Perennial Exhibition

The Wall In The Head #3 included in Perennial group show at Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth, 20th June - 13th July 202

Esports Stakeholders

Tier 1 Foundational Stakeholders Tier 2 Supporting Stakeholder

Controversial motherhood on the football field: a cross-analysis between France and England

High-level women’s football highlights the ongoing feminist struggle for freedom of choice regarding motherhood and work-life balance. Inadequate institutional policies in football contribute to the invisibility of pregnancy, rendering it “abnormal”. The risk of losing their job or fear of discrimination pushes female football players to delay or abandon their plans for motherhood. Far from being a simple individual choice, implicit and explicit pressures underlie this decision, making motherhood a new battleground for the recognition of female athletes. This article illustrates the shared experiences of players in France and England in relation to the perception and treatment of pregnancy, and how these perpetuate gender inequalities and norms related to parenthood

Dismantling Nablus: the Samaritans, orientalism and the Mandate Department of Antiquities

The Samaritans of Nablus were an integral part of the city until British Mandate rule in Palestine, but the 1927 earthquake caused a major rupture in the community’s presence. This ‘natural’ disaster devastated the Samaritan quarter of Nablus, forcing many to leave and eventually detaching the Samaritans from central Nablus, leading to their settlement on Mount Jarzim. This chapter focuses on the controversy between Samaritan community leaders and the mandatory Department of Antiquities over repair and rebuilding in the Samaritan quarter, especially at their synagogue, exploring this confrontation through issues such as British archaeologists’ ideas about race, the politics of government departments, and the wishes of the Samaritans themselves. The colonial archive bears witness to confused attempts by British officials to impose ideas about hygiene and modernity whilst upholding notions of authenticity and antiquity, hampering Samaritan efforts to rebuild and distorting the future built environment and communal relations of Nablus

The Wall In The Head

What impact does the setting that a person grows up in have on them, their view of the world, and the paradigm through which they view the world? In Lynsey Hanley’s Estates, she describes an invisible wall around council estates beyond which lies an unknown world of possibility. This wall constrains council estate dwellers in the environment that they know, and it takes an effort of will, and often, luck, to move beyond this ‘wall in the head’. The Dee Road estate was designed partly to improve living conditions for people housed in so-called ‘slums’, whose properties were compulsorily purchased and demolished, and who were moved to the new concrete, system-built estate. Construction, design and policy issues resulted in the showpiece estate quickly becoming seen as one of the worst places to live in the town. Blocks designed to have a 60-year lifespan were largely abandoned a decade after construction, and were demolished within 15 years. The design of the concrete panels used in the Dee Road estate is distinctive and was only ever used in two other locations. Its design resonates with the popular aestheticisation of brutalist architecture, yet to those who recognise it, it is a cipher that invokes a very specific experience of social trauma and municipal neglect. The Wall In The Head is a series of prints depicting concrete panels from the now-demolished flats on the Dee Road estate

Despite Collective Show

Inclusion of the piece Hard Work in the group show Despite at Ethereal Maison, Bethnal Green, London. A group exhibition focused on themes of labour and material use

Colonial Vocabularies: Teaching and Learning Arabic, 1870-1970

Language teaching and learning were crucial to Europeans’ colonial, national, and individual enterprises in the Levant, and in these processes, “Oriental language teachers” – as they were termed prior to the Second World War – were fundamental. European state nationalisms influenced and increasingly competed with each other by promoting their languages and cultures abroad, by means of both private and governmental actors. At the same time, learning Arabic became more prominent around the Mediterranean. The first half of the twentieth century corresponded with the emergence of new media; language was thought of as a cultural product to be exported into new cultural spaces. However, many blind spots remain in the history of linguistic thought and practices, including the forgotten and neglected voices of those involved in learning and teaching Arabic. This volume aims to revisit aspects of this linguistic encounter, including its vision, profile, priorities, trajectories, and practices

Rumours

‘Rumours’ is a series of short ‘Infomercial’ videos that purport to present University news updates. This screen-based work is intended to be delivered via screens on university campuses or via web-based news bulletin platforms. The work satirises the promotional messaging that Universities are obliged to engage with in relation to the marketisation of Higher Education within a contemporary neo-liberal landscape. The conventions of this type of messaging are disrupted by an apparent over-reaching sense of ‘transparency’, a term often used in neo-liberal contexts, and information is akin to the fermentation of gossip in workplace corridors, For us, producing research using an autoethnographical approach allows for a reflection on our experiences, as artists and academics operating within the institutions of the contemporary artworld, and Higher Education. Furthermore, as discussed by Ellis, this approach can allow for the effective engagement of other artists, university employees and those operating outside of these contexts (Ellis, 2011). The use of generative AI is seen as appropriate in the context of the mismatch between certain views of an art school and the commercial systems and agendas it now has to operate within. Furthermore, the notion of the University as an entity, in and of itself, is comparable to the anthromoprhisation of ai systems, providing both with a sense of independent agency. (Jiang et al, 2023) The dataset, that is provided at the outset of the model training, is limited to the imagery available online, which is, in itself, a resource offered by dominant commercial cultural forces. As Hito Steyerl argues, the ‘invitation’ for artists to use ai can be seen as a form of onboarding for commercial entities. (Brown, 2023) Brown, K. (ed.) (2023) Hito Steyerl on why NFTs and A.I. image generators are really just ‘Onboarding tools’ for tech conglomerates. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/these renderings-do-not-relate-to-reality-hito-steyerl-on-the-ideologies-embedded-in-a-i-image-generators-2264692. Ellis, Carolyn, et al. “Autoethnography: An Overview.” Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, vol. 36, no. 4 (138), 2011, pp. 273–90. Harry H. Jiang, Lauren Brown, Jessica Cheng, Mehtab Khan, Abhishek Gupta, Deja Workman, Alex Hanna, Johnathan Flowers, and Timnit Gebru. 2023. AI Art and its Impact on Artists. In Proceedings of the 2023 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 363–374. https://doi.org/10.1145/3600211.3604681 This work was exhibited at óstöðugt kerfi / Unstable Systems, Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavik. 11.-12. 09.2025

Levelling Up the Screen Industries?: Film and Television Production as Regenerative Strategy in Places Left Behind

This timely book examines how screen industry development has emerged as a vital strategy for economic and cultural regeneration in England's post-industrial regions. While Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool have become established creative hubs, this study shifts focus to three underrepresented areas—The Solent and South Hampshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and Sunderland—each grappling with decline and persistent underinvestment. Through comparative case studies, the book reveals how these regions are attempting to address these issues by developing screen industry initiatives despite having only limited resources. It analyses how local stakeholders navigate the interplay of infrastructure, governance, cultural capital, and narrative positioning to build creative ecosystems that strengthen cultural identity and promote place-based storytelling. Set against the backdrop of devolution, regional policy failures, and "Levelling Up" rhetoric, this research offers practical insights into how historically excluded areas can challenge established patterns of creative investment concentration. As such, it is essential reading for policymakers, creative professionals, researchers, and students in media studies, cultural policy, regional development, and economic geography interested in place-based cultural regeneration strategies

Ethics and Human Remains: Caring for the Dead

The excavation, study and curation of human remains have been at the forefront of archaeological practice since its inception. Professor Charlotte Roberts, Dr Trish Biers, Professor Kirsty Squires, and Jacqueline McKinley explore the value of bioarchaeology, changing ethical practice, and the incredible value human skeletal remains bring to our lives