- 'Aesthetic' understood as the opposite of 'anaesthetic' or numbness has to do with enlivened being and connective practice
- Every new object, clearly seen, opens up a new organ of perception in us.
- Sustainability without the I-sense is non-sense!
- Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and inform our lives
- There is only one field of transformation, and no-one is outside
Welcome to the platform for the Social Sculpture Research Unit (SSRU) and wider social sculpture network
Still under development, but soon to be completed. Thank you for your patience!
Beuys, Transdisciplinarity and a Sustainable Future
The SSRU encourages and explores transdisciplinary creativity and vision towards the shaping of a humane and ecologically viable society. It engages with Beuys thinking and work, as well as those before and after him – making available some of the insights, inquiries and explorations in this multidimensional field.
Connective Aesthetics and Agents of Change
Our work as agents of change includes a focus on connective practices, which explore the role of imagination and other modes of thought in transformative process. Informed by an expanded conception of art, we are active both within and beyond the sphere of art.
Social Sculpture: ‘Another world is possible’
Our territory and practices are wide and varied because social sculpture has to do with exploring new values, new forms of thinking and new ways of being in the world.
Connective Practice towards Social and Ecological Justice
Linking artists, activists, projects, members of the public and researchers from various practices, thought spaces, and regions of the world, the SSRU creates opportunities for dialogue processes, transdisciplinary research and connective practices that contribute to creative transformation, social and ecological justice and the shaping of a humane and non-exploitative world.
James Reed/SSRU: Agents of Change
Ruth Harvey-Regan -'Workplace', Switzerland
Wolfgang Zumdick - Changing One's Mind[set] 2010
Mind[set] Workshop - Australia, 2010
Earth Forum, South Africa 2011
University of the Trees - Tree Action -Kassel, 2012 
University of the Trees- Berlin, Launch Event, 2011
Participation and Dialogue
We hope you will participate in the dialogues about social sculpture and contribute to the field through the forums and opportunities on this site.
Transdisciplinary Research at Oxford Brookes University
The SSRU is a transdisciplinary research unit based in the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England .
Its patrons are Caroline Tisdall and Johannes Stüttgen.
It is coordinated by Shelley Sacks and supported by a core group of staff – Hildegard Kurt, Wolfgang Zumdick and Walter Kugler and research-project assistants – Sophie Millner and Jo Kernon. Research Associates and advisors include Chris Seeley, Enno Schmidt, Graham van Wyk, Maritta Kochweser, Jane Rendell, Stephanie Fuller, Alex Arteaga and Volker Harlan.
It has links with Oxford Brookes University’s Institute for Sustainable Development / Greenmuseum / Citizens Art Days -Berlin / und-Institute for Art, Culture and Sustainability / Exeter University’s Geography Department / the Free International University (FIU Verlag), and through our postgraduate programmes – to the Bauhaus, Weimar.
Oxford Brookes is the first university to develop opportunities for international research and study programmes in Social Sculpture.
