Online course

PILOT III - Rights, Care and Future

5 Oct – 14 Dec 2022

£100 / free bursary places available
Apply by Wednesday 14th September 2022 at 11pm (BST)

What

A intergenerational learning space for artists and creative people, bringing together practitioners from different places and walks of life.

Where

The course will take place online only, via Zoom and utilising digital learning tools. Participants can join us from anywhere in the world.

Why

To pursue arts and learning differently, through collective exchange and individual mentoring, structured around enquiries into issues of rights, care and future.

ABOUT THE COURSE

PILOT is an online course for artists and creative people to pursue arts and learning differently, through issues of rights, care and future. Now in its third year, PILOT is an intergenerational learning space for collective exchange and individual mentoring, bringing together practitioners from different places and walks of life.

In these times of uncertainty, PILOT aims to give its participants the impulse to turn to what matters for them. As we deal with experiences of exclusion, marginalisation and precariousness, how can we imagine new structures and futures for being together, learning and making?

Through inspiring talks, in-depth dialogue with guest speakers and a supportive network, you will be able to develop creative projects and make lasting connections with others. PILOT is a space to see your practice differently, be supported to take a risk or make a change, and where everyone can equally and uniquely contribute to each other’s professional and personal development.

We believe that access to PILOT should not be determined by conventional career markers or unjust economics. We encourage applications from people at any stage in their career or level of experience and bursary places are available.

course tutors

Ali Eisa

is a London-based artist and educator. He manages the Learning & Participation programme at Autograph, leading engagement projects exploring representation, identity and human rights for diverse groups including children and young people, students and community groups.

Ali is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, and graduated from Goldsmiths with an MA in Visual Sociology in 2013 and a BA in Fine Art Practice in 2010. He is one half of Lloyd Corporation, a collaborative project with artist Sebastian Lloyd Rees, exhibiting nationally and internationally working in sculpture, installation, performance and text.

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Alberto Duman

is an artist, Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University and independent researcher whose work is situated between art, urbanism and social practice. He has published papers, articles and artworks in books and journals, as well as publishing his own photographic books

In 2016 he was the Leverhulme Trust artist in residence at University of East London UEL, where he delivered the Music for Masterplanning project and subsequently co-edited the anthology Regeneration Songs: Sounds of Investment and Loss from East London.

His current research-led practice is framed by 'Haunting the Future', a framework that recognises aesthetics, poetics and fiction as tools for social change and artistic work. As part of this, he has delivered several iterations of Talking Ghosts: a collaborative hoarding novella, a workshop in which participants write whole scripts together for the digital characters populating the architectural renderings seen in the development hoardings in London and elsewhere.

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guest speakers

Dan Guthrie

Dan Guthrie is an artist, researcher and writer whose practice often explores representations of Black Britishness, with an interest in examining how they manifest themselves in rural areas. In the last year, he has been a participant in East Bristol Contemporary’s Day School programme, a panel member for Stroud District Council’s review of streets, buildings, statues and monuments, and a part-time librarian.

His work has been shown at the Whitstable Biennale, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Focal Point Gallery, Obsidian Coast and the ICA, and he is an Associate Programmer for the upcoming edition of Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, having previously worked as a submission viewer for London Short Film Festival and Glasgow Short Film Festival.

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Dr. Adesola Akinleye

Dr. Adesola Akinleye is a choreographer and artist-scholar. She is an Assistant Professor in the Dance Division at Texas Woman’s University. She has been an Affiliate Researcher, MIT, Arts Culture and Technology, and Visiting Artist at Center for Art, Science and Technology at MIT, and a Theatrum Mundi Fellow.

She began her career as a dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem Workshop Ensemble (USA) later working in UK Companies such as Green Candle and Carol Straker Dance Company. Over the past twenty years she has created dance works ranging from live performance that is often site-specific and involves a cross-section of the community to dance films, installations and texts. Her work is characterized by an interest in voicing people’s lived-experiences in Places through creative moving portraiture. A key aspect of her process is the artistry of opening creative practices to everyone from ballerinas to architects to women in low wage employment to performance for young audiences. Her most recent monograph is part of the Society for Dance Research In Conversation series – Dance, Architecture and Engineering: Dance in Dialogue.

