The choreutic conception of the spatial aspect of body movements (originated by Rudolf Laban) was reevaluated according to cognitive and motor control research. "Kinesthetic spatial cognition" (analogous to visual spatial cognition) was identified as the psychological realm of choreutic knowledge. Kinesthesia was identified as arising from sensory receptors throughout the body. Kinesthetic space was defined as spatial information derived from kinesthesia. Kinesthetic spatial cognition was defined as cognitive processes (eg. mental rehearsal) involving kinesthetic spatial knowledge. This concept of kinesthetic spatial cognition has not been heretofore explicitly developed in cognitive science. Elements of the choreutic conception were psychologically validated since they are also well identified in cognitive and motor research. These include how spatial information is defined relative to a reference system; kinesthetic spatial knowledge is based on a mental code of elemental locations; higher-order networks of locations are collected into map-like spatial images; and many symmetrical operations can be performed. Close similarities were identified between choreutic polyhedral-shaped cognitive maps of the "kinesphere" and the "trajectory formation" model. A choreutic prototype/deflection hypothesis posits that dimensions and diagonals serve as conceptual prototypes while actual body movement consists of deflections. Similar spatial prototypes were identified in visual spatial cognition, a kinesiological analysis supported the bodily tendency towards deflections, and this concurred with ergonomic measurements of the shape of the workspace. An experiment attempted to identify prototypes in kinesthetic spatial cognition. Categories of kinesthetic spatial information are distinguished within choreutics and dance. These were reevaluated according to perceptual processes and kinesiology. Choreutic topological forms deflecting across various kinespheric nets are analogous to N. Bernstein's conception of the "co-ordinational net of the motor field ... as oscillating like a cobweb in the wind". An experiment demonstrated that kinesthetic spatial information is organised into cognitive categories and that choreutic material and Labanotation symbols can be advantageously used in experimental research.

This study examines what is intended and understood as the meaning of contemporary dance in its sociocultural context, in which the role of the state is a significant factor. It investigates the extent to which the structures and practices of public arts funding influence the production and reception of contemporary dance, focusing on British and French dance in the 1990s. By focusing on specific works in critically reflexive terms, it seeks to offer a basis for future ethnographic study of dance practices and dance audiences. The thesis employs a critical hermeneutic method, offering a philosophical reflection on dance as well as exploring the mutual implication of artistic practice, aesthetic response and their socio-political and economic contexts. The philosophical grounding of the investigation is explored in detail, in order to support a reflexive engagement of methodological issues of broader relevance to the discipline of dance studies. The relation between verbal language and dance is critically examined: drawing from Saussure and Wittgenstein, the argument is made for the contextual determination of meaning in both these "forms of life". A discussion of aesthetic and anthropological theories which recognise the mutual implication of artwork and context is followed by a reflection on the methods of dance analysis that most effectively explore the extent and character of that implication. Phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches are discussed, including methods derived and adapted from the study of literature which focus analytic attention on the reception rather than production of texts. An emphasis on spectatorship and dance interpretation seeks to redress what is argued as an imbalance in dance studies, namely the privileging of the perspectives of choreographing and performing subjects in dance analysis. The empirical investigation explores the structure and development, since 1945, of what is termed the "cultural institution", namely the set of conventions and practices which both enable and constrain the production and reception of contemporary dance art. It is argued that the state, through intervention via policy formulation and subsidy distribution, has played a key role in setting parameters within the "danceworld", a subsidiary of the broader cultural institution and the environment which contexts contemporary dance performance. An overview of the politico-economic conditions of dance in the 1990s is presented, and four case studies then extend this discussion by exploring how those conditions are actualised on individual sites of dance productionand reception. Four works are examined in detail (Kim Brandstrup's Crime Fictions, Russell Maliphant's Unspoken, Daniel Larrieu's Mobile and Herve Robbe's ld. ), in terms of their institutional context and the viewing experiences to which they give rise, arguing for a connection between the types of aesthetic response articulated and the institutional conditions in which the works are performed and received. The thesis argues against a determinist relation between the politico-economic context and the aesthetics of dance, proposing instead that these two dimensions of contemporary dance practice need to be examined conjointly. It seeks to demonstrate that this is crucial, if the current condition of contemporary dance in Britain and France is to be both understood and critically appraised.

