Nottingham Contemporary

A collaboration with the Politicized Practice Research Group (PPRG), Loughborough University Dave Beech (Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London) and Toni Prug (School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London) will discuss the application of conventional economic models to analysing the value of commodities - and argue for the possibility of alternatives. Chaired by Mel Jordan (PPRG & Freee art collective)

A collaboration with the Politicized Practice Research Group (PPRG), Loughborough University Dave Beech (Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London) and Toni Prug (School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London) will discuss the application of conventional economic models to analysing the value of commodities - and argue for the possibility of alternatives. Chaired by Mel Jordan (PPRG & Freee art collective)

Over the last 10 years artist and activist collective of one, the vacuum cleaner, has become somewhat notorious for his acts of street brandalism, performance interventions and online pranks. Yet during this time he has also battled with severe mental illnesses and over the last two years this has become the focus of his work (and life). In this informal presentation he will share recent, current and future projects that involve radical approaches to his own and others’ neurodiversity and mental health.

This conversation will approach the ‘commons’ as both a form of land ownership and as a way of thinking beyond capitalism, in relation to the imagination and artistic practice.

Kayle Brandon works in public and social contexts, producing interdisciplinary, collaborative and process-centred works which critically relate to spatial and social situations. She has exhibited internationally, appearing in shows at Science Gallery, Dublin, The New Museum in New York and Spike Island, Bristol.Gareth Brown is a doctoral candidate at the University of Leicester; his research focuses on an exploration of the imagination as a contested terrain of production in which struggles around commons and enclosures are central.

This conversation will consider the place of utopian thinking for social and ecological practices.

Oliver Rodker is a founding member of the Landmatters Permaculture Community. Currently working with the Ecological Land Co-operative, he has been involved in environmental activism for the past two decades. Lucy Sargisson is Associate Professor at the School of Politics and International Relations, at the University of Nottingham; she has written extensively on the politics of feminism and ecology and is author of Fool's Gold, an exploration of utopianism in the twenty-first century.

This conversation questions the use of art in public planning and place-making strategies and considers alternative means by which artistic practices respond to the specificities of place.

Alan Boldon (Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton) has, over several decades, focused consistently on interdisciplinary approaches to ecological place-shaping; he led the development of Arts and Ecology at Dartington College of Arts and has worked on place-making strategies as an RSA Fellow and consultant. Elaine Speight is an artist, curator, and co-founder of In Certain Places with whom she has curated public artworks including Newling's Preston Market Mystery Project. Ferdiansyah Thajib is a writer, cultural theorist and co-director of KUNCI Cultural Studies Centre who works with Nottingham's 'twinned' site in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

With contributions from Duncan Double, Consultant psychiatrist Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and founding member of The UK Critical Psychiatry Network, a platform for debate, discussion, lobbying and publication to critique the contemporary psychiatric system. Alastair Morgan is Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, Sheffield Hallam University. Morgan's perspective encompasses critical theory and clinical practice, having worked as a qualified nurse in community adult mental health with marginalized and excluded groups. Angela Woods, Durham University. Woods is an inter-disciplinary medical humanities researcher and author of The Sublime Object of Psychiatry: Schizophrenia in Clinical and Cultural Theory.

anel discussion, with contributions from John Foot, Professor of Modern Italian History, UCL. Foot is currently leading a project focused on Basaglia and the closure of mental asylums in Italy. David Reggio, Kingston University/Universidade Comunitária da Região de Chapecó. Reggio has worked within institutional psychiatry at the renowned La Borde clinic and with the anti-psychiatry movement in Brazil. Howard Caygill, Professor Of Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University. Caygill’s research interests include philosophy and psychiatry as well as contemporary European philosophy, ethics and theories of resistance.

This conversation explores Newling’s exhibition in relation to the new monograph Spinning: The Organic, Cultural and Etheric in the work of John Newling. The artist will be joined in conversation with the book’s author, Dr Reverend Richard Davey, and James Peto (Exhibitions Curator, the Wellcome Collection) who shares Newling’s commitment to working beyond institutional walls and within public spaces.

This conversation explores Newling’s exhibition in relation to the new monograph Spinning: The Organic, Cultural and Etheric in the work of John Newling. The artist will be joined in conversation with the book’s author, Dr Reverend Richard Davey, and James Peto (Exhibitions Curator, the Wellcome Collection) who shares Newling’s commitment to working beyond institutional walls and within public spaces.