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How can creative research investigation into the climatic and tectonic processes operating along Scotland’s Western Seaboard can help to nurture and communicate a sense of the ‘deep time’ involved? This includes the ‘slow’ temporality associated with glaciations, and the ‘quick’ events of storms and flooding, but also organic temporalities, from evolution to settlement patterns. Such an expanded notion of time is crucial if we are to respond to what Dipesh Chakrabarty has termed the sense of ‘historical confusion’ that climate change presents us with. For Chakrabarty, the uncanny spectre of ‘a world without us’ produces a sense of melancholia and helplessness. One way in which this despair might be countered is by imagining ourselves as planetary creatures whose history has always been entangled with a larger natural history.
This studentship investigates:
How field-based geochronological dating methods can use cultural artefacts (written and image-based, and oral traditions), ranged alongside physical artefacts (e.g. morphologies and sedimentary archives), to outline the extent and impact of particular climatic/tectonic processes along Scotland’s Western Seaboard.
How this work can be theorised, contextualised and composed with respect to extant artistic practices and theories of aesthetics.
How an appreciation of the ‘deep time’ involved in Scotland’s changing Western Seaboard can produce 3 site-specific performances/exhibitions/films such that new narratives of place and alternative histories emerge. The student will draw on geomorphological/archaeological data and techniques as creative resources, and will prompt reflection on new ways of communicating science.
A suitable candidate is sought to apply for one of the prestigious Kelvin/Smith PhD Studentships at the University of Glasgow. The studentship is fully funded and the criteria for eligibility can be found by visiting THIS LINK
The student for this project should possess a high quality undergraduate degree (2.1 or 1st), a Masters Degree and/or equivalent experience as an artist. The candidate should be able to work both theoretically and creatively. Evidence of prior work – both academic and artistic – in the proposed research areas (arts, geography, ecology) is crucial for this project. As well as strong academic achievement and excellent intellectual ability, the candidate should have a developed artistic practice and be able to provide a CV listing some evidence of the following: professional performances, screenings, exhibitions, commissions, recordings, and residencies and collaborations with both arts and non-arts organisation
If successful the candidate will work with an interdisciplinary team of scholars on the project from 1 October 2015 onwards. The primary supervisors will be Professor Carl Lavery (Theatre Studies) and Professor Deborah Dixon (Geography).
The Scholarship is intended to support candidates of the highest calibre and as such may be offered to residents of any country provided that the candidate has obtained leave to remain in the UK for the purposes of full-time study.
The deadline for applications is Friday 23 January 2015.
Further details can be found by emailing Professor Carl Lavery (Carl.Lavery@glasgow.ac.uk).
ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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