INSTITUTING COMMONING SYMPOSIUM, National College of Art and Design (Gallery), Dublin.

Speakers
Richard A. Carter, Michele Horrigan, Ameera Kawash.
Researchers
Michelle Browne, Anne Kelly, Gareth Kennedy, Dr Emma Mahony, Dr Tom O’Dea, Seoidín O'Sullivan.

Unlearning Workshop In this two part workshop (10am-11am and 12pm-1pm) participants will be introduced to the practice and discourse of unlearning. Then, working in small groups, they will devise and trial their own unlearning exercises. Unlearning is both a discourse and a practice that involves the critical appraisal of accepted “truths”, power relations and practices, as well as an appraisal of the role the individual plays within this matrix. It calls on those who practice it to challenge not just what they know and believe to be untrue and unjust, but also deeply rooted habits and attitudes that are unjust. Habits are also performed by institutions where they comprise the often invisible organisational actions and structures that reproduce systemic inequalities. The purpose of the Unlearning Workshop is to develop unlearning exercises which can unpack, unsettle and undo unjust institutional habits and attitudes.
The Unlearning Workshop is led by Emma Mahony and Tom O’Dea and emerges from research conducted during the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Horizon 2020 RISE transdisciplinary research action, Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange (SPACEX), 2022–26.

Elevenses for the “Hungry Months” hosted by artist Gareth Kennedy, and Students from NCAD FIELD programme.
Since 2020, Gareth has been charged with running the Studio+ NCAD FIELD module in a derelict brownfield site beside the College which is in the process of being reappraised as a Novel Ecology. FIELD students served the participants pancakes cooked on a reclaimed manhole cover over a campfire and also offered tours of the site.

Instituting Commoning Exhibiting Artists Talks w/ Q&A 
Dr Richard A. Carter, Michele Horrigan, Dr Ameera Kawash with Anne Kelly.
This presentation & discussion event locates converging commonalities through practitioners' subject matter, processes, and contexts related to: meanings and relationships between art and the public realm; narratives of place, dwelling and environment; erasure resistance across material and digital forms and through cultural archiving; and addresses a broad range of questions concerning how digital systems influence how we sense and make sense of the world, defining different possibilities of action and expression.
Instituting Commoning Exhibiting Artists Talks is led by Anne Kelly and emerges from research conducted during the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Horizon 2020 RISE transdisciplinary research action, Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange (SPACEX), 2022–26.

Playful Possibilities session draws on an elective designed by artists Seoidín O'Sullivan and Dr Dominic Thorpe for NCAD’s Fine Art students. Developed in response to student anxiety, self-consciousness, and the lingering effects of isolation after Covid, this session offers an embodied, playful approach to learning in shared studio spaces. Through movement, improvisation, and playful exercises, participants are encouraged to let go of perfectionism, take creative risks, and reconnect with the body as a source of knowledge and confidence. Play is used as a serious pedagogical tool—supporting experimentation, reframing failure, and fostering connection, resilience, and creative flow.

The "Artist Collective Game" is a game wherein a group develops and shares the tactics and tools required to build a successful artist collective. Throughout the game players build on their own experiences of collaboration along with their artistic practices, skills and references to gather the resources needed for their collective.

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The INSTITUTING COMMONING SYMPOSIUM, National College of Art and Design (Gallery), Dublin, event is programmed as part of INSTITUTING COMMONING: A PLATFORM FOR UN/LEARNING, an exhibition programme bringing together a network of artistic and academic practices through the exchange of viewpoints, and the creation of new social bonds,  30 January - 27 February, 2026, Mon-Fri, 11AM - 6PM. Find the full events programme at this LINK.

Instituting Commoning: A Platform for Un/Learning is curated by Anne Kelly and programmed with
Dr Emma Mahony, Michelle Browne, Gareth Kennedy, Dr Tom O'Dea, Seoidín O'Sullivan, and 
Dr Fiona Whelan.