Revival: The Aesthetics of Revival Subcultures and Re-enactment Groups Explored Through Fashion Image-making

This research aims, through performance, fashion photography, video making and the theatrical devices that accompany such practice, to explore the style of a contemporary, largely male, subcultural collective. The common term that joins these loosely bound groups is revival as they appear driven by an impulse to simulate and re-enact the dress, rites and rituals of British and American subcultures from a perceived golden era. The similarities with re-enactment societies are also explored and exploited to the end of developing new style- based aesthetics in male fashion image-making formed around an elaborate re- enactment of Spartacus and the Third Servile Wars. Examined through comparative visuals (revivalists / re-enactors) a common thread is found in the wearing of leather as a metaphor for resistance, style and a pupa-like second skin. Subsequent findings of this research suggest that the cuirass of popular culture emerges as the motorcycle jacket of both the sword and sandal epic and the historical re-enactor. Addressing extremes in narcissistic dress and behaviour amongst certain individuals within these older male communities, this study also questions parts of established theory on subcultural development within the field of cultural studies and postulates on a metaphorical dandy gene. Citing two leading practitioners in the field of fashion photography the work of both Richard Prince and Bruce Weber is viewed through the lens of the subcultural aesthete and conclusions drawn as to their role as agents provocateurs in the development of the fashion image with a revival based narrative. In addition the often used term retro is examined, categorised and granted its own genre within fashion image- making and defined as being separate from the practice element of this research. Reflecting a multi-disciplinary approach that engages the researcher as Bricoleur and participant observer this research operates in the reflexive realm and uses simulation as a key method of enquiry. The practice-led outcome of this investigation takes the form of a final research exhibition that takes the form of a substantial installation of photography, video, clothing and textile prints. Key terms: dandy gene, historical re-enactment groups, internal theatre, narcissism, narrative image-making, reflexive practice, revival as theatre, subcultures,

Between the Bullet and the Hole

Between the Bullet and the Hole is a film centred on the elusive and complex effects of war on women's role in ballistic research and early computing. The film features new and archival high-speed bullet photography, schlieren and electric spark imagery, bullet sound wave imagery, forensic ballistic photography, slide rulers, punch cards, computer diagrams, and a soundtrack by Scanner. Like a frantic animation storyboard, it explores the flickering space between the frames, testing the perceptual mechanics of visual interpolation, the possibility of reading or deciphering the gap between before and after. Interpolation - the main task of the women studying ballistics in WW2 - is the construction or guessing of missing data using only two known data points. The film tries to unpack this gap, open it up to interrogation. It questions how we read, interpolate or construct the gaps between bullet and hole, perpetrator and victim, presence and absence. The project involves exchanges with specialists in this area such as the Cranfield University Forensics department, London-based Forensic Firearms consultancy, the Imperial War Museum, the ENIAC programmers project, the Smithsonian Institute, and Forensic Scientists at Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (USA). Exhibitions: Solo exhibition at Dallas Contemporary (Texas, Jan-Mar 2016), including newly commissioned lenticular prints and a dual slide projector installation; Group exhibition the Sydney Biennale (Sydney, Mar-June 2016); UK premiere and solo retrospective screening at Whitechapel Gallery (London); forthcoming solo exhibition at Iliya Fridman Gallery (NY, Oct-Dec 2016); Film festivals and screenings: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Jan 2016); Whitechapel Gallery (London Feb 2016); Cornerhouse/Home (Manchester Nov 2016); Public lectures: Whitechapel Gallery with prof. David Alan Grier and Morgan Quaintance; Carriageworks (Sydney) Prof. Douglas Khan; Monash University (Melbourne); Gertrude Space (Melbourne). Reviews and interviews: Artforum, Studio International, Mousse Magazine.