Estovers is a practice-based research project on the concept of the commons in contemporary art. It comprises a thesis, and an accompanying portfolio of documentation which is available as audio and transcript on a USB ‘stick’ and as a printed publication.

This thesis project considers the research questions: What is the concept of the commons when it is referred to in contemporary art? For what reasons is it being employed as a concept in discursive practices?

Practice-based research activity is documented through discursive curation and participation in programmes at Scottish art institutions between 2012 and 2015. Projects were undertaken in collaboration with Jupiter Artland, Transmission Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Centre for Contemporary Arts, New Glasgow Society and Collective.

Through the use of the concept of ‘estovers’, the methodology explicitly uses the concept of the commons as a mechanism to open up the process of research and the dissemination of knowledge on the topic.

The thesis considers a broad history of commons projects. The timeframe of consideration runs from the publication of the Magna Carta, through to the Occupy movement of the early 21st century. Political philosophy confers an ethical duty on the concept of the commons, considering Roberto Esposito’s description of munus in Communitas as ‘the gift that one gives because one must give and because one cannot not give’.