Anthony Downey
Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa
- Email:
- anthony.downey@bcu.ac.uk
- Phone:
- 0121 331 5970
Dr Anthony Downey is Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa (Birmingham City University), where his research and teaching focuses on contemporary visual cultures and practice-based research, postcolonial theory and praxis, digital methodologies, machine vision and AI, pedagogical networks, and interdisciplinary knowledge production. In his role as Associate Director of Research for External Funding, Anthony oversees AHRC funding application development and supports REF research outputs for early career and senior career researchers. He co-convenes the Art Activisms (AA) research cluster at Birmingham Institute of Creative Arts (BICA), where he develops collaborative partnerships across Birmingham and internationally.
In his capacity as BCU lead, he is the Cultural and Commissioning Lead on a four-year £2.2 million Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project (where his research focuses on decolonizing knowledge systems, institutional development, and the expansion of educational and cultural provision for people with disabilities in Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Jordan). The latter award was preceded by an AHRC Development Award (2019-2021).
Anthony is an editor at three Peer-Reviewed, Open Access journals, including Third Text (Routledge), Journal of Digital War (Palgrave MacMillan), and Memory, Mind & Media (Cambridge University Press). He is also the series editor for Research/Practice (Sternberg Press).
Recent and upcoming publications include Decolonising Vision: Algorithmic Anxieties and the Post-Digital Image (forthcoming, MIT Press, 2024); Nida Sinnokrot: Palestine is Not a Garden (Sternberg Press/MIT Press, 2024); Trevor Paglen: Adversarially Evolved Hallucinations (Sternberg Press/MIT Press, 2024); Khalil Rabah: Falling Forward-Works 1995- 2025 (Sharjah Art Foundation and Hatje Cantz, 2023); Shona Illingworth: Topologies of Air (Sternberg Press/Power Plant, 2022); Heba Y. Amin: The General's Stork (Sternberg Press, 2020); Larissa Sansour: Heirloom (Sternberg Press, 2020), Michael Rakowitz: I'm good at love, I'm good at hate, it's in between I freeze (Sternberg Press, 2019); Critique in Practice (Sternberg Press, 2019); Future Imperfect: Contemporary Art Practices and Cultural Institutions in the Middle East (Sternberg Press, 2016); and Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2015).
Current Activity
Anthony is currently working on a series of funding applications, including one for the UKRI cross research council responsive mode pilot scheme, and supporting colleagues in their preparation and submission of research funding applications to the Leverhulme Trust, AHRC, and British Academy. This is part of ongoing discussions about BCU’s Research Strategy and Action Plan for 2025.
As part of his four-year AHRC-funded project, Anthony is also mentoring and supporting the successful recipients for the Research and Engagement funding call (valued at 150,000GBP each) and a series of projects for the Network and Knowledge Exchange awards (valued at 30,000GBP each). The AHRC-funded project will form the basis of Impact Case Study for REF 2028.
Alongside his PhD tutoring and other activities, Anthony is also preparing his manuscript, Decolonising Vision: Algorithmic Anxieties and the Post-Digital Image, for publication (forthcoming, MIT Press, 2024). In 2024, he will publish Nida Sinnokrot: Palestine is Not a Garden (Sternberg Press/MIT Press, 2024) and Trevor Paglen: Adversarially Evolved Hallucinations (Sternberg Press/MIT Press, 2024).
As part of his editorial roles, he is currently co-editing a Special Issue of Digital War (due to be published in 2024) and editing a Special Issue of Memory, Mind & Media (forthcoming 2025) The latter focuses on mnemo-technical devices, practice-based research, and post-colonial epistemologies. These outputs will be submitted as part of Anthony’s REF return in 2028.
