Volunteers for Closed Week, 12-14 August 2013

End of Closed Week, 2012

Stuart Hall Library, part of Iniva at Rivington Place, is a special Library focusing on international visual arts.


The Library will be closed for a week in August (12-16) to undertake essential Library housekeeping work, and the Library team are looking for volunteers to help.

This is an opportunity for:

- those with an interest in libraries

- pre-library school applicants to acquire basic Library skills

You will gain valuable insights into how a special Library collection is managed and organised by working on tasks including:

- Shelving

- Journals maintenance

- Basic catalogue work

- Collection care


Professional Library qualifications are not essential, but knowledge of how to use a Library and searching catalogues is required. You will need to be available for three days, from Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 August, 10.30-4.30.

Lunch and travel expenses will be reimbursed.

Please email a CV and covering letter to Sonia Hope, Library Manager explaining why you would like to volunteer at the Stuart Hall Library.

Closing date: Friday 2 August.

Informal meetings to be held week beginning 5 August.

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) explores key issues in society and politics, creating a platform for artistic experiment, cultural debate and exchange of ideas. We work with artists, curators, creative producters and writers to promote a greater understanding diversity in a rapidly changing world.

www.iniva.org

Notes from the Stuart Hall Library – 2012_2013: No.7 From: Roshini Kempadoo (Animateur for SH Library) – 8th July 2013.

credit: Karen Roswell

credit: Karen Roswell

The Trouble With Research symposium held for the first time June 27th 2013, acted as a dimension to the SHL Research Network meetings Sonia Hope and I had co-convened and as a culmination of the work by the first SHL Animateur. The day was packed from 12:00 – 6:00, with some 12 contributions by artists, critics and researchers. As with the SHL Research Network our intention was to explore/expose the kinds of research involved for the artist, the scholar undertaking written research; the critic; and the cultural activist. The intention too was to frame the conversation within the context of Stuart Hall’s writings, cultural politics and modes of reflecting, thinking and creating cultural work.

Three elements were important to conceptualising the symposium.

The first was to consider perspective and place. This is to consciously consider our own projects, here in London as a metropolitan centre of Europe, from within the context of the international frame – if only to be reminded of our own perspectives and positions from which we speak. A dialogue between Christopher Cozier - an international artist, curator and cultural activist - and I became the starting point for the symposium. He was able to speak cogently about some of the ‘trouble’ associated with being construed as a Trinidadian/Caribbean artist by curators working internationally. Christopher also presented the importance of thinking beyond and through conceptual frames of identity and self, which also includes the use of technologies as a practice of self-determination, self-articulation and autonomy. 

See Christopher's project In Development: http://vimeo.com/56825269

The second element was to consider the context of the present moment as Hall so often reminds us. In other words to consider the contemporary and current neoliberal regime we all work within as cultural producers. ‘Neoliberal ideas’ Hall, Massey and Rustin remind us ‘have sedimented into the western imaginary and become embedded in popular “common sense”’ to include “naturalised” economic theory of the free market; continued corporate ownership of the media; ‘competitive individualism', ‘commercialisation of “identity” and the utopias of self-sufficiency (Hall, Massey, Rustin, 2013, 17 – 19). ‘ To this end our panel Cultural interventions in neoliberal times was concerned with the notion of autonomous thinking, cultural projects, technologies and activism. This included Ashwani Sharma’s proposed concept of subtraction of blackness as integral to his notes for a manifesto associated with futurism and Michael Berrie’s paper Dot-art (.art) detailing ways in which imminent internet domain development will effect us as artists/researchers. 

credit: Karen Roswell

And lastly the third element was to consider the production and practice of knowledge as artists and cultural researchers. I/we wanted us to consider research process, art objects and histories as central foundations for cultural knowledge and cultural politics. It is I argue, only through our knowledge of what has gone on before that we might create radical and highly imaginary projects in the present and future. To this end, contributions included Kabe Wilson’s creative storytelling art object that re-frames and re-tells a story embedded with a knowledge and history of the black power movement using Virginia Woolf’s writings; and we heard of Tahera Aziz’s sound installation [re]locate that sonically re-imagined the documentation from the Stephen Lawrence murder and subsequent enquiry. Set within the context of the Stuart Hall Library and Iniva, the contributions continue a legacy of the library, the archive and the building itself as art objects/media that socially intervene and contribute to socially and politically astute knowledge and experience. 

