This thesis explores urban smoke and its nuisances in Georgian England, especially focusing on the period, 1800-1830. During this period, a number of English towns experienced accelerated industrialisation and many of them first experienced air pollution. In 1821, Michael Angelo Taylor, MP, passed a parliamentary bill on smoke abatement, Taylor’s Act. Although it has generally been believed that the Act did not have much of a social impact, this thesis argues that the Act diffused the usage of smoke abatement technology and triggered dozens of legal cases. The geographical focus of this thesis is Leeds and London. The Leeds case study examines the Leeds smoke abatement campaign and the smoke nuisance court case against Benjamin Gott, a leading merchant/ manufacturer in Leeds. It shows that the confusion over the effectiveness of smoke abatement technology represented the main difficulty in the smoke abatement campaign. The court case between the Duke of Northumberland and Clowes represents an example of the London nuisance cases in the 1820s. After the introduction of the steam press, the printing business became a polluting business. Because the plaintiff was the aristocrat, the case was interpreted as a class issue between aristocrat and middle-class printer. However, it was the Duke’s servants who suffered most from the nuisance and the case shows more complex class politics. This thesis also explores smoke nuisance caused by conventional smoke-producing industries in London, waterworks and brickmaking. Some water companies adopted smoke abatement technology but the confusion over the effectiveness of the technology can be observed in London, too. Taylor’s Act did not directly influence brickmaking business but it could cause nuisance to its neighbours, especially nurseries and gardens.

Under bearbetning av bilder idag förekommer ofta stora filer. Med den effektiva teknologiska utvecklingen har efterfrågan på kvalitet växt allt mer. I en värld där fotografens kamera har blivit mer högupplöst har även bilders filstorlek blivit större. Målet med detta examensarbete har varit att komma fram med en rekommendation för hur man arbetar mot en liten filstorlek. Rekommendationen är till för retuschörer som arbetar inom modebranschen och med bilder ämnade för print. Arbetet har försökt åskådliggöra vad under retuscheringens arbetsgång som orsakar en större filstorlek. Detta genom att kontakta retuschörer som ofta arbetar med modebilder. Fokus har legat på lager i Photoshop samt editeringsalternativ för retuschören. Det framkom att retuschörer gjorde liknande åtgärder för att få en liten filstorlek, och att en viss likhet kan urskiljas i deras arbetssätt kring vad som ökade filstorlek. Det framkom även att filstorleken påverkas mest av hur pixellager och masker ser ut, till skillnad från justeringslager. / During the processing of pictures today the file size often becomes large. An effective technological development has made the demand for quality higher. In a world where the photographer's camera has gotten a higher resolution, the image's file size has also increased. The aim of this thesis has been to come up with a recommendation for how to work towards getting a smaller file size. The recommendation was intended for retouchers who work in the fashion industry and with pictures meant for print. The work has dealt with file sizes associated with retouching and have tried to illustrate what during the retouch procedure that causes a larger file size. This has been done by contacting retouchers who often work with fashion images. The focus has been on the layers in Photoshop and editing options for the retoucher. The results showed that the retouchers had similar ways of working towards a small file size, and a certain similarity is apparent in their way of retouching which caused a bigger file size. What also showed was that the file size is the most affected by how layers consisting of pixels and masks look compared to adjustment layers.

Studiens syftet är att undersöka, analysera och diskutera hur två bildlärare på gymnasiet uppfattar den visuella representationen av olika etniciteter i sitt bildval i undervisningen. Insamlingen av data skedde genom två semistrukturerade intervjuer med två gymnasielärare i bild. Datan analyserades utifrån en tematiskt analysmetod. Resultatet visade att båda lärarna uppfattade sig ha en låg visuell representation av olika etniciteter i sin undervisning. Valet av bilder till undervisningen skedde utifrån den vita blicken och ett västerländskt perspektiv där vitheten är dominerande, vilket främjar rådande normer och maktstrukturer. En tvetydighet framkom om var ansvaret för ett breddat etniskt perspektiv i undervisningen ligger.

