Collaboration with the ‘demonised other’

Birmingham is Ground Zero of Operation Raise the Colours

A few days ago I spoke at a brilliant photography conference at the University of Greater Manchester entitled Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other.

My talk drew on my experience working on projects with people within the asylum system - recent pre-PhD experience as a facilitator at SWAP in Wigan and ongoing role as a creative producer on three similar projects in Merseyside with Open Eye Gallery. I was trying to step outside the practice and articulate some of the issues which I will be thinking about more as my PhD progresses.

The construction of “the other” - a binary which rests on power

The situation for displaced people in the UK has been getting increasingly hostile for decades now, but the project I’m producing has been especially unstable due to political changes.

My talk looked at the context - the political, structural and institutional challenges for these projects at this point in time; the trauma carried by these participants; the social and cultural construction of othering and how collaboration could help us unflatten the kinds of one-dimensional representations we often see. I ended by describing the care and gentleness that I think needs to be at the heart of this kind of art practice.

I think this is applicable to art practice as much as it is to research

Here’s a sketch trying to think through some of the challenges which have cropped up in my ongoing role - in fact I forgot to put the closure of the local asylum hotel onto this drawing (which resulted in a group of participants being dispersed to other towns).

Thinking through my current work with displaced participants