ART SCIENCE dialogue with Nicoline van Harskamp and Laura Rupp | Language diversity at Work
As part of the public programme for Let’s Work! the VU ART SCIENCE gallery invites artists and researchers to explore the concept of work. A series of ART SCIENCE dialogues aims to distil the reasons and driving forces behind work, how societal changes impact our experience of work and how the workforce could be changed to serve a better society.
In the third dialogue of the series Nicoline van Harskamp and Laura Rupp discuss the politics of language, the way language can include or exclude and the use of English as a common language in the workplace, specifically at VU Amsterdam. A questionnaire that is displayed in the gallery, filled in by numerous VU staff and students so far, is the starting-point for the conversation. The central question “My English is a Technology, not a Language” is displayed in the full width of the gallery windows, as an invitation for a discussion by the VU community.
Globalisation, multi-culturalism and new communication technologies have made English the standard for making yourself heard and understood. But what the societal impact of this Global English?
The event will take place at the VU ART SCIENCE gallery on Thursday, October 3 from 4-6 PM . The talk is open to the public and free of charge.
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Artist Nicoline van Harskamp’s work considers acts of language and solidarity.Her live works were staged, among other places, at the M HKA in Antwerp, Tate Modern in London, KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, New Museum in New York, Arnolfini in Bristol, Urbane Künste Ruhr in Oberhausen, steirischer herbst in Graz, Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Serralves Museum in Porto, and Kaaitheater in Brussels.She has exhibited her video and installation works internationally, such as at Kadist Foundation in Paris, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery in Montréal, Edith-Russ-Haus in Oldenburg, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, HKW in Berlin, MUAC in Mexico City, Manifesta 9, and the biennials of Gothenburg, Limerick, Sydney, and Taipei. Nicoline van Harskamp is the professor for performative art at the University of Fine Arts (Kunstakademie) in Münster, Germany.
Laura Rupp is the Director of the Centre for Global English. The Centre for Global English is based at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and consistst of a network connecting researchers, students, teachers and learners of English around the world. Together we study, define, tackle and advise on some of the most pressing linguistic and societal that are related to the world-wide use of English. She is also the creator of MOOC English Pronunciation in a Global World.
Nicoline van Harskamp and Laura Rupp worked together for one of the modules of Harskamp’s Englishes MOOC.