Dr Nicholas Ferguson
Associate Dean for Research,
Associate Professor of Research and Writing Methods
Contact:
Email: fergusn@richmond.ac.uk
School: School of Liberal Arts
Research centre: International Visual Arts and Cultures
About
I am an artist, curator, and academic based in London. At Richmond I am the associate Dean for Research and I teach research methods, and arts and visual culture.
My research explores the relationship between art, space, and power. Recent and ongoing projects focus on London Heathrow, its neighbourhoods, and airspace. In 2019 I was awarded an Arts Council Project Grant to curate the group exhibition and public programme Air Matters. Learning from Heathrow, hosted at Watermans Arts, London, Oct. 2019 – Jan 2020. This research has opened onto further study of the relationship between art and the international airport under neoliberal regimes. I am currently scoping out a new collaborative project, The Museum of Environmental Justice, (MoEJ), which is a centre for the study of coexistence – human, natural and technological – in the neighbourhood of Heathrow Airport, London, UK. Its purpose is to advance understanding of the art, history, and politics of interdependence.
Research interests
- Art and spatial politics
- Art and cultural policy, including the role of art and art institutions in regional, national, and international relations
- Art and curating as research
- Art in relation to activism, the commons, and the public sphere
- Art in relation to environment and political ecology
- Cities, especially London and its peripheries
- Political theology
Qualifications
- PhD. Art. Goldsmiths, University of London
- MA Art. Chelsea College of Art and Design
- BA Hons. Practice and Theory of Visual Art. Chelsea College of Art and Design
- BA Hons. Theology, Oxford University
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Teaching & learning
My teaching spans the registers of art, visual culture, spatial politics and research methodology. I have written, taught and assessed across foundation, undergraduate, masters and PhD programmes in the UK. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and between 2016 and 2020 I served as external examiner for the Critical Studies component of BA Computer Games Art, University of the Creative Arts (UCA). At Richmond I have led on the design of Research and Writing Methods and Visual Thinking Courses. At the level of leadership in the field my contributions include mentoring colleagues, support with degree validations, and presentations within the faculty focused Centre for Learning and Teaching.
Three of the primary concerns in my praxis are reach, interdisciplinarity, and enquiry led approaches to knowledge. Between 2017 and 2020 I sought to develop a blueprint for community centred, practice led, pedagogy, one that would set agendas in the way the arts are made accessible and academic disciplines speak to one another. The project, Air Matters Learning from Heathrow, hosted at Watermans Arts, comprised an exhibition and public programme that brought together artists, academics and professionals from across multiple institutions and which spanned multiple worlds – acoustic science, geology, architectural history, political philosophy, history, transport policy. To this extent, it sought to take art out of the often-closed circuit of academy, gallery, and art markets, bringing it instead into conversation with wider fields of interest.
Research outputs
- Ferguson, N. 2023. ‘Migrating Landscapes’. Transfers. Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies. In Press.
- Barry, K; Southern, J; Baxter, T; Blondin, S, Booker, C; Bowstead, J; Butler, C; Dillon, R; Ferguson, N; Filipska,G; Hieslmair, M; Hunt, L; Ianchenko, A; Johnson, P; Keane, J; Koszolko, M; Qualmann, C; Rumsby, C; Oliveira, C; Schleser, M; Sodero, S; Soliz, A; Wilson, LA; Wood H; Zinganel M. (2022) An agenda for creative practice in the new mobilities paradigm, Mobilities, DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2022.2136996.
- Ferguson, N and Hahn, A. 2021. ‘Landscapes of Heathrow. The Aircraft Landing Gear Compartment and the Politics of Global Transfer’. Anthropocenes. Volume 2, Issue 1, May 2021. Available at: https://www.anthropocenes.net/article/id/930/
- Ferguson, N. 2019. Air Matters. Learning from Heathrow. Oct. 19- Jan. 2020. Watermans Arts Centre, London TW8 0DS, https://www.watermans.org.uk/events/air-matters-learning-from-heathrow
- Ferguson, N. 2019. Dwelling as Resistance. Heathrow Expansion and the Art of Dissent. Places Journal. Available at: https://placesjournal.org/article/dwelling-as-resistance/
- Art Night Open. 2019. Nick Ferguson and Adrian Lee. Site/Ad-Site. Info available at: https://2019.artnight.london/artist/nick-ferguson-and-adrian-lee/
- Deptford X Fringe. 2018. Nick Ferguson and Adrian Lee. Site/Ad-Site. Info available at: http://nickferguson.co.uk/site-ad-site/
- Ferguson N. 2017. ‘The Monuments of Kings Cross. a Visit to the New Ruins of London’. Journal of Cultural Geography Vol. 34 No.1. Feb. 2017. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2016.1231372
- Ferguson. N. 2015. ‘Futuro Estate’. In: Imitation Game, curated by Alexandra MacGilp, Maraya Art Park. Sharjah, UAE. Available at: http://maraya.ae/exhibitions/view/imitation-game/37
- Ferguson, N. 2015. ‘Speedscaping’. In: Macay, R (ed.). 2015. When Site Lost the Plot. Urbanomic
- Ferguson. N. 2015. The Mobile Landscape. Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston upon Thames, London. Online version available at: https://www.stanleypickergallery.org/online-works/nick-ferguson-the-mobile-landscape/
- The View from the Road. 2015. Goldsmiths Art Research Space, Feb 23 – Mar 5, 2015
- Creekside Open, APT Gallery, Deptford, London, June – July 11
- Cube Open, Cube Gallery, Portland Street, Manchester, Nov.- Jan. 11
- Fox Training Tower, London Festival of Architecture, Teddington, Middlesex, June 10
- Creekside Open, APT Gallery, Deptford, London, June 09
- WRO 09, 13th Media Art Biennale, Centrum Sztuki Wro, Wroclaw, Poland, May – June 09
Conference contributions
- Ferguson, N. 2022. ‘Pandemic Landscapes. Observations from London Heathrow’. Geographies Beyond Recovery. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference. Newcastle, Aug. 30 – Sept. 02, 2022
- Ferguson, N. 2021. ‘After the Airport City’. Borders, Borderlands and Bordering, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference. London, Aug. 31 – Sept. 03, 2021
- Ferguson. N. Taking it to the Streets. The Role of Public Art Post COVID. IVAC, Richmond the American University, Sept 17, 2021.
