This submission for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy details the practice-based investigation undertaken and articulated across the series of located interventional public art works realised through the development and completion of the long-term public art project Just a little bit of history repeating – as a research-led artistic contribution to current explorations and debates within the field of located live art and context-specific public art practices. This research begins by critically assessing and reconsidering the approaches and questions arising from the two publicly commissioned interventional artworks that initiated the Just a little bit of history project; namely Alexandra Gardens Bandstand (2010) and Eukalduna Shipyards (2011). It then expands and builds upon these approaches through an exploration of three distinct yet symbiotic lines of inquiry. The first of these considers how the concurrent performance of multiple and alternative uses of a specific place in the present might generate new event-specific critical social situations in situ. The second explores to what extent currently absent uses of a place might be seen to define it, and how such actively absent agents might be engaged and revealed in the present. The third then further expands on the understandings and approaches developed through this practice-based research, to consider and test performative strategies through which the nature and scale of our performed use of a place might be expanded to inhabit and consider wider landscapes and environments. These research questions are ultimately articulated and manifested through the subsequent four publicly commissioned art works that then expand and complete the Just a little bit of history repeating series – namely Greetings from Salina / Crossroads of the Nation (2013), Historic Parking Lots of Providence / Introduced Birdsong (2013), Providence Cove Walk (2013) and Grey Line [Twilight] (2016).

In this thesis, I make use of phenomenologically-inspired theories of landscape to define a particular subset of site-specific performance which I am calling landscape performance. I argue that these performances are distinct from other site-specific performances in the ways that they include their audience in the creation and embodiment of landscape. The project investigates what strategies are employed to document this kind of work and what issues may arise both in the method of documenting and in the documentation itself. This work starts from the position that landscapes are unfixed, in flux and contested, and explores the ways that performance documentation, adds to the complexity and helps to create representations and manifestations that resist fixed meanings. Through an analysis of specific documents, this work aims to explore the multiplicity of meanings that can be drawn from the documentation of specific landscape performance works. The findings of this thesis are dependent on three case studies exploring the work of prominent producers of landscape performance: NVA, Simon Whitehead and Wrights & Sites. The aim is to scrutinise each documentary methodology, draw attention to the multiple, intertwined and often conflicting ways that the documentation presents both performance and landscape and to discuss the implications of these documents and the documentation of this kind of work in general. This work has applied a mixed methodology involving the interpretative analysis of performance documentation such as photographs, drawings, sound recordings, videos, and blogs, as well as the context in which they are presented. I also undertake reflective analysis of my own interaction with the makers of the work or the documentation itself. This process reveals the different ways that landscape performance documentation can affirm or disrupt understandings of landscape and uncovers fresh conceptual frameworks for performance documentation thereby providing a contribution to scholarship on the relationships between landscape, performance and documentation.

The power of the Internet has produced a rich environment for the creation of new art forms. These artefacts, which can employ complex graphics, animation, music, written and spoken text and user-interactivity, are extremely fluid and variable. Encountering them requires a new and specifically multimedia literacy. This thesis examines in detail four online texts: Faith, Hometown, The Shower, and Blue Han, in order to investigate the possibility of such a literacy. Both Faith and Hometown are subjected to an extended visual, aural, and textual analysis, using theoretical approaches drawn from art history, narratology, literary theory and music. The Shower is analysed by reference to film theory, musical semiotics, the concept of openness and user interface design. Blue Han is used to test claims that digital artworks can function as paintings. This analytical work leads to an analysis and rethinking of some common assumptions made about the nature of interactivity, online collaboration and the mimetic possibilities of the digitalisation of texts. The thesis concludes that analysis of multimedia texts is indeed possible, but that their diversity requires a range of analytical approaches working together to uncover meaning. Such a variable combination of methods of reading, it is suggested, would provide the beginning of a new form of literacy.

