Maria Fusco
My research interests focus on experimental strategies for contemporary art writing. My own work crosses different modalities of production including: fictive, critical & theoretical writing; editing and independent publishing. I am interested in testing how such transdisciplinary writing practice can probe readers’ attitudes towards the accuracy of critical art writing: the independent experiences of fiction and visual art writing together potentially gaining the ability to produce non-sequential narratives which reintroduce the reader / viewer to closer looking – calling for readers’ presence in the present, rather than inviting them to wonder what will happen at the end. An important forum for the creation of such art experimental writing is the journal The Happy Hypocrite, which I founded and edit (www.thehappyhypocrite.org). Throughout 2009, I am inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Whitechapel Gallery in London, and Critic-in-Residence at Kadist Art Foundation in Paris.
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/education/writer-in-residence
Selected academic and professional consultancy
Current
External Examiner: BA (Hons) Fine Art Historical and Critical Studies
Component, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
External Examiner: MFA Fine Art, University
of Reading, Reading
Research cluster: Writing as Art Practice,
Birmingham City University, Birmingham
Research Cluster: Practice-Led Research
Publishing, The Bartlett & Slade, London
Editorial advisory board member: Emily
Carr Institute Press, Vancouver
Editorial advisory board member: fillip
journal, (Vancouver: Projectile Publishing)
Academic Referee: The Blue
Notebook journal (Bristol: University of the West of England)
Academic
Peer Reviewer: Intellect Books, Bristol
Mentor: ICA A-Frame Mentoring Programme, ICA, London
Peer Reviewer: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
2005 – 2006
General Public
Agency, Publishing Consultant
2004
The Wellcome Trust, Communications Consultant
2003 – 2004
Ben Kelly Design Special Projects, Publishing Consultant
Selected previous employment
2005 – 2007
University of East London: Programme Leader, MA
Contemporary Art & Design
Practice and Senior Lecturer in Visual
Theories
2000 – 2004
Book Works: Commissioning Editor, Marketing & Development
Manager
Camberwell College of Arts, Central St Martins, Chelsea College of Art and Design, Edinburgh University, Emily Carr Institute (Vancouver), Glasgow School of Art, London College of Communication, Kingston University, Nottingham Trent University, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Brighton, University of Central Lancaster, University College for the Creative Arts, University of Ulster, University of Westminster and Royal College of Art.
Selected publications
Selected bibliography
Edited books and volumes
Ongoing
Editor: The Happy Hypocrite, London: Book Works (two issues per year)
2010
Editor: Who is this who is coming?, Birmingham: ARTicle Press
2009
Editor: Make an Icon Out of Popcorn, London: Matt’s Gallery
2006
Editor: The Dream that Kicks: Transdisciplinary Practice in Action, Newcastle: AN
2004
Editor: Put About: A Critical Anthology on Independent Publishing, London: Book Works
Editor: Wonderful: Visions of the Near Future, London: BKD Special Projects
Contributions to books
2009
‘Don’t Say Yes – Say Maybe! Fiction Writing and Art Writing’ in Telling Stories: Countering Narrative in Art, Theory and Film, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
‘Maria Fusco’ in Nought to Sixty: 60 Projects, 6 Months, London: Institute of Contemporary Art
‘The Incunabulum and the Plastic Bag’ in A Manual for the 21st Century Gallery, Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Institutions So Different, So Appealing?, Köln: Koenig Books and London: Whitechapel Gallery
‘The Alien’ and ‘Street Polemic 95’ in Permaculture, Dublin: Project Press & The Metropolitan Complex
‘On Heroes and Hero Worship in the Age of the Strange Power of Reality’ in Project, Dublin: Project Press (forthcoming)
‘The Happy Hypocrite’ in The Future of Arts Magazines, Kingston: KIOSK (forthcoming)
‘Say Who I am’ in Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism, Vancouver: Fillip/Artspeak (forthcoming)
2008
‘The Mechanical Copula’ in Hey Hey Glossolalia, New York: Creative Time
‘The Tiny Tub’ in Plastasine Fantazine, London: Dave Burrows & ARTicle Press
2007
‘De Selby’ in Pop Philosophy, Vancouver: Access Artist Run Centre
‘Window Strikes’ in Copy Work, Vancouver: Contemporary Art Gallery
‘We Shall Devote to Them a Future Work’ in Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum Publication, Sheffield: Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum
2006
‘The Tender Tale of the De Trop Provo or: For I am so full of words; that the spirit within me constraineth
me’ in David Osbaldeston catalogue, London: Matt’s Gallery
‘Professional is Environmental. Amateurism is Anti-Environmental’ in Unbound: Scottish Arts Publishing, Edinburgh: Fruitmarket
2005
‘The Dream that Kicks’ in Bio, Dublin: Tulca Publishing
Preface to Sense: Absence, London: Faction
‘Thinking Machines V The Big Swap: Books as Cultural Currency’ in ten two zero zero five, Newcastle: AN
‘The Island of Scientists’ in Provisorium, Malmö: Rooseum
Journals & magazines
I contribute to a broad range of international visual culture journals & magazines including:
Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities; The Architect’s Journal; Art Monthly; Circa; dot dot dot; Fillip; Flash Art; frieze; i-D; Kaleidoscope; MAP; O32c, Petunia, /Seconds: The Magazine of Contemporary Art and its Research and Tema Celeste.