This study is a qualitative interpretive investigation of three expert specialist dance teachers' conceptions of and approaches to creativity with late primary age children in England carried out using a multi-case case study approach. These specialists were working in a variety of educational settings and had extensive experience as dance educators with some degree of experience, past or present, of creating and/or performing as dance artists. The study was carried out in order to increase understanding of expert specialist dance teachers' conceptions of and approaches to creativity, and how these relate to theories of creativity and teacher knowledge from within dance education and wider relevant education literature, particularly in light of the creativity agenda in England stemming from the NACCCE Report (1999). The purpose of this study was firstly exploratory and illustrative with the exploration of Foundations for Creativity; Creativity as Individual, Collaborative and Communal; and Creating the Dance underpinning the explanation of Teaching for Creativity: Spectra of Approaches and Shaping Influences. These findings were compared with existing literature and contribute to the field In a number of ways. Firstly, they provide: an 'image of the possible' from these experts of an embodied socially constructed way of knowing and accompanying pedagogy as foundational to creativity in primary age dance education, which is also potentially pertinent to wider primary education; an argument for moving beyond individualised conceptions of creativity to embrace deeper understanding of the dynamics of creativity as collaborative and communal within dance and wider education; and a teacher-derived image of the creative process which reinforces arguments against 'over-assuming'the commonalities of creativity across domains. Secondly, the findings offer a possible pedagogical toolkit for teaching for creativity in primary age dance education including three pedagogical spectra, images of their possible use in action, and details of the dilemmas faced and overcome using professional practical knowledge, which may also be applicable in wider educational settings. And, thirdly, the findings contribute to understanding how the dance teachers' practical knowledge in relation to creativity developed through reframing, leading to an argument for wellsupported reflective practice within specialist dance teacher training and CPD as a key way of contributing to the professionalisation of their work.

This thesis investigates the creative processes of Butoh choreography. A phenomenological perspective is used in this thesis to explore the implications for choreographers of the choreographic options employed in Butoh creative processes. Phenomenology corresponds to the Japanese philosophical context which gave birth to Butoh, elucidating the worldview merging with the universe which underpins Butoh. In terms of phenomenology, merging with the universe is firstly understood as a state of inter-subjectivity or transcendental consciousness, and secondly as the interweaving through actions of individual woridviews and a greater world of shared socio-cultural significances contributed by different people. The inter-subjective relationship between self, other self and objects is used to examine and elucidate the juxtaposition of various kinds of imagery in Butoh. The phenomenological notion of actions is used to examine bodily movement with respect to a greater world in Butoh. Phenomenology particularly corresponds to some of the fundamental processes used by Butoh choreographers. The choreographers' initial options for treating materials, namely visceral sensations as media for merging with the universe, texts as media for perception, paintings as media for presenting images, and actions as building blocks of an inter-subjective world, are inclined to guide the creative processes to develop the manifold of a spiritual imagery and bodily actions. These options and treatments are elucidated in this thesis through the network of perception and the phenomenological notion of graded fulfillment. The choreographer's treatment of the materials requires that the network of perception operates differently for different materials. The results of the operations are then integrated by the choreographer, through a process of graded fulfillment, into a holistic perception of the imagery or into a greater world, of which every image on stage is a part. In contrast the dialectical choreographic options, namely texts as tools for reasoning, paintings as representative structures of the subjects, and actions as representative units of social structure and cultural patterns, are inclined to guide the choreographers towards a focus on the development of formalised postures and gestures. The dialectical options are underpinned by rationalist, sociological or anthropological perspectives. It is argued that both the initial and dialectical options have value. The initial and dialectical options have co-existed and merged over the course of Butoh's development. Through their use different significances are incorporated into dance through the creative processes. Those significances can be identified as mainly rooted in Eastern philosophy, but later expanded to include Western philosophy when Butoh began to develop in a global context. Accordingly, Butoh creative processes are enriched by the use of a variety of choreographic options and by incorporating viewpoints from different people and perspectives.

