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Lauren Hollowday

I’m Lauren and I’m based in Leeds, UK.

I am a student, currently working towards an MA in Arts Management and Heritage Studies. My Master’s thesis revolves around sustainable and socially responsive grassroots programming. Last year I completed a PGDip in Socially Engaged Practice in Museums and Galleries, while my background is in Fine Art. Alongside my studies, I also work in Special Collections with my time split between their archive and art gallery.

My artistic practice is dialogical, exploring the intricate and transitory power dynamics of human interaction through curating intimate experiences in which these hierarchies can be interrogated. My academic interests concern relationships between audiences and institutions, motivated by a criticism of the positivity associated with socially engaged practice and the need for the devolution of authority.

Previous projects include researching the ‘usefulness’ of museums and re-examining the role of institutions; an online archive of community-generated visions for a collective future; and I’m currently working on a proposal for a heritage intervention to reanimate a site in Headingley for local audiences.

- a moment of realisation, change and/or disruption

The process of opening up work that is self-directed and hyperlocal, to group critique and examination at handover, allowed for a really productive external perspective. I realised the complexity of the ethical implications of my project, and had many difficult questions to ask myself. A challenging but essential disruption.

- a moment of connection

Lodovica, Lexie, and I clicked instantly at the start of our shared one week intensive. We found immediate interrelations in our projects, but more importantly we nurtured a generous space for coming together – despite our geographical separation. Sharing not only time, but moments of intimacy, documented through collective sound experiments.

- any tools / methods / resources to share

Taking time to really get to know a place, its people, its language, and behaviours, feels important. Taking note of the little things. Having critical distance is essential. Take a step back and look at the practice from outside, explore the wider context. And situate yourself in networks. Share generously.

- a question you are left with

I’m still grappling with the ethics. I set out to democratise the tools of artistic activity and transfer ownership to the community. To re-articulate social behaviours as creative and political acts. But in doing so, am I complicit in the very action the work seeks to resist?

- something you will carry forward

Two things. First, a sense of belonging. I realised in this process I’m no longer an outsider to my community, but a resident. I’m embedded here. And second, listening. I have newfound appreciation for paying attention to the sound of just being. Listening, deeply, to the soundscape of the everyday.

I was fortunate to take part in UNIDEE 2020: Embedded Arts Practice in a Post-Pandemic Future, and am looking to utilise this residency to continue to build upon the foundations from last year. My previous experiments investigated what it means to be resident, in my locality of Armley, and developed a series of strategies for embodying place involving walking, lurking, and language. Now I would look to position this practice as a tool for others, relinquish control over the narrative, and explore the potential of a self-sustaining intervention through collaboration.

I hope that the project might engender new ideas of ‘being’ in Armley. I envision my project to work in conjunction with the network of community initiatives emerging from the pandemic, and encourage a greater commitment towards communal agency. Through building, negotiating and utilising partnerships within the community I am looking to explore methods for the dissemination of resources, and coproduction of inclusive opportunities for collective participation.

Activating discourses of play, heritage, urban-planning, cultural equity and postcapitalist place-making, I am interested in exploring the possibilities of socially engaged practice beyond the formal institution. Less of a project facilitated for the community, but an ongoing attitude for interventionist activity sustained by a sense of ownership and collective responsibility among residents. Can we re-articulate civic disobedience as community-led place-making?

I’d like to experiment in laying the groundwork for a localised, cultural ecosystem built upon radical transparency from ‘facilitators’ and increased empowerment of ‘receivers’. We started with walking; how might we pass this on for others to run with it?