Art and counter-publics in Third Way cultural policy

In the UK, over the past decade, the rhetoric of ‘Third Way’ governance informed cultural policy. The research sets out how the agenda for cultural policy converged with priorities for economic and social policy, in policies implemented by Arts Council England, in the commissioning of publicly funded visual art and within culture-led regeneration. Hence visual art production was further instrumentalized for the purposes of marketization and privatization. The practice-based research examines the problems issues and contingencies for visual art production in this context. Public sphere theory is used to examine ideas of publics and publicness in Third Way cultural policy context, in state cultural institutions and programming. Using Jürgen Habermas’ conception of the public sphere, the research proposes that cultural policy functioned as ‘steering media’, as publicity for the state to produce social cohesion and affirmative conceptions of the social order, i.e. the management of publics. In contrast, public sphere theory is concerned with societal processes of opinion formation, of selfforming, deliberating and rival publics. The research also applies theories of the public sphere to the theories of art and participation associated with socially-engaged art practice - theories that articulate art in relation to its publics. While socially-engaged artists have produced new modes of art practice that have shifted arts ontology, the research points to how Third Way cultural policy was quick to seize upon socially-engaged art for its own agenda. Public sphere theory informed the strategies and tactics of the Freee art collective (Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt, Mel Jordan) in the production of publicly-funded artworks. The artworks were a means to test the hypothesis and to find evidence by intervening in Third Way cultural policy with alternative ideas. Freee’s public spherian art proposes new modes of participative art to counter Third Way cultural policy - a ‘counter-public art’

Public Kiosk

We produced 3 banner/posters, suspended over the reception desk; each will be a slogan. i.e ‘All information will be common’, ‘Advertising For All; Or For Nobody At All; Reclaim Public Opinion’ and 'Borders are for crossing'. We also propose the inclusion of Public Kiosk which is a machine for opinion formation. By taking away all retail aspects of the kiosk and replacing its branding and advertising with opinions/beliefs garnered from visitors to the Common Ground event we drew out its full social potential. ( see field notes by Roxana Morosanu). People published their opinions in and on the kiosk throughout the day. The Public Kiosk is a support structure to present our hypothesis of art and the public sphere, we announced this through graphics on/in the kiosk. Helena Hunter from the Tate Learning department joined us as part of our developmental talks on a collaborative research project between the artist - researchers and the TATE Learning Department which is concerned with rethinking the evaluation of participatory art projects. Dr. Roxana Morosanu, sociologist and research assistant RCA, joined us and produced a series of field notes

Citizen Ship

Citizen Ship, artwork, 2017 Milton Keynes City Club with Milton Keynes Gallery. A mobile sculpture sited in five locations in Milton Keynes, including; Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes Art Centre, Art in the Park, Middleton Hall, Shopping centre, Feast of Fire Milton Keynes International Festival. Citizen Ship is a portable pavilion designed as a public meeting place and with a resemblance to Milton Keynes bus shelters. The artwork is part-public sculpture, part-kiosk and part-publishing laboratory. Citizen Ship extends the concept of participation in art by engaging new groups in the production of collective artworks that are displayed in and on the structure. Through conversations visitors and passer-bys developed new slogans and published them by making badges, vinyl lettering, ribbons and teletext messaging. The participatory art methods applied are directed at opinion formation in order to understand how communities create and perform collective values. Citizen Ship, was funded by Arts Council England and Milton Keynes Art Gallery

Social Kiosk: The New Text Art of and Making Books a Difference by Ulises Carrión Freee

The artwork Social Kiosk: The New Text Art of and Making Books a Difference by Ulises Carrión Freee was commissioned by RADAR Arts for ‘For & Against: Art, Politics and the Pamphlet’. The event took place on 26 & 27 May 2017 in Loughborough, UK. Social Kiosk and The New Text Art of and Making Books a Difference by Ulises Carrión Freee is a designed as a temporary public locus in which to disseminate badges and manifestos. The artwork is part-public structure, part-kiosk and part-publishing laboratory. The research focus in this project was on the role of the manifesto. Therefore, the project enabled us to experiment with how the manifesto operates beyond constative utterance, aiming to shift language and statement towards performative utterances. The aim is to use language and action in an artwork; the result is that the work does not only describe a given reality, but attempts to also changes the social reality that the words are describing. A manifesto, does not give an account of oneself, but gives an account of the social and political situation of the time. It is not a description, though: it makes declarations, proclamations, pronouncements, announcements and it sets forward a programme. Manifestos are not performative language in the classic sense: it is not the words themselves that effect change. Manifestos call for action. Language is essential to this transformative activity but it is not the action itself and cannot take its place. Manifestos light the fire but the bodies of the politically engaged are its social agents. In one sense, manifestos do nothing at least not by themselves, but in another sense - in which what we say is tied to what we do - manifestos are essential to the collective action of social change

The Carracci Institute Year Book

Book section in book mapping Freee art collective recent practice. Editorial section and interview with Charles Esche, Director Van museum , Eindhoven, N

WORDS (& Pickers)

The artwork and event WORDS (& Pickers) was supported by Milton Keynes Gallery (MKG). The work was part of a month-long exhibition at MKG’ s project space. The exhibition was open from 6 - 28 October 2017. WORDS (& Pickers) was a work that focused on the slogan writing and choosing process which is central to our practice. We devise ways to write slogans with others in order to exchange opinions and discuss contemporary political issues. In this way we aim to explore the potential of art as opinion formation. These conversations and impromptu workshops are directed at the passer-by so they are directed at the individual in this way we temporarily cut out of the community and paste them into new configurations, rearranged through processes of splitting and joining (disagreeing and agreeing) and then reassembled in a new totality through acts of collective publishing. In this artwork passers-by were asked to select and wear (embody and publish) the badge that they most agreed with. We collected new versions of our slogans form the public and re-published them throughout the exhibition

Formulation optimisation of mixed sugar/protein/maltodextrin encapsulants for spray drying L. acidophilus using the response surface method

Three sugars (maltose, fructose, and lactose) have been combined in different formulations with three protein based powders (whey protein, skim milk, and soy protein) to assess the survivability of L. acidophilus after spray drying at 80°C followed by optional further exposure to simulated gastric intestinal juice (SGI) or bile solution. The results showed that the highest survival rate was found in a recipe consisting of 87.5% skim milk and 12.5% maltose, while the lowest rates were found in formulations containing no protein. Maltose and lactose provide higher survival rate than fructose which may reflect the higher glass transition temperature of maltose/lactose mixtures. Similar trends were found with cells rehydrated in SGI and bile solutions

A comparison of the survival rates of E. coli K12 and L. acidophilus in spray drying

The survival of mid-exponential and the early-stationary E. coli K12 and L. acidophilus were investigated when spray drying and outlet air temperatures of 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100°C. The results showed that the early-stationary cell of both cultures had a greater heat resistance than the mid-log cell in every drying temperature. The best survival rate was found when spray drying at temperature lower 80°C and it is showed that L. acidophilus is stronger than E. coli K12 (irrespective of the growth phase)