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Marcus Maloney

Coventry University, UK

Marcus Maloney is Lecturer in Sociology and Research Associate in the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University. Marcus’ research focuses on digital masculinities, video gaming cultures/communities, and ideological contestations in digital spaces. He has published widely in these areas, including recent articles in New Media & Society, Cultural Sociology and Games and Culture. Marcus is author of two research monographs, the most recent being Gender, Masculinity and Video Gaming: Analysing Reddit’s r/gaming Community (Palgrave 2019). 

Secondment destination TBC

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Chiara Valci Mazzara

Kunstverein am Rosa Luxemburg Platz, Berlin

Chiara Valci Mazzara is a curator and writer, based in Berlin. She studied Communications Sciences, specialized in Business and Institutional Communication with focus on contemporary art management at Sapienza University, Rome. During her fifteen years collaboration with Fondazione Morra, she developed various projects presenting avantgarde artistic tendencies and in particular performances and installations by Hermann Nitsch, Shozo Shimamoto and Living Theatre. Her research focuses on interdisciplinary artistic expressions in particular installation, site-specific projects and performance. She curates and writes for artists and art institutions in Europe and East Asia. Her work as curator has been reviewed and her essays published in various books, catalogues and contemporary art magazines as well as in various newspapers in Italy, the UK, France, Poland, Germany and South Korea.
Presently she is Resident Curator for Fondazione Morra, Naples, IT; Curator for Kunstverein am Rosa- Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, DE; International Artistic Director for K.P. Art Centre, Seoul, KR.

Secondment destinations:
AKADEMIE VYTVARNYCH UMENI V PRAZE, Prague: 2023

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Susanne Prinz

Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz e.V. , Berlin

SUSANNE PRINZ is a curator and writer based in Berlin. She studied Art History, American Studies and Politics at the Universität Leipzig and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. After several years of experience in the commercial art world and as a freelance curator she currently is the director of L40-Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Berlin). Since its relocation in 2010, she has presented a program of more than 100 exhibitions and events. Her special focus is on art in the public realm and time-based art. Most recent projects in or for the public realm were Flagge Zeigen / Showing True Colours (http://infectedlandscapes.eu/ ), the Activist Neuroaesthetics Festival  (https://activistneuroaesthetics.art/) and the implementation of Native Tongue XR by New Aotearoa (NZ) artist Gill Gatfield in the Metaverse and reality (with Chiara Valci Mazzara).
In addition to her curatorial work she has taught at the art academies in Berlin, Kassel, Salzburg, Linz and Montpellier.

Secondment destinations
The Royal College of Art, London: Nov/Dec 2022-January 2023
TAIDEYLIOPISTO, Helsinki: 2023

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Mel Jordan, Prof.

Coventry University, UK

Mel Jordan is an artist, academic and founding member of the Partisan Social Club. Jordan is Professor of Art & the Public Sphere, Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University. Her research is concerned with the potential of art as a political tool through its role as a form of opinion formation in the public domain. Jordan is principal editor of Art & the Public Sphere Journal (2009). Exhibitions include Istanbul Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, BAK, Utrecht, Wysing Arts, Cambridge, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam, the ICA London, Centro Cultural, Montehermoso, Vitoria, Spain. Recent journal articles include ‘Toppling Statues, Affective Publics and the Lessons of Black Lives Matter Movement’, (2021) (with Dave Beech) ‘On Trying to be Collective’ (2020) (with Andy Hewitt). Jordan is Co-i on the SPACEX. She is Work Package Leader 2: PRACTICES, and Work Package 5: Communication, Dissemination and Outreach.

Secondment destinations:
Sirius Cork, Ireland: April, August, Sept 2022
Transparadiso, Vienna, Austria: 2023
Laboratory of Urban Commons, Athens, Greece: 2023
Casco, Utrecht, The Netherlands: 2024
Wonder Cabinet, Bethlehem, Palestine: 2025

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Andy Hewitt

University of Northampton, UK

Andy Hewitt is an artist, academic and founding member of the Partisan Social Club, http://partisansocialclub.com/. Hewitt is Associate Professor, Fine Art: Art & the Public Sphere, Faculty of Art, Science and Technology, University of Northampton. His research is concerned with the potential of art as a political tool through its role as a form of opinion formation in the public domain. Hewitt is a founding  editor of Art & the Public Sphere Journal (2009). He was Chair of Trustees for NN Contemporary Art from 2020- 2022 and is currently a member of the board. Exhibitions include Istanbul Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, BAK, Utrecht, Wysing Arts, Cambridge, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam, the ICA London, Centro Cultural, Montehermoso, Vitoria, Spain.

Recent journal articles include: ‘On Trying to be Collective’ (2020) (with Mel Jordan).Hewitt is Project Co-ordinator and Principal Lead for SPACEX https://www.spacex-rise.org/. He is lead for Work Package 1: Project Management, and Work Package 5: Communication, Dissemination and Outreach.

