Title
‘Unfixed Landscapes: An Ecological and Critical Analysis of Photographic Processes in the Anthropocene’

Abstract

This thesis examines the past, present, and future role of analogue and sustainable photographic printing processes and practices in the context of the current climate crisis. Silver-based photographic processes are known to contribute to the toxic waste that is accumulating in our soil and oceans. The concerns of the thesis are thus situated against a wider ecological context in which our growing exploitative and extractive behaviours and habits in the current era of the Anthropocene, are increasingly reintroducing material waste back to the environment in the form of pollutants (Parrika, 2015). Australian cultural historian, Astrida Neimanis, describes modern global waters as ‘anthropogenic’; with ‘rising sea levels, melting ice caps, parched interiors, rogue storm surges and strange weather, human interaction with water can be seen to not only ‘sustain life but also to threaten it’ (Neimanis, 2017). Analogue printing techniques, such as cyanotype and anthotypes, are currently experiencing a revival amongst environmentally conscious image makers, who explore the sustainability and long-term benefits of sourcing alternative photographic materials including sunlight. Drawing on case studies, I propose to investigate the following key questions: where do photographic chemicals and materials come from? Who extracts them and to what end? Who processes and consumes them and under what economic and/or social working conditions? What are the ecological and environmental short-, mid- and long-term impacts after a commercial mine has been abandoned?

Short Bio

Born to an Anglo-Irish mother and a Sudeten-German father in Wiesbaden, Germany, Scholz grew up in a bilingual family home, dividing his time between Ireland and Germany. He completed a BA in Photography at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), developing a keen interest in visual narratives, followed by postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he deepened his understanding of critical and contemporary art-making theories and practices under the mentorship of several Turner Prize–winning artists including Dr Elizabeth Price, Grayson Perry, Mark Leckey and Laure Prouvost. He subsequently trained as a teacher at the Institute of Education, University College London, developing specialist subject-specific skills for teaching photography to young people. His work has been exhibited widely across Europe. Recent exhibitions include Rotlicht Festival for Analog Photography 2022 (joint winner), Vienna; Climanosco 2022 (invited artist), Schaffhausen; Rotterdam Photo Festival 2022 XL (joint winner), Rotterdam; PhotoIreland Festival 2022 (invited artist), Dublin and Extraction: Loss and Restoration 2022 (invited artist), King’s Lynn, UK. Upcoming exhibitions include FUTURES Photography 2023, Amsterdam. His photographic works are housed in the collections of the Office of Public Works, Ireland; NHS Foundation Trust, England; Goldsmiths College, United Kingdom; Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Belgium; and IBASHO Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.

Email: aindreasscholz81@gmail.com

Title
‘Journalistic Art Criticism and Practice: Expanding Public Engagement’

Abstract

This thesis critically examines my work as a journalist art critic, situating the inquiry within a field currently outlined as ‘both challenged and challenging’ (Bickers, 2021)) and with reference to existing discourse about art criticism and arts journalism (Elkins, 2003; Gielen and Lijster, 2015; Solomon, 2016; Haylock and Patty, 2021). It maps out the field of journalistic art criticism and practice as an inquiry navigated across diverse sites of production and dissemination through major transitional periods – technological, chronological, social and political. The central research concern lies in an interrogation of the value and purpose of this work as it relates to art history and the ways in which its published outputs gain value as cultural history, in particular as it applies to readings of Irish national, social and political identity (Cosgrove, 1990; Jewesbury et al., 2008; Gibbons, 2011; Shovlin, 2013). The thesis interrogates questions raised through an exploration of the practice, including an examination of the place of art criticism within twenty-first century journalism in Ireland, together with a focus on how it can seek out new journalism-related modes of connection with audiences. This thesis reinserts the practice of art criticism as journalism into the field of discussion.

