Postal Bodies: Imagining Communication Infrastructures in Nineteenth-Century Literature

This thesis uncovers material and metaphorical bodily encounters with postal infrastructures in the nineteenth-century. As the Post Office expanded in the nineteenth century, particularly with the advent of uniform penny postage in 1840, infrastructures, such as sorting houses, Travelling Post Offices and steam packets, had a profound impact on British Victorians’ engagements with and imaginings of the Post Office. In this thesis, I place original emphasis on ‘postal bodies’, demonstrating that postal infrastructures were embodied by both those who worked on and used them. In doing so, I intervene in and complicate scholarship that has invested in the Victorian postal mythology of speed, mechanisation and disembodiment, and rethink the role of one of the key institutions of Victorian Britain in the literary imagination. By reinserting the cultural importance of the postal body into the scholarly picture, ‘Postal Bodies: Imagining Communication Infrastructures in Nineteenth-Century Literature’ argues that these infrastructures were interactive and shaped by the messiness of bodily exchange. Underpinned by literary readings, non-literary sources, and archival research, as well as theories of infrastructures and mobility, I demonstrate that these expanding postal infrastructures shaped, and were shaped by, the bodies that facilitated and utilised them. As the complex infrastructures of postal exchange were employed by nineteenth-century authors, such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Hesba Stretton, they become imagined, negotiated, and subverted, through postal bodies. This thesis places the question of embodied representation at the centre of its analysis, and, in doing so, provides new insights into the multiplicity and heterogeneity of embodied experiences of the mail, from labour intensive sorting and mail running, to rapid transit on the mail train and international steam packet lines.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC

A critical practice-based exploration of interactive panoramas' role in helping to preserve cultural memory

I am enclosing the content of two DVDs which are integral part of the practice-based thesis.The rapid development of digital communication technologies in the 20th and 21st centuries has affected the way researchers look at ways memory – especially cultural memory – can be preserved and enhanced. State-of-the-art communication technologies such as the Internet or immersive environments support participation and interaction and transform memory into ‘prosthetic’ experience, where digital technologies could enable 'implantation' of events that have not actually been experienced. While there is a wealth of research on the preservation of public memory and cultural heritage sites using digital media, more can be explored on how these media can contribute to the cultivation of cultural memory. One of the most interesting phenomena related to this issue is how panoramas, which are immersive and have a well-established tradition in preserving memories, can be enhanced by recent digital technologies and image spaces. The emergence of digital panoramic video cameras and panoramic environments has opened up new opportunities for exploring the role of interactive panoramas not only as a documentary tool for visiting sites but mainly as a more complex technique for telling non-linear interactive narratives through the application of panoramic photography and panoramic videography which, when presented in a wrap-around environment, could enhance recalling. This thesis attempts to explore a way of preserving inspirational environments and memory sites in a way that combines panoramic interactive film and traversing the panoramic environment with viewing the photo-realistic panoramic content rather than computer-generated environment. This research is based on two case studies. The case study of Charles Church in Plymouth represents the topical approach to narrative and focuses on the preservation of the memory of the Blitz in Plymouth and the ruin of Charles Church which stands as a silent reminder of this event. The case study of Charles Causley reflects topographical approach where, through traversing the town of Launceston, viewers learn about Causley’s life and places that provided inspirations for his poems. The thesis explores through practice what can be done and reflects on positive and less positive aspects of preserving cultural memory in these case studies in a critical way. Therefore, the results and recommendations from this thesis can be seen as valuable contribution to the study of intermedia and cultural memory in general

