Dr. Emeri Curd - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Drafts by Dr. Emeri Curd
Corridor 8 , 2023
Queer writer and philosopher Simon(e) van Saarloos speaks of rules as 'physical, integrated knowl... more Queer writer and philosopher Simon(e) van Saarloos speaks of rules as 'physical, integrated knowledge; you follow the rules without questioning them'. This, they say, results in scenarios, relationships and games that lose their playful character where 'nothing new is created any longer'.1 These ideas were playing on my mind whilst I explored Luke Beech's first solo exhibition Winner Breaks First at Humber Street Gallery in Hull.
Roots & Routes, 2023
Heart of Glass is a social and collaborative arts agency based in St Helens in the North West of ... more Heart of Glass is a social and collaborative arts agency based in St Helens in the North West of England, bringing together artists and communities to make collaborative art. Working with young people through our varied programmes, we take on the role of active listener to create alternative spaces for young people to tell their stories, express their dreams and ideas, as well as reimagine public spaces. In this paper we foreground our experiences with young people exploring voice and activism, co-design and adolescent views of public spaces via two projects; Running on Fumes (2020-21), a short film created by filmmaker Caroline Smith in collaboration with ten college students living and working in St Helens; I AM ME (2021), a co-curated exhibition developed in collaboration with a group of young women aged between 15 and 25 in St Helens.
MA Dissertation 2014, 2014
Reimagining the landscape of language used by museums: A critical analysis of two press releases ... more Reimagining the landscape of language used by museums: A critical analysis of two press releases as an example of how institutions are attempting to engage with new audiences and communities in order to open up a structural dialogue for change.
Books by Dr. Emeri Curd
Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms, 2020
This book chapter discusses a period of research undertaken at Tate Liverpool's Tate Exchange in ... more This book chapter discusses a period of research undertaken at Tate Liverpool's Tate Exchange in December 2017. Titled ‘Art, Activism and Language; Feminist Issues in Museums and Galleries’, the work considers how contemporary feminist art practices are developing new routes of institutional critique for and with collections of contemporary art. My argument here focuses on examining the politics of discourse – words, language, and tone of voice – used by museum collections in their texts and labels about works of art and how these can be transformed by demands to democratize their role in the museum as one of the ‘Places of Power’ in our society. The analysis includes collaborative reflection on poster and zine-making workshops to create a collaged manifesto entitled ‘How We Work Together’ and artworks made in response to an activity called ‘Imagine the Rules’. Crucially, this essay situates collections of contemporary art as opportunities for discursive activation; encouraging dissent or ‘artivism’ (Mouffe, 2013b Pp.69) through the legitimisation of alternative knowledges, and includes references to the work of bell hooks, Sara Ahmed and Bernadette Lynch.
Thesis Chapters by Dr. Emeri Curd
It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to... more It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to emancipate, educate or exclude. Meanwhile, discourses centred on expertise, representation and authorship have re-emerged as priorities in collections of contemporary art due to pressures for them to be reinstated as dialogical resources. This is especially true for those where participatory practices are being challenged due to their failure to prioritise public discourse over dominant, institutional ones. Even after attempts to democratise collections via processes to co-write interpretation, they struggle to represent community co-authors ethically and transparently.
This thesis argues that language use and misrepresentation prevent publics from using collections of contemporary art and feeling like they belong in them. Using discourse theory and participatory action research, this study interrogates the processes used by collections to co-author the interpretation of artworks to create ‘equitable plurality’ and offers up a toolkit of arts-based practices to engender usership. Drawn from dialogic practices and qualitative research, the investigation examines the politics of discourse and plurality of speech – spoken and written – to contribute a unique focus on language generated and used by publics to create a common language. Undertaken with multiple communities of practice associated with Tate Liverpool’s collection ‘Constellations’, this research concludes in the production of a crowd-sourced digital resource titled The People’s Glossary. By revisiting and reinterpreting keywords with publics as a dialogic practice, this body of work contributes processes and research to embed plurality in collections of contemporary art.