 

Kabe Wilson’s 'Olivia N'Gowfri - Of One Woman or So', assembled from Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and rearranged to write a new novel. Photograph credit: Karen Roswell 

We ended the day in conversation with Ashwani Sharma and Layal Ftouni – to provide a focus on the continued Arab protest and uprisings and more specifically Lebanon, focusing on ways in which Arab/Middle Eastern artists provided other ways to provoke debate, thought and action. 

For all those who attended and contributed – A Big Thank You.

From the feedback and what I saw and heard there is great value in forming a network – a body of people who feel some sense of being, of coming together and exploring each other’s work and perspectives. Most folk ‘felt’ the building and the Stuart Hall Library as the appropriate space – physically and metaphorically to continue to focus on the dialogue and conversations necessary for us. 

The SHL Animateur role, which now comes to an end, provided an opportune moment to explore and become familiar with contemporary visual work and get a sense of the depth of research entailed in creating, exploring, critiquing and examining current projects. Our thoughts for coming years and the future are to continue the Research Network – beginning again in the autumn.

To think and act autonomously – independent of political and cultural pressures that conform to an agenda of economics and current politics - and yet collectively sustain and develop new ways of thinking and acting is not easy and requires much effort. I feel confident that we are teaching and reminding ourselves of just what it will take to continue practising as good scholars, artists and critics who have valuable contributions to make to the present and the future.



Tahera Aziz - http://taheraaziz.com/projects/relocate/

Christopher Cozier - http://christophercozier.blogspot.co.uk/

Dark Matter Journal - http://www.darkmatter101.org/

Hall, Massey, Rustin (2013) ‘After neoliberalism: analysing the present’ Soundings, 53, pp. 8-22. See: http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/soundings/pdfs/s53hallmasseyrustin.pdf

Roshini Kempadoo - http://www.roshinikempadoo.com

Late night opening on July 4th until 20:00

Still taken from Oh Adelaide (2010)

. © Sonia Boyce, courtesy the artist.

Sonia Boyce: Scat

Next Thursday, July 4th, we will be open until 20:00 to celebrate Iniva's current exhibition, Scat: Sound and Collaboration, by Sonia Boyce. Come and visit our section of the exhibition which includes books, films, magazines and other items from Sonia Boyce’s archive.

Cover girls is a spread of popular magazines with Black British female music artists. There are also articles relating to Sonia Boyce’s long-term archive collection project, Devotional.
Find books on pop music culture amongst the artists’ books, group exhibition catalogues and critical theory volumes on the Library shelves.
Films and documentaries will be available to watch with headphones:
An Audience with Shirley Bassey:  ‘50 minutes of showbiz magic’
Top of the Pops, 40th Anniversary, 1964-2004
The Story of Lover’s Rock, Melenik Shabazz’s documentary on British ‘romantic reggae’

International Zine Month

We also invite you to celebrate International Zine Month in the Stuart Hall Library. On the evening of July 4th we'll display a selection of some of our favourite zines, so please drop by and have a browse, and feel free to donate your zines! 

Photo by Sheena Balkwill

Research Symposium 'The Trouble with Research'

For booking tickets please go to: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/6727709761%20target= email: bookings@iniva.org

concessions rates are available - please use the promotion code (type: Iniva_concession) at the bottom of the bookings page:  http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/6727709761%20target=

Stuart Hall Library Questionnaire and Prize Draw

Iniva is developing a library membership scheme for the Stuart Hall Library. A membership scheme will provide our library users with extra benefits (bespoke library research services, enhanced library opening hours, discounts at events with partner institutions etc.). At the same time the income from this scheme will help to ensure the future of the library.

Please fill out the short survey by following the link below and help us understand your views on our proposed scheme. We also welcome your recommendations for wider library activity. Send your completed questionnaire to library@iniva.org and we will enter your name into our prize draw for a set of Iniva publications. Make your opinion count!

Photo by Christa Holka

http://www.iniva.org/library/library_questionnaire

SAVE THE DATE: Thursday 27 June 2013: The Trouble with Research @ Stuart Hall Library, Iniva, Rivington Place

12:00 – 6:00pm (with registration from 11:45)

The Stuart Hall Library Research Network was established in January 2013 as a monthly meeting place for postgraduate researchers (artists, critics, curators) to present their work that resonates with Iniva’s vision for visual arts and international perspectives.

To celebrate the success of the Research Network so far, the library is hosting the symposium The Trouble with Research on 27 June, 12-6pm.

