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THE 2022 FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
22 October - 13 November
FoSS and ESRC logos

Making Bad Art

Learning to Live With and Through Failure

What’s on offer?

Two Sessions asking participants to create ‘bad art.’ During this workshop, you will be invited to take part in a creative practice of your choice with only one condition: it has to be done badly! So, whether you’re interested in paintings or poems, sculptures or sketches, mosaics or music, you’re welcome to join.

You will then be asked to provide a brief statement about what your piece means, and how it felt to let yourself fail. These will be compiled into an online showcase which will be unveiled at the end of the Festival.

There will be materials provided on the day, but if there’s something you want to bring along with you then please do. If you’d like to join remotely then please do – details on how are below. If you would like to take part in the showcase but cannot attend in person, then you can still produce your artwork at home and send in photographs and a short statement (about 100 words) by email.

You do not need to attend the whole session, it will be operating on a drop in basis, but there will be a brief presentation at the start outlining the theory behind the project.
 

What’s it about?

We live in a period characterised by disruption. From industry strikes to pandemic lockdowns, the ways we conduct our lives are changing beneath us. This constant demand to adapt, adjust, and alter course has left many feeling as though they are failing to keep up. This sense of failure can pervade our lives, our jobs, our relationships. But what does it mean to fail, and why do we fear it?

These sessions aim to reclaim the notion of failure as something that is inherent to life and frame it as part of a learning process to show that even when we do not meet our expectations, we gain something from trying.

Who’s leading the event?

These sessions are run by Dr Eliott Rooke from the University of Exeter’s Geography department. Eliott’s research is interested in understanding the connections between health, wellbeing, and skill in a disrupted world.

Open to

All who are willing to let themselves fail are welcome to attend! If you would like to take part in the showcase but cannot attend in person, then you can still produce your artwork at home and send in photographs and a short statement (about 100 words) by email.

Of particular interest to

Anyone interested in skill, health, wellbeing, and what it means to live in an era of disruption - whether at the individual, organisational, or societal scale. 

Scheduling information

Session 1: Saturday 29th October 2022. 1:30 pm to 4:30pm

Session 2: Friday 12th November. 1:30 pm to 4:30pm