GALLERY
+ FORUM
WHAT WE DO
​
Relational Space produces immersive exhibitions where art and science come together in the service of community, especially marginalized and under-represented populations. Collaboration between science, policy, community and the arts present crosscutting opportunities for new artistic expression, critical thinking and innovation. We provide an inclusive space for creative expression and knowledge exchange where art is presented in relation to empirically supported ideas to promote equity, justice and transformational social change.
​
Relational Space provides integrated and immersive experiences featuring both contemporary art and scholarly forums connecting diverse media, disciplines, cultures and contexts. Relational Space strives to be a community leader of contemporary art, immersive installation and scientific knowledge, by producing crosscutting exhibitions and forums that explore emergent political, scientific and social themes.
Open calls are announced here for submission of works by artists and scientists for collaboration with, creation of and participation in Relational Space installations. We are also extending an invitation for partners and volunteers to join us in forging this initiative (please send a note to info@relational-space.org)
___________________________________________________
​
PAST EVENTS
Bodies: Transdisciplinarity as a Power​
(June, 2024)
​
Relational Space brought together fifteen London-based Academic Scientists and Artists to share diverse knowledge sets and blend expertise and perspectives in three, facilitated 90-minute zoom sessions. The culmination of these hierarchical, self-organizing collaborative sessions was the co-curated, immersive exhibition, spanning 4 locations across the beautiful Brunel University, London campus: Bodies: The power of Transdisiplinarity. The four installations spaces consider 'control', 'ability', 'success' and 'empowerment', encouraging reflection on our global status quo and reminding us that we have the opportunity to re-imagine a new future, co-created through transdisciplinary collaboration. The exhibition highlights the creative potential of transdisciplinarity for integrating diverse, inclusive and transcultural knowledges and acting a s catalyst for collective power and social change.
​
The Relational Space exhibition was open June 25th, 26th and 27th, 2024 The exhibition was sponsored and hosted by Brunel University.
​
A short documentation of the event has been produced which chronicles the project and can be viewed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lThIMFdqoaA&t=690s
​
Process
We are bringing London-based scientists and artists together to co-create a participatory, immersive installation exploring transdisciplinarity and power as relational dynamics between bodies. This art+science exhibition is sponsored by Brunel University, London as part of an overall conference, (Inter)Disciplinary Bodies spotlighting new ways of thinking about "bodies" in reference to humans, non-humans, knowledges, knowledge systems, and communities.
​
The Relational Space process is fully collaborative. For this exhibition, London-based artists and scientists were selected to come together in three, 90-minute facilitated Zoom sessions where participants shared expertise, blended elements and co-curated the installation. Artists included three sound artists, one ceramicist, one visual artist and seven academic scientists (Brunel University, Loughborough University, University of Warwick, Royal Society of Arts, University of East London, and MTU Cork School of Music) with expertise in geography and sustainable development; disaster and risk management; disability activism; art therapy; games design; guitar; systems and interactions; architectural design; keyboard studies; aging, embodiment and the digital; studio production and music composition; health and disability; marine biology and resource management; and, public engagement for knowledge exchange. An asynchronous hub (Basecamp) was provided for ease of communication between sessions.
The diverse group of artists (architects, sound artists and ceramicist)considers a narrative around the theme of transdiciplinary collaborations to consider problems from different perspectives, address complex, interconnected social issues and to work from our similarities rather than our differences. They ask: Which bodies belong and which are excluded? How do bodies live and transform? Can transdisciplinarity enable us to collectively harness power and transform it into a catalyst for change?
Cross-pollination quickens creativity and innovation. The Relational Space process is fully collaborative, non-hierarchical and self-organizing. Selected artists and scientists come together in three, 90-minute, facilitated Zoom sessions to share expertise, blend elements and co-curate an installation. An asynchronous hub (Basecamp) is provided for ease of communication and collaboration between sessions. The process will culminate in a final, participatory conference session where all participants and conference attendees come together to co-evolve the exhibition experience.
​
Narrative
Persons, society and nature exist as a single ecosystem, inherently bound together to complement and cope with emergent situations. The exploration of the ways that bodies live, transform, relate and die presupposes a systemic understanding of this ecosystem, that is both individual and collective.
We delve into the spaces between the thingness of individual bodies - bodies being seemingly monolithic things, but always vibrating with multiples, and as a collective entity itself in flux - and the dynamics of those relational spaces, between constituent parts of bodies as sites of 'power' in their potentiality and agitation.
Transdisciplinarity engages us in reflexive dialogue that challenges individual and disciplinary assumptions. Transdisciplinarity is inclusive and transcultural. It highlights our connectivity, democratizes knowledge processes and transforms power, where power is defined as the relational ability to effect change.
