Ungating community: opening the enclosures of financialised housing

An ideology of globalisation and neoliberal progress has led governments across the world to enable and encourage investors and property developers in constructing real estate projects that appeal to a mobile, global elite. This thesis examines four topologies of financialised housing and the ways in which they construct borders and form exclusions within their cities, arguing that each one is a variation of the gated community. The gates – both real and affective - consist of spatial, social and political infrastructures that work together to produce homogenised spaces of exclusion. Firstly, the luxury investor-focused property that we see in abundance in major cities across the globe. Secondly, private student housing that caters to a community of short-term international students looking for maximum convenience. Thirdly, the ‘co-living’ complex that rebrands the precarity of contemporary labour and the insecurity of a private rental market in crisis, capitalising on these characteristics towards selling a lifestyle of flexibility and the illusion of togetherness. And finally, the ‘expat’ compounds in China that aim to attract international professionals through the construction of convenience and familiarity: a smooth transition from one context to another. Interrogating these four housing topologies – which have to date not been examined in relation to each other - I will argue for their ungating: the constructive interruption and dismantling of their borders, barriers, exclusions and divisions via strategies of collectivisation, intervention and the radical imagination, as demonstrated by four case-study projects I will outline as examples of ungating. This is important work that must be done towards transforming the exclusionary mechanisms of financialised housing and establishing communities and spaces that are inclusive of difference. My research is presented in three parts: this written thesis, my project ASSET ARREST, and two films titled Gated Community. Each part works in dialogue with the others, using artistic, performative, action research and theoretical methods. Overlapping at points, the research is conducted and performed from positions that move between the embedded and the distanced. My aim in positioning these three parts alongside each other is to construct a multi-dimensional and fragmented image and exploration of financialised housing that generates and presents knowledge in different ways: an approach that is vital towards developing a theory and practice of ungating

Class Matters

Class Matters is a one-day event exploring creativity and class. at the Glasgow School of Art. Artists, theorists and writers consider how class informs and impacts contemporary art in terms of class matters (ideologically) and the matter of class (materiality). In recent decades we have witnessed changes in the perception and identity of class in the collective consciousness. For some it remains a significant marker for (did)identification that anchors us in our lives, for others it is an outmoded and reductive category. Whatever the view, class has theoretical, practical and ideological implications that crucially intersect with, for example, education, immigration, and inclusionary politics. Class Matters brings together creative practitioners and theorists to explore the confluences between class and creativity with contributions from: Hayley Dawson / Megan Devenny / Graham Fagen / Laurie Figgis / Michelle Hannah / Owain McGilvary / Trackie McLeod / Nat Raha / Margaret Salmon / Joey Simons / Jake Watts / Laura Yuile Co-organised and Chaired by Dr Deborah Jackson and Dr Elizabeth Hodso

Capitalist Artist Scum #1 and #2

A two-part forum at Open School East, chaired by Helena Reckitt, featuring presentations from a number of artists, including OSE associates, on projects that create alternative structures for the making and distribution of art or are embedded within non-art industries. Presentations and discussions explored topics including: the diminishing distinction between profit and not-for-profit galleries; appropriating spaces of consumerism and capital; the issue of whether reinstrumentalising can work as a tactic for resistance; and if these art practices are born from economic necessity or represent an emerging art practice? As well as considering the politics and aesthetics of such projects, discussions called into question notions of parody, critique and attack. Discussions arising from presentations and discussion period included whether we might be able to differentiate artistic labour from capitalist labour, and where the issues of ‘survival’ versus other forms of value accumulation and appropriation should sit in relation to the ‘work’ itself. Participants worked towards mapping the conditions of possibility for artists living and working within advanced capitalism, and how we might situate ourselves and our work in relation to the current political and economic climate. Capitalist Artist Scum # 1 featured presentations from DKUK, Alexander James Pollard, Leslie Kulesh, Laura Yuile and Kristin Luke for The Air Inn Venice as well as a reading by Mathis Collins. Capitalist Artist Scum # 2 centred around the possibility for seemingly opposing or contradictory views and ideas to co-exist within individual and collective artistic practices, as well as the structures that support and encompass these practices. Contributors discussed how such contradictions materialise, how contradiction may be embodied as a formal quality, and what the implications or effect of these might be. Considerations included ideas of: seduction vs. repulsion; acceptance vs. critique; working within vs. working against; profit vs. not-for-profit; comfort vs. discomfort; pointing at the problem vs. trying to solve the problem; and use-value vs. abstraction. Contributors to Capitalist Artist Scum # 2 were Suhail Malik, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Angus Cameron, Pil & Galia Kollectiv. Capitalist Artist Scum #2 was part of a week of exhibitions, performances, workshops and discussions devised by OSE associates to mark the end of Year 2 in the programme

The influencing machine

Reader published to accompany the group exhibition The Influencing Machine, held at nGbK, Berlin, Germany from December 2018 to January 2019 (see http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4291/). This publication addresses the exhibition's various questions, extending its focus to historical continuities and social contexts, with contributions by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star, Simone Brown, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Kashmir Hill, Lilly Irani, Lee Mackinnon, Tahani Nadim, Lucy Suchman, Cher Tan, and Neli Wagner