Papers by Dr. Emeri Curd
Corridor8, 2023
Uma Breakdown is a queer, disabled artist, writer and games designer. Their work combines symbols... more Uma Breakdown is a queer, disabled artist, writer and games designer. Their work combines symbols and ideas from horror, gaming, speculative fiction and interspecies solidarity. This piece of writing is a review of their exhibition, EARTH A.D. 2, at FACT Liverpool and is the second part of a three-part touring immersive installation. I spoke to them over Zoom in late November, after attending an in-conversation event at FACT with themselves and author Johanna Hedva in September 2023.
With-You Exchange Magazine, 2024
I stopped using the word 'allyship' to define my practice somewhere between March 2020 and the en... more I stopped using the word 'allyship' to define my practice somewhere between March 2020 and the end of 2022. This distinct fade-out was accelerated by (one of) the burgeoning polycrises marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and a surge in activity around the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK; it has only grown since. It was also during this period that I submitted my PhD thesis interrogating community and museum engagement and perceived allyship using arts-based methodologies. This body of research titled 'The People's Glossary' is aligned with some of esteemed action researcher Paulo Freire; 'to reflect the connection between liberation and inclusive language' (Macedo, 2000). During this time, I'd been asked to join two task forces to embed or explore solidarity and allyship in community and museum practices. One, run by an academic Dr Bernadette Lynch, sought to explore practices of radical solidarity within and beyond museum spaces, with principles of activism at its heart. Another was initiated by a monolithic arts institution with the (somewhat naïve) intention to weed out systemic racism from root to branch. This task force was aimed at producing a toolkit for allyship as an end goal. This article is based on my experiences across these projects and beyond.
Makings, 2024
This article explores a collective approach to learning, research and knowledge production at Hea... more This article explores a collective approach to learning, research and knowledge production at Heart of Glass, a community arts organisation based in Merseyside in the North West of England. Everyone we work with – artists, communities, groups, partners, producers – are active collaborators in the creation of community art and creative spaces. Learning and research lives across all our programmes. Making this kind of work visible is increasingly challenging as we navigate monitoring, evaluation and value-driven research. As an organisation, we hope to challenge normative research frameworks and evaluation methods that put our collaborators in boxes, assign them numbers or pathologise their experiences. We want to create space to hold, reflect on and articulate this practice and the work we produce together.
. This model is significant because there is little research that addresses how intellectually ch... more . This model is significant because there is little research that addresses how intellectually challenged individuals might interpret contemporary art in non-traditional ways and examine different ways 'to know about art'. (Ibid.) From this view, there is potential to explore inclusive approaches to interpretation in terms of film, audio, touch or play, but this is not the objective of TPG. 14 In my research I imagine these two ideologies intersecting due to their parallel struggles towards improved, desirableunattainable-futures. 15 Under the pretenses that they are 'easily replicable in different geographical contexts and equably applicable to different art forms and diverse audiences.' (Belfiore, E. and Bennett, O. (2010) Beyond the "Toolkit Approach": Arts Impact Evaluation Research and the Realities of Cultural Policy-Making. Journal for Cultural Research, 14 (2), pp.121-142.) 'Compass'. This research was conducted in the seven galleries that made up seven 'constellations' activated by one 'trigger' work by a celebrated artist;
GEM Case Studies , 2022
Our aim was to create a summer programme called 'Creation Stations' in the Clore Studio at Tate L... more Our aim was to create a summer programme called 'Creation Stations' in the Clore Studio at Tate Liverpool from 27 July to 31 August 2021. The programme was broadly themed around mental health, seeking to promote key messages from schools programme 'Tackling the Blues' (TtB) with families and young visitors.
Engage Journal, 2022
In this article, we will explore some of the methodologies of the Tackling the Blues - a mental h... more In this article, we will explore some of the methodologies of the Tackling the Blues - a mental health literacy (MHL) programme - to empower students to develop pupil mental health awareness. Underpinning some of this work is the New Economics Foundation’s 5 Ways to Wellbeing (5W2W) – connect, keep learning, be active, take notice, give – used on this programme as a practical set of tools to enhance wellbeing. We also discuss emergent uses of arts-based methods such as ‘slow looking’ and ‘zining’ to improve MHL by looking and making. Knowledge of these methods were cultivated and developed with students during training and professional development, discussed in this paper.