By situating ecology as an ontological position, this dissertation adapts Jan Zwicky’s notion of resonance to probe imagining as a complex collaborative process involving diverse emergent variables. As a practicing artist, writer, teacher and researcher, I combine theoretical research and (visual arts) practice-based research to posit a sense of imagining that is unsituatable. The structure of this dissertation is grounded in the form of the essay (as a “try” or an “attempt”) which adapts explanatory text, metaphorical text and visual elements as a way to expand qualitative practices that have engaged critically with the politics of accepted forms and structures of academic writing. The project is intended for an off-line format, as a series of six distinct yet interdependent hand-made books that focus on: (1) An Emergent Methodology; (2) Ontology, Form and a Reconstitution of the Individual; (3) Zwicky, Thisness, Ecology & Ontological Ethics; (4) Zwicky, Imagination and the Image; (5) An Envisioning of Imagining as a Resonant Ecological Process and lastly, (6) Moments of Engaging Eco-Imagining in the Post-Secondary Classroom. The research-writing expands a body of work, through visual-textual, theoretical-metaphorical form, to enact imagining as a resonant ecological process that unfolds through the emergence of a complex co-mingling of a deluge of variables. / Graduate

The purpose has been to prove that there are connections between the visual arts (including architecture) and music. In the development of the argument it is shown that common themes exist in the arts, such as style, form, balance, line, color, and texture. Examples of piano music are offered from the last 100 years that show, to a greater or lesser extent, the influence of art. In some cases this is simply a matter of titles, whereas in other instances, such as Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, the influence goes deeper. In the final chapter the proposition is presented that the composer himself sometimes acts as a painter, portraying concrete images directly in music. Examples are offered of piano pieces depicting people, animals, places, objects or activities.

This thesis explores the intersection of age, gender and sexuality in representations of older lesbian characters in contemporary narrative film. Taking the 1990s as a benchmark of lesbian visibility, I explore the turn of the century representability by focusing on British and American film (1995 to 2009). I identify a hypervisibility paradox during this period of cinematic production where the presence of a multitude of young lesbian and bisexual characters can be seen to be in complete contrast with the invisibility of the older lesbian. Mainstream postfeminist culture censors the ageing female body, except in its ‘successfully aged’, youthful, heterosexualised form. Older lesbian characters are excluded from this frame of visibility and, instead, are represented through paradigms associated with the concept of ‘ageing as decline.’ There is little in existing age studies or lesbian film studies to articulate an understanding of the intersection of age, gender and sexuality in cinematic representation. I adopt an interdisciplinary cultural studies approach to make my contribution in what is an under-researched area and present a multifaceted approach to a complex cultural image. I investigate the continuity of the concept of the lesbian as ghostly (Castle, 1993) through narratives of illness, death and mourning. I argue that the narrative of ‘ageing as decline’ stands in for the process of ‘killing off’ lesbian characters (identified in 1960s and 1970s cinema). The intersection of the identity old with lesbian thus results in a double ghosting and ‘disappearance’ of the older lesbian character. Regarding Notes on a Scandal (Eyre, 2006), I pursue two particular readings. One emphasises the return of the lesbian as monstrous based on the construction of ageing and lesbian desire as abject (Kristeva, 1982). A second reading moves beyond the monstrous lesbian as a ‘negative’ stereotype and identifies the protagonist as a queer character who subverts heteronormativity. Finally, I turn to oppositional reading practices in order to optimise the possibilities of identifications across mainstream film texts. Based on Judi Dench’s various transgressive film roles, her role as M in the Bond franchise in particular, I explore this actress’ subversive potential to represent the older lesbian. I conclude that despite mainstream cinema’s hypervisibility paradox, characters who transgress age, gender and sexuality norms can provide opportunities for lesbian identification.

This thesis takes a qualitative, auto-ethnographic approach to interrogating heterosexuality via a series of in-depth interviews with young women about their experiences of watching films. I have adopted a feminist approach to the research, locating myself within the project via a series of extracts from research diaries I have kept during the project, reflecting my own position as 'researched' as well as 'researcher'. This auto-ethnographic approach draws on the work of previous theorists researching women's lives from a feminist perspective (e.g. Skeggs: 1995, 1997; Stanley and Wise: 1990, 1993; Maynard and Purvis: 1994).

