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Research Students

Find out more about the students currently conducting research at Norwich University of the Arts.

On this page you will find information about the research topics of both current and former research students. If you have any questions about applying to study for a PhD at Norwich, please visit Apply for a Research Degree or email researchdegrees@norwichuni.ac.uk.

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Enchanting the Refinery: dialogs between contemporary art practice and anthropology

Unpicking the Embroidered Letters of Lorina Bulwer (1838-1912)

This PhD by curatorial practice focuses on a group of embroidered textile testimonies made at the turn of the twentieth century by an inmate of the Female Lunatic Ward of Great Yarmouth Workhouse. Lorina Bulwer’s embroideries embody the ‘subversive stitch’, expressing emotions and reflections on her life before and after she entered the Workhouse in visually descriptive and frequently transgressive language.

The research aims to situate the works as products of domestic textile-making cultural practices, informed by an analysis of the impact of gender, class and the use of textiles to communicate cultural and moral values, and within the institutional setting, where they become acts of self-assertion through material agency.

Close analysis of the content of the texts and archival research into the historical setting of their making aims to present the works within their biographical, topographical and cultural context.

The curatorial process will be interrogated by applying a reflexive lens to positionality, affective practice and subjectivity in developing narrative structure and interpretative voice.

Spectral Shores: vanishing places and haunted spaces. Coastal Erosion and its effect on perceptions of time and the cultural construction of coastal landscapes

Spectral Shores is a practice-led research project that investigates visual representations of coastal erosion on the North Norfolk coast, the concerns presented by climate change for this process, and how people navigate and occupy these fluctuating spaces. These representations and meanings are addressed using a range of critical perspectives, including those relating to horror and science fiction.

The project uses still and moving image, as well as writing, alongside AR or games design engines to create a fragmented narrative of this fluctuating space in order to evoke an idea of cosmic horror that may be sensed but not easily described in these coastal spaces.

The Work of Richard Seifert & Denys Lasdun: A Comparative Study of Their Buildings and Reputations.

The research focuses upon the reactions and commentaries of architectural critics and journalists to the post-war work of the architects Richard Seifert and Denys Lasdun. It will analyse critical responses to the innovative buildings designed by these two Brutalist architects and their practices recorded in architectural journals, newspapers and other period sources from the Sixties and Seventies, while examining why these responses were very different in character.

The research will also encompass a limited number of interviews with architectural critics, journalists, architects and contemporaries whose perspectives on the work of Seifert & Lasdun may enhance understanding of the context in which these commentators were working.

Permission to dream(?): investigating the affective sensory pleasures of second-hand clothing through experiments in creative ethnography

A love of secondhand clothing lies at the core of this research project. Curious about the pleasures of secondhand garments, the project departs from recent interest in secondhand fashion in terms of sustainability and subculture and turns its attention to the embodied, affective experience of wearing. It is argued that there is a particular genre of sartorial pleasure associated with secondhand clothes in which visuality, sensuality and the imagination all play a part.

The project is informed by a burgeoning interest in affect and the senses within fashion studies and works towards developing an appropriate methodology for researching the affect(s) of secondhand clothing. It takes cues from work in creative ethnography, auto-ethnography and wardrobe studies and experiments with these processes as a means of effectively capturing, articulating and understanding the pleasure(s) of secondhand garments.

Eva Švankmajerová: The Surrealist Situation of the Abject

Roger Ackling – Work and Teaching 1969 to 2014

This PhD by curatorial practice focuses on the work of British artist Roger Ackling (1947 – 2014). Ackling’s career is notable for his artistic practice and his long and influential teaching career. The research aims to understand his work in relation to Land Art, Minimalist and Conceptual Art movements and the impact of his practice on artists he worked with and taught.

Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Rewear: Human-Scale Fashion communities

The “Good” Museum: Examining Decolonisation Practice in Community Organisations for the Contemporary Art Institution

Practice Fictions – Leaving the Studio: Prototyping Post-studio Design Practices

An economics-led photographic exploration of sectoral economic decline, resulting socio-economic consequences and policy implications in coastal towns in eastern England

Many British coastal towns, including in eastern England, have suffered economically since the late 1960s because of the decline of traditional sectors including tourism, fishing, and port-related activities. The result has often been stagnation compounded by geographic isolation, inadequate transport links, under-investment, and poor job prospects. They now contain some of the most deprived areas in the UK.

This PhD is a combined practice and theoretical exploration that aims to identify and document photographically the nature and consequences of this economic decline in the form of a visual narrative that will raise awareness of these problems and the potential for regeneration. I initially trained and spent most of my career working as an economist and my photographic practice mostly addresses socio-economic issues and consequences in the form of visual narratives.

My PhD thesis will combine practice-based and written work. It will build on a rich but currently neglected legacy of British documentary photography, adding fresh insights from the integration of economic research techniques and visual documentation as an original contribution to documentary photographic practice. Unlike previous photographic work on sectoral decline and associated deprivation, as well as raising awareness of the problem, it will focus on initiatives for regeneration.

Space-Light-Art: Reframing VJ Practice

VJing is the art of mixing visuals live in response to sound. This practice-based research focuses on VJ practice, framing the VJ as a performing artist who ‘plays’ moving image though improvised performance.

Through reflective, contextual, and critical analysis of key histories, artists, and theorist​s this research will reveal a rich artistic practice at the forefront of contemporary digital arts and an important contributor to global visual culture.

Employing an “insider ethnographic” methodological framework places me as participant observer, granting unprecedented access to primary source material and enabling me to present notable original findings on this largely unexplored field. In rethinking the boundaries of the practice, this research makes significant original contributions to knowledge across the fields of VJing, moving image, and performance art.

Through acknowledging the diverse history, myriad influences and its value in contemporary digital arts practice, the legacy and potential of VJing can be established.

On The Side of Artists: EASTinternational, 1991–2009

Jonathan P. Watts (he/him) is a fully-funded PhD candidate at Norwich University of the Arts supervised by Professor Simon Willmoth and Professor Jo Melvin at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London.

Jonathan’s research project is on EASTinternational, an annual open-submission exhibition selected by invited guests – renowned artists, critics and gallerists – that occurred at Norwich annually from 1991 to 2009. Organised by curator Lynda Morris, devised with artist-educator Manuel Chetcuti, it formed a vital part of the Norwich Gallery programme, where Morris was director from 1981–2007.

Initially known as ‘EAST National Open Art Exhibition’, EASTinternational was envisioned as a networked model to be replicated in art schools throughout the UK. EAST would be an essential component of a sustainable, decentred regional art economy networked beyond the imperial city of London. Jonathan’s research explores artist-centred exhibition-making practices, legacies of decentralisation, and transnational solidarities. Primary research is carried out in the EAST archive at Norwich, fieldwork in the institution, and through oral history interviews with participants. 

Jonathan is a research tutor in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art, London. He is co-director of Josey gallery, Norwich. Jonathan has published widely on contemporary art.

Horror as Critique: A Transmedia Theory of the Incision as Affective and Formal Limit

This research project seeks to interrogate and reframe the thinking of horror through a rigorous engagement with its formal limits. The motif of the incision, traced through a series of cinematic, literary and ludic permutations, constructs an unsettling of prior aesthetic boundaries.

In reading texts via this visceral act, the project aims to ask not what horror is, or why, but rather what form horror could take. This query asks that we draw from a formal reading of texts an affective horror-to-come, and a thinking of horror beyond the frightening that takes seriously the prospect of a dismembered world.

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Interrogating Artist-Teacher identity formation in Adult Community Learning

The research will interrogate the identity of artist-teachers working within the Adult Community Learning educational sector. Research will identify what effects the different qualities of Adult Community Learning have on artist-teachers working in this sector. This research will help to define the role of artist-teacher within this specific context.

