Professor Simon O'Sullivan

Staff details

Professor Simon O'Sullivan

Position

Professor of Art Theory and Practice

Department

Visual Cultures

Email

s.o'sullivan (@gold.ac.uk)

Simon is a theorist and artist working at the intersection of contemporary art practice, performance and philosophy.

Simon O’Sullivan is a theorist and artist working at the intersection of contemporary art practice, performance and continental philosophy. He has published widely in in these areas, often in relation to Deleuze and Guattari and, more recently in relation to fictioning and myth-work.

His most recent monographs are From Magic and Myth-Work to Care and Repair (2024) and (written with David Burrows) Fictioning: The Myth-Functions of Contemporary Art and Philosophy (2019).

His collaborative art practice – with David Burrows, Alex Marzeta and Vanessa Page, sometimes with and others – comes under the name Plastique Fantastique, a ‘performance fiction’ that involves an investigation into aesthetics, subjectivity, the sacred, popular culture and politics produced through, performance, film and sound work, comics, text, installations and assemblages. Plastique Fantastique have performed and exhibited widely in the UK and abroad and are represented by IMT Gallery in London.

Teaching and supervision

Supervision summary:

Aesthetics; Art Theory; Continental Philosophy; Modern and Contemporary Art (esp. Ritual and Performance, Fiction and Mythopoesis); Psycho/Schizo-analysis; The Production of Subjectivity; Non-Philosophy; Speculative Realism; Fictioning; Landscape; Occulture/Magic; Care and Repair; Hybrid Writing and Art Writing; Theory-Fiction; Archaeology and Art; the Ill and the Dead.

Teaching:

Programme Leader for MA Contemporary Art Theory. Teaching MA module 'From Art Writing to Theory-Fiction' and third year BA module on 'Occulture'. PhD, BA and MA Dissertation

Research interests

Aesthetics; Art Theory; Continental Philosophy; Modern and Contemporary Art (esp. Ritual and Performance, Fiction and Mythopoesis); Psycho/Schizo-analysis; The Production of Subjectivity; Non-Philosophy; Speculative Realism; Fictioning; Landscape; Occulture/Magic; Care and Repair; Hybrid Writing and Art Writing; Theory-Fiction; Archaeology and Art; the Ill and the Dead.

Publications and research outputs

Book

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2024. On Theory-Fiction and Other Genres. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783031650710

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2024. From Magic and Myth-Work to Care and Repair. London: Goldsmiths Press. ISBN 9781915983046

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2024. The Ancient Device. Charmouth: Triarchy Press. ISBN 9781917251013​

Book Section

Burrows, David and O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2023. Science Fiction Devices. In: Bernd Herzogenarth, ed. New Perspectives on Academic Writing: The Thing That Wouldn't Die. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 39-52. ISBN 9781350231535

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2022. Fictioning a Pilgrimage (or Fieldwork on the Fiction of the Self). In: Bridget Crone; Sam Nightingale and Polly Stanton, eds. Fieldwork for Future Ecologies: Radical Practice for Art and Art-based Research. Eindhoven: Onomatopee, pp. 397-415. ISBN 9789493148918

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2022. The Stars My Destination. In: Francesca Lazzarini, ed. IOCOSE: Loops and Vectors. Modena: Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, pp. 92-95. ISBN 9788894552140

Article

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2023. Avatars, Egregores and the Writing of the Self. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 16(1), pp. 229-241. ISSN 1753-5190

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2022. On Tabletop Roleplaying Games and Fictioning. Vector, ISSN 0505-0448

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2020. Myth-Science as Residual Culture and Magical Thinking. postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, 11(1), pp. 119-136. ISSN 2040-5960

Project

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 20 October 2017 - 15 September 2018 Welcome Traitor Meme!.

Show/Exhibition

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 2023. Plastique Fantastique Science Fictioning Tarot. In: "Profanations", Culturgest, Porto, Portugal, 30 September 2023 to 14 January 2024.

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 2023. Plastique Fantastique Science Fictioning Tarot. In: "Profanations", Fidelidade Arte Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, 9 May - 1 September 2023.

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 2023. Plastique Fantastique Exquisite Corpse Meme-Animals. In: "Is the Image Even Human?", Insituto Cervante, New Dehli, India, 9 March -5 May 2023.

Conference or Workshop Item

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2024. 'Fictioning and Myth-Work'. In: Fabulation as Artistic Research Method: Ways of Engaging with Multiple Others. ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem, Netherlands 11 December 2024.

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2024. 'On Fictioning Avatars and Egregores'. In: Royal Academy Schools Invited Lecture. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom 25 November 2024.

O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2024. 'On Roleplaying Games and Fictioning'. In: Areas of Effect: Planetary Systems, Critical Roles, and Gaming Imaginaries. Arebyte Gallery, London, United Kingdom 9 March 2024.

Edited Book

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

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Zepke, Stephen, eds. 2010. Deleuze and Contemporary Art. Edinburgh: Edingburgh University Press. ISBN 978 0 7486 3838 3

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Zepke, Stephen, eds. 2008. Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New. London: Continuum. ISBN 9780826499530

Performance

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 2024. Tek Fok (tape launch and performance). In: "Tek Fok launch", Forma, London, United Kingdom, 11 May 2024.

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 2021. Plastique Fantastique Ritual to Call Forth the Termite Queen. In: "I HAVE NO CHOICE, I F/HEAR UR VOICE (performance/audio-visual event at end of Frankie Roberts residency)", St. Margaret’s House, London, United Kingdom, 5 December 2021.

O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 2021. Plastique Fantastique Ritual to Call Forth the Termite Queen and Plastique Fantastique Ritual to call forth a Black Hole. In: "Termite Nolse Club, part of Metabolic Market curated by IMT Gallery", GIANT, Bournemouth, United Kingdom, 9 October 2021.

Professional projects

Deatils and documentation of Plastique Fantastique can be found on the website above. A couple of indicative performances are below with links to documentation.