Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths turns 10
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From Wednesday 2 – Sunday 6 December we’re celebrating our Department of Visual Cultures’ 10th birthday with a week of alumni exhibitions and performances on campus and at The Showroom, NW8.
And here at Goldsmiths, the Professor Stuart Hall Building atrium will feature an exhibition of our current students' work, with a reception on Thursday 3 December from 7pm.
First formed in the 2004/2005 academic year, Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths continues to produce a global community of scholars and artists exploring contemporary art and visual culture, and its political, philosophical and aesthetic issues in new and diverse ways.
‘Visual Cultures TEN’ is a free programme of events at The Showroom gallery and the Professor Stuart Hall Building, New Cross campus, which recognises the incredible work of our student and graduate artists, curators and researchers as they spread the Department’s ethos across the public sphere.
Artists showcasing their work through an exhibition and panel discussions at The Showroom include Lilian Bado, Jesc Bunyard, Ryann Donnelly, Issy Wood, Carlton Piper and many more.
Speakers at panel discussions and speeches across the week also include alumna Fatos Ustek – the London-based curator and writer who curated the ICA’s 50 projects in 50 weeks programme, fig-2; Gendered Intelligence co-founder Dr Jay Stewart, who wrote his Goldsmiths PhD thesis on trans people on TV; Department co-founder Irit Rogoff; and current Head of Department Gavin Butt.
Professor Gavin Butt comments: "The Visual Cultures department at Goldsmiths, University of London is the first and only such department in the world. Since its founding ten years ago it has quickly built an international reputation for permissive and intellectually rigorous enquiry into modern and contemporary art.
“The hallmark of what we do resides in our exploratory, transdisciplinary approach to studying the urgent and changing issues of the contemporary moment.
“Visual Cultures staff, students and alumni work in ways unconstrained by the anxieties of disciplinary fidelity, and often establish projects which bridge creative and critical modes, the academy and public culture.”
Visual Cultures TEN has been organised by a team of staff, students and alumni, with the particular involvement of the Goldsmiths Visual Cultures Society. Contributions were selected from an open call to all Visual Cultures alumni in order to demonstrate the breadth and character of work the department has helped generate in its first ten years of existence.
Gavin adds: “Visual Cultures could never have achieved so much without its strong ethos of collegiality and collaboration; amongst all staff past and present, amongst students and staff, and within the multifarious relationships the department has entered into with the artists, theorists, curators, and activists who have worked with us.
"The achievements showcased by Visual Cultures TEN are therefore the result of so many more relations and exchanges than this select group of artists, scholars and curators might otherwise suggest.”
Based within the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths is our BA History of Art, as well as the joint honours BA Fine Art and History of Art, taught with the Department of Art. Visual Cultures offers a Diploma in Contemporary Art History, as well as MA, MRes and PhD programmes in Contemporary Art Theory, Research Architecture, Visual Cultures and Curatorial/Knowledge.
Located within the Department is the Centre for Research Architecture, an innovative group of architects, urbanists, filmmakers, curators and other cultural practitioners from around the world working on expanding notions of architecture that engage with questions of culture, politics, conflict and human rights. Among other projects, work on exposing human rights abuses in Gaza, led by Professor Eyal Weizman in collaboration with Amnesty International, has made global headlines this year.
Goldsmiths Students’ Union is also home to the popular Visual Cultures Society – a group open to all at the university with an interest in arts management, administration, curatorial practice and collaborative work.
Along with Department staff the Visual Cultures Society has helped create and and curate Visual Cultures TEN, which will also feature a special print edition of the student-run EphemeralMag, celebrating the best Visual Cultures student work from 2014-5.
Find out more about the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths and Visual Cultures TEN
Follow @VisCult on Twitter for the latest news and events.
