Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies

PhD Research

The Lives of Fictional Artists: Constructed Identities, Imagined Narratives and Transmedia Landscapes

In a world where it has become easy to obscure the boundaries between fact and fiction a growing number of artists are exploring the concept of identity whilst examining authenticity of subjectivity. This Practice based PhD considers the narratives created for a fictional artist through transmedia texts, arguing that the visual material and printed text constitutes an integral aspect to these texts’ rhetoric and semantics as well as legitimising the fictional artists’ existence. Contemporary fictional artists such as Reena Spaulings, Sophie Brown and Donelle Woolford clearly show that the interconnected use of media platforms, novels and exhibitions have resulted in the conceived ‘real’ birth of a persona which has in one way or another taken a life of its own, absent from its maker. It is for this reason that Sara has created the artist Seren Sanclêr since the practice of creating a fictional artist, raises broader arguably more timely questions about the relationship between identity, narrative, new media and public reception.

Supervisor: Jenny Kidd

Teaching

Sara is Head of Film and Media at Whitchurch High School and has been teaching GCSE and A level Film and Media courses for sixteen years.

HEA Mentor for PhD students

BA Modules

2009 Representations Module 1st year: Module Co-ordinator Paul Mason

2012 Popular Culture Module 2nd year core module: Module Co-ordinator Paul Bowman

Awards

Tom Hopkinson Scholarship awarded by Cardiff University,  School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, 2009

AHRC Collaborative Skills Development:  Making Media Matter for 21st Century teachers and learners: Demystifying Representational theory at KS5 & promoting pedagogical excellence in Media Ed, 2012/2013

Publications

Approaches to teaching Robert Minhinnick’s Watching the Fire Eater, Reflections from the classroom series ,National Language Unit of Wales, 1999.

Women in Comics, Computer Games and Anime, Relay Publications, UWIC, 1999.

Presentations

Underexposed: Fiction, Narrative and Photographs, Visions and Visionaries – Creating and Composing Vision, Cardiff University (2011)

Cool Cymru – Representations of Wales by the Media, Media Education Wales Conference, UWIC, Cardiff (2001)

Cool Cymru – Welsh Cinema Day, Media Education Wales, Chapter, Cardiff (2000)

Film in English, Media Education Wales, UWIC, Cyncoed, Cardiff (1999)