Experiences of Travel and Northern Rural Landscapes in Contemporary Art

This practice based study investigates engagement with interconnecting themes of travel and rural landscape in contemporary art practice. It argues that cross-disciplinary reading and interaction between a grouping of select art practice and history of art scholarship and a grouping of select cultural geography, tourism, sociology and social anthropology scholarship, generates a richer understanding and communication of these themes in contemporary art. A review of existing scholarship reveals that there are a number of existing contemporary works of art which demonstrate engagement with interconnecting themes of travel and / or northern rural landscape. Despite this, they are yet to be presented as an identifiable, coherent, body of work of significance to the research community. Existing art historical interpretation and analysis of this work additionally fails to reference recent, relevant discourses of embodied experiences of travel and landscape which characterise much of the associated scholarship in cultural geography, tourism, sociology, and social anthropology. A combination of history of art and art practice methodology is utilised in this study to address this gap in scholarship. In the thesis, I identify and set out relevant existing scholarship in the disciplines of art practice and history of art, and those of cultural geography, tourism, sociology and social anthropology. Select examples of contemporary art are analysed and evaluated in relation to ‘wayfaring’, a theory sequentially formulated by social anthropologist Tim Ingold. Two key concepts articulated by Ingold, those of 'linear journeying' and ‘within-ness’, form the conceptual framework for this exercise. Drawing on the findings of this engagement with works by other artists, I propose an original method of ‘bridging’ as a hybrid art practice / history of art strategy for further addressing the gap in scholarship and delivering a further original contribution to knowledge. The artists’ book is identified as an effective, appropriate contemporary art medium for undertaking this bridging. I review examples of contemporary artists' book practice and explore this medium’s potential for communicating embodied experiences of linear journeying and within-ness in the context of a travel and rural landscape subject. I produced an original artists' book, 'Travelling the Line'. This work details my experiences as a hiker and artist of travelling to two particular northern rural landscapes for this study, the Scottish Highlands and Finnish Lapland. Part travel guide, part art object, 'Travelling the Line' takes the form of a hardback print book and a stand-alone, online digital platform, the latter of which includes additional video and sound content. It successfully communicates my own personal, linear, embodied act of travelling; and demonstrates the value of bringing together two bodies of scholarship, Ingold's theories and contemporary art practice. Included with this thesis is a print version of 'Travelling the Line' and an online version, accessible at https:// travellingtheline.wordpress.com

Utopic horizons: cinematic geographies of travel and migration

Theoretically grounded in debates surrounding the production of space and mobility in contemporary cultural discourse, this thesis examines the role of film in these deterritorialised landscapes of theory and practice, in particular the shift from place-based geographies of travel and film to those of 'utopic' displacement. Focussed primarily on examples from contemporary European film, the thesis also considers the broader geo- historical contexts underpinning travel and filmic practices: for example, cinema's nascent links with the democratisation of travel and the construction of a touristic 'mobile virtual gaze' . In so far as these and other examples of 'travel film' can be said to discursively centre the 'voyager-voyeur' in geographies of home and placement, they invoke an 'Ulyssean gaze' of mythic circularity against which the utopic deterritorialisations of migrancy and transnational space are counterposed. It is these utopic horizons of travel - cinematic mobilities that pose dialectical challenges to hegemonic cartographies of place and space which this thesis sets out to explore. Mapping the utopic gaze in early and 'classic' (e)migrant films, I examine the extent to which the frontiers and horizons of utopic travel, predicated in these examples of spatio-temporal distance, could be said to have collapsed in a spatial conflation of presence and absence. In this analysis ellipses in space and time have increasingly displaced the representational spaces of the journey. Looking at a range of examples from contemporary film, I examine the dialectic between a displaced imaginary of utopic hope and the material non-places of transit, refuge and waiting which dominate these cinematic geographies; dialectic which maps affective spaces of stasis and transition. In the deterritorialised landscapes of postmodernity I argue that it is the agential and embodied mobilities of movement-in-itself - psychogeographic, oblique confrontations with hegemonic space - that constitutes the fullest realisation of the utopic. Far from valorising undialectical tropes of the 'open road' or of the rhizomatic, homeless 'nomad', these peripatetic, embodied mobilities are the product of a dialectic of stasis and transition in which the conflict between abstract and lived spaces of mobility is brought to the fore

Implementation of computer visualisation in UK planning

PhD ThesisWithin the processes of public consultation and development management, planners are required to consider spatial information, appreciate spatial transformations and future scenarios. In the past, conventional media such as maps, plans, illustrations, sections, and physical models have been used. Those traditional visualisations are at a high degree of abstraction, sometimes difficult to understand for lay people and inflexible in terms of the range of scenarios which can be considered. Yet due to technical advances and falling costs, the potential for computer based visualisation has much improved and has been increasingly adopted within the planning process. Despite the growth in this field, insufficient consideration has been given to the possible weakness of computerised visualisations. Reflecting this lack of research, this study critically evaluates the use and potential of computerised visualisation within this process. The research is divided into two components: case study analysis and reflections of the author following his involvement within the design and use of visualisations in a series of planning applications; and in-depth interviews with experienced practitioners in the field. Based on a critical review of existing literature, this research explores in particular the issues of credibility, realism and costs of production. The research findings illustrate the importance of the credibility of visualisations, a topic given insufficient consideration within the academic literature. Whereas the realism of visualisations has been the focus of much previous research, the results of the case studies and interviews with practitioners undertaken in this research suggest a ‘photo’ realistic level of details may not be required as long as the observer considers the visualisations to be a credible reflection of the underlying reality. Although visualisations will always be a simplification of reality and their level of realism is subjective, there is still potential for developing guidelines or protocols for image production based on commonly agreed standards. In the absence of such guidelines there is a danger that scepticism in the credibility of computer visualisations will prevent the approach being used to its full potential. These findings suggest there needs to be a balance between scientific protocols and artistic licence in the production of computer visualisation. In order to be sufficiently credible for use in decision making within the planning processes, the production of computer visualisation needs to follow a clear methodology and scientific protocols set out in good practice guidance published by professional bodies and governmental organisations.Newcastle upon Tyne for awarding me an International Scholarship and Alumni Bursar

