CCL Talk — Art and Technology, Social Responsibility and Transformation
Alistair Hudson is the Scientific-Artistic Chairman of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe since April 1, 2023. He is a renowned curator and museum director with extensive international experience. From 2018 to 2022, he served as the director of the Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth, the art museum of the University of Manchester, where he was also a Professor of Useful Art.
Biography Abstract
Alistair Hudson is the Scientific-Artistic Chairman of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe since April 1, 2023. He is a renowned curator and museum director with extensive international experience. From 2018 to 2022, he served as the director of the Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth, the art museum of the University of Manchester, where he was also a Professor of Useful Art.
Hudson's curatorial expertise combines a deep understanding of the relationship between art, technology, and society. Throughout his career, he has held prestigious positions, including working at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London, serving as the curator of public projects for the Government Art Collection, and directing the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where he radically transformed the museum's purpose.
Hudson's concept of a "useful museum" envisions artistic and cultural institutions as centres of social responsibility and transformation. He currently heads the international network Asociación de Arte Útil, co-founded with the artist Tania Bruguera.
A Manufactory of Raw Intelligencies
How can our cultural institutions be relevant and useful in the the emerging futures of our age? In this lecture Alistair Hudson will trace an alternative history of the art museum in the context of technological and industrial revolutions, that could also offer up new possibilities for our post-digital age.