Ele Carpenter

Curator, artist and writer specialising in socio-political contexts and collaborative cultural practice. She is teacher at Goldsmiths College London and post-doctorate researcher of the HUMlab in Sweden.

Ele Carpenter is a curator, artist and writer based in the UK and Sweden. She is a lecturer in MFA Curating at Goldsmiths College University of London, and is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at HUMlab in affiliation with BildMuseet at the University of Umeå in Sweden. Her curatorial practice responds to specific socio-political cultural contexts in collaboration with individuals, groups and organisations.

Since 2005 Ele has facilitated the Open Source Embroidery project using embroidery and code as a tool to investigate participatory production and distribution methods. The project presents contemporary artworks that explore how the open source software development model has been incorporated into the language of cultural participation, involving interdisciplinary approaches to skill-share and collaboration. It includes material and digital works that make visible the physical characteristics of technology and of social communications networks.

Ele received her PhD on the relationship between politicised socially engaged art and new media art, with CRUMB at the University of Sunderland in 2008; she was previously Curator, NGCA Sunderland (1997-2002) and Associate Curator, CCA Glasgow (2003-2005).