TEXTS
Essays, conversations and writing that emerge from, move through and engage with the artistic and editorial practice of msdm and paula roush.
Essays & Critical Texts
paula roush
Terrain Vague Ecologies. Computational Readings of Ignasi de Solà-Morales' Terrain Vague.
msdm publications 2026
English cartographic essay emerging from the project: Solar Printing in Post-Industrial Landscapes, Experimental 26 Photo Festival Barcelona
paula roush
Metabolic Herbarium: Plant–Body Relations, Image Making and Ecologies of Care.
Corpo Editorial, Substack, Apr. 2026.
Bilingual essay emerging from the workshop Metabolic Herbarium, HerbFest 2026.
paula roush
Working Without Cure: Editorial Counter-Infrastructures and Fabulated Infra-Technobiography After Academic Capitalism.
Forthcoming. Culture Machine, vol. 25, Forthcoming 2026.
paula roush
‘paula’ & Work: Trying to Build Feminist Counter-Infrastructures in the Algorithmic University.
In: Deepwell, Katy (ed.). Re-evaluation in Feminism and Contemporary Art. Vernon Press, forthcoming, 2026.
paula roush
Counter-Infrastructures. Entry for the online glossary Institution(ing)s.
Eds. Cindy Sissokho and Luísa Santos. Forthcoming 2026.
paula roush
Al-Yom, Third Edition: Re-Editing an Unstable Correspondence.
Corpo Editorial, Substack, 19 Feb. 2026.
paula roush.
A Vida como Mistura: Ler Emanuele Coccia a partir de uma Biblioteca Viva, entre Plantas, Arquivos e Práticas de Cuidado.
Corpo Editorial, Substack, 22 Dec. 2025.
paula roush.
A Chegada de um Novo Corpo ao Meu Estúdio: Um Ensaio sobre Conviver com uma Inteligência Local.
Corpo Editorial, Substack, 9 Dec. 2025.
paula roush.
A Visita da Fabiana Bruno à Casa-Estúdio msdm: Quando Duas Paisagens se Encontram.
Corpo Editorial, Substack, 5 Dec. 2025.
paula roush.
Photobook Is. Did you mean: Photo Book Is.
In: Annette Gilbert & Andreas Bülhoff (eds.), Library of Artistic Print on Demand: Post-Digital Publishing in Times of Platform Capitalism.
Spector Books, 2025.
paula roush & Ruth Brown
Publishing with Friends: Exploring Social Networks to Support Photo Publishing Practices.
In: Annette Gilbert & Andreas Bülhoff (eds.), Library of Artistic Print on Demand: Post-Digital Publishing in Times of Platform Capitalism.
Spector Books, 2025.
paula roush
Selected Works & Critical Review. Swapnil Patil: Floating Fallacy & The Empty Spaces.
paula roush
Figuring Liquid Memories: Mobile Aesthetics of Wateryquery.
In: roush, paula (ed.). Liquid Memories: To Read with Water. London: msdm publications, 2021.
paula roush
Torn, Folded, Curled: Orphan Photographs Sourced from the Arab Image Foundation. Crafting an Archaeology of the Recent Past, One Photobookwork at a Time.
In: Super-Private: Sourcing from the Arab Image Foundation Photographic Collections. Beirut/London: msdm publications, 2023. (Original presentation: Lebanese American University, Byblos, 2019).
paula roush
Chaos of Memories: Surviving Archives and the Ruins of History According to the Found Photo Foundation. In: Knape, Gunilla; Wolthers, Louise; Östlind, Niclas (eds.). Order and Collapse: The Lives of Archives. Gothenburg: Hasselblad Foundation / Art and Theory Publishing, 2016.
paula roush
Xis Tempo. Tempo que Já Foi Tempo: Um Preâmbulo em Dois Capítulos.
In: Ferreira, Eduarda et al. (eds.). Percursos Feministas: Desafiar os Tempos.
Lisboa: UMAR / Universidade Feminista, 2015, pp. 74–83.
paula roush
Towards a Free / Libre / Open / Source / University
Furtherfield, 18 February 2013.
