Stefan Szczelkun

Born Hammersmith, London in 1948. "Lived an isolated life in a bedsit at the top of Regents street until we moved to Feltham when I was 3. Later I was a mod; then a reluctant architect; then a happy artist. Since then I've been in ten collectives of cultural producers from the Scratch Orchestra to Exploding Cinema. With one of these groups I built my own house in Kennington (finished in 1995)."

Stefan Szczelkun worked on the MA in Visual Culture at the University of Westminster before his recent retirement. He completed a PhD at the Royal College of Art in 2002 on the legitimation of collective sites of cultural production and their value within a democratic culture. The particular focus of this research was Exploding Cinema, an underground film and video showing collective that has been active in South London since 1991 [1].

In the Seventies Stefan had his three Survival Scrapbooks, Shelter, Food and Energy published by Unicorn Bookshop and Schocken Books NY after an architectural training at Portsmouth Polytechnic. He then 'dropped out' and lived in a van whilst playing with The Scratch Orchestra - the British version of Fluxus. On returning to London he took contact improvisation and other dance and bodywork classes at X6 in Butlers Wharf and did extensive research into the elements of human ability. Published as Sense-Think-Act; first as a mediawiki and more recently as a book.

Stefan is an artist with a particular interest in publishing both in traditional book format and in multimedia and digital video. In the Eighties he organised two groups relating to identity issues. The first was Bigos: Artists of Polish Origin which was a open group which was interested in putting on made-to-measure shows: now archived by Tate Archive. The second, ‘Working Press, books by and about working class artists’, supported artists to publish offset-litho books under a collective imprint. Working Press published a trilogy about his experience as a working class artist - Collaborations which was raw documentation, Class Myths and Culture, a book of polemical essays and Conspiracy of Good Taste, a history and theory review which led to academic teaching and research. The Working Press archive was acquired by UCA in Farnham and was activated during a four week residency (2016).

He has also shown work in galleries. Highlights include: Alexandra Palace, Art Spectrum - Scratch Cottage, V&A - 'Post modern prints', Chisenhale Gallery -'Glamour of Ruins', Transmission Gallery - 'Desire in Ruins', Documenta 14, Reprise of Scratch Orchestra documents and improvisation performance workshops (Athens).

In 2012 Stefan published the third in a series of DVDs concerned with London people-power and the counter culture of the Nineties. The DVD title is 'Creating a movement: the struggle for Inclusive Education'. Another collaborative project, Agit Disco, was developed on the web with Martin Dixon before in became a book in 2011. After that he worked on a large scale activation of the archives of Brixton Artists Collective that ran Brixton Art Gallery 1981 – 1986. As part of this he produced an oral history video and working with a group of artists from London Underground called ‘Out of Uniform’. This was in partnership with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, supported by Arts Council, Heritage Lottery grants and Westminster University. See Brixton50 for more detail.

Pedagogic research interests included the use of video in teaching. One module used phone cameras and a YouTube channel as part of the students tools for data gathering and critique. He has supervised three students to complete their doctoral studies and was an external examiner of MA Cultural Industry at Goldsmiths College.

He retired from academic work in 2015 and started publishing work with Routine Art Co his collaborative imprint. He started by republishing two older works:

2017 SENSE THINK ACT: a collection of exercises to describe basic human abilities 206 pages of exercises with over 50 illustrations and diagrams. In subtle colour. Available as ebook. An almost lifelong project finally brought to rest in a proper book.

2016 The Conspiracy of Good Taste: William Morris, Cecil Sharp and Clough Williams-Ellis and the repression of working class culture in the C20th Standard Paperback, Colour 176pp 15 b/w illustrations, 10 colour photographs. 2nd Deluxe edition. ISBN 978-1-870736-71-8 Available as ebook. A new edition of the 1993 Working Press hardback. Describes my discovery of the part played in class oppression by three middle-class mediators of taste.

The first new book was a detailed documentation of the reprise of Scratch Orchestra practice he had undertaken. This was a collective process that resulted in four major London performances:

2017 Improvisation Rites: from John Cage's 'Song Books' to the Scratch Orchestra's 'Nature Study Notes'. Collective practices 2011 - 2017 Standard Colour, 168pp with 35 colour photographs ISBN 978-1-870736-96-1 Documentation of this extended project using press releases, reviews, participant emails, meeting minutes and photographs to capture the collective spirit of the project to reprise these historic written scores.

An expanded and luxury edition of Agit Disco was translated and published in Japan: 2018 Agit Disco (Japanese expanded edition) pp352 ISBN 978-4-907276-92-8 Published by ele-king Includes 10 extra Japanese selectors. See above for original edition from Mute Books.

