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No full textPart of a wider project led by Professor Simon Grennan at University of Chester, Anna Fox has been invited to respond to the work of pioneering 19th century cartoonist Marie Duval. In the 1870s Duval was well known for her work in the satirical magazine Judy, often picturing the lower middle-class workers of the Shoe Lane area of London.
This new work, Clerks, relates to Anna Fox’s previous project, Work Stations, capturing office life in central London during the late 1980s, when cigarette breaks and a lunchtime drink were the norm. Today, office culture and the iconic industries of London have completely changed. The impact of the Covid pandemic on office culture and spaces have permanently affected our society and new economic conditions have had a considerable impact on the way offices are structured and how we all manage our working week. In these strange times office buildings are being built to remain empty, co-work spaces multiply, whilst desk-based workers continue to reconfigure their schedules between virtual collaboration and the physical workplace. Office environments are being planned that enhance our working lives in new ways with a seamless connection between luxurious leisure spaces and the flexible work station.
With these shifts in mind, Anna is exploring and photographing office life in London today. The work will be presented at The Photographers Gallery, London, in 2028 and will also become a part of the Victoria & Albert Museum Photography Collection. A new book of the work will accompany the show which will tour in the UK as well as internationally. The previous project Work Stations has been exhibited almost every year since it was first completed and is currently on show at Tate Britain in The 80s: Photographing Britain until May 5th 2025
The queerly racialised colours of religion and decadence at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
No full textThe ‘affective charge’ of the ‘inexistent’ dancefloor: exploring nightclub architecture and design
No full textIndirect Utility Maximization via Second-Order Agents
Full text linkHumans are constrained to a single world with limited capacity to explore others. We formalize this limitation and propose second-order artificial agents trained in Virtual Worlds (VWs) to address it. The approach models worlds as strategy spaces with explicit state structures, action constraints and reward topologies. We implement this as a VW with Earth features where autonomous agents develop boundary-crossing capabilities through curiosity-driven exploration. Agents exhibit both rational and intelligent properties. The work demonstrates that cross-world exploration can be formalized as a computational problem, shifting it from a theoretical constraint to an engineering challenge with concrete design principles
Restless Linings Ex-chiesa San Mattia, Bologna Italy
No full textEx San Mattia is forever a space in a state of becoming. Having begun as a majestic baroque church, it now oscillates in flux without end. Restless linings is to enter the inside of the outside, by this we mean the ever shifting nature of what we see and what we might feel. Commissioned by the regional Ministry of Culture, the show within San Mattia comprises a vast installation that both spreads and rises from its centre, alongside a large-scale projection that descends from its heights.
Restless linings it wrestles with conceptual frameworks around drawing, less to reveal what is visible, but instead uncover what is invisible in its place, in effect an un-concealing of concealment.
The first work is a performance made in the space. The fragility of language and its precarious content collide its outcome projected onto the main wall where the altar is located. As in much of Burgoyne work self-imposed rules determined by site and context make for indeterminate results as result. The material in this case is an Italian daily newspaper with each page joined to the next, with its length equalling the height of the church. The aim of the performance is to get this unwilling material to reach the that height of church. Jumping, punching, pushing, undeterred Burgoyne attempts to get this paper column to do what it cannot. The resulting film projection is inverted, lamenting the incompatible forces of the physical and visual, between what we want and what we get. In an era of inconsumable amounts of information, its endless spectacle of supposed truths and its untenable untruths, this precarious and tense maelstrom of our worlding occurs.
The role of colour plays a key role in many of Burgoyne’s works. Yellow is the only colour the cones of the human eye cannot detect. Paradoxically, yellow is light, sunshine, vision, clarity and illumination.
The second work is a vast installation comprising yellow fabric and 100’s of cardboard boxes. It begins as a mapping and measuring of the site reenacting the gestures found in the frescoes. In this process Burgoyne divided the church floor area into 120 sections each activated by a gesture. The process charts the areas where Burgoyne was both present but also indicates where he was absent by default. For Burgoyne this is drawing as that making visible its concealment. The areas of fabric where the gestures were not present are strewn aside. The arenas opened as a result are filled by piles of empty cardboard boxes in an interplay of presence as invisibility versus representation as that excessiveness of absence. Each rising accumulution determined by the number of towers remaining in Bologna today and the number of gestures needed to conceal the empty space that once was.