Chapter one considers various manifestations of the concept of ‘journey’ and how they have changed over history. The Odyssean journey that the hero undertakes to reach a point of self-realisation is investigated. This leads to a other discussion of types of journeys such as pilgrimages, as well as ‘wandering’. These are contrasted with the twentieth century perceptions of journey. Questions of travel are then dealt with: how the nature of the traveller's path has changed over the centuries, various points of travel and gender, and how in the last century solitary travel has been transformed into mass tourism. The second chapter deals specifically with the motorcar, the mobility it enables and how it has led to the rise of a roadside culture. Different factors that influenced the rise of the motorcar are looked at. The motorcar as a cell and eroticism and the car are also investigated. The twentieth century city, it's restructuring, as well as the highway systems is discussed. In Chapter Three, the sense of freedom that the motorcar created is considered in particular reference to escape, aimlessness, and road weariness, as well as the landscape as a symbol of freedom. This leads to a discussion on the notion of speed, the sense of power and the romanticisation of death in car crashes. Chapter Four investigates masculinity and the road. The frontier as a place in the psyche of the male is also dealt with. The road as a means of testing and regaining masculinity in the mid-twentieth century is considered. Issues of the male domination of the land and the feminine are discussed, with the chapter ending with a brief examination of the woman as traveller. Lastly the masters’ submission exhibition, entitled RODE is discussed with direct reference to the theories investigated in the previous chapters. Individual works as well as the methodology are looked at closely.

This thesis is the result of the author's long-term interest in the inner workings of self-governing and other "high involvement" orchestra organizations. This interest was "sparked" by her work in the general survey of professional symphony orchestras in East and West Germany, the U.S., and U.K. conducted with Allmendinger and Hackman in the early 1990s. The findings of that research led to a general understanding of how symphony orchestras were structured, supported and led in those countries during that time period. In her own work, the author goes beyond that broad foundation in order to generate original research that illuminates how (and how well) a rare form of orchestra functions (i.e., the self-governing orchestra) and what roles musicians take within them. After a description of the rise of concert orchestras in Germany, the United States, and Great Britain and a review of the pertinent literature, four particular orchestras are then discussed in-depth: the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (Denver, Colorado USA), the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (NYC, NY, USA), the Berlin Philharmonic (Berlin, Germany), and the London Symphony Orchestra (London, U.K.). For this study, the author uses a mutli-method research strategy to help her discover and analyze the most important issues of high involvement orchestra organizations. These issues are related to an orchestra's direction, structure, leadership and membership. The findings reveal the similarities and differences between the four orchestras studied and the dominant model of orchestra organization. The findings also indicate what role national context has played (that is, historical tradition, labor and tax laws, and level of public support) in the development of musician-involved orchestras. In discussing the weaknesses of these more democratic orchestral systems, the author identifies seven "traps" or difficulties that must be dealt with in order to attain a truly functional and sustainable level of self-governance. These include: ample time to fully develop the organization's systems and structures, having the capacity to deal with financial pressures, fostering commitment (both individual and collective commitment), managing the tradeoff between broad participation versus efficiency, the need for widespread trust and technical knowledge, the ability to handle internal power struggles, and to conduct peer reviews. In arguing the other side of the issue, the author discusses the advantages of self-governing systems. These include: a profound and widespread sense of "ownership" throughout the organization (not just in the executive offices or the board room as is the case with the dominant model) which positively affects employee commitment and motivation, less mental stress for musicians because they have a legitimate voice in organizational affairs, a sense of common purpose that "we are all on the same team, pulling in the same direction," rewards are more collective than individual so everyone shares in the success or failure of the group, there is more participation in decision making and less hierarchy, and, finally, player job satisfaction is heightened in qualitative terms. The author concludes that national context does matter in explaining the genesis of the four organizations under study, but finds, more importantly, that each orchestra's particular direction, structure, membership and leadership configurations are the critical variables to both understanding and assessing how well they will function as high involvement organizations and what role musicians will play in them.

