Free symposium, free lunch: occursus/plastiCities in conversation with Art Sheffield
ART AND WORK
occursus/plastiCities in conversation with Art Sheffield
Friday June 29th, 10am-4pm, with music and drinks at 4pm
Jessop West Exhibition Space, 1 Upper Hanover Street, University of Sheffield, S3 7RA
Art Sheffield and The University of Sheffield are collaborating on a
new series of participatory symposia and workshops reflecting on art in
the city. The aim is to generate debate around different aspects of
contemporary art practice. It is intended that these discussions will
feed into the planning and rationale for the next Art Sheffield
Festival, which will be launched in October 2013 and will cohere around
the central theme of new and old models of social and civic
participation and work.
The first symposium, to be held at the University of Sheffield on Friday 29th June,
will provide an opportunity for contributors from a wide range of
interests and backgrounds relating to this broad field of enquiry to
tease out strands to be used as ‘provocateurs’ that, over the course of
the next year, will encourage debate and dialogue.
The symposium will adopt a non-traditional format, interspersing
speakers with performances, readings, screenings, a city walk and a
collaborative roundtable discussion. As part of the programme, we will
also be offering a free lunchtime picnic, during which participants will
have the opportunity to meet and talk informally. The resulting content
will be documented and available online.
The themes we would like to explore on June 29th include (but are not limited to):
- works: the architecture of historic workplaces around the city
- craftsmanship and sites for creative activity
- spaces that have been taken up by both artist communities and developers
- devotion and vocation
- the reconnection with meaningful labour and talents; work removed from economic gain, as a counter to a meaningless, boredom or inertia – ‘waste of time jobs’ all relating to the shifting economy of the city
- social cohesion within the city; the construction and perpetuation of class systems preventing solidarity and new media as an alternative model
- the architecture and social and economic history of the city
Please register here for a place and free lunch.
SPEAKERS & PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE:
Benjamin Sabatier, artist and lecturer in fine art, Paris Sorbonne
Over the course of the day, Benjamin Sabatier will be making a live work relating to the themes of the symposium.
Benjamin
Sabatier lectures in fine art at the Sorbonne in Paris. A practising
artist whose work focuses on labour, work, waste and materiality, he is
represented by the Galerie Jérome de Noirmont in Paris. His work has
been widely exhibited across Europe.
Laura Sillars, Artistic Director, Site Gallery, Sheffield
Laura
Sillars is the Artistic Director of Site Gallery, Sheffield.
Previously, she was Programme Director for FACT (Liverpool). She was a
Clore Leadership Fellow, mentored by James Lingwood, Co-Director of
Artangel, who encouraged her to work with him to produce the company’s
first US commission with one of the world’s most influential
contemporary artists Mike Kelley – and she spent four months working
with him in Detroit.
On her return to the UK, Laura moved to Sheffield to become Director of Site Gallery – a contemporary art gallery focusing on newly commissioned work and UK premieres, providing a base for international residencies and offering support to artists at critical moments in their careers.
On her return to the UK, Laura moved to Sheffield to become Director of Site Gallery – a contemporary art gallery focusing on newly commissioned work and UK premieres, providing a base for international residencies and offering support to artists at critical moments in their careers.
Florian Kossak, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield
Florian
Kossak studied architecture at the Technical University Berlin and
received an MArch from the University of Strathclyde in 1997. After a
several year long collaboration with the Munich-based architect Otto
Steidle he co-founded the workers’ co-operative GLAS – Glasgow Letters
on Architecture and Space in 2001. In parallel, he has been teaching
architecture and urbanism in the design studio and through history and
theory courses since 1997, first at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich,
then Strathclyde University and, since 2006, at the University of
Sheffield. In 2008 he received his PhD from the Edinburgh College of
Art.
Dan Smith, Chelsea College of Art and Design
Dan
Smith is currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Theory at Chelsea
College of Art and Design. Having studied fine art in the early 1990s,
he went on to develop a collaborative curatorial practice concerned with
notions of collection and display under the name Wunderkammer. He has
written extensively on contemporary art in publications such as Art
Monthly, as well as engaging with theoretical approaches to notions of
archive, material culture, science fiction and utopia. He lives in the
North London suburb of Finchley.
Carolyn Butterworth, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield
After
qualifying as an architect at the Bartlett School, UCL, Carolyn
Butterworth joined van Heyningen and Haward Architects in London,
becoming a director of the practice in 2000 and working on a variety of
high profile educational and cultural buildings. She has taught on the
MArch course since 2001 and, since 2003, practised in Sheffield,
specialising in art/architecture projects.
Carolyn focuses on how teaching and the practice of architecture each informs the other. Her research is developed through practice and she actively encourages a methodology of action research in her teaching.
Carolyn focuses on how teaching and the practice of architecture each informs the other. Her research is developed through practice and she actively encourages a methodology of action research in her teaching.
Amanda Crawley Jackson, SLC, University of Sheffield
After
graduating from the University of Nottingham, Amanda Crawley Jackson
worked in music events management before completing a PhD on the early
works of Jean-Paul Sartre. She moved from Nottingham to Paris, where she
taught at the École Normale supérieure (Cachan) before taking up the
position of Lecturer in French, then Chair of European Languages and
Cultures, at the University of Wales, Lampeter. She joined the
Department of French at the University of Sheffield in 2000. She has
written widely on existentialist philosophy and fiction, prison writing
and contemporary visual arts in France. In all three cases, she is
particularly interested in the representation and practice of space
(cityscapes and carceral environments) and the politics of mobility.
Amanda is the director of occurs us/plastiCities.