We have an exciting range of artists, critics and researchers contributing. Highlights include: Black radical literature; sound installations, racism and resistance; art online; labouring and researching in neoliberal times; visibility for black feminist and queer perspectives; and surviving globalism: artist as curator and social commentator.

Watch this space for more programme details:

Book your place online here or email bookings@iniva.org.

CONCESSIONS: For a concessionary rate of £10 (students, over 60s, unemployed) enter the code: Iniva_concession on the Eventbrite page for a discounted rate.

Guest Blog Post: ‘Storying the Postcolonial Library’ by Alice Corble, Stuart Hall Library Research Network Member

Alice Corble

I was thrilled to be invited to speak about my doctoral research on the cultural politics of public and alternative libraries at the Stuart Hall Research Library Network in April. Having been a member of the audience at previous network events I enjoyed presenting in a familiar, engaging and intimate space and thinking through my work with others in a cross-disciplinary and grounded way. It felt particularly resonant to be talking about libraries in this library, as the life and purpose of the room in which we talked seemed to speak back to the group, which was made up of individuals who have unique and special relationships to this library and others through their engagements with library work, study, art and pleasure.

I made use of the site-specificity of my talk by starting with a quotation from Stuart Hall himself, who said in a 2009 interview with Les Back that he was pleased that this library which has been named after him exists like a “subversive thing … quietly throbbing away”. I took this as a cue to introduce my interest in the way in which libraries are peculiarly living forces in society, which operate in vital and dynamic ways that are not always obvious.

My research is concerned with reading and re-imagining the cultural fabric of libraries in contemporary society. I focus on libraries that define themselves as 'public' and interrogate the nature of these 'publics' - how they are fabricated, mediated and co-constituted by libraries as unstable cultural institutions, in the present conjuncture of economic crisis and technological change. I divide these libraries into two groups: mainstream, state-run public libraries on the one hand, and alternative libraries that are formed by and for ‘counterpublics’ (as explicit alternatives or challenges to wider publics) on the other. In both cases I examine the intersections of the political with the public and the personal through tuning into the material, affective and discursive currencies of the library, and use Stuart Hall’s method of conjunctural analysis as a critical lens through which to relocate libraries in the social and political imagination.

The main geographical focus of my research is the UK, specifically London, looking at public and community libraries in Lewisham, as well as the Feminist Library in Southwark. The location of my research recently extended its boundaries, however, as a result of recent fieldwork undertaken in India as an AHRC research fellow at Sarai. Here I investigated public and counterpublic libraries in both Delhi and Kolkata, the two erstwhile capitals of the British Empire in India. Hence the title of my talk ‘Storying the Postcolonial Library’, since my encounters with these libraries and the stories that circulate around them spoke volumes about the relation between power and knowledge; nationalism and culture, and caused me to rethink the dominant narratives associated with libraries in the UK. The Stuart Hall Library Research Network was an ideal sounding board to think through the current predicament of my work.

I provided a brief visual tour through some of these experiences using photographs and notes from my fieldwork and also spoke about the work and legacy of ‘Father of Library Science’ S.R. Ranganathan, who is a key figure in the story of how library theory, practice and development in India is historically connected to the UK where Ranganathan trained professionally in the 1920s. My research on Ranganathan was greatly informed by an article written by George Roe, who is one of the few researchers to have placed his work in the critical context of colonialism. I was therefore delighted when the member of the audience who responded enthusiastically to my discussion of this topic turned out to be the selfsame George Roe – a great example of the serendipity of a research network in action!

Having Maxine Miller as the formal respondent to my talk was a great pleasure, as she gently opened up points of curiosity, such as questioning how shifts in local and global media representations affect how we understand what is ‘radical’ and/or fictional about libraries and librarianship. Maxine certainly enriched the discussion in the room, as we listened to her stories of a diverse career in libraries, which has included both developing the Stuart Hall Library and Tate Library and Archives, as well as working with the National Library of Jamaica: a vibrant female-led institution that has retained the strength of an oral and musical culture within and beyond its library walls. This contrasted strongly with my impression of a very patriarchal and textual-based library culture in the National and public libraries of India.

It was great to hear the responses of another member of the audience who had been a volunteer in the Feminist Library in London some years ago, which she described as being like a place of refuge as well as a place of knowledge for women, in addition to her experience of a community regeneration project in Jamaica, which informed her view that libraries are places where people can meet and grow. This chimed well with Ranganathan’s principle that “a library is a growing organism”, a principle that my research on public libraries in India found to be rather compromised, leading me to question the growth of libraries when they are planted in colonised and ruptured grounds.