Short Bio

Cristín Leach is a cultural critic working in print, TV, radio and digital media since 1999 and writing art criticism for The Sunday Times since 2003. She has published more than 500 articles and essays in newspapers, journals, catalogues, artist books and online. In 2017, she wrote ‘21st Century Ireland in 21 Artworks’ for RTE.ie and curated the associated exhibition at the 2019 Earagail Arts Festival. She co-presented the New York Festivals award-winning radio series ‘Through the Canvas’ in 2019, and presented the four-part radio documentary ‘Ireland Portrayed’ in 2020, for RTÉ Lyric FM. She has written, broadcast on TV and radio, delivered public talks and third level education lectures, and participated in panel discussions on the role of the critic and the purpose and nature of art criticism since 2010. Her practice is driven by a deliberate decision to practice as an art critic within mainstream media. Since 2016, she has expanded her practice into a parallel exploration of art criticism as a form of personal essay, alongside the role art writing can play in the production of creative non-fiction and auto-fiction. Her short fiction and personal essays have been published in Winter Papers (2017; 2019; 2021) and on RTÉ Radio 1 (‘Keywords’, 2020). She holds a Master of Arts in Journalism (1998). Her book of personal essays Negative Space (2022) was published by Merrion Press. She is President of AICA Ireland, the Irish branch of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art.

Website: https://linktr.ee/cristinleach

Title
‘Care-Full Design – From Home to Place: Inclusive Design Processes in Socially Engaged Architectural Practice in Ireland’

Abstract

This thesis examines contemporary socially engaged architectural practice in Ireland and explores whether it can be sustained within existing structures, through adopting a ‘criticality from within’ approach (Doucet 2018) or liminal position at the interstices of creative practice. It sets out to frame the different roles of architect, facilitator, client(s) and users/audience as agents operating within these contexts. I am interested in an interrogation of the everyday environments we occupy and the ways that certain forms of spatial knowledge are privileged (and perpetuated through prevalent modes of architectural education) over others. Jos Boys (2016) describes how in architecture care-full design starts from an analysis of ‘actual, multiple, diverse and unequal everyday lives’. The durational and site-specific practice-based research projects foregrounded in the thesis represent an interest in how one might conceive of architectural practice differently by engaging with the processes of negotiation and sense-making in assessing spatial needs and understanding diverse lived experiences, particularly of those with disabilities. The thesis re-evaluates over a decade of architectural practice and projects through a critical framework which foregrounds feminist concerns around care and inclusion.

Short Bio

Emma Geoghegan is an architect, urban designer and educator engaged in the design of inclusive and resilient buildings and places for people. She is currently Assistant Head of School at the Dublin School of Architecture, leading on undergraduate, postgraduate and professional architectural programmes. From 2007-2017 Emma was a partner in MEME Architecture a collaborative design practice working on projects in the UK and Ireland. The practice undertook a broad range of projects with an emphasis on work for voluntary and community organisations providing services for people with intellectual disabilities. In parallel, since 2008, her research and teaching practice has been driven by a commitment to the social purpose of architecture and collaborative inclusive design principles and embedding this within architectural education.

Email: emma.geoghegan@tudublin.ie

Title
‘Boundary Objects: Operations of an Expanded Architectural Practice’

Abstract

Architecture has provided the foundational structure that has facilitated the expansion of my practice in the ‘expanded field’ (Krauss, 1979). A mixed mode of broad creative practice has resulted in outputs located at the intersection of academic, architectural, art and creative practice. This has resulted in works that could be considered ‘boundary objects’ (Star and Griesemer, 1989; Akkermann & Bakker, 2011), exhibiting patterns of assemblage, appropriation, accommodation, together with bricolage (Deleuze & Guattari, 1984; Dezeuze, 2008). Since bricolage ‘is nowadays associated with indifference to genres, the celebration of eclectic code mixings, and arbitrariness,’ it points toward uncharted territories (Altglas 2014). Boundary objects are the residue of more than one set of influences that share a common set of characteristics; though they may constitute ambiguous allegories on the periphery of mainstream architectural practice, they further carry the inherent creative potential of new knowledge (Grushka et al., 2018). The mechanisms of identification, coordination, reflection and transformation have been identified that arguably could facilitate a better understanding of the learning potential of boundary crossing (Akkermann & Bakker, 2011). This thesis sets out to map the periphery and overlap of several disciplinary fields of my creative practice, further examining the reconciliation of compositional operations that contribute to the creation of ‘boundary objects’.

