Dr S Ayesha Hameed

Staff details

Dr S Ayesha Hameed

Position

Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures

Department

Art

Email

a.hameed (@gold.ac.uk)

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Ayesha Hameed explores the legacies of indentureship and slavery through the figures of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Dr. Hameed explores the legacies of indentureship and slavery through the figures of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Her speculative approach combines performance, sound essays, videos, and lectures. Recent solo exhibitions include Kunstinstituut Melly (2022) and Bonniers Konsthall (2022) and group exhibitions at Zeitz MOCAA (2022), Liverpool Biennale, UK (2021), Momenta Biennale (2021), Gothenburg Biennale (2019, 2021), Lubumbashi Biennale (2019) and Dakar Biennale (2018). She co-directed The Weapon of Theory as a Conference of Birds at the Banff Centre for the Arts (2022) and was an Art Explora Artist in Residence at Cité des Arts, Paris (2022). She is co-editor of Futures and Fictions (Repeater 2017) and co-author of Visual Cultures as Time Travel (Sternberg/MIT 2021). She is a Kone Foundation Research Fellow (2022-6). She has two forthcoming books: the monograph Black Atlantis (Strange Attractor/MIT, 2025) and is lead editor of Radio Brown Atlantis (CARA, 2025).

Teaching and supervision

Supervision Summary:

Politics of the landscape; oceanic studies; sound studies; the relationship between the human and more than human; speculative fiction; experimental, practice based work (film, performance, creative writing); migration; borders; histories and legacies of indenture and slavery on the Indian and Atlantic Oceans; radio and other diy forms of practice

Teaching:

Dr Hameed is on research leave during her Kone Foundation Fellowship.

Prior to this she was Co Programme Leader of the PhD in Visual Cultures and taught the courses below:

BA
Space and Time (co-taught)
Landscape and Power

MA
Ocean as Archive

PhD
Research Seminar (co-taught)

  • BA History of Art
  • BA Fine Art and History of Art
  • MA in Contemporary Art History
  • PhD in Visual Cultures

Grants and awards

2023: Publication Grant, Centre for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), NY
To produce the co-edited book Radio Brown Atlantis

2022: Kone Foundation Fellowship
To produce the monograph Black Atlantis

2021: Research Fellow in the Arts, Helsinki Collegium in Advanced Studies

2023: Videonale Scope, Videonale Festival 20
Production Grants for a new curatorial commission

2023: Videonale Video Digest
Production grant for new video commission

2022: Kunstinstituut Melly
Production grant for new commission

2022: Bonniers Konsthall
Production grant for new commission

2022: Zeitz Mocaa
Production grant for new commission

2021: Liverpool Biennale
Production grant for new commission

Publications and research outputs

Book

Hameed, Ayesha. 2025. Black Atlantis. London: Strange Attractor Press.

Gunkel, Henriette and Hameed, Ayesha. 2021. Visual Cultures as Time Travel. Berlin: Sternberg Press. ISBN 9783956795381

Edited Book

Hameed, Ayesha; Eleison, Keyna; Moscoso, Manuela; Sengupta, Shuddhabrata and Valinkski, Rachel, eds. 2025. Radio Brown Atlantis. New York: Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA). ISBN 9781954939066

Gunkel, Henriette; Hameed, Ayesha and O'Sullivan, Simon D., eds. 2017. Futures and Fictions. London: Repeater. ISBN 9781910924631

Book Section

Hameed, Ayesha. 2024. A Tidalectic Atlas of the Plantationocene. In: Justin Barton; Maya B. Kronic and Steve Goodman, eds. Sonic Faction: Audio Essay as Medium and Method. Falmouth: Urbanomic. ISBN 9781915103123

Hameed, Ayesha. 2023. Two Ships/Time Travel/Bodies Under the Sea. In: Pandora Syperek and Sarah Wade, eds. Oceans. London: Whitechapel Gallery. ISBN 9780854883042

Hameed, Ayesha. 2022. (The Art of Living Well and Dying Well). In: Anselm Franke; Elisa Giuliano; Denise Ryner; Claire Tancons and Zairong Xiang, eds. Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World). Leipzig: Spector Books / Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW). ISBN 9783959056946

Article

Hameed, Ayesha. 2020. Black Atlantis: The Plantationocene. British Art Studies(18), ISSN 2058-5462

Hameed, Ayesha. 2012. Trace. Reviews in Cultural Theory, 2(3), ISSN 1918-9710

Hameed, Ayesha. 2011. Yaron Lapid: The New Zero. Photoworks, 16,

Conference or Workshop Item

Hameed, Ayesha. 2024. 'Keynote Lecture'. In: Intersectional Materialisms: Diversity in Creative Industries, Methods and Practices. National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland 26 - 28 August 2024.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2024. 'Keynote Lecture Henry ‘Box’ Brown Lecture'. In: Henry ‘Box’ Brown Lecture. University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2023. 'Keynote Lecture “The Plantationocene” Bordering Plants'. In: “The Plantationocene” Bordering Plants. Exhibit Galerie, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria 8 November 2023.

