Mapping, Spatiality, Participation
= Smuggling

The work presented within this exposition is a form of immersive and deep mapping of the alternative art school and art pedagogies. Much of my early practice works with the visual and textual, specifically through the diagrammatic and mapping to disseminate and exhibit my interventionist actions.  

Michelkevičius (2021) intriguingly states, ‘In addition to revealing, a map can also conceal, mislead, or smuggle in something we were not looking for’.1 This notion invites individuals to approach the activities of the three protagonist roles with a critical eye, questioning and examining the information presented to them, being aware of potential biases and actively seeking out alternative perspectives. Rogoff (2006) refers to ‘smuggling’ a movement between different spaces, in order that we may be and see ‘things’ differently, from a position of criticality.2 Similar thinking can be found with Mouffe (2007) who suggests that we look to a form of ‘disarticulation’, to create the antagonistic space.3 Rogoff and Mouffe advocate for inhabitation of criticality, ‘…criticality is not to find an answer but rather to access a different mode of inhabitation. Philosophically we might say that it is a form of ontology that is being advocated, a ‘living things out’ which has a hugely transformative power as opposed to 'pronouncing on' them. In the duration of these activities, in the actual inhabitation, a shift might occur that we generate through the modalities of that occupation rather than through a judgement upon it. This is what I try to uncover through an ‘embodied criticality’.

The research takes a rhizomatic approach in there are thematic threads or roots and stems, working in conjunction that emerged during the initial stages of my PhD study. I committed to one of two of these threads to develop (diagram 1 below), which are shown in depth within the PhD. There are other thematic threads that have been paused and might be picked up as future research proposals.

1. Michelkevičius, V., 2021. Atlas of Diagrammatic Imagination. In The Postresaerch Condition. Utrecht: Metropolis M Books. p. 15.

2. Rogoff, I., 2006. ‘Smuggling’ - An embodied criticality [online]. Available at: https://xenopraxis.net/readings/rogoff_smuggling.pdf [Accessed 28 July 2021]. Later published.  Rogoff, I. 2013 [2006]. Smuggling: An embodied criticality. In: Lind, M., ed. Abstraction, documents of contemporary art. London: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2013, pp. 186 - 195.

3. Mouffe, C., 2007. Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces. Art & Research: A Journal of Ideas, Contexts and Methods, 1 (2), pp. 1-5.

                                                 Inventory

Inventory is the landing page of the Research Catalogue exposition, forming one component of my PhD submission. It contains six sections, each with a title indicating the content beyond. The application of rectangular boxes as bounded inventory containers of the research components is deliberate, emphasising the difficulty that alternative art education has in escaping formats that are standardised, established and institutional. You will find areas within this research exposition that contain historical and archival references and others that disclose the spatial and participatory conceptual frameworks and the interventions of three protagonist roles. There are also concepts and visuals that the viewer/reader may stumble upon, an outline of which may be found elsewhere in the exposition. These interventions again encourage the reader to engage and locate moments in a non-sequential encounter.

Sequential Navigation

Provided here is an orientation to the space of the Research Catalogue. For those who wish to traverse, journey across, or encounter curiously you are invited to move through the Research Catalogue in a diagonal direction. For those who wish to experience sequential navigation that relates in part to the chapter order of the exegesis, you are invited to follow the numbered route given below. Enter each of the standardised ‘A’ size tiles by selecting the text within.

Part 1: Defining
Chapter 1 Mapping: includes a defining section examining the patterns of ‘alternative/art/school’ through interventions into Anton Vidokle's ‘An Incomplete Chronology of Experimental Art Schools’, together with a mapping of alternative art pedagogies, in essence locating the alternative/art/school.

Chapter 2 Spatiality: Identifying the spatial modalities in which the alternative art schools operate.

Part 2: Disrupting
Chapter 3 Enacting: Exploring the spatialities and modes of participation of alternative/art/schools through the application of three protagonist roles, accompanied by the Protagonists Handbook, which contains a glossary of enacting terms and tools. The development of a spatial framework and an articulation of the overarching conceptual toolkit of D\P: Diagonal Practices. 

Chapter 4 The Other MA (TOMA): Operating within the framework of the five spatialities and activating the three protagonist roles within a longitudinal case study of an alternative art school, TOMA.