Short Bio

Noel Brady is a Lecturer in Architecture, Design, Technology and Theory in the School of Architecture, Building, Environment (SABE), TU Dublin, where he is also the current Programme Chair for architecture. Since 1990 he has contributed to undergraduate education and postgraduate supervision as well as leading on various research projects. His practice, NJBA A+U, established in 1994, has been recognised nationally and internationally for architectural and urban design. Published contributions include articles, critical papers, interviews and reviews. In 2020 he co-edited Dublin by Design (O’Brien Press) with Sandra O’Connell, celebrating 100 years of Architecture and Urban Design in Dublin, alongside in recognition of the role of Architects in the formation of Ireland’s capital city. Noel is interested in transdisciplinary areas of research, music composition and creative writing, which includes the establishment of the HYBRID Living Lab with colleagues in SABE.

Email: noel.brady@tudublin.ie

Title
'Artists’ Displacement and Rights: Contesting Citizenship and Policy'

Abstract

This thesis draws on my personal history as an active spokesperson for international cultural networks and policy in Europe, together with my role as caseworker for persecuted artists. The thesis examines a decade of working with artists impacted by displacement when relocated to safety in Western Europe, using a model that similarly supports human rights defenders. It explores the landscapes of the international professional arts, cultural policy and diplomacy networks in the European Union and the effect of such networking on civil society advocacy actions. The thesis critiques the notion of an exclusive EU citizenship, engaging with how concepts of hospitality, alongside universally legislated rights of asylum seekers and refugees, evolve over time. Questions are raised surrounding inclusion and diversity in arts practice and policy and to what extent the European arts and culture sector has a responsibility to uphold this rhetoric. It reflects on the validity of representing the silenced voices of others, counterposing conditions of exile with models of social connection, further analysing the contribution of artists impacted by displacement to the democratic public space of their host countries.

Short Bio

Mary Ann DeVlieg is an independent consultant currently researching policies, protection, and citizenship rights of artists impacted by displacement. She has been a case worker for persecuted artists since 2010. A co-founder of IARA (International Arts Rights Advisors), she founded the EU working group, Arts-Rights-Justice; was freeDimensional’s Director of Strategic Development (2013-2015); and is a co-founder of the Arts-Rights-Justice Academy, University of Hildesheim. She evaluates and advises international cultural collaboration projects, policies and programmes for the European Commission's culture, research, and international development programmes, arts councils and private foundations. A former Secretary General of IETM (1994-2013), international network for contemporary performing arts, she co-founded www.on-the-move.org and the Roberto Cimetta Fund for Mobility in the Mediterranean. She is board member of Ettijahat - Independent Culture, and has been curating and advising the annual Malmö Safe Havens conference for artists, activists and policy makers since 2013.

Email: ma@dialogart.org

Title
'Cultural Democracy: Negotiating Gender, Class, Participation and Political Activism in the Production and Commissioning of Art in the UK and Beyond'

Abstract

This thesis critically examines the past decade of my work as arts practitioner, pedagogue, activist and writer, situating the inquiry within a Gramscian theoretical framework. The thesis proposes that it is at the crucial intersection of critical and feminist pedagogy, radical theatre practice and gender and class-based activism that a distinct critical ‘voice’ has emerged; a political voice which I have drawn upon to position myself strategically as provocateur, disrupter and challenger of dominant cultural narratives surrounding questions as to who has access to make, produce, participate in, or commission art within the UK, Europe and beyond. Drawing on the theory of intersectionality and looking in particular at gender, class, age and religion, it uses feminist ethnography and autoethnography as methodologies to interrogate the ways in which my lived experience as a working-class woman from a migrant background, constantly mediated by a sense of ‘otherness’ and marginalisation, contributed to the development of a politicised voice. In so doing, it endeavours to unpick the tensions that have emerged from adopting a positionality as a determined agent of change on one side, and the imperative to influence cultural policy and shift thinking at a national and international level, on the other.

