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The Guardian
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Goldsmiths apologises to Jewish students and staff over ‘culture' of antisemitism
Goldsmiths College in London has apologised to Jewish students and staff after an independent inquiry found it had allowed a 'culture' of antisemitism to build up on its campus over a number of years. The inquiry concluded that Jewish students were subjected to antisemitism during their studies at Goldsmiths and that the college's management failed to help Jewish students and potential applicants to 'feel welcome, included and safe from antisemitism'. The inquiry was commissioned by the university's council in 2023, to look at the experiences of Jewish students and staff since 2018. Mohinderpal Sethi KC, who led the inquiry, wrote: 'It appears to me that a culture has built up over the years at Goldsmiths that, at the very least, has resulted in Jewish students legitimately feeling significant discomfort on campus. It is apparent that from the evidence reported to me that Jewish students have likely been subjected to antisemitism. 'This is plainly not unique to Goldsmiths, but this inquiry relates to Goldsmiths and I consider that it has not done enough as an institution to ensure its Jewish students and staff feel safe and welcome.' Goldsmiths, part of the University of London, said it accepted the inquiry's findings and would adopt its recommendations, including better mechanisms to report and track antisemitism, improving support services and reforming the college's antiracism training to recognise antisemitism as racism. It will also set up a new advisory panel drawn from the Jewish community, students and staff. Prof Frances Corner, vice-chancellor of Goldsmiths said: 'The inquiry sets out a disturbing picture and I am sorry that our community and culture fell short of the behaviours we expect. 'The report rightly states that we owe it to former, current and future Jewish students and staff to learn from our mistakes. 'We share responsibility, as a community, to show Goldsmiths can be a place where Jewish students and staff feel valued, supported, and proud to be part of our university.' Corner added: 'Today, we commit to lasting cultural change with respect to Jewish students and staff, and for all religions and beliefs, drawing on our intellectual heritage and our longstanding belief in social justice.' Sethi's inquiry heard disturbing reports of far-right graffiti found in locations only accessible to Goldsmiths students or staff, while the college's Jewish society effectively disbanded last year due to safety concerns and protests. One Jewish student was forced to move out of their college residence because of hostility from other students, including the desecration of a mezuzah, a religious symbol at the entrance to a Jewish home. 'The evidence set out above from students about the antisemitism they experienced at the college was also bolstered by the evidence of an academic, who informed me of the antisemitic tropes and conspiracies they had read in their students' essays. For example, that 'Jews dominate media and culture and run New York and that's why they could get musicals on to Broadway' or that there are 'Jews all over the BBC',' the report states. Goldsmiths said it has appointed Prof Adam Dinham to lead a two-year antisemitism action plan. It said: 'This will build a culture of belonging for all Jewish students and staff, and for all religions and beliefs at the university, nurturing evidence-based dialogue, positive activism, and engagement.'
Belfast Telegraph
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Turner Prize shortlist includes Iraqi exile who studied in Belfast and artist who uses ‘salvaged' antique dolls in work
The shortlist also includes an artist who uses dolls 'salvaged' from thrift shops and online in their work and another who uses VHS tape. Painter Sami, 40, born in Baghdad, has studied at the Belfast School of Art and Goldsmiths College, London. He says: 'My paintings seek to capture the state of confusion that occurs because of the cut thread between reality and the imagination; between war narrated and war witnessed.' Sami was given the nod for After the Storm: Mohammed Sami at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, which has 14 paintings that respond to the history of Sir Winston Churchill's birthplace, and contain 'hints and references to conflict in Iraq'. The paintings do not have human figures, while one shows the 'shadow of a helicopter blade over a table and empty chairs', and another appears to suggest body bags. Peterborough artist Rene Matic was among the four shortlisted artists announced at the Tate Britain on Wednesday for their first institutional solo exhibition, called As Opposed To The Truth, which touches on ideas of the rise of right-wing populism and identities. Alongside Matic were three fellow London-based artists, Glasgow-born Nnena Kalu, Mohammed Sami, who first moved to Sweden after leaving Iraq, and Canada-born Zadie Xa. Matic, 27, was praised by the jury for expressing 'concerns around belonging and identity, conveying broader experiences of a young generation and their community through an intimate and compelling body of work'. Their work looks at themes including 'the constructed self through the lens of rudeness', which they have taken from rudeboy culture, a Jamaican subculture in the UK. It includes personal photographs of family and friends in stacked frames, paired with sound, banners, and an installation at the Centre for Contemporary Arts Berlin, Germany. They also have an ongoing collection called Restoration, which focuses on 'antique black dolls salvaged by the artist' and a flag quoting political leaders who called for 'no place for violence' in the wake of the attempted assassination of US President Donald Trump. Kalu, born in Glasgow in 1966, is a resident artist at ActionSpace's studio, which supports learning disabled artists across London, at Studio Voltaire. She creates large-scale abstract sculptures and drawings that hang down from the wall or ceiling. The items are made from colourful streams of repurposed fabric, rope, parcel tape, cling film, paper and reels of VHS tape. Kalu is nominated for her installation Hanging Sculpture 1-10, which Manifesta 15 Barcelona commissioned her to create at a disused power station, and her presentation in Conversations, a group exhibition at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. The works contain 10 large brightly coloured sculptures that hung among the grey concrete pillars of the industrial site, and a work in pen, graphite and chalk pen on two pieces of paper. She was commended for 'her unique command of material, colour and gesture and her highly attuned responses to architectural space'. Xa, 41, who studied at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and the Royal College of Art in London, is influenced by her Korean background and its 'spiritual rituals, shamanism, folk traditions and textile practices'. She is nominated for Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything (2025), which was created with Spanish artist Benito Mayor Vallejo and shown at the United Arab Emirates' Sharjah Biennial. It has a sound element inspired by Salpuri, a Korean exorcism dance, and a mobile sculpture inspired by seashell wind chimes and Korean shamanic rattles, which has 650 brass bells that make harmonised sounds. An exhibition of works will be held at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery from September 27 2025 to February 22 2026 during the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations. The winner will be announced on December 9 2025 at an award ceremony in Bradford. Last year, Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur, who put a doily on a car, won the prestigious art prize, which awards £25,000 to its winner and £10,000 to the other shortlisted artists. Previous recipients include sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor (1991), artist Damien Hirst (1995), and filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen (1999).
