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Research
Brett Aggersberg | Iwan Bala | Dr Susan Drake | Peter Finnemore | Steven Gerrard
Trevor Harris | Dr Robert Shail | Research Students
Research in the School of Creative Arts
The School of Creative Arts at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David is committed to fostering original and relevant research work, both through its own staff and its research students.
Staff engage in high level personal research which feeds directly into taught modules and programmes, as well as being reflected in publications and engagement with the wider community.
Supervision for research students is offered across a range of subject areas which, as the profiles below show, cover a remarkable breadth within the creative arts from traditional academic approaches to innovative developments in new media.
Staff Research Profiles
Brett’s doctoral research explores new media art’s practices and visibility in mainstream arts curation. The work is concerned with the constantly evolving medium of new media technology, dealing with issues surrounding interaction, re-mediation, cultural heritage, museology, and lexicon. Through links with artists, curators, and new media experts the research offers evidence for the importance of new media as an art form. Brett’s creative work is directly linked to this research and explores emerging technologies and their influence on the progression of creativity. Brett is particularly interested in the convergence of technologies and new modes of interaction.
Recent publications include:
- ‘The Context of New Media Art’ at Recalibration- New Media Art Symposium. Swansea Metropolitan University, June 2012.
- ‘Virtual Touch- Virtual Reality As Fine Art Space’ at CHArt Annual Conference, November 2010.
- ‘Remediating Value in Electronic Art’ at Image 2.0 conference, Falmouth University College, September 2009.
- ‘Value in Electronic Art’ at 1st National Symposium for Emerging Art & Design Researchers, April 2009.
- ‘Futures Past: Thirty Years of Arts Computing’, HEA Review 2007.
Iwan’s research interests lie in fine art, particularly contemporary fine art in Wales. This includes his own practice as an artist and published essays and books. ‘Custodial Aesthetics’ a term coined through his thesis in ‘Certain Welsh Artists’ (Seren 1999) explores identity and heritage in contemporary Welsh art. ‘Here + Now’ (Seren 2004) is a collection of essays on contemporary artists working in Wales. ‘Hon’ (Gomer 2007) is a compilation of essays in Welsh by novelists, historians and poets on the theme presented in Iwan’s own works (illustrated in the book) of meditations on the Island of Gwales from the Mabinogi and the contemporary events of 09/11.
Recent publications include:
- Field-notes (in collaboration with poet Menna Elfyn). Touring exhibition of wall-hung work, 2011-12. Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen. Wexford Arts Centre. Millennium Centre, Cardiff. With catalogue essays by Ciara Healy and Mike Parker. Lectures and interviews given at the gallery and essay written for Taliesin.
- Ein Natur/Our Nature. The National Botanic Garden of Wales, 2011.
- National Eisteddfod of Wales, 2010. Winner of People’s Choice Prize.
- Celebrating the Red Dragon. Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou. China, 2009.
Susan is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to issues of representation and the social construction of identity. Her PhD on William Faulkner foregrounded the interrelation of historical and literary narrative, and the impact of new mass media forms of newspaper reporting and film on the construction of gender and racial identities in the American Deep South. She has an ongoing interest in the comparative analysis of textual forms, particularly relating to issues of cultural identity. Through her teaching she has developed a strong interest in adaptation and the relationship between the different forms that this can take.
Publications include:
- ‘Absalom, Absalom!: Texts and Tombstones’ in Borderlines: Studies in American Culture, 3:1, 1996. Nominated for the Arthur Miller/US Embassy Prize for best article in American Studies.
Peter Finnemore studied at the University of Michigan, Glasgow School of Art and at the Dyfed College of Art. His exhibition career began in 1985 with the New Contemporaries exhibition at the ICA in London. He has continued to exhibit regularly nationally and internationally, including representing Wales at the Venice Biennale in 2005. He has won a number of contemporary art awards including the gold medal at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and the Oriel Mostyn Open. His artworks are in a number of private and public collections including, The Art Museum, Princeton University, USA, The Arts Council Collection at the Hayward Gallery, London, Arts Council of Scotland, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
His research is practice based and incorporates photography, digital media, video, performance, installation, writing, curatorship and the archive. He is best known for his 25 year long project which explores the home place as a site for creative enquiry. The home and garden space becomes an interface to explore the impact of historical, social, cultural and generational memory upon the present. Which has been exhibited in several forms including the exhibition and publication of Gwendraeth House (2000), Zen Gardener (2004) and the Silent Village (2009). His research interest also includes interactions with archives and collections through curatorial practice, these exhibitions include The Groove (2008), Heb Eiriau / Without Words; The photographs of Geoff Charles (2011), Graddedig 2012 / Graduate 2012.