- ‘Migrating Landscapes’. Unruly Landscapes: Mobility, Transience and Transformation Colloquium. June 18 -19, 2020. MoHu, University of Padova and CeMoRe, Lancaster University.
- ‘Politics of Air’. Air Matters Symposium. Watermans Arts, London, November 9, 2019. (Organiser and Convenor).
- ‘Airspace Matters. Aircraft Wheel-wells and the Political Geography of Air at London Heathrow’. Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London, August 2019.
- ‘Building Flying Thinking’. Art and Mobilities Inaugural Symposium. Lancaster University, July 2019. Pop up journal available at: https://www.academia.edu/37180057/2018_Art_and_Mobilities_Network_Inaugural_Symposium_Instant_Journal_Peter_Scott_Gallery_
- ‘Capsule’. Landscape and Evidence Roundtable, Kingston School of Art, July 2019.
- “…nonart is more art than Art art”. Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, January 2018
- ‘Dwelling as Resistance. The case of Transition Heathrow’ Geographies of Inequalities. 7th Nordic Geographers Meeting, Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, 18 – 21st June 2017
- London is Open. Cultural Diplomacy in Post Brexit Britain. Richmond University, London, March 2017. Symposium Organiser
- ‘Gender, Meaning and Place’. Urban Encounters, Urban Materialities. Tate Modern and Goldsmiths, London, October 2016. Panel Chair.
- Teaching a Fox to Appreciate Art. TED talk. ISH, The Hague, October 2016. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHY9s4naWOI
- Speed, Space, Suburbia. Artist’s Talk. Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah, UAE, 9 November 2015
- ‘Country End – Town End’, Kings Cross Symposium: In this Neck of the Woods, Central St Martins, London, June 2015.
- Speedscaping. Performance Lecture, Stanley Picker Gallery, London. May 13, 2015
- Ferguson, N and Kim, K. 2015. ‘P/U/B -Topos. Art Research, the English Public House and the Dialectics of Drunken Knowledge’. Transvaluation. Making the World Matter, Gothenburg, May 2015
- Kate Corder and Nick Ferguson. HOW: Heathrow Orchard Walk. ‘Harmondsworth to the Heathrow Sheraton’. April 2015.
- Re-visioning the Urban. International Visual Arts & Cultures Colloquium, Richmond, the American University in London. 14 November 2014. Panel Chair
- Architecture and Sculpture: Alliances. Across RCA. Royal College of Art, 28 October 2014. Speaker
- The Aesthetics of Indifference. International Visual Arts & Cultures Colloquium, Richmond, the American University in London. 7 March 2014. Speaker
- Urban Encounters. Urban Materialities. Tate Britain. 5 October 2013. Speaker and round table panel member.
- Art and Publicness: The Role of Public Art in the Development of New Forms of Publicity, SKOR & Goldsmiths Art Research Symposium, Goldsmiths College, 21 – 22 March 2011. Speaker
- In, Out, Shake it All About: Objects, Artists and Ontology, Goldsmiths Art Research Symposium, Goldsmiths College, 9 – 10 May 2011. Speaker and organiser
- Research as Catastrophe, Goldsmiths Art Research Symposium, Goldsmiths College, 6 – 8 Dec. 2010. Speaker and Organiser
- Money, Space, Art. This is Not a Gateway, Festival of Cities. Hanbury Hall, Hanbury Street, London 22 – 23 Oct. 2010. Speaker
- The East London Line: The Role of Visual Artists and Collaborative Practice in the Process of ‘Regeneration’. Nick Ferguson in discussion with artists Harold Offeh, Hilary Powell and Mark Wayman. Artprojx Space, Beacham Place, London. Thurs 26 June 2008
- Remembering the Future: Cultural Memory and the Politics of Transformation. The Magical Mysterious Regeneration Tour Conference. Artists, Architecture and the Future of the City. Tate Liverpool, 18th – 20th June 2008
Engagement and knowledge exchange
February 2018. Outreach event: Talk and Workshop. Orleans Park School VI Form, London Borough of Richmond
June 2018. Outreach event: Heathrow Sound Walk. Orleans Park School VI Form, London Borough of Richmond
October – December 2019. Curated Community Workshops. Watermans Arts, London Borough of Hounslow
