Lucy A. Sames

. Posthuman Excess Thursday 19 March 2026, 17:00-19:00 Exhibition Research Lab, John Lennon Art and Design Building L3 5RD @exhibition_research_lab A free event with presentations by Lucy A. Sames @lucyasames and Jason Waite @jasonhwaite . Lucy A. Sames will discuss her PhD research which proposes a feminist, queer and posthuman concept of ‘excess’ as a mode of practice. . Jason Waite will present Don’t Follow the Wind, an inaccessible exhibition inside the radioactive Fukushima exclusion zone in Japan, and its influence on his recent PhD. . Second in the 4-part series ‘After an Art PhD: Creative Uses of a Creative Work’. Organised and hosted by Jonathan Hoskins, Associate Researcher at the Exhibition Research Lab. . Link in bio for more info + booking Images (left to right): Jason Waite; Lucy A. Sames, ‘Froath on the Sea’, a reading with well water, Matt’s Gallery, London, 2025 (image: Kirsten Cooke)

. Happy to be presenting at Poetry on Drugs conference tomorrow (Friday Feb 20) at Birkbeck. My paper… >>>Excess: altered states as bodily protocols of desire<<<< …is a discussion of some of my thinking and research of the past few years around ideas of ‘excess’ (abstract below) and is on a panel titled Language, Technologies, (Counter)Systems. Speaking alongside esteemed peers Uma Breakdown @supsupsupwhat (whose image i have borrowed here as it features in my presentation) and Kate Pickering @writing_a_body_of_belief …. link to conference schedule in bioooo.   Abstract:   This paper proposes a feminist posthuman theorisation of ‘excess’ as a counterhegemonic and antinaturalist interpretation of what are conventionally described as ‘altered states of consciousness’.  In contrast to the existing cultural representations of altered states that perpetuate colonial narratives of exploration and expropriation, reinforce hierarchical binaries and centre individual transformation, my theorisation of excess instead foregrounds collective bodily protocols of desire and abundance.   Excess here resists the patriarchal inscription of othered bodies (of women, queer or disabled folk and People of Colour) as always already in a state that is altered from, and excessive to, the norm of the universal human subject - the white, cis-gendered male. Drawing on, in order to counter, the characterisation of women in particular as ‘excessive’ (too many emotions, too many body fluids, too much exuberance, not enough control), this novel formulation of excess operates as a disruptive force to the humanist model and to hegemonic power. Excess is characterised here by seven affirmative and polyvalent modalities: as embodied knowledge; as queer; as liquid; as disruptive; as collectivity. Image: Uma Breakdown, TFW The Formless Wastes in Janusware, Res. London 2017 curated by me.

Tomorrow! London Marathon let’s gooooo! 🇵🇸 I am raising money for @amnestyuk in solidarity with the people of Palestine who are suffering a genocide. Palestinians deserve safety, dignity and the right to self determination, and we will not stop fighting until Palestine is free. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far (over 100 people!!). There is still time to donate, link in bioooo 🤗 If you want to follow my progress along the course tomorrow, you can download the London Marathon app and track me! My start time is 10.45am and I’m hoping to finish in 4hrs 30min 🤞 We will free Palestine in our lifetime 🕊️

