The Space of Thirdness: Intermediating performative treatments in artists’ moving image

In this chapter, I focus on how the screen in contemporary artists’ moving image might function as an intermediate space that performatively treats divisive social issues such as sexism, racism and ecological damage. Focusing on Rehana Zaman’s Sharla Shabana Sojourner Selena, 2016, and Jeamin Cha’s Sound Garden, 2019, I explore how both films differently engender such an intermediate space in which the oppositional conflicts that arise from said social issues can be played with rather than reactively defended against. I argue that such performativity has the potential to unhinge psychic life from what feminist relational psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin calls ‘the dangers of complementarity’ which involve the either/or positionalities of asserting power over another or succumbing to the power of the other. To bypass this double bind, Benjamin developed the concept of ‘thirdness’, which I use as a metaphor to think through the performative treatments proffered in my two case studies

Key Tips for Fashion Business Success: Korean Culture 101

An intensive one-day masterclass that equips German fashion designers with essential knowledge to enter the Korean market. This focused lecture covers market insights, consumer behaviour, digital platforms, and practical entry strategies for successful brand positioning in Korea

'Nothing More Precious': the Emotional Inheritance of a Hair Locket

This open access book uses new methodologies from the history and sociology of emotions to analyse why people select specific tokens of family inheritance, and how this influences personal identity, cultural heritage, and national memory. Much of our cultural heritage emerges from family histories – with many of the objects curated in museums, stories passed between generations, and monuments marking notable figures being the direct product of familial collections, donations, and investments. This edited collection uses emotion as an analytical tool to interpret such behaviours, and offers novel ways to investigate how and why family inheritances from a range of social, racial, and ethnic groups maintain their cultural power, as they move through time and from the private to the public spheres. Drawing on a variety of case studies, and exploring items ranging from Victorian library chairs, to quilts, religious texts, and pieces of intergenerational writing – this volume considers the role of objects and inheritances in the emotional lives of individuals and families, and acknowledges them as agents in the creation of histories and identities. Combining insight from scholars of the history of emotions with that of historians and researchers situated outside the academy, this collection allows fresh insights on family history and material culture to emerge

School Play

We are casually making a school play about an art school, while working at an art school. “Causally making” is important since we do not want this to entail more work. The “while working” is important because it emphasises what Stefano Harney and Fred Moten call a necessary “criminal relation to the university” in that we might be seen to be doing our artwork “on the job” so to speak. Consequently, this “casually making” art “on the job” might be an interesting way of navigating the little time left for making art as art teachers. Whilst breaking down hierarchies between artists, teachers and students it also blurs the lines between teaching, theory and practice – they become as one simultaneous. The school play is important to some of us because at some point of our lives it gave us a reason to live when we thought we might not want to. But it is also a construct through which we can imagine and importantly put into practice an alternative to what already is, while also critically grappling with the questions that our mirror school throws up. The school play produces a doubling of our school and ourselves – a body extension that becomes our accomplice in imagining an alternative. One thing the school play is good at is being inauthentic and this is important in showing up any retrograde “return to authenticity” that criticism of the neoliberal university might risk reproducing. Our presentation thus takes the form of a 20-minute school play about casually making a school play about an art school, while working at an art school. There will be make-shift props, lines spoken aloud and in unison, maybe songs, and definitely bad makeup. It will also, we hope, not only get us through the school term, but also activate our collective imagination and remind us why we are art teachers all along

Material subversions and Transmediterranean Dialogues

This talk with Daniel Sturgis, Professor in Painting (University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts) and Mick Finch, Professor of Visual Art Practice (University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins) was recorded on 6 February 2025 at the Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart and can be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzICfXLGtbo This presentation showed how the cultural and material specificity of abstract painting was used by the artists associated with Supports/Surfaces to escape from more dominant Northern European and American traditions. This artistic approach, which questioned abstraction through a politicised practice based on subverting convention and materiality, could be seen to connect with work by other artists working simultaneously and to similar ends in Italy and North Africa. We brought up questions that arose in these related contexts, in terms of feminism and post-colonisation, which enriched our understanding of Supports/Surfaces and the histories of abstract painting in Europe during this period more generally. This talk was organised as part of the exhibition "Supports/Surfaces. Notre collection à l'affiche"

The Development of Corporate Design: Brand Identity, Graphic Design and Professionalism in Post-war Britain

