The citizen artist: an expanded discussion

The article was written for the Photography Research Forum hosted by the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAin) at the University of the Arts London (2010). The paper is a fuller discussion of what I believe to be a shift in contemporary art practice as evidenced in the work of artists discussed and outlines the characteristics of what I envisage as a Citizen Artist.

This paper will attempt to do three things: 1) briefly outline an observation of our contemporary socio-political circumstances, 2) discuss Diarmuid Costello and Dominic Willsden’s idea of a ‘new’ tendency in art practice in the context of contemporary examples and 3) discuss how a Citizen Artist fits with and extends the ideas raised.

Conference Forum: Photographic Portraiture—Transgressive and Transformative Potentials’ (Presenting a Paper & acting as a Respondent)

TrAIN Associate Project Funding awarded in February 2010: call for papers to go out in April 2010, forum confirmed for 5 November, 2010.

Delivered a presentation on my 'Citizen Artist' project, the concept of the idea and its scope for political and aesthetic discourse (www.plessner.co.uk/citizenartist). I was also a respondent for Dr. Steve Cross's paper on the political implications of Celebrity culture. The Conference Forum was a discursive, participatory session including presentations and responses from early and mid-career researchers debating different visual approaches to photographic identities in order to establish future networks across UAL. Organised by Dr. Wiebke Lester, Dr. Sara Davidmann (LCC) and Dr. Isobel Whitelegg

This one-day photography forum explores the debates connected with photographic identities in the light of transnational, transcultural and transgender politics. At the same time, the forum sets out to challenge all too formative expectations of the interplay between depicted sitter, photographer and image in relation to the various perceptions of its respective viewers. During the day, we will engage in discursive approaches to images of human nature today – that is to say: after the ‘post-human’ and the supposed ‘death of portraiture’. Additionally, this forum aims at establishing common ground among early and mid-career researchers within UAL with a view to possible future research collaborations.

The forum will take the form of an informal ‘round table’ discussion with two panels: ´Re-Thinking Identities of Photographic Portraiture´ in the morning, and ´Trans-Portraiture: Nation, Gender, Culture´ in the afternoon. Presentations – by both artists and theoreticians – will vary in style including theoretical, practice-led, performative and audio-visual investigations into the subject matter. Papers will be pre-circulated, so the invited speakers will not only present their research but also respond to one of the other presentations.

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