Staff Profiles

Janice Howard

BFA (Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxon), Postgraduate Diploma (Slade School of Fine Art), MA, SFHEA

Senior Lecturer in Fine Art

School of Arts

Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment

Phone number: 01865 484963

Email: jhoward@brookes.ac.uk

Location: Richard Hamilton Building, Headington Campus

Janice is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art teaching students on the MFA and BA (Hons) Fine Art programmes and supervising PhD by practice (Fine Art) in the School of Arts. She is also Liaison Manager for the School of Arts collaborative Art and Design programmes.

Janice's practice based research spans video installation, sound, photography, performance, drawing and text. Her research contributes to a field of contemporary art which is informed by feminism and focusses on critical questioning with regard to representation. Her research draws on a wide range of disciplinary knowledge and engages in methods of autoethnography and video making to blur boundary concepts of public and private, natural and cultural. Her work has been shown internationally at the Whitworth Gallery Manchester, The Hepworth Gallery Yorkshire, Oriel Mostyn, The Serpentine Gallery London, Cambridge Darkrooms, Stills Gallery Edinburgh, Collar Works New York, Flood Gallery Fine Arts, North Carolina and Czong Institute of Contemporary Art South Korea, as well as at many international festivals.

Janice studied at the Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford University and the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. Her educational background in Fine Art spans study of the Early Renaissance and anatomy through to current art theories and practices. Her experience as a viewer, participant and maker of art has enabled her to build knowledge of non-mainstream practices which challenge contemporary audiences and offer new ways of communicating and thinking through art. She is currently undertaking a PhD by Publication.

Teaching

Janice teaches students studying MFA and BA (Hons) Fine Art practice modules including Fine Art Major Project and Research and Development.

Modules taught

U65570 Fine Art Practice 4: Research and Development (Level 6 double)
U65595/7 Fine Art Practice 4: Major Project (Level 6 quadruple/double)
P65501 Fine Art Practice 1: Outcomes of Research in Practice (Level 7)
P65502: Fine Art Practice II: Major Project (Level 7)

Supervision

Janice supervises PhD students in Fine Art practice.

Completed practice based supervisions include:

Dr. Jo Thomas-Presencing Place: an enquiry into the knowing and shaping of place through extended art practices (co-supervised with Professor Shelley Sacks)
Dr. Aya Kasai-Nothing Matters: Answering the questions ‘Where’s the Art? Through Ma and Gen (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)
Dr. Anna Yearwood-Finding/Making Home: A Practice Based Study in the Use of Everyday Ritual and the Making of Home (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)
Dr. Alisaar Mcreary-Residues of Personal Experience of Conflict and Displacement (co supervised with Professor Ray Lee)

PhD theses currently being supervised as Director of Studies include:

Catherine Ross: Liminal Light; Liminal Space: A Visual Investigation into Liminality
Morven Shortt: Seeking New Perspectives on the Sustainable Properties and Uses of Detritus through Creative Practice-Based Material Development
Markus Stefan: Looking for 'Right Livelihood': An Exploration of Contemporary Social Sculpture and Connective Practice towards Capacity Building for Holistic, Transformative Life Practice and Enquiry

PhD theses currently being supervised as co-supervisor include:

Blanca Rodriguez Beltran: Being home: An art practice exploration of the sense of home (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)
Alex Newton: Liminality, the uncanny and the sublime: A practice based exploration of the thresholds of experience (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)
Patricia Annie Wright: Speech. Action. Self:Experiencing Word and Image in Performance Art, an Ethnographic Perspective (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)
Heather Burnett Rose: Campaign for Consciousness: An exploration of the ways art installations and public billboard exhibitions can potentially provoke shifts in consciousness and influence zeitgesit (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)
James Elliot: Temporal Place(s): Digital Representations of the Landscape (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)
Katie Taylor: Can a Creative Practice Methodology be Devised that will Satisfactorily Articulate a Sense of Individuality from Unidentified Human Remains? (co-supervised with Dr. Clair Chinnery)
April Jackson: A Plate of Ones Own (co-supervised with Professor Ray Lee)

Janice is a PhD by practice examiner at Brookes. Previous examinations include Cordova De La Rosa, Johnson, Chatzigiannis, Manganis, Schaeffer, Lee, Regisford, Lloyd, Kirchgaesser.

