D i a g o n a l P r a c t i c e s (D\P)
This exposition engages in dialogue with the concept of Enacting Space, serving as the conceptual framework guiding the operation of the three protagonists' roles. Within this framework, Diagonal Practices (D\P) is the central principle of the toolkit, providing the context in which the various tools associated with the three protagonist roles are activated. This exposition should be viewed and read in relation to Chapter 3 of the exegesis.
Title: Alternative to What? Exploring Alternative Art Schools Through Spatiality, Participation and Performative Tools
Elle Reynolds
You can find the exegesis on
the Nottingham Trent University Repository
/ˈɡlɒsᵊri/GLOSSARY
Inventive and generative language. By applying speculative terminology, I arrived at a newfound clarity and spatiality within each word. By deliberating and then naming certain ‘positions’ and ‘attributes’, I could describe how and why they were utilised in specific ways, thereby refining my positions and enacting procedures.
D\P = Diagonal Practice
Second diagrammatic (spatiality sketch) to explore the conceptual form of Diagonal Practice.
Dialogue 03
MEDIUM: Stealing Time
Diagrammatic time as pedagogical map that can be deployed elsewhere.
Dialogue 03
MEDIUM: Intervening
Articulate Detective intervening in the spaces of Nida Art Colony using the presenter's viewfinder.
The Diagonal
The diagonal is a lined division, a demarcation, an inscription perhaps yet it is neither outside nor inside, it does not contain or enclose, but holds an ambiguous spatiality, in this sense the alternative is not a physical space, it is an inclination.
1
D\P Symposium: Event Elements
The Diagonal Practice symposium held at the Summer Lodge in 2019 comprised of several discrete elements. These distinctive sections were led by a number of invited artists, curators, poets, performers and writers, including TOMA.
The primary intent was to open up the institutional space through the mediation of the enclosed institution as a socially egalitarian space, thereby offering a platform for others to both activate their own practice and also introduce aspects of my research. Secondly to create a space that asked us to consider the position of each other in a different way and to act in common.[1]
And what Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly (2021) call ‘reparative theft’ within anti-racist scholar activism.[2]
[1] In the Introduction to the Common Space author Stavros Stavrides connects commoning with ‘processes of opening up, ...opening up the sharing relations to new possibilities through a rethinking of sharing rules and opening up the boundaries that define the spaces of sharing.’
Stavrides, S., 2016. Common Space: The City as Commons (In Common). London: Zed Books. p. 3.
[2] Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly suggest ‘reparative theft’ as not waiting for permission, p. 62.
2
Conceived as a proposed methodology this exposition hints at D\P bringing a dynamic and interactive approach to education. One that involves interconnected elements, speculative thinking, and active audience engagement. It also highlights the practical tools and methodologies provided for application in the context of art education.
A new chronology
The diagonal is a lined division, a demarcation, an inscription perhaps yet it is neither outside nor inside, it does not contain or enclose, but holds an ambiguous spatiality, in this sense the alternative is not a physical space, it is an inclination.
3
D\P at the Summer Lodge 2019
The primary intent was to open the institutional space through the mediation of the enclosed institution as a socially egalitarian space, thereby offering a platform for others to both activate their own practice and also introduce aspects of my research. Furthermore to create a space that asked us to consider the position of each other in a different way and to act in common.[1] Within the institutional setting of the Summer Lodge, I had inserted D\P, a space to test things out, a provocation that maintained the essence of a symposium through its meeting around a central theme of ‘the alternative’ yet concurrently held within the symposium structure an acknowledgement of the parasitical. A symposium space that had been generously provided by the institution of the annual Summer Lodge.
As an active position and methodology, D\P entails approaching a situation with expansive and divergent thinking. The unfolding of a physical space, an in-between or Diagonal Practice D\P, was conceived as a form of agonism, as an interruption, a critical space. D\P as interruption was sometimes fictitious, speculative and at other moments a significant proposition activated as a D-Space vua the three protagonist roles.
I introduced sub themes that would decentralise and disrupt the cadence of the overarching programme and of the ‘intended’ space of the symposium. Decentralisation or lack of focus, as another method of dissensus and disruption, was made manifest in the density of topics delivered and in the sequencing of speakers; this resulted in an ‘overloading’, bringing opacity to the event space. A form of decentralising is made explicit by architect Stavros Stavrides through what Stavrides terms ‘Practices of Defacement’, ‘destroying the expressive centre of something’, although I use dismantling as a preferred term and mode of operation.[2] In my reading and interpretation of Stavrides' concept, the provocation is to consider ‘acts of restaging’ in order to open spaces for other processes and systems to emerge. The implication being that creative practices are manifest within a definitive conception of space, we establish a relation between things and of things and expect the outcome to be this or that way.
[1] In the Introduction to the Common Space author Stavros Stavrides connects commoning with ‘processes of opening up, ...opening up the sharing relations to new possibilities through a rethinking of sharing rules and opening up the boundaries that define the spaces of sharing.’
Stavrides, S., 2016. Common Space: The City as Commons (In Common). London: Zed Books. p. 3.
In developing the Rhizomatic Map, I have drawn on writing on the rhizome, the inclined line and disruptive theory to develop the concept of Diagonal Practices. I was compelled by the ideas of Franz Fanon, reference Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the rhizome in my analysis and express my gratitude for the insights of Jamaican sociologist Professor Shirley Ann Tate regarding institutional unconscious bias and white fragility. Tate, informed by American philosopher George Yancy, urges us to challenge 'whiteliness' by embracing 'diagonal ruptures.' Furthermore, I make reference to Sarah Ahmed’s exploration of bias within normative institutions.
I had initially produced a series of thirty to sixty-second vignettes, not just as a documentary record but characterised as exploring the atmospheric spaces of No Telos. The short vignette format allowed me to present a particular spatial modality and figurative inflexion that I could not capture within a still photograph.[1] The Nida moving image essay reveals the Articulate Detective reflecting on the dimension and efficiency of time, a key tool at Nida and, indeed, within the N-Space spaces. This protagonist is activated within the spaces of time, removing time offsite and working with its measuring device of sand clocks early in the morning and at dusk. The vignettes as visual essays emphasised the durational possibilities that can be exploited within Chantal Mouffe’s system of the agonistic space.
The space of D\P can be challenging and even uncomfortable.
Entrance to the performance space of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley at BBZ BLK BK: Alternative Graduate Show 2019 group exhibition, co-curated by BBZ and Deborah Joyce Holman at Copeland Gallery, London, August 21 to 31, 2019.