This thesis presents a work of practical scholarship which re-examines issues of identity in the context of the open dance work. The debate takes the form of a symbiotic philosophical and choreographic enquiry into the identity of the open dance work. The philosophical enquiry examines the adequacy to the open work of theories of identity derived from two distinctive strands of philosophical theory, the first from the analytic tradition, the second from contemporary French philosophy. The choreographic processes which led to the creation of two open dance works constituted a central strand of the debate. Each work interrogates the adequacy of these theories of identity to the artistic theories which underpin open dance works. The first work, Intimate Memories, problematised theories of identity which were developed by analytic philosophers in the 1970s and 80s, and subsequently adopted by dance theorists, through an examination of their applicability to the open dance work. This strand of choreographic research revealed that, although these theories allowed open dance works to be individuated, they did not fully account for the particularities of the processual character of the open dance work. This interim conclusion led to an examination of the pertinence of Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology of the event to questions concerning identity raised by the open dance work. The second dance work, Halo in Performance, which was developed in the context of a collaborative engagement between choreographic and interactive digital arts practices, is an embodiment of Deleuze and Guattari’s process-oriented ontology of the event. This work indicates that theories of identity and/or individuation which are grounded in an ontology of flux are a more appropriate model to apply to the open dance work than those grounded in an ontology of substance.

The subject of this study is arts policy in six different countries; Denmark,Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom and in particular how such policies affect both the operations and self-perceptions of professional symphony orchestras (and their chief executives) operating in the countries studied. Professional symphony orchestras in different countries have essentially very similar artistic approaches to their subject i.e. the performance of music, and are almost identically constructed with regards to number of players, which instruments are used as well as the role of artistic leadership (i.e. the conductor) in a performance situation. As such they represent a very uniform kind of arts organisation and art practice across the countries concerned, against which other, more variable factors such as legal structure and funding may be compared from country to country. One key objective of this research was to test the view that as the environment of the orchestras can differ, this could possibly affect the orchestras artistically and/or financially in significant ways. The management teams of the orchestras are faced with multiple tasks which can be affected by national or local government arts policy, organisational structure or levels of funding. The relationship between the management teams of professional symphony orchestras and arts policy makers at local and/or national government level is therefore a Complex one, despite the apparent homogeneity of the orchestral form, and often influenced by history and informal channels of influence as well as formal government arts policy. The study examines earlier research on the subject of orchestras within several disciplines. The cultural policies and orchestral development in the six countries are analysed as well as the results of a survey amongst Chief Executives of 83 symphony orchestras (32 in Scandinavia and 51 in the United Kingdom). The results of the survey indicate that there is little difference between the attitudes of Chief Executives in the six countries to a number of internal and external factors that influence their particular orchestra. The funding of a large number of the symphony orchestras of the sample is analysed, indicating that the major difference between the Scandinavian orchestras and the British ones is the level of government subsidy. Thedifference between the labour market between Britain and Scandinavia is examined, indicating that British orchestras have a much much flexible arrangement when it comes to hiring musicians, since there are three forms of employment, i.e. contract, freelance and self owning orchestras, in operation at the same time whereas in Scandinavia all the orchestras studied have contracted players only. The study discusses different models of cultural policy and government involvement (with a starting point in Harry Hiliman Chartrand's theories) and how this affects orchestras that operate under different models. The study concludes that the high level of government funding in Scandinavia is necessary to maintain the same level of symphony orchestra activity as the five countries have today. The reasons for this are historical as well as social and political factors in these countries. It is also a conclusion that different models of funding do not significantly influence the internal organisational structure of the orchestras studied and that a general model of good practice for running a symphony orchestra cannot be drawn up without taking into account socio-economic and historical factors in a particular country.