💧 WATERY SPECULATIONS 💧 Conference Stream (6 panels, 19 presentations) Curated by Lucy A. Sames London Conference in Critical Thought June 28+29 2024 (this Fri + Sat), free but booking required (link in b1o) University of Greenwich, Stockwell St, SE10 9BD 💦FRIDAY June 28💦 🌊 OCEANIC ZONES, 09:30-11:00 Ifor Duncan + Sonia Levy, Masteries of the Deep Mae Lubetkin, Reorientating subsea vision: geologies of digital imaging and oceanic imaginaries Klara Kofen, Liquid Exit: maritories, sanctuaries and sovereignties 🧜‍♂️ MYTHIC WATERWAYS, 11:30-13:00 Isabelle Donetch, Fluvial imaginaries as method: Navigating Santiago’s imbunched identity Rebecca Goddard, Salt Rhyne; brackish methodologies and slow seeping Hat Fidkin, ‘Ts’ono’ot’ or, Cenote - a Hydrofeminist Study of the Yucatan’s Watery Underworld 🦪 EXTINCTION, 16:00-17:30 Kate McMillan, The River’s Stomach Caroline Wright, Drifting Ecologies: Embodied relationships to a destabilised coastline Ally Yanxiu Luo, Oysters & (Post-)Extinction Thoughts on Future 💦SATURDAY June 29💦 💧 BODIES OF/AND WATER, 09:30-11:00 Bryony Gillard, My Wits or Salts paula roush, Wateryquery Kirsten Cooke, Aqueous Humours Fluid Ground 🛶ADRIFT, 11:30-13:00 Gabriele Nasole, Drifting Senses: Freediving and Sensorial Fluidity as Methodologies Angela Davies, Aequus Susie Olczak, Floating 🪸 QUEER AND MULTISPECIES IMAGININGS, 16:00-17:30 Sam Godfrey, Wet glitches and digital kelp: trans ecologies as methodology Andrea Khôra, SCARUS Ⓐ DUDLEY Ⓔ, I Know Carl Gent, Linda Stupart, echo / ecco @iforduncan @sonia__levy @klara_kofen @becky_goddard @hatfidkin @kate_mcmillan_ @carolinejwright1 @bryonygillard @kirstensylviacooke @gabrielenasole @susieolczak @s_k_godfrey @andrea_khora @chekhovs_gunge @lindastupart @fashion_vacuum @hadalflux @angeladaviesartist Image captions in comments..

Very happy to say this 350page double epic has now gone to print ❤️‍🔥 Journal of Writing in Creative Practice Ways of Writing in Art and Design Special issues 16.2 and 17.1 published by @intellectbooks Guest editor: Lucy A. Sames Featuring writing by: Victoria Walters Maggie Roberts @maggie_mer Kate Pickering @writing_a_body_of_belief Kirsten Cooke @kirstensylviacooke Simon O’Sullivan @foxowl2 Caitlin Magda Shepherd @caitlinmagdashepherd Kate Liston @listonkate Kathy Ludwig @kathyludwig Annabelle Craven Jones @annabelle.craven_jones Owen G Parry John Lawrence @bombasticagnostic Ulrike Scholtes Ami Clarke @amiima333 Rina Arya Robin Bale @balerobin Lucy A. Sames @lucyasames 📸 cover images by Anna Barham @banana_harm and Kathy Ludwig @kathyludwig 🙏 Heartfelt thanks to all writers for their wonderful contributions and their unending patience in what turned out to be a year-long process. Many thanks to Clare Johnson (UWE) and Oliver Rendle (Intellect) for their insight and support and to Visual Cultures Research Group (VCRG) for the invitation.

Call for Papers: Watery Speculations London Conference in Critical Thought, June 28-29 This stream explores feminist, queer and posthuman approaches to thinking about water – as materiality, metaphor and methodology – foregrounding the contingent nature and disruptive qualities of the liquid for creative practice. This stream welcomes a wide range of submissions, that consider water and liquidity as/through the body, hydro/ecological perspectives on visual culture, marine vision, and watery speculations of all kinds. Formats can include academic presentations, workshops and roundtables to more creative and experimental formats such as performance, film, and publishing.   Themes might include, but are not limited to:   🐡 Thinking with sea life, marine mammals and seaweeds; 🧜 Swimming and diving as methods; 🌊 Overflowing, gushing, flooding, and watery excess as disruptive methods; 🛟 Floating and drifting as methods; 💧 Liquidity as a state of being or doing; 💦 Liquidity and queerness; 🌏 Bodies of water – geographic, hydrologic, meteorologic, embodied, transcorporeal.   Suggested reading, a non-exhaustive list 
Chen, Cecilia, Janine MacLeod, and Astrida Neimanis (eds.) (2013). Thinking with Water, McGill-Queen’s Press.
 Gumbs, Alexis Pauline (2020) Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, Chiko, CA: AK Press. 
 Jue, Melody (2020), Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
 Neimanis, Astrida (2012) ‘Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water’ in Undutiful Daughters: Mobilizing Future Concepts, Bodies and Subjectivities in Feminist Thought and Practice, 96–115.
 Shildrick, Margrit (1997) Leaky Bodies and Boundaries: Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio)Ethics. London, UK: Routledge. Info: Please send a 250 word abstract for a proposed presentation to [email protected] with ‘Watery Speculations’ in the subject line. Website: / Twitter: @londoncritical Deadline: Thursday 29th February 2024. Please note that LCCT is an in-person conference. Image borrowed from: Niua Spire, Schmidt Ocean Institute Cruise 2016. Deep Ocean Stewardship initiative.

