'Visual Elective Affinities: An Elliptical Study of the Works of Angela Carter and Marosa di Giorgio' examines the extent to which these two authors engage with visual representations, as well as how visuality affects and modulates the nature of their writing. In this respect, I am committed to re-thinking the notions of verbal and visual media and I draw on W.J.T. Mitchell’s theory of the imagetext as a conceptual tool from which to investigate the heterogeneity of representation. On the one hand, I trace similarities and contrasts between Carter’s and di Giorgio’s perspectives, offering new critical approaches to each other’s œuvres. For example, I suggest new routes of interpretation into Carter’s and di Giorgio’s texts, by opening the exploration of their work to the interplay not only with visuality but also with each other’s geo-cultural domains. On the other hand, this thesis draws on theories and discourses of comparative literature and, hence, it also problematises standards and consequences of comparisons between the arts and between cultures. There are three major visual elective affinities with which I develop an intertwined analysis of the authors’ texts. Firstly, Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s pictures are a shared reference in Carter’s and di Giorgio’s writings, and I analyse Arcimboldo’s “effect” on their works. A second visual affinity is created around visions and images of women. Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” is put under consideration along with images by Félicien Rops, Jacques Louis David and Corinna Sargood, amongst others, whilst di Giorgio’s Camino de las pedrerías is examined in relation to surrealist works of art including: Max Ernst’s, Leonora Carrington’s and Leonor Fini’s. Finally, this thesis analyses the films The Company of Wolves (dir. Neil Jordan, 1984) and Lobo (dir. Eduardo Casanova, 1990) in relation to Carter’s and di Giorgio’s works. In doing so, I introduce alternative perspectives on these writers, examining the links between cinematography and fairy tales, and exploring the conflictive and hybrid nature of filmic representation.

The primary goal of the study was to standardise and validate a scale to measure the arts’ contribution of arts festivals. To achieve this goal, four objectives were formulated. First, to study arts’ contribution of arts festivals by defining, analysing and exploring related concepts through the provision of a detailed background and discussion on the topic by means of a literature review. Second, to study and select applicable explanatory theory that can be used to develop a standardised scale that measures the arts’ contribution of arts festivals by means of a second literature review. Third to determine the validity and reliability of the scale measuring the arts festival’s contribution to the performing arts and to the visual arts through an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis. Lastly, to draw conclusions based on the research and make recommendations with regard to the standardisation and validation of the scale to measure the arts’ contribution of arts festivals. The first objective was achieved by conducting a literature study. The literature study on arts festivals and their contribution to the arts was explored by defining the term festival tourism; discussing aspects related to a festival (by defining a festival, explaining the festival’s relationship with culture and events, identifying the characteristics, types, benefits and potential problems associated with a festival, and identifying visitor motives for attending a festival); discussing aspects related to the term arts festival (by providing an overview of arts tourism, defining an arts festival, listing reasons for the establishment of an arts festival and discussing the arts present at arts festivals – through defining and classifying the arts); and identifying the contributions of an arts festival to the arts (by listing the types of contribution – educational, emotional, economic, quality, marketing, and growth and development – , discussing the purpose of contributing to the arts, listing perceptual differences of festival visitors regarding the contributions of an arts festival to the arts and discussing limitations of an arts festival to contribute to the arts). Achieving the second objective, the second literature study discussed the term survey (by defining a survey, identifying the types, characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and merits of a survey and discussing the survey process); discussed the term standardisation (by defining standardisation and stating the purpose for the standardisation of a measurement scale); discussed the standardisation process (by outlining the different stages in the standardisation process – the planning phase, where the aim of the measure is specified, the content is defined and the test plan is developed; the item writing phase, includes the writing and review of items; assembling and pre-testing the experimental version of the measure, which includes the arrangements of the items, finalisation of the length, protocols for answering, development of administration instructions and pre-test of the experimental version of the measure; the item and data analysis phase consists of the determination of discriminating power, preliminary investigation into item bias and the establishment of validity and reliability; and revising the final version of the measure, which encompasses the revision of the items and test, the selection of items for the final version of the test, the refinement of administration instructions and score procedures and the administration of the final version of the test); and identified and discussed ethical considerations, foreseen problems, limitations and recommendations associated with conducting a survey and the standardisation of a measurement scale. The third objective was to determine the validity and reliability of the measurement scale. This objective was achieved by discussing the implementation phase of the measurement scale where attention was given to the survey design and sampling. A stratified random sampling method was used at three selected arts festivals in South Africa, the KKNK, Innibos and Vryfees, where a descriptive survey design was administered in the form of a measurement scale, such as a questionnaire. Research assistants were trained and the scale was administered in a consistent fashion which supports internal reliability. The same survey