Dr. Feargal Fitzpatrick

PhD

Head of Media
Dr. Feargal Fitzpatrick

My current research project, Ireland, Landscape and Nineteenth-Century Photography, examines material that, up to now, has been dealt with largely on an empirical or canonical basis. The work is a critical-historical account of the relationships between photographic representations of place and Irish manifestations of colonialism, nationalism and capital. Through a contemporary theoretical framework (drawing on the work of Marx, Benjamin, Bhabha and Rancière), it argues that photography’s inception represents a rupture in visual culture – producing a crisis in the politics of representation – and that its consequences have been playing out through landscape imaging for 180 years. Implicated in this process are concepts of place, identity, nation and materiality – turning photographic meaning into something continually deferred, qualified and contingent on historiographical connections between images' moments of production and consumption.

Qualifications

PhD Maynooth University

MPhil Dublin Institute of Technology

BDes (Hons) National College of Art and Design

 

Lecturing

NCAD Fine Art Media: Head of Department, 2014 - Present

NCAD First Year Studies: Lecturer, 2005-2014

NCAD Communication Design and Digital Media: Lecturer, 2004-2005

TCD MSc. Interactive Digital Media: Adjunct Assistant Professor, 1999-2014

IADT Digital Media Lecturer, 1998-2004

IADT Fine Art: Lecturer, 1992-1993

 

Memberships

American Conference of Irish Studies

European Society for the History of Photography

NCAD+UCD Collaborative Working Group

NCAD Academic Council


NCAD School of Visual Culture PhD supervisory team

NCAD Appeals Committee

NCAD IT Committee

NCAD Joint Programme Committee

Papers, Presentations and Research Activities

Camera Education: Photographic Histories of Visual Literacy, Schooling, and the Imagination at the Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, England. Paper title: “Shadows on a Screen: Photographic Propaganda during the Irish Land War.” June 2020.

Camera Memoria: Seminar on the Histories of Photography at Université Paris Diderot, France. Paper title: “Contested Ground: Photographs as Clouded Memory.” June 2018.

2018 meeting of the American Conference of Irish Studies and the Canadian Conference for Irish Studies/L’Association Canadienne d’Études Irlandaises held at University College Cork. Paper title: “The Construction of Photographic Taste in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ireland.” June 2018

Photography / Archives / Ireland at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Paper title “Ground Lens: Henry Craigie Brewster’s Cork Calotypes.” November 2017.

Landscape: Interpretations, Relations, and Representations at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. Paper title: “Contested Ground: British Power. Irish Territory.” January 2017

Inter: Photography and Architecture at the Museo Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. Paper title “Building Resistance, Photographing Dissent.” November 2016

3rd International Conference of Photography and Theory 2014 (ICPT2014): Photography and Politics and the Politics of Photography, Nicosia, Cyprus. Paper title: “Busybody and Partisan: Irish Dissident Photography.” December 2014

2014 meeting of the American Conference of Irish Studies and the Canadian Conference for Irish Studies/L’Association Canadienne d’Études Irlandaises held at University College Dublin. Paper title: “The Politics of Nineteenth-Century Landscape Photography in Ireland and the USA.” June 2014

NCAD-funded research trip to the UK – visiting five leading Art & Design Colleges to research their recruitment, diagnostic and path-finding activities in first-year studio teaching environments. September 2011

National Academy for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning. Engaging Minds Conference, NUI Galway. Paper title: “NCAD First Year Core Studies: Art and Design Studio Teaching and Assessment.” June 2011

Irish Universities Quality Board Seminar Striving to enhance the Student Experience: Implementing a Student-Centred Approach to Learning – The European Standards and Guidelines (Part 1) in Action. November 2009

NCAD symposium What Does it Take? Design, Research, Economy, Society. Speakers and panellists from 23 design companies and institutions took part. Co-organiser. April 2006

Publications

“Building Resistance, Photographing Dissent.” Inter Photo Arch: Interferences, Alcolea, Rubén A. & Jorge Tárrago (eds). Pamplona, Universidad de Navarra, 2016. 86-97.

 

“First Year Core Studies: Art and Design Studio Teaching and Assessment.” Engaging Minds: Proceedings of the National Academy’s Fifth Annual Conference. O’Mahony, Catherine (ed.) & Avril Buchanan. Cork: National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, 2011. 70-71.

 

Surfaces. Catalogue for national solo touring exhibition. Dublin: Self-published, 1995.

 

Press

 

Contributor to Source Photographic Review 2012 –2013

The Examiner, "Coming to terms with technology", Isabel Healy. May 14th 1999

Irish Times, review of Intermedia, Mark Ewart. May 2nd 1999


New Media Notes, feature interview. May 1998


Irish Times, featured image. April 21st 1998

Irish Times, Computimes, Michael Cunningham. March 23rd 1998

Sunday Tribune, "Cyber Space Gallery" article, Ciaran Carty. March 15th 1998

Irish Times, Computimes – Diary, Michael Cunningham. September 29th 1997

Irish Times, review of Surfaces, Mark Ewart. October 1995


Irish Times, review of Boyle Arts Festival, Brian Fallon. July 1995

Circa Magazine, review of Surfaces, Brian Coates. Summer 1995

 

Public Lectures and Talks

Lecture. “The Politics of the Image”, NCAD, October 2019

Lecture. “Photography and the Plan of Campaign, 1890”, NCAD, February 2015

Lecture. “Re-Configuring the Apollo Missions: Lunar Photography – Battlefield and Wilderness”,

PhotoIreland Festival, The Joinery, Stoneybatter. July 2010

Artist Talk. “Science, Technology and Representation”, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios. October 2002

Artist Talk. Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork. March 2002

Lecture. “Photographic Images Reconfigured”, Douglas Hyde Gallery, TCD. February 2002

Pane Discussion. Media Probe (Symposium): Triskel Arts Centre, Cork. January 2000

Artist Talk. Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny. April 1998


Panel Discussion. Flux Discussion Group, Arthouse. 1996, 1997


Artist Talks. Triskel Arts Centre, October 1995

Artist talk and workshop. City Arts Centre. January 1992

Solo Exhibitions

Resolution

A National Touring Exhibition

Monaghan County Museum. August 1997

Peacock Gallery, Craigavon. September 1997

Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny. April 1998

 

Surfaces

A National Touring Exhibition


Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick. July 1995


Midland Arts Resource Centre, Mullingar. August 1995

Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford. September 1995


Triskel Arts Centre, Cork. October 1995


Irish Institute for European Affairs, Belgium. November 1995

Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar. January 1996

 

Taken as Given

City Arts Centre, Dublin. January 1992.

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

Intermedia, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork. May 2000


Intermedia, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork. May 1999


Pluperfect, Arthouse, Temple Bar. November 1996


Temple Bar International Print Exhibition, Temple Bar Gallery. October 1996

Emerging Irish Artists, European Parliament Building, Brussels. July 1996

Home Exhibition, Project Arts Centre, Dublin. December 1995

Boyle Arts Festival, Roscommon. July 1995


Monaghan Open Exhibition, Monaghan County Museum. May 1995

Rainy Season, Jo Rain Gallery, Dublin. December 1994


National Portrait Exhibition, Arnott's, Dublin. October 1994

L84AD8, Ormond Multimedia Centre, Dublin. September 1994

Group Show, Browne’s Gallery, Dublin. October 1992

 

Awards

Arts Council Touring Exhibitions Scheme Award. 1995


Arts Council/Aer Lingus Travel Award. 1995


Kingram Studios Dublin - Winners in the Cothú (now Business to Arts) Arts Sponsorship of the Year Awards for their support of the exhibition Resolution. 1998