The Stag Without a Heart
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal College of Art
Department Name: School of Fine Art
Abstract
The Principal Investigator's practice-based research is in the field of artists' moving image. This practice explores the generic themes and traditions of fiction cinema, the dominant moving image and artists' film and video practice. The research typically explores the potential interplay between these languages, and asks how their conventions and generic qualities can be appropriated, expanded upon and hybridised. The proposed research project, 'The Stag Without a Heart', uses the Principal Investigator's moving image practice to research specific themes that are familiar from generic fiction cinema: temptation to power, deception and political corruption. These are central and recurring subjects of narrative entertainment cinema, and of universal human fallibility.
The research seeks to investigate what happens when these normally linear themes are adapted to become circular and endless. The project asks how these subjects might be impacted upon by their being placed in the gallery space, which has an inherent tradition of circularity and repetition. The research seeks to investigate whether greater or lesser authenticity is achieved when these subjects are placed in this repetitive and circular context. These questions will be considered through academic dissemination and a commissioned critical text.
The research intends to employ a hybrid of narrative codes in order to address the project's central themes and to answer its research questions. The research is investigating an existing allegorical fable that will be used as a narrative and textual template. This fable is attributed to Aesop. Early research has shown that this fable encapsulates the subjects of corruption, temptation and power, which are simultaneously the thematic foundations of the crime cinema, or more specifically its sub-genre, the mob film.
The research investigates the potential of the fable to become a circular and recurrent form. Thus, the cinematic themes of temptation, deception and corruption can become endlessly recurrent for the viewer. Crucially, a narrative template of universal human fallibility can be potentially transformed by employing the gallery's generic tradition of circularity.
In methodological terms, the research will aim to recreate the apparatus of cinema as closely as possible. The methodology will physically reproduce the visual and aural codes of the crime cinema, resulting in a single screen moving image work. The adapted Aesopic text will be performed as a monologue within a highly cinematic scenario, redolent of the 'New Hollywood' mob film of the 1970s.
The proposed project outcome is a gallery-based film loop for dissemination in international gallery spaces. The research will be disseminated academically via conference papers. A new website will be produced by the Principal Investigator that will critically document the research. This will contain a newly commissioned text that will assess the final outcome against the project's research questions.
The research seeks to investigate what happens when these normally linear themes are adapted to become circular and endless. The project asks how these subjects might be impacted upon by their being placed in the gallery space, which has an inherent tradition of circularity and repetition. The research seeks to investigate whether greater or lesser authenticity is achieved when these subjects are placed in this repetitive and circular context. These questions will be considered through academic dissemination and a commissioned critical text.
The research intends to employ a hybrid of narrative codes in order to address the project's central themes and to answer its research questions. The research is investigating an existing allegorical fable that will be used as a narrative and textual template. This fable is attributed to Aesop. Early research has shown that this fable encapsulates the subjects of corruption, temptation and power, which are simultaneously the thematic foundations of the crime cinema, or more specifically its sub-genre, the mob film.
The research investigates the potential of the fable to become a circular and recurrent form. Thus, the cinematic themes of temptation, deception and corruption can become endlessly recurrent for the viewer. Crucially, a narrative template of universal human fallibility can be potentially transformed by employing the gallery's generic tradition of circularity.
In methodological terms, the research will aim to recreate the apparatus of cinema as closely as possible. The methodology will physically reproduce the visual and aural codes of the crime cinema, resulting in a single screen moving image work. The adapted Aesopic text will be performed as a monologue within a highly cinematic scenario, redolent of the 'New Hollywood' mob film of the 1970s.
The proposed project outcome is a gallery-based film loop for dissemination in international gallery spaces. The research will be disseminated academically via conference papers. A new website will be produced by the Principal Investigator that will critically document the research. This will contain a newly commissioned text that will assess the final outcome against the project's research questions.
Planned Impact
1. The beneficiaries of this research are likely to be:
1.1. Gallery audiences and publics in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and other regions.
1.2. Specialist professionals working in the UK and international visual arts context:
- visual artist practitioners engaged in the moving image, and in other media;
- visual arts curators working in the museum, public gallery, commercial gallery and not-for-profit gallery sectors;
- visual arts critics and writers.
1.3. Those working in the fiction cinema context:
- cinema programmers;
- film and media critics;
- fiction film directors.
