Tag: covid19
Will the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally change what/how/who we are forever? Here were my readings, responses and efforts in 2020. They include an op-ed in the Royal Society of Arts blog, materials for an online performance-lecture for EU scientists, and my offering of a chonky Battle Cat for those struggling with social distancing, and other ‘artful‘ approaches. UPDATE AS OF 2022: I have largely stopped updating this tag, not because the pandemic or other novel/wicked issues are over, or that humanity has become less arrogant, and/or that we are ‘healed’ (sic)- far from it. Nonetheless, Covid is now rendered an everyday reality, because of UK partygate/politics, and because in this volatile world, as anthropoids become prouder and soaked in selfish inertia, we are facing ever-more upheavals and turning points (neo-colonialism, Syria and Ukraine, anyone?). As we struggle to catch our individual and collective breath, and shudder in despair, I want to reframe issues through a more tentacular/hybrid/intersectional prism, and through hope and action. Because the status quo sucks, big time and many times over, the campaign/project of working towards a better 2050 is more urgent than before.
My new, not very good article ‘The Artful Agile Atypical Octopussy’ is live in the peer-reviewed Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, On (Un)Knowns, 03 March 2022. This was one of 30 selected articles out of 160 proposals, and one of two that are in full colour.
What should art schools change, so that we can lead change and thrive in, with and for the next generation? Since you asked me, I’ll recommend growing tentacles. This is my new keynote for Network for higher arts education with >300,000 members in 282 institutions in Europe, N and S Americas, and AustralAsia.
What can ‘Neurodivergent Leadership’ look like? A 15-month creative practice-led research project. Get in touch now to support/collaborate!
Summary of some of my ongoing EDI efforts through art and performance at and beyond MMU as a Senior Lecturer there.
This is an op-ed published in Frontiers in Psychology. It is led by Laura Gallo (formerly King’s College London neuroscience MSc student), in collaboration with myself, Dr Vincent Giampietro and Dr Patricia Zunszain (King’s College London).
I was commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Arts to create a mask. I made 5 and you can buy my favourite one, Sight and Site of Dissent, here.
I was commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Arts to create a mask. So here is my set of 5, which are masks for the 21st Century Artful Agitator series.
We are as racist as any other sector. We have sophisticated ways of covering it up. I don’t want to resuscitate that. It remains the job of a lot of us to keep calling out on bad practices and faux liberalism’.
This is a recording of a performance lecture I delivered on 6 August 2020 for University of Reading, a repeat of a keynote-lecture that premiered for Royal Society of Arts on 9 July 2020 which was attended by up to 130 people.
03/2020: The COVID-19 pandemic will fundamentally change what/how/who we are forever. Or will it? What is the role of art, creativity and neurodiversity?
As we move from the immediate crisis towards new ones, we need atypical thinkers, agile doers and creative problem-solvers who thrive in unknowns. A call for a more inclusive and creative socio-political ecosystem.
04/2020: Watch this interview (40 minutes) on ‘artful leadership’. With Dr Michael Pinchbeck.
05/2020: Germany and France have enlisted the help of humanities scholars, but we’ll need atypical thinkers and agile makers for artful ways forward.
03/2020: Struggling with social distancing and self-isolation? Here, put on my Catsuit. Meow.
Tweet/Email to collaborate on new ‘Artful Leadership’ project from 2021. I promise to be nice. It will be fun.
1) WE MUST STEP UP OUR GAME 2) LET’S BECOME CRITICAL FRIENDS 3) LET’S CREATE PRODUCTIVE ANTAGONISMS 4) LET’S PLAY 5) LET’S BE ILL-DISCIPLINED 6) LET’S STEP OUT OF SILOS & EMBRACE A 360-DEGREE VANTAGE POINT 7) LET’S STEP OUT OF COMFORT ZONES 8) LET’S STEP INTO UNKNOWN TOGETHER 9) LET’S EMBRACE ERRORS 10) WE’RE STRONGER TOGETHER
04/2020: Other efforts during the pandemic in local and professional contexts and beyond.
04/2020: As UKAAN Creative and Cultural Consultant, I put together a few creative resources for mental health professionals and service users.
03/2020: Keen to explore the messy and magical entanglements between neurodiversity, creativity and research, and all the possibilities and intersections in between? Join the Neurodiversity In/And Creative Research Network, a new international hub.
04/2020: I responded to UK Parliament’s call for COVID-19 Outbreak Expert Database, as well as a separate call by the UK Government Cabinet Office’s Open Innovation Team for a similar database.
03/2020: My show at the Craft and Design Centre was shut, but I redistributed some of my fee and have begun to think more about the importance of being ‘crafty’ and ‘artful’.