procedures were undertaken at all three arts festivals, supporting face validity and internal validity. Representative samples were collected at the three arts festivals, also supporting external validity. Attention was also given to the measurement scale design (where respondents could give their perceptions concerning the contributions made by the arts festival to the arts through the completion of the questionnaire – which was based on literature and contained the relevant information to collect problem specific information, supporting content validity and construct validity. The scale had also undergone the delphi-technique for expert advice, supporting face validity. Providing a summary of the data analysis procedure contributed to the achievement of this objective. The data collected from the measurement scale have been captured in Microsoft™ Excel™ and analysed using the statistical software program, SPSS. The data of the arts festivals contributing to the performing arts were analysed separately from the data of the festivals where they contribute to the visual arts. This was done to get a detailed data analysis for the standardisation of the measurement scale. The split of the data also contributed to the measurement scale being divided in two separate standardised scales in determining the arts festival’s contribution to a specific form of the arts; both the data of the performing arts and the data of the visual arts had undergone the same statistical procedure for data analysis in determining the validity and reliability thereof. The results indicated that the measurement scale is a valid and reliable measure in determining the arts festival’s contribution to both the arts forms. To determine the validity of the measurement scale pertaining to the performing arts and to the visual arts, an exploratory principal axis factor analysis with Oblimin rotation was conducted on the combined data of Innibos and Vryfees (n = 982). Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was p < 0.001 and the Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin test of sample adequacy rendered a value between 0 and 1, indicating that the sample sizes were adequate to conduct an exploratory factor analysis on the data of the performing arts (KMO = 0.958) and on the data of the visual arts (KMO = 0.972); all items of the performing arts (22 items) and of the visual arts (22 items) loaded on a factor with loadings greater than 0.2. The factor analysis on the performing arts data extracted five factors. Factor 1 (Quality and Education Contribution) was defined by 5 items with a Cronbach’s α-value of 0.867 and an interitem correlation mean of 0.568. Factor 2 (Growth and Development Contribution) was defined by 6 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.896; inter-item correlation = 0.594). Factor 3 (Emotional Contribution) was defined by 3 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.706; inter-item correlation = 0.440). Factor 4 (Economic Contribution) was defined by 4 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.824; inter-item correlation = 0.540). Factor 5 (Marketing Contribution) was defined by 4 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.866; inter-item correlation = 0.617). The factor analysis on the visual arts data extracted four factors. Factor 1 (Education and Growth and Development Contribution) was defined by 8 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.947; inter-item correlation = 0.690). Factor 2 (Economic and Quality Contribution) was defined by 7 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.920; inter-item correlation = 0.622). Factor 3 (Emotional Contribution) was defined by 3 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.828; inter-item correlation = 0.616). Factor 4 (Marketing Contribution) was defined by 4 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.905; inter-item correlation of 0.704). There were correlations between factors of the performing arts and between the factors of the visual arts, where all correlations were 0.3 and larger, supporting construct validity. Further validity of the measurement scale was determined by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the performing arts data and on the visual arts data of KKNK (n = 602), where the path diagram confirmed the factor structures of both the performing arts and visual arts exploratory factor analyses, supporting criterion validity. CFA goodness-of-fit indexes were also used to determine whether the models fit with the data. The performing arts model and the visual arts model were found to have an adequate to good fit with the data of KKNK. The chi-square test of Independence (X2) for the performing arts rendered a value of p < 0.001 and for the visual arts was p < 0.001. The chi-square divided by the degrees of freedom (X2 / df) for the performing arts was 4.284 and for the visual arts was 4.9, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) for the performing arts was 0.914 and for the visual arts was 0.931, and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) for the performing arts was 0.074 and for the visual arts was 0.079. To determine the reliability of the measurement scale, the Cronbach’s Alpha values and inter-item correlations between the factors were determined. All the factors of the performing arts rendered a high Cronbach’s Alpha value (greater than 0.7) and for the visual arts a value of 0.8. All the factors of the performing arts rendered a high interitem correlation value (greater than 0.4) and for the visual arts a value greater than 0.6. The final objective, to draw conclusions and make recommendations based on the results of the study, indicated that this study made a significant contribution to the literature and methodology of standardising a measurement scale and to the planning of arts festivals as it would lead to the development of arts festivals contributing to the arts more effectively and more efficiently. Future research on this topic should be conducted at other arts festivals, including Englishlanguage arts festivals, to enable comparative studies to be made and supporting the test-retest reliability theory on the standardised measurement scale. It is also recommended that the study should measure contribution to the arts by other arts-related organisations, for example, at museums, theatres, and galleries, by administering the standardised scale to measure the contribution they make to their specific arts form. It is important to standardise a