Biographies of people involved

Here's some more information about the contributors to the colloquium (we are still confirming some of the speakers and respondents).

Anne Douglas

As an artist researcher I am excited by the powerful contribution artistic practice can make to rethinking how we know in the world. I am also interested in research as a mode of working within the practice of art. Since 2001 I have directed a research programme at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen – On the Edge research - concerned with rethinking the role of the artist in the public sphere. This work started out by creatively interconnecting contemporary visual art and remote rural cultures of NE Scotland. Increasingly the research has drawn inspiration from the practices of activist artists such as Suzanne Lacy, Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, Barbara Stevini and John Latham as well as Reiko Goto and Tim Collins. Their different responses to social cultural change and the idea of art as a transformative process have articulated artistic practice through a series of clear concepts, metaphors and related values. My own doctoral study (1988-1992) worked with the notion of improvisation as a way of thinking through the creative process of an artist. Through post doctoral artistic research from 1992 – present I have developed more relational ways of working in which improvisation is a foundational idea, played out differently within particular social, cultural situations.
For publications and project details please see www.ontheedgeresearch.org, www.workinginpublicseminars.org.

Lynn Froggett

Lynn Froggett has a background in the humanities, sociology and social policy and is Professor of Psychosocial Welfare and Director of the UClan Psychosocial Research Unit www.uclan.ac.uk/pru which draws on the expertise of the International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion. She has a professional background in Health and Social Work and a strong interest in researching the arts in health, community and youth justice settings. Her work is interdisciplinary drawing on perspectives from the humanities and creative arts, social sciences, psychoanalytic theory and gender studies. Her wider project is to develop the theoretical and conceptual terrain on which to link social policy and social provision with day-to-day experiences of well-being. This is supported by an empirical research programme with a particular focus on arts-based research strategies which include narrative, biographical, visual and performative methods. She recently completed a three-year study of integrated approaches to adult health and social care in an arts-based healthy living centre with a specific focus on the experience of older people and is currently developing research and evaluation in a range of locations which use creative and arts-based interventions. These include youth offending teams, children’s centres, mental health facilities, primary health care, hospitals, social inclusion projects, public health promotion as well as innovative means of community and public engagement.

Justin McKeown
Justin McKeown is an artist, writer, educator and curator. He was born in Northern Ireland in 1979. His main field of interest is the relationship between politics and art. Justin has exhibited extensively in Europe, America and Canada. He is a regular contributor to Circa, Irelands leading art magazine. He has also written for several other publications including the recent book Arkive City. Justin completed his PhD with the University of Ulster in 2008 in the school of Art and Design. The title of his thesis was Materialising a Political Art Practice within Contemporary Systems of Power: Northern Ireland. Justin currently lives in Belfast.
SPART:
http://www.spartaction.com/

Christian Nold

Christian Nold is an artist, designer and educator working to develop new participatory models for communal representation. In 2001 he wrote the well received book ‘Mobile Vulgus’, which examined the history of the political crowd and which set the tone for his research into participatory mapping. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2004, Christian has led a number of large scale participatory projects and worked with a team on diverse academic research projects. In particular his ‘Bio Mapping’ project has received large amounts of international publicity and been staged in 16 different countries and over 1500 people have taken part in workshops and exhibitions. These participatory projects have a strong pedagogical basis and grew out of Christian’s formal university teaching. He is currently based at the Bartlett, University College London.

http://www.softhook.com/