This study explores how Scottish people feel about representations of Scottishness in contemporary television comedy. The thesis is in two related parts, articulating an exploration of genre, comedy and Scottish television texts with the theory, methodology and analysis of empirical audience research. The thesis begins by exploring how current television comedy is poorly served by critical literature beyond notions of genre although this field of study too fails to indicate significant contemporary permeabilities between comedy sub-genres, and between comedy and other kinds of leisure shows. The second chapter explores historical approaches to Scottish cultural criticism and literary myths (Tartanry, Kailyardism, Caledonian anti-syzygy, Clydesidism) and sets these against contemporary mythologising by individual Scottish comedy practitioners. The second half of the thesis marks a shift from textual studies toward audience research, and in particular develops a discussion about the problematics of researching comedy and audiences qualitatively. The first part of the second half is a literature survey of selected examples of audience research which is translated from theory and epistemology, to methodology and technique in the next section which comprises a discussion of the model for the empirical data collection. The next section presents data from a quantitative survey and qualitative focus-group discussions. The last part of the second section interprets the data through triangulation although this is limited by lack of comparable critical materials. The whole attempts to explore concepts of national identity in Scottish television comedy with audiences, but also develops the additional problematic of empirical quantitative research and comedy themes.

This thesis is a close examination and analysis of the creation and reception of a group of eighteen Central Italian paintings of the Madonna with Eve presented reclining at her feet, images which draw on one of the fundamental themes of Mary's cult, her role as the Second Eve. Modern writers have sometimes been taken aback by these panels; in recent studies of women in history, Mary and Eve are often assumed to have been defining stereotypes of positive and negative feminine behaviour, and these works make a blatant juxtaposition of the two. Yet this imagery was obviously attractive to Trecento and Quattrocento patrons: this paradox lies at the heart of this thesis, which seeks to determine what these paintings might have meant to those who commissioned them and who first worshipped before them. To do so, this thesis begins by introducing the questions raised by the works; it then discusses textual and oral traditions linking Mary and Eve for Trecento and Quattrocento viewers, in order to suggest a range of possible associations for the imagery. There are then four case studies, intended to particularise the general themes of the pairing through specific images and contexts. The first focuses on Ambrogio Lorenzetti's frescoes at the former Cistercian abbey of S. Galgano, which were created, it is suggested here, by a member of that community in Mary's honour. The next chapter looks at the political and eschatological implications of images of Mary's rule as the Second Eve in the Papal States, discussing frescoes in S. Agostino, Montefalco, S. Gregorio Maggiore, Spoleto, and the Camposanto in Pisa, as well as a panel attributed to Carlo da Camerion, now in Cleveland, Ohio.

A particular literary genre, the exhibition review, forms the subject of this dissertation. It represents one facet of a discourse which began to develop in Britain during the latter years of the eighteenth century. Art historians have become increasingly interested in such criticism, but have usually treated it, not as an historical phenomenon which in itself deserves a full investigation, but as a pool of evidence from which to draw remarks concerning individual artists or works of art It is argued that such a one-dimensional approach is unsatisfactory, but that in attempting to go beyond it, the methodological problems posed by this primary source need to be considered. It is stressed that the building up of a basic corpus of knowledge is very important, and an inventory of identified critics is presented in order to assist this. Some observations on the careers of these critics are given. The exhibition reviews published in two contrasting periodicals, the Sun and The Examiner, form the subjects of case studies. The latter are known to have been penned by Robert Hunt and present no problems of attribution. The former are ascribed to John Taylor and the supporting evidence is put forward. The reviews are compared and it is shown how they differed according to their published contexts, and according to the idiosyncracies of their authors. It is suggested that in spite of these differences, a shared critical idiom was a strong force which led reviewers to make many similar comments. This idiom and the precedents which determined its nature are examined. The ways in which it at once harboured and yet disguised certain ideologies are demonstrated. Evidence which helps to place reviews into a more rounded picture of the past is given in conclusion, including statements which show that contemporaries perceived the press as an important influence on the development of taste.

