This portfolio and commentary documents an approach to audiovisual composition that utilises sound and photographic images in an effort to create immersive, affective art which I call audio-photographic art. When presented in an immersive context, I contend that the temporal dissonance between still image and sound opens up a space between the materials. I draw upon Gernot Böhme's writings on the aesthetic of 'atmosphere', as well as the the theoretical writings of Roland Barthes, Paul Ricoeur and Eleni Ikoniadou among others to illustrate how this experience is constituted. This space between is an affective conceptual space in which the participant enters into a relationship with the materials of the piece, transcending their usual perception of time as they are immersed in the internal times of the artwork, their own memories and atmosphere. Through the use of maximal aesthetics and atmosphere as compositional tool, these themes are explored and developed throughout the creative portfolio. In the written submission I study the practical and theoretical concerns of the space between from three perspectives: 'The Temporal Space', 'The Memorial Space' and 'The Atmospheric Space'.

When the history painter Benjamin West (1738-1820) died in March 1820, he left behind a remarkable monument to his life and work in his residence at 14 Newman Street, in London’s fashionable West End. Here, he had created an elaborate ‘palace’ of art, dedicated to history painting and to himself – his artistic genius, his artistic heroes, and his unique transatlantic identity. This impressive establishment was nearly fifty years in the making and part of an elaborate strategy to develop an artistic reputation as the pre-eminent history painter of his generation. While his studio has been considered by scholars as a place of pilgrimage for dozens of American students, its physicality and contents have never been thoroughly explored. Using a variety of evidence, including bank records, contemporary descriptions, and visual material, this thesis reconstructs much of this important space and collection to reveal how it was shaped and utilised by West. It combines a documentation of the spaces and objects with an analysis of their use and meaning in terms of the painter’s engagement with art theory, pedagogy, practice, collecting, display, and legacy. West, who was History Painter to George III, inhabited 14 Newman Street from 1774 to 1820, a period of dramatic expansion and cultural ambition in the London art world. Indeed, this thesis argues that 14 Newman Street and its impressive contents were more than just a history painter’s ‘palace’ of art but a place symbolic of the ideals and ambitions of British art. Following an introduction that more fully defines the aims and scope of this thesis, four chapters explore the significance of West’s house, his collections, and their display in this context. Chapter one provides an overview of his home and studio, and considers how it was designed with West’s various audiences in mind. The scope and character of his impressive collection is examined in the second chapter with a particular focus on a selection of Old and New World objects that represent particular areas of strength within the corpus of the collection. Chapter three examines the collection as a public and private artistic resource for West and his students as well as a statement of his commitment to the grand tradition. In chapter four, West’s self-promotion and exhibition strategies at Newman Street are addressed, highlighted by his exhibition of The Death of Lord Nelson in 1806. Developed in the dynamic context of the establishment of the Royal Academy, the proliferation of public exhibitions, and ongoing debates about national art, West’s collection and studio at 14 Newman Street exemplified the aspirations of British art.

Hybrid Dialogues, Situation Strategies (hereafter referred to as HDSS) aims to explore the production of a postcolonial visual culture, through action research centered on producing and reflecting on collaborative visual artworks. The aim of the research is to use collaborative creative practice itself as the site of investigation into the way in which visual creative strategies can reflect and redefine the processes of constructing, inhabiting and exchanging complex definitions of postcolonial identities. It is suggested that the reflexive creative processes of art/design methods, can bring productive, transformative and complex re-visibilisations of accepted and contested postcolonial histories, through the application of the 'familiarity' of making clothes as a wider metaphor for exploring the construction of complex, postcolonial identities. In my thesis I set out my understanding of postcolonial visual culture and its histories and their relationship to my practice and the project presented. The research is implemented through Shade, a project situated within postcolonial visual culture and which interrogates the processes of producing that postcolonial culture. As the major practice project for HDSS, Shade is the key site of the generation of new knowledge. Through participation and reflection a new methodology of "fittings" has been developed, combining the principles of participatory action research and the craft process of tailoring, embroidering and fitting, so that the development and performance of the garments and accessories for Shade also become an important space for generation of new postcolonial cultural exchanges. Through this reflective practice, five principles of/for creative engagement with postcolonial cultures are identified. These five principles are; 'shared histories', 'radical familiarities', 'complicit spectacle', 'transgressive crafts', and 'democratic bespoke'. HDSS insists on becoming deeply implicated in acts of collaborative practice and on reflection on the construction of postcolonial identities. This has produced the key contribution to new knowledge, which can be summarised as the theory of 'shared cultural production', which suggests that no act of postcolonial cultural production can be theorised without genuine democratic participation in the conditions of its production.

The socio-cultural significance of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (est. 1973) in Taiwan is manifested in the interconnection of political nationalism and the representation of a diasporic postcolonialist cultural nationalism in its dance creations. The hybrid nature of Taiwanese society and its struggle between Chinese and Taiwanese nationalism are reflected in the motive behind the creation of the company, the evolution of its repertoire and changes in its nationalist stance. The creation of Cloud Gate, the first Taiwanese contemporary dance company, was stimulated by its founder Lin Hwaimin's enthusiasm for Taiwan Chinese nationalism. The name Cloud Gate Dance Theatre not only relates to Chinese dance history and the formation of Chinese mythological nationalism, but also indicates the hybrid nature of Taiwanese society. In brief, Cloud Gate's multi-cultural dance creation is generated by diasporic Chinese for diasporic Chinese. In the light of intensifying Taiwanese nationalism on the island the evolution of the Cloud Gate repertoire (between 1973-1997), which began by juxtaposing Chinese and Western dance elements before integrating Chinese, Western, Taiwanese, Taiwanese indigenous and various Asian dance elements, reflects the company and Taiwanese society's search for a Taiwanese cultural and political identity. Among the Cloud Gate repertoire, Legacy (1978) and Nine Songs (1993) are considered to exemplify most this distinct socio-cultural phenomenon-the interaction and interconnection between dance, culture and nationalism in the context of the formation of Taiwan as a postcolonial society in opposition to Chinese nationalist hegemony. A research methodology for the socio-cultural analysis of dance is developed, with specific relevance to the Cloud Gate repertoire, which incorporates methods originating in sociology of dance and choreological studies. This is supported by a documentary research method which draws on theories and analytical methods of sociology and dance history. Zelinger's (1979) theory of semiotics of theatre dance is applied to bring together sociological and choreological methods. The examination of Thomas' (1986) sociological analysis of dance, Adshead's (1988) and Sanchez-Colberg's (1992) dance structural analysis leads to the development of a new method of analysis. Geertz's (1973) concept of `Thick description' provides the theoretical ground for the interpretation of data collected through the analysis of extrinsic and intrinsic features of cultural phenomena. Consequently the significance of the dance in question can be addressed in terms of the complex network of interpretations of it within its socio-cultural context.

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.