Mr Ajay Hothi

Contact

Ajay Hothi
About
Teaching and learning
Research

About

I am a writer and filmmaker. My writing regularly appears in the international arts press, including Artforum, Art in America, Frieze, and Art Monthly, among others. I have made documentaries for BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4, and for exhibition at venues including Serpentine Gallery and Design Miami. I am the editor of A CUT A SCRATCH A SCORE (Art Editions North, 2015), on performance and exhibition, and the author of THIS IS ART WRITING (2018), on independent publishing and artists' practice.

Formerly, I worked as Research Curator for the (now-defunct) BFI Gallery at the British Film Institute; as Director of tank.tv, where I founded London's only gallery dedicated to artists' moving image, curating exhibitions with a range of international artists, commissioned new artworks, performances, and curatorial residencies, in both physical and online forms, from over fifty artists.

I have held previous roles at Arts Council England, in film and in broadcast television. I also teach Critical Studies for Design at the Royal College of Art, and at University of the Arts London.

Academic responsibilities

Senior Lecturer, Critical and Historical Studies

Qualifications

  • (forthcoming) PhD Kingston University
  • 2020 PG Cert in Art & Design Education
  • 2015 MPhil Royal College of Art, London
  • 2004 BA (hons.) Royal Holloway, University of London

Teaching and learning

Undergraduate courses taught

Research

I am a PhD candidate in The Design School at Kingston University. My research question examines how association football clubs design their fanbases, from local level to global brands; from the socialist to the corporate. The aim of this work is to determine design languages as they are applied in practice.

My MPhil thesis examined writing as a methodology of visual art-making, taking in specific examples of artists' writing, from experimental publications from the 1950s to the work of contemporary multimedia artists.

A key feature of my research is ethnographic writing; writing as a form of public-facing practice. My PhD research is based upon Adler in Herzen (www.adlerinherzen.com) my ongoing blog on the Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt. I consistently undertake public writing residencies, including with e-flux at Art Basel, and at the Royal College of Art, among others.