About

Framework for Resilience is a three-part series of online conversations which bring together activists, artists, researchers and educators to think about the world we are creating, the world we are destroying, the systems which will fall, and those which should prevail. In this third and final episode of the series, we discuss migration and adaptation. Host Kayt Hughes (Public Programme Producer at FACT) and mediator Maitreyi Maheshwari (Head of Programme at FACT) and joined by speakers Dr. Ali Meghji (Lecturer, Researcher), Jessica El Mal (Artist) and Niloo Sharifi (Multidisciplinary Artist).In 1990, the United Nations anticipated that ‘the greatest single impact of climate change could be on human migration’ with estimates predicting 200 million ‘climate refugees’ by 2050. While the scientific case for human-caused climate change has gained more certainty, the consequences for populations affected both by meteorological and political factors remain unpredictable. The disparity between countries and populations that had been a legacy of colonialism is becoming more pronounced as the effects of climate change are not contained within the borders of any single country.Whether motivated by need, opportunity or force, human mobility has been an inherent part of the human experience for millennia. As people move and adapt to new environments, how is our sense of self affected by the perspectives offered by distance away from a ‘home’ and across settled generations? Our sense of self is often located in ideas of place and narratives drawn from history and biology, creating a tension between our desire to assimilate and belong somewhere or to preserve our origins. How might digital spaces create alternative definitions of community and identities shaped by more fluid notions of belonging? And how can new technologies allow us to adapt to changing ecological conditions?The reading list for this conversation can be found here.------ABOUT FRAMEWORK FOR RESILIENCEThis online conversation is part of The Living Planet, FACT’s year-long season which focuses on the non-human, and deals with themes such as climate change, ecology and communication, as well as the violence of ‘othering’. This series will inform our programme for the rest of the year which focuses on systems of knowledge and classification in the formation of identity and the exercise of power. They also form part of Artsformation, a research project which seeks to identify new ways of working, specifically at the intersection between art, society and technology, to overcome current social crises including justice, democracy and climate. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.The title for these sessions is taken from the artwork, PESTS, by Shonagh Short. Commissioned by FACT in 2020 for FACT Together.ABOUT DR. ALI MEGHJIDr Ali Meghji is a Lecturer in Social Inequalities in the department of sociology, Cambridge. He is the director for the MPhil in marginality and exclusion, the course organiser for SOC12 Empire, colonialism, imperialism, and the chair of 'Decolonising sociology’. Currently, Ali’s predominant research interests lie in bridging the epistemological, methodological, and empirical divergences between critical race theory and decolonial thought. Through this research, Ali intends to balance the study of national racialised social systems with the global process of coloniality.ABOUT JESSICA EL MALJessica El Mal is an English-Moroccan creative dedicated to valuing time, care and human connection in everything she works on. With a particular interest in ecology and migration, her work is both deeply personal and yet draws on the universality of the human experience through a balance of digital techniques, aesthetics and interaction. The work tends to address global structures of power through critical research, multidisciplinary projects, and speculative future imaginaries often centered around collaboration, co-curation and collective knowledge systems. Her current project ‘The Digital Forest’ commissioned by Signal Film and Media, Grizedale Arts and The Forestry Commission, explores how the online space can open up opportunities for sensory experiences of nature for black and brown communities. She also runs an art and nature group for migrant, asylum seeker and refugee artists called ‘This Garden Group’ which consists of workshops in a range of natural spaces, a peer support group and a public facing program to critique the role of botany in colonialism. Jessica's most recent exhibition Grounds for Concern exhibited at MAMA Rotterdam, challenged the authority of man-made borders through a digital installation and workshops, and her FACT Together digital commission has just gone live (see www.visionsofafuture.com). Previous projects have been with Manchester International Festival and Journey’s Festival International, as well as many collaborations with non-arts organisations such as the Collegium for Language in a Changing Society, Let’s Keep Growing Longsite, Furness Refugee Support.ABOUT NILOO SHARIFINiloo Sharifi is a multidisciplinary artist from Liverpool, making collaborative works that facilitate polyphony. Her most recent work is the-magic-tree.co.uk, a digital piece that transforms by merging with pictures uploaded by visitors. The idea is to see what emerges when you let everyone speak; the same ethos informed the curation of the Liverpool chapter of the Goethe Institut’s Arrival City.