Deborah Jackson is Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Art Theory at the University of Edinburgh. Her research explores the foundations for, and mutual influence of, art, culture and the organisational structures that underpin our cultural institutions. Her research and practice focus on who, or what, the agents of cultural change are and could be. She examines how the future’s cultural roots are determined, who gets to ‘make’ cultural products, who is empowered and legitimised to do so, and who is excluded from the production and reception of creative and cultural practices.  

 She is one half of the collaborative duo Son&Son that explore ‘future making and future faking’ by coopting and subverting the strategies of conformity embedded in hierarchies, institutions, and corporations. Son&Son’s work includes a collection of apparel, which conflates the visual vocabularies of, for example, 1980 and ‘90s shell suits, florescent hi-vis rave wear, athleisure, liturgical vestments, personal protective equipment (PPE), and police restraint garments. The habiliments (clothing, especially for professional, ceremonial, or other special purposes), they create are used in their work to explore the rituals of maintaining and challenging power relations within society. 

 Photo credit and courtesy of Son&Son
Son&Son (Deborah Jackson & Steven Anderson). ‘Habilments for Chronopolitics’ (2020)