The research will comprise of a cross-disciplinary literature review of the artist-teacher within other educational contexts, an examination of current models of the role of the artist-teacher and online surveys of artist-teachers working within Adult Community Learning.

The role of design in family experience at cultural sites

This research investigates the role of product and service design for families with young children visiting cultural and natural touristic sites. The research investigates the typically linear, in-house approach taken by cultural institutions when developing cultural engagement tools and attempts to design product and service alternatives that are more immersive, interactive and multisensory.

Furthermore, through practice-based approach, the research explores design tools that are enabled to work across different heritage settings, such as museums, historic houses, wildlife parks and nature reserves. The aim is to design a practical solution to make heritage more accessible to families. It is therefore important that the research is grounded in practice rather than solely in theory to develop design iterations and solutions that are informed by real accounts and input from users.

The Legacy of the Burkean Sublime: Representations of the British Landscape in Visual Art

My research project seeks to explore the possibility that Britain’s current cultural climate is deeply informed by regressive eighteenth century values, aesthetic, political and moral. By considering Edmund Burke’s influential eighteenth century text, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, (1757) I intend to explore this hypothesis. Burke is credited with creating a psychology of fear which had a profound effect upon British landscape depiction and the aesthetic of the Sublime. Burke also contributed to the wider British eighteenth century zeitgeist via his successful aesthetic correlation of the need to make social stratification natural and meritorious. Burke’s example fed the Sublime’s ability to evoke terror, especially amongst the middle classes, which derives potency from an instinct for self-preservation and enjoyable hatred of the Other. This psychology of fear, now as then, must have some positive critical purpose to account for its popularity and it is this purpose which my research seeks to explore and explain.

Original contributions to knowledge will be made through site specific investigations of landscape in relation to the cognitive dimensions of the Burkean sublime and the creation of my own artworks. These artworks will explore the Burkean conceptions of the sublime and the beautiful and analyse the extent to which the contemporary experience of the natural sublime is being replaced by man-made interventions as a primary source of sublime feeling in Britain. Qualitative interviews with artists associated with the sublime and a critical reinvestigation of the aesthetic history of the British sublime will add depth to these investigations.

The archive as a space for dubious, disputed and subverted narrative: employing the illustrative turn in order to reestablish identities for fairground women

This practice-based PhD seeks to re-establish the identities of five fairground-women – whose stories are not historically recorded – through mapping out narrative fragments and collated oral history, in order to construct an archive of illustrated space. This will utilise my practice of traditional signwriting and illustrative storytelling, creating a body of credible and immersive archival spaces. Within this, the intention is to build a critical discourse about the role of the archive, demonstrating how illustration can be used as an archival tool and how employing the ‘illustrative turn’ can encourage the reader to treat the archival spaces as truthful.

Amy Goodwin is a member of the Pattern and Chaos group of collaborative, interactive and networking designers, artists, theorists and innovators in education, all of whom are based at Norwich University of the Arts.

Screen/Space: A critical re-appraisal and re-alignment of the viewing screen by means of an experimental body of fine art practice centered on viewer perceptual and spatial disruption

This practice led-research proposes an investigation into our relationship with the viewing screen – the typically rectangular form used to access digital media. This agenda is realised through an experimental body of fine art practice, centered on video artworks and digital installations that seek to disrupt perceptual and spatial conventions when viewing screen-based digital image.

The viewing screen is a ubiquitous tool in our everyday, a formal presence in the workplace, at home, and in public spaces. The result of this ubiquity is a desensitisation towards the screens presence. Instead, a hierarchy of viewership is formed – focus on images preceding focus on the screen structures that deliver them. Furthermore, the use of the screen in an assortment of contexts results in the dissolution of public and private spatial binaries.

These notions support the practice-led nature of the research investigation. Challenging the viewers established relationship with the screen, provoking a re-evaluation of the way they engage with it both from a spatial and perceptual standpoint may encourage a change in viewership of screen-based image in a society increasingly entwined with digital imagery.

