Making Maths - research project with Manchester University

We have begun working with Dr Kate O'Brien, researcher in ebodied maths and education at Manchester University to explore connections between our arts practice and physical, material and imaginative appraches to 'making maths'. This project began initially with a workshop for academics and local teachers at Manchester Metropolitan University and continues in partnership with Thomas Tallis School London.

Black Mountain College Active Archive Digital Exhibition

The cross-disciplinary practices and pedagogical approaches at Black Mountain College, North Carolina in the late 1940s-50s have been a hugely important influence and reference for our work and research. In the Summer of 2020 we carried out an Active Archive Digital residency with Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center, undertaking extensive research through their archive and reading materials. We shared key findings that related to own practice via instagram, responding to images, quotes and artworks through making ourselves and inviting responses from other people online. We also ran some experimental online workshops with participants across the world exploring some of the creative possibilities of the research. The project was subsequently made into a series of webpages as part of the BMCM+AC website which acts as a resource to artists and teachers. Click here to visit the exhibition. Our interest and research into Black Mountain College continues and often forms a part of workshops and training with young people and adults.

Click here to visit our Active Archive Digital exhibition on the BMC+AC website.

 

 

Good Enough Sculptures: What Happens When Sculptures Are Made to be Filmed (PHD research project/thesis)

This research project proposes the camera as a tool in the creation of sculpture. Exploring the ways in which the sculptural process is transformed by its relationship to the moment of filming, it aligns itself with artistic practices and theories which foreground material exploration, uncertainty and improvisation, and draws on a number of key artists who have used film and video to extend and explore sculptural practice. It situates fine art practice as a vehicle for exploratory and open-ended research, forging strong links with contemporary art educational theory which sees the creative process as heuristic and immersed within a social context. Using Winnicott’s theory of transitional objects and conception of psychoanalytic practice as a specialised form of play, the PhD forges strong connections between the engaged, responsive and explorative work done by the artist, analyst, teacher and student.

View online

 Don’t we all play the same?

This research project with partners Greenside School, Kingston School of Art and Tate London Schools and Teachers, brings together groups of people who would, educationally, otherwise be completely separate. It aims to discover similarities in the way we approach and interact with materials and art works, generating new forms of collaboration, ways of inhabiting and exploring the gallery, its architecture and the art works within it. Creating a space of playful excitement, and reframing the gallery as an open and inclusive environment. 

CREATING SITUATIONS AND FINDING EXCUSES TO PLAY - a short essay about our work at Tate featured in the Schools and Teachers Play Ground 6 magazine

 

Publications

Good Enough Sculptures; Good Enough Teaching: Creating opportunities for play and physical exploration in the teaching and making of art in Debates in Art and Design Education 2 (Eds. Addison, N. and Burgess, L.), 2021 
Read Online

CREATING SITUATIONS AND FINDING EXCUSES TO PLAY - a short essay about our work at Tate featured in the Schools and Teachers Play Ground 6 magazine
Read Online

 

Conferences

Paper and workshop: Birmingham City – STEAM conference
Key Note Speakers: “Leaning into the Unknown: Imagining Truthful, Responsive and Creative Possibilites for the Art Classrooms of Today and Tomorrow” Conference Visual Arts Education Manitoba, Canada 2021
Workshop: Structures of Community Brighton CCA 2023
Paper and Workshop: Reviewing Black Mountain College International Conference 2021