2. How will they benefit from this research?
It is intended that the research output is integrated into the UK's visual arts sector, an economic leader in the international field, and in international visual arts sectors. The research has a demonstrable outcome in the form of a film work, disseminated in gallery and museum spaces. The above users can therefore potentially benefit from the research by experiencing an innovative creative output in a public context.
The impact of the output on public audiences potentially arises from the fact that, via the research output, these beneficiaries will be able to experience a familiar range of cinematic and narrative codes, but this set of users may not yet expect to encounter cinematic languages within the gallery context.
For visual arts beneficiaries, the potential impact of the research is a contribution to the debate on the recent expansion of the languages of moving image used within the gallery space, with particular regard to the use of cinematic and narrative codes within that context.
The impact on fiction cinema beneficiaries will potentially be the output's relevance to the linguistic cross-fertilisation that is currently occurring between the previously discrete filmic codes of the 'cinema' and 'gallery' contexts.
Because the research outcome is a physical artifact, it is assumed that the impacts of the research will be ongoing. It is anticipated that the gallery-based dissemination of the research begins to arise within the award period. It is realistic to assume that dissemination and the impact of the research continues well beyond end of the award period.
Staff working on the project will develop skills of collaboration, knowledge sharing, effective communication, and deadline-critical working, which they could apply in all employment sectors.
3. What will be done to ensure that they benefit from this research?
Communications and Engagement:
The above named beneficiaries have been demonstrably engaged in the Principal Investigator's research through visual arts dissemination over the past twelve years.
The research outcome will be targeted at public audiences as fully as possible.
A publicly available website will be produced by the Principal Investigator as a critical document. This will be funded out of project resources.
Collaboration:
The Principal Investigator will lead impact and dissemination of the research output into gallery and museum spaces. Relationships listed in the Impact Plan are established, but the research aims to foster deeper collaborations with each party.
Exploitation:
A number of leading international exhibition venues and curators have expressed interest in exhibiting the research output. It is the Principal Investigator's aim to rigorously pursue the dissemination of the outcome in exhibition venues during the award period and to continue its dissemination after the award period has ceased.
Relevant Experience and Track Record:
The Principal Investigator will undertake most of the impact activities, as has been the case on all his previous research projects. All parties named in the Impact Plan are experienced in gallery dissemination and in achieving widespread publicity for outpu
1.1. Gallery audiences and publics in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and other regions.
1.2. Specialist professionals working in the UK and international visual arts context:
- visual artist practitioners engaged in the moving image, and in other media;
- visual arts curators working in the museum, public gallery, commercial gallery and not-for-profit gallery sectors;
- visual arts critics and writers.
1.3. Those working in the fiction cinema context:
- cinema programmers;
- film and media critics;
- fiction film directors.
2. How will they benefit from this research?
It is intended that the research output is integrated into the UK's visual arts sector, an economic leader in the international field, and in international visual arts sectors. The research has a demonstrable outcome in the form of a film work, disseminated in gallery and museum spaces. The above users can therefore potentially benefit from the research by experiencing an innovative creative output in a public context.
The impact of the output on public audiences potentially arises from the fact that, via the research output, these beneficiaries will be able to experience a familiar range of cinematic and narrative codes, but this set of users may not yet expect to encounter cinematic languages within the gallery context.
For visual arts beneficiaries, the potential impact of the research is a contribution to the debate on the recent expansion of the languages of moving image used within the gallery space, with particular regard to the use of cinematic and narrative codes within that context.
The impact on fiction cinema beneficiaries will potentially be the output's relevance to the linguistic cross-fertilisation that is currently occurring between the previously discrete filmic codes of the 'cinema' and 'gallery' contexts.
Because the research outcome is a physical artifact, it is assumed that the impacts of the research will be ongoing. It is anticipated that the gallery-based dissemination of the research begins to arise within the award period. It is realistic to assume that dissemination and the impact of the research continues well beyond end of the award period.
Staff working on the project will develop skills of collaboration, knowledge sharing, effective communication, and deadline-critical working, which they could apply in all employment sectors.
3. What will be done to ensure that they benefit from this research?
Communications and Engagement:
The above named beneficiaries have been demonstrably engaged in the Principal Investigator's research through visual arts dissemination over the past twelve years.
The research outcome will be targeted at public audiences as fully as possible.
A publicly available website will be produced by the Principal Investigator as a critical document. This will be funded out of project resources.
Collaboration:
The Principal Investigator will lead impact and dissemination of the research output into gallery and museum spaces. Relationships listed in the Impact Plan are established, but the research aims to foster deeper collaborations with each party.
