University hosts 'Only Human?'

Published: 22 October 2014

The University's Gilmorehill Campus is to play host to a festival of the humanities next month, bringing together film-makers, geographers, philosophers and performers.

The University's Gilmorehill Campus is to play host to a festival of the humanities next month.

The festival will highlight the ways in which humanities research can:

  • inspire and enrich our everyday lives
  • help us to understand ourselves, our relationships with others, and the challenges we face in a changing world
  • provide world class knowledge that is vibrant, vital, and accessible to all

It brings film-makers, geographers, philosophers and performers together for events including films, installations, audio and guided walks and culture café discussions focusing on our interrelations with the ‘more-than-human’ such as water, architecture, islands, pets and gravitational fields.

It is part of a national festival of the humanities led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. 

The festival will see more than 150 events staged across the UK from 14 – 23 November 2014. 

National festival curator, Dr. Michael Eades, from Kings College London, said: ‘A lot of people are unsure about what the humanities are, and how researchers in this subject area spend their time. Being Human aims to change that, and to build public awareness not only of the range and diversity of humanities research, but the ways in which it connects to our everyday lives and culture.”

Only Human?, led by arts and humanities researchers from the University of Glasgow, is designed to build, debate and challenge ideas of ‘being human’ by focusing on our interrelations and interactions with the more-than-human.  Researchers, artists and writers from film, geography, philosophy and theatre invite festival participants to learn more about everything, from a nearly extinct Hawaiian tree snail species, to water and weather-recording, architecture and islands, family pets and gravitational fields. According to festival organiser, Professor Dee Heddon, “to be human is to be always more-than-human – and in a context of climate crisis and environmental degradation, it is important that we recognise and understand these inter-relationships, the things that connect us. We are much more inter-related and therefore more inter-dependent than perhaps we fully realise. The arts and humanities offer innovative ways for us to think about and explore those relationships and dependencies, to consider what it is to ‘be human’ in a world with others.”

The Only Human? festival hub is the multi-purpose Gilmorehill Halls, host to a stimulating programme ranging from exhibitions, installations, performances and films to talks, guided walks and pop-ups.

Contributors to Only Human? include: Dr. Thom van Dooren, a philosopher and anthropologist from the University of New South Wales whose most recent book, Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction (2014) explores what is lost when a life form disappears from the world; Glasgow-based artists Dr. Minty Donald and Nick Millar, whose practice explores human/water inter-relations through performance and installation; and, Dr Ian Shaw, cultural geographer at the University of Glasgow who approaches the drone as a political actor, proposing that drone technology is slowly but definitively changing a host of relations, from the social to the territorial to the sovereign. The festival also features contributions from ecoarts Scotland and Scottish environmental arts organisation nva.

For further information about and a full schedule of Only Human? visit

http://onlyhumanglasgow.wordpress.com/

For a full listing of the national festival, Being Human, visit http://beinghumanfestival.org/

First published: 22 October 2014

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