In this Lunchtime Talk, we are joined by Rob Eagle - Digital Artist and UWE PhD Researcher. Rob will be discussing failure, its many facets and how it is often an unavoidable part of the creative process.

Quentin Crisp supposedly once said: ‘If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.’ In this talk, Rob will not be romanticising failure or pretending it makes us stronger. Failure hurts. And it’s an unavoidable part of the creative process.

Inspired by Jack Halberstam’s The Queer Art of Failure, this talk embraces techniques of failing, losing, forgetting, unmaking and not knowing. These are actions and feelings many artists, academics and queers know all too well by ‘not fitting in’ or achieving the usual societal metrics of success. Once we embrace our outcast status, everyday failure can open up opportunities for us to live non-normative lifestyles, form alternative kinship groups and create work that is true to who we are and how we see the world.

Rob will provide ample illustrations of his own failed creative projects. He is an interdisciplinary artist and practice-based PhD researcher at UWE Bristol, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the 3D3 Centre for Doctoral Training. He makes work in formats from film to audio and interactive installations. His recent augmented reality installation, Through the Wardrobe, has been exhibited at film festivals and galleries including Sheffield Doc/Fest (nominated for the Best Digital Storytelling Award), HOME Manchester, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (nominated for the Best Digital Experience Award), the Barbican Centre in London and Goethe-Institut China in Beijing.

---