Interrupting time : a photographic examination of the perception of urban temporality

This thesis examines how time is perceived in the urban realm and what role the visual field plays in this perception. My research aims to gain insight into how a unified sense of time is reconciled with the fractured nature of urban temporality. I will investigate the perception of urban temporality in terms of the notion of duration, as theorised by Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. Fusing artistic photographic practice and sociological theory to interrogate the virtual realm of the city, this thesis attempts to present a nuanced reading of the everyday urban sphere, de-familiarising the everyday in the tradition of Surrealism and transforming the mundane into the sublime. My aim is to make apparent unnoticed or unconscious everyday activities in order to examine the relationship between the individual and the whole of the city, using the moving image as the basis for this investigation. By breaking down moving images into stills and examining the relationship between the still and moving image, I will interrogate the ways that moving images can help us to understand the relationship between the parts and the whole. I will present three photographic projects, each exploring a different yet interrelated element of perception (difference and repetition, the panorama, and light) from a nuanced perspective in order to disrupt existing notions of these elements. In researching the virtual urban realm, I consider whether it is possible to go beyond representation and beyond the human realm (as Deleuze proposed) in order to reach a domain of pure difference and pure presence. By interacting with the urban sphere in a dynamic capacity, a new understanding of the virtual life of the city begins to emerge, which I will argue has potentially important ramifications upon visual sociological research.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Mobile three-dimensional city maps

Maps are visual representations of environments and the objects within, depicting their spatial relations. They are mainly used in navigation, where they act as external information sources, supporting observation and decision making processes. Map design, or the art-science of cartography, has led to simplification of the environment, where the naturally three-dimensional environment has been abstracted to a two-dimensional representation, populated with simple geometrical shapes and symbols. However, abstract representation requires a map reading ability. Modern technology has reached the level where maps can be expressed in digital form, having selectable, scalable, browsable and updatable content. Maps may no longer even be limited to two dimensions, nor to an abstract form. When a real world based virtual environment is created, a 3D map is born. Given a realistic representation, would the user no longer need to interpret the map, and be able to navigate in an inherently intuitive manner? To answer this question, one needs a mobile test platform. But can a 3D map, a resource hungry real virtual environment, exist on such resource limited devices? This dissertation approaches the technical challenges posed by mobile 3D maps in a constructive manner, identifying the problems, developing solutions and providing answers by creating a functional system. The case focuses on urban environments. First, optimization methods for rendering large, static 3D city models are researched and a solution provided by combining visibility culling, level-of-detail management and out-of-core rendering, suited for mobile 3D maps. Then, the potential of mobile networking is addressed, developing efficient and scalable methods for progressive content downloading and dynamic entity management. Finally, a 3D navigation interface is developed for mobile devices, and the research validated with measurements and field experiments. It is found that near realistic mobile 3D city maps can exist in current mobile phones, and the rendering rates are excellent in 3D hardware enabled devices. Such 3D maps can also be transferred and rendered on-the-fly sufficiently fast for navigation use over cellular networks. Real world entities such as pedestrians or public transportation can be tracked and presented in a scalable manner. Mobile 3D maps are useful for navigation, but their usability depends highly on interaction methods - the potentially intuitive representation does not imply, for example, faster navigation than with a professional 2D street map. In addition, the physical interface limits the usability

Interrupting Time: A Photographic Examination of the Perception of Urban Temporality

This thesis examines how time is perceived in the urban realm and what role the visual field plays in this perception. My research aims to gain insight into how a unified sense of time is reconciled with the fractured nature of urban temporality. I will investigate the perception of urban temporality in terms of the notion of duration, as theorised by Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. Fusing artistic photographic practice and sociological theory to interrogate the virtual realm of the city, this thesis attempts to present a nuanced reading of the everyday urban sphere, de-familiarising the everyday in the tradition of Surrealism and transforming the mundane into the sublime. My aim is to make apparent unnoticed or unconscious everyday activities in order to examine the relationship between the individual and the whole of the city, using the moving image as the basis for this investigation. By breaking down moving images into stills and examining the relationship between the still and moving image, I will interrogate the ways that moving images can help us to understand the relationship between the parts and the whole. I will present three photographic projects, each exploring a different yet interrelated element of perception (difference and repetition, the panorama, and light) from a nuanced perspective in order to disrupt existing notions of these elements. In researching the virtual urban realm, I consider whether it is possible to go beyond representation and beyond the human realm (as Deleuze proposed) in order to reach a domain of pure difference and pure presence. By interacting with the urban sphere in a dynamic capacity, a new understanding of the virtual life of the city begins to emerge, which I will argue has potentially important ramifications upon visual sociological research

Media Space: an analysis of spatial practices in planar pictorial media.