Short Bio

Chrissie Tiller is a writer, thinker, practitioner and educator, with a history of initiating and leading innovative learning programmes for artists working in collaborative and social arts practice, across the UK, the EU, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, Japan and Palestine. Having set up and run the MA in Participatory and Community Arts at Goldsmiths, London University until 2014, she is currently co-director of Faculty North, alongside her role as critical friend, advisor, and evaluator for a number of UK arts and cultural organisations. Her publication ‘Power Up’, originally commissioned by Creative People and Places for Arts Council England, has become a standard reference for practitioners, commissioners and funders working in the field of co-production, collaboration, power sharing and shared decision making across the EU as well as the UK. Currently Heart of Glass’ associate and writer in residence, her most recent piece for them is ‘Care as a Radical Act’ (2020).

Email: c.tiller@btinternet.com

Title
'A Landscape Interpretation of Informal Spatial Settings and its Relevance to Architectural Practice'

Abstract

This thesis presents a way to look at informal settings that offers valuable concepts and methods to contemporary architecture practice. The approach has been developed using primarily the discourses emerging from the observation, occupation and structure of landscape rather than that of architecture. Landscape terms and concepts are used to redescribe informal settings in order to explore what architecture practice can learn from them. This is be done by articulating a definition of informal settings through both existing discourse (Cruz, Oliver, Oswalt, Upton, Vellinga) and the refinement of this definition through insights in my publications and projects on the properties and processes observed in these locations. Likewise, the thesis will corroborate the landscape reading made in my publications through reference to the literature on landscape interpretation (Corner, Ingold, Jackson, Waldheim). The thesis draws on the primary research of informal settings in the prior publications, which utilize case-study based drawing and observational methodologies and will further substantiate the landscape reading made of these settings. The potential of the strategic linking of these discourses to inform architectural practice forms the thesis that unifies the publications. The landscape interpretation of informal settings illuminates the themes of temporality, process, agency and collaboration, which allow the transferal of knowledge and working processes from informal settings into architectural practice in a manner that allows cross-fertilization between the conventional disciplinary boundaries of the urban and rural.

Short Bio

Dougal Sheridan studied architecture at Queensland University Australia, TU Berlin, and the HDK, Berlin, graduating with 1st Class Honours. He is an academic and director of LiD Architecture – a multi-award-winning practice for both its architectural and research projects. He has held various academic positions including lecturer in Architecture at the University of Ulster, a visiting Fellow of the University of Queensland Australia, external examiner to Architecture Program in Sligo IT, and guest tutor at the Dessau International Architecture Graduate School [DIA] Germany. He has published widely on the topics of informal urbanism, sub-cultural space in the city, public engagement in the built environment, together with landscape strategies in the discipline of architecture.

Email: dougal@lid-architecture.net

Title
'Fashion-Centred Socially Engaged Art Practice: Oppositional Cultural Practices Across Diverse Communities'

Abstract

Harmonizing the dichotomy between fashion and public art through site-specific projects has underpinned my creative practice for over a decade. The result has been a series of fashion projects where diverse communities have employed the methods of fashion within a participatory public art model to explore social issues relevant to them. My thesis draws from six of these completed projects, the publications resulting from them, and relevant literature to shed light on the ethical, theoretical, and symbolic ramifications of centring a socially engaged art practice in fashion. This critical examination of my site-specific community-based fashion-centred projects implements theoretical lenses such as that of Representational Justice and Oppositional Cultural Practice theory to problematize different themes within my creative practice. From how the site-specific character of my projects de-stabilizes the paradigms of fashion and socially engaged art, to how cultural practices are moderated and negotiated in the realization and dissemination of the projects, to how participation and collaboration overlap and complement in these projects, to how its fashion centeredness makes my creative practice uniquely suited to enable dialogues about uncomfortable social topics. The thesis contributes to knowledge in the broader field of socially engaged art and about the untapped potential of fashion as a medium for socially engaged artistic undertakings. In addition, it expands scholarship about the use of creative approaches that enable the implementation of decolonizing methodologies and epistemologies within the interdisciplinary field of socially engaged art.

