- Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture
About me
I am a Reader in contemporary art and visual culture at University of Westminster and also lecture in fine art at Goldsmiths University, London.
I work as a visual artist in collaboration with Jon Thomson (The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London) making artworks and installations for galleries, online and sometimes outdoors. Much of our recent work explores how trends of globalisation and global communications networks are re-shaping the way we all perceive and understand the world around us.
Teaching
I have previous teaching experience at The Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing and I am currently a regular visiting lecturer at Pier Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam.
At undergraduate level I teach on the Study Abroad Programme on the Art & Society Module. I specialize in Contemporary Art, teaching on this programme alongside a team of other colleagues. This module is taught inside the museums as well as by traditional lectures held in the University.
At postgraduate level, I am Module Leader for Work Placements in Cultural Institutions, which brings together MA students from across the Department. It is taught in partnership with the Career Development Centre at the University. This module is set up to enable students to gain first hand experience of working within a context relevant to their career objectives. By giving professional experience it further aims to enhance the opportunities for translating theoretical and practical knowledge into professional skills. It also aims to encourage students to make beneficial connections within a professional context.
Research
This year I am actively researching artists' use of text starting with Gertrude Stein and carrying through into digital art.
My collaborative research with Jon Thomson continues to explore relationships between data visualization and cinema -a recent example being Belief made from information found entirely on the worldwide web. This two-screen installation presents a 15-minute series of fragmented broadcasts about belief, all sourced from the video sharing community YouTube. A compass floor projection interacts with the montage, showing where each clip originated in relation to the geographical location of the artwork. With a little help from Google Earth viewers are placed at the centre point of this cinematic data visualisation.
Our research also looks more generally at how real time processes and live data transmission can be used as a material or artistic medium.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.