The Studio as Nomadic Research Laboratory Artist, Liam Gillick refers to art moments as spaces that co-exist often with a sense of troubling absence (Cotter, 2019). [1] Where do art-moments reside? In my studios I surround myself with raw materials, works in progress, finished goods, gleaned raw materials from inner-cities and outer villages, from defunct factories and worksites - during construction booms entire archeologies constantly bubble to the surface.

Where is the work of art in its stages of development from drawing board to finished piece? I first met Andy Warhol in 1985 and from him I learned that the propositions of artmaking are as fluid as we guide them. We don’t follow perception - we invent it. As artists we are the arbiters of our own pathways. I am an ardent museum-goer and am ever inspired by artists like Edward Kienholz (1927-1994) with his found-object phantasmagoric assemblages; Dieter Roth (1930-1998) with his 100 Käse formidably blooming cheese-works each resplendent in various stages of entropic degeneration and the writings of the formless writings of Bataille (1929). As part of my research I am also exploring the formless in philosophies and spiritual traditions in Asia.

In the 1990s at Goldsmiths I transformed my studio into a nomadic laboratory to examine the spaces of materials, sounds, movement, process and time - but also the spaces between artists - what Beat Generation novelist William S. Burroughs and artist/poet Brion Gysin termed “the third mind.” (Burroughs and Gysin 1967) as a way to deconstruct the social self and reconstructs a third social self in the collaborative art-making. The artworks we create exist at all stages of the artmaking lifecycle - the idea, the attempts, the continued attempts, the authentic gestures and actions, and the work that emerges.

Theory has the capacity to draw inferences across disciplines towards what Columbia anthropologist David Scott, calls the “de-disciplinary, as in fact anti- disciplinary, the virtual undoer of disciplinary self-identities” (Scott p 374). As my own artistic research examines operations that both engender and then shed art as part of process.

Teaching Objective As an artist and university educator I explore the artist’s potential to build new knowledge through practice. As a doctoral supervisor my objective is to encourage and inspire each student on their unique pathways in research, writing and practice.

Biography

Education

Post-Doctorate (2017) School of Art and Communications, University of São Paulo, Brazil

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, 2012), Faculty of Art, Environment and Technology, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

Masters in Fine Art (2001), Musashino Art University, Japan Monbusho Award, Tokyo, Japan

Master of Arts (1997), Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

Master of Science (1988), Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Boston University and Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours, 1996), Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London, UK

Bachelor of Arts in History (cum laude, 1986), Boston University, Boston, MA

Other Education

Columbia University Visiting Scholar and Scientist Program, Columbia University, New York, USA

Studio Masterclass with James Rosenquist, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

Visiting Scholar, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-arts, Paris, France

Visiting Scholar, Taiwan Ministry of Education Huayu Scholar National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

Designations

Professor of Record for Modern and Contemporary Art History, Renmin University, Beijing

Professor of Record for Performance and Site-Specific Art, Renmin University, Beijing

Professor of Record for New Media art, Minzu University, Beijing [upcoming]

Research Scholar, Art and Transcultural Education, Columbia University

Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award for Contemporary art in India

Fellow, Royal Asiatic Society, London (FRAS)

Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute - Committees on Art and Anthropology), London (FRAI)

Awards and Fellowships

2021 Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award, New Delhi, India.

2019 American Arts Incubator ZERO1: Art and Technology Artist, San Francisco, CA.

2017 Fulbright Hays US Public Diplomacy China Award, Beijing, China.

2017 CEC ArtsLink Foundation Grant, St. Petersburg, Russia

2017 Taiwan Ministry of Education (MOE) Language Scholar National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

2017 Renmin University of China Merit Award for Teaching, Beijing, China.

2016 Wheatley Foundation Fellow, Birmingham City University, UK.

2016 US Department of State Field Research Fellow, American Center for Mongolian Studies, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

2015 Fellow ,University of the Arts London Research Center on Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, London, UK.

2014 Fulbright Hays US Public Diplomacy Award for Mongolia.

2014 CEC ArtsLink Foundation Grant for Mongolia.

2009 Queenstown Council, Singapore Citation Award, Singapore.

2009 Edwin Austin Abbey Fellowship, National Design Museum, New York.

2009 Bauhaus Foundation Fellow, Dessau, Germany.

2008 The Nordic Artists Center Fellowship, Norway.

2001 Musashino Art University Selection Award.

2001 Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture Scholar (Monbusho) (1998-2001), Tokyo, Japan.

1998 Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture Japanese Language Scholar (1997-1998) Tokyo, Japan.

1996 Academic Honours, Central Saint Martins College of Art, London.

1995 Erasmus Scholarship, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-arts, Paris, France.

1995 King Sturge Award for Sculpture, London, UK.

1986 Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society, Boston, MA.

