Reimagining Infrastructure
This workshop explored how methods in the arts and humanities can help us to rethink what infrastructure is, what it looks and feels like, and its development and provision, particularly as these are constructed through histories of empire and colonialism in Britain.
Ranging from housing and transport to sewers and energy grids, the workshop understands infrastructure as the everyday materials that enable (or, when they fail, prevent) people from living their lives.
It's aim is to allow participants to "reimagine infrastructure" through knowledge exchange and by using methods from the arts and humanities.
The workshop will connect people working as academic researchers, community organisers, policy makers, and service providers.
The programme includes: a presentation from the UK's first Infrastructure Humanities Group, based in Glasgow; a session with the Portland Inn Project, who use the arts to build community-led infrastructure in Stoke-on-Trent; an "ethno-graphic" workshop led by Kremena Dimitrova, where participants will rethink infrastructure through drawing and arts practices; and a final reflective session featuring panel discussants with different knowledge specialisms.
Programme
All workshop sessions will take place in the A130 lecture theatre, on the first floor of the College Building. All lunch, tea, coffee, and refreshment breaks will take place in A227, on the second floor of the College Building.
13.00-14.00: Infrastructure Humanities Group
Articulating Infrastructure: Methods and Perspectives
Rhys Williams, Senior Lecturer in English, Glasgow
Henry Ivry, Lecturer in 20th/21st Century Literature, Glasgow
Chair: Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of the Arts London
14.30-15.30: Portland Inn Project
Planning Long Term: Participatory Governance for Community-Led Change
Rebecca Davies, Co-Director, Portland Inn Project
Anna Francis, Co-Director, Portland Inn Project
Chair: Anubha Sarkar, Lecturer in Global Creative Industries, City
16.00-17.00: Practical Session
Mapping the Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure through Comics
Kremena Dimitrova, PhD Researcher and Lecturer in Visual Culture, Portsmouth
17.30-19.00: Plenary Panel
Reimagining Infrastructure
Alexis Harris, Housing Policy Manage, Greater London Authority
Charmaine Brown, Senior Lecturer in LLTE, University of Greenwich
Louis Moreno, Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture, Goldsmiths
Chair: Dom Davies, Senior Lecturer in English, City
