
Dr Mikey Georgeson
Lecturer
Fine Art
Department of Architecture & Visual Arts , School Of Architecture, Computing And Engineering
As a deaf artist researcher, I have worked with material agency, sound and music all my life. I recently took an installation, Cloak of Longing, to San Diego - sang and meditated with visitors, transforming sounds and rituals. At Summer School for the Study of Affect (Pennsylvania) I helped participants find and share thoughts in song-sounding. I built a virtual space for a community celebration of William Blake, a pioneer of aesthetic meaning in lyric.
As a recording and fine artist, I’ve often sought to access a region outside judgement and to weave technology into experiential understanding. I’m committed to improvised contingency with available materials.
Qualifications
- Professional Doctorate Fine Art University of East London (2019)
- MA Sequential Design Brighton University (1991)
- First Class BA Illustration Chelsea School of Art (1989)
Areas Of Interest
- affect
- vital-matter
- agential-realism
- Whitehead
- Deleuze
- Magic
- emergence
- aesthetic-ontology
- expressivity
- autopoiesis
- Barad
- song
- performance
- process philosophy
OVERVIEW
Mikey is a uniquely innovative lecturer who spent a few intense years in the mainstream media as a member of an art-pop group, David Devant and his Spirit Wife.
His Fine Art doctoral research allowed him to understand how this speculative approach shapes a vibrant position in making art as a collaborative encounter. His intra-media practice is a commitment to the contingent, improvised and lyrical fiction. He is known as The Vessel singer in David Devant and his Spirit Wife, and as an international artist. His painting “Dopamine molecule of intuition” was selected for the John Moore’s painting prize.
In collaboration with Prof. Tony Sampson he has created a role as a performative keynote speaker (Affect and Social Media 2017, UEL “Fictioning”, Bath Spa 2018 and Lancaster PA 2019). His paper on student dowsing in the library was recently published in AMPS Transformative Teaching. Last year Mikey used a fictional interview with himself to describe his position as an artist in the Journal of Performance Magic.
He has curated exhibitions and created performative installations and The Nonbifurcated-man was the centre-piece of Dandelion Visions, an international exhibition he has curated for a celebration of William Blake in Bognor Regis.
Debbie Kennard, Cabinet Member for Stronger and Safer Communities commented after her experience of the installation,
“I think if it doesn’t touch your soul, there’s no point, and that did. I think it’s fantastic having it here, it makes it accessible. Art and poetry, it’s for everyone, isn’t it. Here at the library it’s open doors, open dreams, open boxes of dreams and aspirations.”
CURRENT RESEARCH
Mikey's research and practice is about the context of meaning making in the ritual of art discourse. His collaborator and Doctoral Supervisor, Prof. Tony Sampson remarked on his “exceptional creativity and dedication to advancing and testing knowledge and experience in the field.”
Throughout his research and practice, Mikey has demonstrated a remarkable ability to merge artistic expression with scholarly inquiry, resulting in a rich and innovative body of work. His shared interest with Prof Sampson in the concept of the “aesthetic lure” resulted in collaborations that challenge representational, symbolic and meaning-making within artistic practice. Notably, Mikey has adeptly integrated theoretical concepts such as affect and process philosophy into his artistic endeavours, providing unique opportunities for experiential engagement that exceed informational and purely cognitive frameworks.
Mikey has undertaken various collaborative projects, including the creation and curation of affect-based exhibitions, published diagrammatic illustrations, the delivery of keynote performance speeches, and development of online resources. One notable collaboration took place at the 2020 Summer School for the Study of Affect at Millersville University in the USA, where Mikey facilitated a songwriting workshop that significantly enriched a collective exploration of nonconscious experience. The songs produced during this workshop continue to serve as a valuable educational resource, exemplifying Mikey's ability to foster meaningful discourse and expression.
Most recent research:
June 2024: Collective Gut, song & mural installation, Tbilisi
October 2023: CosmiKnot curated ritual collective, Platform Projects, Athens
June 2023: Cloak of Longing, AC Institute, San Diego
April 2023: CosmiKnot curated ritual collective, Way Out East London
August 2022: Look Upon My Works A Shelley memorial, Unit 55, Horsham
September 2021: Virtual Visions, online sensorium for Blake Society
Jan 2020: Glad Day, Community installation event, Felpham Memorial Hall
February 2019: Actual Occasion Amp Gallery, Peckham
TEACHING
Publications
Browse past publications by year.
Full publications list
Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications
- Happy-Accident: The Vessel interview Journal of Performance Magic. 7 (1), pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5920/jpm.1062