This study describes in detail the context - physical, social and artistic - in which the London theatre managers concerned with the West End formed their ethical, critical and financial beliefs about the correct way to run a theatre, between 1843 and 1899. It analyses in detail the methods of creating and controlling income, of notions of expenditure and budgeting, and of the ways in which accounts were kept and in which they were used for information. Together with a description of these practices the thesis analyses the social aspirations of the influential managers, and argues that their desire to belong to an artistic elite at. times distorted their critical judgement, and certainly led them in some cases to establish techniques of theatre management which were not serving the art, nor were efficient in business terms, but which contributed to their aspirations to higher rank. The last section of the study describes and analyses the various arguments at the end of the century about state subvention, and state aid for the (London) theatre, for the insight this gives on the financial, ethical and critical beliefs prevailing in the West End theatre community. It comes to the conclusion that the narrowly middle class audience, the expensive production, and the genteel methods of managing this influential group of theatres existed not because of any economic or social necessity, but because the manaoers had collectively willed it to be so. Moreover this period of management has particular importance for us, because so many of its limited principles and methods have been accepted as normal theatre practice in our own century, and have continued to limit our theatre, artistically and socially, because of the limitations of nineteenth century arts administration.

This thesis attempts to show the ways in which governments treat opera as an institution, endorsing, through ceremony and ritual, the power of the state. Its main contention is that the opera institution (which combines opera companies and opera houses) is useful to the state and supported by it for reasons other than cultural. It will be argued that opera has performed these supra-artistic functions since its first performances, held as celebrations to commemorate important events in the ducal palaces of Italy in the 16th century. The institution of opera, and opera houses, have existed in England and France since the 17th century. Their remarkable permanence is investigated against the background of changing political and social events in those countries. Furthermore, in order to show that the hypothesis concerns the essential nature of opera and does not necessarily confine itself to the two countries investigated in detail, examples are given of state support of opera, in its European form, in other places. The argument is carried primarily by detailed investigation of the cultural histories of the states under examination, and by detailed exposition of the language which is used to describe opera. Thus the thesis rests on historical and cultural analysis, treating opera and opera-going primarily as a sociological phenomenon rather than as a musicological one. It has chosen not to deal with differences in repertoire, or with the differences in critical response to various opera productions, as it is a part of the argument that from the government perspective, details of stage performances are relatively unimportant. Of course the thesis does not deny that there will be many people who enjoy opera purely as an art, and who will make discriminating judgements between operatic performances, but insists that for nearly four centuries European governments have seen opera as transcending its artistic core, and have supported it for non-musical reasons. One important implication is that there exists a flaw in the reasons governments give for funding opera institutions. In the terminology of the 1990s they are presented as 'artistic flagships', in competition with other arts activities for state arts funding. If this argument is accepted, they should properly be excluded from any general 'arts budget', and should instead be financed by the same methods, and for the same reasons, as are other state palaces and state ceremonies.

Before the rise of the modern newspaper with its mass circulation in the 19th century, journalism was regarded as a branch of English letters. Journalism had universalized literature and enormously increased the number of readers. Many writers have succeeded in maintaining a fair balance between literary merit and success in the market through their serious literary contributions to newspapers and magazines. The writers themselves found in journalism an open platform to express themselves in essays or reviews as well as printing their works in serialized form so as to establish contact with their readers. The urgent need of the press in general for both entertainment and education in its content led to a demand for gifted writers which stemmed from a growing and increasingly discriminating audience. The early nineteenth century, was the flowering period of the great literary reviews which tended deliberately to select works, direct taste, criticise, judge and influence both the writers and their audience in the literary process of communication. Long before The Tatler and The Spectator newspapers and periodicals had begun to attract essay writers and to use them as authors of leading articles. Some of the papers, instead of featuring news, disseminated views or information on popular subjects or reviews of books, laying the foundation of modern periodical literature in Britain, while much early literature, itself, was accessible through early reviews and journals. The essay in its turn developed towards the review, in line with the nature and function of the great periodicals of the 19th century. The slashing style of the Edinburgh Review marked the beginning of a new style of journalism. Reviewing began to establish and set the limits of an integral type or species of journalism. At the time when Lamb, Hazlitt and their contemporary Romanticists, became outmoded in their own country, there was a growing interest overseas in their achievements. In the spreading of English Romanticism and literature to the Arabic world it was Egyptian journalists who played the major role. The forceful influence of the English essayists revealed itself in the works of al- Aqqad, al- Mäzini, Müsa, and their contemporaries. The effect of English literature has been noticeable in the Saxon School of Egyptian Writers who were referred to as the Diwan Group whose influence was widespread.