nuisance [noun] 1. a thing, person or situation that is annoying, inconvenient, or causes trouble or problems; 2. behaviour which is harmful, offensive or annoying to the public or a member of it and that a court of law can order the person to stop.

As the presentation of Terre Thaemlitz’s Interstices project at Auto Italia comes to an end, we aimed for exploration into a subject frequently discussed by Thaemlitz: “nuisance”.

Led by Ray Filar with Harley Kurylowski, Wail Qasim and Lexi Turner, On Nuisance is a panel discussion bringing together voices from various disciplines to discuss their personal, political and artistic relationships to the word. We’ll be discussing the political potential of nuisance, exploring the term as a subject position which could offer alternative strategies for both work and play. Who gets to be a nuisance and who can’t help but be seen as one? How is the attribution ‘nuisance’ classed, racialised or gendered? How might nuisance be a form of resistance?

Ray Filar is a writer and performance artist. They host the left-wing feminist radio show Killjoy FM and their writing has been published widely. Most recently at Camden People’s Theatre, their solo show Non-Binary Electro Hour is about the queer and trans body, desire, and genderfuck drag. They are a Gender Studies/Creative Writing PhD student at Sussex University. Twitter/Insta: @rayfilar.

Wail Qasim is a writer, critic, and campaigner. Their writing has covered philosophy and politics, specifically dealing with racism, issues of queer and black social movements, and their media strategies. Much of Wail’s work has centred on the topic of policing and deaths in custody and they have been an active organiser with Black Lives Matter UK. Recently they have contributed work as a freelance writer to The Guardian, The Independent, VICE UK, and Novara Media. Wail lives and works in London.

Lexi Turner is a noise artist and film, art and queer theorist. She has recently given papers on topics including Heroin & Hydrofeminism and Noise, and Power & Perpetual Disintegration. The book The Crack-Up, written by the Goldsmiths 2017 Spatial Biopolitics collective, of which she was a member, is soon to be published in Germany.

Harley Yeung Kurylowski is a London based film director, editor and curator working across narrative film, experimental documentary and music videos, championing and programming queer cinema. Since mid-2015 Harley is the head curator and founder behind KUNTINUUM, an artist-run salon which meets quarterly in London and centres self ID’d lesbians, queer women, trans and non-binary folx.