It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to... more It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to emancipate, educate or exclude. Meanwhile, discourses centred on expertise, representation and authorship have re-emerged as priorities in collections of contemporary art due to pressures for them to be reinstated as dialogical resources. This is especially true for those where participatory practices are being challenged due to their failure to prioritise public discourse over dominant, institutional ones. Even after attempts to democratise collections via processes to co-write interpretation, they struggle to represent community co-authors ethically and transparently. This thesis argues that language use and misrepresentation prevent publics from using collections of contemporary art and feeling like they belong in them. Using discourse theory and participatory action research, this study interrogates the processes used by collections to co-author the interpretation of artworks to cre...
Action Research, 2021
'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their... more 'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories, spread information and organize. However, this article presents zines as a potential research tool for action researchers who are working within organisational contexts. The authors, both museum professionals, action researchers and zinesters, use examples from their research within art museums to examine the value of zines as a methodology. Though the research projects take place within art organisations, using the four themes of aesthetics, communities of practice, counternarratives and plurality it considers how zines could be used more broadly as a research tool in other knowledge-based settings. The authors provide a recommendation for practitioners to explore zining to engender dialogic cultures in their organisations as well as their potential in shaping 'major' and 'minor' organisational change.
Action Research, 2021
'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their... more 'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories, spread information and organize. However, this article presents zines as a potential research tool for action researchers who are working within organisational contexts. The authors, both museum professionals, action researchers and zinesters, use examples from their research within art museums to examine the value of zines as a methodology. Though the research projects take place within art organisations, using the four themes of aesthetics, communities of practice, counternarratives and plurality it considers how zines could be used more broadly as a research tool in other knowledge-based settings. The authors provide a recommendation for practitioners to explore zining to engender dialogic cultures in their organisations as well as their potential in shaping 'major' and 'minor' organisational change.
Action Research, 2021
'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their... more 'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories, spread information and organize. However, this article presents zines as a potential research tool for action researchers who are working within organisational contexts. The authors, both museum professionals, action researchers and zinesters, use examples from their research within art museums to examine the value of zines as a methodology. Though the research projects take place within art organisations, using the four themes of aesthetics, communities of practice, counternarratives and plurality it considers how zines could be used more broadly as a research tool in other knowledge-based settings. The authors provide a recommendation for practitioners to explore zining to engender dialogic cultures in their organisations as well as their potential in shaping 'major' and 'minor' organisational change.
Corridor 8 , 2023
Queer writer and philosopher Simon(e) van Saarloos speaks of rules as 'physical, integrated knowl... more Queer writer and philosopher Simon(e) van Saarloos speaks of rules as 'physical, integrated knowledge; you follow the rules without questioning them'. This, they say, results in scenarios, relationships and games that lose their playful character where 'nothing new is created any longer'.1 These ideas were playing on my mind whilst I explored Luke Beech's first solo exhibition Winner Breaks First at Humber Street Gallery in Hull.
Roots & Routes, 2023
Heart of Glass is a social and collaborative arts agency based in St Helens in the North West of ... more Heart of Glass is a social and collaborative arts agency based in St Helens in the North West of England, bringing together artists and communities to make collaborative art. Working with young people through our varied programmes, we take on the role of active listener to create alternative spaces for young people to tell their stories, express their dreams and ideas, as well as reimagine public spaces. In this paper we foreground our experiences with young people exploring voice and activism, co-design and adolescent views of public spaces via two projects; Running on Fumes (2020-21), a short film created by filmmaker Caroline Smith in collaboration with ten college students living and working in St Helens; I AM ME (2021), a co-curated exhibition developed in collaboration with a group of young women aged between 15 and 25 in St Helens.
MA Dissertation 2014, 2014
Reimagining the landscape of language used by museums: A critical analysis of two press releases ... more Reimagining the landscape of language used by museums: A critical analysis of two press releases as an example of how institutions are attempting to engage with new audiences and communities in order to open up a structural dialogue for change.
Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms, 2020
This book chapter discusses a period of research undertaken at Tate Liverpool's Tate Exchange in ... more This book chapter discusses a period of research undertaken at Tate Liverpool's Tate Exchange in December 2017. Titled ‘Art, Activism and Language; Feminist Issues in Museums and Galleries’, the work considers how contemporary feminist art practices are developing new routes of institutional critique for and with collections of contemporary art. My argument here focuses on examining the politics of discourse – words, language, and tone of voice – used by museum collections in their texts and labels about works of art and how these can be transformed by demands to democratize their role in the museum as one of the ‘Places of Power’ in our society. The analysis includes collaborative reflection on poster and zine-making workshops to create a collaged manifesto entitled ‘How We Work Together’ and artworks made in response to an activity called ‘Imagine the Rules’. Crucially, this essay situates collections of contemporary art as opportunities for discursive activation; encouraging dissent or ‘artivism’ (Mouffe, 2013b Pp.69) through the legitimisation of alternative knowledges, and includes references to the work of bell hooks, Sara Ahmed and Bernadette Lynch.
It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to... more It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to emancipate, educate or exclude. Meanwhile, discourses centred on expertise, representation and authorship have re-emerged as priorities in collections of contemporary art due to pressures for them to be reinstated as dialogical resources. This is especially true for those where participatory practices are being challenged due to their failure to prioritise public discourse over dominant, institutional ones. Even after attempts to democratise collections via processes to co-write interpretation, they struggle to represent community co-authors ethically and transparently.
This thesis argues that language use and misrepresentation prevent publics from using collections of contemporary art and feeling like they belong in them. Using discourse theory and participatory action research, this study interrogates the processes used by collections to co-author the interpretation of artworks to create ‘equitable plurality’ and offers up a toolkit of arts-based practices to engender usership. Drawn from dialogic practices and qualitative research, the investigation examines the politics of discourse and plurality of speech – spoken and written – to contribute a unique focus on language generated and used by publics to create a common language. Undertaken with multiple communities of practice associated with Tate Liverpool’s collection ‘Constellations’, this research concludes in the production of a crowd-sourced digital resource titled The People’s Glossary. By revisiting and reinterpreting keywords with publics as a dialogic practice, this body of work contributes processes and research to embed plurality in collections of contemporary art.
Corridor8, 2023
Uma Breakdown is a queer, disabled artist, writer and games designer. Their work combines symbols... more Uma Breakdown is a queer, disabled artist, writer and games designer. Their work combines symbols and ideas from horror, gaming, speculative fiction and interspecies solidarity. This piece of writing is a review of their exhibition, EARTH A.D. 2, at FACT Liverpool and is the second part of a three-part touring immersive installation. I spoke to them over Zoom in late November, after attending an in-conversation event at FACT with themselves and author Johanna Hedva in September 2023.
With-You Exchange Magazine, 2024
I stopped using the word 'allyship' to define my practice somewhere between March 2020 and the en... more I stopped using the word 'allyship' to define my practice somewhere between March 2020 and the end of 2022. This distinct fade-out was accelerated by (one of) the burgeoning polycrises marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and a surge in activity around the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK; it has only grown since. It was also during this period that I submitted my PhD thesis interrogating community and museum engagement and perceived allyship using arts-based methodologies. This body of research titled 'The People's Glossary' is aligned with some of esteemed action researcher Paulo Freire; 'to reflect the connection between liberation and inclusive language' (Macedo, 2000). During this time, I'd been asked to join two task forces to embed or explore solidarity and allyship in community and museum practices. One, run by an academic Dr Bernadette Lynch, sought to explore practices of radical solidarity within and beyond museum spaces, with principles of activism at its heart. Another was initiated by a monolithic arts institution with the (somewhat naïve) intention to weed out systemic racism from root to branch. This task force was aimed at producing a toolkit for allyship as an end goal. This article is based on my experiences across these projects and beyond.
Makings, 2024
This article explores a collective approach to learning, research and knowledge production at Hea... more This article explores a collective approach to learning, research and knowledge production at Heart of Glass, a community arts organisation based in Merseyside in the North West of England. Everyone we work with – artists, communities, groups, partners, producers – are active collaborators in the creation of community art and creative spaces. Learning and research lives across all our programmes. Making this kind of work visible is increasingly challenging as we navigate monitoring, evaluation and value-driven research. As an organisation, we hope to challenge normative research frameworks and evaluation methods that put our collaborators in boxes, assign them numbers or pathologise their experiences. We want to create space to hold, reflect on and articulate this practice and the work we produce together.