Areas of Expertise
- Transnational and post-colonial cultural practices
- The politics of cultural production in the Middle East and Global South
- Decolonizing knowledge and pedagogical systems
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and bias
- Digital methodologies and visual cultures
- Digital media and human rights
- Civil society and collaborative art practices
- New media, art and terrorism
- Bio-politics and migration
Qualifications
- PhD, Goldsmiths College, London (awarded 2006)
- Master of Arts (with Distinction), Goldsmiths College, 1996-1997
- Bachelors of Arts (First Class Honours), Birkbeck College, 1992-1995
Memberships
- Editor, Third Text (Routledge)
- Editor, Digital War (Palgrave MacMillan)
- Editor, Journal of Memory, Mind & Media (Cambridge University Press).
- Editor-in-Chief, Ibraaz (www.ibraaz.org)
- Advisory Board, Understanding Displacement Aesthetics and Making Change in the Art Gallery with Refugees, Migrants and Host Communities, Manchester University
- Consultant Editor, The Open Journal (Open University)
- Advisory Board, Kamel Lazaar Foundation (Tunisia)
- Trustee of Strange Cargo (UK)
- Trustee of Arts Cabinet (UK)
Teaching
Level 6 MA (ADM)
Undergraduate Programme, Art, Design, and Media
Anthony's teaching focuses on the politics of global contemporary art practices; post- and anti-colonial theory; contemporary research practices and knowledge production in visual culture; human rights, bio-politics and migration; new media, collaborative and participative art practices; and contemporary cultural production in the Maghreb, the Middle East and Global South.
Research
- Contemporary Cultural Production in the Maghreb, the Middle East and Global South
- Digital Methodologies and Practice-Based Research
- Neoliberalism, Globalisation, and Cultural Critique
- Artificial Intelligence and Targeted Disinformation in a Post-Truth age
- Human Rights, Bio-politics, and Migration in Contemporary Art Practices
- New media, Performativity and Civil Society
- Public Space and Collaborative Art Practices
Postgraduate Supervision
PhD Supervision
- Yining He, Neo-Geopolitics: Decolonial Practices from Chinese Visual Arts since 2008
- Roo Dhissou, Cultural Dysphoria: Exploring British Asian Female Identities Through Arts Practices- AHRC Funded
- Lisa Deml, Spectatorship and Citizen Reporting after the Arab Uprisings - AHRC Funded
- Pierre D'Alancaisez, A skills gap in political and social art: evaluating and shaping the agency and impact of contemporary visual arts practices through non-arts competences.
Recently Graduated PhDs:
- Jacob Koster (Critical Practices in Contemporary Art) -AHRC Funded
- Nat Muller (Futurism in Contemporary Arab Art) -AHRC Funded
- Khulod Albugami (Installation Art as a Tool for Social Change: A Case Study of Saudi Contemporary Art)
- Rawan Sharaf Khatib (The Role Played by Palestinian Cultural Institution in the Formation and Transformation of Palestinian Visual / Cultural Identity)
External Co-Supervision of PhDs:
- Heba Y. Amin, doctoral fellow in art history at Freie Universitat, Berlin (Co-Supervisor)
- Anastasia Shanaah, doctoral fellow, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University (Co-supervisor)
Publications
Selected Books and Edited Volumes
- Downey, A., Decolonising Vision: Algorithmic Anxieties and the Post-Digital Image (forthcoming, MIT Press: 2024)
- Downey, A., Nida Sinnokrot: Palestine is Not a Garden (Sternberg Press/MIT Press, forthcoming, 2024) ISBN: 9783956796302
- Downey, A., Trevor Paglen: Adversarially Evolved Hallucinations (Sternberg Press/MIT Press, forthcoming, 2024), ISBN 9783956795831