Originally commissioned as part of the Furtherfield collection Collaboration and Freedom — The World of Free and Open Source Art, commissioned by Arts Council England for Thinking Digital, 2011.
paula roush.
The Past Persists in the Present in the Form of a Dream (Participatory Architectures, Archive and Revolution). msdm publications;
also in: Seismopolite Journal of Art and Politics, issue 3, 2012.
paula roush
TV-Essay: Demystifying the Means of Reproduction in the Broadcast Medium.
In: Peters, Britta (ed.). Multitudes: The Art-TV Clash. Hamburg / Lüneburg / Paris: Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof / Halle für Kunst / CNEAI, 2010.
paula roush.
Estéticas Migratórias / Conceitos Viajantes / Epistemologia do Lugar Nómada.
In: Soter, Dani; Miranda, Mónica de (eds.).
Pensão Ibérica | Artistas em Residência.
Lisboa: Projeto Figura, 2010.
paula roush
Spaces, Visibilities and Transcultural Flows: Diasporic Strategies in the Local Worlds. In: Roush, Paula; Marques, Lúcia (eds.). Mundos Locais / Local Worlds. Lagos: Centro Cultural de Lagos, 2008.
paula roush and Ruth Brown.
Publishing with Friends: Exploring Social Networks to Support Photo Publishing Practices.
In: Lambropoulos, Niki; Romero, Margarida (eds.). Educational Social Software for Context-Aware Learning. Hershey: IGI Global, 2009.
paula roush
Can People Love Things and Things Pay People’s Rent?
Essay in I Love You, Oh You Pay My Rent, Paulo Romão Brás & Sandro Resende, São Bento Art Gallery, Lisbon, 2008.
paula roush
Francis Alÿs: The Clandestine Way
Dardo Magazine, No. 4, February–May 2007, pp. 138–155.
Writing within Projects
paula roush
Um Olho Verde Outro Azul: Herbário do Antropoceno. Porto: msdm publications, 2025 (2.ª ed. 2025).
paula roush
Al-Yom (Today) Torn Curled Folded.
Beirut / London: msdm publications, 2015–2026 (3.ª ed. 2026).
paula roush, Tamara Stoll, Hḗrā Santos
Follow Y / Our River Lea-Minal Edges: Prompts for Transitory States of Being.
London: msdm publications + Road Less Travelled Press, 2023.
paula roush, Tamara Stoll
Follow Y/Our River: A Manual for Deep Mapping in the Lower Lea Valley.
London: msdm publications + Road Less Travelled Press, 2023.
paula roush
House-Studio-Gallery: Publishing Mobile Strategies of Display & Mediation
Conference abstract published in the Museums Without Walls conference and exhibition catalogue,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, 15–20 August 2022.
paula roush
Water Prints.
London: msdm publications, 2022.
paula roush (ed.)
Liquid Memories: To Read with Water.
London: msdm publications, 2021.
paula roush
Super-Private: Sourcing from the Arab Image Foundation Photographic Collections.
London: msdm publications, 2023.
paula roush
Photobook Is / Did You Mean Photo Book Is.
London: msdm publications, 2020.
paula roush, Maria Lusitano
Queer Paper Gardens.
Lisboa: Fundação EDP, 2013.
paula roush
The Past Persists in the Present in the Form of a Dream. msdm publications, 2012.
paula roush
Mud d’Artiste / Kunstniku Muda
Text published in Global Tour: Art, Travel & Beyond, an exhibition catalogue based on research and a concept by Amiel Grumberg, W139, Amsterdam, 2005.
paula roush
Out/sourcing
London: msdm publications with inIVA, 2003.