Short Bio

Henry Navarro Delgado is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the MA Fashion, Creative School, Ryerson University, Toronto. He is an interdisciplinary fashion designer, artist, activist, educator, and scholar. His research focuses on the convergence of fashion, visual culture and social issues through both theory and practice-based outputs. Born and educated in Cuba, his creative and scholarly pursuits span North America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. Based in Toronto, Canada, Navarro is known for his fashion-based public art projects exploring topics relevant to different communities through their direct participation. His site-specific fashion projects engage Black, Indigenous, racialized, rural and other underrepresented social groups. He is guest editor of ‘Black Masculinities, Dress & Style’, a forthcoming special issue of the journal Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion.

Email: hnavarro@ryerson.ca

Title
'Make Ready: Productive Disruption and Interstitial Sites of Graphic Design Practice'

Abstract

This thesis draws on five completed publicly mediated publications in which my roles encompassed writing, editing, exhibition-making, curation, publication design, publishing, filmmaking, music composition, recording and production. My practice has emerged from an engagement with independent music and is anchored in the reciprocal knowledge bases or ‘operational fields’ of music and graphic design. In this thesis I position the immersed, improvisatory nature of my transdisciplinary artistic practice in relation to the discipline of Graphic Design. Imbricated issues of authorship and collaboration, the relationships between subject and the affordances of media and technological means and their interstitial deployment, problematise the ‘apparatus’ (Brecht, 2019), dismantling the conceits and constructs, and thereby, expanding the practice and operational field of the graphic design discipline. Implicit in the referenced publications, the thesis foregrounds in depth an underlying bricoleur methodology (Lévi-Strauss, 1966), alongside a theoretical framing of intertextuality (Kristeva, 1980), transtextuality (Genette, 1982), together with unpacking the concepts of transmediality (Rajewsky, 2005), intermediality (Jensen, 2016) and hypermediacy (Bolter and Grusin, 1998). The reflexive ‘foldback’ that occurs through this approach underlines the conceptualisation of the practice itself, demanding a deeper participatory and critical engagement of the ‘audience’; a widened reading of the publications and sites of publication emerges, and in so doing, generates new knowledge impacting upon interdisciplinary graphic practices.

Short Bio

Peter Maybury is a Lecturer in the Dublin School of Creative Arts. His practice-based research is situated at the interstices of disciplines. An artist, graphic designer, filmmaker, publisher, writer, editor, curator, musician, and educator, his output spans more than 25 years during which he has collaborated extensively with artists and institutions, editors and curators, on more than 150 individual artists publications, and over 50 group show publications in Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, UK, US, Italy and Canada. These include artist’s monographs and books, exhibition display, wayfinding systems, collection and event-specific publications (print and digital), academic and critical content. Much of this work has been featured in key design publications including Blueprint, Creative Review, and Emigre magazines. His recent film work includes Landfall (2020), a dual-screen film installation work, originally commissioned by Thisispopbaby for the Where We Live festival. A selection of his works include: Gall, an ongoing collaborative practice with Tom dePaor, emerging from the disciplines of architecture, design, film, installation, public art, text, curation and landscape. Their work includes the films Drape (2019) for Pálás Cinema, Galway; Study (2015), made for exhibition at ETH Zurich; and These Islands, Slievemore, Dooagh, Keel East, Co. Mayo (2013) (first shown at The Everyday Experience, Irish Museum of Modern Art); and the co-curation of Ireland’s 2010 National Pavilion – of de Blacam and Meagher – La Biennale di Venezia. Their Gall Editions imprint has published 12 titles to date including the exhibition book of de Blacam and Meagher (2010); and Notations, an eight volume publication co-edited with Paul Clarke and including work by Tom dePaor, O’Donnell Tuomey, and Grafton Architects. He is the author of Make Ready (Gall Editions, 2015), published in conjunction with a survey exhibition at the Library Project, Dublin. His music projects include Hard Sleeper, Rainfear (with David Donohoe), Thread Pulls, and releases under his own name for labels such as Emigré Music (US) Sub Rosa (BEL), Fällt (NI); Osaka (IRL); C/F (NI), and Fort Evil Fruit (IRL).

