These episodes of Interrogating Spaces focus on student experience. They cover themes including inclusion and belonging for international students and how decolonial practice and social justice intersects with our artistic practices. We also hear from the LCC changemakers who expand on their experience as students and student consultants.

Student Focus Podcasts: Co-creating Social Justice

Conspiracy theories fomented by political division and a global pandemic have gained traction in the public consciousness in the last couple of years. For some people these ideas are just fun and entertaining, but for others their interest in them becomes much more consuming. Why do people become involved in this kind of conspiratorial thinking? That’s the question that LSE iQ tackles in this month’s episode. 

Concerns that 5G phone masts reduce our bodies’ defences against COVID-19 and that vaccines are being used to inject us with micro-chips - allowing us to be tracked and controlled - may seem extraordinary to many of us. But these beliefs have led to the vandalism of 5G phone masts and made some reluctant to be vaccinated.   

In this episode of LSE iQ, Sue Windebank finds out how left-wing anarchists got caught up in conspiratorial thinking and how Irish parents looking for support and community were accused of spreading a conspiracy. And is LSE unknowingly carrying out the wishes of the Illuminati?  Listen to hear how LSE became embroiled in a global conspiracy. 

Sue talks to: Dr Ela Drążkiewicz from the Institute for Sociology at the Slovak Academy of Sciences; Professor Bradley Franks from LSE’s Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science; and Dr Erica Lagalisse from LSE’s Institute of Inequalities. 

 

Contributors 

Dr Ela Drazkiewicz-Grodzicka 

Professor Bradley Franks  

Dr Erica Lagalisse 

 

Research 

Taking vaccine regret and hesitancy seriously. The role of truth, conspiracy theories, gender relations and trust in the HPV immunisation programmes in Ireland (2021) by Elżbieta Drążkiewicz Grodzicka in  Journal for Cultural Research 

Beyond “Monologicality”? Exploring Conspiracist Worldviews (2017) by Bradley Franks, Adrian Bangerter, Martin W. Bauer, Matthew Hall and Mark C. Noort in Frontiers in Psychology 

Occult Features of Anarchism: With Attention to the Conspiracy of Kings and the Conspiracy of the Peoples (2019) by Erica Lagalisse

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?

This episode is with Eunike Gloria Setiadarma and Perdana “Pepe” Roswaldy

Jangan ketinggalan, ayo dengar tentang riset Pepe dan Nike yang luar biasa penting, tentang perkebunan ekstraktif dan konsep-konsep seputar keluarga dan rumah, tantangan baik di Indonesia maupun di luar negeri sebagai perempuan Indonesia di dunia akademik, dan pentingnya persahabatan yang jujur untuk kebertahanan hidup. Episode ini dalam Bahasa Indonesia, dengan transkrip dalam Bahasa Inggris dan Bahasa Indonesia. 

Don’t miss Indonesian scholars Pepe and Nike on the incredibly vital research they’re doing on extractive plantations and ideas of family and home, the challenges in Indonesia and abroad of being an Indonesian women in academia, and the importance of honest friendships in our survival. This episode is in Indonesian, with transcripts in both English and Indonesian.

Perdana “Pepe” Roswaldi is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Northwestern University in the United States. Pepe is currently studying plantations in Southeast Asia and extractive colonialism. She likes to nap under shady trees and also on park benches. 

Eunike Gloria Setiadarma, or Nike, is Pepe's friend. She is currently a PhD student at Northwestern University studying ideas and feelings, emotions, around family and the concept of home in Indonesia's past.  

Nike and Pepe have created a zine and podcast called Terminal Bus. 