The thesis analyses the visual space displayed in pictures, film, television and digital interactive media. The argument is developed that depictions are informed by the objectives of the artefact as much as by any simple visual correspondence to the observed world. The simple concept of ‘realism’ is therefore anatomised and a more pragmatic theory proposed which resolves some of the traditional controversies concerning the relation between depiction and vision. This is then applied to the special problems of digital interactive media. An introductory chapter outlines the topic area and the main argument and provides an initial definition of terms. To provide a foundation for the ensuing arguments, a brief account is given of two existing and contrasted approaches to the notion of space: that of perception science which gives priority to acultural aspects, and that of visual culture which emphasises aspects which are culturally contingent. An existing approach to spatial perception (that of JJ Gibson originating in the 1940s and 50s) is applied to spatial depiction in order to explore the differences between seeing and picturing, and also to emphasise the many different cues for spatial perception beyond those commonly considered (such as binocularity and linear perspective). At this stage a simple framework of depiction is introduced which identifies five components or phases: the objectives of the picture, the idea chosen to embody the objectives, the model (essentially, the visual ‘subject matter’), the characteristics of the view and finally the substantive picture or depiction itself. This framework draws attention to the way in which each of the five phases presents an opportunity for decision-making about representation. The framework is used and refined throughout the thesis. Since pictures are considered in some everyday sense to be ‘realistic’ (otherwise, in terms of this thesis, they would not count as depictions), the nature of realism is considered at some length. The apparently unitary concept is broken down into several different types of realism and it is argued that, like the different spatial cues, each lends itself to particular objectives intended for the artefact. From these several types, two approaches to realism are identified, one prioritising the creation of a true illusion (that the picture is in fact a scene) and the other (of which there are innumerably more examples both across cultures and over historical time) one which evokes aspects of vision without aiming to exactly imitate the optical stimulus of the scene. Various reasons for the latter approach, and the variety of spatial practices to which it leads, are discussed. In addition to analysing traditional pictures, computer graphics images are discussed in conjunction with the claims for realism offered by their authors. In the process, informational and affective aspects of picture-making are distinguished, a distinction which it is argued is useful and too seldom made. Discussion of still pictures identifies the evocation of movement (and other aspects of time) as one of the principal motives for departing from attempts at straightforward optical matching. The discussion proceeds to the subject of film where, perhaps surprisingly now that the depiction of movement is possible, the lack of straightforward imitation of the optical is noteworthy again. This is especially true of the relationship between shots rather than within them; the reasons for this are analysed. This reinforces the argument that the spatial form of the fiction film, like that of other kinds of depiction, arises from its objectives, presenting realism once again as a contingent concept. The separation of depiction into two broad classes – one which aims to negate its own mediation, to seem transparent to what it depicts, and one which presents the fact of depiction ostensively to the viewer – is carried through from still pictures, via film, into a discussion of factual television and finally of digital interactive media. The example of factual television is chosen to emphasise how, despite the similarities between the technologies of film and television, spatial practices within some television genres contrast strongly with those of the mainstream fiction film. By considering historic examples, it is shown that many of the spatial practices now familiar in factual television were gradually expunged from the classical film when the latter became centred on the concerns of narrative fiction. By situating the spaces of interactive media in the context of other kinds of pictorial space, questions are addressed concerning the transferability of spatial usages from traditional media to those which are interactive. During the thesis the spatial practices of still-picture-making, film and television are characterised as ‘mature’ and ‘expressive’ (terms which are defined in the text). By contrast the spatial practices of digital interactive media are seen to be immature and inexpressive. It is argued that this is to some degree inevitable given the context in which interactive media artefacts are made and experienced – the lack of a shared ‘language’ or languages in any new media. Some of the difficult spatial problems which digital interactive media need to overcome are identified, especially where, as is currently normal, interaction is based on the relation between a pointer and visible objects within a depiction. The range of existing practice in digital interactive media is classified in a seven-part taxonomy, which again makes use of the objective-idea-model-view-picture framework, and again draws out the difference between self-concealing approaches to depiction and those which offer awareness of depiction as a significant component of the experience. The analysis indicates promising lines of enquiry for the future and emphasises the need for further innovation. Finally the main arguments are summarised and the thesis concludes with a short discussion of the implications for design arising from the key concepts identified – expressivity and maturity, pragmatism and realism

Media Space: an analysis of spatial practices in planar pictorial media.

