Burgeoning liminality: artistic interventions in visual culture from Northern Ireland post-2016 EU referendum.

我的研究将分析北爱尔兰的艺术集体是如何创造空间和实践的，在这些空间和实践中，可以想象和试验解决英国退欧重新点燃的紧张局势的方案。我主张，艺术家集体应该被分析为虚拟空间，在这里，社区可以参与制作激进公共话语的原型，这些话语反对NI重新点燃历史上的政治紧张局势。显然，艺术家领导的组织正在深思熟虑、细致入微地参与艰难的对话，而由于宗派对立，这些对话在政治话语中是不可能的。2021年特纳奖获得者阵列集体的成功通过合作行动、激进主义、集体和艺术实践的视角提出了社会改革的问题。我将以马克·费舍尔的文本《酸性共产主义》(2018)为理论起点，论证通过回顾20世纪60年代社会革命中的激进集体形式，新自由主义霸权可以通过一个“难忘”的过程受到考验。例如，这将预示着NI‘68年与英国退欧后的社会环境的融合。那么，尖酸的共产主义的“酸”意味着一种不同的、重新定向的社会想象，承认“这种革命的物质条件在21世纪比[60年代]更合适”(费舍尔，2018)。在记住公众这种“失去的”愿望时，费舍尔回到了赫伯特·马尔库塞的“美学维度”(1977)，其中艺术的关键价值在于它对霸权现实的超然和不满。这种对艺术实践的理解延伸到了安东尼奥·葛兰西(Antonio Gramsci)作为一个具有反霸权组织能力的社会代理人的有机知识分子(1971)。这让我提出了以下问题：1)从英国退欧后NI的集体艺术实践中，可以推断出什么证据表明NI的“酸性共产主义”实践？2)艺术家们是如何试验集体的、激进的方法来反对霸权叙事的？3)NI有争议的历史如何影响当代艺术家领导的组织及其集体实践？这些问题将引导我及时和相关地调查艺术家领导的组织的文化影响力，因为NI目前的权力下放引起了更广泛的公众不满。自1968年NI民权运动或1998年耶稣受难日协议等事件以来，公共话语中从未出现过这样的情况。唯一的分歧是，NI‘68的时刻随后被骚乱的暴行边缘化了。我推荐的第三位导师克里斯.雷诺兹教授建议，当代语境“为重新校准这个时期的记忆提供了依据”(2018)。因此，我的研究将在视觉文化和更广泛的文化研究之间提供一种创新的跨学科方法。这项研究将通过策展成果、展览、讲习班、座谈会和半结构化访谈为文化政策和公共活动提供贡献，在那里将为我的研究结果提供可供更广泛参与的交汇点。我在德里/伦敦德里的空虚画廊的安排将与这个公共层面的研究项目的理论性质相结合。章节草案的研究和开发将历时三年，重新起草，最终完成手稿，并在第四年提交论文。第一年将看到对艺术家领导的组织的研究，包括阵列集体，催化剂艺术，和平台艺术；检查他们的组织结构，艺术编程，公众参与，和艺术家的表现，通过‘酸性共产主义’方法，最终形成两个章节草案。第二年将通过对包括联合导演在内的上述组织的代表的半结构化访谈进行研究

My research will analyse how artistic collectives in Northern Ireland are creating spaces and practiceswhere solutions to the tensions reignited by Brexit can be imagined and trialled. I contend that artisticcollectives should be analysed as virtual spaces wherein communities can engage in prototyping radicalpublic discourses which oppose the reignition of historic political tensions in NI.It has become clear that artist-led organisations are having thoughtful, nuanced engagement withdifficult conversations which have not been possible in political discourse because of sectarianantagonism. The success of 2021 Turner Prize-winning Array Collective raises the question of socialreform through the lens of collaborative action, activism, collectivity, and artistic practice.I will take Mark Fisher's text "Acid Communism" (2018) as a theoretical departure point to argue that, byrecalling radical forms of collectivity from the '60s social revolution, the neoliberal hegemony can becontested through a process of 'unforgetting'. This would preposition NI's '68 , for example, convergingwith the post-Brexit social environment. The 'acid' of acid communism, then, implies a divergent and redirectingsocial imaginary recognising that "the material conditions for such a revolution are more inplace in the twenty-first century than they were [in the '60s]" (Fisher, 2018).In remembering such 'lost' aspirations of the public, Fisher returns to Herbert Marcuse for his "AestheticDimension" (1977) in which the critical value of the arts is located in its detachment from, and discontenttowards, the hegemonic reality. This understanding of artistic practice then extends to Antonio Gramsci's'organic' intellectual (1971) as a social agent functioning with a counter-hegemonic, organisational capacity.This leads me to the following questions:1) What evidence of 'acid communist' practice can be extrapolated from post-Brexit collective artpractices in NI?2) How are artists trialling collective, radical approaches that can oppose hegemonic narratives?3) How does NI's contested history impact contemporary artist-led organisations and their collectivepractices?These questions will guide me to pursue timely and relevant investigations into the cultural influence ofartist-led organisations, as the current stagnation of devolved government in NI causes wider publicdiscontent. Not since events such as the 1968 NI civil rights movement or 1998 Good Friday Agreementhave such conditions arisen in public discourse. The only divergence being that NI's '68 moment wassubsequently marginalised by the atrocities of the Troubles. My third proposed supervisor, Prof ChrisReynolds, recommends that the contemporary context "provides the grounds for a recalibration of thememory of this time" (2018).Accordingly my research will offer an innovative transdisciplinary approach between visual culture andwider cultural studies. The research will offer contributions to cultural policy and public engagementthrough curatorial outputs, exhibitions, workshops, symposia, and semi-structured interviews, whereviable meeting points will be facilitated for broader engagement with my findings. My pursuit ofplacement at Derry/Londonderry's Void Gallery will engage with the theoretical nature of this researchproject on a public level.Research and development of draft chapters will take place across three full years with redrafting,manuscript finalisation, and thesis submission at Year 4.Year 1 will see research into artist-led organisations including Array Collective, Catalyst Arts, and PlatformArts; examining their organisational structure, arts programming, public engagement, and artistrepresentation through the 'acid communist' methodology, culminating in two draft chapters.Year 2 will see research conducted through semi-structured interviews with representatives ofaforementioned organisations including co-dir