dr kate sloan (PhD History of Art)

Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art History

  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Edinburgh

Contact details

Address

Street

Rosebank House,
Edinburgh Road

City
Post code
EH42 1TS

Availability

  • Office hours by appointment

Biography

Background

Kate Sloan is an historian of post-war art, particularly art school teaching in relation to technology. She is the author of Art, Cybernetics and Pedagogy in Post-War Britain: Roy Ascott's Groundcourse (Routledge, 2019) and Behaviourist Art 1945-1975: Mapping a Field (Routledge, 2025). She has also authored numerous articles and essays in the area of modern art and technology, for publications including Visual Culture in Britain and The Structuralist. She has convened a conference session on cybernetic art for the AAH annual conference, and has curated an exhibition of Roy Ascott's early work for the Henry Moore Foundation (2017). She is currently preparing a third monograph on the teaching of the artist Sonia Landy Sheridan, having conducted the initial research.

 Before joining the University of Edinburgh as Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art History in 2023, she held a senior lectureship in visual and material cultures at Northumbria University, where she led the fine art programme, including scheduling regular visiting artists talks, gallery visits and other events as part of the programme (2020-23). Prior to this, she completed her PhD at Edinburgh, before taking up a postdoctoral fellowship there, funded by the Henry Moore Foundation (2015-17). 

Experienced in teaching in broad areas of modern and contemporary art, technology and theory, she is currently developing a new master's degree in art history for Edinburgh. 

Qualifications

PhD History of Art, University of Edinburgh (2014)

Responsibilities & affiliations

HEA fellow

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Research summary

My research interests are in two areas, which often intersect. These are art and technology in the post-war period, and the history of modern and contemporary art school education. I am particularly interested in art and pedagogy that engaged with cybernetics, systems and behaviour. 

Current research interests

I am currently working on a new project concerning Sonia Landy Sheridan's teaching in the 1970s in Chicago. This was the Generative Systems course, which was based around the new technology that was the 3M color-in-color copier. I am conducting research for a book about Sheridan's work.

Past research interests

BOOKS: Roy Ascott’s Groundcourse: Cybernetics, Art and Pedagogy in Post-War Britain (Routledge 2018) Behaviourist Art: Mapping a Field (Routledge, 2025) BOOK CHAPTERS: “Analogue Exchanges: Communication Technologies, Surveillance and Selfhood in Roy Ascott’s Pedagogy” In Albu and Schuld (eds) Perception and Agency in Shared Spaces of Contemporary Art. (Routledge, 2017) PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES: “Gestalt in Motion: Wholeness, Systems and Perception in Post-War British Art” (August 2016) Journal of Visual Culture in Britain. “Victor Pasmore’s Architectures of Form: Biology, Structure and Process in Post-War British Art” The Structurist 51, 45-58 ENCYCLOPEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS: Roy Ascott and Groundcourse. Grove Dictionary of Art. 2016. Conference Papers and Invited Lectures: 07/02/2025 'Industry Collaboration and Radical Learning: Sonia Sheridan’s Generative Systems Course and 3M' Have Some Imagination Conference, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art 12/11/2021 Fine Art at Northumbria: Thinking through ‘The Contemporary’. Invited Speaker, “Art School Matters” symposium 22/05/2018 Bombsites and Building Sites: The Blitz, Reconstruction and Art. Invited speaker, symposium at Southbank University. Two papers, one conference paper and one symposium paper: “Roy Ascott’s pedagogy and the Cold War Bunker” and “Behaviourism in British Post-War Art Schools” 09/2018 György Kepes and British Cybernetic Art. International Symposium, Texas. Invited paid speaker and delegate. 03/2017 Roy Ascott and Kate Sloan in Conversation. The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. Invited talk. 10/2015: “The Analogue Game: Aircraft Control and Play in Roy Ascott's Pedagogy”. Invited lecture. University of Edinburgh History of Art Research Seminar Series. 09/15: “Cybernetic Environments in British Art Education”. Invited talk and discussion. Fruitmarket Gallery public symposium (Extra-Curricular Activity’, Dr Catherine Spencer). 09/2015: “Thrown Against: Negotiating Objecthood in the Systems Age”. Invited lecture. Henry Moore Institute Conference (Sculpture: 1965) 09/2015: “From Ground Control to Groundcourse: Analogue machines, calibrators and behaviourism in Roy Ascott's Pedagogy”. Conference paper. Glasgow School of Art (Material Culture in Action Conference) 09/13: “Lost Landscapes: Routes Between Arts and Archaeology”. Conference Paper. European Archaeology Association’s Annual Conference. 09/11: “Lost Landscapes: Engaging Rural Audiences with the Visual Arts”. Invited presentation. Museums Galleries Scotland Collaborating to Compete Conference: 07/11: “Thirty years at Edinburgh College of Art: Structure, Agency and Values in the Postmodern Art School”. Conference Paper. Tate Gallery London: ‘Reflections on the Art School’ symposium. 05/06: ‘Object to Concept: Minimalism and the Roots of Conceptual Art’ Conference Paper. Ecole de Printemps postgraduate conference (Art and Technique) at Lausanne and Geneva. Conference Organisation: 04/16: Lead convenor, “Mapping Cybernetic Art: A Supra-Computational Approach”, Association of Art Historians Annual Conference. Edinburgh. Co-convenors: Dr. Dawna Schuld (University of Texas) and Dr. Jon Wood (Henry Moore Foundation)

Knowledge exchange

 

 

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