The TVAD Research Group, based in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, researches relationships between text, narrative and image. We publish books, journal articles, host a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, Writing Visual Culture, and host events including international conferences.
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Dr Ivan Phillips and Kim Walden - School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire
There has been much debate this year about what kind of relationship Great Britain wants to have with Europe, and indeed with the rest of the world: from the lofty aspirations of the Higher Education Academy’s framework aim to ‘internationalise higher education’ to the stark realities of the Brexit referendum result in June.
At a more local level when the University of Hertfordshire published its own strategic plan with a focus on global perspectives in the curriculum, teaching staff in the School of Creative Arts Critical and Cultural Studies (C&CS) Network set out to explore what it means in the classroom.
Each Network member was invited to choose one picture which articulated how they addressed the objective in their day-to-day teaching practice. The results were thought-provoking and so was the discussion that ensued.
Exhibition Open: Tuesday 23rd June to Thursday 25th June, 9:30am – 7:30pm
Venue: Art and Design Gallery, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane Campus, Hatfield, AL10 9EU
Admission: Free
Reframing Spaces is an exhibition designed to illuminate
some current issues around pedagogy and to share different approaches to
practice led by staff in the School of Creative Arts, at the University of Hertfordshire, including TVAD researchers. Acknowledging
that education is constructed within a context of performativity, the
work explores how limiting frames can be challenged to enable students
to engage wholeheartedly in learning. Staff can create spaces and use
materials to enable students to reframe their expectations and
understandings of how they will engage in learning in the creative arts.
Materials that have been developed and used with students will be
available for critique.
Reframing Spaces identifies that spaces themselves may need to be reframed if staff are to collaborate to create a rich learning environment for students. Dialogic spaces for colleagues to share and mutually challenge ways of thinking and acting are essential for professional learning. The exhibition shows three approaches to using non-traditional spaces and approaches to enable staff to engage in dialogue and construction together. Research, scholarship and critical reflection on pedagogy are shown in the exhibition in visual form.
The exhibition itself brings into the public space an account of emerging, difficult-to-quantify change in professional practice. Making visible the work in this new way offers opportunities for the learning community to continue to shape its own agenda around the development of practice and to provoke others to do the same. Reframing Spaces Exhibition Tours
Colleagues interested in the development of learning and teaching are invited to participate in tours of the exhibition led by staff members including Rebecca Thomas (exhibition curator) Ivan Philips, Associate Dean Learning and Teaching in the School of Creative Arts, and Joy Jarvis, Professor of Educational Practice. Participants will be able to discuss the approaches to L&T development represented and the resources being created for induction, and consider any connections with their own work and context.
Exhibition Tour Times:
Tuesday 23rd June, 9.30, 11.30, 2.30 and 6.00
Wednesday 24th June, 4.30 and 6.00
Thursday 25th June. 2.30 and 4.30
Venue: Art and Design Gallery.
Please contact Rebecca Thomas r.thomas@herts.ac.uk for further information.
On Wednesday March 11th in our TVAD Talks series, we heard Dr Ivan Phillips, talking about his forthcoming book Once Upon A Time Lord: The Myths and Stories of Doctor Who for I.B.Tauris, due for publication in 2016.
Towards the end of the 2010 series finale, ‘The Big Bang’, as he reboots the Universe and waits to fade forever from existence, the Doctor talks to the sleeping child Amelia Pond about the adventures they will now never share, the lives he will never have lived: ‘We’re all stories in the end,’ he says. ‘Just make it a good one.’ Although the contributions of the current show runner, Steven Moffat, have not met with universal approval among either fans or casual viewers, his scriptwriting here, as elsewhere, shows a sharp awareness of the centrality of storytelling to the enduring success of the Doctor Who phenomenon. It is no coincidence that fans of Doctor Who tend to talk in terms of ‘stories’: the first story they remember, their favourite story, the ‘lost’ story that they most wish could be found, the most under- or over-rated stories, and so on.
The merging of this storytelling element with features from traditional mythologies has been reflected in the analyses of many critics in the years since John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado’s pioneering study Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text (1983), most notably Matt Hills in his Triumph of a Time Lord (2010). My own book, however, is proposed as the first full-length monograph to focus entirely on Doctor Who as an accumulated and richly interwoven, often contradictory, body of myths. The need for such an analysis was indicated over a decade ago by David Rafer:
The Doctor himself is a carrier and purveyor of his own myth but also encounters images and patterns drawn from ancient world mythology. The way that the Doctor confronts and feeds into myth reveals something of the enduring nature and appeal of mythic narratives and symbols and is a contributory factor in the mysticism of the character (In Butler, p. 123).