Library Animateur (a job title I am rather envious of!) Roshini Kempadoo offered me food for thought on these issues, as she posed the question of the time-bound and conjunctural relevance of libraries to culture in to the context of historical forces of nationalism, independence and postcoloniality. My next challenge is to sift through the research material I gathered in India to try to make some sense of this. Roshini also alerted us to the issue of the present pressure on libraries to be more active and performative spaces, which has a paradoxical effect of both fostering more social engagement, while at the same time curtailing spaces for deep thought and reflection.

Other engaging responses included the idea of the sacred elements of library space, which might take on a new meaning when nourished in the hands of user-led library communities. This led to the closing remark from another audience member that a library is as good as the people who work and use it, as much as the books and media that make up its contents, which reinforced the defining point of my talk, that is, we ‘story’ libraries as much as they ‘story’ us. I am grateful to the Stuart Hall Library for allowing such fertile ground for such stories to grow and intersect in this budding research network.

Stuart Hall Library Symposium The Trouble with Research - call for papers from Artists, Scholars, Critics

The first symposium of the Stuart Hall Library Research Network The Trouble with Research proposes an active (and positive) approach to researching and creating things. It also brings into question methods, techniques and decision making matters integral to making art and undertaking research. Fundamentally though we can use the phrase to recognise research and creativity as a practice and process of questioning, problematising, critiquing and contextualising culture. It is a way to recognise and wrangle with the inherent anomalies and disjunctures associated with interdisciplinary research and practice. We are currently seeking papers and artist presentations on:

• Stuart Hall’s work on culture and representation
• Artistic and/or curatorial practice
• Filmmaking and media analysis
• Cultural histories – local and diasporic
• Literary Studies including criticism and theory
• Researching visual archives

Deadline: Friday 22nd May. Email a 250 word summary, a short biography (no more than 200 words) and equipment requirements to Sonia Hope, Library Manager, and Roshini Kempadoo (Media Artist, Photographer, Reader in Media Practice, UEL and Stuart Hall Library Animateur).
email: library@iniva.org

Reading Group, Thursday May 9th, 2013

Stuart Hall and Rivington Place

This month's reading group at the Stuart Hall Library will take place on Thursday 9th May from 6:30 to 8pm.

Race, Art and Diaspora

We will be screening an extract from, and discussing Personally Speaking: A Long Conversation with Stuart Hall, Race, Art and Diaspora in which Stuart Hall explains the origins of his interest in black and diaspora art. Hall also discusses his involvement with Autograph ABP and Iniva.

Information and recordings on past reading group sessions are on the Iniva website at:

http://www.iniva.org/library/reading_group

Space is limited – book a place by emailing library@iniva.org.

Stuart Hall Library Research Network meeting, Thursday 25 April, 6.30-8.30

Join us for our fourth Research Network meeting.

Alice Corble will present ‘Storying’ the Postcolonial Library

Alice is a PhD second-year student at Goldsmiths University of London, Sociology department. Her research looks at cultural and political dimensions of public and alternative libraries in Britain in the present conjuncture of economic crisis and technological change. Alice has experience of working in public and alternative libraries in London, and became a certified 'Radical Librarian' with The Feminist Library in 2009. Alice was an AHRC research fellow at Sarai during winter 2012-2013, when she explored the postcolonial library landscapes of Delhi and Kolkata. These experiences have caused her to rethink the dominant narratives and values associated with libraries, and guided her research into finding new ways of reading library history, knowledge and experience, which she will explore in this presentation.

Maxine Miller will respond to Alice’s presentation.

Maxine is currently Library Collections Manager at Tate Library and Archives. She is also a member of the BCA Steering Committee, and part of the UCL Drawing Over the Colour Line Research Project Steering Group. She was Library and Information Manager at the Iniva (now Stuart Hall) Library from 2006-2010. Maxine has extensive knowledge and experience of libraries; she was Chair of the African Caribbean Library Association, Commissioner on the Mayor of London’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage, and a Digital Resource Associate for the Arts Council Cultural Leadership Programme at the National Library of Jamaica. Maxine was identified as a Woman to Watch by the Arts Council in 2010.

Space is limited in the library, so if you have not already done so please contact us to book a place.

For more information or to submit a proposal to present at future meetings, email us

Photo by Christa Holka