Global Contemporary
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Research

The Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF2014) identified the theorisation of contemporary art by staff in History of Art as a subject area strength.

Research engages a range of topics connected to globalisation, including:

  • art and capitalism;
  • the art and visual culture of biopolitics;
  • modernity and contemporaneity;
  • urban contexts and the creative industries;
  • art institutions and labour;
  • feminism and sexual politics;
  • the environment and social reproduction;
  • technology and networks;
  • democracy and neo-fascism.

Publications

Members of the Global Contemporary Research Group have published widely and prominently in areas relating to the intersections of globalisation and art.

Authoring

Recent publications include

  • Tamara Trodd’s The Art of Mechanical Reproduction: Technology and Aesthetics from Duchamp to the Digital (2015),
  • Angela Dimitrakaki and Kirsten Lloyd’s edited volume Economy: Art, Production and the Subject in the 21st Century (2015),
  • Angela Dimitrakaki’s Gender, ArtWork and the Global Imperative (2013)
  • and Richard Williams’s Sex and Buildings (2013).

Editing

Beside this, members of the group are active in editorial work, leading academic publishers’ book series such as The Visual Cultures of Cities by Richard Williams, and serving on the editorial boards of journals including Third Text.

Curatorial projects

Exhibitions

Members also curate exhibitions, with recent examples including The Scottish Endarkenment at Dovecot Gallery (Andrew Patrizio, 2016) and ECONOMY at Stills and CCA Glasgow (Angela Dimitrakaki and Kirsten Lloyd, 2013-2015).

The Scottish Endarkenment exhibition (external link)

ECONOMY exhibition (external link)

Public projects

Recent public projects include

  • Angela Dimitrakaki’s collaboration with Documenta 14 (2017) on Sanja Ivekovic’s Monument to Revolution installed in Athens, Greece;
  • the launch in 2017 of the website ‘The Fabric: Social Reproduction in Art, Life, and Praxis’, led by Kirsten Lloyd;
  • and ‘Taiwan Academy: Contemporary Taiwanese Art, Culture and Cinema in Scotland’, led by Chia-Ling Yang.

Sanja Ivekovic’s Monument to Revolution (external link)

The Fabric: Social Reproduction in Art, Life, and Praxis

Taiwan Academy: Contemporary Taiwanese Art, Culture and Cinema in Scotland

Resources

The University’s Contemporary Art Research Collection launched in 2016 as a research collection. It also focuses on globalisation as a theme strongly supported by research in ECA.

The University’s Contemporary Art Research Collection

The scholarship that underpins this research can be subject-specific or interdisciplinary, yet always focused on the dialogue between cultural production and social concerns.