Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities

University of Glasgow

Practising Barthes: encounters between performance & photography

Academic History:

2014-Present PhD in Theatre Studies, University of Glasgow & University of Dundee

2009-2011 MPhil, Theatre Studies, University of Glasgow

2004-2008 MA Hons, Theatre Studies, University of Glasgow

Supervisors:

Professor Deirdre Heddon (University of Glasgow)

Professor Carl Lavery (University of Glasgow)

Pernille Spence (DJCAD, University of Dundee)

Research Interests:

My current PhD project uses a practice-as-research methodology to explore the relationships between performance & photography. Specifically, I am using Roland Barthes's reflections on photography in Camera Lucida (1980) to explore ideas of temporality, corporeality & affect in contemporary performance dramaturgies. The project seeks to read & compose performance through & in response to Camera Lucida. In undertaking this research I hope to further explore the usefulness of Barthes's work in theorising & practising performance, as well as exploring what performance practice might offer to Barthes scholarship.

Previous Research Projects:

“The Director of Devised Theatre, Facilitating Collaboration, Ownership & Empowerment” (Mphil Thesis)

Scholarships:

2014. AHRC DTP Studentship

Conference Papers/Talks:

“The voice as it sings, the hand as it writes, the limb as it performs: Re-turning to Roland Barthes & the live body" IFTR, Stockholm, June 2016

"Staging the punctum: reflections on performance & photography" Performance lecture, Performance Philosophy Conference, SAIC Chicago, April 2015

"Performance as Tame or Mad?" Talk at the Into the New Festival Symposium, Arches theatre, January 2015

“The Death Jump Series: Three Performances about Falling” Artist Talk, University of Glasgow, November 2014.

“How is devised theatre ‘written’? The problems of authorship, intellectual property & the director as author”, TFTS Postgraduate Symposium, University of Glasgow, March 2011.

Selected Previous Performances:

KAIROS Performance, Buzzcut Festival, The Pearce Institute; Outskirts Festival, Platform, Glasgow; Live Art Bistro, Leeds, 2016
AN INCONSOLABLE MEMORY Performance, Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, Chicago, 2015
BUZZCUT COMMONPLACE BOOK Live Documentation project, Buzzcut Festival, The Pearce Institute, Glasgow, 2015
THE PUNCTUM Lecture Performance. Southside Studios, Glasgow; The University of Glasgow; Generator Projects, Dundee; DCA, Dundee, 2013-14
THE BLUE OF DISTANCE Durational Performance, Forest Fringe, Edinburgh, 2013
DEATH JUMP Devised Performance, Buzzcut Festival, The Glue Factory, Glasgow; Hunt & Darton Café, Edinburgh, 2013
CINEMATIC CITY Site-Responsive Performances. IETM Glasgow, 2010
HELIUM Devised Performance, ArchesLIVE Festival, The Arches, Glasgow, 2010