- Downey, A., Khalil Rabah: Falling Forward-Works 1995- 2025 (Sharjah Art Foundation and Hatje Cantz, 2023), ISBN 978-3-7757-5405-7
- Downey, A., Shona Illingworth: Topologies of Air (Sternberg Press and The Power Plant, 2021), ISBN: 9783956795534
- Downey, A., Heba Y. Amin: The General's Stork (Sternberg, 2020), ISBN 9783956794780
- Downey, A., Larissa Sansour: Heirloom (Sternberg Press, 2019), ISBN: 9783956794759
- Downey, A., Michael Rakowitz: I'm good at love, I'm good at hate, it's in between I freeze (Sternberg Press, 2019), ISBN: 9783956794766
- Downey, A., Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens' Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (Sternberg Press, 2019). ISBN: ISBN: 9783956795053
- Downey, A., La Primavera Árabe y el invierno del desencanto: PrÁcticas artisticas y medios digitales en el Norte de África y Oriente Medio (Ripio Press, 2019), ISBN: 978-987-46999-1-6
- Downey, A., Transposing the Vernacular: Moving Images in the Work of Akram Zaatari, New Art Exchange, 2018, ISBN: 978-0-9932659-8-3
- Downey, A., Don't Shrink Me to the Size of a Bullet: The Works of Hiwa K (Walter Koenig Books, 2017) ISBN 978-3-96098-160-2
- Downey, A., Future Imperfect: Cultural Institutions and Contemporary Art Practices in the Middle East (Sternberg Press, 2016) ISBN 978-3-95679-246-5
- Downey, A., Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2015) ISBN 978-1-784-53-4110
- Downey, A., Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Critical Practice in North Africa and the Middle East (I.B.Tauris, 2014) ISBN 978
- Downey, A., Art and Politics Now (Thames and Hudson, 2014) ISBN 978-0-500-29147-4 1784530358
Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Essays and Chapters in Books
- "Algorithmic Pathologies and Post-Colonial Futures", Digital War, Vol. 3, issue 3-4 (January, 2024)
- "The Future of Death: Algorithmic Design, Phantasmagorical Subjects, and Drone Warfare", in The Aesthetics of War: Art, Technology, Time, ed. Jens Bjering et al. (MIT Press, forthcoming, 2024).
- "Practice as Precedent: Digital Epistemologies and the Techno-Politics of Archiving a Revolution", in Joe F. Khalil, et al., The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023).
- "The Algorithmic Apparatus of Neo-Colonialism", in Vision & Verticality: A Sociology of the Sky, ed. Gary Bratchford and Dennis Zuev (Palgrave, 2023).
- "Topologies of Air and the Airspace Tribunal: Shona Illingworth and Anthony Downey". Philosophy of Photography, Vol. 12. https://doi.org/10.1386/pop_00046_7
- "Witness statements and the technologies of memory: A conversation between Heba Y. Amin, Anthony Downey, Helene Kazan, Naeem Mohaiemen, and Susan Schuppli." Memory, Mind & Media, Vol. 1. doi:10.1017/mem.2022.10
- "Programmed Visions and Techno-Fossils: Heba Y Amin and Anthony Downey in conversation". Third Text, July 2022
- "The Algorithmic Apparatus of Neocolonialism: Counter-Operational Practices and the Future Of Aerial Surveillance", in Downey, A., ed., Shona Illingworth: Topologies of Air (Sternberg Press, 2022)
- "Calculating Skies". MIT Press Reader, April 2022
- "After Mosul: The Cultural Economy of Destruction and Reconstruction", in Terrorism and the Arts (edited by Jonathan Harris, Routledge Press, forthcoming 2021).
- "The Future of Protest in a Post-Digital Age", in The Protest and the Recuperation, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 2021
- Downey, A, Heba Y. Amin, Abdelkarim Mardini, and Adel Iskandar, "Egypt's 2011 Internet Shutdown: Digital Dissent and the Future of Public Memory" Camera Austria, March, 2021.
- Amin, H, and Downey, A., "A Brief History of Drone Warfare" Frieze, October, 2020.
