OpenSource: Practice in Context
The 2018 OpenSource Lecture series is now complete — please check our events page for details of future public lectures.
OpenSource is a lecture series led by Professors at the Manchester School of Art. All the staff in the Manchester School of Art are practicing professionals and researchers in their fields, either as creative artists and designers, or through theoretical approaches to their subject.
Our staff offer role models to our students and show how creative research can both be exciting and engage with the major cultural and societal issues of the day. Staff are exhibiting in major galleries worldwide, engaging with communities to enrich their possibilities, having influence over national policy, and exploring new ways of expression through digital technologies. Just as students are encouraged to find their own voice as an architect or artist or designer, staff who are engaged with the daily challenge of creating and researching for themselves understand the risky process of making, and are able to empathise and encourage in a critical yet supportive atmosphere.
All are welcome to these open talks which offer a snapshot of the breadth and depth of some of our research and practice at the cutting edge of our disciplines.
This series is aimed specifically at all postgraduate students across the faculty.
Image: Thread Bearing Witness: Sea by Alice Kettle
Programme 2018
All the lectures will take place in the Righton Building Open Space, Thursdays 4.30—6pm
31 May
Professor
Sarah Perks
Have nothing in your houses
HOME building is now three years old! Sarah looks back at her curatorial strategy and highlights of the first three years of Visual Art at HOME, including commissions, exhibitions and artist film, plus a consideration of the changing ecology of contemporary visual art outside of HOME.
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7 Jun
Professor
Alice Kettle
Thread Bearing Witness
Thread Bearing Witness is a major new series of large textiles, and other works, to be shown at the Whitworth, that considers cultural heritage, refugee displacement and movement, while engaging with individual migrants and their creativity within the wider context of the global refugee crisis.
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14 Jun
Professor
Tim Brennan
Vocation – Sustaining my Art
I've been exhibiting work internationally since 1986. I will discuss some of the decisions, strategies and tactics which I have used to sustain a significant engagement in the dominant art world as an independent practitioner, an engagement spanning 4 decades.
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21 Jun
Professor
Gideon Koppel
Only Monkeys Eat Nuts
Gideon will discuss his meanderings as a filmmaker and artist, exploring past and present projects. They include: film commercials, a strange BBC Welsh language drama about Sigmund Freud, a film installation for the fashion label Comme des Garçons and the feature film 'sleep furiously' which has a soundtrack by Aphex Twin.
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28 Jun
Professor
Andrew Hunt
C. R. McBerny, MUSEUM and NORTHinternational
Andrew Hunt will discuss his development of current and forthcoming curatorial projects such as C. R. McBerny, MUSEUM and NORTHinternational.
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12 Jul
Professor
Steve Dixon
Ceramics, Conflict and Commemoration
Professor Stephen Dixon will give an overview of four decades of his professional activities in the field of contemporary ceramics, covering an early career of 'portfolio' practice and working with galleries in the UK and the USA, as well as more recent, research driven 'post-studio' practice in installation and curation.
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19 Jul
Professor
Martyn Evans
Researching the Future by Design
Martyn will describe his journey from product design practitioner to academic design researcher. As a trained product designer, his research interests consider how design (and designers) explore the future in a range of contexts through the application of creativity and user-centred approaches. He will use a number of funded projects to signpost his journey (since graduation from MA Industrial Design at MMU in 1997) to his current role as Professor of Design and Head of Manchester School of Art Research Centre - the largest research centre in the university. Projects will include amongst other things how design can revitalise culturally significant designs, products and practices with a focus on the USA and China, how to embed design for sustainability into maker enterprises in Cumbria, and how to develop a design action plan for the strategic use of design in the UK. He will also explore the career challenges and opportunities of moving from a being a design practitioner to an academic researcher.
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