Concluding the Biennial Programme 2023

The Biennial 2023 programme concluded with a symposium "Transformations" which took place on the 12th January. This provides an overview of the event.

Researcher/Artist Collaboration

We recently invited researchers working in/on the following areas to an informal information session: climate change, the environmental humanities, the Anthropocene, geology, geo-politics, sociology, identity, social justice, migration, belonging, health and wellbeing, placemaking, the public realm, urbanism, local history, green futures, sustainability, environmental issues, biodiversity.

We heard from Faye Claridge and Ana Chamberlen who collaborated for the 2021 Biennial. They shared insights about how exciting the collaboration was, how they learnt a lot from each other and had a very positive and rewarding experience. Faye and Ana have continued to develop their relationship and projects with various funding applications and papers in draft, under review or awarded.

As a result of this event we received applications from researchers across campus who were interested in being partnered with an artist for this exciting project/commission for Coventry Biennial 2023. The successful applicant, Professor Graeme Macdonald, was brought together with Paul Lemmon, a local Artist to deliver the Biennial commission.

Graeme MacDonald, English and Comparative Literary Studies

Graeme’s work is situated in the relatively nascent field of "petrocultures" (see www.petrocultures.com/) an interdisciplinary research field which produces academic and cultural/creative work assessing and registering the social and cultural expressions and lifeworlds of oil and fossil fuels at various sites across the world. It is adjacent to the larger research concern known as 'Energy Humanties'. He is a founding member of the (ongoing) international After Oil collective which has for the last ten years produced collectively written (open access) books, podcasts and artworks “that seek to initiate, imagine and think through the associated challenges of post-oil culture from a number of angles: aesthetic, political, infrastructural, affective, economic, etc. He is interested in science fiction and speculative cultures and more specifically the various visions this rich field has presented towards energy, environmental and futurological thinking in the broader sense. Graeme is also part of a team based in English and Comparative Literary Studies who have just freshly minted an Environmental Humanities MA.

Speaking of his collaboration with the Biennial, Graeme said: "I am thrilled to be able to engage in this kind of collaboration with a 'real life' artist. The process has already been instructive for me, testing the significance and capacity of the speculative mode that my research often turns upon. 'Open Futuring' has become an influential set of techniques in an Environmental Humanities oriented towards the world to come. I'm curious about the ways in which (the artists) work, in form and approach, provides a novel means to think about transition and to get publics to engage with it in ways different to the speculative projections in scientific reports or environmental papers. The challenge that the climate crisis and the energy transition lays before us all—whether physicist or engineer, teacher or artist– is to think harder about how our way of apprehending its nature and possible outcomes might shape our practice—and how that practice in turn might offer something to shape those outcomes for the better. I'm excited to see what future this collaboration affords!"

"Our work with University of Warwick on past Biennial's has been really significant for artists, researchers, the communities that they work with and for our audiences. We're delighted to be building on that past work through a new collaboration that explores what is possible when HEIs and cultural organisations combine their expertise. The collaboration between Graeme and (the artist) offers impactful opportunities for both of them to understand their own practices through new lenses, but also to produce something entirely new that wouldn't otherwise be possible. At Coventry Biennial we're particularly pleased to have offered this opportunity to an artist based in Coventry, ensuring that local artists are receiving high profile commissions that support creative and professional development."

Ryan Hughes, Artistic Director and CEO

Concluding the Biennial Programme 2023

The Biennial 2023 programme concluded with a symposium "Transformations" which took place on the 12th January. This provides an overview of the event.