The thesis analyses the visual space displayed in pictures, film, television and digital interactive media. The argument is developed that depictions are informed by the objectives of the artefact as much as by any simple visual correspondence to the observed world. The simple concept of ‘realism’ is therefore anatomised and a more pragmatic theory proposed which resolves some of the traditional controversies concerning the relation between depiction and vision. This is then applied to the special problems of digital interactive media. An introductory chapter outlines the topic area and the main argument and provides an initial definition of terms. To provide a foundation for the ensuing arguments, a brief account is given of two existing and contrasted approaches to the notion of space: that of perception science which gives priority to acultural aspects, and that of visual culture which emphasises aspects which are culturally contingent. An existing approach to spatial perception (that of JJ Gibson originating in the 1940s and 50s) is applied to spatial depiction in order to explore the differences between seeing and picturing, and also to emphasise the many different cues for spatial perception beyond those commonly considered (such as binocularity and linear perspective). At this stage a simple framework of depiction is introduced which identifies five components or phases: the objectives of the picture, the idea chosen to embody the objectives, the model (essentially, the visual ‘subject matter’), the characteristics of the view and finally the substantive picture or depiction itself. This framework draws attention to the way in which each of the five phases presents an opportunity for decision-making about representation. The framework is used and refined throughout the thesis. Since pictures are considered in some everyday sense to be ‘realistic’ (otherwise, in terms of this thesis, they would not count as depictions), the nature of realism is considered at some length. The apparently unitary concept is broken down into several different types of realism and it is argued that, like the different spatial cues, each lends itself to particular objectives intended for the artefact. From these several types, two approaches to realism are identified, one prioritising the creation of a true illusion (that the picture is in fact a scene) and the other (of which there are innumerably more examples both across cultures and over historical time) one which evokes aspects of vision without aiming to exactly imitate the optical stimulus of the scene. Various reasons for the latter approach, and the variety of spatial practices to which it leads, are discussed. In addition to analysing traditional pictures, computer graphics images are discussed in conjunction with the claims for realism offered by their authors. In the process, informational and affective aspects of picture-making are distinguished, a distinction which it is argued is useful and too seldom made. Discussion of still pictures identifies the evocation of movement (and other aspects of time) as one of the principal motives for departing from attempts at straightforward optical matching. The discussion proceeds to the subject of film where, perhaps surprisingly now that the depiction of movement is possible, the lack of straightforward imitation of the optical is noteworthy again. This is especially true of the relationship between shots rather than within them; the reasons for this are analysed. This reinforces the argument that the spatial form of the fiction film, like that of other kinds of depiction, arises from its objectives, presenting realism once again as a contingent concept. The separation of depiction into two broad classes – one which aims to negate its own mediation, to seem transparent to what it depicts, and one which presents the fact of depiction ostensively to the viewer – is carried through from still pictures, via film, into a discussion of factual television and finally of digital interactive media. The example of factual television is chosen to emphasise how, despite the similarities between the technologies of film and television, spatial practices within some television genres contrast strongly with those of the mainstream fiction film. By considering historic examples, it is shown that many of the spatial practices now familiar in factual television were gradually expunged from the classical film when the latter became centred on the concerns of narrative fiction. By situating the spaces of interactive media in the context of other kinds of pictorial space, questions are addressed concerning the transferability of spatial usages from traditional media to those which are interactive. During the thesis the spatial practices of still-picture-making, film and television are characterised as ‘mature’ and ‘expressive’ (terms which are defined in the text). By contrast the spatial practices of digital interactive media are seen to be immature and inexpressive. It is argued that this is to some degree inevitable given the context in which interactive media artefacts are made and experienced – the lack of a shared ‘language’ or languages in any new media. Some of the difficult spatial problems which digital interactive media need to overcome are identified, especially where, as is currently normal, interaction is based on the relation between a pointer and visible objects within a depiction. The range of existing practice in digital interactive media is classified in a seven-part taxonomy, which again makes use of the objective-idea-model-view-picture framework, and again draws out the difference between self-concealing approaches to depiction and those which offer awareness of depiction as a significant component of the experience. The analysis indicates promising lines of enquiry for the future and emphasises the need for further innovation. Finally the main arguments are summarised and the thesis concludes with a short discussion of the implications for design arising from the key concepts identified – expressivity and maturity, pragmatism and realism