Anna Hickey Moody Presentation
Investigations of Practice-Research
with Professor Anna Hickey-Moody (RMIT University)
This investigation of practice-research examines the foundations of a method popularized by the phrase ‘the social turn’ in arts practice, a name that was first used by art historian Bishop to describe socially engaged art that is collaborative, participatory and involves people as the medium or material. In her 2006 essay The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents, Bishop argues that art which operates under the umbrella of the social turn tends to be located outside museums or galleries, although this is not always the case. Because much of the art produced through socially engaged practices is collaborative and can focus on choreographing social change, it is rarely commercial or object-based. Socially engaged art can, then, be a political resource. It is also a means through which people are able to communicate complex ideas. Art can make cultural, lived, ephemeral issues visible, as it communicates through images, icons, feelings, colour, textures, and sounds. It can move us to feel positively or negatively about subjects. This talk with invited (optional) elements of participation will animate and explore principles of art practice as research for teachers and scholars. Across a two-hour period, Anna Hickey-Moody will examine the philosophical framing of practice research and will invite you to prepare to undertake your own practice research experiment. Participants are asked to bring a question about teaching practice, or art practice, that can be explored through practical work. They are also asked to come along wearing comfortable clothes, and bringing water, as the learning laboratory will draw on practical methods of collaboration have been part of Professor Hickey-Moody's creative practice research for some time. Questions of inclusion, exclusion, ability and embodiment will serve as frameworks through which models of practice research are developed.
About Anna Hickey-Moody
Anna is Professor of Media and Communication at RMIT University where she holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellowship. Her books include 'The Politics of Widening Participation and University Access for Young People' (Routledge, 2016), 'Youth, Arts and Education' (Routledge, 2013), 'Unimaginable Bodies' (Sense, 2009) and 'Masculinity Beyond the Metropolis' (Palgrave, 2006). Anna has also edited a number of essay collections and themed journal editions.
When and Where
Classhall E, Arts Building from 4-6 on May 31st
For queries please contact Prof. Aislinn O’Donnell: aislinn.odonnell@mu.ie or 01 708 3604