- Amin, H.Y., Downey, A. "Contesting Post-digital Futures: Drone Warfare and the Geo-politics of Aerial Surveillance in the Middle East", Journal of Digital War (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s42984-020-00021-y
- Amin, H.Y., Downey, A. "Avian Prophecies and the Techno-Aesthetics of Drone Warfare", in (W)ARCHIVES: Archival Imaginaries, War, and Contemporary Art, ed. Daniela Agostinho, Solveig Gade, Nanna Bonde Thylstrup and Kristin Veel (Sternberg Press, 2020), ISBN: 9783956794568
- Downey, A. and Sansour, L. "Epigenetics and Speculative Research" MIT Press Reader, April 2020
- - "Where Is The Knowledge We Have Lost in Information": Speculative Research and Digital Methodologies', in Balaskas and Rito, eds., Institution as Praxis: New Curatorial Directions for Collaborative Research (Sternberg Press, 2020) ISBN 978-3-95679-506-0
- Downey, A, and Rakowitz, M. "Leonard Cohen and the Concert That Never Was", MIT Press Reader, February, 2020
- Downey, A, and Paglen, T. "Algorithmic Anxieties" Trevor, Journal of Digital War, Vol. 1, No. 1. (2020), ISSN: 2662-1975 (print); ISSN: 2662-1983 (electronic)
- "Is There a Right Way to Do Wrong? Enjoy Poverty and the Case Against Ethics" in Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens' Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (Sternberg Press, 2019).
- "Hiwa K: Interview with Anthony Downey and Amal Khalaf" in Brayshaw, T., Fenemore, A. and Witts, N. The Twenty-First Century Performance Reader (forthcoming, Routledge, 2019)
- "The Politics of Shame: Ai Weiwei in conversation with Anthony Downey", The Large Glass: Journal of Contemporary Art, Culture and Theory, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje (Macedonia), No. 25 / 26, 2018, pp. 28-42. ISSN: 1409 -; 5823
- "Where to Now?: Imminent Impermanence in the Work of Sheela Gowda", in Sheela Gowda, Ikon Gallery, November 2017. ISBN 978-1-911155-10-2
- "Scopic Reflections: Incoming and the Technology of Exceptionalism", in Richard Mosse, Barbican Art Gallery, March 2017, ISBN 9780995708204
- "Exemplary Subjects: Camps and the Politics of Representation", in Giorgio Agamben: Legal, Political and Philosophical Perspectives. Ed. Tom Frost. Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2013. 119-42.
- "Zones of Indistinction: Giorgio Agamben's 'Bare Life' and the Politics of Aesthetics", in Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985. Eds. Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 416-35.
- "Zu Giorgio Agamben: Das Nackte Leben' Und Die Politik Der Asthetik", in Open Space: Schnittpunkte Aktueller Kunstpraxis. Ed. Gulsen Bal. Vienna: Divus, 2010. 64-79.
- "The Production of Cultural Knowledge in the Middle East Today", in Art & Patronage in the Middle East. Eds. Hossein Amirsadeghi and Maryam Homayoun. Eisler. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. 10-15.
- "127 Cuerpos: Teresa Margolles and the Aesthetics of Commemoration", in Understanding Art Objects: Thinking through the Eye. Farnham: Lund Humphries, 2009. 104-13.
- "An Ethics of Engagement: Collaborative Art Practices and the Return of the Ethnographer", in Third Text 23.5, 2009. 593-603.
- "Towards a Politics of (Relational) Aesthetics", in Third Text 3rd. 21.3, 2007: 267-75.
- "Critical Imperatives: Notes on Contemporary Art Criticism and African Cultural Production"", in Wasafiri 21.1, 2006. 39-48.
- "Yinka Shonibare in conversation with Anthony Downey", in BOMB 93, Fall 2005.
- "Curating Africa: - Africa Remix' and the Categorical Dilemma", in Wasafiri 45.2, 2005. 47-55.
- "The Spectacular Difference of Documenta 11", in Third Text 17.1, 2003. 85-92.
