Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 318-345).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-184).

Hannover, Universiẗat, Diss., 2002.

Bochum, Universiẗat, Diss., 2001.

This study traces the development of the East End’s artists’ agglomeration from its origins in 1968 until 1998 through a geographical history of the studio blocks in which those artists have worked. The thesis concentrates on visual artists and the ways in which they have commandeered space in which to work. The thesis argues that the agglomeration may be conceptualised as a complex adaptive system which has evolved in the “edge of chaos” urban environment which arose in the East End as it made the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial district. The core methodology draws largely on ethnographic techniques. Information was gathered from fieldwork, which in this project comprised semi-structured tape-recorded interviews and semi-participant observation in the form of my involvement with a project “ViA” which is developing an information service for the East End’s artists. The qualitative approach is Grounded Theory. Interview transcripts were “coded” for themes, and these themes explored further in subsequent fieldwork, from which further coding was carried out in an iterative process. The themes which emerged were then combined with the archival research and the findings of the social network analysis, forming the foundations of a theoretical model. The quantitative approach is social network analysis at an organisational level, which establishes that the organisational networks are weak, from which it is inferred, in combination with the qualitative evidence, that the significant networks are informal, a sort of “grapevine”. These foundations are developed into a unified theory which draws on existing models concerning the development of such “creative milieux” and then carries these forward using concepts more commonly found in chaos theory and complexity theory such as inherent unpredictability, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, adaptive topographies and fitness landscapes, and emergence. I argue in conclusion that the artists’ agglomeration in the East End is an emergent phenomenon arising from the actions and interactions of individual artists in search of studio space. It can thus be conceptualised as a “complex adaptive system”, capable of learning, growing and spontaneously developing new properties, and finding new directions which cannot be predicted simply by looking at the system’s constituent parts in isolation.

This thesis examines for the first time the role of Sir Frederic William Burton (1816-1900) as director of the National Gallery, London, during the period 1874 to 1894. I argue that his directorship is important because it was followed by the second major administrative re-organisation in the Gallery’s history, namely the Rosebery Minute of 1894, which significantly reduced the authority of the director in making acquisitions. This power had been bestowed upon the director in 1855 after an in-depth parliamentary Select Committee examining the running of the Gallery, which had established the post for the first time. My thesis seeks to determine to what extent and how Burton’s tenure prompted this major reassessment of the Gallery’s management structure. The enquiry addresses the question from a variety of perspectives including Burton’s acquisitions, the display of the collection, his attitude to the social function of the Gallery and the relationship of the Gallery authorities with government departments and individuals. These topics are informed by a methodological approach that takes as its starting point the large volume of archival material and correspondence both at the National Gallery and in other gallery archives and libraries relating mainly to Burton and his trustees, chiefly Sir Austen Henry Layard and Sir William Gregory. Using these sources my thesis examines the background, interests, motivations and personal relationships of key individuals, assessing the impact of personal biography upon institutional history. The thesis also sets these case studies within the broader cultural context of the development of the discipline of the history of art and the challenges this posed to the identity of the Gallery. The final chapter reassesses the Rosebery Minute of 1894 in the light of this research, highlighting the importance of both a detailed ‘micro-historical’ approach and a broad contextualisation of developments at the National Gallery at the turn of the twentieth century.

This thesis is an analysis of ‘militant art’ – a type of art activism that is prepared to break the law, use violence against people (including the artists themselves), property, or incite others to do the same, in order to realise a cause. This thesis considers militant art as a continuation of the expanded field of relational aesthetics fused with a renewed interest in 20th century avant-garde art practices and the organisational structure, politics and tactics of the Global Justice Movement – which I conceptualise as a direct response to a lingering post-political spectacular malaise. Although there has been a surge of recent writing about Socially Engaged Participatory Art practices and, to a lesser extent, art activism, the more militant forms are still under-researched. The thesis is divided into two parts: the first is an art historical, theoretical and political analysis; the second uses qualitative research methods to verify and interrogate claims made in the first. A series of ten interviews with contemporary artists (and collectives) and an ethnographical study provide new data on militant art, which are analysed fully in a dedicated chapter. The findings give us insight into the militant artists’ psychology, motivations and tactics providing a description, analysis and definition of hitherto overlooked contemporary practices.

