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Drawing Analogies Book Launch and Discussion

We will be launching our book Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory and Practice at The Gallery, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT on Thursday May 1st at 18.00.

The launch will be accompanied by invited academics presenting on their research and discussing diagrams with the Diagram Research Group.

The invited academics are:

  • Dr. Winnie Soon, artist & Director of UG Art & Technology (Slade School of Fine Art UCL
  • Duncan Greig, Professor of Genetics (Centre of Life’s Origins and Evolution/CLOE)
  • Martin Holbraad, Professor of Anthropology (UCL Anthropology)

Drawing Analogies is published by Bloomsbury Press as part of the ‘Drawing In’ series as a hardback book and open access publication that can be downloaded here.

There will be refreshments. For information and attendance e-mail David Burrows: d.burrows@ucl.ac.uk

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NAFAE Annual Conference 2025

The NAFAE Annual Conference Culture Co-operative: Moments, Spaces, and Alternatives for Art and Cultures of Learning will be taking place in Hull on Friday 25th of April 9:30am-5:00pm at 1-2 Pier Street Kingston upon Hull HU1 1TU.

Please book your free conference ticket as soon as possible so we can provide adequate refreshments and lunch:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nafae-annual-conference-tickets-1236278735979?aff=oddtdtcreator

The conference is facilitated by the Feral Art School, Hull’s new, independent art school.

For more Information about NAFAE and membership options go to:  https://www.nafae.org.uk/

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This is Not a Diagram: Applying General Semantics to Contemporary Arts Pedagogy

I’m genuinely honoured to be giving my paper ‘This Is Not a Diagram: Applying General Semantics to Contemporary Arts Pedagogy’ at the forthcoming online symposium of the Institute of General Semantics – Communication, Consciousness, and Culture II – on Saturday 19th April. The event is free and open to all but registration is required.

For those not familiar with the discipline of General Semantics, this is the perfect opportunity to learn about it. There is an incredible line up of speakers and it promises to be a very special event.

My panel – ‘Map and Territory’ – will run from 12.30 – 13.45 pm GMT.

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Exploring Generative AI in the Arts: Insights from GenAI Lunchtime Sessions

Here is a recording of the talk I gave at the GenAI Lunchtime sessions to colleagues at the University of Worcester in February this year. In it I speak about the use of generative AI tools in the arts, differing definitions of ‘intelligence’ and ‘creativity’ in the arts and tech worlds, and the uneven impact of Generative AI tools on different creative fields. I also give a brief introduction to the ideas of accelerationism and transhumanism, and make a case for aligning studio arts education with creative health. It’s a 30 minute talk.

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Conjuring Creativity 2025

The third Conjuring Creativity conference – Inhabiting Esoteric Ecologies – will be taking place at MKII space in Clapton, East London on March 15th and 16th.

The conference focuses on the entangled relationships between magick and the more-than-human, exploring how esoteric, occult and mystical strategies are being utilised within and alongside contemporary art to recognise, repair and re-member our innate relationships,  to our earthly ecologies, spirits, pan-species kin and the unseen companions who inform and inhabit our terrestriality.

There are reduced price tickets for students available via a code which they receive upon mailing conjuringcreativity@gmail.com.

Regular tickets are available here.

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VEVE XXX at Fylkingen

I will be making a new ritual floor drawing with my co-creator Roberto N. Peyre at the experimental arts and music venue Fylkingen in Stockholm next Saturday, March 1st. The performance will be accompanied by an immersive 8 channel sound piece by Copenhagen-based electro acoustic composer and sound artist Jean-Louis Huhta (aka Dungeon Acid). We will be joined by Stockholm-based performance duo Dos Oké and Stockholm-based sound artist and DJ Sofia Sainio (aka Sofftronic) for an evening of ceremony, revelry and dancing. You can find out more about the event and buy tickets here.

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NAFAE Annual Conference 2025 Call for Papers

This year’s National Association of Fine Art Education conference – Culture Co-operative: Moments, Spaces, and Alternatives for Art and Cultures of Learning – will be hosted by the Feral Art School in Hull on Friday April 25th.

The themes of this conference follow on from those of the 2024 NAFAE Conference The Art of Resistance and the arguments of the recent book Cooperative Education, Politics, and Art: Creative, Critical, and Community Resistance to Corporate Higher Education.

The deadline for proposals is March 3rd and confirmation on the 17th. More details about the conference themes and the submission process can be found here.

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Reimagining Arts Education: From the Education of the Senses to Creative Health

Fyodor Bronnikov Pythagoreans Celebrate the Sunrise 1869

Below is PDF of my presentation ‘Reimagining Arts Education: From the Education of the Senses to Creative Health ‘ which I gave at the Have Some Imagination: Towards a Manifesto for Arts Education conference at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle in February.

Reimagining Arts Education [Newcastle Edit]Download

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Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory and Practice

My new book Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory and Practice, co-authored with David Burrows, Dean Kenning and Mary Yacoob, is available as Open Access here. The print edition will be available to buy here from 6th Feb 2025.

Informed by Charles Sanders Peirce’s understanding of a diagram as an analogy of relations, Drawing Analogies draws on its authors’ creative use of diagrams as artists, educators and arts researchers, and on fields of inquiry that bring the arts into alignment with other disciplines, most notably anthropology, critical theory, pedagogy, philosophy, psychology, semiotics and the physical and life sciences.

By taking an artistic approach to diagrams and diagramming, by incorporating diagramming as a method of enquiry within chapters, and by exploring their interdisciplinary and multi-perspectival potentials, Drawing Analogies proposes giving new life to the art of diagramming and widening the arena of artistic practice and creative research.