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An 17ú Comhdháil de chuid Chumann na Taighde Ealaíonta (SAR)

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Submission Number: 294
Submission ID: 359
Submission UUID: 01c06be7-2cd8-4af2-ba2b-a6448652cf84

Cruthaithe: Sun, 1 Mar 2026 - 08:34
Déanta: Sun, 1 Mar 2026 - 08:42
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 08:14

Remote IP address: 23.94.233.2
Submitted by: Laura Yuile
Teanga: English

Is draft: Níl
Current page: webform_confirmation
Given name Laura
Surname Yuile
Email yuilelaura@gmail.com
I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'.
I agree to the terms of service.
Title ASSET ARREST: Haunting the spaces of financialized housing
Format Project presentation
Main language English
Abstract ASSET ARREST is an ongoing, long-term artistic research project that investigates the socio-spatial effects of financialised housing through fieldwork, and published mainly as a podcast series. Developed initially through research into housing speculation in the UK, the project operates as a methodological framework for examining how real estate systems shape everyday life, perception and urban narrative.

My relocation to China in 2023 expanded this inquiry into contexts frequently framed through the metaphor of the “ghost.” Terms such as “ghost city,” “ghost mall,” and “ghost development” circulate widely in Western media, where images of under-occupied Chinese urban environments are mobilised as shorthand for speculative excess and systemic failure. Rather than treating these metaphors as descriptive, this exploration approaches them as conceptual devices that organise how Chinese urbanisation becomes legible to distant audiences.

Drawing on field research conducted in Ordos’ Kangbashi district, the paper examines how the “ghost” condenses complex developmental temporalities into a singular aesthetic of absence. In doing so, it risks minoritising alternative urban conceptual worlds: processes of anticipation, phased inhabitation, infrastructural lag, and speculative continuity that resist the binary of success and failure.

Positioning ASSET ARREST as a practice of situated investigation, I explore how artistic research can intervene in this epistemic flattening. Through audio, field recording and observational methods, the project foregrounds slower, locally embedded accounts of development that exceed the spectacle of emptiness. Rather than seeking to correct representation, the research works to reopen the conceptual field within which urban futures are imagined, proposing artistic research as a means of engaging with precarious and partially unsayable forms of infrastructural knowledge.
Link to the Exposition https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=4217173
Image IMG_20210501_131813_edit_539895937417-1-1.jpeg
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Laura Yuile is an artist, researcher and lecturer in Digital Media Art, originally from Glasgow. Her practice examines financialised housing, retail infrastructures and spatial politics through installation, moving image, curatorial formats and long-term research platforms including ASSET ARREST and Museum of Modern Shopping. She holds a PhD in Visual Cultures from Northumbria University, supervised by Professor Andrea Phillips, and an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work has been exhibited internationally and engages feminist methodologies to explore how contemporary environments shape social and cultural experience.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research I have discussed the ASSET ARREST project at a number of public events in the past, but this will be my first post-China presentation that reflects upon my specific research conducted in the Chinese context. In this sense, it is an entirely new presentation on a long-term project that is constantly evovling.
Additional information N/A
Spatial and technical requirements This will be a spoken presentation, with a slide show of image/text/video material.
Potential risks or ethical concerns N/A
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An 17ú Comhdháil de chuid Chumann na Taighde Ealaíonta (SAR)

Welcome to SAR 2026

Endangered Conceptual Worlds

The 2026 International Forum on Artistic Research takes place from 23 to 26 June 2026. Hosted by the University of Galway on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, the Forum addresses the challenges of Endangered Conceptual Worlds. As the 17th annual conference of the Society for Artistic Research it is the largest conference on practice-based research within and through the arts, bringing together more than 300 international participants: leading practitioners, scholars and policymakers from the entire range of arts-based disciplines.

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Slightly extended deadline for submissions

The 2026 Forum on Artistic Research website has been inaccessible for several hours on Friday night and Saturday morning. Unfortunately, an update to the web server was scheduled to take place, which automatically activated maintenance mode and prevented any work on the submissions during the night and the next morning. We have therefore decided to slightly extend the deadline for submissions to Monday 2 March 2026 at 23:59 GMT. Feel free to work on your proposals until then.