Khaleej Times
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
When AI marries art
Meet 'Adnose', a unique, experimental contraption shaped in the form of a giant human nose. It beckons you to place your hand beneath its nostrils. After a brief moment, it spews out a printout, much like a supermarket receipt, revealing the scents and smells detected by the device. You might be surprised to learn that 'Adnose' isn't a scientific instrument, but rather a 3D printed art installation. It is a work by the Dubai-based artist Adnan Aga and it's a part of an ongoing exhibition titled Ai or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent that is being held at the Media Majlis Museum at Northwestern University in Qatar. Aga was born with a rare condition called congenital anosmia, which means he cannot smell. 'That's why I created a funny nose using AI, so that it can pick up on some of the smell and scents that I have perhaps missed out on,' smiles Aga, whose work in a way captures the essence of Ai or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent. More than 20 artworks are currently on display in this show in Doha, compelling the human species to provoke, reflect and question the pros and cons of our rapidly evolving relationship with machine learning. Patterned Deserts, an interactive installation by artist Farjana Salahuddin, blurs the boundary between nature and technology. Salahuddin is a Bangladeshi artist based in Qatar, whose work features a mound of sand on which she has projected futuristic-looking architectural patterns. Visitors can move their fingers through the sand and as they do, the lines change and create their own geometric designs. The work emphasises 'how much technology is taking control of our lives and moving us from the natural world to more artificial things,' explains Salahuddin. What picture does your mind conjure when you think of an oil portrait or a sketch? Patrick Tresset's Time to Read (2024) subverts this idea by placing AI at the centre of creation and offering us ample food for thought on the nature of creativity in the era of technology. In many ways, the artwork both celebrates and critiques computer systems and robotics. It beckons visitors to sit for a portrait while reading a favourite book and get drawn by a robot that Tresset has trained to capture human likeness in his own inimitable style. 'Even though it's made by a robot, I see them as my own drawings,' chuckles the Brussels-based French artist. Initially starting out as a figurative artist, Tresset lost interest in fine art somewhere down the line but quickly found the breakthrough he was looking for in computer technology, luckily. Tresset, who has a Master's and an MPhil degree in Arts and Technology from London's Goldsmiths College, started using robots in 2010. His first sketching contraption took three years to build. 'Now, I enjoy doing this as you can use AI to influence people's thinking and compel them to reexamine preconceived notions about technology,' he adds. In recent years, immersive, technology-based exhibitions like Ai or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent have gained traction among both organisers/curators and the art-loving public. At the show, different disciplines that once seemed so distant and unrelated coalesce, from art and craft to technology and science and as they come together, they raise more questions than they answer. After all, a fast-growing technology like AI is still in its infancy and though its impact has been transformative so far, its full potential will only be realised in the future. Who is in charge? 'Are we shaping the future of AI or is AI shaping our future?' is one of the questions at the heart of the show. Curated by Jack Thomas Taylor, the exhibition explores the impact of technology on our lives through four distinct lenses — hindsight, insight, foresight and oversight. 'AI is almost impossible to exhibit because you can't actually see it. It's not tangible. So, one approach for this exhibition was not to just show AI but to let people experience it through different types of hardware or objects and artistic expressions that use AI,' says Taylor, adding, 'For us, the first step for hosting an exhibition like this is to familiarise people with the different facets of AI and tell them how technology is already a huge part of our lives. We implicitly trust technology. When we are flying in an airplane it's technology and we trust it. We use iPhones which are embedded with computer science. We know Google Maps will safely guide us to our destination. Writers use Grammarly to spell check, so the algorithm already knows your patterns. AI is everywhere and as there's more awareness more people will see it. I think the best kind of learning is when you don't know you are learning and this is what A i or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent does — it gives you a fun time at the museum while there's invisible learning.' Taylor is obviously a tech evangelist, as is Alfredo Cramerotti, director of the Media Majlis Museum and one of the figures instrumental in turning the vision of Ai or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent into reality. 'AI is such a relevant and current topic and for us, it's even more important because the Media Majlis Museum sits in Northwestern Qatar, which is a hub of journalism, media and communication. So, it's the ideal location to reflect on these themes of privacy, identity, and representation, and how AI is transforming them, particularly in the media landscape. And if you carefully think about it — the impact of AI and machine learning is being felt in our lifetimes. It's not something in the future; it's already here and it's a subject we are all grappling with in our own ways to better understand. It is offering us creative solutions to problems and making the world a better place.' Technology has proved itself to be a double-edged sword, too, and both Taylor and Cramerotti are optimistic that it can be a force for good in the long run. 'There's a lot of benefits but there are also drawbacks [when using AI], for example, when it comes to surveillance and privacy. So, if the data gets into the wrong hands, obviously it's scary. Deep-fakes are already posing a threat to individual privacy. These problems will have to be solved but it can only happen when there's awareness about AI, and this exhibition helps you see AI in a new light. It shows that we will have to harness AI in creative ways. We'll have to engage with it on a social and cultural level,' concludes Taylor, who's a former journalist and currently, a researcher exploring soft power and the cultural and creative industries in Doha. Ai or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent is on view at the Media Majlis Museum at Northwestern University in Doha until May 15.