measurement scale for arts contribution to better understand the contributing factors of the arts festival to the arts which will assist festival managers in implementing strategies that ensure the livelihood and ongoing contribution of arts festivals to the arts. / PhD (Tourism Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The primary goal of the study was to standardise and validate a scale to measure the arts’ contribution of arts festivals. To achieve this goal, four objectives were formulated. First, to study arts’ contribution of arts festivals by defining, analysing and exploring related concepts through the provision of a detailed background and discussion on the topic by means of a literature review. Second, to study and select applicable explanatory theory that can be used to develop a standardised scale that measures the arts’ contribution of arts festivals by means of a second literature review. Third to determine the validity and reliability of the scale measuring the arts festival’s contribution to the performing arts and to the visual arts through an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis. Lastly, to draw conclusions based on the research and make recommendations with regard to the standardisation and validation of the scale to measure the arts’ contribution of arts festivals. The first objective was achieved by conducting a literature study. The literature study on arts festivals and their contribution to the arts was explored by defining the term festival tourism; discussing aspects related to a festival (by defining a festival, explaining the festival’s relationship with culture and events, identifying the characteristics, types, benefits and potential problems associated with a festival, and identifying visitor motives for attending a festival); discussing aspects related to the term arts festival (by providing an overview of arts tourism, defining an arts festival, listing reasons for the establishment of an arts festival and discussing the arts present at arts festivals – through defining and classifying the arts); and identifying the contributions of an arts festival to the arts (by listing the types of contribution – educational, emotional, economic, quality, marketing, and growth and development – , discussing the purpose of contributing to the arts, listing perceptual differences of festival visitors regarding the contributions of an arts festival to the arts and discussing limitations of an arts festival to contribute to the arts). Achieving the second objective, the second literature study discussed the term survey (by defining a survey, identifying the types, characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and merits of a survey and discussing the survey process); discussed the term standardisation (by defining standardisation and stating the purpose for the standardisation of a measurement scale); discussed the standardisation process (by outlining the different stages in the standardisation process – the planning phase, where the aim of the measure is specified, the content is defined and the test plan is developed; the item writing phase, includes the writing and review of items; assembling and pre-testing the experimental version of the measure, which includes the arrangements of the items, finalisation of the length, protocols for answering, development of administration instructions and pre-test of the experimental version of the measure; the item and data analysis phase consists of the determination of discriminating power, preliminary investigation into item bias and the establishment of validity and reliability; and revising the final version of the measure, which encompasses the revision of the items and test, the selection of items for the final version of the test, the refinement of administration instructions and score procedures and the administration of the final version of the test); and identified and discussed ethical considerations, foreseen problems, limitations and recommendations associated with conducting a survey and the standardisation of a measurement scale. The third objective was to determine the validity and reliability of the measurement scale. This objective was achieved by discussing the implementation phase of the measurement scale where attention was given to the survey design and sampling. A stratified random sampling method was used at three selected arts festivals in South Africa, the KKNK, Innibos and Vryfees, where a descriptive survey design was administered in the form of a measurement scale, such as a questionnaire. Research assistants were trained and the scale was administered in a consistent fashion which supports internal reliability. The same survey procedures were undertaken at all three arts festivals, supporting face validity and internal validity. Representative samples were collected at the three arts festivals, also supporting external validity. Attention was also given to the measurement scale design (where respondents could give their perceptions concerning the contributions made by the arts festival to the arts through the completion of the questionnaire – which was based on literature and contained the relevant information to collect problem specific information, supporting content validity and construct validity. The scale had also undergone the delphi-technique for expert advice, supporting face validity. Providing a summary of the data analysis procedure contributed to the achievement of this objective. The data collected from the measurement scale have been captured in Microsoft™ Excel™ and analysed using the statistical software program, SPSS. The data of the arts festivals contributing to the performing arts were analysed separately from the data of the festivals where they contribute to the visual arts. This was done to get a detailed data analysis for the standardisation of the measurement scale. The split of the data also contributed to the measurement scale being divided in two separate standardised scales in determining the arts festival’s contribution to a specific form of the arts; both the data of the performing arts and the data of the visual arts had undergone the same statistical procedure for data analysis in determining the validity and reliability thereof. The results indicated that the measurement scale is a valid and reliable measure in determining the arts festival’s contribution to both the arts forms. To determine the validity of the measurement scale pertaining to the performing arts and to the visual arts, an exploratory principal axis factor analysis with Oblimin rotation was conducted on the combined data of Innibos and Vryfees (n = 982). Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was p < 0.001 and the Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin test of sample adequacy rendered a value between 0 and 1, indicating that the sample sizes were adequate to conduct an exploratory factor analysis on the data of the performing arts (KMO = 0.958) and on the data of the visual arts (KMO = 0.972); all items of the performing arts (22 items) and of the visual arts (22 items) loaded on a factor with loadings greater than 0.2. The factor analysis on the performing arts data extracted five factors. Factor 1 (Quality and Education Contribution) was defined by 5 items with a Cronbach’s α-value of 0.867 and an interitem correlation mean of 0.568. Factor 2 (Growth and Development Contribution) was defined by 6 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.896; inter-item correlation = 0.594). Factor 3 (Emotional Contribution) was defined by 3 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.706; inter-item correlation = 0.440). Factor 4 (Economic Contribution) was defined by 4 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.824; inter-item correlation = 0.540). Factor 5 (Marketing Contribution) was defined by 4 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.866; inter-item correlation = 0.617). The factor analysis on the visual arts data extracted four factors. Factor 1 (Education and Growth and Development Contribution) was defined by 8 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.947; inter-item correlation = 0.690). Factor 2 (Economic and Quality Contribution) was defined by 7 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.920; inter-item correlation = 0.622). Factor 3 (Emotional Contribution) was defined by 3 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.828; inter-item correlation = 0.616). Factor 4 (Marketing Contribution) was defined by 4 items (Cronbach’s α = 0.905; inter-item correlation of 0.704). There were correlations between factors of the performing arts and between the factors of the visual arts, where all correlations were 0.3 and larger, supporting construct validity. Further validity of the measurement scale was determined by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the performing arts data and on the visual arts data of KKNK (n = 602), where the path diagram confirmed the factor structures of both the performing arts and visual arts exploratory factor analyses, supporting criterion validity. CFA goodness-of-fit indexes were also used to determine whether the models fit with the data. The performing arts model and the visual arts model were found to have an adequate to good fit with the data of KKNK. The chi-square test of Independence (X2) for the performing arts rendered a value of p < 0.001 and for the visual arts was p < 0.001. The chi-square divided by the degrees of freedom (X2 / df) for the performing arts was 4.284 and for the visual arts was 4.9, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) for the performing arts was 0.914 and for the visual arts was 0.931, and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) for the performing arts was 0.074 and for the visual arts was 0.079. To determine the reliability of the measurement scale, the Cronbach’s Alpha values and inter-item correlations between the factors were determined. All the factors of the performing arts rendered a high Cronbach’s Alpha value (greater than 0.7) and for the visual arts a value of 0.8. All the factors of the performing arts rendered a high interitem correlation value (greater than 0.4) and for the visual arts a value greater than 0.6. The final objective, to draw conclusions and make recommendations based on the results of the study, indicated that this study made a significant contribution to the literature and methodology of standardising a measurement scale and to the planning of arts festivals as it would lead to the development of arts festivals contributing to the arts more effectively and more efficiently. Future research on this topic should be conducted at other arts festivals, including Englishlanguage arts festivals, to enable comparative studies to be made and supporting the test-retest reliability theory on the standardised measurement scale. It is also recommended that the study should measure contribution to the arts by other arts-related organisations, for example, at museums, theatres, and galleries, by administering the standardised scale to measure the contribution they make to their specific arts form. It is important to standardise a measurement scale for arts contribution to better understand the contributing factors of the arts festival to the arts which will assist festival managers in implementing strategies that ensure the livelihood and ongoing contribution of arts festivals to the arts. / PhD (Tourism Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This project builds on the existing evidence that suggests that art-based interventions can be beneficial for the wellbeing of people with dementia and their carers, and explores whether such interventions can be delivered via a touchscreen tablet device using an application that allows them to view art images. Twelve pairs of volunteers with dementia and their informal carers were recruited through Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Cafés. A quasi-experimental mixed-methods within-subjects study evaluated the impact of art-viewing on wellbeing using visual analogue scales as well as exploring the experiences of participants qualitatively with thematic analysis. Quantitative results showed a significant effect for change in composite wellbeing from viewing session one to session five. Wellbeing subdomain scores showed an impact on wellbeing which tended to increase with the number of sessions. Qualitative findings were reported in relation to shifts in cognition, changes in behaviour, mood and relationships between people with dementia and their carers. These changes tended to be viewed as positive by interviewees. The results suggest that touchscreen based art interventions have the potential to provide an activity people with dementia can engage in with their carers which can benefit their wellbeing. A larger-scale controlled study would help to further determine whether wider dementia care practice implications can be drawn for clinical psychologists and other healthcare providers.