Secondment destinations:
Sirius, Cork, Ireland: April, August, September 2022
Transparadiso, Vienna Austria: 2023
Casco, Utrecht, The Netherlands: 2024
Laboratory of Urban Commons, Athens, Greece: 2023
Wonder Cabinet, Bethlehem, Palestine: 2025


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Sirius Front view

Andy Hewitt & Mel Jordan at Sirius Arts Centre

Andy Hewitt / Mel Jordan

Sirius Arts Centre, County Cork, Ireland, April 2022.

We are making three visits to Sirius in 2022 to complete a 31-day secondment. Our SPACEX research project is centred around ideas of commoning and the function of art as a politicizing tool. See our forthcoming essay, ‘Relational associations and critical deliberative processes as a politicalising force in social art practice’, 2022, Art & The Public Sphere, 11.1.

 

Our project for Sirius takes up a particular history of land ownership, focusing on the writing of Cork born, philosopher William Thompson. It is entitled, Talk to the Land and will include the development of participatory art project and an exhibition in one of the gallery spaces at Sirius. We are also planning more visits in order to develop our work on Thompson via public events and discussions. 

 

William Thompson’s An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human Happiness; applied to the Newly Proposed System of Voluntary Equality of Wealth, was first published in 1824. It was Thompson’s first major work in political economy, and it contains his most comprehensive critique of capitalism as well as his proposals for a co-operative society as an alternative to the existing state of affairs, which saw acute poverty amongst the lower classes in Ireland and the UK. Thompson identified many of the themes and analysis Marx and Engels would tackle half a century later. Common to them both is the use of the labour theory of value and of exploitation in understanding the creation of surplus value, wealth, and consequently inequality and mass unhappiness. It is claimed that Thompson popularised the word ‘competitive’ as a description of capitalism and also the word ‘socialism’ in debates in London with such notable political economists as John Stuart Mill. 

 

While on secondment at Sirius we visited Thompson’s old estate at Carhoogarriff, it was here that he proposed experiments for commoning. He willed the land to the cooperative movement although this was overturned and his sisters finally inherited the land. There is no evidence of the tower that he built as part of his experiment, no buildings remain. There is a plague memorising Thompson, (see image) but there is little more to acknowledge Thompson’s place in the history of socialism. 

 

Our work for, Talk to the Land, will see us engaging with his book, Practical Directions for the Speedy and Economical Establishment of Communities on the Principles of Mutual Co-operation, United Possessions and Equality of Exertions and the Means of Enjoyments, (Strange and E. Wilson: London), 1830. We are working on a new film, a collaborative leaflet and a series of text works.

Andy and Mel in conversation with Miguel and Ardeen at Sirius
Andy and Mel in conversation with Miguel and Ardeen at Sirius
Plague for Thompson at Carhoogarriff
Plague for Thompson at Carhoogarriff
Sirius from Gallery – Sea view
Sirius from Gallery – Sea view
Thompson’s book in the landscape at Carhoogarriff
Thompson’s book in the landscape at Carhoogarriff

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SPACEX Training Event Artists / Writers Bursaries

We are delighted to announce three micro-bursaries for artists, writers and community activists to attend a SPACEX training event and public forum on arts and the urban commons in Coventry on June 30th and July 1st 2022. 

We have two bursaries of £150 to support creative practitioners to attend the two-day Spacex training event at Coventry University’s Centre for Postdigital Cultures. Day 1 introduces ethnographic research, field research and participant observation methods and brings researchers that have been working with publics through participation and creative practices to share their work. Day 2 is entitled the Arts and the Urban Commons Forum and is held at the LTB showrooms. Artists, curators and scholars share their work and ideas around the city and culture’s role in living together empathetically.  The bursaries are available for CV-postcode applicants who are invested in processes of commoning, community and public art in their practice, or who would like to learn about these themes. 

We are also offering a writer’s bursary of £300 for an artist to attend the Arts and the urban commons forum on Friday 1st July, and to write a 1,000 word review of the event. The bursary recipient will receive mentoring / support from Mel Jordan (SPACEX / Partisan Social Club). We are interested in supporting a creative practitioner who wants to develop their art writing and/or critical writing. The bursaries are available for a CV-postcode applicant who may have interests in arts–led regeneration, contemporary art, public and socially–engaged art.

We are keen to receive applications from Black and Global Majority artists, those who identify as living with a disability, and creative people from backgrounds which are currently underrepresented in the arts.

Please note the LTB Showrooms venue does not have wheelchair access.

How to apply

Please complete this short application form for bursaries to attend the 2-day SPACEX event, or this form to apply for the critical writing bursary by 5pm 6 June 2022.

Any queries please email [email protected]

Read more about the SPACEX Training Event here

 

Badges for opinion formation, Freee Art Collective & Partisan Social Club, ongoing
Shopping, still from Phoenix City, Duncan Whitley 2021

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SPACEX Training Event – June 30 & July 1, 2022

Day 1: Hosted by Centre for Postdigital Cultures @ ICE Building, Coventry University, UK. Starts: 10.45 registration, 11am – 6.00pm

Day 2: Hosted by Centre for Postdigital Cultures @ LTB Showrooms (upstairs at The Litten Tree Pub) Coventry, UK. Starts: 09.30 coffee / registration, 10 am – 6.00pm

SPACEX responds to the troubling rise of populist nationalism and conflict in European societies by engaging new publics and forging a culture that embraces diversity, difference, and discursive exchange within cities, towns and urban sites.

