Julie Westerman
Senior Lecturer
- Department of Art and Design
- Art Design and Media Research Centre
- Culture and Creativity Research Institute
Summary
Julie Westerman works across sculpture, drawing, film, animation, and as a curator. Often involved in cross disciplinary research, this has led to collaborations in art science to produce Fly Birdie Fly for the Olympic year, and an IAS Fellowship, Durham University 2014 on the theme of Light, to develop research on Art/Science/Light. Curatorial projects investigated the rethinking of utopian modernist architecture in the contemporary urban cityscape providing artists the forum to imagine the both the utopian and dystopian futures of European Cities. Tegel: Flights of Fancy and Tegel Speculations and Propositions. Current research Urban Exploration, a series of cross-disciplinary walks around Lisbon.
About
Working with drawing, sculpture, film, animation, and CAD, my work engages with a range of research questions. An ongoing body of work considers the pervading anxiety over global warming and our reactions to catastrophic events of natural forces. This has been as a focus for a series of projects that juxtapose structural failure and climatic events, subjective responses to unpredictable natural phenomena, and their relation to the science that explains and predict them. Encounter (Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, 2009) Disaster Bridges (Die Panke, Berlin), Noel was Responsible (Transition Annnual 3: Catastrophe, Artwords, 2012), and It was Iris (AMBruno 2013).
Cross-disciplinary and collaborative research runs through my practice. An art /science collaboration developed for the Olympic year with Dr John Hart resulted in a film Fly Birdie Fly 2012. During 2014 I undertook a fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, developing cross-disciplinary projects as part of their 2013/2014 program on the theme of light. During this time I collaborated with Professor Peter Adey developing an project drawn from the research around the history of levitation and with IAS Fellows for a forthcoming cross disciplinary publication To the Lighthouse.
A further and long running series of collaborative works and research explores the artists’ role in imagining both the utopian and dystopian future European cities. Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy, a symposium and book including artists and writers from Berlin/ UK (Site Gallery 2011); Tegel: Flights of Fancy, a film screening of thirty artists, Kino Babylon June 2012, in collaboration with the Verein zur Förderung, Tegel: Speculations and Propositions, a publication and DVD, co-edited with Jasper Joseph-Lester and Susanne Prinz (The Greenbox, 2013).
Teaching
College of Business, Technology and Engineering
Fine Art
Fine Art Studio 2
Fine Art Studio 1
Fine Art Studio 3
Research
Trigger Point
To the Lighthouse
Urban Exploration
Tegel: Speculations and Propositions
Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy
Jaspar Joseph Lester, Royal College of Art
Susanne Prinz. Verein zur Förderung von Kunst und Kultur am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
Professor Peter Adey. UCL
Publications
Conference papers
Langley, J., Le Maitre, C., Vernon-Parry, K., Lockley, E., Westerman, J., Smith, J., ... Choppin, S. (2012). Being interdisciplinary..... creating a culture for the academics of tomorrow. In Understanding Interdisciplinarity: theory and practice - An International Conference, Sheffield, 12 June 2012 - 14 June 2012.
Book chapters
Westerman, J. (2018). Uncanny architecture: Lighthouse, Catherine Yass, 2011. In Strang, V., Edensor, T., & Puckering, J. (Eds.) From the Lighthouse: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Light. (pp. 228-231). London: Routledge: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315583570
Brown, C. (2011). Extinction Archive. In Westerman, J. (Ed.) Brutalist speculations and flights of fancy. (pp. 10-11). Sheffield: Site Gallery
Kivland, S. (2011). Sous les pavés, la plage. In Westerman, J. (Ed.) Brutalist speculations and flights of fancy. (pp. 18-19). Sheffield: Site Gallery
Westerman, J., Barres de Almeida, U., Tebo, B., Adey, P., Kleiman, N., & Clarke, J. (n.d.). From the Lighthouse. In Strang, V., Edensor, T., & Ward, M. (Eds.) From the Lighthouse : an experiment in interdisciplinarity. Routledge
Books
Joseph-Lester, J., Pavoni, A., Prinz, S., & Westerman, J. (Eds.). (2019). Future Ruins Lisbon. London: Trigger Point London. https://www.triggerpoint5.com/publications
Joseph-Lester, J., Prinz, S., & Westerman, J. (Eds.). (2019). Trigger Point : Berlin. Trigger Point. https://www.triggerpoint5.com/publications
Joseph-Lester, J., Prinz, S., & Westerman, J. (Eds.). (2019). Trigger Point : Berlin. Trigger Point. https://www.triggerpoint5.com/publications
Westerman, J., Joseph-Lester, J., & Prinze, S. (Eds.). (2017). Trigger Point : Lisbon. Lisbon: Julie Westerman/Jaspar Joseph-Lester.