During the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, a sea change took place in the British art world that reflected a general shift in attitude towards the arts. Artists redefined their social status and fought for their criteria to be taken into account, acquiring a new, influential position within the artistic circles, in which the authority of theorists and connoisseurs, amateurs whose approach to the work of art was that of the collector and critic, never the creator, had been so far undisputed. Influenced by new social theories and powerful contemporary cultural movements, and motivated by the success of artists like Hogarth and Reynolds and of the Royal Academy, artists felt encouraged to stand up for and secure their artistic authority. Thus, the increasingly widespread interest in art and aesthetics throughout the eighteenth century culminated in the realisation, on the artists' part, of their importance in such matters; subsequently, the long-debated issue of the dignity of the artist was brought to the forefront and became key in the artistic discourse of turn-of-the-century Britain. We can trace the evolution of the discourse on the authority of artists from Reynolds's idea that a painter can be a gentleman despite being a painter, to Ruskin's humble acceptance, in the prologue to the first volume of Modern Painters, of the necessity to have a practical knowledge of art in order to understand it. It was a veritable revolution in art theory, a 'second renaissance' for the figure of the artist, who until then had been considered a mere craftsman. A whole tradition was being challenged, and the new language artists employed to advance their ideas was not that of theory, but practice.

Pharmaceutical R&D is time-consuming, extremely costly and involves great uncertainty. Although there is a broad range of literature on statistical issues in clinical trials, there is not much that focuses directly on the modelling of pre-clinical research. This thesis investigates models and associated software for improving decisionmaking in this area, building on earlier work by the same research group. We introduce a class of adaptive policies called forwards induction policies for candidate drug selection, and show that these are optimal, with a straightforward solution algorithm, within a restricted setting, and are usually close to optimal more generally. We also introduce an adaptive probabilities model that allows the incorporation of learning from a project’s progress into the planning process. Real options analysis in the evaluation of project value is discussed. Specifically, we consider the option value of investing in clinical trials once a candidate drug emerges from pre-clinical research. Simulation algorithms are developed to investigate the probability distributions of the total reward, total cost, profitability index and the required future resource allocations of a pharmaceutical project under a given allocation plan. The ability to simulate outcome distributionsmeans that we can also compare the riskiness of different projects and portfolios of projects.

This thesis aims to facilitate a broader understanding of post-revolutionary Iranian filmmaking, by way of an analysis of the New Iranian Cinema and Iranian cinema in exile and diaspora, and the various relationships between these two cinemas. Thus far no significant attempt has been made to consider these two cinemas in relation to each other. This thesis therefore represents a significant contribution to this line of research. Along the way it addresses several key concepts of long-standing importance in film studies, such as notions of art cinema, authorship and national cinema, in particular how such concepts have been used as a means of studying the New Iranian Cinema. Exilic and diasporic Iranian filmmaking represents a challenge to traditional understandings of these concepts. The first chapter therefore examines how the New Iranian Cinema has been received and constructed as an archetypal 'art cinema' in Europe and North America, in addition to how this cinema invites, at the same time as it resists, such interpretations. Thereafter follows a consideration of Iranian emigre filmmaking across Europe and North America, and how it has changed over the past thirty years, gradually shifting from an exclusively exilic to a pan-diasporic outlook. Chapters three and four are individual case studies of Iranian emigre filmmakers Amir Naderi and Sohrab Shahid Saless respectively. As two of Iran's most important and influential pre-revolutionary filmmakers, the works of Naderi and Saless represent not only interesting divergences from the evolutionary understanding of Iranian emigre cinema outlined in the second chapter, but also form two of the most compelling links between the New Iranian Cinema, and it exilic and diasporic counterpart. This thesis concludes by arguing for a more flexible and open-ended conception of national cinema more generally, as well as more comprehensive, nuanced and deterritorialised understanding of post-revolutionary Iranian filmmaking.