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Raju Rage

Raju Rage is proactive about using art, education and activism to forge creative survival. Born in Kenya, raised in London and living/working beyond, they explore the spaces and relationships between dis/connected bodies, theory and practice, text and the body and aesthetics and the political substance. Their current interests are around sustainability, economies, care, and resistance.

They are a member of Collective Creativity arts collective and are a creative educator and independent scholar with an interest in radical pedagogy. Raju has a their story in activism, self and collective organised queer/ transgender/ people of colour movements and creative projects in London and beyond from which their politics and works draw on and from.

Raju has trained as a pastry chef and baker, worked in several community kitchens and been part of a baker’s collective.

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Ama Josephine Budge

Ama Josephine Budge is a British-Ghanaian speculative writer, artist, curator and pleasure activist whose praxis navigates intimate explorations of race, art, ecology and feminism, working to catalyse social justice, environmental evolutions and troublesomely queered identities.

Ama is the recipient of the 2020 Local, International and Planetary Fictions Fellowship with Curatorial Frame (Helsinki) and EVA International (Limerick), and will be researching the topic Pleasurable Ecologies – Formations of Care: Curation as Future-building. Ama is also a member of Queer Ecologies 2020 and initiator of the Apocalypse Reading Room project. Her visual art and written work have been commissioned, exhibited and published internationally including with Jupiter Artland, Casco Art Institute, the Architectural Review, the Feminist Review, Aperture, Whitechapel Gallery, Duke University Press and more.

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Course Schedule

The course will run over 11 weeks (37 hours in total)  - from 5 October to 14 December 2022 - and includes talks from invited speakers, one-to-one mentoring, group presentations and discussion sessions.

During the course, participants will be encouraged to respond creatively to the themes of rights, care and future, as well as sharing their creative ideas and practices. Participants are welcome to define what these responses look like according to their own interests, but you can see examples from previous PILOT courses here.

At the end of the course there is an option for a public online sharing of participants' work through Autograph’s website and social media channels.

Theme 1 - Rights

Introduction

Wed 5 Oct, 17:30 - 20:30pm
  Who are we?

Guest speakers

Thu 13 Oct, 17:30 - 20:30pm
Dan Guthrie and Adesole Akinleye

Tutorial

Wed 19 Oct, 45mins
Schedule to be agreed with each participant

Sharing

Wed 26 Oct, 17:30 - 20:30pm
Presentation, discussion and propositions

Reflection

Sat 29 Oct, 14:30 - 16:30pm
Open session for feedback

THEME 2 - CARE

Guest speakers

Wed 2 Nov, 17:30 - 20:30pm
Raju Rage and Grace Ndiritu

Tutorials

Wed 9 Nov, 45mins
Schedule to be agreed with each participant

Sharing

Wed 16 Nov, 17:30 - 20:30pm
Presentation, Discussion and Propositions

THEME 3 - FUTURE

Guest speakers

Wed 23 Nov, 17:30 - 20:30pm
Ama Josephine Budge and Larry Achiampong

Tutorial

Wed 30 Nov, 45mins
Scheduled to be agreed with each participant

Sharing

Wed 7 Dec, 17:30 - 20:30pm
Presentation, Discussion and Propositions

Reflection

Sat 10 Dec, 14:30 - 16:30pm
Gathering feedback on the course

Closing session

Wed 14 Dec, 17:30 - 22:30pm
From here to...

Course Fees & Bursary Places

Fees for this course are £100. We encourage applications from people at any stage in their career or level of experience.

We are committed to making this course accessible to all, and we are offering 6 free bursary places to applicants for whom the course fees would be a barrier. To apply for a bursary, please follow the instructions on the course application form. If you have any queries about eligibility please contact ali@autograph-abp.co.uk or join our Q&A session (see details below).