Academic Appointments and Research

Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY.

Columbia Visiting Scholar and Scientist Program (2009-present). Research scholar examining the intersections of contemporary art practices, philosophy and education. Art and Intercultural Education, Teachers College (2020-2022); Art and Collaboration, Department of Art History and Archeology (2018-2020). Art and Art Education Design, Teachers College (2020-2022). Art and Aesthetics, Department of Philosophy (2010-2011). Contemporary Art Practices and Theory, School of the Arts (2008-2010)

Jawaharlal Nehru University, Department of Art and Aesthetics New Delhi, India (2021-2022).

Fulbright Research Fellow, Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award. Lectures and workshops on Contemporary art and Aesthetics

Visva Bharati University, Departments of Art and Philosophy Santiniriken, West Bengal, India (2021-2022).

Fulbright Research Fellow, Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award. Lectures and workshops on Contemporary Art, Aesthetics, and Curating.

Renmin University of China Beijing, China (2013-present).

Professor of Record American Modern and Contemporary Art History. Professor of Record Experimental Art (Experiencing Artistic Research) 2017 Renmin Merit Award.

Musashino Art University, School of Art Musashino Art University, Tokyo Japan (1998-2001)

BA Fine Art Tutor: Department of Sculpture and Contemporary Arts Scholar. Japan Ministry of Education and Culture Full Scholarship (Monbusho Award); Member of Curatorial Team for the First Taipei Biennial “Sites of Desire” (Taiwan). Research conducted in Japanese. Tutor to BA Fine Art students in Department of Sculpture.

Secondary Academic Appointments

Peking University Beijing, China (2018-present).

Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship in Museums, Peking University Cultural Industries (2018). Global Engagement Liaison, Peking University Department of Postdoctoral Affairs (2018-present).

Mongolia State University for Arts and Culture Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2016).

US Department of State Sponsored Field Research Mongolia; ACMS Field Research Fellow in US-Asian cooperation in the arts. Visiting Professor and Founder American Art Lecture Series. Workshop supervisor and at Mongolian National University of Education, Ulaanbaatar.

Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London (UAL) London, UK (2015).

Fellow and Master Class Instructor; Artist and Research Fellow, Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN). Master Class on Artistic Research and Site Specific Art for PhD Students at UAL. Research on intercultural collaboration in the arts. Supervisor: Professor Toshio Watanabe, Program Director

Bauhaus Foundation Dessau, Germany (2008-2009).

Bauhaus Artist Fellow and Workshop Director. BA and MA student workshops in Berlin and Singapore at La Salle School of Art and Nanyang Academy of Art..

Visiting Artist Presentations and Workshops

Curating Site Specificity in India, MA Fine Arts Program, Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal, India (2022).

Artist Workshops Building Mutual Understanding in Underserved Communities US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Bogota Colombia (2021).

Building mutual understanding in Central Asia, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, China (2019).

New Contemporary in China: Robert Rauschenberg in China Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2018).

US-China collaboration in site specific arts Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2017).

Curating Across Cultures, Bard Smolny MA Curating Program, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia (2017).

Creativity as Intercultural Interface, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York (2015).

Mongolian National University for Art and Culture, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2015).

Artistic Research and Intercultural Collaboration, University of the Arts London Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (2015), London, UK.

US-Mongolian Collaboration Engaging Traditional and the Contemporary Zanabazar National Museum of Art, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2014).

Chinese Art: Modern to Contemporary National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (2014). [MA and BA museum lecture]

Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012).

Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Seoul, South Korea (2012). [MA and BA workshops]

The Art Studio as Classroom Live, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012).

Interdisciplinary Art as Research, Lecture to MA Fine Art Course, Kookmin University, Seoul (2012).

Exploring site and local identity, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, South Korea (2012). [MA and BA workshops]

Building links between university art programs and the City of New York Columbia University Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship
Mayors Office of the City of New York (2011). [MBA Research]

Treignac-Projet, Correze, France (2010). [MA and MFA workshop and exhibition]

Studio as Nomadic Laboratory - Merging Photography with Performance Nanyang Academy of Art, Singapore (2009).

Studio as Nomadic Laboratory - performing Site, La Salle College of Art, Singapore (2009).

Engaging Disappearing Sites, Bauhaus Foundation CIAM Urbanisme X, Singapore (2009).[MA and BA workshops]

MFA Final Year Critique, University of California Santa Barbara, California (2005).

New Contemporary: Japanese Pop Art and the Emerging Contemporary Otis College of Art, Los Angeles, California (2001).

Conferences

Pedagogy 2.0 (panelist), The Art School of Tomorrow, Teachers College (2021).

