Urban Lab awarded Leverhulme funding for artist-in-residence to explore 'hidden security'

The residency - titled Hide and Seek: The Dubious Nature of High Security Spaces - will extend the photographic investigations of Max's photojournalist persona (the paranoid Adam Walker-Smith) and his enquiries into the hidden infrastructure of security design and control embedded in the UK built environment.

Max Colson's performative photographic practice dramatises the use of security features in public space, questioning how design engenders feelings of safety or a sense of individual or collective distrust. The project aims to heighten viewers' awareness of the way that security design, surveillance and paranoia interact within the urban environment. They also use humour to emphasise the limits of photographs as documentary evidence and suggest the influence of human bias on photojournalistic investigation, questioning issues around surveillance and security design in relation to the credibility of the investigation itself.

The Leverhulme Trust provides grants and scholarships for research and education across academic disciplines, supporting talented individuals in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences to realise their personal vision in research and professional training.

This follows the previous academic year artist residency based at UCL Urban Laboratory by Rab Harling, also funded by the Leverhulme Trust, for the project Inversion/Reflection: Turning Balfron Tower Inside Out.

Links:

• Max Colson
• Leverhulme Trust

Image credit: Max Colson