Towards Artists' Moving Image: Film and Cinematic Consciousness, Britain 1896-1966

This thesis will examine the impact of moving image technology and culture for artists and on artworks produced in Britain during the period 1896 (when the first film screening was held in the UK) to 1966 (the year in which London Filmmaker's Cooperative was founded and the point of departure for most existing studies on artists' moving image). The subject is essentially cross-disciplinary and will incorporate research into instances where film form and theory influence traditional artistic media of painting, sculpture and printmaking (extending into Graphic Design and textiles applications where relevant) alongside research into instances of artists working both in avant-garde or experimental film production and in a commercial context. The research questions driving my enquiry are: how did art and the moving image affect one another in the first half of the twentieth century in Britain? What new ideas and activities developed as a result of this process? What individuals and institutions flourished within and shaped this development? How did the mediate the reception and interpretation of relevant work?