Selected Keynotes, Conference Papers, and Presentations
2023
- Keynote: "Decolonising Machine Vision:, Aksioma, Ljubljana, 06/03/2023
- Presentation (with Maya Indira Ganesh): Neo-colonial Visions: Artificial Intelligence and Epistemic Violence, Paul Mellon Centre, London, 15/03/2023
- Lecture: Decolonising Artificial Intelligence: Visual Strategies and Digital Methodologies in a Post-Digital Age, Institute of Criminology, Ljubljana, 07/03/2023
- Book Launch: Topologies of Air (Ed. A. Downey, 2022), Imperial War Museum, London, 10/02/2023
- Presentation (with Alaa Mansour and Lesia Kulchynska): How an Image Matters, Transmediale, Berlin, 02/02/2023
2022
- Keynote: Algorithmic Command: Digital Archives, Data Sets, and Neo-Colonial Futures, Impulse Symposium at the University of Munster, Germany, 01/10/2022
- Round Table Discussion with Heba Y. Amin, Anthony Downey, Maya Indira Ganesh, and Ana Teixeira Pinto accompanied by the catalogue launch of When I See the Future, I Close my Eyes: Chapter II, Zilberman Gallery, Berlin, 30/07/22
- Keynote: Heba Y. Amin & Anthony Downey: Aerial Prophecies: Digital Methodologies and the Practice of Research, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 02/07/22
- Talk: Programmed Visions and Techno-Fossils: Heba Y Amin and Anthony Downey in conversation, Zilberman Gallery (Berlin) 01/05/22
- New Journal Launch: Memory, Mind and Media (Cambridge University Press), 02/02/2022
2021
- Symposium Co-Convenor (with Heba Y. Amin): Archiving Future Knowledge Systems, Online Panel Discussion, 27/05/21
- Symposium Co-Convenor (with Heba Y. Amin): Witness Statements and Technologies of Memory, Online Panel Discussion, 13/05/21
- Book Launch: (W)archives. Archival Imaginaries, War, and Contemporary Art, Mosaic Rooms, London, 25/02/21
- Public Talk: Egypt's 2011 Internet Shutdown: Digital Dissent and the Future of Public Memory, Mosaic Rooms, London, 28/01/21
- Symposium Co-Convenor (with Carolina Rito), Practice Research: Interdisciplinary Methodologies in Cultural Institutions and HEIs, in collaboration with the AHRC Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Programme, 10/06/2021
- Public Talk: "The Future of Protest in a Post-Digital Age", Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 26/03/2021
2020
- Launch of the Journal of Digital War (Palgrave/ Macmillan, 2020), Mosaic Rooms, London, 2020/04/11
- Symposium Co-Convenor (with Heba Y. Amin): Collective Infrastructures and Knowledge Production in a Post-Digital Age, Mosaic Rooms, London, 2020/12/11
- Book Publication: Heba Y. Amin: The General's Stork (Sternberg Press, 2020), Mosaic Rooms, London, 2020/07/10:
- Book Launch and Talk: The Matter of Critique, Tate Liverpool, April 30, 2020
- Book Launch: Research/Practice 02: Heba Y Amin: The General's Stork, HKW, Berlin, April 16, 2020
- Book Launch: Balaskas and Rito, eds., Institution as Praxis: New Curatorial Directions for Collaborative Research, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, March 26, 2020
2019
- Book Launch: Research/Practice 03: Larissa Sansour: Heirloom, Copenhagen Contemporary, December 12, 2019.
- Public Talk: "Beyond the Arab Uprisings: Cultural Activism and the Rise of Digital Authoritarianism in a Post-Truth Age", Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, December 12, 2019.
- Lecture and PhD Workshop: "The Politics of Visual Culture in the Middle East and Global South", Graduate School, Arts at Aarhus University, December 10, 2019
- Public Talk: "Performing Rights", Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL, London, 14 November, 2019
- Public Talk: Trevor Paglen in conversation with Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 26 September, 2019
- Keynote: "The Future of the Networked Image: Digital Archives in a - Post Truth' Age", Irish Museum of Modern Art Summer School, Dublin, June 11, 2019
- Public Talk: Performing Rights, TrAIN Open Lecture, UAL, London, 24 Apr 2019
- Public Talk: "Applied Futures", The (Networked) Image in Conflict: Cultural Activism and Visual Culture, Modern Art Oxford, April 4, 2019
- Conference Paper: "Conditions of Possibility", The Midlands Higher Education and Culture Forum, March 27, 2019
- Keynote: Applied Futures: Digital Archives in a "Post Truth" Age, Archive Kabinett Berlin/Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin, January 26, 2019
- Public Talk: Was I sleeping, while the others suffered: Contemporary Art, the Refugee Condition, and the Alibi of Engagement, ifa, Berlin, January 28, 2019
2018
- Keynote Lecture: "Art after ISIS: Digital Networks and the Future of the Post Conflict Image" Photographies and Conflict: Archiving and Consuming Images of Strife, ICPT Conference, Nicosia, Cyprus, November 22-24, 2018.
