when everything around us is virtual and digital...
Learning creative skills is the future of humanity
Teaching
I am passionate about teaching as a natural extension of my collaborative practice. My teaching experience encompasses both fine art and architecture departments, and I am interested in innovative pedagogical approaches in which knowledge is exchanged through debate and emerges from practical endeavours. I prioritise student centred learning in my teaching methodology, emphasising critical discussion and fostering engagement with contemporary events.
I have a Postgraduate Certificate of Special Study in Supporting Learning, and taught as guest lecturer in art and architecture departments at universities in London and Florence.
Research
My research and practice is driven by the question of how visual communication can enhance our engagement with the world, from collaborating with others to gaining new knowledge and organising ideas. The aim of my work is to facilitate interaction through visual language by bringing creativity into the process of collaboration, by creating a more democratic (visual) platform for critical discussions, and by improving active listening which is at the core of empathetic understanding.
I have developed this approach to collaborative visualisation in my practice-led interdisciplinary PhD research at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of the Arts London (UAL). The concept of visual agency, which I situate between the practice of spatial agency and graphic facilitation, is about empowering people to take initiative, responsibility, and stimulate self-reflection through the parallel use of verbal and visual communication. I have employed this method in the architectural context, by engaging architects, students of architecture and a diversity of practitioners in conversations about spatial production. In my thesis, I explain why collaborative painting is particularly suitable for spatial negotiation within the architectural discipline.
Published articles in peer-reviewed journals
Mlicka, A., 2020. ‘Visual agency: participatory painting as a method for spatial negotiation’, in ‘Visual Research Methods in Architecture’, eds. Igea Troiani and Suzanne Ewing. Bristol: Intellect Books. pp. 300-316.
Mlicka, A., 2017. Facilitating Spatial Negotiation: A Pragmatic Approach to Understanding Public Space. The Journal of Public Space, 2 (2), pp. 27-36.
Mlicka, A., 2016. Imagining a 'Relational' Painting. Journal of Contemporary Painting, 2 (2), pp. 322-326.
Mlicka, A., 2014. Painting Architecture: Towards a Practice-Led Research Methodology. Studies in Material Thinking, 10, pp. 1-19.
Dissertations
Drawing the City: Motives and Methods
MA Painting dissertation, Wimbledon College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, July 2007
The Psychology of the Interior
BA Fine Art dissertation, The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, June 2006
Book and Art Reviews
Mlicka, A., 2013. Painting with Architecture in Mind ed. by Edward Whittaker and Alex Landrum (review). Leonardo, 46(5), p. 503.
The Neon in Nature: An Updated Understanding of Experiencing Landscape through Painting
A review of the work of the artist Martin Stynes.
Engaging Artists in the Debate on 21st Century Cities
Published on the RSA website, 1 July 2011
The Intangible made Physical; Interview with Artist Katherine Lubar
Published in the Cherwell Newspaper, Oxford, 17 Feb 2006
Conferences and Presentations
2016 ‘Visualising multivocality through participatory painting’, paper presentation at the MEDIATIONS Conference 'Art & Design Agency and Participation in Public Space', RCA London, 21-22 November (forthcoming)
2015 'The Transformative Potential of Collaborative Painting', presentation at the 'Drawing Conversations: reflecting upon collective and collaborative drawing experiences' symposium, Coventry University (UK), 4 December
2014 'Facilitating Spatial Negotiation', participatory painting workshop in collaboration with Social Street, 'Past, Present and Future of Public Space' International Conference on Art, Architecture and Urban Design, Bologna, Italy, 25-27 June
2013 'Painting Architecture: Visual Modes of Spatial Thinking', research and poster presentation at the 11th Conference of the European Architectural Envisioning Association 'Envisioning Architecture: Design, Evaluation, Communication', Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 25-28 September
2013 'Positioning Painting Architecture: Different Perspectives on the Visualisation of Spatial Thinking', Spring Research Symposium, Research Network University of the Arts London (RNUAL) 11-15 February
2012 'Potential and Pitfalls of Painting Architecture as Practice-Based Research Methodology', The Art of Research Conference, Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland, 28-29 November
2012 'Painting Architecture: Material Modes of Projective Thinking' (visual presentation), Interstices Under Construction Symposium 2012: Immaterial Materialities, The University of Technology Sydney, Australia, 28-30 November
2012 'Architectural Projection and Principles in Painting', Spatial Thinking Symposium, Institut für Gestaltung.Studio2, University of Innsbruck, Austria, 9-10 November
2012 'Improving the Construction of the Image: Painting as a Function of Architectural Terms and Conditions', The Media of the Metapolis Conference, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany, 24-26 May
2012 'The Exploitation of the Visual Arts in Urban Regeneration: Visual Rhetoric Masquerading as Spatio-temporal Geography', Theoretical Currents II: Architecture and its Geographical Horizons Conference, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, 4-5 April
2011 'Who Manages Who? Art and Law in Conversation', collaborative presentation with Dr Hin-Yan Liu, Westminster Graduate Law Conference, University of Westminster, London, 16 November
2011 'Process as Proposition: On the Importance of Process in Painting as Proposition', The Journey as a Site for Creative Practice: A Symposium on a Train Ride to Folkestone, UK, organised by 16 Spaces, 25 June
2011 Talk on Professional Practice, A-N Air Activists Salon, New Gallery London, 11 April 2011
2010 'The Emerging Potential of Painting in Architectural Design', The Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media Winter Symposium, University of Westminster, London, 16 December
2010 'Urban Complexity in Two Dimensions: Painting as Rhetorical Tool for Urban Planning', This Is Not A Gateway (TINAG) Festival on Cities, London, 24 October
2010 Artist Talk, St Cross College, University of Oxford, 4 Feb
2008 Artist Talk, Polish deConstruction, London, May
