Techne for Living: Embodied and Economic

This panel is for all attendees as part of Day 2 of the January Congress. 

Whilst you are welcome to book a space on Inkpath if you would like to formally record your attendance, this is not mandatory as this is a core activity of the overall event.

Session Details:

Technē - broadly defined as art and skill - shapes practices for living by influencing bodily affordances, social constructs, and how we craft our world, encompassing ecologies, politics, and economies of making beyond traditional manufacturing.

Professor Karen Salt and Dr. Peter Oakley will reflect on their own research and practice in this dialogue:  

•    Examining how technē influences and shapes practices for living, from the embodied to the economic.
•    Exploring the intersections between craft, social constructions, and the crafting of personal and communal identities. 
•    Considering whether the idea of 'practice' can encompass the art and skill of relating and quality of presence, and how that expanded definition might shape the socio-cultural frameworks within which we live in. 

Speakers / Facilitators:

Julia Pond  (Chair) is a dance artist, researcher and facilitator. Her work explores intersections between dance and political economy with improvised movement, text, and, sometimes, bread dough. Her practice-based PhD is researching the role of dance improvisation in creating pathways to a sustainable economy. A core member of the AHRC research network Dancing Otherwise Network: Exploring Pluriversal Practices, Julia also has an interest in inclusive, experimental techniques for organising equitably, and joyfully, in art and academia. 

Professor Karen Salt specializes in collective governance and systems transformation She is currently Professor of Culture, Place and Communities at Manchester Metropolitan University where she works across faculties to harness the power of place-based research and embed equitable community/university partnerships.

As a sector leader, with over 30 years of experience across fields, Salt has led large research teams, advised complex interdisciplinary research programmes and provided support to universities and organisations interested in institutional change. Nearly all of her current and past projects involve a mix of community-embedded or community-led research teams and embody her commitment to re-imagining who can engage in research and contribute to knowledge-production.

Peter Oakley is Professor of Material Culture and Co-Lead of the Material Engagements Research Cluster in the RCA’s School of Arts and Humanities. He specialises in ethnographic, experiential, and object-based research, focusing on the extraction or harvesting, processing, and direct use of materials. His academic expertise covers anthropology, creative practice, science and technology studies, and industrial heritage.

He is currently focusing on two overarching research topics: (1) identifying, developing, supporting, and promoting more sustainable craft practices and (2) examining the mining, refining, and assaying of metals and the social and environmental consequences of these activities and their associated technologies.

Peter has previously been the Principal Investigator (Project Lead) for two AHRC awards and a Co-Investigator in three further AHRC-funded projects, the UK Project Lead in an EACEA Creative Europe consortium, and the UK Participant Contact (Pa-Co) for a Horizon2020 European Training Network. He is currently leading two projects funded through the RCA's Impact Development Scheme.