The Particular in the Universal

TSP delighted to announce we are hosting an impromptu panel/discussion event initiated by dr Alasdair Foster (https://www.lensculture.com/alasdair-foster) former director of  legendary Fotofeis. Alasdair is currently in Scotland on a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at University of Dundee. The central focus of Alasdair’s research is participatory culture: the idea that the culture of the community is a shared thing and the creation of all citizens in an ongoing conversation. Nowhere is this cultural production more visible than in how we engage with photography.

This event begs questions about programming and curation that are pertinent to photography and beyond.  How can curation/programming reflect participatory culture? How can inside-outside positions be resisted? What kind of strategies for inclusion are necessary to put in place? How can communication between institutional circumstances and independent initiatives be made productive in ways that deconstruct, decolonise and open up the production of culture in ways that make it participatory for all? What are the holes in our public archives that need to be admitted and filled and what is the artist/curator and Programmers role in this? How do the Global Regional and Local perspectives mirror or differ from each other?

To discuss this important aim or goal in curatorial practice we have put together a panel who will discuss this with Alasdair and the audience. The panel consists of Mia Rivka Gubbay (assistant curator migration collections the open museum), Tiffany Boyle (https://mothertonguecurating.com/ ) and Francis Doso Rhythm Machine (http://www.theartschool.co.uk/2017/05/club-rhythm-machine/) (Francis is also part of the Edinburg based SPIT collective).

We are ever grateful to the panelists who all are doing this unpaid and without whom this event would  not happen. Thank you Alasdair, Mia, Tiffany and Francis.

As usual the discussions take a point of departure in the panel members practices. The form of the discussions will be slightly different than usual and questions or comments from the audience are invited from the start.