Gillian Rose
University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment, Faculty Member
- My research interests lie broadly within the field of visual culture. I'm interested in visuality as a kind of pract... moreMy research interests lie broadly within the field of visual culture. I'm interested in visuality as a kind of practice, done by human subjects in collaboration with different kinds of objects and technologies.
Monica Degen (Brunel University), Clare Melhuish (The Open University) and I started a new ESRC-funded project in autumn 2011. Architectural atmospheres, branding and the social: the role of digital visualizing technologies in contemporary architectural practice is a two-year ethnographic study of how digital visualizing technologies are being used by architects, both as part of their design process but also as a way of taking their designs through the planning process.
Other work is extending my interest in subjectivities, space and visual practices by exploring experiences of designed urban spaces. Monica Degen and I have also worked on the ESRC-funded project Urban aesthetics: a comparison of experiences in Milton Keynes and Bedford town centres (ESRC grant number RES-062-23-0223), in which we compared how people experienced two rather different town centres: Milton Keynes and Bedford.
The long-term project Doing Family Photography: The Domestic, The Public and The Politics of Sentiment resulted in a book from Ashgate Press in 2010. I approached family snaps by thinking of them as objects embedded in a wide range of practices. The book explores the different 'politics of sentiment' in which family snaps participate in both their domestic spaces in the public space of the contemporary mass media.
I'm also interested visual methodologies, visual research methods, and in more innovative ways to produce social science research, especially using visual materials. The third edition of my book Visual Methodologies was published by Sage in 2011.edit
Little is known about the issues facing geographers working on fractional appointments in higher education institutions in the UK. This paper draws on a survey of UK geography departments and personal experiences to explore some of that... more
Little is known about the issues facing geographers working on fractional appointments in higher education institutions in the UK. This paper draws on a survey of UK geography departments and personal experiences to explore some of that territory for the first time. The purpose is both to set the agenda for institutional policy issues and to provide some immediate points of reflection for staff intending to take up fractional work. We consider the place of fractional working in the dominant discourses around paid work, problems of workload division and the impact on professional standing (including the RAE). We suggest that while personal 'life' reasons for fractional working are often positive, fractional workers in the academy risk professional marginalization.
This paper explores how Computer Generated Images have enabled the visualisation and negotiation of a new urban imaginary, in the production of a large-scale urban development project in Doha, Qatar. CGIs were central not only to the... more
This paper explores how Computer Generated Images have enabled the visualisation and negotiation of a new urban imaginary, in the production of a large-scale urban development project in Doha, Qatar. CGIs were central not only to the marketing but also the design of Msheireb Downtown. Our study of their production and circulation across a transnational architectural and construction team reveals how their digital characteristics allowed for the development of a negotiated, hybrid urban imaginary, within the context of a re-imaging and re-positioning of cities in a shifting global order. We suggest that CGIs enabled the co-production of a postcolonial urban aesthetic, disrupting the historical orientalist gaze on the Gulf region, in three ways. Firstly, they circulate through a global network of actors negotiating diverse forms of knowledge from different contexts; secondly, they are composed from a mix of inter-referenced cultural sources and indicators visualising hybrid identities; and thirdly, they evoke a particular urban atmosphere which is both place-and culture-specific, and cosmopolitan. The study emphasises the importance of research into the technical and
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Little is known about the issues facing geographers working on fractional appointments in higher education institutions in the UK. This paper draws on a survey of UK geography departments and personal experiences to explore some of that... more
Little is known about the issues facing geographers working on fractional appointments in higher education institutions in the UK. This paper draws on a survey of UK geography departments and personal experiences to explore some of that territory for the first time. The purpose is ...
Research Interests: Human Geography and Area
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This paper is based on a small‐scale, qualitative research project, which used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews to explore what a particular group of middle‐class, white mothers with young children were doing with their family... more
This paper is based on a small‐scale, qualitative research project, which used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews to explore what a particular group of middle‐class, white mothers with young children were doing with their family photographs. It was evident from the ...
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... them as distinct genres): a Foucauldian account of photography as a form of disciplining surveillance, and a Lacanianinfluenced analysis of photography as a disruptive reminder of absence and death. By examining documentary... more
... them as distinct genres): a Foucauldian account of photography as a form of disciplining surveillance, and a Lacanianinfluenced analysis of photography as a disruptive reminder of absence and death. By examining documentary photographs and family snapshots from the ...
