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Artists & academics knowledge exchange lab: imagining and rethinking the future of our cities with UCL
Friday 28th April 2023 , 6:00pm to 8:30pm
Building on the work of UCL’s Cultural and Community Engagement team, this series of knowledge exchange and co-creation labs will bring together artists, researchers, and local communities to contemplate the future of our cities and explore imaginaries, ideas, and speculative futures.
For this first lab, join us for an exploration into who our cities are for and how do we and others working in east London create spaces, places and programmes that reflect the multitude of experiences of people who live here.
You will hear from East London Art Prize shortlisted artist Alaa Alsaraji about her selected artwork Mother’s Living Room and her exploration into what safe spaces look like for Muslim communities in east London.
The Institute for Global Prosperity’s Citizen Social Scientist programme will also speak to how they are putting the voices and experiences of east Londoners at the centre of their research, working closely with Alaa to help translate and showcase the work done by their citizen scientists. Members from the UCL Urban Room will then talk through their latest exhibition, which delves into the experiences of east London’s boating community and shines a light on the issues faced in accessing services for those who have no fixed address.
These panel conversations will be followed by informal networking, with plenty of opportunities for you to connect with others in the room to collectively work and think through some of the questions raised and reflect on our positionality within this particular local context.
Please note there will be photography taken at this event for UCL internal reporting and for sharing in print and social media.
This event will take place at the UCL East Campus, UCL Urban Room, 1 Pool Street, London, E20 2AF.
More about UCL East
Since 1826, UCL has championed independent thought and broken boundaries in research to make a positive impact in London and across the globe. It was the first university to welcome students of all faiths, or no faith, and the first to educate women on a fully equal footing with men. UCL’s new university campus, UCL East, is the next chapter in our disruptive thinking and the biggest development in our nearly 200-year history. Located on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, it will give us the scale and space we need to continue our disruptive thinking and find solutions to the biggest problems facing people and the planet.
When fully open, around 4,000 students and 700 staff will work together and collaborate with local communities and businesses in cutting-edge new research centres specialising in ecology, robotics, AI, urbanism, culture, assistive technology, engineering, culture, heritage and health. UCL East’s One Pool Street base, opened in the autumn of 2022, is full of multidisciplinary research labs and studios with a lecture theatre doubling as a cinema, a shop, café and accommodation for more than 500 students.
Our UCL East campus will be accessible, sustainable and open to the public, with community engagement and exhibition spaces, and specially commissioned art by local artists for everyone to enjoy. UCL East is part of East Bank, London’s new culture, education, innovation and entertainment district, a legacy of London 2012. UCL East wants to be embedded in the local, east London community, and has been working for 10 years to build relationships and collaborations here.
More about Alaa Alsaraji
Alaa is a visual artist, and creative facilitator. Through her creative practice she aims to explore themes of belonging, reimagining space and community, predominantly using the medium of digital illustration. Alaa is also the arts editor of Khidr Collective, a multidisciplinary artist collective creating platforms and spaces for young Muslim creatives through the annual Khidr Zine and online platform. www.alsarajialaa.co.uk
More about Joseph Cook
Joseph Cook is an anthropologist and urban researcher. He is currently co-leading ‘Navigating the System’, a UCL project investigating healthcare access for London’s transient boat-dwelling community, and is also a research associate at Queen Mary University of London, looking into social prescribing and the arts across Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
More about Gillian Chan
Gillian is a Project Officer for PROCOL UK, supporting the coordination of the IGP’s Prosperity in east London 2021-2031 Longitudinal Study and the London Prosperity Board. She currently works with citizen social scientists and cross-sectoral partners in east London to embed novel ways of collaborative working, produce research outputs, and facilitate dialogue on achieving equitable urban prosperity. Trained in medical anthropology and political science, Gillian’s research interests include participatory research, health inequality, engaged anthropology and care.
Access information
If you have any questions regarding accessibility at this event or would like to make us aware of any access requirements that you have in advance of visiting, please email Briony on b.fleming@ucl.ac.uk
Access requirements could include things like providing equipment, services or support (e.g. information in Easy Read, speech to text software, additional 1:1 support), adjusting workshop timings (e.g. more break times), adjustments to the event space (e.g. making sure you have a table near the entrance) or anything else you can think of!
About the East London Art Prize Events programme
The East London Art Prize events programme is a dynamic, free public programme open to all, which builds on the Prize’s ethos of providing ongoing support, development, and networking opportunities for artists in east London and beyond.
Featuring a constellation of workshops, talks, panels, lates, socials, labs, walks, and takeovers in collaboration with our Prize partners and featuring some familiar faces from our inaugural shortlist of 12 fantastic artists, this year’s events programme celebrates and pays homage to the huge abundance of talent and creativity nestled in east London.
These events have been developed in collaboration with our Prize partners the British Council, The Line, London College of Fashion (LCF), London Legacy Development Corporation, University College London (UCL), V&A East, Whitechapel Art Gallery, and Dulux.
Find out more about the wider programme here.
More about the East London Art Prize
The East London Art Prize is an all-media art prize designed to showcase the talent of artists working and living in east London, with an accompanying event programme supporting artists’ careers and opportunities. The Prize is generously funded by Minerva and Prue MacLeod. Find out more on the Prize webpage here.