The lack of interdisciplinary knowledge by those working in the cultural sector has significantly affected the way in which the social benefit of cultural activities is understood, articulated and applied. SPACEX proposes that inventing new and inclusive ways of living together, requires the implementation of new transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral practices and methods, that connect spatial practice with cultural sociology, cultural policy, critical pedagogies and behavioural economics

The Coventry based SPACEX training event will consist of two days of talks and presentations addressing the contexts outlined in the SPACEX research action. The aim of the two-day event is to review research methods that draw on perspectives across the social sciences and humanities, in order that SPACEX researchers can devise an approach best suited to their contribution to the SPACEX action. The first day entitled, ‘An introduction to Cultural Sociology’, will cover traditional ethnographic research, field research and participant observation methods. It will introduce researchers to action research (with others), affective methodologies and creative and arts-based methods as well as feminist approaches to new societal challenges. While day one – concerns itself with methods and processes that help to explore the social and cultural contexts of working with others, day two engages with the institutions and practices of the city. For day two entitled ‘Arts and the urban commons: new visions for the phoenix city’ we move out of the university and into the city where we will discuss the issues arising from Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture. We will hear from artists, curators, researchers and local citizens, this will give an insight into some of the cultural activities that are played out in the city as well as the broader context of arts and culture as a UK government process of regeneration. We imagine questions of agency, function and the depoliticization of arts and culture will result from the talks and conversations planned for the day.

Confirmed speakers

(Day 1) Dr. Marcus Maloney, Dr. Akilah Maxwell, Dr. Saba Hussain, Dr Adrienne Evans, (Day 2) Duncan Whitley, Ryan Hughes, Diane Dever, Dan Thompson. Poster Provocations x 5: includes Melissandre Varin (B.o.o.K), Christine Eade.

Jasper Joseph-Lester & Simon King – The Walkative Project
Public participants creating a mosaic out of recycled archaeological finds at Kingston Museum with Recycle Archaeology

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SPACEX KICK OFF meeting – exciting moments at the beginning of the project.

In 2020 we had to suspend the SPACEX project because of the COVID Pandemic and it was beginning to be hard to imagine it would ever start.  On 3rd February 2022, we hosted the SPACEX Kick off meeting. It was amazing to see so many researchers and organisations join the meeting. It enabled us all to get a sense of all the practitioners, curators, researchers, and activists that had committed to the project. This was the first time most people had met each other and this meeting enabled us to put faces to researchers who until now had just been abstract names aligned to institutions. The desire for a network around critical and spatial practices across the EU and beyond is a possibility and we have all started to make it happen.

SPACEX KICK OFF meeting – exciting moments at the beginning of the project. Read More »

Hold the Date! SPACEX ‘Work Package’ Seminar and Researcher Meetings.

Tuesdays 15, 22 & 29 March 2022 @ GMT 4.30 – 6pm CET 5.30- 7pm, EET+2 6.30 – 8pm

15 March 2022 PRACTICES
22 March 2022 URBAN SUBJECTS
29 March 2022 THE ARCHIVE    

We are hosting a series of three research ‘Work Package’ meetings.  The sessions will be an opportunity for SPACEX researchers to engage with the aims of the research action, framed around the Work Packages outlined in the SPACEX Grant Agreement. 

It will be an opportunity to meet other researchers from the network and for us all to discuss how our research, practice and cultural programming can fit with the SPACEX project. Meeting fellow researchers will also help in the planning of the Secondment Person Months over the period of the project. 

The seminars include contributions from leading researchers from the network who will offer insights on their own research activity. For the work package PRACTICES Barbara Holub and Paul Rajakovics will present their work, which sees over 2 decades of them working as transparadiso in the public realm with artistic practices, their most recent projects include the exhibition NORMAL direct urbanism x 4, 2021 at Forum Stadtpark Graz. The URBAN SUBJECTS session is led by Stavros Stavides, author of a number of books and articles on the commons, including ‘Common Space: the City as Commons’; THE ARCHIVE sees Christa Mia Lerm Hayes introducing her work and sharing her knowledge of practice research, author of numerous books most recently ‘W.G.Sebald’s Artistic Legacies: Memory, Word and Image’, 2022.

After hearing from the speakers there will be an opportunity for all researchers to contribute to a round table discussion in which all participants will be asked to introduce themselves and their research/ practice/ programming interests

All SPACEX researchers are welcome to all work package meetings (you don’t have to commit yet) and it will be great to see you at as many of these events as you can make so we get to know each other and gather some momentum as a community. 

Hold the Date!
SPACEX Seminar 1: PRACTICES
Tuesday 15 March 2022 @ GMT 4.30 – 6pm GMT +1 5.30- 7pm, GMT+2 6.30 – 8pm.
Speakers: Artists and SPACEX Researchers Barbara Holub & Paul Paul Rajakovics
Chaired by: Mel Jordan and Andrew Hewitt

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