The Glasgow School of Art

Francis McKee is a research fellow at The Glasgow School of Art. His research interests include the exploration of open source theory as a potential economic model within the arts, the role of the archive in contemporary art, and modes of curatorial practice.

Early studies of open source models were presented in an exhibition in Scotland Europa’s office in Scotland House, Brussels. The exhibition, Agile Process: A New Economy for Digital Arts in Scotland, was accompanied by a creative industries symposium and focused on future models for the creative economy in Scotland.

In 2006 when McKee became director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, he restructured the organisation and the use of the building, experimenting with the use of open source as both a management tool and a curatorial approach to sharing usage of the buildings resources. This has proven successful within the context of the CCA and it is being studied by other organisations seeking an alternative economic model in a climate of recession.

In 2011, McKee has been lead researcher in an AHRC funded project entitled ‘The Glasgow Miracle’. This project centres on the process of archiving forty years material from the Third Eye Centre and the CCA. Though this work it should be possible to trace a timeline through a vital period in Glasgow cultural development, relating the archival material to the wider development of the arts and the arts infrastructure in the city. For McKee, this also provides case studies in curatorial developments over that time frame that can be viewed with a much wider international perspective. Equally, it demands an examination of the role of the archive in an artistic community and a consideration of the role of the archive in contemporary art practice.