"Physics is a function of size ..." The aim of the research is to create a new interactive communication system by 're-cabling' fabrics for releasing fragrances in 21st century fashion design. A new development, taking inspiration from biology, conjures up Multi-Sensorial Fabrics - based around the sense of smell. Using the theory that 'Smell Is Nanotechnology' and that biology works by nano-machines, biological actions can be miniaturised (such as 'sensing' in the animal world) to create an integrated system called 'The Wellness Collection'. Fragrances (and eventually medication, monitoring devices and digital information) will be actively 'pulsed' electronically through a cabling device system which will 'mimic' the human senses and in particular the scent glands in our bodies and be literally incorporated into the fabric structure. Technology with therefore be integrated in fabrics and carried in invisible clothing. The system also acts as a new vehicle for designer perfumes, reducing the application of alcohol on skin and microencapsulation. Traditional textile design concerns passive issues relating to colour and texture (and performance purposes to a certain degree). However, this research concentrates on a more active approach to textile design, introducing the living active garment as a second skin. The aim is to combine a number of contrasting areas from the Arts and Sciences. For example : - Perfumery. Fashion Designs. Textile & Fibre Technologies. Space Age Clothing. Biosensing Techniques. 'Micro Tube' Technology. Fluid Control. 'Smart intelligence'. Human Biology & Psychology. Human Skin, Circulation & Nervous Systems. Medical Textiles. Controlled Drug Delivery Systems. Alternative Therapies. Nanotechnology. Although some might consider this project to be high risk, it is a general fact that creative and 'novel' research originates from multi disciplinary fields. Emphasis on this important fact must be acknowledged throughout the thought process of the following project which is documented as a thorough ‘library’ of valuable research information. The Science Fashion approach may therefore seem very futuristic, but as technology itself reduces in size such an approach becomes increasingly realistic.

This is a practice based Ph.D. in Fine Arts. The subject of the research deals with strategies of doubling as a means to explore the relation between what technology promises and the fantasy of the viewer/user. The visual material that constitutes my research attempts to raise, in various interrelated ways, a set of core questions regarding the nature of surface as receptacle of images and to take into account the filiation that new media partake of, namely that computer-aided art is seen as a subset of fine art. Indeed, the first line of enquiry is to address what constitutes the 'picture plane' of a computer screen. Interrogating the nature of the digital Image and Its relations to the viewer/user, my question is "how does computer-aided art (animation, video and interactive installation) address the connection between surface and image, particularly when digital manipulation is used to consistently postpone a totalising view of the image?" This includes the analysis of how static and dynamic states of the image are generated in (digital) art, or where the phenomenon of doubling raises questions about what kind of visual economy operates with respect to art that uses advanced technologies. I critically analyse these aspects occurring in work by artists, whose practice deals with certain modes of addressing the totalising view of an image, an image that appears virtually complete. As a practising artist, in terms of the media I choose to work with, doubling is enabled by providing a certain degree of Interactivity with the computer screen, giving the viewer the illusion of control over the production of the image. However, the illusory nature of this control is revealed by the systematic Incompleteness of the image being 'painted' on the screen. Apart from provoking and frustrating the desire for totalising visuality, the deliberate incompleteness of the images holds open questions of scale, animation, and the relationship of image to surface. Given the nature of the medium in which the moving images were created, the pieces share the potential for continuing the loop in which they play ad infinitum. But, as the cyclicity of the loops makes manifest, nearly all of them are also predicated on an ontological duality whereby the same object, the same entity, can transform into something phenomenally other through the permeable interplay between emergent and receding aspects inherent within it. So integral to image-forming I find this doubling that I have extended the theme to my own public Identity, by sometimes functioning under an alias, the name of Sissu Tarka.

