Welcome
Welcome to Goldsmiths Library. This Subject Guide is designed to give you a good overview of the general and more specialist resources available to the Art department. Your dedicated Subject Librarian is Jessa Mockridge. If you have any questions about using the library, finding resources, or referencing, please get in touch or book a one-to one-appointment. You can book an in-person or online appointment depending on your availability / preference. Online appointments will be held on Microsoft Teams.
Library Induction
For a quick introduction (6 minutes) to using the library you can take our online quiz. If you're looking for a more in-depth overview of the library watch the induction video below.
Access to e-resources
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Electronic ResourcesUse the 'A to Z' below to find links to full-text e-journal databases, on-line indexes and bibliographic databases.
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E-JournalsUse BrowZine to easily browse, read, and monitor thousands of journals.
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Senate House LibraryGoldsmiths students and staff can self-register for instant access to most of Senate House Library’s databases and e-resources by following the steps on our Library Guide.
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Special Collections and ArchiveWhile students, staff and external researchers are unable to access the tens of thousands of physical items in our collections, we can make available many digital versions.
Selected online Library resources for Fine Art
Useful collections of e-books to search
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Duke University Press This link opens in a new windowGoldsmiths subscription to selected e-journals.
In Library Search
Direct links to e-books on Library Search
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One Place after Another by A critical history of site-specific art since the late 1960s. Site-specific art emerged in the late 1960s in reaction to the growing commodification of art and the prevailing ideals of art's autonomy and universality. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as site-specific art intersected with land art, process art, performance art, conceptual art, installation art, institutional critique, community-based art, and public art, its creators insisted on the inseparability of the work and its context. In recent years, however, the presumption of unrepeatability and immobility encapsulated in Richard Serra's famous dictum "to remove the work is to destroy the work" is being challenged by new models of site specificity and changes in institutional and market forces. One Place after Another offers a critical history of site-specific art since the late 1960s and a theoretical framework for examining the rhetoric of aesthetic vanguardism and political progressivism associated with its many permutations. Informed by urban theory, postmodernist criticism in art and architecture, and debates concerning identity politics and the public sphere, the book addresses the siting of art as more than an artistic problem. It examines site specificity as a complex cipher of the unstable relationship between location and identity in the era of late capitalism. The book addresses the work of, among others, John Ahearn, Mark Dion, Andrea Fraser, Donald Judd, Renee Green, Suzanne Lacy, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Richard Serra, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Fred Wilson. . Informed by urban theory, postmodernist criticism in art and architecture, and debates concerning identity politics and the public sphere, the book addresses the siting of art as more than an artistic problem. It examines site specificity as a complex cipher of the unstable relationship between location and identity in the era of late capitalism. The book addresses the work of, among others, John Ahearn, Mark Dion, Andrea Fraser, Donald Judd, Renee Green, Suzanne Lacy, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Richard Serra, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Fred Wilson.. Informed by urban theory, postmodernist criticism in art and architecture, and debates concerning identity politics and the public sphere, the book addresses the siting of art as more than an artistic problem. It examines site specificity as a complex cipher of the unstable relationship between location and identity in the era of late capitalism. The book addresses the work of, among others, John Ahearn, Mark Dion, Andrea Fraser, Donald Judd, Renee Green, Suzanne Lacy, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Richard Serra, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Fred Wilson.. Informed by urban theory, postmodernist criticism in art and architecture, and debates concerning identity politics and the public sphere, the book addresses the siting of art as more than an artistic problem. It examines site specificity as a complex cipher of the unstable relationship between location and identity in the era of late capitalism. The book addresses the work of, among others, John Ahearn, Mark Dion, Andrea Fraser, Donald Judd, Renee Green, Suzanne Lacy, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Richard Serra, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Fred Wilson.nne Lacy, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Richard Serra, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Fred Wilson.ISBN: 9780262277808Publication Date: 2004-02-27 -