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... I suggest that he is performing a subject position sympto-matic of the contradictions of post/colonial discourse, contradictions he is also at the same time analysing. ... It produces a vision of the world which assumes mimetic... more
... I suggest that he is performing a subject position sympto-matic of the contradictions of post/colonial discourse, contradictions he is also at the same time analysing. ... It produces a vision of the world which assumes mimetic knowledge is possible: a map of the social Bhabha ...
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The paper contributes to the growing critique of locality-studies by questioning their frequent assumption that the social relations of waged work are fundamental to explanations of society and politics. It argues that, despite recent... more
The paper contributes to the growing critique of locality-studies by questioning their frequent assumption that the social relations of waged work are fundamental to explanations of society and politics. It argues that, despite recent theoretical developments, locality-...
... relating it to ideas of middle-class femininity in the writings of landscape gardeners John Claudius and Jane Webb Loudon. ... were too exhausted to provide an equally in-sightful plenary discussion at the end of the day, although the... more
... relating it to ideas of middle-class femininity in the writings of landscape gardeners John Claudius and Jane Webb Loudon. ... were too exhausted to provide an equally in-sightful plenary discussion at the end of the day, although the ... GILLIAN ROSE Queen Mary College, London ...
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This short essay makes a few comments about the doing of histories of geography. It assumes that the practice of writing histories of any kind is irredeemably contemporary and that how histories are articulated matters in relation to how... more
This short essay makes a few comments about the doing of histories of geography. It assumes that the practice of writing histories of any kind is irredeemably contemporary and that how histories are articulated matters in relation to how current disciplinary practice, ...
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... suggest that these studies had neglected to examine any aspects of the geographies shown in ... Barthes argued that the particularity of a photograph's temporality and spatiality was central to ... to argue again that... more
... suggest that these studies had neglected to examine any aspects of the geographies shown in ... Barthes argued that the particularity of a photograph's temporality and spatiality was central to ... to argue again that the domestic space produced by encounters with family photos is ...
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Despite a decade of effort by a few valiant geographers, feminism is still marginal to the discipline. The idea that gender relations systematically structure social institutions, the division of space and behaviour in conscious and... more
Despite a decade of effort by a few valiant geographers, feminism is still marginal to the discipline. The idea that gender relations systematically structure social institutions, the division of space and behaviour in conscious and unconscious ways is still not a central ...
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ABSTRACT The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) annual Medals and Awards recognise achievements in researching, communicating and teaching a wide range of geographical knowledge. The speeches and... more
ABSTRACT The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) annual Medals and Awards recognise achievements in researching, communicating and teaching a wide range of geographical knowledge. The speeches and citations are a record of the ceremony of 2012. With comments by the BBC's Alastair Fothergill, and Professors Charles Withers, Gillian Rose, Stuart Lane and Claudio Vita-Finzi, the speeches encompass historical geography, inspiring audiences, domestic visual culture, flood hazards and climate change. President Michael Palin introduces the ceremony, emphasising the breadth and relevance of geographical research.
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©1994 The Guilford Press A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc. 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 Marketed and distributed outside North America by Longman Group Limited. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced,... more
©1994 The Guilford Press A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc. 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 Marketed and distributed outside North America by Longman Group Limited. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval ...
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UCL logo UCL Discovery. ...
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... from family events; and The Times found photographs of one, Mohammad Sidique Khan, at work as some sort of a teacher. These photos were usually ... Avital Ronell perhaps describes looking at photos like those of the missing and dead... more
... from family events; and The Times found photographs of one, Mohammad Sidique Khan, at work as some sort of a teacher. These photos were usually ... Avital Ronell perhaps describes looking at photos like those of the missing and dead in the Standard most precisely. ...
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... suggest that these studies had neglected to examine any aspects of the geographies shown in ... Barthes argued that the particularity of a photograph's temporality and spatiality was central to ... to argue again that... more
... suggest that these studies had neglected to examine any aspects of the geographies shown in ... Barthes argued that the particularity of a photograph's temporality and spatiality was central to ... to argue again that the domestic space produced by encounters with family photos is ...
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Research Interests:
This paper is based on a small‐scale, qualitative research project, which used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews to explore what a particular group of middle‐class, white mothers with young children were doing with their family... more
This paper is based on a small‐scale, qualitative research project, which used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews to explore what a particular group of middle‐class, white mothers with young children were doing with their family photographs. It was evident from the ...