In this thesis, I demonstrate how Martin McDonagh’s plays, both in text and performance, express the destructive, homogenizing, or stereotype-reinforcing element of globalization, as well as the positive elements of globalization including globalized cultural exchange and (g)localization. My original contribution to knowledge is the in-depth research surrounding the effect of globalization on the theatre by using an extremely globalized playwright to demonstrate this phenomenon. The introduction is used to situate McDonagh in terms of ‘in-yer-face theatre,’ explore existing scholarship on his work, and introduce McDonagh’s globalized identity, created in a small part by the playwright’s actual background, but in large part by the media. McDonagh’s reputation is due to the fast exchange of information and disinformation. In the second chapter, I explore the varying definitions of globalization and its relationship to the theatre; specifically with reference to the plays of McDonagh. I then explore the proposed solutions to globalization including cosmopolitanism, localization, and ‘glocalization,’ and their relationship to the theatre and McDonagh’s plays. I conclude that these elements are not in fact solutions to globalization, but elements that function within the framework of globalization. In the chapters that follow, I examine the relationship of globalization to McDonagh’s work by analysing the representations of terror, terrorization, and humour in the plays, McDonagh’s work performed in translation, and the risk of accepting McDonagh’s work as authentically Irish. In order to do so, I use examples of McDonagh’s plays in performance from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, the United States, and Turkey. Globalization, in both its positive form of globalized exchange and negative form of McWorld, or the widespread homogenization of culture and economies, is intrinsic to both the fabric of the plays as well as the contexts in which they are performed. However one defines globalization, we are unarguably living globalization now, and must endeavour to understand what this means in all disciplines, including the theatre.

This thesis is an investigation of media and technology in stand-up comedy performance and a reflection on Practice as Research undertaken at the University of Kent, UK. Using case studies of experimental stand-up practice and the work of professional comedians, I examine the application of technology in stand-up comedy and analyse the performance dynamics of mediatized stand-up. The framework of this study is formed by three Practice as Research performances, considering issues of time, body and space fundamental to live performance and media theory. Ben Hudson’s Super Media World (2012) used digital projection and an internet connection to play simultaneously to a live studio and online audience, exploring the presence and liveness of screened media. Ben Hudson, Not A Real Person (2013) staged a personal journey of discovery through online social networking profiles and an animated double-act, presenting the comedian at odds with their media double. Finally, Ben Hudson’s Dead Funny (2014) used the hypermedium of videogame streaming as a model for stand-up performance in cyberspace, featuring the videogame DayZ (2013) as its online venue. Analysis of these performances, combined with critical reflection on the work of relevant comedians, is placed within a framework of media and performance discourse. Stand-up is presented as a basic model of theatre performance; a present tense encounter with a requirement for two-way communication between audience and performer. This thesis argues that instead of threatening stand-up as a quintessentially live and co-present art-form, media and technology are shown to create exciting potential in comic performance. In their role as cultural mediators, stand-up comedians self-reflexively acknowledge the process of technological mediation. Responding to the specificity of the performance situation and playing with the temporalities of recorded and broadcast media, stand-ups are able to find humour in the juxtaposition of media elements and subvert audience expectations of presence and liveness.

This dissertation provides a theoretical and historical exploration of two contrasting approaches and attitudes that took hold in street photography during the 1950s, and of their impact on the street photography of the 1960s and 1970s. The two approaches and attitudes are identified as, firstly, that of the "decisive moment," and, secondly, what is referred to as the "moment in between." The former attitude was famously introduced by Henri Cartier-Bresson and exemplified within his work, while the latter is distinctly manifested in the work of William Klein and Robert Frank. Through a comparative and interpretative approach to each, this study analyses the work of photographers whose imagery exemplifies the stylistic differences, and the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the two attitudes to street photography. In the first part of the dissertation, two concepts taken from ancient Greek thought - kairόs and tyche - are used to elucidate the nature of, respectively, the decisive moment and the moment in between, as well as the differences between these approaches to street photography. It is argued that the concept of kairόs embodies certain spatial, temporal, aesthetic and moral features capable of enriching the understanding of the approach to street photography represented by the notion of the decisive moment. The concept of tyche, with its focus upon chance and the unforeseen, brings to light a powerful contrast with the decisive moment, emphasising the photographers' position in respect of the fortuitous episodes that shape their practice, as well as the significance of the abandonment of linearity, intelligibility and determinability that is characteristic of this approach and attitude toward reality. The second part of the dissertation is dedicated to the impact of the decisive moment and the moment in between upon the North American street photography of the 1960s and upon the work of photographers active outside of the North American and Western European cultural and intellectual contexts. In particular, it is argued that in the 1960s, Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander established within their work a bridge between the approaches of the decisive moment and the moment in between, bringing about their fruitful co-existence within a single image. By interpreting these elements through the categories of kairόs and tyche, I analyse how these photographers embraced both approaches with the aim of appreciating the aesthetic opportunities resulting from their union. This second part also involves an examination of the extent to which forms of street photography that developed in relative isolation from the intellectual and cultural contexts of North American or Western European street photography, or which are embedded in non-Western ideas and philosophy, may still be understood by means of the dichotomy between the decisive moment and the moment in between. The works of Miroslav Tichý, a photographer who worked in the climate of seclusion of Communist Czechoslovakia, and Raghubir Singh, an Indian photographer who was profoundly influenced by Indian philosophy, are analysed in order to assess whether or not the categories of kairόs and tyche can be usefully employed in their interpretation.