UAL launches the first in a series of international research conferences. The Creative Laboratory: Searching and Researching through Practice, explores the intersection of creativity and critical thinking via practice as research, through addressing the issues of today.
By bringing together a cross-disciplinary group of artists and thinkers the event aims to create a dialogue around how methods of creative production embody specific forms of research and exposition that enhance and inform the wider public, whilst creating new knowledge.
Register now and be a part of the evolving discussion shaping the future of practice research.
Friday 23 June, 9.30 am - 5:30 pm [Please join us for Registration from 9am]
The event will open with a Welcome from Professor David Mba, Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise. Speakers include Nicolas Rochat, CEO and founder of Mover Plastic Free Sportswear, Sian Sutherland Co-founder of A Plastic Planet and PlasticFree, Dilys Williams, Professor of Fashion Design for Sustainability, and founder and Director, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, a University of the Arts London Research Centre, based at London College of Fashion.
Artist academic, Professor Samson Kambalu, whose sculpture Antelope currently occupies the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square will be looking at ideological conflict through the lens of practice and asking how you create work that is not just polemic? Can a creative work act as a catalyst to engage with opposite voices? This theme will also be addressed by Professor Pratāp Rughani, Documentary Filmmaker, Associate Dean of Research, London College of Communication UAL and Professor in Documentary Practices, who is currently working on a project on restorative justice and the development of dialogue in the aftermath of conflict, including navigating tensions between 'free' speech and hate speech. Dr Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph (London) and Professor Photography, Rights and Representation at London College of Communication UAL will form the panel with his interest in the relationship between art, photography and social change, identity politics, race, and human rights. Professor Oriana Baddeley, will Chair this session.
Internationally acclaimed American academic, Professor Jennie Stephens, will be addressing issues of climate justice and fairness of resources across all species. Award winning composer and lead in Art Making in the Anthropocene at The Royal Conservatoire of Music, Dr Emily Doolittle has an ongoing research and musical interest in zoomusicology, the study of music-like aspects of animal sound and the value of giving voice to these non-human entities. Artist and current PhD candidate W.K.Lyhne, will present her practice-led research in the post-human elements of the anachronised image of the Agnus Dei, the role of transforming and vocalising this image in terms of religion, music and feminism and the value of art as disruptor. Robin Maynard, CEO of Population Matters, will address the importance of optimism in a world trapped in perpetual crisis and the role of women education in climate change. The panel will focus on value of connection and cross-disciplinary fertilisation. Chaired by Francine Stock, radio and television presenter and writer.
Sonia Boyce OBE RA, Professor at UAL and inaugural Chair in Black Art and Design, won the Golden Lion at Venice Biennale in 2022 for her exhibition ‘Feeling Her Way’, Sonia will share her experiences in finding the collective voices and her collaborative style of working. Sonia will be joined by Tanita Tikaram, singer and performer in the black female chorus within Sonia's multilayered installation. Professor Pratāp Rughani, Documentary Filmmaker, Associate Dean of Research, London College of Communication UAL and Professor in Documentary Practices, will Chair this session.