Then came the publication of a series of projects that had been 'in the pipeline'for some time:

2018 Chalet Fields of the Gower 70 Colour photographs of houses plus an interview with the architect Owen Short. Hard back and paperback ISBN: 9781-870736-18-3

This book was the first published photographic survey of a UK plotlands.

This was followed two years later with: 2020 Plotlands of Shepperton, with a Foreword by the late great Judith Tucker and an Introduction by Chris Saunders. 27 thumbnails, 38 full page photographs in premium colour. ISBN 978-1-870736-24-4 A photographic study over several years with a stream of commentary to give an in-depth insight into this little understood phenomenon of the UKs plotland self-builders. My plotlands books were intended to undermine the conventional knowledge category of ‘Housing’ by examining a buried UK wide movement in the C20th in which people were providing their own housing with a different mind-set to the mortgage/ council housing mode that prevailed. I want to critique the status quo knowledge of ‘housing’ as a warped category that has lost it relation to human powers to provide basic needs in artful ways.

2019 Compostion 17 large premium colour photographs, 36 pages, landscape hardback. ISBN 9781-870736-17-6 Composting considered as fine art.

2020 SILENCE! the great silencing of British working class culture 84pp in standard colour. 30 Illustrations ISBN 978-1-870736-22-0 Foreword by Lorraine Leeson. Cover design by Chris Saunders Research in the new millenium, that followed the themes of Conspiracy of Good Taste, which focuses on the repression of singing together and whistling in public in the first half the C20th, followed by appendices of other forms of silencing as a mechanism of cultural oppression.

2021 I published my doctoral research as a book: Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1999: culture and democracy [2] 190 pp c47 b/w illustrations ISBN - 9781870736046 This was b ased on my 2002 thesis with the theory chapters cut out. A closely observed and contextualised history of the first nine years of this key counter-cultural collective.

2023 Dementia Painting,[[3]] 88pp 216 x 216mm. Full colour illustration of paintings. Hdbk ISBN 9781870736947 £20 $ 25 Pbk ISBN 9781870736923 £9.95 $16 This book argues that my mum was released from the constraints of art conventions by her dementia. It is also about being a working class artist and housewife. Accompanied by three video pieces on my mum, culture and dementia. One on her embroidery, one about singing her songs from her teenage years and finally one on her continuing to paint into her years with dementia.

Dementia Painting completed the projects that needed documenting and I went back to my first love of drawing and painting, with local groups. I also started an arduous task of going thorough my accumulated paper archive of all my projects which led to making a contribution to Peter Haining's materials at the Dundee University Archive. This represented my earlier involvement in the international mail art network since 1983, and my, since then almost continuous, correspondence with Peter Haining.

2025 Can Working Class Culture be Knowledge? ISBN 978-1-870736-32-9 In 2015 it was published as a paperback and reviewed by Jon Baldwin: https://stefan-szczelkun.blogspot.com/2025/04/can-working-class-culture-be-knowledge.html This is based an MA thesis that had expanded on 'The Conspiracy of Good Taste' with new research in 1997. Also available as an ebook from https://payhip.com/b/IDFJ9

Ongoing and past imagery @szczels

Given longer time living I intend to make a book titled: 'Mind Cage', which will look at how I am constrained by a literary tradition that is not of my own class. I'd also like to do something with several folders of stuff on 'glamour' expanding on the scraps in Collaborations and Class Myths and Culture.

I have become interested local art and well-being groups and gallery spaces. I exhibited my recent watercolour paintings of community noticeboards in a solo show at the Woodfield Pavilion, London in March 2025. Here's an example:

I had a solo show or work at Sprout Arts Gallery, in October 2025

Publications

• Survival Scrapbook 1 Shelter 1972, Brighton: Unicornbookshop, 1972.
• Survival Scrapbook 2 Food 1972, Brighton: Unicornbookshop, 1972.
• Survival Scrapbook, 3 Energy, New York: Schocken Books, 1974.
• Post Art 1, London: Routine Art Co, 1985, [18] pp, PDF. Booklet of mail art documentation.
• Artists Liberation: Rough Notes 1986, London, 1986, [18] pp, PDF.
  • Wyzwolenie artystów, trans. Pawel Petasz, Elblag: (Związek Polskich Artystów Plastyków, 1991, 14 pp, PDF. (Polish)
• co-editor, Bigos: Artists of Polish Origin, London, 1986, 40 pp, PDF. Catalogue.
  • Bigos: Artists of Polish Origin: grupa artystów polskiego pochodzenia z Wielkiej Brytanii, intro. Zbigniew Warpechowski, ed. Andrzej Dąbek, Sandomierz: Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych w Sandomierzu, 1989, [26] pp, PDF. (Polish)
• Collaborations, London: Working Press, 1987.
• Class Myths and Culture, London: Working Press, 1990. [4]
  • Glamour: Is It the Real Thing?, trans. Maciej Świerkocki, Łódź: Galeria Wschodnia, 1990, 8 pp, PDF. Trans. of one essay. (Polish)
• UK Artists Books 1992, London: Working Press, 1992. [5]
• UK Artists' Books: Marketing and Promotion, London: Estamp, 1993. [6]
• The Conspiracy of Good Taste: William Morris, Cecil Sharp, Clough Williams-Ellis and the repression of working class culture in the 20th century, London: Working Press, 1993, OL.
• with Tracy Davidson, Recent Workshops on Social Class Awareness in North London Schools, London: Working Press Research, 1993, 12 pp, OL.
• The Epistemonical Status of Working Class Culture, Maidstone: Kent Institute of Art & Design, 1996, 48+[25] pp, PDF. MA thesis.
• The Heart of the Matter: Diana, Democracy and Popular Culture, London: Working Press, 1997. Pamphlet.
• 'Kennington Park:the birthplace of peoples's democracy' Working Press 1997 (Still in print with Present Tense)
• Agit Disco, London: Mute, 2012; new ed., 2020. [7] [8]
  • Agit Disco - Japanese edition [超プロテスト・ミュージック・ガイド], trans. Koya Suzuki, Tokyo: P-Vine, 2018, 350 pp. [9] (Japanese)
• Sense-Think-Act: a collection of exercises to describe human ability, London: Routine Art Co, 2016. [10]
• Global Music?, London, 2016. epub
• Chalet Fields of The Gower, 2017. [11]
• Improvisation Rites: from John Cage's Song Books to The Scratch Orchestra's Nature Study Notes, London: Routine Art Co, 2018, 167 pp, IA, PDF, OL. [12]
• Compostion, 2019. [13] hdbk
• SILENCE! the great silencing of British working class culture, February 2020. [14] pbk
• Plotlands of Shepperton January 2021 pbk
• Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1999: culture and democracy October 2021 pbk
• Dementia Painting 2023

88 pp 216 x 216mm. Full colour illustrations of paintings. Hdbk ISBN 9781870736947 £20 $ 25 Pbk ISBN 9781870736923 £9.95 $16. Argues that my mum was released from the constraints of art conventions by her dementia. Accompanied by three video pieces on my mum, culture, dementia.

Currently 2026: Working on a new book to explore the hegemonic effect of the last 1000 years of Western Book culture. Title: 'The Mind Cage' https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/series?id=VzG8GwAAABjqIM

Interviews

• https://www.variant.org.uk/39_40texts/ephant39_40.html, Variant 39-40, Winter 2010.
• Robbie Lockwood and Szczelkun talk as part of an intergenerational project, video, 2012.
• [15] Audio interview with Aidan Teplitzky, 2022.

Links

• Website (archived in Wayback in 2019)
• Biography.
• Linkedin
• Draft writings blog.
• Selected Video Work
• Unfinished video work+
• Photography albums
• OpenLibrary
• Public Archives

List of works in National Archives

I've made an effort to give primary research materials from my activity to various Public National Archives. In particular to represent the data accrued as part of my participation in open artist collectives and networks since 1969.

Tate Archive and Library

'Bigos: artists of Polish origin: 1986 - 1996'. TGA 201212

https://archive.tate.org.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=TGA+201212

The 'Brixton Art Gallery' material is uncatalogued. and is referenced by TGA 201211 (9 boxes) 1983 - 2011. However a private archive of BAG kept by Andrew Hurman is published online at www.Brixton50.org

Mail art catalogues were donated and sold to the Tate Library in Eighties... The Tate Library has a box of my own books available on request. My 'Roadworks' documentation has been exhibited.

University of the Creative Arts, Farnham

'Working Press: books by and about working class artists'. acquired with a collection of associated 'underground' pamphlets from the period 1986 - 96

https://www.thebookroom.net/working-press-books-by-and-about-working-class-artists-1986-1996/

Acquired and activated c 2013 by ewaeckerle Beautiful catalogue can be downloaded.

British Artists Film and Video Study Collection in UAL (St Martins etc)

Has a collection of Exploding Cinema posters and flyers (curated with Paul Tarrago) This includes the tapes of my interviews with the collective c 1998

http://www.studycollection.co.uk/artistfiles/explondingcinema.html

British Music Collection

Has certain unique items relating to The Scratch Orchestra - like my Scratch Music from c1970

https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/composer/stefan-szczelkun

Museum of London - library and archive

Has my DVDs recording protest actions in London. It has strong oral history holdings.