Art Object

Hameed, Ayesha. 2019. A Transatlantic Periodic Table.

Audio

Hameed, Ayesha. 2024. "þ thorns þ", with Sara Garzón, Rose Choreographic School, Sadler Wells.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2021. Another World is Podable, Episode 31: The Revolution Continues with Dr. Ayesha Hameed talking about Creating New Futures and her Incredible Project "Black Atlantis.

Broadcast

Hameed, Ayesha. 2022. Dark Matter: A History of the Afrofuture (BBC Four).

Hameed, Ayesha. 2021. Free Thinking BBC Radio 3.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2020. Radio Brown Atlantis.

Digital

Hameed, Ayesha and Pourtavaf, Leila. 2007. Border Controls/Border Movements.

Exhibition Catalogue

Hameed, Ayesha. 2011. The Object that Remains.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2005. Unless.

Film/Video

Hameed, Ayesha and Kane, Hamedine. 2018. In the Shadow of Our Ghosts.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2017. A Rough History (of the destruction of fingerprints) - film and performance.

Performance

Hameed, Ayesha. 2019. Black Atlantis: Bodies and Storms. In: "Black Atlantis: Bodies and Storms", ICA London, United Kingdom, 2015-2019.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2019. Black Atlantis: Retrograde Futurism. In: "Black Atlantis: Retrograde Futurism", Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne, Germany, 2018-2019.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2018. Black Atlantis: 'The end of eating everything'. In: "Black Atlantis: 'The end of eating everything'", Empire Remains, London, United Kingdom, 2016 - 2018.

Project

Hameed, Ayesha. 2016 - 2018 A Rough History (of the destruction of fingerprints).

Hameed, Ayesha. 2014 - 2019 Black Atlantis.

Show/Exhibition

Hameed, Ayesha. 2024. Heavy Water | of Coordinates, Containers and Containment. In: "Heavy Water | of Coordinates, Containers and Containment", Alexander Levy, Berlin, Germany, 27 January - 30 March 2024.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2024. “Listen!”. In: "Listen!", Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2023. Curator “Language without language, Language inspite of language” Video Programme Videonale.Scope. In: "VIDEONALE.scope #10 − Open Your Scope - Counter Narratives", Turistarama Köln, Germany, 30 November 2023.

Other

Hameed, Ayesha. 2023. Poetry: “Some sad rushes onstage” and “/SET RESET/ACT/SCENE” in The Voice that Remains. Eds Paul O’Neill and Annabelle Antas. PUBLICS & Lugemik, Talinn.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2022. Poetry. “Songs for Petals” in CLIMATE: Our Right to Breathe. K. Verlag and L’Internationale Online, Berlin.

Hameed, Ayesha. 2022. Poetry. “Two Ships” in Biennials as Sites of Historical Narration —Thinking through Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, ed Lisa Rosendahl. Mousse Publishing, Milan.

Research projects

2021-2024: Brown Atlantis Radio
Radio show commissioned by the Onassis Foundation and broadcast on Stegi Radio (Athens) and Radio Alhara (Bethlehem); Exhibition Commissioned by Bonniers Konsthall; Book commissioned by CARA

2014-2023: Black Atlantis
Practice research project comprising a monograph, several published book chapters, performances, videos and soundworks exhibited internationally at several biennales and elsewhere

Media engagements

2024: "þ thorns þ", with Sara Garzón, Rose Choreographic School, Sadler Wells
Podcast

2021: Sugar. Free Thinking BBC Radio 3
Invited Guest.

2021: The Uncanny Ocean: A Proposition by Ayesha Hameed HEAD-Geneva
Symposium Convenor

2021: “Episode 31: The Revolution Continues with Dr. Ayesha Hameed talking about her Incredible Project "Black Atlantis” Another World is Poddable
Podcast hosted by Professor Peter Bloom University of Essex

2020: Dark Matter: A History of the Afrofuture (BBC TV )
Appearance in documentary on Afrofuturism for BBC Arena

Conferences and talks

2024: Henry ‘Box’ Brown Lecture, University of Manchester
Keynote Lecture

2024: Intersectional Materialisms: Diversity in Creative Industries, Methods and Practices, Maynooth, National University of Ireland
Keynote Lecture

2023: “The Plantationocene” Bordering Plants, ‘Exhibit Galerie,’ Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Keynote Lecture

2023: “Of Sea Changes and Other Futurisms” Confluence, CCA Glasgow
Keynote Lecture

2023: “Time Travelling Devices” (with Henriette Gunkel and Simon O’Sullivan) Time Machines, Goldsmiths University of London
Keynote Lecture

2023: “The Soil and the Sea of the Plantationocene” (with Henriette Gunkel) British Association for American Studies, Kent, UK
Keynote Lecture

2020: “Black Atlantis” Nordland National Academy of Art and Film, Norway
Keynote Lecture

2018: “Retrograde Futurism” Artistic Research Will Eat Itself, Society for Artistic Research, Plymouth
Keynote Lecture