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The University of Southampton
Critical Practices Research Group

Drawing together practitioners, theorists & curators

Critical Practices Research Group at Winchester School of Art takes an expansive view of practice. It draws together art and design practitioners, theorists, writers and curators from across the School, and involves collaborations with other departments in the University and with various partners from across and outside of academia.

Ian Dawson - 3D print (Cuevas)

Re: Making: Exploring and challenging how we relate to materials, processes, objects, form, function, communication, curation, exchange and viewership, the group provides a forum to explore and share in different methods, perspectives and fields of critical and creative practices. 

Modern to Contemporary: Philosophical, political, and historical enquiries into art, design and visual culture, from the modern to the contemporary, are brought into focus through the pursuit of sustained contemporary practices and critique, encompassing sculpture, painting, film-making, writing, performance, product design, digital design, fashion, textiles, and a range of social art and design practices, along with interdisciplinary collaborations connecting with aspects of science, technology and archeology.

Practice-Theory: The group fosters practice-as-research and research-as-practice, so acknowledging an intricate set of centrifugal and centripetal forces, which take us both toward and away from disciplined ways of understanding and fashioning the world we inhabit. We look, ponder, write and make, always prompting practical forms, engagements, and processes. Moving well beyond any divide of practice/theory, we can usefully pair the Greek praktike not with a single term for theory, but two philosophical terms: theoria (contemplation) and theoros (participation), the latter emphasizing an act of witness and participation in an event or activity. Together these terms help us consider a more fluid notion of practice and theory, or practice-theory, whereby the two are inextricably intertwined, one impossible without the other. We are always inherently placed in a practice of thinking and a thinking of practice.

Image of people with link to the staff and students affiliated to the group

People

The staff, students and affiliated members of the group.

An overview of the group’s research interests.

Research

An overview of the group’s research interests.

Selected  publications, projects and exhibitions.

Portfolio

Selected publications, projects and exhibitions.

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