Email: peter.maybury@tudublin.ie

Title
'Shaping the Irish Arts Landscape: The Invisible Role of the Public Art Coordinator'

Abstract

This thesis renders visible the longstanding professional creative labour and affective leadership inherent in Public Art Coordination, arguing for its recognition and position as a distinct practice. Public Art Coordination is an exciting and challenging vocation that sits at the interstices of arts administration, management, practice, curation and publics; this service, however, is barely visible, written about or recognized. Referencing Wendy Griswold’s Cultural Diamond, this thesis constitutes an inquiry into the ‘cultural object’ of Public Art Coordination, arguing for its recognition and position as a distinct practice and affective leadership influence in public service provision. Throughout the thesis I reference my own considerable experience and thinking about working with a diversity of artists and institutions in the public art field to demonstrate how public art coordination constitutes a coherent and distinctive practice, which necessarily traverses traditional hierarchies and normative practice. This study aims to impact on arts policy and arts management studies; curation and fine art practice; democracy building and public service provision.

Short Bio

Jenny Haughton is Public Art Coordinator with the Grangegorman Development Agency, responsible for ‘the lives we live’ Public Art Programme. She holds a degree in Business and Arts Management from the Institute of Art, Design & Technology and graduated with a Masters in International Security & Conflict Resolution from Dublin City University. Jenny was Coordinator for Ireland’s representation at the Artist and Architectural Biennales in Italy and Brazil from 1997-1983. She was Founder and Artistic Director of Temple Bar Gallery & Studios from 1983-1987. Since founding the Artworking public art agency in 1991, she has written about art in the public domain and pioneered a variety of commissioning methods to engage artists, communities and publics.

Website: jennyhaughton.com

Email: info@jennyhaughton.com

Title
'FKL Architects: Collaboration and Negotiation in an Architecture Practice'

Abstract

This thesis examines the negotiated and collaborative design processes inherent in my practice, FKL Architects, across significant housing projects in Dublin, including Social Housing, Ballymun, Reuben Street Apartments and St. John’s House Nursing Home, among others. The collaborative means by which the conceptual basis of projects and how ideas developed through ‘conversation’ (Gadamer, 2013), reciprocal sketchbooks and shared experiences, will be foregrounded. How drawing is used tactically as a collaborative design tool at all design and construction stages to ensure good architectural quality projects, is a central thesis research question. Analytical attention will be accorded to how the resultant concept sketches served to reinforce the ultimate goal, that of providing high-quality housing in Dublin. Other methods/tactics identified will serve to capture the negotiated relationships with external parties designed to achieve the best outcome for the residents. The thesis further examines the complimentary relationships between drawings and documents to clarify how negotiation tactics are tailored for diverse stakeholders.

Short Bio

Paul Kelly is Lecturer in the School of Architecture, Building and Environment, TU Dublin. Together with Michelle Fagan and Gary Lysaght, he founded FKL Architects in 1998 who have built numerous award-winning housing projects. FKL designed and curated Ireland’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2006. The work of the practice has been widely published. He has been a visiting critic at TU Wein, Austria and the Centre for Architectural Education (CCAE), UCC, and was external examiner at the School of Architecture, UCD. In 2021, he published the Dublin Architecture Guide (1932-202) in collaboration with Cormac Murray and Brendan Spierin. He is particularly interested in the question of how a collaborative architectural practice can make a positive and transformative contribution to housing design in the wider environmental context of a climate crisis.

Email: paul.kellyx@TUDublin.ie