Professor Roxane Permar
Research Fellow
Collaboration is central to my pedagogical and art practices, where processes of reciprocity and exchange foster meaning and creative agency. I work within different communities, such as the diverse learning community, generated by our MA Art and Social Practice, my home community, Shetland, or the international networks fostered by connections within these communities. The relationship between virtuality, socially engaged art and higher education brings together my research-based art practice and pedagogical practice, as in Repositioning Practice (2018-19). The Shetland context forms the foundation for social art projects, e.g., Home and Belonging (2019-2022) with Dr Siún Carden (UHI), Sian Wilde (Who Cares? Scotland) and care experienced young people. In Cold War Projects I work with artist Susan Timmins to collaboratively explore the Cold War on both sides of the former Iron Curtain in the northern and Arctic regions, how it exists physically in the landscape and in the memory, considering how art can re-imagine the period, and understand the impact of Cold War military installations on local populations, such as the RAF in Unst, Shetland. In Nordic Connections: Learning from the past to shape the future (2021-22) we piloted a small collaboration between island communities in Shetland and Norway to explore the effectiveness of intergenerational dialogue and creative engagement to explore the societal threats of climate crisis and nuclear threat.