Since 2005, Finnemore has been a Visiting Professor in Photography at the University of Derby and an External Supervisor in Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art. He is also a member of Gorsedd yr Beirdd Ynis Prydain.
Steve is interested in areas of British low culture. He has delivered numerous conference papers about the British seaside, saucy postcards, and the British Music Hall. His other areas of research include science fiction and horror Cinema. He has been a lifelong fan of the Carry On films, and is undertaking a PhD examining their part in the cultural history of Britain. In his spare time he longs to be Doctor Who, or rhythm guitarist with Status Quo.
Recent publications include:
- ‘The Decline and Fall of the Carry On Films’ in Robert Shail (ed), Seventies British Cinema, (London: BFI/Macmillan-Palgrave, 2008).
- ‘Carry On Up The Khyber’ in John White and Sarah Barrow (eds), Fifty Key British Films, (London: Routledge, 2008).
- ‘Carry On Forever!’ on Radio Two's Comedy Greats season: transmitted 19/20 July 2010, as academic consultant and Interviewee.
- ‘The Great British Music Hall’ at Pursuing the Trivial conference, University of Vienna, June 2012.
- ‘The Battle of the Sexes in the Carry On Films’ at Comedy and Conflict conference, Salford University, Manchester, July 2011
Trevor’s research interests focus on creative pedagogies and the interaction between the skills agenda and the higher education curriculum, as well as the digital technology that lies at the heart of the contemporary creative industries. In support of this research Trevor is a member of the editorial board and steering committee of the Productive Relationships: Higher Education and the Creative Industries in Wales project for which he has contributed four papers. He has spoken at international events and conferences about his work on the relationship between higher education and the creative industries, and in particular the pedagogy that underpins that work.
Recent publications include:
- ‘Individualising Media Practice Education Using a Feedback Loop and Instructional Videos Within an eLearning Environment” in Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (pending 2012).
- Productive Relationships; Higher Education and the Creative Industries in Wales, as member of the editorial Board and steering group, Higher Education Academy (pending 2012).
- ‘Carers: A Secret Service - How a Lampeter Student Film became the Subject of an Early Day Motion in Parliament’ in Productive Relationships: Higher Education and the Creative Industries in Wales, Higher Education Academy (pending 2012).
- ‘The Future of the Creative Industries: Where do Universities fit in?’, at SIGGRAPH ASIA conference, Hong Kong, December 2011.
- ‘Who is the Father of the Internet: the Case for Donald Davies’ in Yorgo Pasadeos (ed), Variety in Mass Communication Research, (Athens: Atiner 2009)
Robert’s main research interests lie in two areas: firstly, the history of postwar British cinema, with an emphasis on the 1960s and 1970s; and, secondly, the construction of gender identity in films and the wider media, focusing on masculinity, The latter has led to a broader interest in the examination of stardom and celebrity culture. He has published widely in these areas, as well as giving many conference papers. Rob is on the management committee of Cyfrwng, the media Wales journal/conference, writes book reviews for various magazines, and reviews proposals for publishers such as Routledge and the BFI. He acts as Research Coordinator for the School of Creative Arts.
Recent publications include:
- Tony Richardson, (Forthcoming in 2012 from Manchester University Press).
- Seventies British Cinema, (London: BFI/Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008) – as editor and contributor of one chapter and the introduction.
- Stanley Baker: A Life in Film, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2008).
- ‘The Historical Specificity of Stardom: Terence Stamp in the 1960s’ in Tytti Soila (ed), Stellar Encounters: Stardom in Popular European Cinema, (New Barnet, Harts: John Libbey, 2009).
- ‘Terence Fisher and British Science Fiction Cinema’ in Science Fiction Films and Television, 2.1 (Spring 2009).
Rob currently holds a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to investigate the history of the Childrens Film and Television Foundation.
The School of Creative Arts welcomes applications for PhD or MPhil study in any of the areas covered by the staff specialisms above. Recent and current research student topics include:
- Women in the Bond films
- Identity in Welsh and Basque cinema
- Television co-productions in the context of S4C
- Digital linguistics and cute culture
- New Indian cinema
- The Carry On films
- Ethics in documentary practice
- Film representations of Dracula
- Masculinity in 1970s British television drama
- Neo-noir cinema
- British film censorship
- Films representations of the Jack the Ripper
- Cinema and literary adaptation
To informally discuss ideas for an MPhil or PhD project with the School of Creative Arts please contact Dr Robert Shail on 01570 424749 or email at r.shail@tsd.ac.uk.