The Welcome Institute Library

https://wellcomecollection.org/search/works?query=Szczelkun

My book 'Dementia Painting' is in several libraries with an interest in Dementia.

MayDay Rooms - Fleet Street, City of London

My collection of Scratch Orchestra materials are catalogued and online. These were activated, in relation to my book and led to my involvement in Documenta 14 in Athens.

https://maydayrooms.org/event/scratch-orchestra-activation-nature-study-group/

They hold other collections on my 'Sharsted Street Self-Build' and 'Kennington Park Interventions'.

https://maydayrooms.org/archive_item/kennington-park/

https://maydayrooms.org/archive_item/sharsted-self-built-association/

Royal College of Art Library

Has a bound copy of my PhD - 'Exploding Cinema 1991 - 97: culture and democracy' 2002.

Dundee University Archives

Mail Art/ Correspondence art is held https://archives.dundee.ac.uk/ms-339-7

This is the archive of Peter Haining's lifelong project and he was my longest almost continuous correspondent stretching from the mail art era in the Eighties to now.

National Art Library at the V&A

Has 22 items authored by me. 71 associated with me. In particular rare publications from when I was doing Mail Art in Eighties. But also stuff on my Arts Council funded research on British Artists Books and Brixton Art Gallery incl. performance art.

Their copy of the Exploding Galaxy book: 'Busted' was bought from me. Mail Art materials were sold to the library when Simon Ford was working there.

The British Library

Has seven of my books listed on their online catalogue.

British Film Institute

The Special Collection has my extensive collection of materials from my doctoral research into Exploding Cinema.

https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceSpecialCollections/110009483

More recently they digitised a DVCAM tape of footage taken by me at the Exploding Cinema show at the Oval Community Centre on 10th April 1998.

https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/157072595

This raw unedited footage (85 minutes) is available to view in the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank. BFI identifierN-5031018

"The PhD thesis is held at the BFI Reuben Library and on the catalogue the listing for it can be found under the Books section, you credited as the author. See the screenshot below. Researchers can view this at the BFI Reuben Library at the Southbank in London.

The rest of the collection is held within Special Collections and on the catalogue is item ITM-8769 and contains items EXC-1 (1-6). This material is held at the BFI National Archive at Berkhamsted. This is also where we hold the research service for researchers to view material held within Special Collections. The research service is available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday between 10 am and 4 pm, by appointment only.

We can book an appointment in once a researcher has identified the material they'd like to view following a search of the catalogue - or they can contact directly if they need guidance with finding the reference number on the catalogue. All requested material will then be subject to a series of collection checks to assess the condition and suitability for viewing, and this includes a data protection check as well. speccoll@bfi.org.uk

See also video documentation: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQee2kkS3vMaN2bwg3pq8q9mdr9rV8m6Q&si=nIH57Gd-eVX2G1yI

Submitted 3 videos for the new BFI Online Moving Image collection as part of a larger 'Our Screen Heritage' project. Correspondence but no confirmation as yet.

DIGITAL ONLY online ARCHIVES (incl 'social media')

YouTube

My video works are listed on other 'pages' here on Blogger.

Exploding Cinema collection of video documentations. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQee2kkS3vMaN2bwg3pq8q9mdr9rV8m6Q&si=nIH57Gd-eVX2G1yI

There is much more video documentation and art works. Includes 'Anti Disco' yearly playlists.

Vimeo

Some videos that are not on YouTube

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/170613892

Flickr

Photographic material in particular a collection of my photos of UK plotland houses Search UK Plotlands.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan-szczelkun/albums/1551930/

Instagram

Non-themed and unsystematic collection of my visual works that comes to hand. From sketches to archival works unrecorded elsewhere.

https://www.instagram.com/szczels

SoundCloud

Various Scratch related Resonance Radio programmes. And a few of my own sound pieces.

https://soundcloud.com/stefan-szczelkun

Facebook, (hacked and recovered after 9 months!)

https://www.facebook.com/szczels/

Wordpress - Agit Disco expanded diary from 2012

https://szczelkuns.wordpress.com/

The Internet Archive

Has some of my rare publications unavailable elsewhere, full text.

https://archive.org/details/EXPLODINGCINEMACATALOGUEOFFILMS

Openlibrary.org

This is connected to the Internet Archive. A list of my books.

https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL3811005A/Stefan_Szczelkun

Wordpress Blog post Agit Disco unpublished updates noted from news and social media

https://szczelkuns.wordpress.com

Google Blogger

https://stefan-szczelkun.blogspot.com/p/blog-contents.html

Wikipedia has several articles seeded by me for instance the one on The Scratch Orchestra