Chronicling the emergence of brand consultancy, this book explores how the development and proliferation of brand identity systems transformed the working methods and ideals of practicing graphic designers working in post-war Britain. Practitioners in Britain were at the forefront of efforts to transform corporate identity design into a recognised practice with its own codified methods. Focussing particularly on the British experience, the book also draws on the influences and developments in this formative era in other countries, including the US and Germany. During this period designers were struggling with two conflicting paradigms - the socially motivated, free spirited artist-designer and the design entrepreneur as corporate agent. David Preston uses three key design agencies as the springboard to explore this foundational period in the history of graphic design labour practices - the practical rationality of Hans Schleger & Associates, the systematic methods of Henrion Design Associates and the Design Research Unit and their design manual as an instrument of control. These design agencies created some of the most striking and successful brand identities of the era - the KLM logo, the British Rail double arrow, the John Lewis branding of the 1960s, Glenfiddich's iconic triangular bottle, the Post Office's house style, the National Theatre logo and many more. The case studies look at the power at play, how branding became systematic, the struggle between motives and standards, and draws on first-hand interviews with key actors and archival material. A valuable contribution to our understanding of British post-war graphic design and the history of branding

The Invisible Lives of Selfies

The selfie has rapidly emerged as a significant aspect of visual culture. Selfies can be considered a kind of self-portrait, with roots in artistic self-representation, popular photography, and digital imaging. However, the visual image is only one, albeit crucial, component of the selfie. How that image circulates, how it is consumed and commented upon constitutes key considerations of how selfies work. But the vast majority of actions that affect selfies occur without much knowledge of the selfie taker. In this way, selfies implicate a host of concerns beyond the representational, including commercial, ethical, and political issues arising from their status as data. The selfie, while clearly a visual phenomenon, also includes data traces, facial recognition and tagging systems, data tracking and analytics that are invisible to most selfie makers and consumers. These back-end processes invoke multiple concerns in the realm of privacy, surveillance, and security, in part due to the enormous amount of information – data – posted selfies contain. This article focuses on the “invisible” aspects of the selfie, turning the gaze to understanding what we don’t see when we look at, post, and comment on selfies. The analysis reveals what lies beneath selfies, asking: What is being done with selfie data? Several aspects are discussed, including how selfies produce machine readable data, used by programmers, marketers, and governments. AI filters and facial recognition software makes an appearance, along with their inherent racial and visual biases - mirrored, reflected, and caught in the shadows. Finally, this article frames filters, data selfies and the face as particular genres of visual culture increasingly linked with algorithms, filters, and data, to question the cultural, political, and social implications of the selfie

HEREWEAR: Final Progress Report

The project HEREWEAR (Bio-based local sustainable circular wear) aimed at the creation of a European ecosystem for locally produced circular textiles and clothing made from bio-based resources. On the technical side, emerging sustainable technologies for wet and melt spinning of cellulose and bio-based polyesters, for yarn and fabric production and for coating and colouring have been developed and piloted at semi-industrial scale. HEREWEAR also worked on the minimization of microfibre release via measures along the textile manufacturing process. Further, the sustainability and circularity of our clothing and textile sector was supported via connecting regional micro factories and via platform-supported, networked production resources. The main focus of the WPs in the last reporting period is presented below. WP1 – UAL led on this work. Design for bio-based circular textiles focused on the finalisation of the software feature of partner CIRCFASH that aims to support fashion brands and designers to create more circular and bio-based products with local aspects. After a series of updated and improved versions, the so-called Design Inspiration Tool was launched on their website. WP2 – Biorefinery and WP3 – Wet & melt spinning finished during Reporting Period 2. Related activities focused on the upscaling of the developments and were linked to WP5 for the production of the required bio-based textiles for the prototypes and to WP7 to assess the biorefinery potential of alternative feedstocks. In WP4 – Bio-based textile intermediates manufacturing focus was given to the bio-based dyeing and finishing processes. In addition, the guidelines for industrial scale-up of the investigated textile processing steps were elaborated. WP5 – Demonstration bio-based garment production & validation took up the results from previous WPs for the creation and validation of garments. A range of garment prototypes was produced using HEREWEAR bio-based materials (both straw based cellulose and biopolyesters) and applying our HEREWEAR design approaches. These garments have been fully assessed for their performance as well as circularity potential. WP6 – Environmental & social assessment evaluates the sustainability of the HEREWEAR garment prototypes while comparing them with their reference counterparts, which shows the promising positive impact of using bio-based input material. In addition, a Global Sustainability Assessment was performed leading to the same conclusion. WP7 – Stakeholder community building focused on the organisation of a series of HEREWEAR community events and the organisation of some “proof of concept” exercises with a selected set of community members to validate the HEREWEAR scenarios. Also, the long-term sustainability of both the HEREWEAR Community and the HEREWEAR Hub was ensured. WP8 – Innovation management & Impact continued the dissemination activities to ensure visibility and engagement towards the HEREWEAR project and community. During this period additional focus was given to the business models, the creation of a policy brief and the interaction with standardisation. Finally, the training material was further developed under the umbrella of the HEREWEAR Hub Resources. From coordination side, the focus has been on the continuous project management processes, mainly related to communication, quality management (e.g. for internal review of project deliverables), reporting (e.g. M36 and final reporting) and the clustering activities with projects with similar goals for a more sustainable textile industry (e.g. twin projects and ECOSYSTEX). Overall, the project led to the creation of over 70 prototype garments, effectively demonstrating both HEREWEAR's technical achievements and its supporting services for design and networked manufacturing. These garments serve as an excellent showcase of the HEREWEAR vision and valuable promotional material to support the project towards exploitation and commercialization. Additionally, the HEREWEAR Community and Hub will play a key role in preserving and advancing the project's legacy