Acknowledging the status of Doctor Who as a substantial myth in its own right – Miles Booy has referred to it as ‘a significant national narrative’ (2012: 166) – this also promotes an exploration of the many ways in which it has become a locus of translation for existing mythologies, ancient and modern. Central to my study is a recognition that Doctor Who – ‘a voracious gobbler of ideas’ (Newman, 2005: 70) – has always taken its raw material from elsewhere, reimagining elements of classical mythology as well as drawing upon the established ‘mythic’ traditions of literature, cinema, television and other media. By examining the diverse stories which Doctor Who has generated across the last half-century, my aim is to demonstrate not only its singular ability to carry fantastical narratives into everyday life but also, perhaps, the continuing need for such narratives in the modern world.
The joy of this project is that it enables me to merge a lifelong fan obsession with my academic research interests and the kind of subject matter that I have long discussed with my students. The story has only just begun, but I look forward to sharing it with some of you...
References:
Booy, M. (2012) Love and Monsters: The Doctor Who Experience, 1979 to the Present. London and New York: I.B. Tauris.
Butler, D., ed. (2007) Time And Relative Dissertations In Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Matt Hills, Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-First Century. London and New York: I.B.Tauris, 2010.
Newman, K. (2005) Doctor Who (BFI TV Classics). London: BFI.
Tulloch, J., and Alvarado, M. (1983) Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
The TVAD Research Group hosts research seminar lunchtime presentations on the second Wednesday of each term time month. All are welcome and lunch is provided at 12.45 for a 1 pm start.
Our next TVAD Talk will be on January 14th 2015, when Prof Michael Biggs, Professor Emeritus in the School of Creative Arts will be speaking
about doctoral assessment in creative arts, an area in which he has considerable expertise and experience. Prof Biggs was involved in setting up our Professional Doctorate in Design (DDes), aimed at academic staff
in architecture and design broadly understood, in universities and
institutes of higher education. Read more about the University of Hertfordshire's DDes here: http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/professional-doctorate-in-design
On Wednesday February 11th 2015, TVAD will enjoy a double bill of TVAD Talks presented by two of the staff members from our Graphic Design and Illustration course team:
Matthias Hillner,‘From virtual typography to intellectual
property rights (IPR), and from research through practice to research into
practice’
This presentation will
describe a journey from professional graphic design practice in the field
of motion typography to design research and theory building. Building on Sir
Christopher Frayling’s differentiation between ‘research into practice’, ‘research
through practice’ and ‘research for practice’, the presentation will discuss
possibilities to connect research with practice in the field of art and design.
These different paradigms will be discussed in conjunction with my journey
through MA studies, MPhil studies, and PhD studies. These three stages are
strongly linked to my professional art and design studio practice in the field
of time-based typography. Two projects will be highlighted as practice-based
connection points between stages of research: Virtual Typography and the
so-called ‘SafeView’ project. The former is a consultancy-based business in the
field of motion graphics, the latter a proprietary initiative to innovate the
ATM interface. The talk aims to provide inspiration on how the connection
between research and practice can be utilized for the purpose of fund raising
and for entrepreneurial endeavours. Including two disparate subject areas such
as motion typography on the one hand and IPR on the other, may seem confusing.
The talk will, however, show how such unrelated topics may connect with each
other through research.
The journey from professional reflective design practice to theory
building in the area of IPR, will comprise my successful funding bid with NESTA
in 2005, my ‘not so successful funding bid’ with Design London in 2009, and my
successes obtaining funding within and outside the University of Hertfordshire
in 2010. Last, but not least, the talk will provide a succinct outline of my
current research into how designer-entrepreneurs utilize IPR in order to obtain
financial support for their design initiatives. This will include references to
interviewing techniques and qualitative research analysis.
Second on the double bill for February 2015, is Kevin Dowd, ‘Exploring
practice-based methods in graphic design research’
The discipline of
graphic design is growing to accommodate novel ways of gathering data and
generating findings, expanding beyond the established foundation of borrowed
rhetoric that has informed current research methodologies. However, there are
few examples of methodologies tailored specifically to the skills of the
graphic designer as researcher, and fewer still with practice at their core.
This talk explores examples of practice-based research in graphic design,
highlighting a need to develop methods for design research practitioners. This
is examined further through my own study, which proposes a novel system of
practice-based methods in graphic design research.
Further TVAD Talks planned for 2015 are our March TVAD Talk (Wednesday March 11th) when Dr Ivan Phillips will speak about
his forthcoming book Once Upon A Time Lord: The Myths and Stories of Doctor
Who and, in May our last TVAD Talk of the 2014/15 academic year will be given by Jodi Nelson, speaking about her PhD
in Critical and Creative Practice in Film & Media at the University of
Sussex (Wednesday February 11th 2015).
