This spring Sert Practitioner Phil Collins led a workshop with Harvard University students titled I Fought the Law: _______________. Students collaborated with Collins to explore questions around authority, systems of power, outlets of protests, and modes of radicalization by selecting and conductinginterviews with individuals close to home or geographically far-flung. The interviewees could range from renowned experts in a field of study or personal contacts in an immediate social circle. In all cases, students sought out persons who embody a challenge to authority and critique against systems and control. Utilizing music as a prompt, students asked each interviewee to speak about musical tracks that represent transformative or memorable moments in their lives. Music—as Collins has drawn on in past projects—was used to ignite and unite unexpected intersections of popular culture, politics, social realities, and everyday life. Each interview uniquely completing the subtitle to the workshop: I Fought the Law: _______________. The student then produced an eight-minute radio segments for broadcast on Harvard Radio Broadcasting WHRB 93.5 FM. 

Tune in to WHRB 93.5 FM (broadcast date coming soon). All segments will also be available online. 

2016 Sert Practitioner participants
Andrea Carrillo Iglesias, Casey Moore and Euneika Rogers-Sipp. Technical support from Taylor Morris, Aditya Raguram and Edward Vasquez.

Phil Collins

Phil Collins is a British-born filmmaker, visual artist, cultural organizer, and educator based in Berlin and Wuppertal. His diverse practice is characterized by close engagements with place and communities, which over the years have included, amongst others, disco-dancing Palestinians, fans of The Smiths across three continents, Kosovan-Albanian refugees, the youth of Baghdad, anti-fascist skinheads in Malaysia, the homeless population of Cologne, and teachers of Marxism-Leninism from the former German Democratic Republic. Rather than static portraits, the works resulting from these collaborations articulate the nuances of relations embedded in the aesthetic regimes and economies that define everyday existence, from news and politics to entertainment and shopping. Throughout, Collins upholds a commitment to myriad forms of experience across the social spectrum, and an interest in the contradictory impulses of intimacy and desire within the public sphere. 

Collins’s works are represented in collections such as those of Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Tate Gallery, London; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In Spring 2016 his first feature film Tomorrow Is Always Too Long (2014) will be theatrically released in Germany.

Since 2011 Collins is Professor of Video Art and Performance at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.

Josep Lluis Sert Practitioner in the Arts

The Josep Lluis Sert Practitioner in the Arts is supported by a generous gift of the late Robert Gardner. It is an invitation to a distinguished artist to spend several days in residence at the Carpenter Center, engaged with students and other members of the academic community in a variety of possible activities.

WHRB 95.3FM
For over seventy years, 95.3FM has been Boston's source for exciting, entertaining, and enlightening music broadcasts. Harvard Radio's daily broadcast of Classical music, Jazz, and underground Rock explore a great repertoire of music left largely untouched by other commercial stations. WHRB's weekend lineup features Blues and Hip-Hop, as well as Boston's beloved Hillbilly at Harvard, WHRB News, and Harvard Sports.

Phil Collins: A Learning Site

Phil Collins: A Learning Site is a constellation of curatorial and academic activities dedicated to experiencing and studying the work of one of contemporary art’s most engaging voices. Support for Phil Collins: A Learning Site is partially provided by the Film Study Center at Harvard University, Harvard Film Archive, and the Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities.