Living Machines | Reading & Discussion Group

About

Referencing French philosopher Jacques Rancière’s seminal text Nights of Labour which examines 19th century factory workers’ poetry, letters, newspapers and journals, artist Stella Rooney will lead a reading and discussion workshop to consider historical and contemporary working-class cultural expression.

Channelling Harun Farocki’s film Georg K. Glaser – Writer and Smith (1988) featured in the exhibition Harun Farocki: Consider Labour at Cooper Gallery, the workshop brings centre stage the precarious nature of labour implicit in the gig economy and the resurgence of mass strikes across Britain today.

Booking

The reading group is free to attend. Book a space via Eventbrite. 

Artist biography

Stella Rooney is an artist and organiser living in Glasgow. Working across photography and moving image, her work is a point of engagement with collective histories, investigating labour from the perspective of both past and present. Since graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone in 2020, Stella completed a year-long culture collective residency with StreetLevel Photoworks and participated in the Hospitalfield Graduate Programme. Her recent project She Town’explores the role of working class women in Dundee’s industry and radical tradition. Stella is also a trade unionist and is involved in building community power as the chair of her local Living Rent branch in Dennistoun.

Image credit

Harun Farocki, Georg K. Glaser – Writer and Smith, 1988 (film still)