Power runs through the ecosystem as a result of our interconnectedness. Transdisciplinarity creates relational spaces in which humans and other bodies (environments, materials etc.) are inter-reliant and creatively (re)shaping our future. The transformation of relational dynamics toward collaboration and collective power has the potential to impact real-world, complex problems and move us to a space for reciprocal healing, on multiple scales.
Bodies: Transdisciplinarity as a Power explores the dynamics of transdisciplinarity and power, alongside complexity, understanding that collaborations and knowledge are ever-evolving co-creations.
We seek to develop actionable knowledge as a catalyst for collective power and social change. We ask how we might incentivize transdisciplinarity to break free from reductive frameworks. We seek to understand fear as it relates to power including both ‘power over’ and ‘power to’. Through these explorations, we aim to co-curate a participatory exhibition that inspires new ways of knowing and collective flourishing.
​
***
___________________________________________________
Beyond Gender: The Future of Being Human
(June, 2023)
​
Relational Space brought together twelve international Scientists, Activists and Artists to blend talents and expertise in three, facilitated 90-minute zoom sessions.The culmination of these hierarchical, self-organizing collaborative sessions was the co-curated, immersive exhibition:
Beyond Gender: The Future of Being Human
​
The Relational Space exhibition was open June 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 2023 hosted by Ceres Gallery, 547 W. 27th Street, in Chelsea, NYC.
​
A dynamic video encapsulation of the project experience can be viewed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ2KU_dA6NI
_________________________________________________
​
Open Call 2023 for Beyond Gender: The Future of Being Human
-
Deadline to Submit: February 20, 2023
-
Selected artists will be notified by March 5, 2023
-
Exhibition dates TBA (Late Spring, 2023)
​
For the Open Call Relational Space recognizes the power of blending scientific knowledge with artistic expression to inform and inspire our global community. Cross-pollination quickens creativity and innovation. Relational Space brings scientist and artists together to collaborate around powerful data-driven narratives for knowledge exchange, new knowledge creation and to co-create immersive installations which are able to inspire and mobilize our global community.
​
Process
The Relational Space process is fully collaborative. Selected artists and scientists come together in three, 90-minute facilitated Zoom sessions where participants share expertise, blend elements and co-curate the installation. An asynchronous hub (Basecamp) is provided for ease of communication between sessions.
​
For this Open Call we invite artists and scientists to submit work that reflects and illuminates Beyond Gender: The Future of Being Human. Scholarly papers and art works, or well-developed ideas for creating those works, will be selected based on response to the Beyond Gender: The Future of Being Human narrative.
​
See Submissions page for more information.
​
Narrative
While our modern world is diverse and complex, the traditional gender binary assumes there are only two options for living in the world (male/female). In actuality, gender identity (a person’s internal, deeply rooted sense of self), gender expression (how a person externally expresses their gender identity) and sexual orientation (a person’s interest in people of the same/similar gender, different gender(s), or no genders) are diverse, dynamic and lie on a continuum. Further, a person’s gender experience is not always stable or linear throughout the lifespan. People are multi-faceted. Reducing our complexity to a binary identity diminishes our shared humanity.
Gender is a social construction that varies with culture, and historical era. The rigid expectations and lifelong influence of societal beliefs about gender deeply affects us all – for all of our lives. From birth, we are inundated with specific gender messages that define the prevailing gender hierarchy, oppress and disempower women and LGBTQIA persons, and bestow unearned privilege to cis-het men, as seen in the U.S. Supreme Court decision removing women’s bodily autonomy, a right that have been in place for nearly 50 years - with zero restrictions on men’s bodies ever being legislated. The gender binary plots out a trajectory for being cis-het men and cis-het women that are restrictive and unhealthy - that perpetuate inequality, oppression, violence, dissatisfaction and shame. For many people the gender ideologies that govern their thoughts, feelings and behaviors remain invisible.
What would a future look like where we were simply allowed to show up as we are? How would the human trajectory change with intersectional perspectives? We cannot tackle climate change if we don’t understand that 80% of the people displaced from its effects are women and girls. How can we advance women’s rights when women of color routinely confront racism, poverty and inequality’s other entwined injustices—and have been historically excluded from social movements, including feminism?
Currently, gender expectations do not allow flexibility in individual expression. People are constrained by gender stereotypes and must often disconnect from their authentic selves. The pervasive masculinity ideology says men must reject any part of themselves that does not meet up to the tough standard of masculinity. Globally, research shows strong correlations between gender role stress and violence against women and non-conforming peoples. Masculinity’s role in physical and gun violence stems in part from men’s difficulty identifying and describing their emotional experiences, learning instead to transform their vulnerable emotions into anger and aggression.