This research is an exploration of the development and influence of place-specificity within the field of new genre public art. Over the last several years the term place-specificity and its variance, place-specific has occurred frequently in art reviews and exhibition catalogues particularly in relation to installations, permanent public art works, and public interventions. While place-specificity is now a recognised term in the current lexicon of public art discussion, within many texts the phrase place-specific is often indiscriminately interchanged with site-specific, implying that the two terms are synonymous. While the relationships between site, space, and place are actively explored within fields such as geography,cultural studies and architecture, distinctions between site-specificity and place-specificity have rarely been critically addressed in discussions of public art. Based on both theory and curatorial practice, this thesis explores a range of perspectives on the role of place within socially engaged public art practice. The study examines the difference between site and place and how place influences our perceptions of specific locations through memory, history and experience. The thesis explores place as a subject, an artistic influence, and a social and cultural signifier. Also examined is how artists use place as a means of connecting to specific locations and audiences, as well as a way of exploring their personal histories and memories. Utilising a combination of approaches, this study incorporates naturalistic enquiry, conversation as a method, a think-tank, interviews, and video documentation to uncover how a group of public art practitioners reflect on place-specificity within their work, how they utilise place, and are influenced by place. The research reflects on the potential of place-specific public art to celebrate unique cultural differences, inspire international collaboration, and provide a forum for local distinctiveness in the face of globalization The study also serves as one model for practice-based research utilising curatorship as a practice. This study identifies further areas for potential research within various aspects of art and design as well as other disciplines. The thesis is accompanied by a suite of DVD's which document the curatorial practice and address place-specific themes that emerged from the research.

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This qualitative research project aims to gain a theoretical and practical understanding of what role sketchbooks play in the creative practice of contemporary artists, and what their shared and individual sketchbook methods are. A comparative analysis of thirteen contemporary artists’ sketchbook practices is offered. During the course of the research the private and public nature of sketchbooks emerged as an important and engaging area of inquiry that helped narrow the focus of the research process and offered an entry point for the analysis. The methodology used was fundamentally that of artistic research that drew heavily upon the characteristics of artistic practice in the field of drawing; as well as from hermeneutics, (auto)ethnography, and phenomenological analysis, each of which informed my practice and processes. This research aims to be useful for those conducting research into sketchbooks, drawing, drawing and writing, the nature of artistic process, creativity and pedagogy. The outcomes of this research are presented in two parts, in the thesis text and the documentation of an exhibition. In the final analysis the outcome is a multi - layered and multi - voiced story that identifies individual and shared practices used by contemporary artists during the compilation of their sketchbooks. Both the research and resultant artwork aim to bring to the foreground the largely overlooked public aspect of the sketchbook and contribute to knowledge in the fields of drawing research, video installation art, archival research and interviewing in the context of artistic research. Throughout the project I used drawing and video practices as methods of investigating, interrogating and disseminating knowledge. Thirteen contemporary artists’ interviews were recorded as a core element of the primary research, then reconfigured as an artwork / video installation called Thirteen Narratives By Thirteen Artists About Their Sketchbooks.

My research investigated the impact of introducing structured drawing activities to staff of a mixed ethnicity hospital community in south–east London, to address the question of whether drawing was a useful tool in the practice of empathy. Empathy, ‘putting oneself in the shoes of another’was examined critically through drawing as practice, conducted within the hospital environment. This research coincided with a period of major change for the hospital Trust, which had low staff and patient satisfaction and poor financial performance when the research began in autumn 2006. The long-term nature of my collaborative doctoral research enabled me to slowly expand the boundary of what was acceptable arts practice in a healthcare context, while ensuring that the‘dangerous’ practice of empathy was worked through via art practice in such a way that these dangers were encountered, analysed and understood. The research project focused on the benefits (and complications) of drawing within the hospital community, during a time of immense turmoil. Drawing was used to aid investigations, sustain the craft skills of medicine, explore emotions and thoughts, and ground and focus staff in empathic therapeutic interventions. These interventions allowed staff to slow down, play, analyse and reflect, creating a space within the context of the hospital, where the practice of empathy was reviewed. The work used dialogue between the dual practices of art and medicine to explore complex intersubjective communication. The core practice, drawing, was embedded in a longitudinal study of drawing events based in the same hospitals at yearly intervals since 2007, so that a similar body of staff had the opportunity to participate in these collaborative events. Using cross-sectional surveys centred on the Big Draw(Campaign for Drawing, 2000) I set up a series of encounters including interactive drawing events,lectures, performances and exhibitions, and participated in drawing conferences within the Trust,galleries and art colleges nationally and in the USA. Smaller scale investigations of individual practice over the same period of time, in venues for both the visual arts and music, complemented the main studies and allowed a triangulation of theory, methodology and data, bringing a number of methods to bear upon the question of whether drawing was a useful tool in the practice of empathy in hospital environments. At the core of my research is a definition of a practice of empathy based on my work in the research activities. The elucidation of a set of features, pertaining to the practice of empathy, has been defined by these events. My definition of empathy was constructed by building temporary collaborative communities during these events through which the dynamics of empathy were examined and its features analysed. In my research, art practice emerges as methodologically important to the proper understanding of the problems, dangers and opportunities of empathy in clinical practice.

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