Paul Harper

MA: Applied Arts and Visual Culture

Hourly paid lecturer

RAE Outcomes

Teaching
Theorizing design; integration of theory and practice; ethics and sustainability; dissertations

Research interests
Epistemology and research methods for craft; the documentation and analysis of practice; theories of language and meaning with regard to art and craft; the purpose and meaning of craft in contemporary culture; the reflective practitioner.

Research Group
Practice and Voice: concerned with issues of language and craft making.

Professional activity

Since 2005 - Chair of Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust

Director of ALIAS Arts CIC, a platform for the development of artist led groups in the South West of England, which aims to nurture artist led activity by providing a critical context, resources and advice to artist led groups.

Seminar organization
Since 2003 I have organized a series of seminars titled practice and reflection. The series is aimed at craft practitioners and is aimed at encouraging makers to engage positively with critical discourse and engendering a useful dialogue between makers, academics and curators.

Conferences

2007 - paper: The Poetics of Making, New Craft, Future Voices conference, University of Dundee

2006 - paper: Speaking for Ourselves, Carry the Can, ACJ conference, Barbican

2005 - paper: Critical Language, Ambiguous Spaces symposium, Surrey Institute of Art and Design, University College, Farnham

2005 - paper: Articulating Craft, Documenting fine art process and practices Research symposium, Institute for Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University

2002 - paper: Theorizing the Particular, Crafts in the 21st Century: theorizing change and practice Conference, Edinburgh Collage of Art

Publications

Catalogue essay for Matthew Harris, textile artist. For publication in early 2008

Process Works - Exhibition catalogue, Site Projects, 2007 (ISBN-10: 0955437911)

The Poetics of Making in Follet, G & Valentine, L (eds.): New Craft, Future Voices, University of Dundee, 2007 (ISBN 1 899837 55 8)

A Creative Space for Learning, A case study on public art practice, Gloucestershire County Council, 2004

Working Together in Embroiderer, Textile Art Journal, 2004

Bryant Fedden, obituary, Crafts Magazine, 2004

RIVER ESTUARY OCEAN, Exhibition catalogue, Gallery 21, Malmo, Sweden, 2001

Reilly, L (ed.): The Reflective Practitioner, London Guildhall University, 2001 (ISBN 1 899764 23 2)