Transcripts

View and download the transcript for this episode:
https://www.arts.ac.uk/ual-decolonising-arts-institute/publications-and-podcasts

Links

Khairani Barokka - https://twitter.com/mailbykite

Ultimatum Orangutan Radio | Episode 4 | Plantations, Making Home, and Academic Colonisation

BA (Hons) Fashion Pattern Cutting 
0:00 Introduction 
2:05 Why I'm sharing my story 
3:28 Overcoming difficulties and hardships 
9:24 How fashion is the art of storytelling 
12:03 Creative influences 
13:45 Multiculturalism and London
15:34 Being nominated for Course Rep of the Year award 
17:48 Taking advantage of the university’s resources
20:17  Final thoughts 

© 2022 University Arts London. All Rights Reserved

UAL Student Voices: Nelson

Discover the inspiration behind artist Johanna Billing's film 'Each Moment Presents What Happens' (2022), as she discusses her ideas for the work with Whitechapel Gallery Director Gilane Tawadros and curator Judith Winter. The conversation touches on the legacy of Black Mountain College and approaches to collaborative art practice.

For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/johanna-billing

Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Hear-Now-Johanna-Billing-Transcript-PDF.pdf

Hear, Now. Episode 22: Johanna Billing

This polyvocal podcast tells the story of the LCC Changemakers at the University of the Arts London. LCC Changemakers are employed to work in partnership with course teams to codevelop decolonial and anti-racist curricula and teaching practices, and a student experience that is inclusive, equitable and compassionate. A total of nine Changemakers are recruited and trained each year, for there to be one Changemaker aligned to each of LCC’s nine academic programmes.

The podcast is introduced by Dr Amita Nijhawan.

LCC Changemakers 2023

In this podcast we hear from two international students about their experience of studying at UAL, specifically at Central St Martins. They give valuable insights as well as tips for tutors and incoming students. This podcast was made by the Student Imaginators, a cross-college group of students and alumni at UAL, who imagine, create and produce student-facing resources to do with decolonial approaches and compassionate pedagogy.

Credits/ references:

Participants: Mihika Bahety and Vicky Wong

Questions and Facilitation: Dr Amita Nijhawan

Sound Engineering and Production: Hannah Kemp-Welch

International Student Experience

In this episode of Interrogating Spaces Dr Amita Nijhawan introduces the LCC student Changemakers, a group of student consultants who work with course leaders and course teams to bring more social justice into the curriculum. They are a community of students and alumni who inform pedagogic development through a decolonial lens. 

 Here, their perspectives and experiences are brought together in a polyvocal assemblage. Amongst many topics, they talk about race, equality, the complexities and sensitivities of social justice work and most importantly what it is to be a student in the current cultural climate. 

Credits/ references:

Student Changemakers: Veronica Amon, Terena Danner and Emilio Gotterbarm

Questions and Facilitation: Dr Amita Nijhawan

Sound Engineering and Production: Emmanuel Aouad and Hannah Kemp-Welch

Assistance: Disha Deshpande
Music: Way-to-West by Ketsa

Changemakers

In this podcast, Dr Amita Nijhawan speaks with a Graphics, Media and Design (GMD) student at LCC and the GMD Course Support Assistant and former student about their experiences as international students as well as exploring approaches to decolonisation and its link to personal practice and research. 

Credits/ references:

Participants: Emmanuel Aouad, Disha Deshpande and Dr Amita Nijhawan

Questions and Facilitation: Dr Amita Nijhawan

Sound Engineering and Production: Hannah Kemp-Welch and Emmanuel Aouad

Music: LA Flux Ride - Wind Talker by Flux Bikes

Disruption And Correction

In this series of three recordings curator Cristiana Bottigella talks to artists about their motivations and experiences setting up self-initiated residencies. This interview is conversation with Cash Aspeek who self-organised a Residency at the Vispring mattress factory in Plymouth.

Cash Aspeek is a London based Artist and Artist Educator. Her practice focuses on overlooked & often discarded materials from scaffolding to seed-heads. She picks apart & forensically analyses, re-doing and re-purposing everyday objects. Her work involves ephemeral sculptures, interventions, performance & photography. Cash has recently been working on her, ‘Developing your Creative Practice’ (DYCP) project, funded by Arts Council England, focusing on her parents 60 year old mattress. She exhibits in group exhibitions in and around London.

