[NetBehaviour] [Mute-social] 25/2 Seminar @ Essex: Artistic Lives
marc garrett
marc.garrett at furtherfield.org
Thu Feb 20 16:03:48 CET 2014
Artistic Lives - Kirsten Forkert, Birmingham City University
Tuesday February 25th @ University of Essex
3-5PM, Room LTB B
http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/news_and_seminars/seminarDetail.aspx?e_id=6277
Kirsten Forkert will talk about her recently published book, Artistic
Lives (Ashgate 2013), which is based on interview material with artists
and arts professionals in London and Berlin, together with ethnographic
descriptions and analyses of social and urban policy. The book examines
how artists support themselves within rapidly changing urban
environments – and how they contend with the effects of property
bubbles, precarious employment, uncertain funding and policies that
position cultural workers at the centre of economic development with
little concern for they actually make ends meet. The book examines the
myth that artists can create something from nothing, and engages with
debates surrounding Post-Fordism, gentrification and the nature of
authorship, to raise challenging questions about the function of culture
and the role of artists within contemporary capitalism.
Kirsten will discuss her motivations for starting the project, share the
main findings of the research (which was carried out during the first
phase of the recession) and reflect on the implications in the present
context.
Kirsten Forkert joined is a researcher and activist, and lecturer in
media theory at Birmingham City University. Prior to working at BCU, she
taught at a number of institutions during and after completing her PhD
in the department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths. Her work is
based within cultural studies, but draws on other disciplines, including
sociology, urban studies and critical theory. It has been published in
CITY, Third Text and various edited collections, as well as in Mute and
Variant. Prior to academia, she worked in media art, new media and
community media in Canada and the US, as a freelance practitioner. She
is now developing new research on the cultural politics of austerity,
and is involved in a collaborative, ESRC funded project mapping the
controversies around Home Office campaigns.
Sponsored by the Centre for Work, Organization, and Society
This seminar is part of an ongoing workshop series on artist collectives.
Further events this spring will include the nanopolitics group (March
5th), Max Haiven from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (March
19th), Jeremy Gilbert from the University of East London (April 29th),
and others.
For more information contact Stevphen Shukaitis: sshuka at essex.ac.uk
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