Dr Susan Barnet

Studio Practice 

Extended Practice

Research and Context 

Critical Perspectives 

Degree Project (contributor)

Dr Barnet’s research has included the UAL cross-college collaboration between faculty and students, radical reThink, which hosted an international symposium at the ICA in 2017. This collective focusses on building solidarities and enacting resilient alternatives to market-based models of education. It strives towards the creation of open communities inclusive of students and educators. An illustrated essay by radical rethink is included in the upcoming Radical Aesthetics-Radical Art, Art, Politics and the Pamphleteer published by Bloomsbury.

In her practice, Barnet’s attention lies with overlooked and obsolete aspects of daily life from collected reflections on individual experience. Barnet’s recent project involving Mass Observation, the British movement begun in the early 20th century, employed archive materials towards re-appropriation and détournement. Encompassing multiple outputs; from filmed performances to daily tweeting, extensive transcription to the creation of drawings, it was the subject of two exhibits at Five Years in London. The work is the subject of The Everyday Press publication, Drawing and Other Writing and was included in PEER paper notes issue 3. It has also been written about in poetics journal TRIPWIRE 11 out of Oakland, California.

Selected publications

radical reThink, ‘radical reThink(ing) HE’, in Radical Aesthetics-Radical Art (ed.), Art, Politics and the Pamphleteer, (London: Bloomsbury Publishing) upcoming

S.E.Barnet, ‘Semiotics of the Living Room: A Catalogue of Desire’ in Dana Duff (ed.), Catalogue: The Series (Los Angles: Echo Park Film Center, 2018) pp. 4-9

S.E. Barnet, ‘Mass Observation’, in PEER (ed.), Paper Notes Issue 3, Booklet 1, (Amsterdam: Stichting Peer Paper Platform, 2016) pp 3-4

S.E. Barnet and S. Morfill, ‘Drawing and Other Writing’, (London: The Everyday Press, 2016)

D. Buuck, ‘Ghosts in the Archive’, SE Barnet at Five Years, (London: Five Years Publications, 2014) pp. 14-16

E. Windsor, ‘Domesticated’ SE Barnet at Five Years (London: Five Years Publications, 2014) pp. 23-24

D. Buuck, ‘Ghosts in the Archive’, in D. Buuck (ed.) ¡Pop! Tripwire 11, (Oakland: 2014) pp 216 - 222

M.A. Greenstein, ‘Virtual Retrofit (or What Makes Computer Gaming So Damn Racey?, in A. Clarke and G. Mitchell, Videogames and Art, Second Edition (Bristol UK/Chicago USA: Intellect, 2013) pp. 275-285

Selected conference papers

‘radical reThink’: A Case Study, College Art Association, New York, 2018

‘radical reThink’, Rudi Dutschke: political activist, political refugee, political threat? Symposium at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, GB, May 2017.

‘radical reThink’s NOVEMBER, (organizer) Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Colleges of Art Graduate School, London, November 2016.

‘In praise of plagiarism: a borrower’s tour of various authors’ works on reading & writing’, How to Write: Reading Groups, Five Years, London, 2015.         

‘On the Diagram’, DRUGG - Diagram Research Use & Generation Group, the Slade, London, 2012.

‘After Hotel Palenque’, Sin Podium: Speaking of Writing, Reading University, 2009.

‘A Travel Archive’, Art & Travel Roundtable Symposium” Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston, 2009.

Media (TV and radio appearances)

The Empty Gallery Interviews, Resonance FM, September 2010.

Exhibitions (selected)

WELCOME, Waterfront Gallery, Ipswich, 2019

What is written, what is said, Poetic Research Bureau, LA, California, US (collaborator D. Buuck) and Berlin, Germany (collaborator D. Buob), 2017.

A day of continual irritation for myself, Five Years, London, 2014.

General title given by myself, Five Years, London, 2013.

Does God Live in the No-Fly Zone, Occurrence, Montreal, 2012.

Story of Elsewhere, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston, 2011.

Here, There, Everywhere, Stanley Picker Gallery, 2011.

Does God Live in the No-Fly Zone, Five Years, London, 2009.

Selected Group Exhibitions

Unboxed, The Art Station, Saxmundham, 2019

What is written, what is said, Annihilation Event, Lethaby Gallery, London, 2017.

Management Architecture Research, Market of Values, Critical Practice Research, Chelsea College Art, 2015.

Reading Flann O’Brien, Hidden in Plain Sight, NUA Art Gallery, Norwich, 2015.

I don’t play anything, Alan Magee at DOLPH Projects, London, 2014.

Reading Artists’ Writing, Appropriation Beyond the Object, Banner Repeater, London, 2013.

Untitled, Making Knowledge, Central St. Martin’s, London, 2013.

Under Cover, Hotbed: Video Cultivation, J. Paul Getty Museum, LA, California, 2008.

Untitled, The Art of Research: Research Narratives, Chelsea College Art, 2008.