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This paper explores how the hybrid making of Computer Generated Images on the Msheireb urban redevelopment project in Doha may be understood as a distributed and networked craft practice within the discipline of architecture and design,... more
This paper explores how the hybrid making of Computer Generated Images on the Msheireb urban redevelopment project in Doha may be understood as a distributed and networked craft practice within the discipline of architecture and design, which is effecting the material transformation of the urban landscape and everyday urban life in Doha. We suggest that the evocation of ‘atmosphere’ through the digitalised production of these images mobilises ideas and aspirations for the construction of a ‘new kind of place’ and urban lifestyle, both as an imaginary and a reality, in the Islamic and Arab context, and that, as crafted images, CGIs should be seen as objects with social agency which are central to the construction of the project as a technological and social reality during its production phases as well as to its translation into the social reality of built form and urban life.
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This paper is an edited transcript of a panel discussion on 'Landscape, Mobility and Practice'which was held at the Royal Geographical Society (with... more
This paper is an edited transcript of a panel discussion on 'Landscape, Mobility and Practice'which was held at the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Annual Conference in September 2006. In the paper the panel engage with the work of geographers and others who have been drawing upon theories of practice to explore issues of mobility and how we encounter, apprehend, inhabit and move through landscapes. The contributors discuss the usefulness of conceptions of landscape vis-à-vis ...
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Photographs have always played a major role in geographical studies. Ever since the invention of photography in the 1830s, it has been assumed that photographs are perfectly suited to helping us answer that eminently geographical... more
Photographs have always played a major role in geographical studies. Ever since the invention of photography in the 1830s, it has been assumed that photographs are perfectly suited to helping us answer that eminently geographical question,'what is this place like?'. ...
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This paper reviews a selection of websites that explore urban geographies. Many sites use the web as a depository for large amounts of research data. However, many are using websites to disseminate research findings, and the paper focuses... more
This paper reviews a selection of websites that explore urban geographies. Many sites use the web as a depository for large amounts of research data. However, many are using websites to disseminate research findings, and the paper focuses on these. It suggests that, thus far, ...
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... Indeed, discursive citation in this essay becomes the process of copying previous styles of dress, and little attention is paid to slippages in such styles. Instead, subversion consists of the dis-ruption of other, again already... more
... Indeed, discursive citation in this essay becomes the process of copying previous styles of dress, and little attention is paid to slippages in such styles. Instead, subversion consists of the dis-ruption of other, again already existing, identities by these gay and lesbian ones. ...
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Research Interests:
Little is known about the issues facing geographers working on fractional appointments in higher education institutions in the UK. This paper draws on a survey of UK geography departments and personal experiences to explore some of that... more
Little is known about the issues facing geographers working on fractional appointments in higher education institutions in the UK. This paper draws on a survey of UK geography departments and personal experiences to explore some of that territory for the first time. The purpose is ...
Research Interests: Human Geography and Area
Computer generated images have become the common means for architects and developers to visualise and market future urban developments. This article examines within the context of the experience economy how these digital images aim to... more
Computer generated images have become the common means for architects and developers to visualise and market future urban developments. This article examines within the context of the experience economy how these digital images aim to evoke and manipulate specific place atmospheres to emphasize the experiential qualities of new buildings and urban environments. In particular, we argue that CGIs are far from ‘just’ glossy representations but are a new form of visualising the urban that captures and markets particular embodied sensations. Drawing on a two year qualitative study of architects’ practices that worked on the Msheireb project, a large scale redevelopment project in Doha (Qatar), we examine how digital visualisation technology enables the virtual engineering of sensory experiences using a wide range of graphic effects. We show how these CGIs are laboriously materialised in order to depict and present specific sensory, embodied regimes and affective experiences to appeal to clients and consumers. Such development has two key implications. Firstly, we demonstrate the importance of digital technologies in framing the ‘expressive infrastructure’ (Thrift 2012) of the experience economy. Secondly, we argue that although the Msheireb CGIs open up a field of negotiation between producers and the Qatari client, and work quite hard at being culturally specific, they ultimately draw “on a Westnocentric literary and sensory palette” (Tolia-Kelly 2006) that highlights the continuing influence of colonial sensibilities in supposedly postcolonial urban processes.