Research

Janice's practice based resaerch draws on knowledge from feminist phenomenology, philosophy, anthropology, film studies, cultural studies and contemporary art and intersect with the concept of an 'in-between' through themes emerging from lived experience such as illness. Janice is currently undertaking a Phd by Publication.

Janice's research interests include:

Feminist phenomenology
Autoethnography
Embodiment, the senses and film and video
Screen/ space and the projected image in contemporary art
Dialogic art practice and the space of performance
The haptic as a visual strategy
Memory, loss, marginalization
Liminality, the body and rhythm
Place, identity, gender
Walking and running as a speculative tool in art practice
Poetic ambiguity, intuition and imagination

Research group membership

Fine Art Research (FAR) group, School of Arts, Oxford Brookes University

Research projects

Janice's most recent research project 'Encounters with Illness' includes a number of experimental videos. The project navigates some of the physical and emotional dynamics of human experience as they are affected by illness and disease ( such as Parkinson's and cancer) and explores ways to locate oneself in relation to such a paradoxical space inbetween. The Project is auto-biographical, drawing on personal archives. Each video engages with a poetic visual language to evoke reflections of 'the fear of the other within' (Cristofovici 1999) as we age and encounter experiences of illness and disease. Editing is used to intervene in a natural sequence of events, to create a story that reveals a disrupted body, an 'other than me' (Toombs 1993) and to reflect upon a shift in the temporal dimension brought about by illness and the separation from a hitherto familiar place. The project attemps to articulate a personal complexity of loss that unravels with the slow deterioration of the body and comment on our deeply subjective and sometimes unfathomable experience of disease, often clouded by partial knowledge.

Previous projects include ‘Waterwall’ a large-scale site related projection onto a waterscreen located in the Regents Canal, London in collaboration with Fatima Salim, British Champion Figure Skater and a National Ice Skating Association Gold Medallist. This site-related video projection onto a waterscreen explored the integration of technology and performance based works into urban social spaces. This work continued research into the relationship between the body and site, the construction of images that embody ideas associated with memory and personal history.

'Tow' was produced as part of ‘Visual Busking’, an interventionist artwork along Camden Lock, London.This single monitor work stemmed from an interest in the phenomena of time, memory and light and explored the deliberate modification of time to remove it from its everyday context and allude to memory as it is embedded in place.

She has also been commissioned to produce artwork for ‘Luminaries’ (Oriel Mostyn) an exhibition exploring the use of ‘light’ in contemporary art. Through a synthesis of video, installation and performance 'Spin' explored paradoxical states of being and the use of video as an instrument for the articulation of mental space. The work examined the gap between what a looped sequence can show and what we infer about the actuality it derives from.

'Stumble' was produced for a group show at Ffotogallery in Cardiff alongside work from Mariele Neudecker and Gary Hill. This projection considered the nature of video in relation to its content, the way a tape is edited and looped for example to create a tension between the mechanism and the image (a dancer on Pointe in this case). Editing was used in this work to intervene in the ‘natural’ sequence of events to examine a state of being rather than a simple ‘act’.

Research impact

Janice's exhibiting experience includes:

Art Stands Still, Collarworks Gallery New York, Objectified, CICA Museum South Korea, Birth Rites, Whitworth Gallery Manchester and Kings College Medical School, Displaced, P21 Gallery London, Autothnography and Creative Collaboration, The Hepworth Gallery Wakefield, University of Buckingham Medical School, Wheres the Art and Mediations, Ovada Gallery Oxford, Luminaries, Oriel Mostyn and Aberystwyth Arts Centre, The Serpentine Gallery, Ffotogallery Cardiff, Chapter Arts Centre, Silent Health, Gallery of Photography Ireland, The Cambridge Darkroom and Stills Gallery, Edinburgh.

Her work was recently published as part of the Live Art Development Agency Study Room Guide Restock, Reflect, Rethink series, ‘The Displaced and Privilege: Live Art in the Age of Hostility’.

