ResearchWorks: Practice-based Research in Production Arts - A Postgraduate Panel

Credit (left hand photo in the image): Crystal’s Vardo, 2018. UK. © Friends, Families and Travellers

This session brings together three doctoral researchers from the Production Arts department at Guildhall School of Music & Drama to discuss their work.

The presentations include:

Bitter Pill: Being funny and feminist about hormonal contraception - Katie Paterson

Reflection on the PhD process from the very end, this presentation considers the tropes of feminist performance making, the use of comedy to introduce complex arguments and the dualities embedded in hormonal contraception use.

Katie Paterson is Senior Creative Practice Tutor at Mountview, with overall responsibility for the Creative Project module. Katie is also a practice research PhD candidate at Guildhall School of Music & Drama where she is Interim Contextual Studies Module Coordinator at Guildhall lecturing in contemporary performance. Her research scrutinises hormonal contraception through autoethnographic cabaret, and more broadly her queer feminist practice explores lived experiences, comedy and the dynamics between audience and performer. Katie has shared work at the Barbican, VAULT Festival, Camden People’s Theatre, Pleasance, Museum of Comedy, Theatre503, Maiden Speech and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Recent work includes Side FX, a contraceptive cabaret; Game Face, a gig-theatre collaboration about body image and beauty myths; Minor Disruptions, a game show exploring the queerness of childhood. Trained at Mountview and the University of Birmingham, she continues to work freelance as an actor, singer, and producer. Katie has given papers at the TaPRA Conference, UCL Institute of Advanced Studies and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Building magical experiences with light - Jon M Armstrong

This short presentation will explore the potential for using elements of performance magic in the design of light art installations. Using examples from his own practice, Jon will unpack how this approach can allow participants to traverse experiential thresholds across a range of spaces.

Jon M Armstrong is an interdisciplinary artist, working across light, space & magic. He has made work across the world, and recent work includes a solo exhibition at Centre[3] for Artistic + Social Practice, Hamilton, Ontario. He was previously Artist in Residence at King’s College, London.

Website: www.jonmarmstrong.com

Instagram: @jonmarmstrong

I am costume, and I am listening - Vanessa Lingham

Many activists and researchers have pointed out ways in which Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities have been stereotyped in mainstream drama. Costume has been habitually used on stage and screen as a visual device to label GRT people, their history and their culture. However, many of these stories are borrowed and do not include people from GRT communities in the creative process. Representations often mix up GRT ethnicity and heritage, commonly depicting GRT people as dangerous, mysterious, lower class, dishonest, associated with violence and criminality. One way of addressing these issues is for more GRT people to hold positions of power within creative and performance making spaces. This research is interested in exploring what this might look in the work costume does.As a practice researcher I am investigating how a costume specialist can develop creative possibilities during realisation that enables more agency and opportunity for self-representation. Working with GRT people, I find opportune projects to observe costume activities and link discussions around the work artists do when realising costume. I am interested in developing co-creative methods in costuming that interconnects peoples lived experiences with approaches to designing-making-using costume, in terms of how we might ethically discuss concepts, develop budgets, crew projects, source materials, approach fittings and dressing techniques. This research investigates costume as coalition and here is one model of how I have been doing it.

Vanessa Lingham is a Costume Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Production Arts programme at Guildhall School and specialises in performance costume. Before dedicating her work fulltime to the School, Vanessa worked as a costume freelancer in the British Film and TV industry. Vanessa is also a current doctoral candidate at Guildhall School investigating the work that costume does in representing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities and people on stage and screen. Vanessa holds a distinction in Master of Arts: History and Culture of Fashion, from the London College of Fashion. She has published in the peer-reviewed journal Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Intellect. Vanessa has a PGCert in Performance Teaching and core foundation skills in coaching and mentoring for artistic training.

Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the School and its guests with students, staff and the public.