Processual, Conversational & Methodological Writing
paula roush. Super-Private: A Conversation Between PR and EPS. In: Super-Private. London: msdm publications, 2023.
paula roush, Lara Gonzalez:The Scales of Publishing. In: ə/uh/-books #1. London: msdm publications, 2016.
paula roush. Atlantus Newspapers: An Ocean Between High- and Low-Brow Indie Publishing. In: ə/uh/-books #2. London: msdm publications, 2016.
paula roush. Amy Warwick: Blame Your Parents. In: ə/uh/-books #3. London: msdm publications, 2016.
paula roush, Maria Lusitano. A Field (of Interconnected Realities): Cyber Drawing and Mash-Up Electronic Goodness. In: ISEA 2011 Proceedings. Istanbul: Sabanci University, 2011.
On msdm & paula roush
Livro de artista (lugar e veículo): o campo comum entre arte e educação.
Tese de Doutoramento em Educação Artística, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, 2024. Orientação de Gabriela V. Pinheiro e Isabel Baraona. Aprovada em 2 de outubro de 2024.
The Expanded Practice of the Artist’s Book: Immersion in The Artist’s Museum. Video-essay
FV + msdm, London, 2020. Presented at Connections – Exploring Heritage, Architecture, Cities, Art, Media, University of Kent / AMPS, 29–30 June 2020; and ACI Research and Enterprise Conference, London South Bank University, 8 July 2020.
The Expanded Practice of the Artist’s Book: Immersion in The Artist’s Museum.
msdm publications, 2022. Photo-essay, 188 pp. Published on the occasion of Virtual Museums: An Inquiry into Virtual Art / Institutions & Communities, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, 15–17 August 2022.
Pedra-Papel-Água, os Livros de Artista como Lugares de Encontro / Stone-Paper-Water, Artist’s Books as Meeting Places
Jornal: If It Walks Like a Duck and It Talks Like a Duck It’s a Duck, Issue 1, 2021.
Essay on her collaboration with paula roush / msdm for Liquid Memories.
Art Nomadism. Conversation with paula roush
MartinaP blog, 1 February 2021.
A conversation about nomadism in artistic practice, msdm as a nomadic project space, publishing and the relationship between artistic practice and wellbeing.
Photobook: Work Week Workshop. A conversation about photobook publishing with Beate Cegielska, Galleri Image and paula roush, msdm studio
KATALOG Journal of Photography & Video 32.1
Um momento de publicação independente: paula roush apresenta Hypnotic Highway” [“A Moment of Independent Publishing: paula roush Presents Hypnotic Highway”].
P3 / Público, 29 Aug. 2020. [live page] [see pdf here]
Activating the Archive.
Reflection on paula roush’s sex’n’database: a corporeal taxonomy, for Activating the Archive, PHmuseum, 24 July–24 Sept. 2018.
When Writing and Visual Arts Meet, Magic Can Happen
BACKLIT Gallery meets Nottingham Writers’ Studio, Nottingham City of Literature, 9 April 2018.
Discusses Queer Paper Gardens, or The Wildlife of Symbols, the collaboration between paula roush and Maria Lusitano, as an example of art criticism becoming an artistic form in its own right.
Global Tour: Art Travel & Beyond
companion to the exhibition at W139 Amsterdam
[pdf here]
Watching Europe and Beyond: Surveillance, Art and Photography in the New Millennium
In Watched! Surveillance, Art and Photography, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2017.
All Inked Up
Kent’s International Artist Book & Print Event, UCA Canterbury & The Brewery Tap, Folkestone, 13 October–9 November 2017.
Unstable Media: Constructions and Disruptions
Portuguese Small Press Yearbook, 2017.
Launch of infinite multiple, an online platform selling unlimited editions by established and emerging artists
ArtDaily, 11 August 2017.
A Book, An Endless Love Affair
Cultural Studies Leuven, 10 August 2016.
Comments on BUS-SPOTTING + A STORY
Presentation at the launch of Order and Collapse: The Lives of Archives. Personal correspondence, April 2016.
Nothing to Undo
Kaleid Editions, Sunday Reading #004, April 2016.
paula roush fait revivre les archives du journal Al-Yom
Al Ayam Magazine, October 2015.
paula roush Residency with the Arab Image Foundation
Report to the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut, 2015.