Publications

Other publications

Howard, J., 'Echo (heart in my mouth)'
Experimental video screened at 'The Women at the Centre Film Festival as part of the International Papillomavirus Conference, Barcelona 20-24July 2020.
This short experimental video reflects upon experiences encountered during ultrasound scans in-particular the embodiment of anxiety encountered during antenatal screening in relation to ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage. The video is auto-biographical, drawing on personal archives. The video attempts to translate un-recordable memories of the senses experienced. It explores themes of memory and loss through poetic narrative and a fascination with what the film critic Laura Marks terms as haptic visuality.
(2020) Website
Howard J, Jones R, Kelly T, Klein J, Lee J, Mahon K, Pil D, Walkington H., ''Touching movements in-between: thinking with my feet''
Contribution to an artist's publication 'Un/writing the landscape, re/figuring the body' [ISBN: 9788299999182] commissioned by PABlish (Bergen Performing Arts publishing arm) and stemming from the Seers-in-Residence programme led by Traci Kelly and Rhiannon Jones (University of Derby). The programme culminated in research generation in the form of a series of conversations with invited academics and researchers in response to Kelly and Jones exhibition. A series of texts were produced as part of the publication including from Howard, 'Touching movements in-between: thinking with my feet'. The publication was a collaboration between researchers from Sheffield Hallam University, University of Derby, University of Ohio, University of Bergen, and Oxford Brookes University.
(2020)
Janice Howard, 'A Flying Centre of Gravity'
Experimental video
(2020) Website
Howard J, Colbert L, Hehir A, 'Picture Box'
Experimental video
(2020) Website
Howard J, Colbert L, Hehir A, 'Picture Box'
Experimental video
(2020) Website
Howard J, Colbert L, Hehir A, 'Picture Box'
Experimental video
(2020) Website
Howard, J, Colbert L, Hehir A, 'Picture Box'
Experimental video
(2020) Website
Howard, J, 'A Flying Centre of Gravity'
(2019) Website
Howard J, Chinnery C, Richardson L, 'Within and Between; Women, Bodies, Generations'
'Within and Between considers the public and private worlds of women on the cusp of change measured through life-altering events, where selfhood is often sacrificed to the more urgent drive to 'nurture' the next generation and /or 'negotiate' the deteriorations of the previous one. At times physiological changes experienced across extended families collide creating a complex terrain characterised by the 'metamorphoses' of puberty, menopause, illness, and death. With this 'landscape' as the backdrop to their work Chinnery, Howard and Richardson bring together varied practices to explore themes and expand the discourses of 'intergenerationality' and 'autoethnography'. Extract from catalogue ISBN 9781916504332.
Howard's work included:
A Well Trodden path (the distance between two places) 2017 digital video
A Flying Centre of Gravity 2019 digital video
A Story About a Tapeworm 2017 digital video installation
To Grip Imaginary Things 2019 digital video installation
The Lady Who Set Fire to Herself 2019 digital video installation
Picture Box a Family Album digital video, 2 x iPads, 2 x wall mounted iPad display (soundtrack composed by Laurence Colbert and Alex Hehir)
For 'Within and Between', Howard's work engages with a poetic visual language to evoke reflections of the 'fear of the other within' (Cristofovici 1999) as we age and encounter experiences of illness and disease. Editing is used to interrupt and intervene in a 'natural' sequence of events, to create a story that reveals a disrupted body, an 'other than me' (Toombs 1993) and to reflect upon a shift in the temporal dimension brought about by illness and the separation from a hitherto familiar place. The work in the exhibition attempts to articulate a personal complexity of loss that unravels with the slow deterioration of the body and comments upon our deeply subjective and sometimes unfathomable experience of disease, often clouded by partial knowledge.
(2019) Website
Howard J, Colbert L, Hehir A, 'Picture Box'
Experimental video
(2019) Website
Howard J, Colbert L, Hehir A, 'Picture Box'
Experimental video
(2019) Website
Howard J, 'A Story About a Tapeworm'
single channel digital video exhibited in 'Art Stands Still' at Collar Works Gallery New York
Exhibition runs from May 31st - July 13th 2019
(2019)
Howard J, 'A Well Trodden Path (the distance between two places)'
(2018)
Howard J, 'Echo (heart in my mouth)'
https://vimeo.com/218299288
single channel digital video exhibited as part of 'Objectified' at CICA Museum South Korea, 26th Jan.-11th Feb. 2018
(2017) Abstract
Howard J, 'Echo (heart in my mouth)'
https://vimeo.com/218299288
single channel digital video exhibited as part of 'Birth Rites' as Kings College Medical School
(2017) Abstract
Howard J, 'Echo (heart in my mouth)'
https://vimeo.com/218299288
single channel digital video exhibited as part of Birth Rites at Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, 18th Jan. 2018 (2017) Abstract
Howard J, 'Mapping 1'
photo-text work published in 'The Displaced and Privilege: live art in the age of hostility' a Live Art Development Agency Study Room Guide Ed Elena Marchevska. (2017)
Howard J, 'Mapping 2'
Photo-text published in 'The Displaced and Privilege: live art in the age of hostility' a Live Art Development Agency Study Room Guide ed. Elena Marchevska. (2017)
Howard J, 'Echo (heart in my mouth)'
https://vimeo.com/218299288
single channel digital video exhibited in 'Wheres the Art' Ovada Gallery, Oxford, England, 25th Nov. 2017.
(2017) Abstract
Howard J, 'Take the words from your mouth'
single channel digital video exhibited in 'Ward' at the University of Buckingham Medical School, 24th Nov. 2017 (2017)
Howard J, 'A Well Trodden Path (the distance between two places)'
https://vimeo.com/210433056
single channel digital video screened in two exhibitions:
'Wheres the Art', Ovada Gallery Oxford
'Displaced' P21 Gallery, London
(2017)
Howard J, 'A Story About a Tapeworm'
https://vimeo.com/238303086
single channel digital video exhibited in 'Ward' at the University of Buckingham Medical School, 24th Nov. 2017 (2017) Abstract
Howard, J., 'Echo (heart in my mouth)'
Experimental Video screened at the Experimental Forum film festival Los Angeles on 16 June 2020.
() Website
Barlow C, Bencard A, Biernhoff S, Crook E, Davey S, Fend M, Gallivan S, Gensler T, Grundell V, Devrim Gursel Z, Johnstone F, Lazevnick A, Orton L, Pardo R, Partnum L. H, Ruiz-Gomez N, Saha I, Sciampacone A, Tutorskaya M and Chizh N, Whiteley R, Wildgoose J, Wright A. and Redler Hawes H, Barnard E, Bono S, Carr S, Chinnery C, Connor K, Dowson K, Howard J, Lyons L, Marron M, Tan K. S, Tummings T., 'Representing the Medical Body (publication insert)'
()
Howard J, Colbert L, Hehir A., 'Picture Box'
() Website
Howard, J., 'A Story About A Tapeworm'
() Website
Howard, J., 'A Well Trodden Path ( the distance between two places) '
() Website

