Silvia Loeffler

PhD

Lecturer
Silvia Loeffler

Dr Silvia Loeffler’s work explores the psychology of spaces and the cultural implications of attachment and displacement by mapping notions of home, self and other in the context of contemporary art and language. Her research projects and art installations are based on our relationships with the public sphere, whereby she maps the social and historical fabric of the city and land & seascapes in collaboration with various partners and the local communities. Her current research interest focuses on place and homesickness, and seeks to reveal how stories, performances, and personal emotional geographies are intertwined with historical themes of presence and absence. It is a meditation on the spatial and psychological meanings of ‘refuge’ that encompasses experiential / experimental deep mappings; belonging to a community; meanings of home in different places and languages; representations of migrant voices; ancestral connections to land and sea.

As an educator, researcher and artist, my socially engaged practice investigates larger spatial contexts of belonging and cultural systems of identity formation. My work is situated in the visual arts within wider cultural contexts and anthropological frameworks. I hold a PhD in Visual Culture (National College of Art and Design, Dublin, 2011) and an MA in Cultural Anthropology (Maynooth University, Ireland, 2005). My research subjects and teaching and supervision areas are: Visual Culture & Interdisciplinary Research Practice; Applied Culture and Heritage; Digital Heritage; Psychology of Space (Urban and Rural Landscape Interpretation); Material Culture & Memorial Practice (Spaces of Display & Public Space); Vision and Spectacle (Street Art & Graffiti).

Long-term projects include Dark Fog: Deep Mappings of Belonging of Citizenship (2022-23), funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, City Routes: A Deep Mapping of Dublin’s Central Library (2020-21), funded by Create Ireland & the Arts Council and Dublin City Council, Transit Gateway: A Deep Mapping of Dublin Port (2017-18), funded by Dublin Port Company and the LAB Gallery / Dublin City Arts Office, and Dr Loeffler’s postdoctoral work Glas Journal: A Deep Mapping of Dún Laoghaire Harbour (2014-16), funded by the Irish Research Council.

Selection

 

• ‘City Routes’, Solo Exhibition. Dublin City Central Library (Sept. 2021 to Feb. 2022).

 

• ‘Transit Gateway’, Solo Exhibition. LAB Gallery, Dublin City Arts Office (Feb. to March 2018).

 

• ‘Transit Gateway’, Solo Exhibition. Terminal 1, Dublin Port (March to Oct. 2017).


• ‘Glas Journal 2016’, Solo Exhibition. Maritime Museum of Ireland, Dún Laoghaire, Dublin (Sept. 2016).

Dublin City Libraries & Axis Ballymun (2022) – BiLong BíAnn Episode 9: Silvia Loeffler and Ruth Guest - link  (last accessed: 14 November 2022)

Dublin Port Company (2018) – Transit Gateway: Connecting the City and Dublin Port - link (last accessed: 14 November 2022)

RTE Radio1 Inside Culture (2017) – Psychogeography, Mapping and Cities - link (last accessed: 14 November 2022)

Loeffler Silvia. “Place & Heritage – Glas Journal: A Deep Mapping of Dún Laoghaire Harbour (2014-2016).” In Landscape Values. Place and Praxis. Galway, 29 June – 2 July 2016, eds. Tim Collins, Gesche Kindermann, Conor Newman & Nessa Cronin, NUI Galway: Centre for Landscape Studies, 2016, pp. 170-173.

Loeffler, Silvia. ”Glas Journal: Deep Mappings of a Harbour or the Charting of Fragments, Traces and Possibilities.” In “Deep Mapping”, ed. Les Roberts, special issue, Humanities. Basel: MDPI, 2016. [hardcover edition] free e-book download

Loeffler, Silvia, and Tina Kinsella. “Liquidities: Transactive Border Spaces and Threshold Structures (between the harbour and the sea).” In “On Sea / At Sea”, eds. Sam Trubridge and Richard Gough, special issue, Performance Research Journal 21, no. 2 (2016): Taylor & Francis Online. link

Loeffler, Silvia. ”Glas Journal: Deep Mappings of a Harbour or the Charting of Fragments, Traces and Possibilities.” In “Deep Mapping”, ed. Les Roberts, special issue, Humanities 4, (2015): 457–475. Link

Loeffler, Silvia. “Deep Mappings of Dublin: Spot the Blind Spot.” In Visualizing Dublin: Visual Culture, Modernity and the Representation of Urban Space, ed. Justin Carville, Bern: Peter Lang, 2014, pp. 287 – 307.

Loeffler, Silvia. “City as Skin: Urban Imaginaries of Flesh and Fantasy.” In “The Architecture of Transgression”, eds. Rachel Sara and Jonathan Mosley, special issue, Architectural Design (AD) 83, no. 6, (2013): 114-119. Link

Loeffler, Silvia. “Artist Statement” & “City, Air, Water, Diviner.” In “Gender and the City”, eds. Maureen Flanagan and Maryann Valiulis, special issue, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 32, no. 1 (2011): 1-4. Link