A Space of Time: The Evolution of a Screendance Practice

McPherson, Katrina

Abstract

A Space of Time: the evolution of a screendance practice explores the relationship between making, writing and teaching as a model for developing screendance. It is a portfolio submission in which the accompanying thesis examines and expands upon the most recent iterations of the author’s artistic research. These take the form of films, articles, an online catalogue and a sole-authored book, all published between 2012 and 2021, and presented alongside the thesis.

Taking a performance ethnographic approach (Denzin, 2005), and acknowledging the complexity of the task at hand, the thesis and publications together provide an account of the author’s journey as director, cinematographer, performer, researcher, collaborator, writer, teacher, mother and artist. Screendance exists in a hybrid space between dance and the moving image, and involves performance, film and video, visual arts, music, and sonic arts.

Reflecting the interdisciplinarity of the practice, the thesis draws on different disciplines and their intersections, to provide understandings of innovations in process and form evidenced in the publications. Through fresh perspectives offered by dance studies and documentary theory, as discovered in the writings of, among others, Sally Banes, Vida Midgelow, Stella Bruzzi and Trinh T. Minh-ha, the author shares new insights in relation to the enduring themes of her artistic research. These include the use of improvisation and manifestos; collaboration and exchange; agency, and the democratisation of the production process; and questions around reality, fiction and the identity of the bodies on screen.

The author presents the written component of the portfolio of published works as a self-reflexive activity, in which the embodied experiences of developing and making work, and curatorial perspectives on reception, are shared. Based on current reflections, the thesis proposes a model for screendance pedagogy alongside visions of the next iterations of the author’s artistic research. It concludes by positioning its findings back into the public arena. In doing so, the cycle of creating, reflecting and learning continues.

• Thesis Type: Thesis by Publication
• Deposit Date: Aug 21, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 21, 2023
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17869/enu.2023.3175350
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/3175350
• Award Date: Jul 5, 2023