With an MA in Inclusive Arts Practice Cash develops and delivers art and design education for schools, community groups and families in museums and galleries specialising in SEND participants. In 2011 she set up Redstart Arts a learning-disabled art group for young adults. Recent works resulted in being exhibited in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibitions, 2021&22 and at The Horniman Museum permanent collection. Cash worked with SEND families and curated an exhibition in response to architect, John Hejduk in the McAulay Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts July-October 2022

DIY Residencies – Cash Aspeek in conversation with Cristiana Bottigella

A- - -Z presents ‘16-bit’, an installation by David Blandy. Blandy’s work interrogates facets of post-millenial identity through the lens of globally influential pop cultural forms such as arcade games, hip hop and manga.

The project is set at Four Quarters in Peckham (187 Rye Lane, SE15 4NF), a bar which has built its reputation hosting arcade games and consoles. Two works by David Blandy will be presented. 
The 2015 Workweek Prize has been awarded to David Blandy and A—Z for 16-Bit.
http://www.artquest.org.uk/articles/view/workweek_prize

One is an arcade game made by the artist, the other will be a film screened on the opening night of Art Licks Weekend.

- ‘Duels And Dualities: Battle Of The Soul’ (2011) enters the realm of the 90’s arcade games with Blandy’s alter-egos facing each other in a never ending battle 

- the game will be installed from the 30th of September to the 7th of October 

- ‘Backgrounds’ (2013) will be screened on the 1st of October at 7pm and on the 7th of October at 8pm. This 16-bit aesthetic film looks at the artist and his father’s virtual identities - both represented as their alter-egos, they walk through lo-res landscapes and discuss their respective practices. 

The choice of these two works reflects the artist’s play on identities, the retro-virtual, and the question of art and boundaries - operating outside of the classic parameters. 

This project is part of A—Z’s ongoing research project around the display and dissemination of artwork and adds to the morphic and viral forms of the platform.

www.davidblandy.co.uk

David Blandy Interview at Four Quarters + A---ZMix

On @designmatters, Debbie Millman interviews the celebrated writer and philosopher Alain De Botton about love, life, and everything in between.

Follow @designmatters for more invigorating conversations with artists, writers, designers, and other creative thinkers.

Background, context, and highlights: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/06/27/alain-de-botton-the-course-of-love/

MORE

Design Matters: Alain De Botton

Head of Teaching in UCL Anthropology, Dr Caroline Garaway, and undergraduate students Emily Garvin and Mahalia Changlee discuss how they helped improve diversity in the reading lists of the undergraduate Anthropology programme. In a project funded by UCL’s Liberating the Curriculum, the students worked with academic staff evaluate and improve the diversity of the prescribed reading lists.

Find out more at: www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning

Diverse voices brought into Anthropology reading lists by student-led project

This panel discussion, chaired by Artquest and hosted by Shipment, brought together new and established artist-led spaces to consider the financial pressures of this precarious way of working, asking whether the changing economic context of London brings new ethical opportunities to sustainability. The panel consisted of Daniel Kelley of DKUK, Jennifer Lewandowski of French Riviera, Roland Fischer of SET.

Adaptation strategies of artist led spaces

Editor Ian Farr discusses the diverse roles of memory in art practice and theory from early modernism to the present, on the occasion of the Whitechapel Gallery’s latest Documents of Contemporary Art book. With video documentation of Stan Douglas’ Inconsolable Memories.

This event launched Memory, the latest title in the Documents of Contemporary Art series, published by Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press. With thanks to Stan Douglas and Victoria Miro Gallery.

Talk: Documents of Contemporary Art: Memory

Interrogating Spaces examines ideas around inclusivity and attainment in Higher Education. In each episode we speak with staff, students and practitioners to explore democratic and decolonised teaching practices.

Interrogating Spaces is brought to you by the Academic Enhancement Team within the Teaching and Learning Exchange at the University of the Arts London.


For more information please visit 
https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

International Student Experience

Interrogating Spaces / Academic Enhancement at UAL

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