Exploitation:
A number of leading international exhibition venues and curators have expressed interest in exhibiting the research output. It is the Principal Investigator's aim to rigorously pursue the dissemination of the outcome in exhibition venues during the award period and to continue its dissemination after the award period has ceased.
Relevant Experience and Track Record:
The Principal Investigator will undertake most of the impact activities, as has been the case on all his previous research projects. All parties named in the Impact Plan are experienced in gallery dissemination and in achieving widespread publicity for outpu
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Stuart Croft (Principal Investigator) |
| Title | The Stag Without a Heart |
| Description | 'The Stag Without a Heart' is a moving image artwork that explores the potential of the perpetual film loop and the complexities of the narrative drive. It was the outcome of an AHRC-funded Practice-led and Applied Research Project Award (2009-10). Director and artist-filmmaker Stuart Croft adapted Aesop's Fable #214, 'The Lion, the Fox and the Stag' into a circular monologue. The resulting allegorical tale of corruption, deceit and the desire for power is delivered in the style of American classical cinema , alluding to Hitchcock and Kubrick as well as to European auteurs such as Resnais. By undermining narrative conventions and laws of continuity through employing a seamless loop, Croft subverts the construction of on-screen film space and coalesces discrete forms of language and, as such, the spectator's expectations. Croft placed significant emphasis on traditional filmmaking production values, incorporating cinematic hallmarks into a visual art context. His rigorous methodological approach can be identified by his use of 35mm film stock, professional actors, pronounced cinematography, a stylised film set, a large crew and an emotive musical score. In so doing, the film distinguishes itself as its own genre of filmic practice, an interdisciplinary enterprise further indicated by its accessibility to viewers in environments ranging from the contemporary art gallery, the museum installation, and the looped video screening within a moving image festival. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| Impact | The work was exhibited and screened in public institutions and galleries including MuHKA, Antwerp (2011), Raum fur Gegenwartskunst, Linz (2011) and Cornerhouse, Manchester (2012). It can be viewed on the The Stag Without a Heart website, which was developed with AHRC funding. The website includes a critical essay by Dr Steven Eastwood, 'The Repetition of Repetition'. Croft also convened an AHRC-funded research seminar (2010) on the project's central themes, including papers from David Heinemann (Middlesex University), Deborah Levy (Booker-nominated author and critic), Janice McLaren (Photographers' Gallery) and curator David Thorp. |
| URL | http://www.stuartcroft.com/thestagwithoutaheart/index.htm |
| Description | The research achieved a final practice-based output, namely the production of an major moving image artwork that is being continually disseminated within contemporary art galleries and museums internationally. Within the practice-based element of the research, the fable's themes of temptation, deception and corruption were able to become endlessly recurrent for the viewer - rather than conventionally linear and resolved. A narrative template of universal human fallibility was transformed by employing the art gallery's tradition of circularity and repetition. Within the academic dissemination of the project, which included a specially commissioned essay and a research symposium for the project held at the Royal College of Art, numerous academic themes and discussions added to the debate around the project. These included discourse subjects such as the 'eternal return', repetition, difference, theatricality, transatlantic cinema, modernism, isolation, technology, narration, the 'speech act', psychoanalysis, absence, censorship, entrapment and metaphor. Many of theses subjects were not anticipated as being potentially prompted by the research. This intensive academic dissemination allowed me to develop my continuing practice-based research further into new projects and themes. |
| Exploitation Route | The practice-based outcome of the research employed high-end cinematic production values, the use of a highly developed text, and a honed performance by a professional cast of actors. Within the field of this research, which is contemporary moving image art practice, these methodologies are relatively rare. My view is that this research is helping to develop the field of contemporary artists' moving image substantially by allowing these methods to become available to others. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.stuartcroft.com/thestagwithoutaheart/THEREPETITIONOFREPETITION.pdf |
| Description | The project's adaptation of a pre-existing linear text, which was transformed into a seamlessly circular text performed within a highly cinematic mise en scéne, was used to produce new research methods: themes of temptation, deception and political corruption can become endlessly recurrent for the spectator. Importantly, a narrative template of universal human fallibility was transformed by employing the art gallery's generic tradition of the film-loop and its condition of circularity. The research ultimately sought to investigate whether a greater or lesser authenticity is achieved when the subjects of deceit, corruption and power are placed in this repetitive and circular context. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |