Thursday 13 April at 13.30 – 15.00 (local time CEST, Antwerp, Belgium)
at Cumulus Antwerp 2023 conference
Onsite: the University of Antwerp, Rector Dhanis, Kleine Kauwenberg 14, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Room: K.103
Online: Zoom (link to come)
Cumulus Contemporary Art Working Group
Title: Contemporary Art Practice: Connectivity and Creativity in times of Conflict
Context: For this session we have invited 3 International guest speakers from the UK, China and the US. They will share examples of best practice in relation to how they have developed research that connects and sparks creativity in times of conflict through artistic practice. Following their presentations, we will as a group, discuss how these different methodological approaches and artistic endeavours can open up a space for public pedagogy.
Society is being constantly challenged by conflict (global/local), the roles of technology and colour within artistic practice is ever shifting. By reflecting on the artistic research strategies employed by Dr Michael Pinchbeck, Luanne Stovall and Claire Qi. Together, we will aim to shed light on new tactics for sparking creativity in times of conflict.
Guest Speaker: Claire Chenxi Qi is a lecturer and researcher in art history, curating, and media art practice at the EDNA Joint Institute (NACAA) of the China Academy of Art (CAA) in Hangzhou, China.
Claire Chenxi Qi has sixteen years of experience managing international master program in CAA with German and French partners. Currently, she is the program manager of the Art&Technology BA level of NACAA and program manager of the Integrated Design Joint Master program between CAA and EDNA (L’École de Design Nantes Atlantique France). She is the contact person of CAA in Cumulus since 2020. Her VR documentaries won national awards in China. Her research focuses on algorithmic art and media design.
Her presentation for Contemporary Art Working Group in Antwerp Cumulus 2023 is about the algorithmic art and artists in Germany in the 1960s. As a special type of art created by mathematicians, engineers, and programmers, algorithmic art was covered under the bigger concept of computer art. It was and still is a perfect example of art practice in a conflicting context.
Speaker: Dr Michael Pinchbeck, Reader in Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University, (UK)
Staging Loss: Performing the personal archive in immersive theatre and site-specific audio work.
I am a Nottingham-based writer, director and theatre maker with over 25 years of experience. I co-founded Metro-Boulot-Dodo in 1997. I was commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse to write The White Album (2006), The Ashes (2011) and Bolero (2014), premiering at Nottingham Playhouse before touring Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo supported by the British Council. My work has been selected four times for the British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase. In 2018, I was commissioned by New Perspectives to write and direct a play inspired by Berger and Mohr’s 1967 book, A Fortunate Man, which toured to the Edinburgh Fringe, Singapore Fringe and Theaterszene Europa, Cologne. I have since made A Seventh Man, supported by Arts Council England, New Perspectives, Nottingham Playhouse and Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. I am now making Another Way of Telling, supported by Manchester School of Art and Harrogate Theatre. This project will complete The Berger and Mohr Trilogy.
I have written articles for Contemporary Theatre Review, Dance Theatre Journal, Repertorio, Studies in Theatre and Performanceand Performance Research. My work has featured in Podium, DIY: Do It Yourself and Routledge’s The Twenty First Century Performance Reader (2020) I have published an edited collection for Intellect’s Playtext Series, Acts of Dramaturgy: The Shakespeare Trilogy (2020). My ongoing research explores relationships between dramaturgy and practice-as research. I am interested in the intersections between composed theatre and orchestral theatre and ‘staging scores’, taking musical approaches to dramaturgy and dramaturgical approaches to music. My recent practice-as-research explores the notion of performance as commemoration and how theatre remembers. I have developed an extensive body of work around one-to-one performance and am writing a new publication, Brief Encounters: The politics, poetics and ethics of one-to-one performance.
https://www.theatre.mmu.ac.uk/staff/mpinchbeck/
Speaker: Luanne Stovall. Artist, colour theorist, and educator (University of Texas, Austin, US)
Integrating 21st Century Colour Literacy into Contemporary Art & Design Practices: Artist, colour theorist, and educator Luanne Stovall will share her journey from teaching traditional colour theory in university art and design courses to a new interdisciplinary STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) model for 21st Century Colour Literacy. Call-to-Action: In response to our evolving global challenges, it is essential for educators to provide state-of-the-art skills, tools, and resources for colour literacy training — so students can work together across diverse industries to implement creative, effective, and sustainable solutions.
https://www.luannestovall.com/
Chair of Contemporary Art Working Group: Dr Rhiannon Jones, Associate Professor (Civic), Social Practitioner, University of Derby, UK
Dr Rhiannon Jones is a UK based artist researcher and Associate Professor (Civic) for University of Derby where they lead the Civic Lab. Jones is chair of Cumulus: International Contemporary Working Art Group, Board of Trustees for New Art Exchange and resident artist at Primary Studios, Nottingham. Jones is a DerbyCAN steering group member, Stakeholder for Bolton Arts CIC and is a member of National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and a regular member of the All Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group and case study for National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange.
In 2012, Jones co-founded InDialogue, a collaborative international research project that interrogates how artists and researchers use dialogue in their practice. InDialogue has curated four International Conferences, hosted three International residencies and supported over 600 artists since 2012 – from over 15 countries.
Jones is the founding director and CEO / Creative Director of Designing Dialogue (S.H.E.D) a Community Interest Company that currently runs S.H.E.D. A mobile flat-pack, popup arts venue and public space dedicated to artistic research through public engagement. To date, it has delivered a wide range of projects in different cities working with National Museums, F.A Charitable Trusts, Local Authorities, Councils and Foundations, Festivals, National Forrest, Schools, Creative and Cultural Industry Partners across the UK. It has had over 10,000 people attend with 24k plus engagements and recently shortlisted for Shed of the year, 2020, was a finalist in the UK Green Gown Awards for ‘benefiting community’ 2021, and finalist for Universities Alliance Award 2022. It is also the first-ever Spinout company for the University of Derby. Installed at V&A Dundee (2021) for Design for Planet, Commissioned by Design Council, UK for their Summit for COP26 and recently a solo exhibition at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham.
https://www.derby.ac.uk/staff/rhiannon-jones/
