Prof Neal White
I am an artist with a strong interest in the complex threads that link social, political and ecological futures to visual and interdisciplinary contemporary art. My background in art & technology developed into critical investigations of science (STS) and has evolved alongside processes that draw on legacies of post/conceptual art, as well as an interest in social practice and collaborations with other artists, academics, architects and activists.
With academic expertise across practice research, I co-Direct CREAM, with Professor May Adadol Ingawanij (Cinematic Arts) from where we coordinate research strategy in Westminster School of Arts, in conjunction with leading artists, filmmakers, photographers, curators, musicians and fashion scholars. Together with Prof Ingawanij, I led the REF2021, that saw CREAM being recognised as the UK leader (1st) in research Impact in Art & Design.
I am also a founding member of the Ecological Futurisms Collective, a group of staff and graduate researchers in CREAM and beyond, whose expertise in environmental futures across geopolitical / cultures of practice.
My work in the public sphere includes a role as Trustee of SPACE studios, London and in the academic sphere as an active member of the AHRC Peer Review College, with experience as a visiting tutor and external examiner at Goldsmiths, Royal College of Art, UAL, Lancaster University, Bournemouth University amongst others.
As an artist with an experimental practice, I have worked with organisations such as Arts Catalyst (London UK, 2001-19), Center for Land Use Interpretation (USA, 2007-9), Henry Moore Institute (UK 2004-12), Flat Time House (John Latham) and O+I (UK, 2004-), and in residence at institutions ranging from Human Genome Mapping Project to National Institute for Medical Research (98-04).
This research driven practice has led to projects being exhibited widely in spaces as varied as; Venice Biennale of Architecture (2021), Kunsthalle Trondheim (2020), Royal College of Art (2016), Portikus (2014), Whitechapel Gallery (2014), John Hansard Gallery (2009), Natural History Museum (2003) amongst many others.
As former co-founder of art and technology collective Soda (97-02), I worked on technology based installations and artworks for exhibitions including; Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, 1999), Lux Gallery, Gasworks and Cubitt Gallery (London 1997 -).
I also founded and work with the independent Office of Experiments (est.2004), an artist-led entity that supports experimental investigations and interpretation of contested landscapes in projects that imaginatively brings together scientists, academics, architects, and increasingly, more than human perspectives.
As a contributor to the broader UK University research environment, I was a recent recipient as Co-I of AHRC funding exploring a UK based Practice Research Repository with Library and Information Services. This was based on work we have undertaken supporting the REF over many years using an online Virtual Research Environment.
