About
I make a living as a cultural theorist and practitioner working at the intersection of care, repair and maintenance. My research addresses the organizational import of such re-generative cultural practices in reference to the resistance to work and the possibility of political pleasure. I am a member of the
Micropolitics Research Group.
My background is in visual cultures (MA Goldsmiths College 2004) and I hold a PhD from Queen Mary University (2015), for which I was awarded a scholarship for collaborative work between the School of Business and Management and the School of Drama. My thesis title was ‘Common pleasures: the politics of collective practice from sociability to militant conviviality’. I have been a visiting fellow at the John Hope Franklin Research Center, Duke University (2011) and a semester fellow at the DCRL (Digital Cultures Research Lab), Leuphana University (2017).
My postdoctoral research (Middlesex University, 2015-2017) developed a theory for ‘
prefigurative practices’ and, more broadly, reflected on the role of imaginal procedures within the organizational lives of collectives.
Within this context, some recent research projects include:
1) Public Programming, a research collaboration with Dr Janna Graham and Dr Susan Kelly (Goldsmiths University of London), supported by Nottingham Contemporary, Goldsmiths College and Middlesex University. THis project investigates the emergent phenomenon of public lectures and other pedagogical or academic-like events within the expanded sphere of museums, biennales and festivals. Two study days have taken places:
Public Programming? Pedagogies in a Missing Europe, Middlesex University, 30 June 2016.
Public Programming, Social Movements and Solidarity, Nottingham Contemporary, 21 July 2017. A third study day is forthcoming at Goldsmiths in spring 2018 (18th May).
2) Together with Dr Kim Trogal (UCA) I have been working on the trope of ‘
repair and maintenance‘ across different collective practices, inspired by feminist and degrowth pedagogies. ‘
The Politics of Collective Repair. Examining object-relations in a Postwork Society,’ appeared in
Cultural Studies in March 2017. Currently, they are working on ‘Repair Shop: emerging sites for postcapitalist practices’ – A UCA-funded comparative research project to map the intersectional practices and political impacts of newly emerging “repair shops” in Italy, Scotland, Sweden, and UK. They are also co-editing of
Repair Matters, special issue of ephemera – theory & politics in organization (forthcoming 2019).
3) I am one of the researchers working on open care practices for the European Commission Horizon 2020 project titled ‘DSI4EU – Supporting the Scale and Growth of Digital Social Innovation in Europe.’ The project aims to shift the focus of research from networks based primarily on technology (such as IT departments, makerspaces, hacklabs, etc.) to networks of actors clustered by thematic areas based on political issues, such as health, environment and democracy. The cluster in which my research will be embedded is led by WeMake Milan and is focused on the theme of Health and Care.
As a practitioner, I have developed projects and participatory action research activties with international institutions such as: Impulse Theatre Festival (DE); Vanabbemuseum (NL); Arteleku (ES); Kampnagel (DE); La Bellone (BG); Wyspa Institute of Art (PL); Intermediae Matadero (ES); In-Presentable (ES) and Steirischer Herbst (AT), among others. I have lectured widely at universities and cultural institutions across Europe, including presentations at Goldsmtihs College; Royal Dance Academy Stockholm; Insitute for Network Cultures; MACBA; Aalto University; Manifesta 7; CCA Tallin; NABA Milan and documenta 14, and I have carried out commissioned research for Arts Collaborative Network, Serpentine Gallery and Bristol Visual Arts Consortium.
