Dr John Cussans

John Cussans

Senior Lecturer Fine Art

Institute of Arts and Humanities

Art and Design Communication

Contact Details

email: j.cussans@worc.ac.uk

Dr Cussans is an artist and writer working across the fields of contemporary art, cultural history and practice-led artistic research. His work explores the legacies of colonialism in art, cinema and popular culture from anthropological, psychological and science fictional perspectives.

He has a collaborative and participatory arts practice that combines performative drawing, diagramming, installation and public pedagogy. His collaborative works with the Swedish artist Roberto N. Peyre have been performed at documenta fifteen (Germany), Rising Festival (Melbourne) and Fylkingen (Sweden).

He is the author of Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror and the Zombie Complex (2017) and co-author of Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory and Practice (2025). He is the co-director of Friends of the Future Collective, a community interest company supporting, educating and offering connection to mental health professionals and artists.

Dr Cussans is the leader of the Arts and Health Research Group

Recent Exhibitions and Public Presentations

‘This Is Not a Diagram: Applying General Semantics to Contemporary Arts Pedagogy’ presentation at the annual online symposium of the Institute of General Semantics - ‘Communication, Consciousness, and Culture II’ - 19th April 2025

VeveXXX ritual performance and floor drawing with Roberto N Peyre and Jean Louis Huhta with guests Lisa Janbell & Camilla Sivam (aka Dos Oké) and Sofia Sainio (aka Sofftronic), Fylkingen Experimental Music and Art Space, Stockholm, Sweden, 1st March 2025

‘Generative AI and the Creative Arts’ talk for University of Worcester Gen AI Lunchtime Sessions, 19th February 2025

‘Reimagining Arts Education: From the Education of the Senses to Creative Health’ presentation at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance’s annual conference Igniting Creativity, 8th January 2025 and

at Have Some Imagination: Towards a Manifesto for Arts Education conference, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, 8th February 2025

Veve Tycho Brahe (Escape Vessel for Wayland the Smith) durational drawing and ritual performance with Roberto N. Peyre created for the Tide of Ghosts: Esotericism Beyond Fact and Fiction conference in Copenhagen, 25th October 2024

‘Generative AI and Arts Education: The Case for Fine Art’ presentation at the Homo Ex MachinAI event at the Benaki Museum, Athens, 12th April 2024

Therapeutic Landscapes: Ritual, Folklore and Wellbeing two-day conference and exhibition co-organised with Desdemona McCannon at the Art House, University of Worcester, 9th – 10th March 2024

Friends of the Future (FotF) Open Space Event at Herd Farm (Leeds) offering peer support and knowledge exchange for colleagues in the fields of therapeutic arts, psychotherapy and socially engaged art practice, February 2024

‘Reframing Critical and Socially Engaged Arts Practices from a Health Humanities Perspective’ presentation at the 11th International Health Humanities Conference, University of Derby, 22nd September 2023 

Veve for Maman Brigit durational performance drawing with Roberto N. Peyre and closing celebration produced for the Atis Rezistans-Ghetto Biennale exhibition at Rising Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 15-19th June 2023

Veve Kunigundis ritual floor drawing made with Roberto N. Peyre during documenta fifteen, Kassel, Germany 17th June 2022.

 

Recent Publications

Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory and Practice (Bloomsbury, 2025)

‘A Taste for Blood and Truth: Bill Gunn’s Ganja and Hess’ in Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film (House of Leaves Press, 2020)

‘Special Investigations: Randy Cutler Interviews John Cussans’ in Knowings and Knots: Methodologies and Ecologies in Practice-Led Research (University of Alberta Press, 2019)

‘In the House of The Man-Eater’ catalogue essay in Beau Dick: Devoured by Consumerism (Figure.1 Vancouver, 2019)

Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror and the Zombie Complex (Strange Attractor/MIT Press, 2017)

External Roles

Member of the steering committee for the National Association of Fine Art Education (NAFAE)

https://www.nafae.org.uk/

Director of Friends of the Future Collective community interest company

https://www.friendsofthefuture.org.uk/

 

Qualifications

PhD Cultural History, Royal College of Art 

MA Art History and Theory, University of Essex

Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Art, Design and Communication, University of the Arts,BA (Hons.)

Graphic Design and Illustration, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Polytechnic

Teaching and Research Interests

Contemporary Art

Art and Psychology

Art History and Theory

Art and Anthropology

Critical Theory

Philosophy

Science Fiction Studies

Horror Studies

Social Psychology

Environmental Psychology

Diagrammatics