. This model is significant because there is little research that addresses how intellectually ch... more . This model is significant because there is little research that addresses how intellectually challenged individuals might interpret contemporary art in non-traditional ways and examine different ways 'to know about art'. (Ibid.) From this view, there is potential to explore inclusive approaches to interpretation in terms of film, audio, touch or play, but this is not the objective of TPG. 14 In my research I imagine these two ideologies intersecting due to their parallel struggles towards improved, desirableunattainable-futures. 15 Under the pretenses that they are 'easily replicable in different geographical contexts and equably applicable to different art forms and diverse audiences.' (Belfiore, E. and Bennett, O. (2010) Beyond the "Toolkit Approach": Arts Impact Evaluation Research and the Realities of Cultural Policy-Making. Journal for Cultural Research, 14 (2), pp.121-142.) 'Compass'. This research was conducted in the seven galleries that made up seven 'constellations' activated by one 'trigger' work by a celebrated artist;
GEM Case Studies , 2022
Our aim was to create a summer programme called 'Creation Stations' in the Clore Studio at Tate L... more Our aim was to create a summer programme called 'Creation Stations' in the Clore Studio at Tate Liverpool from 27 July to 31 August 2021. The programme was broadly themed around mental health, seeking to promote key messages from schools programme 'Tackling the Blues' (TtB) with families and young visitors.
Engage Journal, 2022
In this article, we will explore some of the methodologies of the Tackling the Blues - a mental h... more In this article, we will explore some of the methodologies of the Tackling the Blues - a mental health literacy (MHL) programme - to empower students to develop pupil mental health awareness. Underpinning some of this work is the New Economics Foundation’s 5 Ways to Wellbeing (5W2W) – connect, keep learning, be active, take notice, give – used on this programme as a practical set of tools to enhance wellbeing. We also discuss emergent uses of arts-based methods such as ‘slow looking’ and ‘zining’ to improve MHL by looking and making. Knowledge of these methods were cultivated and developed with students during training and professional development, discussed in this paper.
It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to... more It is understood that language is a powerful mediator of social hierarchy with great influence to emancipate, educate or exclude. Meanwhile, discourses centred on expertise, representation and authorship have re-emerged as priorities in collections of contemporary art due to pressures for them to be reinstated as dialogical resources. This is especially true for those where participatory practices are being challenged due to their failure to prioritise public discourse over dominant, institutional ones. Even after attempts to democratise collections via processes to co-write interpretation, they struggle to represent community co-authors ethically and transparently. This thesis argues that language use and misrepresentation prevent publics from using collections of contemporary art and feeling like they belong in them. Using discourse theory and participatory action research, this study interrogates the processes used by collections to co-author the interpretation of artworks to cre...
Action Research, 2021
'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their... more 'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories, spread information and organize. However, this article presents zines as a potential research tool for action researchers who are working within organisational contexts. The authors, both museum professionals, action researchers and zinesters, use examples from their research within art museums to examine the value of zines as a methodology. Though the research projects take place within art organisations, using the four themes of aesthetics, communities of practice, counternarratives and plurality it considers how zines could be used more broadly as a research tool in other knowledge-based settings. The authors provide a recommendation for practitioners to explore zining to engender dialogic cultures in their organisations as well as their potential in shaping 'major' and 'minor' organisational change.
Action Research, 2021
'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their... more 'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories, spread information and organize. However, this article presents zines as a potential research tool for action researchers who are working within organisational contexts. The authors, both museum professionals, action researchers and zinesters, use examples from their research within art museums to examine the value of zines as a methodology. Though the research projects take place within art organisations, using the four themes of aesthetics, communities of practice, counternarratives and plurality it considers how zines could be used more broadly as a research tool in other knowledge-based settings. The authors provide a recommendation for practitioners to explore zining to engender dialogic cultures in their organisations as well as their potential in shaping 'major' and 'minor' organisational change.
Action Research, 2021
'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their... more 'DIY' publications called zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories, spread information and organize. However, this article presents zines as a potential research tool for action researchers who are working within organisational contexts. The authors, both museum professionals, action researchers and zinesters, use examples from their research within art museums to examine the value of zines as a methodology. Though the research projects take place within art organisations, using the four themes of aesthetics, communities of practice, counternarratives and plurality it considers how zines could be used more broadly as a research tool in other knowledge-based settings. The authors provide a recommendation for practitioners to explore zining to engender dialogic cultures in their organisations as well as their potential in shaping 'major' and 'minor' organisational change.