Unfortunately, attitudes about gender have become more polarized amid the pandemic resulting in the strengthening of regressive, stereotypic viewpoints regarding non-conforming identities, domestic violence, reproductive autonomy, and moreover, gender roles, resources and rights.
By embracing identities in all their forms, can we challenge and dismantle a power structure that stifles every person’s right to self-determination? What would be the impact of all humans learning to be emotionally connected and inclusive, irrespective of gender stereotypes? How would the world change if we were equal in our caregiving and power and revered a range of gender identities and human expression? How would society need to evolve for this transformation?
​​
***
___________________________________________________
Long COVID – We Are Here!
(April, 2021)
​
Long COVID: We Are Here! brought together twelve international Scientists and Artists to blend talents and expertise in facilitated sessions and co-curate a virtual, immersive exhibition. This VR installation features new media formats that explore Long COVID’s debilitating effects on individual health and explores parallels with our society as a whole.
​
View the original Virtual (VR) Installation Here:
http://www.LongCOVIDWeAreHere.com
​
A real-time walk-through of the Virtual Reality Exhibition with a panel discussion with the Artists and Scientists who co-curate the show as well as a prestigious group of Long COVID medical experts - Clinicians and Researchers in the field of Long COVID and ME/CFS.
​
View a Recording of this Event Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69vpmclRfY
This event is made possible by a City Artist Corps Grant presented - by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queen’s Theater.
View Video Trailer for Event
(Trailer by Helen L. Collen; Voiceover by Phil Collen):
​
Open Call 2020 for Artworks and Scientific Papers
Deadline to Submit: January 4, 2021
Virtual Show Dates: April 29 – May 30, 2021
​
Narrative
Long COVID - We Are Here is a fearless exploration into the long-hauler experience. It aims to raise awareness about the impact of this disabling post-viral epidemic; open doors for the research/medical community already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic and compel the establishment of an international, funded research agenda; advocate for a global repository of articles, resources, therapeutics and treatment strategies; and, urge widespread physician training related to Long COVID.
Globally more than 50 million people have been confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 – more than 10 million in the U.S. alone. Ten to fifteen percent of people who contract the virus will experience enduring symptoms - meaning millions of people are long-haulers already, suffering from puzzling symptoms that affect the entire body. Long-COVID constitutes an epidemic by itself.
The long-term effects of COVID-19 are insidious and far-reaching. Long-haulers endure crushing, sustained symptoms ranging from extreme fatigue, dizziness and brain fog to neurologic, GI, cardiac, and/or cardiovascular distress. Nonetheless, some doctors routinely dismiss patient concerns as emotional problems such as depression or anxiety, and fail to provide needed medical support. The system is heavily taxed with the immediate concerns of the COVID pandemic. Further, the medical profession, as it stands, is comprised of highly specialized providers (e.g. allergists, cardiologists etc.), so treatment decisions are made within these narrow specialties. But the enduring impact of COVID-19 appears to be both systemic (i.e. impacting multiple organs) and idiosyncratic, according to each person’s unique physical response.
Further, research into long-COVID is sparse and underfunded. The impact of enduring symptomatology will have broad social impact on our health-care system and society as a whole; however, we have yet to initiate comprehensive, international research campaigns related to Long-COVID able to explore demographics, symptomatology or prognosis. Who are the long-haulers? What is happening within their bodies? What is their long-term prognosis? Pew Research Center (Oct, 2020) reported that we have no substantial data on the number of long-haulers or any detailed information like age, gender, medical histories or course of illness nor do we know if-or-when these symptoms might resolve. This leaves more than 7 million people to fend for themselves with what is a terrifying, life-altering chronic illness.
The paucity of funded research into long-COVID; the dearth of trained providers, treatment resources and holistic strategies; and, the frequent dismissal of individuals seeking medical care is unconscionable. What is needed is a well-funded comprehensive research campaign that translates into evidenced-based strategies; an international clearinghouse of empirically-based articles and treatment resources; and, physician training so that long-haulers receive individualized, coordinated care across specialties with diagnoses that covered by insurance. For this Call we are looking for knowledge and visions that will inform and inspire our global community as a call to action for the needs of Long-Haulers.
__________________________________________________
​
Financial Documents
​
Financial Documents (Please clink here for Annual Report)
​
Relational Space, Inc. is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Each year, Relational Space publishes an Annual Report that includes a Statement of Activities and Statement of Financial Position, as well as a list of donors. As part of our transparency efforts, these will be available upon request as are the most recent Form 990 (after March, 2020) and the IRS Determination letter either from Relational Space or from the New York State Attorney General's Charities Bureau: Charities Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, 15th Floor, New York, New York 10005.
​
​
​