Research interests
My Phd research (2002) concentrated on a discourse analysis of the strategic uses of the concept of community in cultural projects within urban regeneration schemes. It was based on two case studies, i.e two festivals about Bangladeshi culture located on Brick Lane, East London.
My research has since evolved in a rather different direction: Since 2004, I have been engaged in action-research with the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, a network of socially engaged artists and activists, which I co-founded, exploring creative forms of resistance and popular education.
Thus in 2005, the Lab organised a tour of nine cities in the UK (funded in part by the Arts Council of England and Queen Mary - University of London) consisting of a theatrical show and trainings in a new methodology known as ‘rebel clowning’ that combines the ancient art of clowning with techniques of civil disobedience.
In June 2009, the Lab presented C.R.A.S.H A post-capitalist A to Z. Commissioned by Arts Admin as past of the Two Degrees festival on Climate change, art and activism and funded by Arts Council England Artist Project Earth, the project involved a two weeks full-time training on art, activism and permaculture for 30 unemployed and precarious workers; 4 interactive performances (conceived, devised and facilitated by the trainees); the commission of 8 interventions by artists in the City of London; 3 lectures on art, activism and permaculture; and the publication of an introduction to permaculture designed in collaboration with Belgrade based design group SKART (in the form of illustrated swatch cards).
Through this Action Research project, I have developed a keen interest in the potential links between the anti-capitalist movement(s), creative forms of resistance and popular education. I am particularly interested in the discursive linkages between these approaches to social justice, and especially in the notions of self-determination, non-hierarchical relationships and creative, participatory, un-mediated methodologies of communication.
In 2007-2008 I took a sabbatical year to undertake the Paths Through Utopias project. A more creative approach to my work, this project involved a 7 months journey around Europe in order to visit and document 12 non-hierarchical alternative projects and communities, and will result in a book and DVD packaged together. The book will be an analytical travelogue whilst the film will take the form of a “fake documentary”. It will be published by French publishers La Découverte in the 2011.
In March 2011, I will be attending the ASCA Practicing Theory international conference at the University of Amsterdam.