For more information, contact TVAD Research Group Chair, Dr Grace Lees-Maffei, g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk
The TVAD research group is committed to fostering
research that has public benefit, and to extending its impact across academic
and non-academic constituencies through activities and outputs aimed at a range
of people. We address academic audiences with our monthly research seminar, TVAD
Talks, and our conferences and symposia, such as Texts/Cities:
From the 1970s to the Present (which has been filmed and will be made
available via YouTube/Vimeo/SoundCloud etc.), as well as through our scholarly
books and articles in highly-rated journals. However, several of our book
projects interest a much wider readership. Dr Barbara Brownie’s PhD yielded three
books, Type Image (Gingko Press, 2011), Type Object (Artpower
2014) and Transforming Type (Bloomsbury, forthcoming), all intended for a
readership of art and design practitioners. Dr Grace Lees-Maffei’s edited book Made
in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design (Bloomsbury, 2013) has
been promoted via Monocle
radio and magazine, thereby helping the book to connect with the design
cognoscenti, and we have plans for tie-ins with the Estorick Collection, London
and the Istituto Marangoni, as well as an Italian edition of the book
(currently under consideration at Mondadori). Lees-Maffei’s Iconic Designs:
50 Stories about 50 Things (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2014) is aimed at a
general as well as an undergraduate readership. We expect a different fan base
for Dr Ivan J. Phillips’ planned book on Doctor Who (under consideration at
I.B. Tauris), while Dr Mark Broughton’s new book Brideshead Revisited (BFI, 2014) has the potential for a public
book launch and screening at BFI Southbank and/or a related event at the
National Theatre.
Monocle radio's design programme Section D interviewed Dr Grace Lees-Maffei about her co-edited book, Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design - http://monocle.com/radio/shows/section-d/115/
Members of the TVAD research group have forged excellent links
with museums and other cultural institutions regionally, nationally and
internationally. Dr Pat Simpson initiated a project with the NationalTrust-owned Shaw's Corner and she is involved with the Heritage Hub's Connected Communities
and new towns work. In addition, her research related to the Darwin Museum
is informing the development of a documentary film about Trofim Lysenko being
made by British filmmaker Ben Lewis. As an extension to Dr Steven Adams’ work
on concepts of Utopia in Revolutionary
France, he is also involved with colleagues in the Heritage Hub and Letchworth Garden City
Heritage Foundation on a project entitled 'Radical Letchworth', exploring
ways in which radical politics of the past impact upon the cultural life of
Letchworth citizens today. Kerry Purcell has curated a major exhibition, ‘Alexey
Brodovitch & Richard Avedon - Astonish Me’ for the Museum of Design, Zurich
(2015), and with plans to travel to MOMA, New York City, USA, and other major
museums, with an accompanying catalogue/book. And, Dr Marta Rabikowska’s Directorship
of the established community short film festival, Edge
of the City, is increasingly informed by her related research. Carolyn Lefley was
Artist in Residence at Timespan Heritage Museum and Art Centre in Scotland last
summer. During her residency ran community workshops and kept aproject blog,
written for a diverse audience.
Dr Phillips plans collaborative work with the
National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park and/or Letchworth Garden City
Heritage Foundation.
Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, venue for Kerry Purcell's 2015 exhibition 'Alexey
Brodovitch & Richard Avedon - Astonish Me'
TVAD researchers are increasingly
using online platforms to disseminate our work to a broad audience. Dr
Brownie’s Guardian
blog directly informs, and is informed by, her academic research into the
relationship between clothes and the body, as well as the research of other
TVAD members. It averages 8-10,000 views per post, with a peak of 73,000 views
and has led to a number of invitations and proposals for non-academic outputs.
A textual introduction and a selection of images from Lees-Maffei’s research
monograph Design at Home: Domestic Advice Books in Britain and the USA since1945 (Routledge, 2014) will be featured in the AHRC
Image Gallery. Lees-Maffei plans a funded exhibition of domestic advice
books, and she tweets @graceleesmaffei
and @JoDesignHistory. Michael
Heilgemeir’s practice extends from photography to the production of an Arts
Council funded magazine with a digital dimension. Dr Dr Daniel Marques Sampaio
'Image of Revolution' project will be disseminated through a blog, and the TVAD
research group’s blog is at http://tvad-uh.blogspot.co.uk/.
Dr Grace Lees-Maffei,
TVAD Research Group.
Photographer and TVAD researcher, Michael Heilgemeir’s magazine Misery Connoisseur, published with support from the Arts Council England - http://www.miseryconnoisseur.co.uk
