Crazy Hare-Brained Scheme
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CHBS #12: The Writer and The Reader
On a Friday evening last week, my latest work, an installation piece called The Writer and The Reader, made her first appearance at Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict DinnerPerformanceTalk, programmed and curated by the performer, director and filmmaker Naama Schendar. It was a deeply collaborative piece made with Naama, the musician and composer Yoni Silver and…
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CHBS #11: The Foundations Project
Today, my collaborator the sociologist Dr Katherine Appleford and I sat down and drafted the content for the website for our new research project exploring the history and legacy of British Art and Design Clubs, which we are calling The Foundations Project. We have wanted to work together for a long time, and it was…
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CHBS #10: Paperweight Radio
Here, an outline of an old project but one which fundamentally changed my practice as a writer, as an academic and as a lecturer. [If you want to skip the description of the project and move directly to the audio of the episodes, please find the pilot radio show on Ghosts here; and the episode…
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CHBS #9: The Coral Notes
Sometime, last year, I turned my attention to coral. It began through the meeting of three moments, one personal and two professional. The first moment was learning that coral is used as a substitute for human bone in orthopaedic and reconstructive surgeries. Coral is the ideal material for three main reasons. Firstly, coral’s natural porosity…
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CHBS #8: The Drowned Book
In 1913, Ludwig Wittgenstein constructed his wooden hut on a steep rock face over Eidsvatnet Lake in the Luster municipality of Vestland, Norway. It was whilst living in this perched precariously home that the philosopher first began to conceive of the work that later became the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). In the summer of 2024, the…
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CHBS #7: Every Day I (Covid Returns)
When we returned to work after the first Covid-19 lockdown in the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, where I was the Programme Lead for the BA Design, my colleague Corinne Quin installed a photo booth in our building’s lobby, and at her instigation, staff and students all sat for portraits. I remember running into my…
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CHBS #5: Cleaning Up The Slime
During the pandemic, I was one of a group of women from the Department of Design at Goldsmiths who formed the Domestic Monsters, a collective to explore questions and discourses of the domestic through practice. In those strange times, I remember our online meetings and then in-person and socially distanced meetings being incredibly hopeful, almost…
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CHBS #4: I Want Design For President
Last year, I was asked to write something for the End of Year Show catalogue, for the School of Design at University of Greenwich, as part of my role as Academic Portfolio Lead for Design. It was my first show at Greenwich, and I was keenly aware of the writing needing to be a statement…
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CHBS #3: No More I Love You’s
Here, the opening speech of a lecture series programmed and delivered in opening months of 2024 in the School of Design at University of Greenwich, inspired by Annie Lennox’s 1995 song, where I first hit upon a term for a sensibility I was searching for and trying to capture in my research and practice: Neon…
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CHBS #2: The 1957 Festival of Women
In the summer of 2023, on a bright and brilliant day, I decided to down tools, pull myself away from work emails and take a road trip. My car was in for service and a family member had lent me their sportscar. I decided to take her for a spin, remembering an antiques market at…