Publishing under the name T. J. Bacon and creating artwork
using the name tjb, Dr Tōmei June Bacon is a trans-femme pansexual person with
hidden disabilities. An interdisciplinary visual artist, scholar and author,
she is also the founder and artistic director of Tempting Failure.
She is keen to collaborate with artists, scholars and activists who foreground transdisciplinary applications of artistic practice with social engagement and particularly welcomes the consideration of strategies that advocate for transgender inclusion and celebration.
BackgroundBorn in 1980, she has exhibited artwork internationally for over 20+ years. From 2001 to 2008, this work spanned writing, theatre direction, public interventions, club performances, live art, cabaret, and visual art. From 2009, refining her craft through experimentation she began focusing on solo practices in noise and performance art, exploring phenomenological perception, researching and establishing the notion of a multiplicity of self/s, while her curatorial, directorial, and producing work delved into themes of risk and failure. In 2012, she founded Tempting Failure, an international performance art festival that has supported over 800 artists to date. By 2017, her solo practice started to align with her emerging understanding of her gender identity, sexuality, and disabilities. This began by unpacking indoctrination from growing up under the UK’s oppressive Section 28 law, which had erased queer representation in education, deeply impacted her formative years, delaying her self-acceptance and exploration until much later in life. From 2017 to 2019, her solo work helped her navigate, express, and reclaim her identity, embracing a queer phenomenological approach to her perception. Between 2020 and 2023 her live practice transitioned to include painting and sculpture, alongside ongoing academic and multimodal writing. During this period, she became more comfortable with her authentic sense of being a trans-femme person, appreciating her pansexuality and the power of no longer running from her disabilities. Today, her interdisciplinary practice spans performance art, visual art, and curation; it engages with transgender studies, queer theory, crip theory, and queer phenomenology. Despite facing personal and systemic adversity and being the victim of incidents of hate crime for living her life as herself, her current work explores hope amid oppression. She advocates for a radically queer reimagining of traditional phenomenology, curation and academia. And, through the lens of queer acts of hope, she explores transdisciplinary practices that move beyond trauma, while acknowledging its existence and the oppressions that cause it, to advocate for positive possibilities for the future.
PhD Supervision Enquiries
If you are interested in being supervised for your PhD, Dr T J Bacon is open to applications via two institutions.
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama
This Postgraduate Research Programme has a distinctive focus on research in, through and for the performing arts. As a world-leading conservatoire, they welcome research projects that integrate creative practice with scholarly enquiry. A unique aspect of the researcher experience at Guildhall (UK) is the year-long training programme during the first year of study which equipes PGR’s with the tools to vision and realize a project. This is in addition to the supervisory team, a bespoke set of advisors who have the appropriate combination of academic and artistic expertise to supervise your work as it develops.
Apply Here
TransArt Institute
This is validated by Liverpool John Hopkins University (UK) and delivered by the TransArt Institute (USA). This is a low-residency programme (supporting global participation) focused towards transdisciplinary practice/research. The Creative Research PhD is for everyone who desires to: bring their praxis to a significantly new level in terms of creation and articulation; to contribute beyond their particular field to a broader artistic/academic context; to teach at all levels, transdisciplinarily or in more than one field; to continue to exhibit, publish, curate, and perform in and beyond our international community. This programme draws together its international cohort at key points in the year and supports them with tailored expertise.
Apply Here
Important Note
When applying to either insitution it is very important to name Dr Tōmei June Bacon as part of your preferred supervision team.
Profiles:
Access Document An access document is available upon request in advance of working with new partners. Access documents are used by disabled artists/producers to ensure that their needs are supported wherever possible.
This document will help to cover important issues prior to beginning a working relationship, allowing any given institution/gallery/organisation/funding-partner/allies and collaborators to feel confident and comfortable in their interactions with each other.
She is keen to collaborate with artists, scholars and activists who foreground transdisciplinary applications of artistic practice with social engagement and particularly welcomes the consideration of strategies that advocate for transgender inclusion and celebration.
BackgroundBorn in 1980, she has exhibited artwork internationally for over 20+ years. From 2001 to 2008, this work spanned writing, theatre direction, public interventions, club performances, live art, cabaret, and visual art. From 2009, refining her craft through experimentation she began focusing on solo practices in noise and performance art, exploring phenomenological perception, researching and establishing the notion of a multiplicity of self/s, while her curatorial, directorial, and producing work delved into themes of risk and failure. In 2012, she founded Tempting Failure, an international performance art festival that has supported over 800 artists to date. By 2017, her solo practice started to align with her emerging understanding of her gender identity, sexuality, and disabilities. This began by unpacking indoctrination from growing up under the UK’s oppressive Section 28 law, which had erased queer representation in education, deeply impacted her formative years, delaying her self-acceptance and exploration until much later in life. From 2017 to 2019, her solo work helped her navigate, express, and reclaim her identity, embracing a queer phenomenological approach to her perception. Between 2020 and 2023 her live practice transitioned to include painting and sculpture, alongside ongoing academic and multimodal writing. During this period, she became more comfortable with her authentic sense of being a trans-femme person, appreciating her pansexuality and the power of no longer running from her disabilities. Today, her interdisciplinary practice spans performance art, visual art, and curation; it engages with transgender studies, queer theory, crip theory, and queer phenomenology. Despite facing personal and systemic adversity and being the victim of incidents of hate crime for living her life as herself, her current work explores hope amid oppression. She advocates for a radically queer reimagining of traditional phenomenology, curation and academia. And, through the lens of queer acts of hope, she explores transdisciplinary practices that move beyond trauma, while acknowledging its existence and the oppressions that cause it, to advocate for positive possibilities for the future.
PhD Supervision Enquiries
If you are interested in being supervised for your PhD, Dr T J Bacon is open to applications via two institutions.
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama
This Postgraduate Research Programme has a distinctive focus on research in, through and for the performing arts. As a world-leading conservatoire, they welcome research projects that integrate creative practice with scholarly enquiry. A unique aspect of the researcher experience at Guildhall (UK) is the year-long training programme during the first year of study which equipes PGR’s with the tools to vision and realize a project. This is in addition to the supervisory team, a bespoke set of advisors who have the appropriate combination of academic and artistic expertise to supervise your work as it develops.
Apply Here
TransArt Institute
This is validated by Liverpool John Hopkins University (UK) and delivered by the TransArt Institute (USA). This is a low-residency programme (supporting global participation) focused towards transdisciplinary practice/research. The Creative Research PhD is for everyone who desires to: bring their praxis to a significantly new level in terms of creation and articulation; to contribute beyond their particular field to a broader artistic/academic context; to teach at all levels, transdisciplinarily or in more than one field; to continue to exhibit, publish, curate, and perform in and beyond our international community. This programme draws together its international cohort at key points in the year and supports them with tailored expertise.
Apply Here
Important Note
When applying to either insitution it is very important to name Dr Tōmei June Bacon as part of your preferred supervision team.
Profiles:
Access Document An access document is available upon request in advance of working with new partners. Access documents are used by disabled artists/producers to ensure that their needs are supported wherever possible.
This document will help to cover important issues prior to beginning a working relationship, allowing any given institution/gallery/organisation/funding-partner/allies and collaborators to feel confident and comfortable in their interactions with each other.