Artists’ Pages: The Function of the Page in Conceptual Art 1966 – 1973

In the conceptual era (1966 – 1973) artists radically challenged how ideas and information could be produced, presented and disseminated using exhibition catalogues, periodicals and printed ephemera that supported, accompanied, and on some occasions, entirely replaced traditional exhibitions in museums and galleries.

This thesis will ask if the ‘pieces of paper’ contributed by artists for publication in these inexpensive, mass-produced and widely accessible forms can ‘come up for the count’ as ‘documents as artworks’ according to the intentions of artists, and the attitudes of exhibition organisers and collectors.

Sam Ismail-Epps is a member of the Pattern and Chaos group of collaborative, interactive and networking designers, artists, theorists and innovators in education, all of whom are based at Norwich University of the Arts.

Right mind-minding: The Transmission and Practice of Zen and Vajrayana Buddhist Method Practices in the poem objects of Dom Sylvester Houédard, 1960-1975

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a tiny cell at Prinknash Abbey rebounded continuously with the sound of an Olivetti Lettera 22, as the Benedictine monk and concrete poet Dom Sylvester Houédard,(1924-1992) wrote the letters, constructed Typestracts and initiated much of the critical thinking around the British Concrete Poetry Movement.

Prolific, prominent and pivotal in a web of correspondence and collaboration between the Beats, the Gloster Ode Construction Company, DIAS and Fluxus, Houédard has subsequently been largely neglected by both the poetic and artistic worlds. With little critical work on Houédard beyond the few small press articles written by his contemporaries and none that take Houédard’s own wider ecumenical and metaphysical interests as a starting point, my research aims to begin this process of artistic and theological reassessment.

Beginning with his beat-style lyrical verse, my research investigates the theological and theoretical impetus behind a spatial journey that took Houédard’s poems literally off the page into many different forms, including dance. The aim is to follow the trajectory of experimentation in the concrete poems, as Houédard explores word and image relationships; “the wordgame, ikongame and the poet as maker”.

The focus of my enquiry will be to show how initially in Zen and then more satisfactorily in the Madhyamika-Prasangika School of Tibetan Buddhism, Houédard found a paradigm for questioning the interplay between logos and icon, subject and object, the “the non and the non-non”.

The philosophy of Emptiness is central to both Houédard’s creation of the art-object and his analogous use of space, which forms a structural correlation with notions of the enlightened mind. I also hope to demonstrate how this conceptual idea had a wider influence over the avant-garde constellation in which he featured.

I am currently curating an exhibition of Houédard’s work, scheduled for the autumn here at the gallery at Norwich, which will begin to assemble some these ideas and approaches to his work.

More information about this exhibition ‘frogpondplop: the yoga of concrete’ is available online.

An investigation of thinking in dyslexic creative visual artists: a socio-cultural perspective

Numerous post 16 arts courses have been developed with a flexibility to enable individualised learning and to recognise dyslexic learner approaches to study. My research aims to explore how these learning approaches impact on creative processes and bring value to learning and teaching in mainstream post 16 education.

The research investigates dyslexic creative artists’ approaches to thinking and learning in the process of their practice and ways in which artists work to their strengths to navigate mainstream education. Central to the research is an investigation of the intelligences that dyslexic practitioners develop as part of their creative process.

Dyslexics are thought to be particularly expert at developing learning strategies that complement their learning styles. They deal with the overview, the broader picture, the whole before focusing on the parts (B. Steffert, 1999 Visual Spatial Ability and Dyslexia). They absorb information from many reference points at the same time, and often in a random order, sometimes leading to highly innovative thinking. This research will explore how typical these qualities are of creative artists who are dyslexic, exploring the elements of Art and Design education that might unlock individual potential.