Paradigm Store at Howick Place
3rd Dimension Magazine, 23 October 2014.
Operações SAAL
In Álvaro Siza e a Persistência de São Victor: Falhar, Falhar Novamente, Falhar Melhor, O Processo SAAL: Arquitectura e Participação 1974–1976, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, 2014.
A Obra “Faça-você-mesmo”: Estética da Participação nas Artes Digitais. [The “Do-It-Yourself” Artwork: Aesthetics of Participation in Digital Arts].
Doctoral thesis in Communication Sciences, specialising in Communication and Arts, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2014. Discusses msdm project cctvecstasy as a case study within a critical investigation of participatory and “do-it-yourself” artworks, examining audience agency and the shifting relations between artwork, artist and public.
Mulheres fatais e outras que tais / Fatal Women and Others as Such: A Visit to the Surrealist Museum through Collage
Ípsilon / Público, 23 August 2013.
Colagem e Colisão / Collage and Collision
An artistic collaboration around the dances and counterdances of gender, retrieving collage as a mode of associating images.
Expresso Atual, 22 June 2013.
A Journal of One’s Own: A Text Dedicated to Mary, Margaret, Valentine, Alice, paula, Maria and All the Other Women
In Queer Paper Gardens, Vol. V, Fundação EDP, 2013.
Undermining the Surrounding World
Museum of Electricity, Lisbon, 2013.
Xistorias: Performance digital nas aldeias do Xisto — A Beira Serra em streaming direto
Editorial published in O Varzeense, 30 October 2013.
Reflects on Xistorias as a digital performance project developed in the Aldeias do Xisto context, connecting place, live transmission and participatory practice.
Contemporary Post-Studio Art Practice and its Institutional Currency
Investigative study based on interviews with five UK-based artists: Louise Ashcroft, Claire Blundell Jones, Helene Kazan, Danny Pockets and paula roush.
MA in Visual Cultures dissertation, University of Westminster, 2013.
Excavation Thrill
A conversation between paula roush and Tanja Verlak. Nowiswere Contemporary Art Magazine, Issue 12, 2013.
Album Art
Aperture Reviews, 12 March 2013.
Lieber Aby Warburg, was tun mit Bildern? Vom Umgang mit fotografischem Material
Camera Austria, 121, 2013.
The Memory of Stones — paula roush
General Residency, 1 July–2 August 2013.
Field Report! Frans Masereel Centrum
Printeresting, 23 July 2013.
Connecting Worlds
Exhibition, Drawing Room, London, 2013.
Museu do Chiado quer mostrar arte sem o filtro da heterossexualidade
[Museu do Chiado Wants to Show Art without the Filter of Heterosexuality]
Ípsilon / Público, 9 April 2013.
Hetero q.b.?
Esquerda — Opinião, 11 May 2013.
Uma mostra que permite conhecer o outro
Diário de Notícias, 6 May 2013.
Ípsilon / Público, 9 April 2013.
Programa Molduras: Entrevista a Emília Tavares e paula roush
As Artes Plásticas na Antena 2, 22 April 2013.
Quem tem medo de ser “queer”? / Who Is Afraid of Being “Queer”?
Time Out, 24 April 2013.
Mostra de vídeo no Museu do Chiado aborda feminismo e lesbianismo
Cultura, Lisbon, 9 April 2013.
Eva Schmidt
Foreword & Acknowledgements
In Dear Aby Warburg, What Can Be Done with Images? Dealing with Photographic Material, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, 2012.
Space for Thinking Between the Images: On the Genesis of the “Photographic Collection” as an Artistic Genre
In Dear Aby Warburg, What Can Be Done with Images? Dealing with Photographic Material, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, 2012.
An Attempt at Exhausting an Archive / Found Photo Foundation
In Dear Aby Warburg, What Can Be Done with Images? Dealing with Photographic Material, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, 2012.
paula roush (UK): Public Art Project, Auckland 2010
robgarrettcfa.com, 2 April 2010.