ISEA International Symposium of Electronic Art, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea.

Session-Chair, ProjectAnywhere Conference, Parson School of Art, New School, New York. (2018).

Plenary Keynote Speaker on PhD research, School of Art, Peking UNiversity, Beijing (2018).

Artist-centric practices within the museum, Museum2050, Long Museum, Shanghai (2018).

Co-Chair, Young Researcher Conference, Mongolia (2016).

International Committee, College Art Association conference (2015-present).

Japan Startup NYC, Microsoft, New York (2016).

Presidents Forum on Higher Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York (2016).

Keynote Speaker, Young Researcher Conference Mongolia.

National University of Education and the American Center for Mongolian Studies (2015).

Royal Geographical Society Conference, London (2013).

Editorial Committee, ProjectAnywhere Conference, Parsons/ New School, New York (2015).

Panelist, Artists’ Workspaces: Portability, Contingency, Virtuality, College Art Association conference, Chicago (2014).

Panelist Going Beyond: Art as Adventure (CAA, Washington, DC) (2018).

European League of Institutes in the Arts (ELIA) conferences, Seoul (2012) and Vienna (2013).

Curricula and Syllabi

Artistic Research and the New PhD [curriculum].

Coaching Artists on the PhD, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Continued Practices: long term critical development [workshop and panel].

Coaching Practices in the Creative Industries [workshop]. Modern and Contemporary Art Histories (1900-present).

Performing art MA syllabus: Inspiring from the work of Dennis Oppenheim, Teachers College, Department of Art and Art Education MA in Studio Practice Program Syllabus (2014)

Curricula and Syllabi (in preparation)

Evolving Boundaries: Environmental Art from the 1960s to present [syllabus].

Engaged Critique in Contemporary art: expanded concepts of installation [tutorial/critique].

The New Global: Contemporary art and border, identity and the new territorialization of public spaces [panel].

Chinese contemporary art: Parallel critical developments between the East and West from Modernism to Contemporary [syllabus].

Selected Publications, Studies and Research

Creative Practices of Inclusion in South Asia,Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (2023).

Reclaiming Artists Research (journal review), Journal for Artistic Research, Basel (2021).

Looking to New Institutional Models: China’s Cultural Landscape by Mid-Century, Ching, N and Tanner, L, (eds), Long Museum, Shanghai (2019).

Emerging models for teaching, New York: Critical Practices (2019).

“The Artist as Explorer,” in Going Beyond: Art as Adventure, O’Neill et al (eds.), Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars (2018).

Interfacing Technology with Site, ISEA International Symposium of Electronic Art, Korea (2019).

DrawnOver: Contemporary Drawing, Vojvodina, Serbia: Museum of Contemporary Art [catalogue]. (Joynes and Vu, 2018).

“The Artist Explorer: FormLaboratory: Geographically Dispersed Performance in Brazil (2012-2013) and Mongolia (2014)” Sao Paulo, Brazil: Escola de Comunicações e Artes, Universidade de São Paulo [post-doctoral thesis] (2017).

Anywhere v.1. (2015). Lowry and Douglas (eds.), University of Melbourne and Parsons School of Art, Media and Technology, New York. 

“The Artist as Explorer,” Washington D.C.: College Arts Association Conference (2016).            

Les Joynes and Thomas Vu in Interview” in Draw: Artists from China at Inside Out Art Museum, New York: LeRoy Neiman Foundation [catalogue] (2016).

“FormLaboratory” in Art and Research at the Outermost Limits of Site Specificity (2014) Lowry, S and Douglas, S. (eds.). Newcastle, Australia: Univ. of Newcastle. 

“Nomadic and Geographically Dispersed Practice,” Chicago: College Arts Association (2014).

New Institutional Models: China’s Cultural Landscape by Mid-Century, Long Museum, China (2018).

Going Beyond: Art as Adventure, O’Neill, R et al (eds), Cambridge Scholars, UK (2018).

“The Invisible and the Transvisible in contemporary art in Singapore,” in Octopus, Journal for Visual Culture: University of California, Irvine (2011).

"Multi-spatial Performance: at Bauhaus-Dessau, November 2008:  Record Dances, Bühnenstudios der Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau [Internet].

“Intelligence, technologies and applications to genomics” Legislation of genetic testing in the US and Iceland: Legislative Implications and strategies, Tokyo, Japan.

Ethics and Genetic population testing - engineering best practices in the US and Iceland (2004).

Bringing Intelligence to the technological interface in Japan (2003).

Clinical research development in human aging sciences, Tokyo, Japan (2003).

The Human Genome: Areas of Light and Shadow (E.Kon et al, Shokabo Publishing, Tokyo 2001).