Restless linings is that meeting of the expansive and implosive. Like the city of towers or this former church where the works now exist is to speak of that incessant folding and unfolding of ourselves, between a powerful weakness and an exhausted visuality
Scarily bad acting: perceptions of performance within the scary movie franchise
No full textWhile the historical tendency to neglect close analysis of acting and performance in film studies is gradually being addressed by a number of scholars in the field, this chapter suggests that acting in the horror genre requires further consideration. Surveying popular criticism on acting in film reviews and the coverage of awards seasons, there tends to be an emphasis on identifying high quality performances with a bias towards traditional dramas, and a lack of attention paid to the horror genre by contrast. This chapter suggests that this neglect has arisen because horror has not traditionally been associated with high quality acting, arguably the opposite: there is an assumption that most horror genre films will feature poor performances. The horror spoof is an interesting case study through which to examine the perception of acting in horror, then, for its goal is to poke fun at the more derisory aspects of horror. As such the unintentionally laughable horror performance becomes an intentionally comedic punchline. The Scary Movie franchise is notable for taking aim at a number of different horror subgenres and tropes and this chapter will consider how the franchise draws attention to the potential theatricality of horror performances. In particular, it connects the female stars of the first Scary Movie to a lineage of scream queens, identifying the components that have made their performances a source of mockery
Normalized cyborgization: cybernetics in the Cyberpunk franchise
No full texthis chapter investigates how Cybernetics, and specifically cybernetic augmentations, are represented in the Cyberpunk franchise and how their impact on society is portrayed. Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) and other extensions will be touched upon due to their flexibility and openness in creating imaginary speculative futures, the chapter will focus on worldbuilding elements in official TRPG publications. Also called ‘story-world databases’, these publications, like rulebooks and sourcebooks, play a major role in framing and shaping TRPG experiences by providing complex world infrastructures describing the culture, technology, and society of a fictional world with intentional gaps and adaptation spaces to be filled by the players during game sessions (Schallegger 2018; Mochocki 2021). The chapter begins with a brief history of cybernetic augmentations in the Cyberpunk franchise, explores their normalization, and concludes by examining one of their key impacts on individuals’ health
LLM integration in game writing: an investigation of visions and tools
No full textThe integration of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), is reshaping creative practices across industries, including game writing. This study investigates the evolving relationship between generative AI and game writing, focusing on how LLM-integrated game writing tools are transforming traditional workflows and roles. Beginning with an exploration of the conventional responsibilities of game writers, the paper contextualises the challenges and opportunities presented by LLMs in narrative design. The study then examines the current industry landscape, analysing the promises and speculative narratives surrounding LLM adoption. Through three case studies—Charisma AI, Convai, and InWorld—and a fan-led modification of Skyrim, it explores the diverse ways LLMs are being integrated into game writing practices
The sustainability zine: The value of art-based pedagogy to support education for sustainability in a creative business and management course
No full textThis chapter explores some of the opportunities, challenges and wide benefits that art-based pedagogy offers to support education for sustainability, in the Integrated Foundation in Business and Management for the Creative Industries course at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA). It shares the process and reflections of the Sustainability Zine assignment completed as part of a Materials, Models, Mindsets project that started with exploring the Zine special collection at UCA. Zines are a form of radical self-publishing, derived from the word Fanzine. Zines often challenge convention, presenting alternative personal perspectives, they generate a sense of empowerment and community among readers and creators. Intended learning outcomes included: creating a Zine using Adobe InDesign, evidence of critical analysis, evaluation and reflection, through independent research into the circular economy, greenwashing, and sustainable business case studies. In this chapter I demonstrate that using art-based pedagogy in creative business teaching, that includes authentic portfolio assessment, developing critical analysis skills and self-reflection, offers opportunities for engagement and developing knowledge in sustainability and ethics. This chapter notes the importance of mindset development at the foundation level. It recognises that developing a sustainability mindset is as important for students as skills development. I highlight the potential impact this project and mindset has for students’ future study and for creating a more sustainable world
‘Boys and girls of every age. Wouldn’t you like to see something strange?’ – Uncanniness and The Nightmare Before Christmas
No full textThis article explores The Nightmare Before Christmas through the critical framework of the Freudian uncanny, incorporating such issues as animation, authorship, audience, genre, and seasonal holidays. The uncanny is initially identified in the film’s macabre cast of animated corpses, and the stop-motion process which brings these puppets to life. More significantly, the uncanny is understood as the intellectual uncertainty implicated in blurring distinctions, whereby a quality shifts into its antithesis. The homely becomes unhomely, the familiar unfamiliar, the festive night transforms into a frightful nightmare. The Nightmare Before Christmas is characterised by such ambivalent dynamics. Despite contrasts between the family friendly Disney studio, and the darker creations associated with filmmaker Tim Burton, Gothic qualities which define the latter have traditionally characterised the former, with its history of dancing skeletons, haunted houses, and animated objects. Ambiguity concerning the film’s intended audience further enhances its uncanny status. The combination of animation and horror, while seemingly at odds with the genres’ respective audiences of child and adult spectators, accords with established traditions within children’s media which frequently incorporate horror elements. For adult viewers the stop-motion aesthetic evokes nostalgia memories of spooky childhood entertainment which easily assume an uncanny register. Finally, this article considers the extent Christmas and Halloween, while seemingly distinct, share common qualities upon which The Nightmare Before Christmas plays
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