How to Apply

Applications are now closed for the 2022 PILOT course. The final deadline for PILOT applications was Wednesday 14th September 2022 at 11pm (BST).


frequently asked questions

What do you mean by artists and practitioners?
We use the words ‘artist’ and ‘practitioner’ as broad terms to include anyone who wishes to develop their creative practice, to return to it after some time or renew their belief into wanting to be one. The ethos of PILOT is to be open and inclusive for a diverse range of creative practitioners at any stage of their career. If you have any queries about whether this course would be suitable for you please contact ali@autograph-abp.co.uk

Am I eligible to apply?
Applicants can be based anywhere in the world, however need to be aged 18+

How will the course be taught?
This is a live online course delivered via the video communication platform Zoom. What you will need is:
• A reliable internet connection
• To download the Zoom application
• A computer with microphone and camera is best (e.g. a PC / laptop / iMac / MacBook), or a tablet / iPad if you don't have a computer
• Earphones / headphones / speakers

What do the different sessions involve?
PILOT has 3 modes of delivery:
1) Talks are delivered by invited speakers and course leaders to inform the three course themes with examples of leading practice, prompts, readings and essential references.
2) Tutorials are one-to-one sessions with course leaders lasting 45 minutes. These are mentoring opportunities for participants to discuss their creative responses and receive feedback as the course progresses.
3) Sharing sessions involve participants presenting their work / research / ideas to the wider group for feedback and discussion.

What do you mean by creative response?
We encourage participants to make 'creative responses' throughout the course. Because PILOT invites the widest range of practitioners, we are completely open towards what these creative responses might be. These are not limited to any specific medium or art form. They can be drawn from your existing practice or projects or your own challenges to them. Or they can be entirely new things you are making directly informed by PILOT’s sessions, themes and any discussions that arise.

How is PILOT made accessible for people?
• Zoom accessibility: every session will have live captions available to read on screen. Sessions are also recorded and made available to watch back in your own time.
• We aim to make the course as accessible as possible and are open to making changes to the structure and delivery style of the course to meet the needs of participants. If you have access needs and would like to discuss these more in advance of the course starting, please contact ali@autograph-abp.co.uk

Is PILOT an accredited course?
No. PILOT is not an accredited course but the course will offer its participants:
• Our dedicated attention and personal advice for your practice development through mentoring
• All recordings of talks by invited speakers and our sharing sessions
• A shared library resource with relevant texts, media and teaching materials presented throughout the course
• Public exposure for your practice through Autograph's website and social media channels
• An awareness and positioning of your practice within the context of cultural production
• An opening into a new commonality with your peers

Have any more questions?
We’d love to hear from you, email Ali at ali@autograph-abp.co.uk

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TESTIMONIALS FROM PAST PARTICIPANTS

“I guess I would say that I care deeply about education and I think this is one of the first experiences in my life of being in a genuine educational space, and that's kind of a sad statement as I'm 29 years old and I've been through a master's degree - but this is the most I've ever learnt, the best I've ever learnt.”

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"I don't know what it is about PILOT that has made it so intimate and so special, but it really does feel like that to me. Maybe there's something about it feeling quite non-hierarchical in the way it's been structured and the way in which everyone is learning from each other. A sort of alternative space to learn. It's just been really nourishing at a time that's felt so stressful in lots of other ways, you know, between the pandemic, people's home life, work, everything. It's just been such a nourishing space that I look forward to being in every week and challenging at the same time."

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“Thank you so much for putting this course together. I came for the art and I am having literally a therapy. I am a mom to a child with additional qualities and life is hard. I realise that there was a massive creative path I didn’t realise existed before and even if I had certain creative ideas, I didn’t dare explore them. So thank you for articulating this creative conversation in a new way for people like me to have light bulb moment after light bulb moment.”

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Can you spare a few moments? Autograph is carrying out a survey to better understand who our digital audiences are. The survey should take no longer than five minutes to complete. Anything you tell us will be kept confidential, is anonymous and will only be used for research purposes.

The information you provide will be held by Autograph and The Audience Agency, who are running the survey on our behalf. In compliance with GDPR, your data will be stored securely and will only be used for the purposes it was given.

You can take the survey here. Thank you!

SPECIAL THANKs

With special thanks to Jane Trowell, art educator, researcher and member of platformlondon.org

Banner image courtesy of Alberto Duman, 2022

Images on page: 1) Ali Eisa 2) Alberto Duman

Discover more images: 1) Anna McIntyre, Digital Collage Featuring Portraits by Chris Miller [detail], 2021. 2) Artwork by Clara Lorenzo for Done Begging, audio work by Lauriem, 2020. 3) Black Lives Matter Protest, Parliament Square, Saturday 6th June 2020, Photo: Ali Eisa. 4) Artwork by Clara Lorenzo for Sound Capsule for Grieving, Music EP by Lauriem, 2021.