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Over the past five years, computer-generated images (CGIs) have become commonplace as a means to market urban redevelopments. To date, however, they have been given relatively little attention as a new form of visualising the urban.... more
Over the past five years, computer-generated images (CGIs) have become commonplace as a means to market urban redevelopments. To date, however, they have been given relatively little attention as a new form of visualising the urban. This paper argues that these CGIs deserve more attention, and attention of a particular kind. It argues that, instead of approaching them as images situated in urban space, their digitality invites us to understand them as interfaces circulating through a software-supported network space. The paper uses an Actor-Network-Theory understanding of 'network' and argues that the action done on and with CGIs as they are created takes place at a series of interfaces. These interfaces – between and among humans, software and hardware – are where work is done both to create the CGI and to create the conditions for their circulation. These claims are explored in relation to the CGIs made for a large urban redevelopment project in Doha, Qatar. The paper concludes by suggesting that geographers need to reconsider their understanding of digital images and be as attentive to the interfaces embedded in the image as to the CGI's visual content.
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This paper addresses how geographers conceptualise cultural artifacts. Many geographical studies of cultural objects continue to depend heavily on an approach developed as part of the 'new cultural geography' in the 1980s. That approach... more
This paper addresses how geographers conceptualise cultural artifacts. Many geographical studies of cultural objects continue to depend heavily on an approach developed as part of the 'new cultural geography' in the 1980s. That approach examined the cultural politics of representations of place, space and landscape by undertaking close readings of specific cultural objects. Over three decades on, the cultural field (certainly in the Global North) has changed fundamentally, as digital technologies for the creation and dissemination of meaning have become extraordinarily pervasive and diverse. Yet geographical studies of cultural objects have thus far neglected to consider the conceptual and methodological implications of this shift. This paper argues that such studies must begin to map the complexities of digitally-mediated cultural production, circulation and interpretation. It will argue that to do this, it is necessary to move away from the attentive gaze on stable cultural objects as formulated by some of the new cultural geography, and instead focus on mapping the dynamics of the production, circulation and modification of meaning at digital interfaces and across frictional networks.
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One of the most striking developments across the social sciences in the past decade has been the growth of research methods using visual materials. It is often suggested that this growth is somehow related to the increasing importance of... more
One of the most striking developments across the social sciences in the past decade has been the growth of research methods using visual materials. It is often suggested that this growth is somehow related to the increasing importance of visual images in contemporary social and cultural practice. However, the form of the relationship between 'visual research methods' and 'contemporary visual culture' has not yet been interrogated. This paper conducts such an interrogation, exploring the relation between 'visual research methods' – as they are constituted in quite particular ways by a growing number of handbooks, reviews, conference and journals – and contemporary visual culture – as characterised by discussions of 'convergence culture'. The paper adopts a performative approach to 'visual research methods'. It suggests that when they are used, 'visual research methods' create neither a 'social' articulated through culturally-mediated images, nor a 'research participant' competency in using such images. Instead, the paper argues that the intersection of visual culture and 'visual research methods' should be located in their shared way of using images, since in both, images tend to be deployed much more as communicational tools than as representational texts. The paper concludes by placing this argument in the context of recent discussions about the production of sociological knowledge in the wider social field.
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"Experience is conceptualised in both academic and policy circles as a more-or-less direct effect of the design of the built environment. Drawing on findings from a research project that investigated people’s everyday experiences of... more
"Experience is conceptualised in both academic and policy circles as a more-or-less direct effect of the design of the built environment. Drawing on findings from a research project that investigated people’s everyday experiences of designed urban environments in two UK towns, this paper suggests at least two reasons why sensory encounters between individuals and built environments cannot in fact be understood entirely as a consequence of the design features of those environments. Drawing from empirical analysis based on surveys, ethnographic ‘walk-alongs’ and photo-elicitation interviews, we argue that distinct senses of place do depend on the sensory experiencing of built environments. However, that experiencing is significantly mediated in two ways. First, it is mediated by bodily mobility: in particular, the walking practices specific to a particular built environment. Secondly, sensory experiences are intimately intertwined with perceptual memories that mediate the present moment of experience in various ways: by multiplying, judging and dulling the sensory encounter. In conclusion, it is argued that work on sensory urban experiencing needs to address more fully the diversity and paradoxes produced by different forms of mobility through, and perceptual memories of, built environments.
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