Professor Simon O'Sullivan

Staff details

Professor Simon O'Sullivan

Position

Professor of Art Theory and Practice, Programme Leader MA in Contemporary Art Theory

Department

Visual Cultures

Email

s.o'sullivan (@gold.ac.uk)

Simon is a theorist and artist working at the intersection of contemporary art practice, performance and philosophy.

Simon O’Sullivan is a theorist and artist working at the intersection of contemporary art practice, performance and continental philosophy. He has published widely in in these areas, often in relation to Deleuze and Guattari and, more recently in relation to fictioning and myth-work.

His most recent monographs are From Magic and Myth-Work to Care and Repair (2024) and (written with David Burrows) Fictioning: The Myth-Functions of Contemporary Art and Philosophy (2019).

His collaborative art practice – with David Burrows, Alex Marzeta and Vanessa Page, sometimes with and others – comes under the name Plastique Fantastique, a ‘performance fiction’ that involves an investigation into aesthetics, subjectivity, the sacred, popular culture and politics produced through, performance, film and sound work, comics, text, installations and assemblages. Plastique Fantastique have performed and exhibited widely in the UK and abroad and are represented by IMT Gallery in London.

Teaching and supervision

Supervision summary:

Aesthetics; Art Theory; Continental Philosophy; Modern and Contemporary Art (esp. Ritual and Performance, Fiction and Mythopoesis); Psycho/Schizo-analysis; The Production of Subjectivity; Non-Philosophy; Speculative Realism; Fictioning; Landscape; Occulture/Magic; Care and Repair; Hybrid Writing and Art Writing; Theory-Fiction; Archaeology and Art; the Ill and the Dead.

Teaching:

Programme Leader for MA Contemporary Art Theory. Teaching MA module 'From Art Writing to Theory-Fiction' and third year BA module on 'Occulture'. PhD, BA and MA Dissertation

Research interests

Aesthetics; Art Theory; Continental Philosophy; Modern and Contemporary Art (esp. Ritual and Performance, Fiction and Mythopoesis); Psycho/Schizo-analysis; The Production of Subjectivity; Non-Philosophy; Speculative Realism; Fictioning; Landscape; Occulture/Magic; Care and Repair; Hybrid Writing and Art Writing; Theory-Fiction; Archaeology and Art; the Ill and the Dead.

Publications and research outputs

Book

Book Section

  • Science Fiction Devices Burrows, David and O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2023. Science Fiction Devices. In: Bernd Herzogenarth, ed. New Perspectives on Academic Writing: The Thing That Wouldn't Die. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 39-52. ISBN 9781350231535
  • The Stars My Destination O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2022. The Stars My Destination. In: Francesca Lazzarini, ed. IOCOSE: Loops and Vectors. Modena: Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, pp. 92-95. ISBN 9788894552140
  • A Thousand Devices O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2022. A Thousand Devices. In: UNSPECIFIED, ed. Michiko Itatani: Celestial Stage. Chicago, Illinois: Wrightwood 659, pp. 40-43. ISBN 9798218074647

Article

Project

  • Welcome Traitor Meme! O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Burrows, David. 20 October 2017 - 15 September 2018 Welcome Traitor Meme!.

Show/Exhibition

Conference or Workshop Item

  • Writing, Performance, Landscape and Myth-Work O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2025. 'Writing, Performance, Landscape and Myth-Work'. In: Digital Ecologies 3. Bath Spa University, United Kingdom 24-25 July 2025.
  • Writing, Performance, and Myth-Work O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2025. 'Writing, Performance, and Myth-Work'. In: Identity Crisis Nertwork Conference. Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia 23 - 24 May 2025.
  • On Theory-Fiction O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2025. 'On Theory-Fiction'. In: Invited Speaker and Workshop. Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom 10 March 2025.

Edited Book

  • Futures and Fictions Gunkel, Henriette; Hameed, Ayesha and O'Sullivan, Simon D., eds. 2017. Futures and Fictions. London: Repeater. ISBN 9781910924631
  • Deleuze and Contemporary Art O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Zepke, Stephen, eds. 2010. Deleuze and Contemporary Art. Edinburgh: Edingburgh University Press. ISBN 978 0 7486 3838 3
  • Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New O'Sullivan, Simon D. and Zepke, Stephen, eds. 2008. Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New. London: Continuum. ISBN 9780826499530

Performance

Professional projects

Deatils and documentation of Plastique Fantastique can be found on the website above. A couple of indicative performances are below with links to documentation.