Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) Yoga activity taking place in Gallery Lobby. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) Detail of edition. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation detail. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) installation view. Photography Ellie Laycock
Onkar Kular Stanley Picker Creators Academy (2016) Game being played in Gallery Project Studio. Photography Ellie Laycock

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Onkar Kular

Stanley Picker Creators Academy

17 October – 12 November 2016

Daily Activities / All Welcome
Yoga: every Tuesday, 10-11am
Evening talks: Wednesdays, 5-7pm: 19 Oct, 26 Oct, 9 Nov
Featuring Alessandro Gandini, Heidi Seetzen, Jack Self, Precarious Workers Brigade
Closing party: Saturday 12 Nov, 3-7pm
Free / Booking recommended, please email: stanleypickergallery@kingston.ac.uk

As the result of his  Stanley Picker Design Fellowship  research (2014-16), Onkar Kular transforms the gallery into the  Stanley Picker Creators Academy  (SPCA).

Over recent years there has been a global rise in new types of creative working environments, from co-working and creative office hub spaces as seen in Wework and Second Home, to large-scale workplaces of media organisations, such as Google and Facebook.

Terms like Collaboration, Sharing and Community are commonly found in the branding and mission statements of organisations that provide or facilitate such working spaces. These reflect a certain ethos, generally focused around how they support and incubate individuals to work more efficiently, create more professional content, and ultimately access more lucrative opportunities and financial capital.

Collaboration, Sharing and Community are the working values that are reconsidered as part of the SPCA. By staging the spatial and organisational features normally found in creative working environments, the SPCA examines how these terms are used by organisations to incubate creativity and suggest possible ways that they can be refocused and repurposed in order to create alternative forms of capital.

Designed together with architect Inigo Minns, the SPCA includes different zones for work, booths for meeting and conference calling, brainstorming and hot-desking stations, fast Internet connection together with areas for relaxing and socialising. Operating an ‘Open Use’ policy, the SPCA offers a free working space available for Kingston University staff, students, as well as the general public.

Alongside the many spatial features, creative work organisations often run events programmes for the purpose of general inspiration and staff development. The SPCA reflects this with its own ‘carefully  curated programme’ to host a series of public activities; including talks, yoga classes and various networking opportunities. Additionally the SPCA explores the core values of Collaboration, Sharing and Community through workshops for local charitable organisations, schools and community groups as well as Kingston University students and staff.

Onkar Kular’s research investigates how contemporary design practice, its processes, methodologies and outputs, can be used as a medium to engage with social and cultural issues. Using a range of different media to include objects, films, events, performances and installations his research is disseminated internationally through exhibitions, workshops, lectures, film festivals and publications. His work is in the collection of the CNAP, France and he has also guest curated the exhibitions Crafting Narrative for the Crafts Council UK and The Citizens Archive of Pakistan for the British Council at the Royal Festival Hall. Onkar Kular was the 2014 Stanley Picker Design Fellow at Kingston University, and is currently a Professor in Design Interventions at HDK, Gothenburg University.

Project Architect: Inigo Minns
Graphic Designer: Naho Matsuda
Project Assistant: Thomas Marriott

The Stanley Picker Creators Academy would also like to thank Natalie Kay and Joseph l’Anson for their collaboration and contributions.