![]() |
Kuljit
S Chuhan ::
creative producer : video : digital art : cultural projects |
:about + general: | :video: | :digital art: | :other projects: |
biographical statement Kuljit 'Kooj' Chuhan Kooj crosses a range of disciplines including video and digital media practice and teaching; cultural development; as a creative producer and project manager; a collaborative audio-visual project consultant for museums; and in education, curriculum and learning development. In addition to his significant professional standing including work with international artists such as Keith Piper, Kooj was a co-founder of the Black Arts Alliance in the mid-eighties. Over the years he has extensively worked with various communities, managed the BICA arts unit in Tameside for 10 years until 1998 and was recently a senior manager at Community Arts North West. He lectures in contemporary film (directing, music, theory) at Manchester Metropolitan University and has been exhibited and published across the UK and internationally, featuring at festivals such as VIDEO POSITIVE, ISEA and SIGGRAPH. He served on the board for FACT (Foundation for Arts & Creative Technology) from 1998-2003. Apart from his personal work and work with Virtual Migrants, he operates as Metaceptive Media productions (www.metaceptive.net) which includes work for museums, national charities, the NHS, theatrical groups, and so on. Kooj has founded and run a number of groups and organisations such as the Virtual Migrants artists collective formed in 1998, exploring issues of race, migration and globalisation www.virtualmigrants.com . They have become one of the few arts groups to successfully tour work produced using collaborative participatory methods to art galleries across the UK including London, Bristol, Glasgow, Derby, Manchester and Plymouth, involving further collaboration and participation while on tour. Virtual Migrants’ recent arts, media and cultural work on climate, race and refuge was selected as one of a key 15 out of 200 projects to be profiled as good community engagement practice by the British Science Association, and subsequently won a Beacon Recognition award. For a number of years Kooj has worked with museums either as an artist, producer or cultural consultant. He pioneered the “Collective Conversations” methodology at the Manchester Museum which facilitates dialogues and co-production with communities of interest; and developed educational resources for a partnership of eight museums and galleries on a major educational project about Manchester and transatlantic slavery.
He believes
in education in its broadest sense and has worked as a teacher in a range
of settings, formal and informal. Other previous work has been as a
scientist (with a first degree in biology), a community worker for
voluntary organisations as well as local authorities, and as a
professional musician. He also maintains an active involvement in various
movements for positive social change. "evocative,
metaphorical and at times quite poetic" "Kuljit
'Kooj' Chuhan successfully grapples with some mighty issues … a powerful
declaration of identity and faith amidst the pressures of globalisation." "this memorable and passionate show in which art practice, education and politics are inseparable" "…brings
to life the many stories of migration … with a level of intimacy unusual
in multimedia works - a significant intervention in the struggle to tell our
histories and experiences." “…
leaves the audience reverberating with a magical tapestry of the moving
image!” "The
best Museum images I've seen for a long time ... very dramatic and really
quite beautiful."
Museums work –
brief summary
Community-based
arts work – brief summary
Educational
work – brief summary
Skills and
Training – brief summary
Web links: Virtual Migrants: digital art
collective SIGGRAPH 2007 "Global Eyes" Art
Exhibition and Digital Performance ISEA 2006 International
Symposium on Electronic Art (San Jose, USA) Explore, Expand, Exchange museum
arts project ISEA 2000 International
Symposium on Electronic Art (Paris, France) Mesh 2000 (Journal of
Experimenta, creativity and technology organisation, Australia) International Association of
Labour Museums newsletter (Denmark) Through The Looking Glass
exhibition (Ohio, USA) Virtual Revolutions CD-ROM Metaceptive Media Production
ICT for an Inclusive Society conference - Riga
11-13 June 2006
|
you can contact Kooj on: info[a]kooj.net