What is it we do now? Workshop with Heather Peak

International Conference Beyond Participation #2

Create is delighted to be partnering with the Irish Architecture Foundation to present What is it we do now? A workshop led by Heather Peak of Studio Morison for the International Conference Beyond Participation #2.

Building on the inaugural Beyond Participation conference in 2016, Beyond Participation #2 is a vital discussion about architecture and community that will bring together innovators, provocateurs and activists that challenge us to think about democracy, consequence, responsibility and the meaning of the things we design.

What is it we do now? Will explore new possibilities for thinking that seek to redefine the fault line between art and architecture; focusing on critical processes and parameters that call into question how artists and creative practitioners — positioned at the intersection of collaborative art and critical spatial practice can make transformative work that responds to an inconstant society. Drawing on the artistic practice of Studio Morison to focus on questions of place, people and embodied experience, the workshop will highlight a unique approach to illuminating societal tensions through artistic processes that test the boundaries of art and architecture.

Heather Peak

Heather Peak, has established an ambitious collaborative practice over the past fifteen years that transcends the divisions between art, architecture and theatre. She is co-director, with Ivan Morison, of STUDIO MORISON, their artist led creative practice which supports and realizes their ideas and projects. On a societal level STUDIO MORISON is working to re-establish aspects of civic life and on a human level it looks to bring meaning, beauty and purpose into everyday life. They are based in Weobley, Herefordshire and Abergwynant, North Wales and work internationally. They are currently working to deliver a new library, a public glasshouse, a landscape for a school, several public sculptural pavilions, meeting places and civic spaces within new communities, a skate park, developing an affordable and sustainable model for artist housing and shaping an artists’ commercial product collective. They have exhibited internationally including solo projects at Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Trust, National Theatre Wales and represented Wales at the Venice Biennial. Heather is also employed as an artist consultant for Heart of Glass, St Helens leading on a major project, The National Centre for Socially Engaged Art Practice and writing the first socially engaged public art policy for St. Helen’s.