Keywords by First published in 1976, Raymond Williams' highly acclaimed Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society is a collection of lively essays on words that are critical to understanding the modern world. In these essays, Williams, a renowned cultural critic, demonstrates how these key words take on new meanings and how these changes reflect the political bent and values of our past and current society. He chose words both essential and intangible--words like nature, underprivileged, industry, liberal, violence, to name a few--and, by tracing their etymology and evolution, grounds them in a wider political and cultural framework. The result is an illuminating account of the central vocabulary of ideological debate in English in the modern period. This edition features a new original foreword by Colin MacCabe, Distinguished Professor of English and Literature, University of Pittsburgh, that reflects on the significance of Williams' life and work. Keywords remains as relevant today as it was over thirty years ago, offering a provocative study of our language and an insightful look at the society in which we live.ISBN: 9780199393213Publication Date: 2014-11-07 -
The Undercommons by In this series of essays Fred Moten and Stefano Harney draw on the theory and practice of the black radical tradition as it supports, inspires and extends contemporary social and political thought and aesthetic critique. Today the general wealth of social life finds itself confronted by mutations in the mechanisms of control, from the proliferation of capitalist logistics through governance by credit and management of pedagogy. Working from and within the social poesis of life in the undercommons Moten and Harney develop and expand an array of concepts.ISBN: 9781570272677Publication Date: 2013-05-01 -
Twentieth-Century Performance Reader by The Twentieth Century Performance Readeris the key introductory text to all types of performance. Extracts from fifty practitioners, critics and theorists from the fields of dance, drama, music, theatre and live art make up an essential sourcebook for students, researchers and practitioners. A bestseller since its publication in 1996, this second edition has been fully updated and includes: * New writings by practitioners and theorists * Notes about each writer * A completely new introduction. Each extract is fully supplemented by a contextual summary, a biography of the writer, and suggestions for further reading. Organised alphabetically, this reader makes it possible to compare major writings on all types of performance in one volume. The ways in which different performance practitioners' ideas inter-relate are pointed out in a series of detailed cross-references for readers. In so doing it becomes clear that one of the key features of twenty first century performance is its boundlessness and its capacity to cross borders. All who enjoy or work with live innovative performance will find this book invaluable.ISBN: 9780415252874Publication Date: 2002-09-13 -
Decolonizing Methodologies by To the colonized, the term 'research' is conflated with European colonialism; the ways in which academic research has been implicated in the throes of imperialism remains a painful memory. This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research - specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as 'regimes of truth.' Concepts such as 'discovery' and 'claiming' are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonization of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. Now in its eagerly awaited second edition, this bestselling book has been substantially revised, with new case-studies and examples and important additions on new indigenous literature, the role of research in indigenous struggles for social justice, which brings this essential volume urgently up-to-date.ISBN: 9781848139503Publication Date: 2012-05-10 -
Ordinary Lives by This new study from Ben Highmore looks at the seemingly banal world of objects, work, daily media, and food, and finds there a scintillating array of passionate experience. Through a series of case studies, and building on his previous work on the everyday, Highmore examines our relationship to familiar objects (a favourite chair), repetitive work (housework, typing), media (distracted television viewing and radio listening) and food (specifically the food of multicultural Britain). A chair allows him to consider the history of flat-pack furniture as well as the lively presence of inorganic 'stuff' in our daily lives. Distracted television watching and radio listening becomes one of the preconditions for experiencing wonder through the media. Ordinary Lives links the concrete study of routine existence to theoretical reflection on everyday life. The book discusses philosophers such as Jacques Rancière, William James and David Hume and combines them with autobiographical testimonies, historical research and the analysis of popular culture to investigate the minutiae of day-to-day life. Highmore argues that aesthetic experience is embedded in the mundane sensory world of everyday life. He asks the reader to reconsider the negative associations of habit and routine, focusing specifically on the intrinsic ambiguity of habit (habit, we find out, is both rigid and adaptive). Rather than ask 'what does everyday life mean?' this book asks 'what does everyday life feel like and how do our sensual, emotional and temporal experiences interconnect and intersect?' Ordinary Lives is an accessible, animated and engaging book that is ideally suited to both students and researchers working in cultural studies, media and communication and sociology.ISBN: 9780203842379Publication Date: 2010-09-13 -