- Public Talk: Akram Zaatari in conversation with Anthony Downey, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 14 July, 2018.
- Public Lecture: "Performing Rights", Eastside Projects, Birmingham, 13 June, 2018.
- Public Talk: "Unconformities: Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige in conversation with Anthony Downey", Acropolis Museum, Athens, 30 April, 2018.
- Public Lecture: "Performing Rights: Contemporary Art, Public Institutions and the Refugee Condition", ThalieLab, Brussels, Belgium, 22 March, 2018.
- Jury Member, Beirut Art Residency (BAR), Beirut, in conjunction with Ziad Antar, Sandra Dagher, Fouad Elkhoury, and Bernard Khoury. 24 February, 2018.
- Public Lecture: "The Future of Image Production in the Middle East", Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, 13 February, 2018.
- Conference Talk: Anthony Downey in conversation with Edmund Clarke, "Edmund Clarke: In Place of Hate", IKON Gallery, Birmingham, 12 February, 2018.
- Public Lecture: "Who Benefits from the Work of Art: Political Exceptionalism and the Refugee Condition", V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, 20 January, 2018.
2017
- Conference Paper: "Neoliberal Visions: Cultural Institutions and the Political Economy of Global Culture in the Middle East", Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine, 11 November, 2017.
- Public Talk: Ai Weiwei and Anthony Downey, FOMU, Antwerp, 25 October, 2017.
- Public Talk: John Akomfrah and Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 12 October, 2017.
- Chair: "On Photography and Politics Today" (Ahlam Shibli, Edmund Clark, Nikolai Larsen), Unseen, Amsterdam, 23 September, 2017.
- Conference Paper: "The Future of Image Production: Hermeneutic Suspicions and Neoliberal Conundrums", Producing Image Activism after the Arab Uprisings Conference, University of Stockholm, 6-8 September 2017
- Conference Paper: "The Archive as Alibi", (W)archives Conference, University of Copenhagen, 21-22 August, 2017
- Keynote Lecture: "Performing Rights: The Subject of Injustice and the Cultural Logic of Late Modernity", Art, Justice and Terrorism, a one-day conference, Imperial War Museum, London, June 17, 2017
- Chair: "Representing the Artist", Survival of the Artist, a one-day symposium at the British Museum, London, 2 July, 2017
- Keynote Paper: "Neoliberal Visions: Cultural Institutions and the Political Economy of Global Culture in the Middle East", Decolonizing the Cultural Institution, CCLPS Conference, SOAS, London, 16 June, 2017.
- Artist's Talk: Anthony Downey in conversation with Judy Price and Lucy Reynolds, Mosaic Rooms, London, 26 April, 2017
- Conference Paper: Instrumental Visions: Neoliberalism, Cultural Institutions and Cultural Policy in the Middle East, Westminster University, London, 21 April, 2017
- Public Talk: Richard Mosse in conversation with Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 20 February, 2017
2016
- Conference Paper: Hermeneutic Suspicions: Contemporary Visual Culture, Insurgency, and the Future of Archiving Conflict in the Middle East, Terrorism and Cultural Freedom, Birmingham City University, 7 June, 2016.
- Public Talk: "Hermeneutic Suspicion: Digital Archiving, Conflict and Cultural Production in the Middle East", University of Sussex, Brighton, 16 February, 2016.
- Public Talk: "John Akomfrah in conversation with Anthony Downey", Arnolfini, Bristol, Saturday 16 January 2016.
