Researchers

Coventry University, UK

Alex is an artist doing a practice based PhD at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures at Coventry University exploring how art workshops act as a form of world building and speculative fiction – in terms of ideas, social relationships and materials produced. She has an interest in creating structures to support group work and is part of Studio Yea with Eva Freeman and Youngsook Choi who are a group of artists exploring how to support each other in these precarious times. Alex has an MA in Contemporary Art Practice: Public Sphere course from the Royal College of Art, and a BA in Social Anthropology and Media from Goldsmiths University. She has worked with the Pumphouse Gallery, FACT, and Hackney Council. Recent journal articles include ‘Structures within structures: Examining alternative cultures of learning in the institution’ (2021) with Sadie Edginton and Cicilia Östholm.

Secondment Destinations:
Home for Cooperation, Nicosia, Cyprus: TBC

University of Amsterdam

Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, University of Amsterdam and has led the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture. Until 2014 she was Professor of Iconology in Belfast. She studied in Heidelberg, London and Cologne, where she gained her PhD in 2000. She held an Irish Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship, UCD.

Rooted in Joseph Beuys studies, she is interested in social art practices, art in public, performance, post-War art histories and art research. She also focuses on word and image studies, visual legacies of (Irish) writers, the historiography of art and curation.

Her books include: Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland: Word, Image and Institutional Critique (ed., Valiz 2017); Post-War Germany and ‘Objective Chance’: W.G. Sebald, Joseph Beuys and Tacita Dean (Steidl 2011); James Joyce als Inspirationsquelle für Joseph Beuys (Olms 2001); and Joyce in Art (Lilliput 2004). She has curated internationally.

Secondment Destinations:
Project Arts Centre, Dublin: April/May 2022
Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh: TBC
Mayday Rooms, London,: TBC
Lisbon: TBC

Coventry University, UK

Giorgia Rizzioli is an AHRC – M4C PhD candidate at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures.

Her areas of interest revolve around media experimentation and cultural valorisation in film and media studies. In specific, in her doctoral project she is engaged with film curation as a method to investigate the connections between the cinematic dispositive and the urban space. Recently, she has collaborated as curatorial assistant and researcher in the setting up of the Coventry Biennial Hyper-Possible 2021. She has curated a practice-led project Screening Coventry: Past is Now an outdoor experimental cinematic event in Coventry, UK with the aim of investigating the bond between cinema, cultural programming and Coventry’s site-specificity.

Secondment destination:
Festival Dei Popoli, Florence, Italy: November 2022

Coventry University, UK

I am Associate Professor of Immersive Media, also leading a research theme on AI and Algorithmic Cultures at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures. My research draws from natural and computational systems, which I explore through both theory and practice. This includes AI, computational and systems thinking, pervasive technologies, physical computing, temporality and environmental sustainability. These are investigated through programming of software, exhibitions, events and performances, as well as academic and creative writing, drawing on my background combining anthropology, art and technology.

Current projects include: conducting a visual ethnography for Nine Earths; and undertaking technical R&D for Respiratrees.

Before joining Coventry I launched and led the Information Experience Design MA programme at the Royal College of Art in London from 2012-2019, and the Information Environments MRes programme at University of the Arts London in 2011-2012. I was a researcher at London Knowledge Lab from 2004-2010.

Secondment destinations:
Reserva na Fabrica, Lisbon, Portugal, 2023
Festivale dei popoli, Florence, Italy, 2023

Coventry University, United Kingdom

Dr Carolina Rito is Professor of Creative Practice Research, at the Research Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities (CAMC), Coventry University; and leads on the centre’s Critical Practices research strand. She is a researcher and curator whose work explores ‘the curatorial’ as an investigative practice, expanding practice-based research in the fields of curating, visual arts, visual cultures and cultural studies. For SPACEX, Rito is launching the second iteration of the interdisciplinary research project Institution as Praxis, investigating the epistemic capacities of curatorial programming in the expanded field of exhibition practices beyond the neoliberal imperatives of growth and entertainment.

Rito is co-editor of Institution as Praxis – New Curatorial Directions for Collaborative Research (Sternberg, 2020), Architectures of Education (e-flux Architecture, 2020), and FABRICATING PUBLICS: the dissemination of culture in the post-truth era (Open Humanities Press, forthcoming). Rito is editor of “On Translations” (2018) and “Critical Pedagogies” (2019) issues (The Contemporary Journal). From 2017 to 2019, she was Head of Public Programmes and Research at Nottingham Contemporary, leading the institution’s research strategy with Nottingham Trent University and University of Nottingham.

Secondment destination:
VanAbbe Museum, The Netherlands: May/June 2022

https://carolinarito.com/

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

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

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

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

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