Presentations and exhibitions
Guest Lecturer at the following Universities:
2009
Central St Martins, Winchester School of Art, Royal College of Art, Kingston University, Sheffield Hallam University, Chelsea College of Art, University of Kent
2008
London College of Communication, Chelsea College of Art, University College for the Creative Arts, Camberwell College of Arts
2007
London College of Communication, Chelsea College of Art, Kingston University, Sheffield Hallam University, Camberwell College of Arts, University College for the Creative Arts
2006
Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver), Chelsea College of Art, Camberwell College of Arts, University College for the Creative Arts
2005
University College for the Creative Arts, Goldsmiths, Central St Martins, Camberwell College of Arts, Edinburgh University, University of Central Lancaster, Nottingham Trent University
Professional activities
Selected academic & professional affiliations
Ongoing
External Examiner: MFA Fine Art, University of Reading, Reading
Member: Research Network, Art-Writing, Birmingham City University, Birmingham
Member: Research Cluster, Practice-Led Research Publishing, The Bartlett and The Slade, London
Member: Network for Editors of Interdisciplinary Journals
Editorial advisory board member: MAP magazine, Dundee, Scotland
Editorial advisory board member: Emily Carr University Press, Vancouver, Canada
Editorial advisory board member: fillip journal, Vancouver, Canada
Academic Referee: The Blue Notebook journal (Bristol: University of the West of England)
Academic Peer Reviewer: Intellect Books, Bristol
Board Member: Women’s Art Library/MAKE, London
2009
Advisor: Film London, (FLAMIN Artists' Moving Image Network)
Academic Reviewer: Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA) Conference
Academic Review Panel Member: BA Hons Media Writing and BA Hons Journalism Combined Honours, University of Greenwich
2005 – 2006
General Public Agency, Publishing Consultant
Conferences
Selected conferences & panel discussions
2010
Cosey Complex, Convenor: Institute of Contemporary Art, London
2009
Language as Material Symposium, Keynote Speaker: Institute of Fine Arts and Cultural Studies, Kunstuniversitat, Linz, Austria
Three Uses of the Knife: International Workshop on Art Writing and Criticism, Workshop Leader: Contemporary Art Centre & the Information Centre of the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania
Out of the Blue: Symposium on Instant Urbanism, Hospitality and Accelerated History, Workshop Leader: The Blue House, Amsterdam
Arts Writing Symposia – Who is this who is coming? and Performing/Knowing, Co-Convener: Whitechapel Gallery, London
Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism, Conference Speaker: Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and Fillip, Vancouver
Art Publishing in the Contemporary World, Seminar Speaker: National College of Art and Design, Dublin
Art & Writing, Panel member: Spike Island, Bristol
Jeff Koons: Popeye Series, Speaker: Serpentine Gallery, London
2008
Nought to Sixty, Panel convener: ICA, London
The Aesthetics of Trash: Objects and Obsolescence in Cultural Perspective, Conference Speaker: University College Dublin, Dublin
Writing Encounters, Symposium Speaker: York St John University, York
Art Writing Beyond Criticism, Symposium Speaker: ICA, London
2007
Art &, Symposium Speaker: ICA, London
The Future of Art Magazines, Panel Speaker: The Bargehouse, London
Telling Stories: Theories and Criticism, Conference Speaker: Loughborough University, Loughborough
Non-linear Narrative in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Artistic Practices, Keynote Speaker: Goldsmiths, London
100 Great Ideas, Panel Chair: Hayward Gallery, London
Manchester Artists’ Book Fair, Conference Keynote Speaker: Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
The First Antechamber, Panel Chair: Project Gallery, Dublin
2006
Vancouver Special Conference Keynote Speaker: Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver
2005
Research Spaces, Conference Speaker: The Bartlett & The Slade, London, November
Unbound, Panel Speaker: Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
Why Publish?, Conference Chair: Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology and Templebar Gallery, Dublin
2004
Put About: Contemporary Visual Arts Publishing, Conference Convener: Tate Modern, London