The terrorist attacks in the United States of September 11, 2001, were unprecedented in the modern era, and they heralded a new era in politics as the Bush Administration pursued rigorous security policies at home and staged military operations in Afghanistan, and subsequently Iraq. Witness testimonies, and newspaper articles in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, revealed that many of those watching coverage of the attacks on television temporarily mistook the reporting for a Hollywood block-buster, an indication that there was some kind of relationship between 9/11 and Hollywood film-making. This thesis contends that films produced in 9/11’s wake were influenced by the attacks and the response that followed, particularly as they demonstrate either an endorsement or challenge to the Bush Administration, and thus can be interpreted politically. This thesis makes specific reference to a number of key issues that demonstrate how Hollywood dealt with 9/11. Firstly, the industry found itself unsure what films were suitable for release in the new context of victimhood; it co-operated with government officials to help in the post-9/11 effort, while many individuals responded to the emergency with fund-raising and other activities. The issue of how Hollywood narrativised the emotional and psychological consequences of the attacks is also addressed with particular focus on how film can act as a memorial. A key feature of both post-9/11 culture and cinema is a fresh apprehension of the real. In this thesis, the issue of ‘the real’ is studied in two distinct areas: realist aesthetics in fiction film, and how the choice of a particular realism has a particular ideological significance; and the growth of the documentary feature film. If Hollywood’s attention to realist aesthetics meets a certain need for facts and knowledge in a period of crisis, then the desire to ‘understand’ is also addressed by genre’s treatment of American myth. In the case of post-9/11, focus on the Western demonstrates how the issues of ‘strong’ masculinity and ‘Otherness’ of race, are dealt with by Hollywood. One of the prevailing myths surrounding the official 9/11 story is that the latent heroism of the ordinary American citizen was revealed. Here, post-9/11 heroism is analysed with reference to the numerous films based on comic-books, specifically those featuring superheroes that expose particular psychological phenomena peculiar to post-9/11 America. Finally, the concept of the global nature of 9/11 with reference to how Hollywood deals with American catastrophe in a global context, how an American event is represented by non-American film-makers, and how global events are represented by non-American film-makers but viewed through the paradigm of 9/11 is discussed. This thesis, then, studies the political and ideological functions and implications of American film after 9/11 through discourses of ‘the real’ and key issues of self-censorship, co-operation, victimhood, masculinity, race, repression, trauma, and heroism.

