The Groan Zone: Towards a Radical Grammar of Consent for Horizontal Collaboration

The Groan Zone.pdf V0.1 of my MA thesis on consent in horizontal collaboration is now online. It explores the feminist critique of a simplistic "yes means yes and no means no" model of consent, asking how we might radically re-frame consent as an ongoing collaboration. The thesis looks at emerging feminist practices of consent, and argues that their demand for a tolerance of indecision and inaction is, far from being a weakness, their strongest ethical proposal. It goes on to ask how we might apply this feminist practice of consent beyond sexual negotiation, in particular asking how a tolerance for indecision could be applicable in collaborative artistic production - where the imperative for a clear 'outcome' can often appear to rule out a fully consensual process.

With thanks to Clare Cochrane, Suzanne Holsomback and Karen Kerney for their interviews, and to Steve Rushton, Aymeric Mansoux Michael Murtaugh and Femke Snelting for brain input.