11.30am – 3.00pm
Paul Stewart, John Reardon and Ross Cummings collaborated on building a Workshop that explores the proliferation of alternative schools, universities and institutions and what it means to be called an ‘alternative’ when it still operates within ‘the system’, within a logic of neoliberalism.
The Workshop looked at existing models and alternative organisations, and exploreed whether they mirror current structures and maybe have more of an alternative curriculum rather than an alternative pedagogy?
The event made connections between art-practice and art-learning. Through breakout and collaborative making-sessions we offered a series of provocations and challenges to these questions in the form of physical, malleable, performative, tactile and manually-focused things. The Workshop was shaped by the work of Ivan Illich, and Paulo Freire as well as ideas developed by Stewart through the Alternative Art College and Reardon through ARTSCHOOL/UK.
The experience of the workshop experimented what actually is seen as radical pedagogy. The workshop focused on using sound, making, readings and performance to create environments that allow for a feeling of uncertainty. Taking ideas from Stephan Harvey and Fred Molton, ‘The Undercommons’ the process is to speculate collectively as to what knowledge exchange can look like. It is not a matter of learning happening but learning what radical pedagogy can do.
Through making and unmaking geodesic domes and shared writing sessions it hopes to started a dialogue around understanding what alternative or radical really means in questioning education practices in neoliberalism.
Biographies
Paul Stewart is an Artist, Curator and Writer based in London and Middlesbrough. He is the founder of the Alternative Art College, a PhD Candidate by Practice at Teesside University and a Digital Fellow at mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art), curating the situation unit commissions (April – Sept 2015).
John Reardon is interested in how art is made public and how a public(s) is constituted through art. His work – in the form of single and co-authored work, work under a shared name or title, as well as anonymous work – includes objects, events, performances and publications.
He is Artist in Residence in the Politics Department at Goldsmiths where he teaches part time as co-convener of the MA Art & Politics (practice)
Ross Cummings is an Artist and Writer based in Middlesbrough. His practice focuses around the broken and un-broken of things and the beauty in the imperfect. He was recently was part of the Middlesbrough Art Weekender.
This event is part of the Antiuniversity Now festival 10-16 June 2017
See the full programme on www.antiuniversity.org
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Accessibility: NewBridge Studios has limited accessibility, this event will take place in the Co-Work space on the first floor of NewBridge Studios. We regret, due to the age of our building and its change of use we do not have a functioning lift. Please contact us prior to visiting if you require additional information regarding access and facilities.
