(Dis)ordering the City: Buildings, Bodies and Urban Space
http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/events/view/events/3567
- Wed, 05 Oct 2016
- 6.00 PM – 8.00 PM
Emily Speed in conversation with Duncan Light
As part of the Practising Place programme, In Certain Places is proud to present an evening with artist Emily Speed in conversation with human geographer Dr Duncan Light, hosted by Bluecoat. The event focused on the making and reshaping of urban space. In particular, it explored the relationship between official urban planning processes and the subversion of city spaces by the people who use them. Drawing upon their own creative and academic research, Speed and Light are examined the ways in which urban spaces are performed, and how certain practices – such as walking, urban exploration and the creation of ‘desire lines’ – might be viewed as tactics for ‘disordering’ the city.
For the past year Dr Duncan Light Bournemouth University has been involved in a collaboration project with Emily Speed, a Liverpool-based artist. This was part of the ‘In Certain Places’ project (http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/explore/groups/in_certain_places.php ), organised by the University of Central Lancashire which pairs artists with academics to encourage discussion and exchange of ideas and perspectives. Duncan and Emily had an extensive email ‘conversation’ (lasting over 6 months) which focused on the theme of public space in the city. They shared different perspectives on the way that people in the city use public space, often in ways that subvert the attempts of the city authorities to create an orderly and ordered public space. The collaboration culminated in a public event – entitled “(Dis)ordering the City” at Liverpool’s Bluecoat Arts Centre on 5th October. Duncan and Emily each gave a 20 minute presentation about their way of approaching the subject, which was followed by a conversation and then a lively question and answer session with the audience (of about 40 people). The final stage of the collaboration will be a joint publication, due out in 2017.
About the speakers
Emily Speed works in sculpture, installation and performance and her work is concerned with the relationship between the body and architecture. During 2016 she has solo exhibitions at TRUCK, Calgary and a major new commission at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Texas. Recent exhibitions include Plymouth Art Centre; g39, Cardiff; Oredaria Gallery, Rome; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St Louis, USA; Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland. Speed’s work is held in the Arts Council Collection, Tate Artists’ Books Collection and her artists’ books are held in numerous libraries in the US including Yale, Library of Congress and MIT.
Dr Duncan Light is senior lecturer in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at Bournemouth University. A human geographer by background, he worked for 20 years in Liverpool before moving to Bournemouth. He has research interests in urban landscapes, particularly in Romania (a country he has visited regularly for more than 20 years). In particular, his research has explored the efforts to remake the ‘official public landscape’ created by Romania’s communist regime in the post-communist period. He has published papers on these issues in a range of journals and has also contributed chapters to a number of recent edited volumes about post-communist change.
Practising Place is a programme of public conversations, designed to examine the relationship between art practice and place. Each event is hosted at a different venue and explores a specific aspect of place by bringing artists together with people from different backgrounds, who share a common area of interest. Practising Place forms part of the In Certain Places project, which is based in the School of Art, Design and Fashion at the University of Central Lancashire, and is funded by the Arts Council of England.