Punk As Product: Selling Punk Histories

Presentation at the Punk Scholars Network USA & Canada Conference, The Punk Rock Museum, Las Vegas, 2 March 2025. This paper reflects on the ways that punk has been marketed and commercialised over the past fifty years through advertising, branding, journalism, graphic and product design. This has led in turn to a range of ‘punk’ products spanning music, fashion and lifestyle, print and television media, interior design and decoration, even toys and collectables. In particular, the paper focuses on nostalgia and the marketization of ‘punk history’ as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of punk’s ‘Year Zero’ moment, with major galleries, museums and institutions vying with publishers, record labels and live events promoters to capture the ‘punk pound’ (or ‘punk dollar’) while the market is still hot. Record labels are rushing to release glossy, deluxe box set editions of ‘classic’ albums, from the debut Talking Heads album Talking Heads: 77 to (I’m) Stranded by Australian punk pioneers The Saints. No doubt we will see new and/or repackaged ‘anniversary’ releases from The Ramones, The Clash, The Stranglers and many more. The official Sex Pistols store will be busy, now that their licensing has been taken on by Bravado, “the leading provider of consumer, lifestyle and brand management services around the world,” alongside The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. There are as many punk histories as there are punk fans or participants. Recent developments in the academic historicization of punk have focussed on less well-known figures, scenes or cultural contexts in the pursuit of a wider, more inclusive narrative, though they in turn run the risk of over-emphasizing the impact of their subjects in the broader history of the subculture. At the same time, the distillation and simplification of the punk canon through a narrow selection of high-profile celebrities and key events still holds prominence in mainstream media. How can we strike a balance between these competing positions, or is punk scholarship simply another iteration of punk product aimed at a particular consumer demographic

Book Review: Amanda Wunder, Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez. A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV

Spanish royal fashions in the seventeenth century were notoriously ceremonious and idiosyncratic, as evidenced by the portraits of one of Spain’s most celebrated painters, Velázquez. Yet little was known about the artisans behind such attires. Similarly, dress historians had prioritized earlier periods. Wunder draws on readers’ likely familiarity with the art of Velázquez to factor in court artisan communities in seventeenth-century Spanish fashions. The term ‘fashion’ is purposefully used because Wunder reflects on the actors and contexts involved in creating novelties that characterized the four decades at the core of her investigation, including the shift from the inverted funnel farthingale verdugado to the horizontally shaped guardandainfante. The case study that frames Wunder’s study is Matteo Aguado (Fuenlabrada, 1605–Madrid, 1672). Aguado rose from being one of the many tailors who congregated around the court of Madrid to work for four decades in the service of the two consecutive wives of King Philip IV (1605–1665): Isabel of Bourbon (1602–1644) and Mariana of Austria (1634–1696). Admittedly, Wunder does not denote any specific methodological approach beyond using Janet Arnold’s work on Elizabeth I’s tailor as an example. However, it is possible to deduce a microhistorical perspective from Wunder’s craft: a meticulous cross-examination of vast archival, literary, material and visual records reconstructs Aguado’s world. A rigorous interplay of scales allows Wunder to traverse a tailor’s world alongside broader topics, such as diplomatic affairs or seventeenth-century consumption patterns, among royals, courtiers, royal servants and artisans like Aguado