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This thesis is an examination of the contribution of the English scholar, Robert Willis (1800-1875) to the discipline of architectural history. Willis's writings are set within a context of nineteenth-century antiquarian scholarship and their methodology and conclusions explored and evaluated. the work i not treated as a conventional biography, for reasons given in the Introduction, but divided into sections dealing with the different types of work produced by Wilils. chapter One examines Willis's first architectural work, Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages, especially of Italy, (1835). This is discussed in relation to a tradition of 'scientific' antiquarianism which includes such scholars as James Essex, Thomas Kerrich, Thomas Rickman and William Whewell. The influence of Whewell's study of German gothic on Willis's approach is assessed and the differences between the two works considered in terms of the contrasting concerns of German Idealism and French Rationalism as well as WIllis's stated aim of discovering principles of gothic design to be used in nineteenth-century architectural practice. The book's role in the revival of gothic is appraised and also the relationship between Willis's principles and the 'true principles' of A.W.N. Pugin. Chapter Two looks at another attempt by Willis to discover the principles of gothic design by studying the vaults of the middle ages. the formation of a language in which to speak of gothic vaults is described and the various ways in which they were classified. With reference to unpublished notes from the Cambridge archive, I endeavour to explain how the study of individual features led Willis to become dissatisfied with the methodology of gothic 'system builders', who were concerned primarily with the abstract progression of styles. Chapter Three examines Willis's alternative to the theoretical history of architecture, expressed in the series of architectural histories of individual cathedrals produced for the British Archaeological Association (founded in 1843), and thereafter the Archaeological Institute. The history of the study of documentary and structural evidence relating to buildings and Willis's estimation of their relative value is explored. The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, Willis's first such study, is described in detail to demonstrate his use of data and strategies of argumentation. Thereafter particular elements of his methodology are treated with respect to examples of their employment in the subsequent histories. Chapter Four is a study of some of Willis's 'minor' works, on architectural nomenclature, seals, the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and his editions of the St. Gall plan and the sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt. they are discussed in terms of how Willis responded to previous scholarship, his own concerns and the use made of works by their various audiences. This demonstrates how Willis's intention in writing did not necessarily correspond to the response of the readership and the influence of a work was not always coincident with its inherent worth. In Chapter Five I discuss Willis's practical involvement in architecture at various levels. Examples are listed of his acting as an architectural consultant and his role in the restoration of Ely cathedral is examined in detail. His philosophy of restoration is explained and contrasted with those or Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc, two other individuals whose influence in England was rather through their ideas than actual activity. I also consider the role of antiquarian scholarship in the practice of architecture in the nineteenth century and the different estimations by contemporary architects of the value of Willis's contribution. Chapter Six treat Willis's final architectural study, The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of Christ Church Canterbury, and The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, which was published after his death with substantial additions by his nephew, John Willis Clark. The works are similar in their concentration on the study of plans. The Canterbury work is set within a context of the archaeology and interpretation of conventual architecture and I investigate the part played by Willis in the identification of the standard location of the various offices. The Cambridge project developed over many years and I examine Willis's changing views on the relationship between the monastic and collegiate plans as well as discussing the political circumstances in which Willis was writing, which made any investigation of University history an inevitably controversial activity. The final chapter attempts to review the influence of Willis on the modern discipline of architectural history, showing how his methodology and conclusions were transferred and raising questions about his continued relevance. Appendices discuss the evidence for Willis's unfinished magnum opus and reproduce a series of unpublished notes on restoration.

