Mary Modeen is an artist/academic whose research links creative practice with interdisciplinary academic studies in the humanities, particularly philosophy, literature, feminist and indigenous studies. Her research has several threads: perception as a cognitive and interpretive process, and place-based research, which tends to connect cultural values, history and embodied experience. As such, this work usually combines creative art practice and writing.
Her PhD supervision is also characterised by these interdisciplinary investigations, linking studio practice with academic enquiry. International research networks, three of which Modeen co-convenes, are central in conducting the critical discourse which address, challenge and strengthen these research insights. She is also the DJCAD Associate Dean (Internationalisation).
Mary
Modeen
©Christine Beaumler, 2013
Firstly, we wish to promote the discovery of less than apparent aspects of Scottish culture and environment, and to work with others who have the knowledge to share in the myriad aspects of present and past life from the perspective of the lived experience. We wish to acknowledge the emotive and nuanced qualities of the past, and to attend to these unseen or unheard elements of Scotland’s rich heritage and contemporary life.
Secondly, building on this knowledge, and augmenting this through the travels across the country with guided tours, we wish to continue our collaborative work with individuals and groups across the networks, making new partnerships to explore research projects which specifically concern Scotland’s culture and geography.
In 2013 invited speakers from various disciplines presented material concerning ‘invisible’ aspects of Scottish culture, such as the oral tradition, musical ballads, personal narratives, traces of vanished communities, case studies in watersheds and coastal villages, historic ruins, and performances at Invisible Scotland: An International Gathering of Multidisciplinary Place-Based Researchers in Scotland, convened by Modeen.
Scotland itself was the focus of close investigation by place-based researchers, with the aim of expanding collaborative research about Scotland through research projects.
In two days of presentations and performances in Dundee, with two days on a choice of several trips, participants not only heard and saw, but visited first-hand, examples of ‘invisible’ traces in countryside, city, island or community. The audience was comprised of invited researchers of three separate research networks (artists, landscape architects, architects, curators, geographers, writers, performers and practitioners), Scottish hosts and guests, with the aim of promoting new collaborations concerning Scottish culture through discovery.
Developed from the connections and exchanges during the event, Modeen edited the book Invisible Scotland: Revealing a Process of Interdisciplinary Discovery, published by Moray School of Art Press/The University of the Highlands and Islands.
