School staff
Dr Jane Tormey
Senior Lecturer: Fine Art, Critical & Historical Studies
+44(0)1509 228966
Research Interests
My research explores the exchange of ideas between art practice and other disciplines and the ways in which conceptual and aesthetic traditions can be disturbed by and through photographic/filmic practices. My doctoral thesis examined phenomenological aspects and directions of focus in the contemporary photographic 'portrait' since 1970. Currently I am concerned with interpretations of photographic aesthetics as a discursive practice that provokes a different sort of thinking from that prompted by words and which contributes to wider cultural debate. I am currently completing a book entitled Contemporary Photographic Realism: practice and theory (Manchester University Press).
Projects
RadicalAesthetics-RadicalArt
As a member of the Politicized Practice Research Group, I am co-convening a series of symposia RadicalAesthetics-RadicalArt as an introduction to a series of initiatives that will examine the intersections between philosophical ideas and practices and between art and aesthetics - in particular, their relationship to sensation, discourse, ethics, politics, activism, community, participation and collaboration. This series asks: what are the possibilities for radical aesthetics and art practice that look further than Deleuze's sensation or Bourriaud's relationalism and altermodernity, and goes beyond the faux radicalism of participation and collaboration. Does radical practice assume political activism or does it mean a reversal? Must a move toward activism exclude criticality or must art always refer to itself?
The RadicalAesthetics-RadicalArt book series, commissioned by I.B.Tauris, will consist of a series of themes within contemporary art practice, such as Socio-political aesthetics and Eco-aesthetics. Each book will provide a challenging critique as a useful resource to assist research and to generate discussion.
The series of symposia Telling Stories has since resulted in a book: Telling Stories: Countering Narrative in Art, Theory and Film published by Cambridge Scholars Press. This project considered the visual encounter as a means to reconfigure relationships between different disciplines and to explore alternative conceptions of narration through theorizing and practice.
Contemporary Drawing Practices, Phenomenology
I co-edit the School's electronic Journal TRACEY, devoted to the practice of drawing. This site aims to maintain a momentum of debate by providing focus for all aspects of drawing research. It aims to prioritise the drawing process across disciplinary boundaries and to explore and expand the interpretation and application of drawing. If interested in submitting something to the site, contact: Tracey@lboro.ac.uk TRACEY's publication Drawing Now: Between the Lines of Contemporary Art (I.B.Tauris, 2007) is now available.
Supervision
I supervise or co-supervise a number of PhDs, principally concerned with fine art practice, photography and with an emphasis on phenomenological methodologies. Currently these include: Amelia Mulvey, Laura Wild, Ming-Hsueh Lee, Kuba Szreder, Tonje Ytterstad and Conohar Scott.