The present dissertation investigates the process of transmission of hieroglyphs from Egypt to Early-Modern Europe. This phenomenon has been studied by Egyptologists and Art Historians, mostly from a historical and descriptive standpoint, but here an original theoretical perspective was adopted: Grammatology or the study of writing. In order to understand this process of stimuli diffusion, and its outcome, it was deemed necessary to delve into both the Egyptian writing-system and the hieroglyphic phenomenon in the Renaissance, which led the dissertation to be divided into two parts. The First Part is devoted to The Ancient Hieroglyph: Chapter One addresses the mechanics of Egyptian hieroglyphs, their grammatological functions and the outline of a theory for the text-image dynamics in this context; Chapter Two examines the terminology of “hieroglyph” in Egypt, and its conceptual difference from the Greek and Contemporary views on the matter; Chapter Three describes the historical development of the Egyptian writing and a hypothesis for the emergence of a “hieroglyphic hermeneutics”; Chapter Four is dedicated to Horapollon’s Hieroglyphica, which is regarded as the main vector of diffusion between Ancient and Modern hieroglyphic traditions. The Second Part focuses on The Early-Modern Hieroglyph: Chapter Five outlines the early process of diffusion and the first ideas of hieroglyph in the Renaissance; Chapter Six discusses the creation of new hieroglyphic codes; Chapter Seven tackles the role of hieroglyphs in the birth of the emblematic tradition and its continuous relationship on different culture levels; Chapter Eight look into the Spanish jeroglificos, regarding it as a hybrid genre of hieroglyphs and emblems; Chapter Nine explores the impact of Renaissance hieroglyphs on the cultural perception of writing; and finally, in Chapter Ten, the process of convergence between hieroglyphs, alchemical iconography and emblems is analysed in the light of the previous chapters. It was found that there is an objective relationship between Ancient and Modern hieroglyphs, not easily perceptible and often downplayed as a result of a certain logocentrism, but of great importance – especially in terms of its impact on the establishment of a European text-image tradition. Another conclusion is that, if Renaissance scholars, artists and poets thought it possible to write through images, and in fact created speaking pictures, visual compositions can be considered as a form of writing - being therefore a potential subject of Grammatology. This finding does not exclude other instruments of analysis, but creates a number of theoretical solutions in the field of text-image studies that have been employed in the present study.

This thesis seeks to interrogate the presence and purposes of intertextuality in the work of contemporary French filmmaker Claire Denis, with specific focus on Michael Riffaterre’s theories of ungrammaticality, and Paul Ricoeur’s work on discourse as event or performance. Neither Riffaterre nor Ricoeur’s theories of intertextuality have been engaged in much depth in the study of cinema. Denis’s œuvre, which is composed mainly of feature films, but also includes short films, documentaries, music videos and collaborations on exhibitions and live concerts, is vastly intertextual, engaging with other moving image media, music, visual art, philosophy, poetry and literature, and media coverage of real events. In current criticism, Denis and many of her fellow contemporary French female filmmakers are more commonly referred to through a gender-neutral prism of auteurism rather than with reference to their gender, which may be read as a means for a female director to disengage with any categorisation of her work as resolutely female-centric. The auteur label is problematic, however, as it tends to suggest a state of creative isolation and supremacy, where the author’s recognizable creative voice as it appears throughout their work is more important than any other element of a film. This description sits particularly uneasily with the work of Denis, for whom collaboration and intertextual engagement with other sources is vital; this is evident in Denis’s consistent highlighting of the importance of her regular collaborators’ contributions to her work, and the texts with which her films engage, in interviews. Interviews with Denis, therefore, will form as important an element of my primary research material as her corpus of films and other works. In the introduction to this thesis, I will highlight some of the main themes and concerns of Denis’s work, namely foreignness, intrusion and the body, and introduce the corpus of critical work which has explored them. Such themes will certainly arise in my work, but will always be explored through the foregrounding of Riffaterre and Ricoeur’s theories of intertextuality. I will then proceed to briefly examine how Denis may be read as an intertextual auteur, though the phrase may as yet seem something of an oxymoron. The main body of the thesis thereafter will be used to search Denis’s œuvre for intertexts, aligning specific films and other creative endeavours together wherever they share particular themes or may be read productively through a particular theory of intertextuality. My aim, eventually, will be to examine how this intertextual richness may lead to a re-evaluation of Denis not as an auteur in the conventional sense, but as one for whom collaboration and textual openness are crucial.

This thesis suggests that a range of major and some minor Scottish nineteenth-century artists’ approaches to figurative art, c.1800-1900, were informed by, and in some cases decisively influenced by, the prevalence of naturalism as fostered by the Trustees’ Academy, Edinburgh. The Trustees’ Academy was selected as a case study for this thesis due to its prominent position in art education as a leading Scottish institution, particularly for the first half of the nineteenth century. Despite scholars noting the far-reaching influence of certain nineteenth-century Scottish artists, such as David Wilkie, discussions of Scottish figurative painting predominantly focus on the personal development of artists’ oeuvres or artists, and grouped generally by style or chronology. Moreover, there is no dedicated published study on the nineteenth-century history of the Trustees’ Academy and its pedagogical methods; similarly, the discussions of Scottish naturalism have formed part of larger contributions related to specific artists and movements. This thesis presents new research from unpublished archive papers related to the Trustees’ Academy in the National Archives of Scotland, and it adopts a contextual and comparative approach by exploring the history of the TA and its pedagogical approaches in relation to wider trends in Scottish art and as relevant in England and abroad. Following discussions established by Duncan Macmillan and John Morrison, it suggests that naturalism developed in Scottish figurative painting as a conceptual motif and as a stylistic tool. The conceptual strand was rooted in poetry, which explored both the ‘Celtic’ and ‘pastoral’, with each being evocative of a romanticised, ‘natural’ way of life. This thesis proposes that naturalism, as a style, was more fully developed in the nineteenth century, in part developed by artists’ pursuit of personal depictions of Scotland’s land and people. Naturalism, as posited by this thesis, was part of Scotland’s wider search, post-Union, for its national identity within its ‘union-nationalist’ framework. By elucidating this new approach in Scottish artists’ depictions of the figure, this study aims to enhance our understanding of Scottish nineteenth-century systems of art education and approaches by artists to the model, and to contribute to research on Scottish national identity in nineteenth-century painting.

