fig-2 19/50: Agencies of Real: Anticipation, Elaboration and Participation

On the occasion of Ruth Beale's solo exhibition at fig-2, Beale gathers a group of speakers to reflect on the notions of agitation, participation and dissemination. Three different positions will expand on the context of the real concentrating on the individual as an active member of society. Nick Mahony will start the series of presentations with Attempts to reframe the real followed by Ian Clark's Radical Librarianship which will respond to Ruth Beale's makeshift library at fig-2. Charlie Tims' presentation What does a radical democracy look like? will include film and video excerpts selected from the Doc Nex Media Collection. Each presentation will start on the hour, with refreshment breaks in between.

Nick Mahony is a research fellow and investigator at the the Open University Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance. He leads the Creating Publics and Participation Now projects and is Director of CCIG’s Publics Research Programme. His main research interests are in contemporary publics, emerging forms of participatory and democratic culture and practice and the politics of mediation. 

Ian Clark is a librarian at Canterbury Christ Church University and member of the Radical Librarians Collective. The Collective is a national network of professional librarians concerned with the marketisation of libraries and the removal of individual agency. Ian also runs a blog called Infoism which explores issues around the digital divide, access to information, freedom of information, transparency, data protection and public libraries. 

Charlie Tims is a freelance researcher and policy-writer, concerned with creativity, learning and democracy. He has worked for Mission Models Money, IETM, The European Commission, Sound & Music, A.N.D, and the Design Council. He is also an associate of the thinktank Demos, where he co-wrote An Anatomy of Youth, a look at the future of politics from a young person’s perspective. In 2013 he organised Rip it up and Start Again for LIFT, about people trying to change politics using new political parties, self-appointed parliaments and anti-politics. 

19/50 Ruth Beale is at fig-2 from Monday 11 – Sunday 17 May 2015.