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This dissertation is an exploration of the representation of black female subjects within American and European art of the nineteenth century. The popularity of Cleopatra among artists and specifically her nineteenth-century re-incarnation as a black woman, has been used as a starting point for an examination of abolitionist visual discourse and for the examination of the (im)possibility of the black female subject within western visual culture generally. The period of study includes a time of great change and upheaval in the social, symbolic and legal status of the black body, marking the shift from Trans Atlantic Slavery through abolitionism to Emancipation - which is also the transition from the enslaved to the "liberated" black body. I have chosen to focus upon neoclassical sculpture in order to explore its aesthetic and material specificity which, privileging white marble, disavowed the signification of race at the level of skin/complexion. Within neoclassicism, racial disavowal was also registered at the level of subject, symbolism and narrative where the white fear and rejection of the so-called full-blooded negro type resulted in the prevalence of the white-negro body of the inter-racial female -a miscegenated body that in its proximity to whiteness both alleviated and (em)bodied the cross-racial contact which colonial logic most abhorred. But my choices are also informed by my desire to interrogate neoclassicism's investment in the racial differencing of bodies and its relatedness to the biological construction of race within nineteenth-century human sciences. Both fields were dependant upon the paradigmatic status of the white male body as the unquestioned apex of an hierarchical arrangement of racial types and the authority of vision as a supposedly objective tool of physical observation and differentiation. Neoclassical objects have been contextualized by sculpture of other media, specifically polychromy, as well as painting and other popular cultural objects to demonstrate the representational limits and subjective possibilities of specific art forms. These different styles and types of art were governed by different material and aesthetic requirements and practices which engendered different processes of viewing. However, this is not only an exploration of identity and identification of the represented subject, but also an inquiry into how the identity of the artists/producers and viewers impacts their representation and consumption of "other" bodies. This dissertation is an intervention into the hegemonic practice of western culture which challenges the traditional disciplinarity of art history by insisting upon the importance of race to cultural practice. Using post-colonial and feminist rereadings of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis which can account for both the material and the psychic, I have theorized the process through which racial identification is achieved, locating culture as a colonial field where identifications are produced, secured and deployed. The significance of a black feminist agenda is the fundamental belief in the inseparability of sex and gender identifications from race and colour in any-body, as well as an attentiveness to the multiplicity and simultaneity of marginalization. Ultimately, I am questioning the extent to which an identification is registered not only in the object of representation, but occurs within the process of viewing.

This practice-led thesis primarily investigates space, place and site through experiencing moving image installation art practice, focusing on ways in which artists use site as moving image subject. Integral to this examination is my own work, exploring specific sites through filming, editing and installation. By purposeful experimentation, visual finding and discoveries, questions emerging from practice are raised, and are examined through practice and mutual engagement with other contemporary art works. An experiential and comparative approach has led to critical engagement of strategies and tactics used by contemporary artists, shown in the U.K. between 2002 and 2009, including Willie Doherty, Ori Gersht, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Matt White and Lucy Gunning. I also draw upon selected works from moving image’s history, through which further commonalities are made apparent, examining works by Robert Smithson, Andy Warhol, Margaret Tait, William Raban and Tacita Dean (among others). The works are investigated through first hand experience, through visual analysis including artist and gallerist interviews, and through articulating the making of my own installations. Space, place and site are critically examined through encountering the projected image, acknowledging that while the works experienced possess powerful imagery, their impact extends beyond purely aesthetic definitions. This written component engages with the event of the artwork as a mode of being that occurs in the interval between the viewer and the observed subject. Relevant theoretical approaches are used to consider the works drawing on a broad base of literature, including: Edward Soja, Doris von Drathan and Irit Rogoff in order to investigate the central concepts. The discursive account interrogates a complex terrain, opening out apperceptive approaches made in terms of filming, editing and installation, constructing a vibrant and reciprocal research field; one that suggests that there exists a collective field of work, which until now has lain submerged in the broader picture of moving image installation. It emerges here for the first time as a (selected) focused view of a significant body of site oriented moving image installations, thus serving as a context for approaches made in my own art practice.

