Thread by @felicitycallard

In my efforts to understand configurations of discourse & representation around UK pensions in 21st century, I've been fascinated, today, by Pendragon's competition, running since 2003, titled the "Art of Pensions" artofpensions.com/exhibition.php 1/
#USSstrike

The Pendragon "Art of Pensions" is a full-scale competition – with a whole raft of categories (e.g. see artofpensions.com/winners.php?ye…). The winners & long-listed entries are all available for perusal on the Pendragon site 2/

The archive stretches from the early 21st century, through the economic collapse of 2008, & up to 2016 (I'm not sure what happened to the competition in 2017).

In addition to visual materials themselves, you can search by name of artist (some appear several times) & company 3/

I've spent too long in this strange archive – partly because the semiotics are just *amazing* (for example, look at these two – one on DB (from 2009) and one on 'defined ambition' (from 2014)) artofpensions.com/showyear.php?p… artofpensions.com/showyear.php?p… 4/

... and partly because of the temptation to analyse (over-analyse?) the contributions of those from companies (e.g. Aon Hewitt, Xafinity) and individuals that are actors in the current #USS pensions dispute #USSstrike 5/

Indeed, I stumbled on the competition when researching UUK JEP nominees (see: ). Sally Bridgeland, then working for Aon Hewitt, has 3 profiled entires. You can find them, & do your own semiotic analysis, if you wish, here: artofpensions.com/artist.php?fil… 6/

While blurb says competition is for 'pension professionals', there isn't a definition of that. @pennyb & I were thinking it would be amazing to submit to next competition, but unfortunately there doesn't appear to be one in 2018 #DarnIt #KeepHoping 7/7

artofpensions.com/entry.php

p.s. Copying to @acupunctureUSS because, well, you know
#aesthetics #artofpensions #USSstrike