Migratory Aesthetics / Travelling Concepts / Epistemology of the Nomadic Place
In Projeto Figura — Pensão Ibérica | Artistas em Residência, 2010.
From Webcamming to Social Life-Logging: Intimate Performance in the Surveillant-Sousveillant Space
In Conspiracy Dwellings: Surveillance in Contemporary Art, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010.
Image, Theory, Practice: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of Photographic Education
Photographies, 2:2, pp. 117–124, 2009.
Publishing with Friends: Social Publishing Networks and Learners as Produsers
In Educational Social Software for Context-Aware Learning: Collaborative Methods & Human Interaction, 2009.
Social Networking and Authentic Engagement: Students as “Produsers”
Learning & Teaching e-Journal, 1(1), 2009.
New Brave World Workshop at iMAL: RFID and Art
We Make Money Not Art, March 2008.
KISSS — Kinship International Strategy on Surveillance and Suppression
Art Monthly, Issue 321, November 2008.
KISSS… Your Privacy Goodbye
Metro, 13 October 2008.
Conspiracy Dwellings
Aperture, Issue 192, Fall 2008.
Where There’s Art, There’s Brass
British Journal of Photography, 18 June 2008.
Um banho de arte
Jornal de Letras, 18 June 2008.
Lagos global
Expresso Actual, July 2008.
Cultura emprestada
Expresso Actual, 19 July 2008.
Virados ao sul
L+Arte, Issue 50, July 2008.
Instalação convida a provar e pensar frutos
Jornal da Madeira / Cultura, 15 June 2008.
Laranjas algarvias transformadas em arte
14 June 2008.
Toneladas de laranjas marcaram arranque do programa “Allgarve”
Barlavento Online, 23 June 2008.
20 mil pessoas já visitaram exposições do Allgarve
Barlavento Online, 22 July 2008.
Ad
Art Monthly, July–August 2007.
New Art on View: Celebrating the Success of the Contemporary Art Society’s Special Collection Scheme
Scala Publishers, 2006.
Orwellian Projects
We Make Money Not Art, September 2006.
Touch > Bruce Sterling at “How I Learned to Love RFID”
June 2006.
Arphid Sound Performances in the Metro
We Make Money Not Art, April 2006.
Of RFIDs and Arphids: The Logistics of the Future
Mute Magazine, June 2006.
The Spychip Under Your Skin: RFID and the Tagged Exhibition
Space Media Arts, October 2006.
Artists in Fieldwork: Anu Vahtra, Jaanus Samma, paula roush, Pilvi Takala
Maja — Estonian Architectural Review, Landscapes Issue, May 2006, pp. 39–43.
KISSS Revealed: Deej Fabyc, paula roush and Camilla Brueton on Kinship International Strategy on Surveillance and Suppression (KISSS)
n.paradoxa, Journeys, Vol. 17, January 2006.
Locative Media, On and Off the Beaten Track
Leonardo Electronic Almanac — Locative Media Gallery, 2006.
Art in Security and Security in Art
KISSS — Kinship International Strategy on Surveillance and Suppression, 2005.
Public Services
In the catalogue for the exhibition Public Services, PavelHaus, October 2005.
The Crisis of Interpretation: An Investigation into the Dynamics of Engagement with Site-Specific Art in the Age of Squanto
MA in Contemporary Art Theory dissertation, Goldsmiths College, September 2004. Published in msdm Stenciled Papers, January 2005.
Infiltrate Estonia: SPACE PROTOCOL
Rael Artel Gallery, Pärnu, Estonia, 2005.
Go On! Have Another One!
True Review, December 2004.
Performance: Strategy and Process in the Work of Adrian Piper, Lida Abdul, Sussan Deyhim, Reza Aramesh and paula roush
Notes for a presentation delivered at Artsadmin, November 2004.
POSTSCRIPT (Part One): Portuguese Live Art in the Age of Scripted Reality
November 2004.
Operation SOS:OK, Bermondsey, South London
Regeneration & Renewal, 5 November 2004, p. 8.
