Artistic Research Will Eat Itself 2018 was a fine art research conference that took part at Plymouth University this April. I was asked to work at the event helping out artists & delegates in addition to tweeting for the SAR ARWEI2018 account. Any presentations i helped out at I got to take part & when i was not working I went to other events in the schedule.

Following will be some images & thoughts of 2 talks that I attended on day 2. All of the talks/workshops/lectures were great but these were relevant to my own thinking at the present.

Mireia C. Saladrigues 'Radically Emancipated'.

Behaving Unconventionally in Gallery Settings (BUGS).

This lecture focused on the work of Mireia where she finds and interviews artists who take things from art galleries. See more here...

"What is the importance of the removed element?"

"Artworks exist with a story around them with spectators completing them."

Spectatorship. How do systems of display play a part in art theft?

This lecture was particularly interesting as Mireia focused on both the removed item & the story of that but also the void space left behind. Fixed Vs things moving.

Andy Lock 'The collector of Displacements: the artistic researcher as creator and curator of  a personal archive'.

Im not sure this title gives Andy's the introduction it deserves as it doesnt seem to suggest its content. However listening to the lecture opened up the practice and research.

"A collector of Displacements"

"Properties of Silence"

"Agency to anthropomorphic objects"

"particularly anonymous interiors"

"The objects perform themselves"

"Allow objects and space to perform"

All of the above comments from the talk manifest in films that show still spaces with the absence of human form. The spaces are all familiar and contain objects that are know to us such as chairs, a piano or a coat stand but dont contain the humans that would inhabit the spaces and bring the objects to active purpose.

Andy's work combines film, performance/participation, architecture and use of space. Focusing on the empty places and filming them. Creating a few minutes of stillness. Purposely not commenting on housing or settlement issues and using carefully chosen and specific language.