Kurt Schwitters decisively established that Dada was indeed more a state of mind than a collection of creeds. Spurned by Berlin Dada, he was compelled to construct for himself an alternative Dada existence, and this he accomplished in the one-man movement he christened "Merz". Hundreds of Merz artworks were produced by the tireless Schwitters, but the summa summarum of his oeuvre was the Hanover Merzbau (circa 1923-1943). As it transcends architecture, sculpture, and assemblage, I have taken the distinctive approach of analyzing it first and foremost in terms of a theory of self-reflexivity. The first and second chapters of this thesis are dedicated to the writings of Georg Simmel and Henri Bergson. The former contributes an understanding of the psyche of the modernist metropolitan and how it is that the subjective spirit that resides in this enlightened individual substantiates its existence by producing forms and objects with which it continuously comes into conflict. As witnessed in Schwitters' Merzbau, the self-conscious "I" constitutes a centripetal force that organizes and directs the objects it encounters and thus exerts a unifying influence over its environment. In the Bergson chapter, I pursue an in-depth investigation into how self-reflexivity is predicated upon the search for true duration and the manifestation of the elan vital. I also include an in-depth analysis of Bergson's treatise on laughter, for the theories contained within go a long way towards explicating Schwitters' brand of humour and how the comic artist is a self-reflexive figure non-pareil. The third chapter, devoted to Schwitters and his place in Dada, takes into account the vitalist philosophical underpinnings of the Merzbau and asserts that self-reflexive art operates under an enantiodromic law; the presence of the artist must be effaced as thoroughly as possible before the creative self achieves materialization in the artwork it has engendered.

Works of art often refer to one another. Perhaps a closer examination of this relationship occurs if they are theoretically displaced from the sequence of events that contextualise them. Placed side-by-side, they may take on a fresh meaning that might identify artistic intention as universal — as a 'redemptive' statement of Being. Both Piero della Francesca and Stanley Spencer painted 'Resurrection' pictures. The five hundred years that separate them notwithstanding, the reasons for their so doing must bear some comparison. Each made a statement of belief in their depiction of a metaphysical world created primarily in the imagination but housed in cultural milieus that would identify them as 'visionary' amongst their peers. Yet, in many ways, one picture is the antithesis to the other, the first deeply religious, the second highly personal. Regardless of their differences, each work might perpetually and simultaneously strive toward 'the spiritual' in an individual and universal sense. As an artist whose work ostensibly denies any lofty 'spiritual' aspiration whatsoever, Frank Zappa's dismissal of authority, whether couched in religious, musical or sociological terms, marks a valid juxtaposition to current acceptance of artistic form. Not only was it legitimate to invite a musician into the affray, for me it was a vital continuation of my earlier exploration. Zappa seriously challenges the notion of 'feeling' as little more than a pre-set conditioned response to music. I hoped to establish that Zappa's own quest for musical perfection flew in the face of his notorious cynicism, proclaiming his output as 'redemptive' — alongside that of Piero della Francesca and Stanley Spencer. It is the main contention here that as the human predicament requires that the artist should attempt to re-present his vision in order to redefine reality for himself and his peers, the role of artist as 'visionary' is worthy of perennial consideration.

Undergraduate, Interactive Games Design (IGD) courses offered by technical universities in the UK recruit students who are not required to have art or design backgrounds. However, they need to be able to represent their creative ideas. Observations at the University of Gloucestershire have shown that many students find difficulties in expressing their ideas in a visual manner as they do not have adequate drawing skills and eventually some focus on coding and some withdraw. This thesis investigates the links between game design and drawing skills, examining concepts of creativity, learning, design communication and education. To establish the basis of this problem, it was necessary to gain an insight into students‘ and tutors‘ viewpoints and interpretation of this course. Using an interpretive philosophical framework, a mixed method approach was chosen to allow for greater opportunity to understand the phenomenon. Within an action research paradigm, the research was carried out in an evolutionary manner. The extent of the problem was established by eliciting tutors‘ insight from other institutions both arts and technical based. A case study was set out to study two cohorts of students. This identified the problems reported by students and the impact of these on students‘ attitude and motivation. The nature and necessity of drawing skills for sketching storyboards were explored by gaining views of students, tutors and industry professionals. The effect of the tutor-led Art interventions at UoG was investigated. The research identified criteria to assess the quality of storyboard communications and finally a framework for an e-learning object to develop storyboard communication skills was specified. This study revealed that obtaining visual skills is fundamental in order to be able to draw or use rapid prototyping techniques for storyboarding. This needs to be addressed in a specified module or several sessions. It appeared that the design of an art intervention (tutor-based or e-learning object) for IGD students, needs to address the issues of confidence and teamwork alongside with the learning materials in a constructive and gamified style and as interactive as possible in a structured goal-based manner. It would also benefit from Active learning teaching style.