[-empyre-] 11th hour lurker!

[John O'Shea]

Dear Empyre list,

I've been following the comings and goings here since the beginning of 2008 (but I've never posted). I tuned into empyre because at that time I was trying to understand different models for developing communities in the online space, and I found the premise of this permeable space very interesting.  I have to say I have been greatly inspired by this dialogue, and I think perhaps the reason I've not contributed before is (I don't know why I've not contributed before.)

I'm an artist based in the north of England (Manchester currently).  I tend to work with quite unconventional materials (even by empyre standards) - in recent years this has included "law", "food systems", and "football".

My interest is in interrogating and re-configuring existing social structures to create new and experimental approaches to art-making.

Five years ago I founded The Meat Licence Proposal  – an organisation working towards the collaborative development of a new kind of law requiring consumers to have direct engagement with the slaughter of animals before they can purchase meat.  The ongoing activism required to develop construct this framework has brought me into contact with several list contributors and also directed my research interests in the last several years.  In 2010 I completed an AHRC Research Project at Newcastle University’s Culture Lab where I proposed and prototyped new kinds of technological ‘interface’ between citizens and the law. 

During 2011/12 I was resident at the Clinical Engineering Research Unit at the University of Liverpool – using 3D printing and techniques of tissue culture to grow the world's first bio-engineered football from living cells obtained from abattoir waste: Pigs Bladder Football.

Also during 2012 (at Stroom Den Haag in the Netherlands) I launched a new culinary invention – Black Market Pudding – a traditional blood-sausage made with blood from a live pig.  The Black Market Pudding has since been made in Poland too and it is my intention to bring this to market in the European Union during 2013.

July 1st marks a couple of important milestones in my work: 

From tomorrow, it will be possible for any individual who has legally demonstrated their own specific and personal engagement with acts of killing animals to apply for and obtain the first legally valid Meat Licence documents.

And also tomorrow, I begin in a new full-time role, developing a Visual and Interactive Art programme for the National Football Museum here in the UK - something which I'm incredibly excited about!

I hope, during the next 5 years to post my thoughts here and be a more active and interactive community member.  

Thank you to all who make this happen.

best 
John O'Shea

www.johnoshea.net








On 3 Jun 2013, at 03:39, Renate Ferro <rtf9 at cornell.edu> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Welcome to the JUNE  on  –empyre- soft-skinned space:
> -empyre moderators Renate Ferro (US), Timothy Murray (US), Simon Biggs
> (UK), and Patrick Lichty (US)
> All subscribers:  Send us a post about who you are and what you are
> working on right now.  See open call below.
> ___________________________________________________________
> An Archival Event: Who is –empyre?
> 
> From our website:
> -empyre- is a global community of new media artists, curators,
> theorists, producers, and others who participate in monthly thematic
> discussions via an e-mail listserv.
> -empyre- facilitates online discussion encouraging critical
> perspectives on contemporary cross-disciplinary issues, practices and
> events in networked media
> 
> Noting -empyre- soft-skinned space’s passage through its tenth-year
> anniversary, (January 2012) we have been spending time cruising
> through the layered archive of posts during that time.
> http://lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/
> 
> -empyre- has grown from a small organic collective begun by Melinda
> Rackam to a large international listserv, now with over 1600 members.
> One of Melinda's brilliant moves was to link the list serve to
> software that automatically archives each post for future access --
> this was quite a prescient feat a decade ago.
> 
> As we have been thinking of interesting ways to mark the passage into
> the next decade, as -empyre- continues to morph and grow in the
> environment of Web 2.0 (now clearly with many, many more lurkers and
> passive participants than active interlocutors), we thought it might
> be nice to take a moment to archive the projects of our members.
> 
> This is an open invitation to all of our subscribers.  We invite you
> to submit a post with:
> 1) a brief bio, with contact information
> 2) a two-paragraph description of your practice, current/recent
> projects, or writing or curatorial activities
> 
> We encourage our pioneering members as well as those of you who may
> have just joined us. We are very open about content (suspending for
> the month our listserv rules against self-promotion of shows,
> conferences, and publications) and expect that we all will be
> enlivened by learning more about our member participants.
> 
> Ideally our goal is to seed the ground for new discussion topics and
> new featured guests.
> Thanks to all of you, Renate, Tim, Simon and Patrick
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Renate Ferro
> Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
> Cornell University
> Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
> Ithaca, NY  14853
> Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
> URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
>      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
> Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net
> 
> Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

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