Matthew Cheeseman, School of English, University of Sheffield
Matthew
Cheeseman is currently working on an AHRC-funded research project,
collaborating with Sheffield-based arts festivals in putting on a series
of refugee arts performances. See www.translatingperformance.org for
more details. He is also investigating the use of augmented reality to
aid public engagement. Working with the Sensoria Festival, some of his
research into place and music is contributing to designing walks through
Sheffield. Matt is the co-director of plastiCities.
Bhavani Esapathi, artist & Artwalk Schools Coordinator, Theatre Royal, Wakefield
Bhavani
Esapathi has an undergraduate degree in Journalism, Psychology and
English Literature from India. After which, she pursued a masters degree
in Cultural Studies from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and
Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. Her primary research
interests involve the ever-new conception of Digital Spaces. Having
worked for a project at the Centre for Internet and Society in India,
she now does freelance work for The Henry Moore Institute and other
respected gallery spaces around Yorkshire. She is intrigued by the realm
of digital spaces and probes the ‘meaning’ of being digital in our
everyday life.
Bryan Eccleshall, artist
After
graduating in 1988 Bryan pursued a non-art career and worked in non-art
jobs. He spent several years working in various positions in a large
book manufacturers in Bath. After that he worked for nearly three years
at Hodder Headline Publishers in London as a Production Controller. He
returned to art practice in 2001, and in September 2005 pursued that
practice full time.
Cristina Cerulli, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield
Cristina
qualified as an architetto in Florence in 1999. Since then she has
worked in practice and academia in Sheffield and London. After
completing her PhD research on supporting learning within design
practices in 2004, she has been a full time lecturer at the School of
Architecture at the University of Sheffield. At the School of
Architecture Cristina coordinates Knowledge Exchange activities, she is
responsible for the teaching of management and practice across our
courses, she also co-runs a MArch design studio (with Tatjana
Schneider), Housing +, teaches in the Master of Urban Design, supervises
student research at various levels and is involved in several funded
research projects. She is also an active member of the research centre
agency: transformative research into practice and education. Within the
University of Sheffield she is a founding member and director of the
Built Environment Theme of the Social Enterprise Research Exchange
(SERX) , a centre leading knowledge development with and for social
enterprise.
She founded Studio Polpo with Mark Parsons in 2008.
Cristina’s research, teaching and design practice is underpinned by a desire to collaborate with others in ways that question and rethink the boundaries between approaches, roles and disciplines.
She founded Studio Polpo with Mark Parsons in 2008.
Cristina’s research, teaching and design practice is underpinned by a desire to collaborate with others in ways that question and rethink the boundaries between approaches, roles and disciplines.
Luke Bennett, Sheffield Hallam University
Luke
Bennett studied sociology, politics and law at Cardiff University in
the late 1980s. He then joined Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) in 2007
after 17 years in commercial legal practice as a solicitor advising on
environmental and public safety law. At SHU Luke has been working on
research projects including urbex and bunkerology (a study of the
meanings, motives and methods of recreational trespass to derelict
industrial and military sites); landowners and land managers perceptions
of liability risk for public safety upon their land and within their
buildings; metal theft and the built environment.
Lesley Guy, artist, writer and co-director of Bloc Projects, Sheffield
Lesley Guy is an artist, writer and curator based in Sheffield, UK.
She is a member of Host Artist’s Group, Furlough and Co-director of Bloc Projects, an artist led contemporary art space.
She is a member of Host Artist’s Group, Furlough and Co-director of Bloc Projects, an artist led contemporary art space.
Angelina Ayers, poet
As
writer in residence at Bank Street Arts, Angelina Ayers explores modes
of ekphrasis to examine how writing drawn from art can move beyond
description, or imitation; to investigate how different writers respond
to various media and how writing techniques can capture the working
process of an artist without undermining notions of originality and
authenticity. Her practice seeks to understand the value of ekphrastic
writing, to aim for a mode of writing more integral to the art source,
while also achieving its own unique and independent status.
Rachel Genn, writer
Rachel
Genn is a neuroscientist and a novelist with a fascination for regret.
Her first novel The Cure was published by Corsair in May, 2011.
SKINN, Sheffield
SKINN is a not-for-profit development agency working in Shalesmoor, Kelham Island & Neepsend.
Simon Marginson, artist and writer
Simon Marginson is the co-founder with Hondartza Fraga of Plundering Troops|Reading Lab in Leeds.
Plundering Troops is an informal reading group open to those interested in discussing issues in and around modern art and contemporary visual culture, their theories, histories and contexts.
Held fortnightly the meetings take place every other Wednesday. The reading lab is open to everyone, whether you are in formal education, academia, engaged in artistic or curatorial practice, or have a general interest.
Plundering Troops is an informal reading group open to those interested in discussing issues in and around modern art and contemporary visual culture, their theories, histories and contexts.
Held fortnightly the meetings take place every other Wednesday. The reading lab is open to everyone, whether you are in formal education, academia, engaged in artistic or curatorial practice, or have a general interest.
Sid Fletcher, artist
Sid Fletcher is a Sheffield-based artist and he will be leading an urban walk during the symposium.
PROGRAMME
- 10am – introduction by Amanda Crawley Jackson
- 10.20am – Bhavani Esapathi
- 10.40am – Bryan Eccleshall
- 11am – Simon Marginson
- 11.20 – break and informal discussions
- 11.40am – Dan Smith
- 12pm – Florian Kossak
- 12.20pm – Luke Bennett
- 12.40pm – SKINN
- 1pm – Lunch, walk (depending on weather), informal discussions
- 2pm – Angelina Ayers
- 2.15pm – Rachel Genn
- 2.30pm – Cristina Cerulli
- 2.50pm – Carolyn Butterworth
- 3.10pm – Matt Cheeseman
- 3.25pm – Discussion led by Laura Sillars and Lesley Guy
- 4pm – music, wine & informal discussions
- 5pm – close
