Alasdair Gray in Conversation, Caseroom, The Glasgow School of Art, 2015

Alasdair Gray in Conversation with Edwin Pickstone Gray is one of Scotlands most acclaimed writers, and his practice has been subject to major retrospectives this year, including the exhibition ‘Spheres of Influence II‘ at GSA. He has recently made a significant donation of his publications to the Glasgow School of Art Library, a number of which will be available to view at the event. Edwin Pickstone is a designer and researcher working in the Communication Design department at Glasgow School of Art. His work spans academic, artistic and design worlds, with particular interest in the history of typography, graphic design, print and the nature of the book. A short film commissioned by A feral Studio and My Bookcase documenting a talk based on correspondence between Gray and Pickstone regarding Gray's innovative and singular approach to the layout of the printed page. This 'conversation' was conducted as a public talk in the Caseroom at The Glasgow School of Art

Pure Movement: Artist Moving Image from Scotland, Screening and In-Conversation

Curated by Alex Hetherington at Modern Edinburgh Film School - this was a screening event at K-11 Wuhan Art Village to accompany and augment the exhibition >>FFWD at Mingshen Museum in Shanghaii in which I also participated

Cabinet Interventions

I was one of ten artists invited to undertake research and develop new work in response to Pollok House and its surroundings. Between June and October 2017 the participating artists undertook one-month residencies at Pollok House. Following each residency, the artists hosted an event to share practice, exchange knowledge and open up critical dialogues about the themes and questions that have arisen during their residency. This involved Pollok House staff, volunteers, invited artists, academics and researchers, as well as the wider public. The resulting exhibition was timed to become part of Glasgow International 2018. I have also created a website to publicise the exhibition and archive the findings of the residencies

Fifteen

Inhabiting any new premises requires its potential occupant to conduct a survey and inspection of the building to test its condition and value. For an artist-led space, this survey involves more than an assessment of bricks and mortar, it has to be tested in other ways. To mark the inauguration of its new premises and the occasion of its 15 year anniversary, S1 Artspace has invited over 30 artists to survey its new space, to test it out according to the criteria of their specific practices. The exhibiting artists have already played a key part in S1’s history, they include previous and current studio holders as well as artists who have contributed towards S1’s programme over the last 15 years. The exhibition attempts to address the notion of the survey show: it is not an occasion of looking backwards, a retrospective survey that simply attempts to celebrate what has already been. Rather, the exhibition itself is presented a s a testing space, where selected artists have been invited (back) based on their capacity to both reflect and test out key concerns and issues considered intrinsic to S1’s programming (past, present and future). Some works act as support structures for presenting the work of other artists, elsewhere collaborative approaches are made more central, where the line between individual and collective practice is wilfully blurred. The critical concerns of the exhibition (and issues relating to artist-led activity more broadly) will be further addressed through a series of talks, panel discussions and events, collectively entitled S1 Assembly. Together the exhibition and events programme operate both as a survey of S1’s (past) activity and for surveying its new premises and the potential therein; where the past is drawn upon as a way to test the conditions of the present, as a point of provocation against which to develop and debate possibilities for future action. Curated by Louise Hutchinson and George Henry Longl

Towards sustainable land use: identifying and managing the conflicts between human activities and biodiversity conservation in Europe

Conflicts between biodiversity conservation and human activities are becoming increasingly apparent in all European landscapes. The intensification of agricultural and silvicultural practices, land abandonment and other land uses such as recreation and hunting are all potential threats to biodiversity that can lead to conflicts between stakeholder livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. To address the global decline in biodiversity there is, therefore, a need to identify the drivers responsible for conflicts between human activities and the conservation of European biodiversity and to promote the management of these conflicts. Here, the drivers of biodiversity conflicts are analysed in a European context for five habitat types: agricultural landscapes, forests, grasslands, uplands and freshwater habitats. A multi- disciplinary approach to conflict management is described, with active stakeholder involvement at every stage of conflict identification and management as well as a range of other approaches including stakeholder dialogue and education, consumer education, improvement of political and legislative frameworks, financial incentives, and planning infrastructur