This thesis investigates the distinct contributions of artists who engage the public with climate data, exploring the role of the artists and the value of their contributions by focusing on two studies of artist-led projects. The first investigates how the author’s own artist led collective, Active Ingredient, engaged the public with climate data through a touring interactive artwork. The second study explores the design of an online platform for capturing, authoring and ‘performing’ climate data. This platform was developed and tested by Active Ingredient in collaboration with researchers from the University of Nottingham, and then used by other artists to engage with climate data. The studies reveal how the artistic projects were designed and experienced, through a mixed methods approach requiring the author to shift perspectives in order to investigate her own arts practice alongside the work of other artists in this field. The findings from these studies suggest that the artists adopt a distinctive voice that fosters an emotional engagement with climate data, rather than an informative or persuasive one, that goes beyond ‘environmental knowing’ towards human-scale, embodied, localized and personalized sense making. This research reveals how the artists use the key strategies of performing data, sensory experience and multiple interpretations to provoke these emotional responses. Highlighting the challenges and opportunities of engaging temporal structures and narratives to represent climate data; treating the data as a new material that is embedded into the artworks and embodied in various sensory forms; abstracting and juxtaposing multiple, contrasting and yet related datasets so as to invite comparisons, while opening up spaces between them for interpretation and dialogue. This results in a discussion of the role of technology within the artistic process, how the artists walk a line between authenticity and emotional engagement in their interpretations of climate data and the importance of an ongoing dialogic collaboration between the artists, researchers and climate scientist that support authentic and meaningful engagements with climate data. The research presents rich descriptions of the artists’ strategies for engaging the public with climate data and revealing that artists have a distinctive and powerful role to play in relation to climate change and sustainability; one that Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Climate Science need to understand as they continue to move into this territory, and where HCI in particular might ultimately learn about how to bring an emotional treatment to many other forms of data.

Venice has dominated the study of Ottoman-Italian cultural exchange in the Renaissance period, both in publications and, more recently, exhibitions. However, Venice did not have the monopoly in terms of relations with the Ottomans. This thesis looks further afield than Venice and beyond Gentile Bellini’s 1479-81 sojourn in Istanbul, arguably the best-known instance of such intercultural exchange, to reveal the complexity and diversity of Ottoman-Italian contacts and its varied cultural repercussions. This thesis considers the period 1453-1512 covering the reigns of Mehmed II and Bayezid II. It is not a study of cultural exchange through the trade of luxury goods, but instead focuses on the consequences of specific encounters that are mostly diplomatic. These encounters are explored in four case studies: Rimini, Venice, the Papal States and Mantua. Preferring microhistory to large historical generalisations, the scale of investigation in each section is limited to a particular moment of interaction between that region and the Ottoman Empire, and focuses on the individuals involved. Events are considered from both the Italian and Ottoman perspectives in order to reach a more rounded understanding of this complex meeting of cultures. It looks beyond painted and medallic portraits and demonstrates that Ottoman-Italian interaction can be perceived across a range of media. The marks left on Italian visual culture by relations with the Ottomans are revealed to have been as varied as each individual state’s experience. Comparison of each state’s connections with the Ottomans reveals significant differences in their dealings but also highlights certain common aspects such as the role of individuals as channels of exchange, the categories of objects which travelled across Europe and the manner in which cultural and technological exchange were often entwined. By bringing together three other city-states apart from Venice in a single narrative, this thesis provides a more nuanced account of the rich and varied forms of cultural exchange that have long been overshadowed by Bellini’s portrait.