“Some Say They Did: Some Say They Didn’t, Contemporary Art of Yoshitomo Nara at Ginza Art Space” New York: Art in America (2000).

“The New Pathetic. Contemporary British art in the 1990s,”Vienna: Springer (1997).

The New Pathetic: Contemporary Art in London, Springer [magazine], Hamburg, Germany (1997).

“Emerging materials applications in sound: use of innovative materials” Brussels (1991) 

”Managing The Technology Transfer Process: The Parallel Learning Mechanism (with A. Shani), Seoul: Dankook University Press (1990).

“Introducing an eco-recyclable future benefitting a new Europe” Brussels (1990).

“Managing in a new Europe: Post-Graduate Management Education Programs, Boston University (1987).

Juries and Editorial Boards

CEC ArtsLink Jury Reviewer for Artists, New York (2021).

CEC ArtsLink Jury Reviewer for Art Managers, Curators, New York (2021).

Editorial Board Member for ProjectAnywhere [journal] University of Melbourne and Parsons School of Art, New York (2015-present).

Art and Anthropology Committee, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, London (2020-present).

Nordic Artist Center, Selection Committee, Norway (2008).

Harlem Arts Alliance Grant Selection Jury, New York (2010).

Teaching Graduate

PhD Fine Art Coaching, Victorian School of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia (2020-present).

PhD Masterclass on Doctoral Research and Fieldwork, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, UK (2015).

Beyond Pedagogy: a Workshop for future university art educators, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2021).

American Modern and Contemporary Art History (undergraduate and graduate) Professor of Record 2013-present). Renmin University of China, Beijing. Professor of Record (2013-present).

Artmaking through Pandemic, Coaching to MFA students (Individual teaching), Columbia University School of the Arts (2020-present).

Entrepreneurship in the Arts: Creating Museums of the Future (seminar), Peking University Institute for Cultural Industries, Beijing (2018).

RA Studio Tutorials, Royal Academy of Art, London, UK (2015).

MA Fine Art Studio Tutorials, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London (2015).

MA Fine Art Studio Tutorials, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK (2015).

MA Fine Art Studio Tutorials, University of Coventry, Coventry, UK (2015).

MA Studio Tutorials, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK (2011-2012).

MFA Studio Tutorials, Columbia University School of the Arts (2008-2009).

Teaching Undergraduate 

Experimental Art and New Media (undergraduate and graduate). (Professor of Record) Renmin University of China, Beijing (2018-present).

Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Impact Entrepreneurship Program, The New School, New York (2020-present)

Artist Residencies

Inside Out Art Museum, Beijing (2018).

CEC-Arts Link, St. Petersburg, Russia (2017).

Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil (ResArtis, 2013).

Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture, Seoul, Korea (ResArtis, 2012).

FormLAB, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (2012). 

Treignac Projet, France (2010).

Toosneger Foundation-Dordrecht Printmaking and Painting Residency, Holland (2008). 

Abbey Fellowship in Public Art, National Academy Museum, New York (2009).

Nordic Artists Center (NKD), Dalsasen, Norway (ResArtis, 2008).

Nagasawa Woodblock Printmaking Fellowship, Awaji, Japan (2006).

Poznan Summer Academy Residency, Poznan, Poland (1993 and 1994).

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Diversity and Equity Committee, Explorers Club, New York

Serving underrepresented communities as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs CDAF Initiative in Colombia

Gallery Representation

Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York.

Footnotes [1] This sense of absence is a condition related to the post-Modern. A work of art today can index a site - but this both interestinh (and problematic) when there is nothing in that site to be indexed. The site becomes a placeholder- and indexes a “lack” L.Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) at least has an entity pulling the levers and pushing the buttons - what we actually have is the absence of anyone at the helm. Frustrated in the lack of meaning, we binge ever hungry for more - but we soon realize we are binging upon our own ego-focused illusion. [2] Battaille, G “L’informe” (“Formless”) 1929 “Formless” by Georges Bataille, Documents #1, Paris, 1929, p. 382 (translated by Allan Stoekl with Carl R. Lovitt and Donald M. Leslie Jr., in Georges Bataille. Vision of Excess. Selected Writings, 1927-1939, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press “Formless”, p. 31). [3] William S. Burroughs, William, S. and Gysin, Brion The Third Mind, Viking Press, 1978. [4] Joynes, L in The Artist as Explorer in Going Beyond: Art as Adventure (Cambridge Scholars, UK, 2018). [5] Joynes, L “Review of Lucy Cotter (ed.) ‘Reclaiming Artistic Research’” jar-online.net. (2020). [6] Scott, David. “Criticism and Culture.” Critique of Anthropology 12, no. 4 (1992).