ABOUT

Craig Stewart Johnson is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and organiser based in the North East of England.

He recently completed his PhD at Northumbria University with a research project titled The No-Audience Underground: Navigating Degrees of Autonomy in an Experimental Music Scene. This research is concerned with understanding how the collective action of individuals can maintain the conditions of possibility necessary to sustain the translocal music scene known as the no-audience underground amidst shifting social, technological, spatial and economic contexts. The research combined ethnographic, autoethnographic and practice-led methodologies to provide an embodied, critical understanding of how the practices of those active in the no-audience underground could be considered a framework musicking – a way of navigating the trajectory of the future.

His artistic practice spans recording and performance, alongside collage, print and installation – all of which are entangled with the aesthetics and infrastructures of DIY culture. Work is often themed around activities that occur in the in-between spaces of the quotidian, focussing in on the nuance of the often overlooked activities that sustain our everyday lives. Within this, his work hones in on the material and immaterial qualities of the space and places we traverse. His work is rooted in a desire to create a space for improvisation, experimentation and collaboration. All work is considered part of an ongoing, constantly shifting work-in-process – never finished, always under construction.

He currently performs solo under his given name and as Rovellasca, in the duos Liminal Haze and Limp Mode, alongside collaborating with a revolving cast of comrades across disciplines ranging from music and visual poetry to movement. Recorded material has been featured on labels including Steep Goss, Kirigirisu Records, Park 70 and Crow Versus Crow, alongside on Radiophrenia, Basic.Fm, Camp.Fm and Worm’s 25 Hour Radio Relay. His visual work has featured in spaces such as Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gallery North, 36 Gallery, Vane and Newcastle Contemporary Art.