From selfies to drag, superheroes to villainous politicians and beyond, issues around creative engagement with self-image, personal identity and fluid bodily configurations have never been so urgent, or so public.
Self-Imaging: Identity, Disruption, Transformation is a series of online talks hosted by Central Saint Martins, UAL and international partners exploring key questions relating to identity and the self - as part of a broader exploration of Global Pop Cultures as part of Shared Campus. The ground-breaking initiative brings together leading international art schools to collaborate on global topics.
Curated by academics from Central Saint Martins, Zürich University of the Arts, University of Brighton and Royal Holloway University, the series will explore 6 different sub-themes across multiple episodes. Guest speakers including artists, designers, researchers and creative thinkers share ideas relating to the self, bringing in discussion on art, science, technology and our interconnected global world.
The series started on October 1 and is running online between now and December, with new episodes airing every 2 weeks.
Designing the Self: The self as a draft and design object
Curated by Judith Mair, lecturer in Trends and Identity, Zürich University of the Arts
- Bizarre Bodies. Digital Body Identities | by Irena Srdanovic
- Can the hoodie ever be truly unisex? New narratives for an inconspicuous streetwear item | by Chinouk Filique
- Visual Identities. The digital looking-glass self | by Francis Müller
- Beauty in techno-expressive times — extended (posthuman) beauty and bodies | by Claudia Rafael
- Chips, Couch and Crisis. The design of the eating protagonist | by Laura Hansler
- Self-reflection in manga by "foreign" artists | by Ito Yu and Yoo Sookyung
- How to design post-binary gender images? Impulses for creating an inclusive world | by Larissa Holaschke
- Statement Nails. Female Fingertips as a Tool of Self-Empowerment | by Judith Mair
Creative Identities across Art and Science
Curated by Richard Reynolds, Course Leader, MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries, Central Saint Martins
The 4 guest speakers in the ‘Creative Identities across Art and Science’ events hosted by CSM are all engaged in exploring how Pop Cultures thrive at the boundaries of what is and what can be technically possible.
- The Music of Human Hormones: an interview | Dr Cvetana Ivanova of the RELOGIA project exploring work at the intersection Art+Science+Technology and lecturer on MA Applied Imagination at CSM
- Neuromedia and the Self – by Jill Scott, Professor for Art and Science Research at the Institute of Cultural Studies in the Arts, Zürich University of the Arts
- Curiosity: music and Immersive scientific exploration. An interview | Kelly Snook of NASA and Professor of Media Arts Technology, University of Brighton
- “The Self in the Mind’s Eye”: An illustrated talk with Q&A (live) | Professor Manos Tsakiris Professor of Psychology at Royal Holloway University
Staging the Self
Curated by Daniel Späti, lecturer in BA Design, Zürich University of the Arts
- NO I SELF – Betty Apple's Transcoding Game of Ideology | by Betty Apple, Performing Artist, Taipei
- Where are the Stages? | by Björn Beneditz, Deichkind, Hamburg
- On Music Streaming: The Consumer as a Spectre of the Romantic Artist Self | by Tobi Müller, Author, Berlin
- Blocking the Void and Filling the Bridges – On the Staging of Conflict and Activist Selves in Contemporary Protest Cultures | by Jorinde Schulz, Author & Activist, Berlin
- Resemblage. How Virtual Reality is Progressively Deconstructing the Self in the Art of a Fabricated Instagram Persona, David Nobody | by David Henry Brown Jr., Artist, New York
- The Shared Presentation “Babel” (Live Event) | by Yae Akaiwa & Kensuke Sembo, Artists, New York
Later episodes
- November 12 - November 19: Picturing the Self
Curated by Jörg Scheller, art historian, journalist, musician, and lecturer at Zürich University of the Arts - November 26 - December 3: Hearing the Self
[details to be announced] - December 10 - 17: Writing the Self
[details to be announced]
How to access
Each set of lectures will be published on the scheduled week. The respective episodes, recording and texts will be uploaded on the Thursday of the week at 6pm UK time (7pm Central European Time) starting October 1, 2020, ending 17 December 2020.
Visit the online lecture series page of the Shared Campus website for more details and to access the recordings as they become available.
Shared Campus
Shared Campus is based around 5 themes: Critical Ecologies; Creative Practices in Social Transformation; Pop Cultures; Cultures, Histories and Futures; and Tools – with the themes being developed and curated across a range of formats.
UAL is exploring Pop Cultures via a range of activity including a virtual summer school hosted online in July and this online lecture series.
Image: Mixed Reality Editorial, Future influences. By art director and guest speaker Claudia Rafael @_claudiarafael together with Lorena Maza.
Face filter: esmay by Claudia Rafael and Moritz Tontsch in collaboration with Esmay Wagemans. Photo: Felicity Ingram