Phil Layton B.A. Hons Philosophy (2:1), M.A. Filmmaking (distinction), P.G.C.E., CertHE Art and Design.

Aesthetically, my chief interests are abstraction and minimalism, in the realm of the artists’ moving image. In my PhD I argue for a partial recuperation of modernist values that highlight and champion distinctions between mediums, and the importance of some degree of philosophical (‘speculative’ or ‘strategic’?) essentialism in forming coherent analysis beyond postmodern relativist thinking. 

I welcome the challenge of maintaining this position in the current academic climate within the Arts and Humanities. Innovative discourse can arise when contradictory or paradoxical positions come under philosophical examination. 

My visual arts practice attempts to generate discourse by confronting the viewer with reflexive pieces that question their own nature. Recent work has involved sculptural interventions into the cinematic, inspired by the concept of ‘Paracinema’ as detailed by Walley (2020).

Media archaeology, in particular Zielinski’s non-linear conception of time, frames my practice methodologically. Ontologically I float between rationalism and idealism, thus my metaphysical preferences are aligned with a Deleuzian radical immanence, while tempered by the possible coexistence of the transcendent.

Such a ‘melange’ (cf. Gauntlett’s ‘basket of things’) reveals avenues where the absurd rubs shoulders with the banal. The new materialists and the old Greeks elbow each other at the media jumble sale.

A project seeking to rematerialise the digital can be viewed here.

Sculptural interventions here.