This working group—Sustainability and Attunement—develops artistic research practices and activities that build on principles of sustainability that support social, racial and environmental justice. A key question will be how theories and practices of sound and aurality can be used as a to destabilise occidental canons and connected discourses. We want to explore how a model of attunement can be used to situate differing modes of thought, languages and disciplines. Attunement refers to the bringing into accord, resonance, of different, but related objects or events. It names that aspect of attention that refers to how the human subject and perceptual object touch.

We aim to foreground socially responsible, ecological imperatives through artistic practices that seek to develop a shared dialogue on a wide range of issues from decolonising institutional forms and rethinking established formats of conferencing, exhibiting and producing. Using sustainability and attunement as core foundations, the members seek to address the rift between academia and the wider social context.

We wish to explore the opportunities and contradictions of interdisciplinary practice-led research in relationship to attunement and intermedial ‘practices’, while also creating a platform for other kinds of tuning with/in the University.

Members of the working group include:
Dr. Onya McCausland (Slade/UCL) WG2 Contact
Prof. Sharon Morris (Slade/UCL)
Dr. Sam Belinfante (School of Fine Art, History of Art, Univ. of Leeds)
Prof. Chris Taylor (School of Fine Art, History of Art, Univ. of Leeds)

Upcoming activities:
Cross institutional workshop with PGR students  (30/11/2021)
Planning workshops (in development for Spring 2022)