Performing Memory in Art and Popular Culture by This volume pursues a new line of research in cultural memory studies by understanding memory as a performative act in art and popular culture. The authors take their cue from the observation that art and popular culture enact memory and generate processes of memory. They do memory, and in this doing of memory new questions about the cultural dimensions of memory arise: How do art objects and artistic practices perform the past in the present? What is their relationship to the archive? Does the past speak in the performed past (or do we speak to it)? To what purpose do objects "recall"? And for whom do they recollect? Here authors combine a methodological focus on memory as performance with a theoretical focus on art and popular culture as practices of remembrance. The essays in the book thus analyze what is at stake in the complex processes of remembering and forgetting, of recollecting and disremembering, of amnesia and anamnesis, that make up cultural memory.ISBN: 9780415811408Publication Date: 2013-03-04 -
Unmarked by Unmarked is a controversial analysis of the fraught relation between political and representational visibility in contemporary culture. Written from and for the Left, Unmarked rethinks the claims of visibility politics through a feminist psychoanalytic examination of specific performance texts - including photography, painting, film, theatre and anti-abortion demonstrations.ISBN: 0415068223Publication Date: 1993-02-19 -
Artificial Hells by Since the 1990s, critics and curators have broadly accepted the notion that participatory art is the ultimate political art: that by encouraging an audience to take part an artist can promote new emancipatory social relations. Around the world, the champions of this form of expression are numerous, ranging from art historians such as Grant Kester, curators such as Nicolas Bourriaud and Nato Thompson, to performance theorists such as Shannon Jackson. Artificial Hells is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, known in the US as "social practice." Claire Bishop follows the trajectory of twentieth-century art and examines key moments in the development of a participatory aesthetic. This itinerary takes in Futurism and Dada; the Situationist International; Happenings in Eastern Europe, Argentina and Paris; the 1970s Community Arts Movement; and the Artists Placement Group. It concludes with a discussion of long-term educational projects by contemporary artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tania Bruguera, Pawe? Althamer and Paul Chan. Since her controversial essay in Artforum in 2006, Claire Bishop has been one of the few to challenge the political and aesthetic ambitions of participatory art. In Artificial Hells, she not only scrutinizes the emancipatory claims made for these projects, but also provides an alternative to the ethical (rather than artistic) criteria invited by such artworks. Artificial Hells calls for a less prescriptive approach to art and politics, and for more compelling, troubling and bolder forms of participatory art and criticism.ISBN: 9781844676903Publication Date: 2012-07-24
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Art & Architecture Source This link opens in a new windowArt & Architecture Source (previously Art Source) covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. Providing over 600 full-text journals, more than 220 full-text books, and a collection of over 63,0000 images, it is designed for use by a diverse audience, including art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers.
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JSTOR Art and Sciences Collections I-XV This link opens in a new windowGoldsmiths members have access to JSTOR Arts & Sciences collections I-XV. The collections provide access to an archival back run of each journal, often dating back to Vol.1. Current journals are subject to a "moving wall" of access between 2 and 5 years behind the most recently published issue.
Arts & Sciences journals archives is one of several JSTOR databases Goldsmiths have access to. See here for a full list.
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ProQuest Databases This link opens in a new windowProQuest supply us with over 20 databases. Here they are grouped into subject areas allowing you to search several databases at once. Note that all the databases can also be searched separately and are included in this A-Z list.
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Artfilms This link opens in a new windowArtfilms-Digital is the video streaming service of Contemporary Arts Media and Artfilms, offering more than 5000 films from around the world for arts education and arts practitioners.
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Dis.art This link opens in a new windowDIS is a streaming platform for entertainment and education — edutainment. We enlist leading artists and thinkers to expand the reach of key conversations bubbling up through contemporary art, culture, activism, philosophy, and technology. Every video proposes something — a solution, a question — a way to think about our shifting reality.
Not in Library Search
