso, have done an incredible job of resisting "green" mining, organising themselves into associations and collectives, informing people, writing to newspapers, making themselves heard in parish or municipal assemblies, organising demonstrations, debunking much that is wrongly said, taking part in various cultural events to draw more people into the struggle, creating online pages and producing maps, visualisations and reports, taking every opportunity to inform people about the socio-environmental impacts of mining. They have also taken action in the courts, filing appeals, injunctions and criminal complaints, as well as in the formal environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes, mobilising people to contribute thousands of times to the various public consultations on these proposals. They have done this for the territories and for a future for all of us
Futuros-outros
Get PDFGiven the well-known political and financial structures that underlie the world of architecture biennials and triennials, it is impossible to attempt a reflection on the content of any of these events without considering their production conditions. There are frequent contradictions between the ethical and political commitments evident in the pieces and exhibition discourses, and the processes that underlie them, whether in terms of labour, remuneration, curatorial practices or the policies of the institutions that promote them. While these contradictions reveal a good deal of cynicism or elite capture, it is nonetheless true that biennials are also the stage for important struggles for the future of the field, as they have great public visibility and become spaces from which to promote widespread change. The most recent Venice Architecture Biennale, which opened on 17 May, is an interesting example of this
Dress, masculinities and memory: Commemorating the revolutionary body in Ireland
Get PDFThis thesis analyses the commemoration of the Revolutionary Period (1912–1923) in Ireland during the current Decade of Centenaries (2012–2023) by exploring the embodiment of national memory through dress and the body. I question the impact of the commemoration of conflict on constructions of masculine and national identity. I analyse how conflict is interpreted, remembered, and re-enacted on and through the male body as part of the practice of remembrance. Finally, I demonstrate how an analysis of dress and the body can destabilise the history and memory of conflict and force new perspectives on the continual reshaping of material culture through remembrance. The Revolutionary Period saw a series of violent conflicts and political crises erupt across Ireland, which led to the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 and, eventually, the Republic of Ireland in 1949. As of 2012, Ireland entered a period of successive centenary commemorations that have enabled a re-examination of national memory and the re-enactment of history. Throughout this research, I engage ideas of authenticity, myth, and the making of history to analyse how bodies – living and dead, dressed and undressed – move through the time and space of conflict. This research reconciles the history of the Revolutionary Period with the history of commemoration, with a particular focus on how Irish masculinities and nationhood are articulated in history-making and the relationship between embodied memory and dress. Through an interdisciplinary methodological framework, this thesis engages dress as an embodiment of history and memory to analyse how the Revolutionary Period has been and is being commemorated in museum exhibitions, plays, performances, digital media and as living history. Dress and the body constitute my primary source materials. They complicate Irish national memory and demonstrate the significance of the materiality of war, conflict, and crisis in the process of commemoration and in the cultivation of a national and collective memory
Wearables for personalised posture
Get PDFBodily posture is representative of physical and mental health. Poor posture can lead to spinal complications, and the same can be said vice versa. Various wearable systems have recently been designed to detect spinal posture and provide live biofeedback when poor posture is sustained. This workshop will focus on combining expert’s technical specialities with user-centred techniques in developing an inclusive personalised posture management intervention, including an exploration in wearable devices. Participants will be encouraged to react to various user scenarios and combine their expert knowledge to ideate solutions. Additionally, the research team will present a wearable prototype designed in house to foster exploratory discussions around its application to guide future development efforts
The trace of the democratic creature: Art practice as transitory phenomena through re-enactment
Get PDFWhat is the role of art in moments of social transformation? How can the re-enactment of concrete art events from historic turning points can help us to reconceptualise moments of civil instability in thempresent? How might we understand democratic society as a form of creature, one that grows and requires care, and what kinds of traces does this creature leave behind? This practice-led research considers three art events linked with recent Spanish history that I revisit through the development of three large-scale art projects presented as case studies. It adresses three art events ran by other artists in the past embarking on intense historical research of the particular episodes in order to offer a reconsideration of its impact, legacy and translation within the present context. Hence, each project also helps to analyse and portraits aspects of the present Spanish socio-political actual realm. The project speculates on the presented case studies as three exercises of artistic re-enactment; all the specific techniques and supports involved in their creation are selected through a work of mediaarchaeology that conceptually links them with the specific past art events that are being artistically revisited. The title of this research (The Trace of the Democratic Creature) is informed by the ideas of the paediatrician and relational psychoanalyst D.W Winnicott who at some point compares the child with society and Maturity with Democracy. The research case studies rescue past art events coming from social paradigm shifts as the formation of new states and early democracies in order to see if they can affect our better understanding of the power control structures in the now. In this sense, it looks at our common wealth realities as creatures in our custody needing constant care in a context with constant threats. In the subtitle of this research (Art Practice as Transitory Phenomena through Re-enactment) Art initiatives are presented as hypothetic transitory phenomena in the framework of relational psychoanalysis. Inspired by the idees of Winnicott’s transitional object, relational psychoanalysis puts special attention on the framing of the psychoanalitical setting, understunding that some objects can give ‘support’ to society in certain moments of its developmental process. In this sense, this project also reflects on the role of art institutions as platforms that must take care of the setting in which art projects dealing wiht the past take place in order to be effective