Sarah Jury

Major Project: Remove, On the Possibility of Getting Away

Do you want to escape to somewhere with the silent transparency that your mind needs to think clearly. Collaboration and collectives are de rigueur, I enjoy the social to and fro of ideas that are spun between a group working together. However, some things need independent thought and in the age of the ‘group think’ where can you really be 'free'. Over the year, most predominantly I’ve written about digital anthropology and experience of place. This culminated in a thesis about the need for, and act of the retreat, investigated through case studies of artists, writers and thinkers; residencies, organised retreats and cultural pilgrimage. I have addressed the domestic remove of the emancipated woman, and later the use of Iceland as a physical manifestation of female concerns of placehood. Escape and the aspiration for ‘transcendence’ took me to consider from what we remove ourselves, and to where we aim to retreat. Is the idealised space of transcendence – often accompanied by a state ‘cosmic’ aptitude – anything like ‘that post-geographical feeling’ ? - William Gibson, No Maps for These Territories (New Video Group, 2003).

Arc journal is the RCA’s student publication, for which I’ve been editor this year. By reducing the size of the publication and increasing the frequency, we’ve prioritised exposure of current student work accompanied by established artists and writers. The resultant three issues are denominated by what we hope have been provocative themes with an increased sense of topical relevance to members of the School.