Dr John Cussans
Senior Lecturer Fine Art
Institute of Arts and Humanities
Art and Design Communication
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