I am a multidisciplinary writer, researcher, events facilitator, filmmaker, and performance artist, as well as the founder of the arts and culture salon, Exploding Appendix. With an academic foundation in theatre, philosophy, and literature, my research spans the history of the avant-garde across all mediums, focusing particularly on the intersections between encyclopaedias, appendices, and avant-garde movements. My work explores the influence of military and revolutionary theory on the avant-garde and delves into the history of public discourse and autodidactic educational projects such as salons, avant-garde movements, proletkult, and free schools.
From 2009 to 2024, I co-edited One+One Filmmakers Journal, and in 2017, I founded Exploding Appendix as both a salon and an online archive. I have created numerous short films and a feature film titled The Cake Tasting Society. In 2020, I initiated Disrupted Rhythms, a practice-based exploration of Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis. My artistic and research practice primarily operates within communities, using art to foster dialogue and discussions.
I am particularly drawn to the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of encyclopaedias and the ways in which avant-garde artists and radical intellectuals have utilized these forms. My interest extends to how these literary structures influence artistic practices beyond literature, particularly in the realms of art, design, fashion, eroticism, politics, philosophy, film, dance and theatre.
I am currently working on a part-time PhD on the relationship between avant-garde art, encyclopaedias and appendices at the University of Sussex, with Sara Crangle and Sara Jane Bailes as my supervisors.
Theatre Studies (BA. De Montfort University, Leicester) 2004
Philosophy (MA. University of Sussex) 2006
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Exploding Appendix Salon (2018 – Present)
Role: Host and Organiser
I run a salon every three weeks on a Tuesday between February and June and between September and December. The sessions are free and open to everyone. They are loosely themed around the history of avant-garde art and radical counterculture. Sessions include workshops, work in progress sessions, conversations with artists and researchers, and cabaret nights. For a list of all current and previous events, see here.
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Disrupted Rhythms: The Dance of the Rhythmanalysists (2020 – Present)
Role: Director, Writer, Producer, and Performer
Disrupted Rhythms is an award nominated multimedia show and ongoing project exploring rhythms and their disruptions. Inspired by the rhythmanalysis of Lucio Alberto Pinheiro dos Santos, Gaston Bachelard and Henri Lefebvre, we undertook a series of dance inspired happenings and live shows exploring the nature of rhythm. The project is a collaboration between dancers, photographers, cinematographers, musician, essayists, poets and fine artists. The aim of the project is to chart shifts in rhythm (from the macro to the micro) over a ten-year period between 2020 and 2030, using all art forms, although primarily starting with dance. So far, we have produced an essay, a zine, and a multimedia show, which was nominated for the 2024 Brighton Fringe award for Most Surprising Dance Show. For more on the Project see here.
Photography by Lucy le Broqc, V. Teo, Neil Philip Whitehead.
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The Cake Tasting Society (2019. 51mins)
Role: Producer, Director, Co-editor, and Actor
This was a film shot in 2018 involving attendees of the Exploding Appendix Salons. Collaborating with Kai Fiain (cinematography) and Nick Hudson (Composition), The Cake Tasting Society is a Surreal Fantasy about a mysterious Cake Tasting Society, the seven characters drawn into it and the criminal underworld out to thwart it. This silent film with accompanying score is draws upon and develops ideas explored in my shorter film projects.
COUNTER-INDOCTRINATION (2011)Reluctant Depletion (2017)Intermediary Nightmare of an Unwashed Upholstry (2017)Night Out in 60 seconds #2 (2017)Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ from The Nutcracker (2017)The Nativity (2017)Dambala (2018)Fragmented Anatomy of a metamorphic Crisis (2017)Cesspit Alley (2022)Intermission Film for EROTICISM|ANXIETY (2022)Escape to Bonnieland (2023)
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Ten-Thousand Nudes (2022 – Present)
Role: Artist
This is simply a project of drawing (or creating) ten-thousand nudes, any style, all numbered. The aim behind the project is to create without editing, all that is created becomes part of the process.
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Podcasts (2017 – Present)
Role: Host. Co-editor
The Exploding Appendix podcast has recordings of all the EA Salon and some other recordings. To Listen to the Podcasts, click here.
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Essays (2009-Present)
Writer/other
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Selected Creative essays:
I am particularly drawn to experimenting with essays, both in terms of structure and content. My work is heavily inspired by the history of avant-garde manifestos, which is a significant influence on my writing style. For instance, some of my pieces, like the COUNTER-INDOCTRINATION manifestos, explicitly play with typography, while essays such as ‘Fuck Off’, ‘Disrupted Rhythms’, “EROTICISM|ANXIETY”, and “…And Fuck off” a second time” explore the integration of photography within the essay format.
COUNTER-INDOCTRINATION #1 (2015)The Fashion Offensive #1: Fuck Off! (2015)COUNTER-INDOCTRINATION #2 (2015)In Praise of Greed: Communal Luxury and the Meaning of Christmas (2015/2017)The First Rehearsal for an Exploding Appendix Manifesto (2016/2019)The Second Rehearsal for an Exploding Appendix Manifesto (2019)“Revolution” In The Exploding Appendix Dossier (2021)“Art” In The Exploding Appendix Dossier (2021)“Manifesto” In The Exploding Appendix Dossier (2021)The Third Rehearsal for an Exploding Appendix Manifesto (2021)Disrupted Rhythms: The Dance of the Rhythmanalysts. Preliminary Demarcations (2021)Eroticism|Anxiety (2023)….And Fuck Off a second time (Forthcoming)
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Selected Film Essays:
I have been writing essays on Film since I started writing for One+One Filmmakers Journal in 2009. I mainly take a dialectical approach to film analysis and am keen to use that as a basis to play with the films I engage with.
Just a Spoonful of Suger…. The Dialectics of Work and Play in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins (2011)On Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (2012)Filmmaking in an Age of Crisis (2012)Pornodialectics: From Coming to Becoming (2013)The Postmodern Undead: A Review of Marc James Léger’s Neoliberal Undead (2013)“Who Framed Br’er Rabbit? Racial Politics in Walt Disney’s Song of the South and Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin (2013)From Cult to Cabaret: An Interview with Mink Stole (2013)The Abolition of Umbrellas: Cinema in the Age of Individualism (and after) (2015)‘Forward: Cinema at the Drive-in’ in Marc James Léger’s Drive in Cinema (2015)Charlie Chaplin: From the Politics of Labour to Free Speech (2017)Lars von Trier’s Dogville (2017)Daniel & Clara: An Interview in 12 parts. (2018-2019)
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One+One: Filmmakers’ Journal (2009-2014) and The Exploding Appendix Dossier (2021 – Present)
Roles: Contributing co-editor
Between 2009 and 2014 I co-editedOne+One Filmmakers Journal. One+One was a named after Godard’s Film of the same name. Issues explored both film theory and film practice, especially in relation to avant-garde, experimental, underground and radical cinema. Throughout these years my main role was as submissions editor, and I enjoyed the opportunity to co-curate each issue. In 2021 we launched the first issue of The Exploding Appendix Dossier.
I also run other events such as workshops, panel discussions and networking events. With Soofiya and Alex Akins, I co-run Freelance Friday Sussex (FFS). We meet for an hour every fortnight from 10:30-11:30 at the Ledward Centre to informally discuss freelancing. We often stay on after to co-work.
I also run workshops such as a manifesto workshop which I have given at the Lighthouse, BIPC (Sussex) in Jubilee Library, and for individual organisations. I also given a ‘Creative Rhythms for Business’ workshop at BIPC (Sussex) in Jubilee library.