2015
- Conference Convenor: "Archival Fever (Again)", panel discussion for book launch of Gulf Labor's The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor, edited by Andrew Ross for Gulf Labor (OR books, 2015) Rivington Place, London, 19 November 2015
- Public Talk: "States and Non-States: Performance Art in the Middle East and Public Space", The Institut d'Etudes Suparieures des Arts (IESA), Leighton House, London, November 2015.
- Conference Paper: "Challenges of a Shared World: New Media and Social Networks", University of Oxford, Oxford, 25 October 2015.
- Conference Paper: "The Ethics of Ethical Criticism", AICA: London Congress Symposium: Who Cares? Value, Veneration and Criticality", Royal College of Art, London, 27 October 2015.
- Public Talk: "Edinburgh International Book Festival: Art on the Attack", Garden Theatre, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 28 August 2015.
- Public Talk: "Zarina Bhimji in conversation with Anthony Downey" NAE Nottingham, Nottingham, 15 July 2015.
- Principal Convenor: "Visual Culture in an Age of Global Conflict." National Museum of Bardo in Tunis, Tunisia. 28-30 May 2015.
- Conference Paper: "Hermeneutic Suspicion, Digital Technology, And The Crisis Of Representation In The Middle East", School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 14 April 2015.
- Conference Paper: "What does Digital Activism in the Arts Mean Today?: The Middle East as a Case Study", Harvard Centre for Government and International Studies/ Harvard & MIT Programming BBP, 17-24 January 2015.
2014
- Conference Paper: "Digital Media, New Media and the Middle East", University College London.
- Conference Paper: "Research and Knowledge Production in the Middle East: Ibraaz as Case Study", Critical Machines: Art Periodicals Today, American University of Beirut, March 7-8, 2014.
- Public Talk: Art and Politics Now", London School of Economics, 13 Oct 2014.
- Principal Convenor: "Cultural Production and Cultural Relations," National Museum of Bardo, Tunis, Tunisia. 9-11, April, 2014.
Media Work
2023
- Orit Gat. Exhibition Review: Transmediale, "a model, a map, a fiction", e-flux Criticism, February, 2023. "In the panel on "How an Image Matters," theorist Anthony Downey discussed AI and military violence, and fleetingly described how algorithms "hallucinate"—that is, they see patterns where patterns do not exist."
2022
- Julia Gwendolyn Schneider. Book Review: From the Colonization of Airspace Toward a New Human Right, Review of Downey, Ed. Shona Illingworth: Topologies of Air, Camera Austria International 159.
- Exhibition Review: The Mosaic Rooms: Heba Y. Amin "When I See The Future, I Close My Eyes", curated by Anthony Downey, World Art Foundations.
- Stephanie Bailey. Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin Brings Storks and Drones to London, Ocula.
- 2021/20
- Ruba Hattar. Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin - When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes- Solo Exhibit at the Mosaic Rooms in London, curated by Anthony Downey, AlBawaba.
- Nat Muller. Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin - When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes, curated by Anthony Downey.
- Melissa Gronlund. Exhibition Review: Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin - When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes, curated by Anthony Downey. The National.
- Maximiliane Leuschner. Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin - When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes, curated by Anthony Downey. Texte Zur Kunst.
- Matt Ross. Exhibition Review: Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin - When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes, curated by Anthony Downey. Arab News.
- Hiba Mohamed. Exhibition Review: Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin - When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes, curated by Anthony Downey. Frieze.
- Gwen Burlington. Exhibition Review: Exhibition Review: Heba Y. Amin - When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes, curated by Anthony Downey. Burlington Contemporary Journal.
- Lucy Rogers. Book Review: Books That Rocked Our World in 2020, C4 Journal. Heba Y. Amin: The General's Stork, Ed, Anthony Downey
- Public Talk: Heba Y. Amin, Anthony Downey, Maya Indira Ganesh, and Ana Teixeira Pinto, Zilberman Gallery, Berlin, 30/07/22
- Public Talk: Programmed Visions and Techno-Fossils: Heba Y Amin and Anthony Downey in conversation, Berlin, 01/05/22
2019-2010
- Public Talk: Trevor Paglen in conversation with Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, September 26, 2019.
