I am a lecturer on the BA Photography at the School of Media at Technological University Dublin. Other associate lecturing and supervision roles on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes have included the National College of Art and Design, Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art and Design, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, and Bennington College, Vermont. I am the current external examiner for dissertations on the fine art undergraduate programme at the Wexford Campus of the Carlow Institute of Technology. I like to moderate and present on public or open academic panels, where I meet other members of the academic community interested in public engagement. I write for artist focussed publications.
Lecturer, Technological University Dublin, City Campus
Photography
TUDublin was established in 2019 through the amalgamation of three institutes of technology in Dublin city and counties. The BA Photography at TUDublin City Campus recently re-located to a new campus at Grangegorman on the north side of Dublin city. We are located in the East Quad, a new building that is in part built on a site where the accommodation for nursing staff at St Brendan's psychiatric hospital was located. In their first year our students undertake research in visual methodologies for their core visual studies modules. I team-teach the core visual studies modules in each semester using project based learning and critical peer to peer inquiry and collaboration. In third year, I lead a module on curating photography. In the fourth and final year, I supervise dissertations and student project development. This page contains a selection of past collaborative curatorial student projects completed in year three plus some documentation of final degree presentations at Gallery of Photography, Dublin.
Unity, 2017
Students' project description: Unity is a collection of critical reflections about a period of research undertaken in the last months of the centenary year of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Having begun as an engagement with the work of The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, we returned to our research to think now about how the relationships formed at that time have affected our learning about rights and equality issues, and the position of the photographer as researcher. By reviewing our digital contact sheets and the journal notes we kept at the time, our stories consider the challenges, surprises and rewards of participating in creative collaborations. We value accessibility and openness, and these values have informed our curatorial approach to developing this project online. We align ourselves with those who work tirelessly to contribute to a culture of respect for human rights, equality and intercultural understanding across Ireland, whether equal rights for women and men to the basic human rights of people in Direct Provision.' (2017)
Aunt Sally's Tea Dance, 2016
Students' project description: Aunt Sally’s Tea Dance deals with the politics of the archive and the subsequent visibility or invisibility of LGBT identity and queer Ireland by looking at the collected material in three archives, well established and in development. The Irish Queer Archive is housed at the National Photographic Archive, Dublin, Cork LGBT Archive is being developed by researcher Orla Egan and includes the Arthur Leahy Collection, while the Belfast Exposed Archive, is the founding collection of the Belfast Exposed Gallery. This website developed to present the findings from our engagement with the archives, archivists, researchers and curators. We focused on ephemera and photographs relating to 'parade' and 'community' to inquire how photography has been used to activate public attention, change public opinion and re-present LGBT movements and much of this material has not been exhibited in the public domain before. Image on the right courtesy of the Cork LGBT Archive.' (2016)
In Conversation with Conversations, 2012
Students' project description: 'In Conversation with 'Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection' is an exhibition about an exhibition, namely the Irish Museum of Modern Art's presentation of a touring show of photography selected from the bank's collection. Entering into a dialogue with the larger exhibition, we have curated In Conversation with 'Conversations...' to incorporate photographs made available through the Flickr website under Creative Commons licenses. Each image in the exhibition at Broadcast Gallery is free for use provided it is for non-commercial purposes. Our response asks questions about the exhibition of photography and the curatorial process itself. Additionally, this is an exploration and response to current political, artistic and social codes of practice that are prominent in photography as a medium. The show engages discursively with these topics and widens the scope of inquiry that the original exhibition alludes to and the use of the formal relationships drawn between the images selected.' (2012)
Graduate Exhibition, 2012
The BA Photography graduate exhibition takes place at the Gallery of Photography in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2. Until 2016, the exhibition was also presented at the National Photographic Archive opposite the Gallery of Photography.
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National Photographic Archive of Ireland & Gallery of Photography, Dublin. Video documentation by Lauren Pritchard, 2012