Fine art

Fine art at the University of Plymouth offers a unique opportunity for students to follow their own path through a range of subject areas and forms of expression. We offer a broad-based programme of study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the cutting edge of contemporary art practice. Studio practice lies at the core of this, alongside the development of theoretical and research skills, underpinned by international trips, regular exhibitions, open studios and a talks programme of visiting artists, curators and critics, most recently including: Mara Ambrozic, Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, Cooking Sections, Theresa Gleadowe, Dean Kenning, Lars Bang Larson, Esther Leslie, Marie Lund, Huma Mulji, Aura Satz, Tommy Støckel, Suzanne Treister. In 2018–19, we hosted a series of talks “Strange Ecologies”, that included Neil Cummings, Sonia Boyce, Olga Goriunova and Matthew Fuller, Christian Ulrik Andersen and Søren Pold.

Together, this demonstrates the importance we place on active networks and collaborations as well as the desire to communicate to a wider public, not least through our ongoing collaborations with The Atlantic Project , KARST, and Plymouth Arts Centre, amongst others.

I propose the term ‘exploratory diagrams’ to describe an approach to diagramming which goes beyond familiar statistical and explanatory diagrams so as to focus instead on how the phenomenal act of constructing a diagram is productive of knowledge rather than being merely a representation of already existing knowledge or ‘information’. Diagramming in this sense has particular relevance for configuring social forces and relations of a more complex, abstract and non-evident nature, and for envisioning new models of being beyond current conceptual and ideological frames. It can also constitute methods of close textual reading and critical reflection relevant to art education. I will discuss these ideas in relation to my own diagrammatic works and methods such as Metallurgy of the Subject, Diagramming Politics, Social Body Mind Mapping, Plato’s Caves and Illustrating Capita.

The topic of diagramming is introduced as a synthetic approach to the study of neoliberal pressure on the creative and arts sector, with a particular focus on contemporary art institutions (museums, biennials, summits, etc.). Rather than framing diagramming as a simple medium of expression, I will introduce diagramming as a critical methodology to investigate the gap between cultural analysis, critical theory and institutional critique. As a handwriting practice synchronised with the language of thought, it also operates as a critical (post-internet) response to the visualisation of information through (reductive) forms grounded mainly on interferential statistics (based on dubiously gathered information). In addition, when used in to carry out an analysis of representational data (graphs, facts, network analysis maps) and various other representations of the art world system, diagramming can also clarify our understanding of existing models (and of power structures) to stimulate the modification of our predetermined conceptions, opinions and assumptions.