Dr Dean Kenning
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Fine Art
- School of Arts
Research Fellow
- Email:
- d.kenning@kingston.ac.uk
About
I am an artist and writer. I was born in Hounslow, where I did a Foundation in Art & Design at the local college. I went on to study Fine Art at Goldsmiths College and completed a PhD at the London Consortium in 2008, developing a critical theory of 'idiocy' in art.
I make motor and sensor based kinetic sculptures, seeking to generate pathos, humour, nervous attention and a feeling of life ('vitalist kinetics'). I also have a wide-ranging diagramming practice ('exploratory diagrams'), a research method traversing artistic form, theory and pedagogy. My video and performance-based works adopt a satirical and parodic approach to social and cultural material.
I was winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Prize 2020-21, making robotic 'crawlers' for the touring exhibition ‘Evolutionary Love'. Other recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Matt's Gallery (2019), Beaconsfield (2019) and Piper Keys (2018). I have shown works internationally at group exhibitions and events including Guest, Ghost, Host: Machine, Serpentine Marathon (2017); and EXO EMO, Greene Naftali (2017). Collaborative projects include the Diagram Research Group at Flat Time House (2020), the Capital Drawing Group at Bergen Assembly (2019) and Diagram Research Use & Generation Group (DRUGG) at the ICA (2015). I co-curated Poor Things with Emma Hart at Fruitmarket (2023), a sculpture show about social class. I'm represented by Division of Labour.
I have published articles on diagram theory and practice, artistic pedagogy, ‘idiot art', and the politics of the art world and art education in journals including Third Text, Arts, and the Journal of Visual Art Practice. Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory + Practice by DRG will be published by Bloomsbury in 2025
I supervise practice-based doctoral students at the Contemporary Art Research Centre and have overseen a number of successful PhD completions as first supervisor.
Qualifications
- PhD: 'The Political Nature of Art Today', London Consortium/Birkbeck College, 2008
- MA: Literature, Culture and Thought, Queen Mary, University of London, 2001
- BA: Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, 1997
- Foundation in Art & Design, Hounslow College, 1991
Domains
I have developed a diagram-based pedagogy in the areas of art practice, critical theory and philosophy.
'Exploratory diagramming' allows anyone to work through problems and construct new objects in real time by means of manual inscription: drawing analogies and plotting relations (across fields, states, etc.). These methods are used in workshops including 'Social Body Mind Mapping' and diagramming workshops for close reading of philosophical texts (e.g. ‘Plato's Caves' workshops), and 'Inside the Black Box of Generative AI.
These diagramming workshops have been run with students and lecturers at various levels (from A-level to PhD) and across institutions and disciplines, including Kingston University, London School of Economics, Institute of Education (UCL), Central St Martins (MRes Moving Image; MRes Art & Philosophy; MA BioDesign), University of Worcester and Goldsmiths College.
My research activity consists of art practice, practical pedagogy and art theoretical writing.
The art is produced through hands-on material and process-based experimentation, and in the spirit of DIY problem solving. It often engages directly with political, philosophical and scientific ideas and theories, for example in the areas of cybernetics, biosemiotics, political philosophy and Marxist economics.
My kinetic and animatronic sculptures and sound works are focussed not on technology for its own sake but on an experiential ‘vital aesthetics' of movement, particularly nervous or compulsive movement which is instinctively suggestive of 'life'. Pathos and alertness are introduced to moving objects through abject materiality and the non-slick manual nature of construction; through 'liveness' and non-predictability with regard to e.g. speeds and movement (floppy, juddering); and through the ways visitors trigger effects in non-obvious ways via sensors. If the possibility for emergence is one motivation for this – the allowance for contingencies to effect the way the work looks or sounds at any moment, then another motivation is to counter 'seriousness' and the gallery's authority through humour and B-movie special effects.
I have used the term 'exploratory diagramming' to describe a transdisciplinary method of abductive and figural-gestural thinking-through-drawing – as evident in artworks such as Metallurgy of the Subject; Making Sense, and images and animations for Capital Drawing Group (see Teaching for pedagogical use). I have written on ‘diagrammatology', drawing particularly on the theories of Peirce, Chatelet and Deleuze.
As First Supervisor I have overseen five successful PhD completions (all with no amendments): Rachel Cattle, Bill Leslie, Maryam Tafakory, John Hughes and Lucy Coggle.
I am interested in supervising practice-based doctoral candidates in the areas of kinetic/robotic and sensor based sculpture, art education, biosemiotics/cybernetics/emergence-informed practice, art and politics (political economy and class), AI and diagramming/diagrammatology.
Specialisms
- Contemporary Art
- Kinetic Sculpture
- Diagrammatics
- Art Education
- Politics of Art
Scholarly affiliations
- Diagram Research Group
- Ways of (Machine) Seeing
Publications
Reclaim the mural
Drew, Benedict, Hart, Emma, Jenkins, Dal, Kenning, Dean and Till, Corinna (2013). London, U.K.: (Whitechapel Gallery)
Exploratory diagramming and diagram theory : Greimas, Peirce and Châtelet
Kenning, Dean, 2021, Journal of Visual Art Practice (20), 3, pp 177-195
What we do and what is done to us : teaching art as culture
Kenning, Dean, 2019, Arts (8), 1, pp 31
Art world strategies : neoliberalism and the politics of professional practice in fine art education
Kenning, Dean, 2019, Journal of Visual Art Practice (18), 2, pp 115-131
Book Review of 'Who runs the artworld : money power and ethics' by Brad Buckley and John Conomos (eds)
Kenning, Dean, 2018, International Journal of Education Through Art (14), 3, pp 397-399
Kenning, Dean and Kern, Margareta, 2013, Art Monthly (369), pp 1-4
What schools can offer art: towards an avant-gardist conception of gallery education
Kenning, Dean, 2013, Visual Culture in Britain (14), 3, pp 319-341
Refusing conformity and exclusion in art education
Kenning, Dean, 2012, Mute
Foreword
Kenning, Dean (2020). In: Sharp, Andy, (ed.), The English Heretic Collection : ritual histories, magickal geography. Repeater, pp 9-15
The Zone
Kenning, Dean (2018). In: Duman, Alberto, (eds.), Hancox, Dan, (eds.), James, Malcolm, (eds.) and Minton, Anna, (eds.), Regeneration songs : sounds of investment and loss from East London. London, U.K.: Repeater Books, pp 413-420
Dr Dean Kenning is a Research Fellow in The School of Fine Art at Kingston University. He is also a writer and an artist, most recently writing about art education. We interviewed him at the Royal Festival Hall, London.
