Sophie Howarth, Phyllida Barlow, Paul Wood, Mark Godfrey, Jonathan Jones, Jason Gaiger and Jane Burton, Discussion 2  From Russian Suprematism through Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and beyond, abstraction has been variously interpreted as nihilistic, political, sublime, decorative and ironic. While much writing about abstract art has been opaque, the talks here aim to clearly open up a variety of theoretical models for discussion.

Jonathan Jones, Abstraction and the Media  Speaker: Jonathan Jones, Guardian writer.Abstract art is the opposite of what you might call a good news story, argues journalist Jonathan Jones. Good stories are precise, they have characters, they can be told quickly. None of which abstraction delivers.

Suman Gupta, Sonia Boyce, Paul Wood, Dominic Willsdon, Discussion 1  This video recording from the Contemporary Art and Globalisation Study Day features a panel discussion between speakers.

Suman Gupta, The Evolution of 'Globalization'  Suman Gupta‘s presentation gives a brief history of the evolving connotations of the term ‘globalization’ from the late 1970s onwards. It ponders some of the early uses of the term, as it emerged to replace ‘internationalization’ from three linked directions: alluding to extensions of American sociology; denoting a programme of instituting uniformities within and across nation states; and, most importantly, connoting the character of advanced capitalism.

Dave Beech, Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia  Dave Beech links Picabia's monster paintings to current artists such as Mark McGowan, Laura Oldfield Ford and Freee by drawing out a shared commitment to produce art that does without the privileges of cultural capital, taste, style and so on. Picabia's critique of art - his anti-art - was a full-on philistinism (his version of avant-garde deskilling was an attack on taste as much as craft) even if it was mainly pictorial. Today artists pursue the challenge to art without restricting themselves to the pictorial or questions of style.