🪸 call for papers 🪸 I am guest editing a special issue of the *Journal of Writing in Creative Practice* published by @intellectbooks , and am inviting contributions that respond in some way to themes of the first special issue (Sep 2022) on ‘Ways of Writing in Art and Design’. I am very keen to encourage all forms of responses for this peer reviewed journal: visual essays, experimental writing, poetry, interviews, as well as more conventional articles. These can be direct responses to the articles in the first issue (all available via the Intellect site just log in with Shibboleth/Athens.. or dm me), or can respond to any of the themes raised in this issue: 🪸writing experiments and/as visual practice 🪸 creative allyship 🪸 writing as an expression of hope 🪸 working beyond the writing/making binary in art and design HE 🪸transgressional acts of writing the visual 🪸 embodied practices of writing 🪸 writing as an altered state (of immersion, of flow, of absorption) 🪸 writing, visuality and class 🪸 writing and ongoingness 🪸 writing as a practice of care 🪸 the visuality of writing. Deadline is extended to May 1. Dm me if you have any questions or would like to chat about an idea. 🧡 See for full CfP and visit /journal-of-writing-in-creative-practice for journal info. Link in biiiiiooo. [email protected]

Happy new year, merry solstice and solidarity with all striking workers (in reverse order). Wishing 2023 to be a year of heartfelt mutuality, of kindness, and of lifting each other up.

On July 12 I successfully defended my PhD thesis with no corrections. Hearing my work described as ‘remarkable and astutely original’ after nearly six years of absolutely crippling doubt and anxiety is a healing salve to what has been, at times, a punishing process. Thank you to @zachblas for bringing his expertise and inspiring reflections on posthumanism, queerness and (metric)mysticism to the exam process and to Andrea Philips for her expertise in, and commitment to, curatorial and collaborative practices. My heartfelt thanks to @markpajackson for both his moral support and astute critiques throughout. And thank you to @tom_railton , my 🖤, without who I would certainly never have made it this far.

~*.’~PsYcHeDeLiC~HyDrOlOgY~’.*~ ~This Friday Feb 26th 16:00 GMT /18:00 EET~ ~Rupert Reading Session (online) led by Lucy A. Sames~ This reading session is an invitation to speculate on a possible #feminist and #posthuman reclamation of a language of ‘excess’ which we will explore through ideas of fluidity, porosity and what are traditionally called ‘altered states of consciousness’. We will consider the significance of fluidity, as both psychic state and potent materiality, to #witchcraft, #magic and the #psychedelic, and the resistance these present to patriarchal and technocratic governance. Think: saturated bodies, porous boundaries, clootie wells and healing waters, fluid states of consciousness, floating downstream, wet magic. 🔮 [Link in bioooo ... i think it might have sold out but if you want to come let me know and I’ll see what I can do] Image: ‘Liquid Loops’ Joshua Light Show 1967ish, still https://rupert.lt/rupert-reading-session-2-psychedelic-hydrology/

Floating Hellraiser dvd, rural Wales, 2020. 💧I am happy to be speaking on the >> ‘Liquid Worlds’ << panel tomorrow Tuesday 4th 5pm for Leicester Gallery at De Montfort University about my project Wet Rest and watery portals 🕳 presented and chaired by @bridgetcrone for Liquidities Cohort 💧and in great company with the wonderful Kate Pickering @writing_a_body_of_belief and Ayesha Hameed @sayeshahameed 🌊 curated by @danielseankelly .. 🔗rsvp link in bio🔗

Hullo. Two weeks ago an unexpected bat emerged from a shoebox in my bathroom. Today I emerge from Welsh lockdown and am hoping to see humans again v.soon. #🖤🦇