Kenning, Dean (2016). In: Allen, Jo, (eds.) and Rowles, Sarah, (eds.), Professional practice : 20 questions : Interviews with UK undergraduate Fine Art staff exploring how students are prepared for life after art school.. London, U.K.: Q-Arts, pp 221-232
Learning in art and design education
Addison, Nicholas, Burgess, Lesley, Kinsella, Victoria and Kenning, Dean (2015). In: Addison, Nicholas, (eds.) and Burgess, Lesley, (eds.), Learning to teach art and design in the secondary school: a companion to school experience. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, pp 21-70
Thinking through art: the social body mind map
Kenning, Dean (2015). In: Addison, Nicholas, (eds.) and Burgess, Lesley, (eds.), Learning to teach art and design in the secondary school: a companion to school experience. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge
Circling the borders
Kenning, Dean (2010). In: Sassi, Andrea, (ed.), Across the boarders. Reggio Emilia, Italy:, pp 28-40
Metallurgy of the subject
Kenning, Dean(2018). In: ASA18 : Sociality, matter, and the imagination : re-creating Anthropology, 18 - 21 Sep 2018 :Oxford, U.K.
Exploratory Diagrams
Kenning, Dean(2018). In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2018, 28 - 31 Aug 2018 :Cardiff, Wales
Nina Power and Dean Kenning in discussion
Kenning, Dean and Power, Nina(2018). In: Where it was, 31 Mar 2018 :London, U.K.
Art world strategies : neoliberalism and the rise of professional practice in fine art education
Kenning, Dean(2017). In: For, about, nearby : the value of diversity and difference in fine art practice, research and education, 14 - 15 Sep 2017 :London, U.K.
Neoliberalism and the politics of professional practice in fine art education
Kenning, Dean(2017). In: We Need to Talk About This : illusion of separation between us, 06 May 2017 :London, U.K.
Panel 4
Cornford, Matthew, Rodriguez, Soraya and Kenning, Dean(2016). In: Transitions Out of Fine Art Education, 25 Jun 2016 :Glasgow, U.K.
Freedom and control within the art school
Kenning, Dean(2016). In: Reflections on the Work of Albert Hunt / Within the Art School and Without, 17 Mar 2016 :Bradford, U.K.
The social body mind map
Kenning, Dean(2016). In: Words of Art, 29 Nov 2016 :London, U.K.
Exploratory diagrams
Kenning, Dean(2015). In: Plague of Diagrams : Symposium, 22 Aug 2015 :London, U.K.
Social body mind mapping
Kenning, Dean(2015). In: Play Sense : Talking, 23 May 2015 :London, U.K.
What schools can offer art : towards an avant-gardist conception of gallery education
Kenning, Dean(2012). In: Towards an avant-gardist conception of gallery education, 08 Dec 2012 :London, U.K.
Psychobotanical
Kenning, Dean (2019).
Sick Monday
Kenning, Dean, Scully, Liam and Scully, Vanessa (2018).
Luxury Complex: Remembering Satan
Kenning, Dean, Hulson, Marc, Craddock, Lisa and Sharp, Andy (2015).
Plague of Diagrams
Kenning, Dean and Burrows, David (2015).
The Starseed transmission: a diagrammatic message from outer space
Berriman, Sovay, Plastique Fantastique, Harris, Rowena, Kenning, Dean, Rebelo, Ines and Sames, Lucy A. (2013).
Stuck Machine
Kenning, Dean (2017).
Dialogue of the Dead
Kenning, Dean (2017).
Diagramming Politics
Kenning, Dean (2017).
Building the Fetish
Kenning, Dean (2015).
Gallery of work
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The Origin of Life (detail)
Kinetic sound installation, Beaconsfield Gallery 2019
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Renaissance Man
Kinetic sculpture (installation photo courtesy of Greene Naftali, 2017)
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Untitled (Blinking Eyes)
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The Origin of Life
Kinetic sound installation, courtesy of Beaconsfield Gallery 2019
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Untitled (Rubber Plant)
Kinetic sculpture, from Psychobotanical at Matt's Gallery, 2019
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Evolutionary Love
Robo 'crawlers' at Standpoint Gallery, 2021
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Evolutionary Love
Robo 'crawler' at Bury Art Museum, 2021-2
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Evolutionary Love
Robo 'crawler' at Standpoint Gallery, 2021
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Jackson 5 Flowchart
Drawing (felt pen on paper, Collection Grundy Art Gallery), 2012
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Diagram for Walter Benjamin
Risograph Print, 2017
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Social Body Mind Meta-Map
Risograph Print, 2017
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Being-In-Common
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Metallurgy of the Subject
Blackboard Drawing (Greene Naftali), 2017
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Making Sense
Lithograph, 2021