Bermondsey Takes the Biscuit: Former Peek Frean Employees Back Community Project
The Guardian, 20 October 2004.
Taking the Biscuit
Southwark Weekender, 15 October 2004.
Current Perspectives on the Role of Art in Urban Development: Do Artistic Interventions Benefit a Community?
Art in Community Settings, Birkbeck College, University of London, 2004. Published in SOS:OK Guide, msdm publications, 2004.
Interview with paula roush about “exercise sos:ok” at Gallery 74
Mladina, Ljubljana, September–October 2004.
paula roush / B&B
Deloskop, 9–15 September 2004.
Preview Segment on “exercise sos:ok”
Val 202 (Slovenian FM Radio), 6 September 2004.
Artists’ Work Is Perfectly Placed
24 Hour Museum, August 2004.
Perfectly Placed to Enjoy the Art of the People
ICNetwork, 27 August 2004.
Perfectly Placed: Preview
The Guardian, 7 August 2004.
When PhD Becomes an Art Work…
msdm Stenciled Papers, published for the exhibition Perfectly Placed, South London Gallery, July 2004.
Memory Factory at Coleman Project Space
Published in SOS:OK Guide, msdm publications, 2004.
Last Week Hundreds of People Piled into a Gallery in Bermondsey
Southwark News, 17 June 2004.
A Experiência da Cidade — Londres — 4 Perfis
Storm Magazine, May–June 2004.
The Pernicious Nature of Opposition Chic
The Static Pamphlet, Issue 03, 2004.
M4 UEC: Artist’s Run Urban Entertainment Centre
In Anarchitexts: Voices from the Global Digital Resistance, Autonomedia, 2004.
Prague Biennale
ArtMargins, 2003.
A Revolt at the Door
In B+B (ed.), Art of Survival: London Artists Travel to Prague, poster publication, 2003.
The Art of Survival: paula roush in Conversation with Ella Gibbs, Alasdair Hopwood, Barry Sykes and Sean Parfitt
In Giancarlo Politi (ed.), Prague Biennale 1: Peripheries Become the Center, Flash Art, Milan, 2003, pp. 506–515.
Report from RAM2: A Joker in the Global Bunker Workshop
NOEMA — Tecnologie e Società, 2003.
From the White Cube to the Black Box to the Personal Computer and Out in the Grey Wide Open — or How to Reapproach New Media: An Essay on the Postdigital Artscene
Localmotives.com, 2003.
Kämpfer für’s Glück
Kunstverein Ulm, 2003.
Brand Ranking: Working in Between Consciousness and Conformity
In Out/sourcing, msdm publications, 2003.
Interview
In Out/sourcing, msdm publications, 2003.
Balanço de Actividades Ar.Co — 25 anos a reinventar joalharia
Expresso, 3 April 2003.
The Art Audience as User
PhD research in Arts & Design, Central Saint Martins College, November 2003.
Discount-Biennale
Kunst & Kultur, July 2003.
Boycott — Prague Biennale I
Kunst & Kultur, July 2003.
Between Peripheries and Shopping Centres
In Art of Survival: London Artists Travel to Prague, poster publication for the Czech Centre, London, 2003.
msdm: Outsourcing
Artofficial Construction Media (ACM), ContextinArt 1, 2003.
Promises
Postcard project for the video of the same title by Consol Rodriguez, London Print Studios, 2003.
City Stripping
GAK — Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, 2001.
City Stripping
Die Tageszeitung, 2001.
Places Out of Images
In Urban Detours, Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau, 2001.
Time and Space in Megalopolis
The City Gallery, Prague, 2001.
Le mode de diffusion
PARACHUTE, No. 98, April–June 2000.
Women With Attitude
SMART Magazine, Issue 3, London, 2000.
Peckham Calling
Blueprint Magazine, July–August 2000.
The Public Art of Campaigning
In Living in the Material World, Coventry University, 2000. ISBN 0905949846.
Reflects on msdm’s collaborative and public-art practice, including the Moncrieff Place project in Peckham and questions of gentrification, regeneration and consultation in the city.