Over the past 10 years the study and practice of Art & Mobilities has been gaining momentum through networks, conferences, books, special issues, exhibitions and in the practices of artists, writers and curators. In recognition of this activity we are forming an Art & Mobilities network through which to consolidate, celebrate and develop this work. Inspired by the recent foregrounding of Mobility and the Humanities (Pearce & Merriman, 2018) and drawing on last November’s successful Mobile Utopia Exhibition amongst others, the Centre for Mobilities Research (CEMORE) at Lancaster University are pleased to hold the 2018 on the 3rd of July 2018.
The aim of the symposium is to bring together people in the UK who are active in the field of mobilities and art in order to discuss the distinctive contribution that art makes to mobilities research and vice versa.
We aim to gather together 20 key artists and researchers in the field of mobilities in the UK . Participants will bring with them objects, images or texts for a pop up exhibition. These artefacts will be used during the day to focus discussion around different facets of mobilities and art. Focuses for discussion may include (but are not limited to): histories of mobilities in art practice, practices of artists who work with mobile media, processes and subjects, theories that orient our thinking about mobility and art, methods of making on the move and research methods drawn from creative practice, forms of mobile art: participatory, relational, process based, performative, socially engaged, fieldwork and ethnography, documentary, narrative, temporal, the encounter as artistic form, aesthetics of mobility within the arts and politics of art, mobility and social change.
Inspired by a keynote speakers Jen Southern and Cemore visiting Fellow Kai Syng Tan there will be breakout sessions structured around the construction of a manifesto for Art & Mobilities as a creative provocation. We will be co-creating an art history-meets-mobilities timeline to capture past and present practices, and will offer opportunities to share your practice and present your own provocations. We will capture some of our activities and findings from the day in a journal and an experimental platform online. In the longer term, we will seek funding to build this network internationally and to facilitate collaborations and activities such as conferences, exhibitions and publications.
This symposium is a small part of the wider international network of academics and practitioners that we look forward to connecting with when we have funding.
If you are interested in this research, or would like to take part, please contact Jen j.a.southern@lancaster.ac.uk