Professional information

Areas of expertise

Janice's practice based research spans video projection, sound, photography, performance, drawing and text. Her recent research project focuses on the links between writing/ reading/ running and making videos in relation to autoethnography and haptic visuality as she explores the theme of illness. She draws upon various disciplines in her research including feminist phenomenology, philosophy, anthropology, film studies, cultural studies and contemporary art.

Janice's educational background in art spans study of the Early Renaissance and anatomy through to current art theories and practices. Her experience as a viewer, participant and maker of art has enabled her to build knowledge of non-mainstream practices which challenge contemporary audiences and offer new ways of communicating and thinking through art.

Consultancy

Janice has held numerous external examiner appointments for national, collaborative annd international programmes in Fine Art and Design including Chief External Examiner at both the University of the West of England, Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education and the Arts Institute Bournemouth, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture.

Janice has contributed to the validation of Higher Education programmes at other UK HE and FE institutions and acted externally as consultant on REF submissions and HE Periodic Reviews. She contributed to the Advance-HE degree-standards project and is listed as a trained examiner in their External Examiners Directory.

Conferences

Janice's work has been presented at conferences in the UK and internationally incuding the Public Engagement and Performance Conference at the Hepworth Gallery, TaPRA at the University of Essex and The Women at the Centre Film Festival.

Other experience

Janice's academic career began as a Research Fellow in Time Based Media at Cardiff Metropolitan University working alongside Cornelia Parker. She previously held lecturing posts at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Loughborough University and has taught on Fine Art courses at Central Saint Martins College, Solent University and Leeds Metropolitan University. At Oxford Brookes she has undertaken many roles including Head of School as well as University wide roles such as Principal Lecturer Student Experience (Collaborative Provision).

Further information

Janice graduated in Fine Art from The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford University in 1989 and then went on to study ‘alternative-media’ under Stuart Brisley, Susan Hiller and Jayne Parker at the Slade School of Fine Art.

Janice is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.