Potential Spaces for Production,Practice as Research Essay,PG Cert in Academic Practice,UAL 2020
This essay explores a publishing production space I initiated within a University that was developed to run as a space to house a module on book design. The project drew heavily from my creative practice and experience of running an artist-run publishing production space outside of the University. I will start by outlining the Publishing Spaces project and the site and circumstances in which it was created. I will then introduce the model that my external project space was built upon on and explain the workings of a shared production and social space and explore examples of projects in this field of practice. I will present a case of the recent situation of studio and production spaces in Universities and look at the conditions which created it; privatisation, increased student numbers and funding cuts. Using Stefano Haney and Fred Moten’s essay on ‘The Undercommons’, I will suggest the value of teaching that happens in the intercises, the corridors, the in-between spaces in the curriculum of Universities. Returning to the Publishing Spaces case study I will evaluate the value and also challenges of the project, its short and longer-term effect on the students and users of the space. I will summarise with the effect that the project had on the restructuring of other production spaces in the Graphic Design department as a result of giving trust and responsibility to the students. This essay can act as a guide to finding potential spaces within the university and how to give students the tools to use it.
