2nd March- Noel Douglas Research (Dialogues prep)

2nd March-

Dialogues 2018
ART AND ACTIVISM (research prep) 





I have been very excited since we received the email informing us that this year the Dialogues theme will be Art and Activism. This is a sector I have long been obsessed with. I personally concern myself more deeply with the research section of this. Using words and information enlightenment. I feel that once people are presented often and creatively with the truth, better decisions will blossom naturally from that and social consciousness is  likely after effect.
However, I am well aware that creative activism is much more effective than classic activism. for a number of reasons. Mainly due to the fact people's personal opinion and stance does not get projected instantly onto the campaign if the campaign is presented in a creative and thought provoking away instead of propaganda. This power therefore is a tool of our generation and one I hope gets harnessed to the fullest. It is an area I would like to work more deeply within and more actively within in terms of exposure.

Noel Douglas Research 
http://www.noeldouglas.net/teaching-and-research/

About-

'I am an Artist, Designer, Activist, Educator, Writer and Musician. I have a Degree in Fine Art and a Masters in Computer Related Design (Interaction Design). My studio and street work ranges across all media but is primarily in the Graphic Arts. My main focus is on Signs, Memes and Symbols and how the struggles over the meaning of these Signs is amplified by Social Networks and Political Movements.
I currently am the Course Leader for the Graphic Design BA(Hons) Degree Course at the School of Art and Design at the University of Bedfordshire. I have taught art and design and been involved in research projects at The Slade School Of Art, Kingston University and London South Bank University and led numerous workshops and given talks in several art schools in the rest of the UK and Europe, Asia and the USA.
In the 90’s I was involved with the early Web, doing sone of the first gig webcasts with bands like The Shamen using the first Apple Quicktime cameras rather than video because of the ADSL speed! I created video for Derby Playhouse for use as projections and special effects in Richard III, and video sculptures that were installed in clubs like Oscillatethat hosted live shows from bands on labels like Warp such as Autechre and Aphex Twin. I was part of a arts collective, Resonance, that provided internet and art installations in early 90’s rave clubs.
I design bold, ethical, politically and socially engaged work.  In the past I have worked in design research at Phillips, the Computer Related Design Research Studio at the Royal College Of Art, where I worked alongside design studio Dunne and Raby and at Amsterdam based Multimedia studio Mediamatic.
Some recent exhibitions have been Disobedient Objects and A World To Win, Posters of Protest and Revolution at the V&A that have toured nationally and internationally over the last few years, Graphic Design Now In Production that has toured round the United States. I was a finalist in the 2010 International Poster Biennial at the Wilanów Museum in Warsaw,  one of the artists in the 2008/9 Taipei Biennial in Taiwan curated by Oliver Ressler, Vasif Kortun and  Manray Hsu. In 2009 I curated with Tony Credland a group show Signs of Revolt at the Truman Brewery in London in November 2009 which surveyed the last decades best politically engaged work and included participating artists and designers such as Peter Kennard, David Gentleman and Jonathan Barnbrook.
My work is part of the permanent collection of the British Museum, Museum Of London and the V&A and the Center for Social and Political Graphics, Los Angeles and it has toured Asia and Africa as part of the ‘Protest’ show put on by the British Council.
I write regularly for cultural publications such as Eye the International Journal of Graphic Design and my publications include, as Editor, Website Graphics Now (Thames and Hudson 1999), and as Art Director, the Regime Change Begins At Home Playing Cards (Bookmarks 2003) which went on to sell 30,000 copies around the world in 2003/4/5. My work has been featured in numerous articles and publications such as Adbusters magazine (Canada), Atlas magazine (USA), Art Monthly, Blueprint, Dazed and Confused, The Economist, The Guardian, Malababa (Spain), Mute, NME and Time Out and Viewpoint magazine.I also make music and have been in a number of bands since the mid-80s, when I was involved in the independent music scene writing fanzines and playing, supporting bands like my My Bloody Valentine. Some later work from a band called Free Machine is here. I’m currently creating a live video/music set with new solo material.
I am a mentor for Arts Emergency, which aims to ensure the doors of the university are kept open for those most able to benefit from, but least able to pay for education.'

Research-

“Consciousness itself can arise and become a viable fact only in the material embodiment of signs…”My research interests span the use of Signs for Politics in the new Social Networks, Graphics, Photomontage and Collage, ‘Dialogical Discourse’ and Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, Communicative Capitalism and Commons, Technology, Urban Space and Everyday Life, Art, Design and Social and Political Activism, Creativity and Education, Democracy and Collective Production, large scale Public Artworks, Projections, Spectacles, Supergraphics and the Design of Protest.'

It will be very interesting to listen and interact with someone who is spanning so many differing fields. I thinking finding that balance comfortably is very difficult and maybe he has not. The passion and the drive is what I believe stops people giving up completely. From looking at his very active, modern style of working I feel that my work is a lot more subconscious based with the belief that a message can be interpreted and understood through more endearing visual means.  I think what also really interest me is the written aspect of his work as this is something I personally would like to pursue. I am very happy that the university are choosing art and activism as the theme however. This is very progressive and will allow me to identify those who are and those who are less aware of what is truly going on in and around the system.