IAS Talking Points: Order/Disorder - The artist-researcher as connector-disrupter-running messenger?

The IAS is delighted to welcome Dr Kai Syng Tan, IAS Visiting Research Fellow and Artist In Residence & Visiting Researcher at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London, for this Talking Points Seminar entitled 'Order/Disorder: The artist-researcher as connector-disrupter-running messenger?'  Dr Mohammed Aboulleil Rashed (Wellcome ISSF Fellow, Birkbeck College, University of London) and Dr Vivienne Lo (Senior Lecturer, Department of History and Convenor, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity) will act as respondents.

The Chinese word 'dao', meaning road, path, philosophy or discourse, consists of the radicals of the motion verb for feet and footprints, with that denoting the human head. Specifically, the motion could refer to running, since the word 'discourse' comes from the medieval Latin 'discursus', which refers to 'a running from one place to another', and the historical running-ambassador or messenger was known not only for their athleticism and agility, but their ability to cross physical and social borders and transfer knowledge. Set against the backdrop of the recent Westminster Hall debate and cross-council focus spotlight on mental health amidst a disordered world that is in motion and commotion, and through her commissioned project that investigates the boundaries between 'order' and 'disorder' (in the psychiatric, artistic, geopolitical and metaphorical senses of the terms), artist Dr Kai Syng Tan sketches out the potential role of the artist-researcher as a connector-disrupter-running messenger generating spaces of 'productive antagonisms' in the discussion of the role of the arts in mainstream discourse on wellbeing and health.

Respondents: Dr Vivienne Lo (Senior Lecturer, Department of History and Convenor, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity) and Dr Mohammed Aboulleil Rashed (Wellcome ISSF Fellow, Birkbeck College, University of London)

Download the programme here.