- Public Talk: Akram Zaatari in conversation with Anthony Downey, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 14 July, 2018.
- Public Talk: "Unconformities: Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige in conversation with Anthony Downey", Acropolis Museum, Athens, 30 April, 2018.
- Public Talk: Anthony Downey in conversation with Edmund Clarke, "Edmund Clarke: In Place of Hate", IKON Gallery, Birmingham, 12 February, 2018.
- Public Talk: Ai Weiwei and Anthony Downey, FOMU, Antwerp, 25 October, 2017.
- Public Talk: John Akomfrah and Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 12 October, 2017.
- Public Talk: Richard Mosse in conversation with Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 20 February, 2017
- Interview: Future: Imperfect: An Interview with Anthony Downey, Di'van Journal, December 2016
- Interview: "Art and Politics Now: An Interview with Anthony Downey" in Keen on Protest. 18 July 2016
- Interview: "Interview with Anthony Downey Art Contemporain Arabe: La Subversion des Formes" in Qantara. Summer 2016.
- Review: Slavs and Tatars in Art Asia Pacific, Almanac 2016
- Review: Dissonant Archives in Art Asia Pacific, Almanac 2016.
- Review: Art and Politics Now in E-International Relations, 22 February 2016.
- Review: A Necessary Dialogue: JAOU Tunis 2015 in Kalimat Magazine, 14 June 2015.
- Review: JAOU Tunis uses art and culture as a retort to extremism, 1 June 2015.
- Review: SCTIW: Review of Uncommon Grounds, 2015
- Review: Uncommon Grounds, H-AMCA, H-Net Reviews, May 2015.
- Review: Uncommon Grounds in The Art Newspaper, 1 May 2015.
- Review: Art and Politics Now in Art Review Asia, Spring 2015
- Review: Transnational Cinema Review of Uncommon Grounds, 10 April 2015.
- Review: New Texts Out Now: Uncommon Grounds in Jadaliyya, 4 March 2015.
- Interview: The Monocle Weekly, Monocle Radio, 2 November 2014.
- Interview: 7 questions for Ibraaz's Anthony Downey, I.B.Tauris Blog, 10 October 2014.
- Review: Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Art Books, Hyperallergic, 31 December 2014
- Review: Uncommon Grounds on LSE Blog, 7 December 2014.
- Review: Uncommon Grounds in Kalimat, 5 November 2014.
- Interview: Downey, Anthony. "Geocentric Conundrums: Aesthetics and Ethics in Contemporary Art; Gemma Lloyd Interviews Anthony Downey." CAC Interviu. 16-17, 2010/2011: 53-60.
- Interview: Downey, Anthony, "Yinka Shonibare: The Anarchist Artist", CNN African Voices, 17 May 2010
Work With Industry
Creative industries and Contemporary Art in the Middle East and Global South Publishing and Contemporary Art practices in the Middle East Professional Affiliations:
- Editor, Third Text (Routledge)
- Editor, Journal of Digital War (Palgrave Macmillan),
- Editorial Board, Journal of Memory, Mind & Media (Cambridge University Press).
- Editor-in-Chief of Ibraaz (ibraaz.org), appointed 2011-2018. Site currently under redevelopment.
- Series Editor, Research/Practice (Sternberg Press/MIT), 2019-present.
- International Series Advisory Board for New Directions in Contemporary Art (Lund Humphries)
- Series Editor, Visual Culture in the Middle East (Sternberg Press)
- Consultant Editor, Open Arts Journal at the Open University (openartsjournal.org), appointed 2012.
- Trustee, Strange Cargo (an Arts Council funded organization focusing on community-based arts project, strangecargo.org.uk), appointed 2014.
- Trustee, Arts Cabinet (an organization that develops international art and culture programmes in the Middle East and beyond, artscabinet.org), appointed 2015.