This qualitative study draws a cross section through the social media activity of nine arts professionals working in the United Kingdom and Ireland c.2004-<?.2014. It employs a mixture of trans-disciplinary research methods: literature review, semi­structured interviews, grounded theory coding and Practice as Research (PaR) to capture fresh information about visual artists’ increasing reliance on social media, both as professional practice/networking tool and as outputting vehicle for examples of their process and finished work. It acknowledges the author’s pivotal role as participant observer for providing original, in depth insights into the particular time and culture in which social media emerged. Social media use has increased year on year with widespread consequences for contemporary visual arts practice. We have passed a tipping point and are now ‘post social media’, referring not to a time ‘after’ social media but rather to a state of mind that accepts it as a normal part of everyday life, as vernacular and ubiquitous. These study findings reveal some of the more significant consequences on studio practice, such as the conflation of social media and social networking on many platforms, and the profound change in the way many artists work, even abolishing the notion of a studio and of the art object as a material thing, thereby radically transforming the type of work made. The thesis describes and discusses current critical theory and art making instrumentalised via social media. It contributes significant new knowledge and analysis to an expanded discourse about the consequences of social media/ networking, particularly in relation to materiality, identity, ethics, risk aversion and cognitive dissonance since research in these areas is relatively new and the related literature is still limited. So this conceptual and analytical framework provides a foundation for future critical engagement and studies by students and educators in the field.

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Colour is a powerful visual cue that affects consumer brand choice. Although there is an obvious and recognised value in the use of colour information in design, the literature demonstrates that colour information is an underexplored area that has not yet been addressed in detail by design research either practically or theoretically. Moreover, colour crosses various disciplines; due to its multi-disciplinary nature, it is not clear whether colour information is being effectively utilised in design. The aim of this study was to identify which types of colour information are useful in packaging, and to suggest a prototype tool (at concept level) to deliver this useful colour information to design professionals. An analysis of the relevant literature revealed 13 types of colour information which were then selected as basis for the study. Subsequently, the research design consisted of two phases. The first phase was exploratory in order to gain rich insight into the characteristics of useful colour information through interviews, an online survey, a colour meaning experiment, a colour meaning framework, and a colour meaning case study. The second phase was practice-based. Based on the informed exploration from the early studies, a web-based colour tool prototype, referred to as the CMCW (colour-meaning-centred website), was created, refined, and tested. The primary contribution of this study stems from an understanding of colour information to support design professionals; the identification of the five types (harmony, perception, meaning, psychology and printing) and the characteristics of useful colour information; and the formation of a colour-meaning framework and colour-meaning web tool. The secondary contribution of this study is the methodological approach undertaken that was used to understand the relationship between colour meaning and context by conducting a design-focused colour experiment. Research evidence highlights the importance and value of colour meaning information in design. The insight from this work will help researchers, design professionals, and colour-tool developers to make informed decisions on what they should focus on, how they should do so, and why. This will facilitate better provisions and uptake of useful colour information for design professionals in the design process and strategy fields. The framework also could support understanding of colour design practice in an analytic way, and be employed as a research tool in various design- or marketing-related research to investigate and analyse colour.

This thesis explores the grotesque and realist aesthetics of contemporary independent American filmmakers, Larry Clark and Harmony Korine from a broadly formalist perspective. The thesis is situated amongst two conversations within Film Studies. The first conversation is with those who have critically and historically engaged with the films and filmmaking practices of Clark and Korine. The second conversation contributes with those critics and historians who explored the presence and status of the grotesque in cinema. It addresses the grotesque vision and imagination of the filmmakers, and the realist motivations and imperative, according to their own public pronouncements. It then provides a close descriptive analysis of the manifestation of the grotesque and realist aesthetics of the films themselves. It shows the ways in which both filmmakers embrace the grotesque through their expressions of the margins and underbelly of the middle-American landscape. Their approaches to realism, principally deriving from non- fictional modes of audiovisual production, illustrate the extraordinariness of the banal and mundane realities of the everyday, albeit the darker recesses of the everyday. This thesis further demonstrates how the coupling of Clark’s and Korine’s realist approaches enhances and even constitutes their grotesque aesthetic.