CVAC Symposium: Post-Extractive Visualities

Post-Extractive Visualities

Symposium Dates:  15th-16th June 2026
Location:  Hotel Indigo, 9 New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HL

Join interdisciplinary researchers, artists and practitioners for this 2-day event, addressing the multifaceted dimensions of extraction as it manifests through our past and present culture and visual media, and how we can move towards a more sustainable, non-extractive future.  Colleagues interested in exploring new interdisciplinary or collaborative approaches are particularly encouraged to attend.

Centre for Visual Arts and Culture’s Annual Symposium 2026 registrations are now open: https://forms.office.com/e/Y9aAX2MGuJ 

Please register for attending the conference - places are limited.

We're also thrilled to announce our keynote speaker - Inga Hamilton! About Inga and her work below.

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^{Left: Hamilton, I & Crow-In-A-Row Collaboration (2024). For the Enjoyment of Making a Noise. Lunula co-created via intuitive interspecies communication methodology. Wood, textile, Moss, EVA foam & brass. 36cm w x 36cm d x 23cm.} 

^{Right: Hamilton, I & Slug Collaboration (2024). Nighttime Slug Shimmer. Cuff and ring co-created via intuitive interspecies communication methodology. Wood, Moss, angelina & varnish. Cuff 12cm w x 7cm d x 12cm h, ring 4cm w x 4cm d x 4cm h.} 

^{All images 2024©Inga Hamilton} 

How can The Arts move from historical extractivist practices - the speciesist use of others’ bodies as subject or object; the ecocidal mining of landscapes for materials and resources; and the appropriation of Indigenous cultural imagery – towards practices of ethical co-creation with nonhumans? Intuitive interspecies communication (IIC) (Barrett et al., 2021) is providing a key to making studios, galleries and classrooms equitable spaces for all animals, plants, landscapes and beings, where collaboration exists without exploitation. 

Inga Hamilton’s IIC methodology enables nonhuman animals to direct artistic practice and knowledge production via telepathic and embodied communication – something Inga has experienced all her life.  Autistic, activist and art- jeweller, Inga is researching ‘blending the spaces between species’ in her practice-based PhD, ‘The Things Majority- Animals Make’. 

Inga’s making credentials include spinning yarns for the late Alexander McQueen at Gucci, representing Irish craft in the American Irish Historical Society in New York, USA and winning the Association of Contemporary Jewellers 2020 Graduate Award. Her career spans decades, creating content and writing for children’s art, craft and learning publications as well as international residencies and exhibitions. 

Inga is a PhD Researcher at the University of Sunderland UK and is AHRC funded. You can find out more about Inga's work here.

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Full programme announcement coming soon.

Any questions or requests for information can be sent to cvac@durham.ac.uk.