I am an artist-academic-curator whose work interrogates space and event across real, digital and imagined environments.
I make work across a range of contexts, for example:
• Where to build the walls that protect us, an Arts Council England funded, Kaleider commission (2013-14), reiterated for Compass Festival, Leeds (2016);
• 4 x 4 Screens, a Live Art Development Agency commissioned DVD (2013);
• The Master Plan, a Book Works/Situations co-publication, launched at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2012);
• SLarristokaupunki, an ANTI Festival commission, Finland and Second Life (2009);
• Exeter A-Z, Year Of The Artist commissioned digital interventions aboard Exeter’s bus fleet (2000);
• two to the power of six, 5 days of live art inspired by John Cage’s diary, funded by ACE and hosted by Spacex Gallery, Exeter (1997);
• for piano solo, a National Review of Live Art performance inspired by the work, life and environs of Erik Satie, Glasgow (1994).
• Where to build the walls that protect us, an Arts Council England funded, Kaleider commission (2013-14), reiterated for Compass Festival, Leeds (2016);
• 4 x 4 Screens, a Live Art Development Agency commissioned DVD (2013);
• The Master Plan, a Book Works/Situations co-publication, launched at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2012);
• SLarristokaupunki, an ANTI Festival commission, Finland and Second Life (2009);
• Exeter A-Z, Year Of The Artist commissioned digital interventions aboard Exeter’s bus fleet (2000);
• two to the power of six, 5 days of live art inspired by John Cage’s diary, funded by ACE and hosted by Spacex Gallery, Exeter (1997);
• for piano solo, a National Review of Live Art performance inspired by the work, life and environs of Erik Satie, Glasgow (1994).
I am a core member of Wrights & Sites, four artist-researchers who, for 29 years, have focused on people’s relationships to places, cities and walking. We employ disrupted walking tactics as tools for playful debate, collaboration, intervention and spatial meaning-making. The outcomes of our work vary from project to project, but frequently include site-specific performance, Mis-Guided Tours (e.g. Stadtverführungen in Wien, Tanzquartier Wien and Wiener Festwochen, Vienna, 2007), published Mis-Guides (e.g. A Mis-Guide To Anywhere, launched ICA, London, 2006, and more recently The Architect-Walker: A Mis-Guide, 2018), ‘drifts’, mythogeographic mapping, public art (e.g. Everything you need to build a town is here for ‘Wonders of Weston’, CABE/Situations, Weston-super-Mare, 2010) or installations (e.g. mis-guided, Belluard Bollwerk International Festival, Fribourg, 2008), as well as public presentations and articles.
I am Emeritus Professor in Live Art + Spatial Practices at the University of Exeter, where I worked for three decades, and was formerly Head of the Department of Drama and the Director of Arts + Culture, responsible for co-writing and delivering a cross-college, cross-campus Arts + Culture Strategy. I convened the Centre for Contemporary Performance Practices, and have also taught on the MA Theatre Practice, MA Creativity and BA Art History and Visual Culture programmes. I chose to step back from full-time academia in late 2024 in order to focus on my practice.
I am a trustee of In Between Time, (2017-present), and have been: a Co-Director of the AHRC-funded Knowledge Exchange Hub REACT (Research and Enterprise in Arts and Creative Technology, 2013-16); the theatre, dance and live art curator at Exeter Phoenix, (2001-12); a member of the New Theatre Architects, an ACE-initiated think tank that sought to challenge artists and organisations to think about new models of making and supporting theatre in England (2003-09); and a board member, critical friend or associate to numerous organisations (e.g. Kaleider, Live Art UK, New Work Network, Spacex Gallery, Wide Awake Devon, b-side festival, Theatre Alibi, and Exeter and Devon Arts Centre).