Dyslexia is not solely a literacy issue, it is also a neurological condition affecting information processing and the understanding of meaning. It can affect people from all backgrounds and levels of IQ. Dyslexia may overlap related conditions such as dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder, dysphasia and dyscalculia. It is a variable condition and not all people with dyslexia display the same range of characteristics.

My approach to this research has been influenced by my own experiences and thought processes, which through reflection and action establish a basis for a broader understanding of the issues and topics being considered. The investigation is embedded within a model of action research and seeks to investigate how visual practitioners who are dyslexic use life experiences to navigate mainstream education.

An element of the research includes creative and reflective work based on my own visual practice. This part of the research examines the production of visual work (primarily drawing and printmaking) and analyses my creative approaches in relationship to environment change, context, scale, materials and patterns of production.

The Classroom Art Demonstration as Pedagogical Art Practice

This is an empirical research project that investigates the dual professional practice of the artist-teacher, carried out by an art teacher in a 9 to 13 middle school art classroom. The research sets out to examine what happens when an art teacher also practises as an artist, and what the impact of such a dual practice might be on teaching and learning in the classroom.

With the introduction of new national curriculum strategies emphasising localised, personalised and more creative curricula, there is a change of emphasis in education legislation. Ofsted recently recommended that art teachers should be encouraged to further their own art work as a means to develop knowledge of contemporary art in the classroom. This research project presents a fine-grained view of what happens when these recommendations are carried out.

The research uses a multi-methodology approach based on four naturalistic case studies in the classroom. Writing as research, autoethnography and reflection-in-action provide the framework for the examination of both teaching and artistic practice. Art practice as research methodology is used to examine visual work produced by both teacher and pupils, and to consider dialogues between the two.

Early analysis of the case studies indicates that the art practice can be said to impact on planning in the classroom and can be seen as a useful means of generating ideas and projects. The case studies demonstrate inter-reactions between teaching practices as they impact on the way art practice is deployed in the classroom.

Paul Cope is a member of the Pattern and Chaos group of collaborative, interactive and networking designers, artists, theorists and innovators in education, all of whom are based at Norwich University of the Arts.

Decoration: Disrupting the Workplace and Challenging the Work of Art

The unsound object and the intimate space

Material Matrices: Haptic, Scopic and Textile

Growing Old for Real: Women, image and identity

Breaking as making: In what ways can making sculpture contribute to understanding experiences and perceptions of breaking?

The Infrastructure of the Animation Industry in the East of England between 2009 & 2011

Negotiation Theory and the Critique of Dialogue in Dialogical and Relational Art

Pragmatics of attachment and detachment: medium (un)specificity as material agency in contemporary art

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Paul Vousden

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This afternoon, alongside Canon we had the pleasure of announcing this year’s winners of Beyond The Frame, photography competition! This year’s theme was People, Places and Things and saw hundreds of amazing entries from students aged 11 to 19 both in the UK and around the world, the judges have had a tough time choosing their favourites. Please enjoy a selection of the overall winners and judges’ choice awards, all of which can be seen in our very own @eastgallery_norwichuni from today until 27th April (closed for Easter). Slide 1 – Evelyn Baldry Slide 2 – Emily Freeman Slide 3 – Oana Gabriela Babenco Slide 4 – Finnian Stroud Slide 5 – Alina Akram @canonuk #Beyondtheframe #Canon #portraitphotography
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Academics and students work with designers to develop a teaching methodology for AI

Funding for an innovative new research project that will help universities integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their art and design education programmes has recently been secured by the Nottingham School of Art & Design, in partnership with Liberty Fabrics, Norwich University of the Arts, and University of the Arts London (Chelsea).
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Postgraduate Open Day Thursday 11 July

11 July 2024 | 5.00pm to 6.30pm | Duke Street Master your creative practice
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Photograph of student Indianna Williams. She is wearing a yellow knitted top over a white shirt. She it sitting in front of a green backdrop.

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Indianna talks to us about her time at Norwich and how her practice has developed into new areas like augmented reality.
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