Westerman, J., Joseph-Lester, J., & Prinze, S. (Eds.). (2017). Trigger Point : Lisbon. Lisbon: Julie Westerman/Jaspar Joseph-Lester.
Westerman, J.F. (Ed.). (2011). Brutalist speculations and flights of fancy. Sheffield, UK: Site Gallery.
Westerman, J.F. (Ed.). (2011). Brutalist speculations and flights of fancy. Sheffield, UK: Site Gallery.
Westerman, J. (2009). Guest: John Timberlake ; Host: Julie Westerman. London: Artwords Press.
Westerman, J. (2008). Guest: Christine Borland ; Host: Julie Westerman. London: Artwords Press.
Westerman, J., & Lee, J. (2006). Drafts/Draughts. London: Artwords Press.
Artefacts
Joseph-Lester, J., Prinz, S., & Westerman, J. (2013). Tegel : speculations and propositions. [Book and DVD].
Westerman, J. (2006). Thinly veiled: commissioned for the entrance to ACT II, Grand Opera House, Belfast. [Portfolio].
Westerman, J., & Quinn, L. (2004). Critical mass: public artwork. [DVD and promotional card].
Exhibitions
Westerman, J., & Sanderson, L. (2004). Inter ...: Virtual breeze, Underskirt, Live-wire-frame, Cut glass. [DVD and catalogue]. Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston. http://www3.shu.ac.uk/c3ri/SingleProject.cfm?Project_ID=113&ResCentre=ADRC
Westerman, J., & Quinn, L. (2001). Where R U: site-specific projection. [Invitation and catalogue]. Cathedral Square, Upper Kirk Gate, Wakefield.
Westerman, J. (2009). Encounter. [100 A2 drawings]. Mead Gallery, Warwick.
Westerman, J., & Hüsch, S. (n.d.). Drawing Space. [Drawings]. LoBe Gallery, Scherer Strasse 7, 13347, Berlin. http://www.lobeart.eu/
Westerman, J., Christl, M., Klare, P., & Woodeson, B. (2010). Disaster Bridges. [Screen Prints]. Wedding, Berlin.
Westerman, J. (2010). Fifteen. [Screen Print]. S1 artspace, Sheffield.
Westerman, J. (2008). Illuminated Carpet. [Sculpture/ Light]. Durham.
Julie, W., Jaspar, J.-.L., & Susanne, P. (2012). Tegel : Flights of Fancy. [Film]. Kino Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin.
Westerman, J., Joseph-Lester, J., & Prinz, S. (2017). HARD ENGINEERING Propositions for Future Ruins. [Film, publication, and sound]. National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon, Portugal. http://www.museus.ulisboa.pt/pt-pt/hard-engineering
Westerman, J. (2017). Movement and Mass, Tension and Repose, drawing. [Drawing and text]. Saint-Briac-sur-Mer.
Westerman, J., Joseph Lester, J., & Prinz, S. (2018). Hard Engineering : Propositions For Future Ruins - Gulbenkian. [Artwork]. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon. https://gulbenkian.pt/biblioteca-arte/en/evento/hard-engineering-propositions-for-future-ruins/
Westerman, J., Joseph Lester, J., & Prinz, S. (2018). Hard Engineering : Propositions For Future Ruins - Gulbenkian. [Artwork]. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon. https://gulbenkian.pt/biblioteca-arte/en/evento/hard-engineering-propositions-for-future-ruins/
Westerman, J., Joseph-Lester, J., & Prinz, S. (2017). Trigger Point - Hard Engineering - Propositions for Future Ruins (Exhibition). National Museum of Natural History and Science (Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência), Lisbon, Portugal.
Westerman, J., Joseph-Lester, J., & Prinz, S. (2017). HARD ENGINEERING Propositions for Future Ruins. [Film, publication, and sound]. National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon, Portugal. http://www.museus.ulisboa.pt/pt-pt/hard-engineering
Media
Westerman, J., & Hart, J. (2011). Fly birdie fly. [video]. Sheffield Hallam University
Presentations
Westerman, J. (2014). Unfamiliar Light. Presented at: IAS Fellowship, Public Lecturers 2014 Unfamiliar Light, University College, Durham University, 2014
Brown, C., & Westerman, J. (2011). Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy. Presented at: Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK, 2011
Other activities
External Examiner:
Postgraduate network in Art, Design and Media
Trustee: Site Gallery, Sheffield