About



Gareth Polmeer is a writer, artist and lecturer. He studied at the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. He has exhibited works nationally and internationally, and published and presented widely. He is Senior Tutor at the Royal College of Art and a Pearl Fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge. 

He was recently a Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, and holds research interests in the relation between art, metaphysics and the imagination. Recent work has focussed on participation, technology and perception. These subjects have been further explored in papers on philosophy, art and poetry.

In recent years, papers have been presented at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the British Computer Society and the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies conference. Exhibitions include 'Alternate Frames' in Spain, 'Contact: A Festival of New Experimental Film and Video' in the UK and ‘Four Modes of Anti-Image’ in Russia.


Qualifications


BA(Hons),MA,PhD(RCA),PGCert(HE),SFHEA


Employment


Academic posts and visiting lectures at the Royal College of Art, Camberwell College of Arts, Middlesex University, University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury Christ Church University, London College of Communication and James Cook University.


Other Activities 


Associate of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism

Member of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies (ISNS)

Member of the Computer Arts Society (CAS)


Symposia/Panels/Workshops Organised


'Participation and Subcreation: Creativity and the Experience of God in O. Barfield and J.R.R. Tolkien' conference. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, September 2023.

'Poetry and Philosophy: A Workshop on Stanley Rosen'. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, April 2022.

'Barfield, Coleridge and the Imagination' Workshop. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, May 2020.

'Absolute Knowing and Presuppositionless Science: Hegel's Phenomenology and Logic'. Fourth Hegel Reading Group Workshop. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, 2018.

'States of Being: Art and Identity in Digital Space and Time'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Pre-Conference Symposium, British Computer Society, London. 2018.

'Hegel's Science of Logic and the Logic of his Philosophy'. Third Oxford Hegel Reading Group Workshop. St. John's College, University of Oxford, 2017.

'Coded Communication: Digital Senses and Aesthetics, Merging Art and Life'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Pre-Conference Symposium, British Computer Society, London. 2017.

Screen Time, Screen Space - Cinema and/as Gallery Art (co-convened session). Association of Art Historians conference. Royal College of Art, London. 2014.


Links


ORCID
Vimeo
Academia.edu 
LinkedIn
Leonardo
RCA Research
RCA Repository
EThOS online
Research Gate

Chapters, Essays and Proceedings



'Contemplation and Computation: Art, Image and Reality'. In Giannini, Tula and Bowen,Jonathan. (eds.) The Arts and Computational Culture: Real and Virtual Worlds. Springer (forthcoming).

‘Finding Participation: Kathleen Raine's Poetry and the Search for Meaning’. In: Stephens, Jessica and Tardieu, Claire. (eds.) Kathleen Raine: A Voice for the Twenty-First Century. Peter Lang  (forthcoming)

'Lasting Light: Plotinus, Likeness and Images' In: Finamore, John, Patsioti, Ioanna, and Stamatellos, Giannis. (eds.) Platonism and its Heritage: Selected Papers from the 19th Annual Conference of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies. Lydney: The Prometheus Trust, 2023. ISBN: 978-1898910-916.

'Poetry, Language and Meaning: Barfield’s Early Writing and the Influence of Coleridge', Coleridge Bulletin, 59, 2022    

'Projection, Polarity and Participation'. Coleridge Bulletin, 57, Special Edition on Owen Barfield and S.T. Coleridge, 2021.

'Computational Culture and AI: Challenging Human Identity and Curatorial Practice'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts Conference (EVA) Proceedings. With Giannini, Bowen, et.al. BCS, London, 2020.

'Historical Questions on Being and Digital Culture'. In Giannini, Tula and Bowen, Jonathan (eds.) Museums and Digital Culture: New Perspectives and Research. Springer. 2019

'States of Being: Art and Identity in Digital Space and Time'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Conference Proceedings. With Giannini, Bowen, et.al. BCS, London. 2018.

'Coded Communication: Digital Senses and Aesthetics, Merging Art and Life'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Conference Proceedings. With Giannini and Bowen, et. al. BCS, London. 2017. ISBN: 978-1-78017-399-3

'Sublating Time: Hegel’s Speculative Philosophy and Digital Aesthetics'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Conference Proceedings, BCS, London. 2016. ISBN: 978-1-78017-344-3

'Trees in Autumn'. In Hamlyn, Nicky. Payne, Simon., and Rees, A.L. (eds.) Kurt Kren: Structural Films. Bristol: Intellect. 2016. ISBN: 978-1-78320-551-6

'Tree Again'. In Hamlyn, Nicky. Payne, Simon., and Rees, A.L. (eds.) Kurt Kren: Structural Films. Bristol: Intellect. 2016. ISBN: 978-1-78320-551-6

'Asylum'. In Hamlyn, Nicky. Payne, Simon., and Rees, A.L. (eds.) Kurt Kren: Structural Films. Bristol: Intellect. 2016. ISBN: 978-1-78320-551-6

'Film Unframed'. Austrian Studies. Vol. 23. MHRA. 2015. ISSN: 13507532

'Movement within Movement'. VIDEO. London, Evelyn Yard. 2015.

'Processes and Variations in Digital Landscapes'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Conference Proceedings, BCS, London. 2015. ISBN 978-1-78017-316-0

Motion to Becoming: Nature and the Image in Time. PhD thesis. Royal College of Art. 2015.

'Sequences and Intervals'. Leonardo Journal. Vol. 48, No. 2. 2015. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISSN 0024-094X

'Transient Landscape'. Millennium Film Journal. Issue 61. New York: Millennium Film Workshop. 2015. ISSN 1064-5586

'The Cinematic Map'. Materiality of Time. London: UAL/LCC. 2015. ISBN 978-1-906908-34-8

'The Cinematic Map'. Troubled Waters. London: Camberwell Press. 2013. ISBN: 978-1-908971-14-2.

'States of Flux'. MIRAJ, Moving Image Review and Art Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2. 2012. Bristol: Intellect. ISSN: 20456298.

'About Now MMX' (excerpt).One More Time, Catalogue, London: London Met University. 2011.

'About Now MMX' (excerpt). Media City Film Festival, Catalogue, Windsor, Canada. 2011.

'The Cinematic Map: William Raban's About Now MMX'. Tengen Magazine, Issue 3. London: UCL. 2011.

Papers, Lectures and Talks



Iconicity and Meaning: Sacred Art in the Digital Age. Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania, September 2024. (forthcoming)

Art, Spirit and Artifical Intelligence. Yuan Dao Study Society, Hong Kong, June 2024. (forthcoming)

Reflected Meaning: Mirroring, Modernity and Poetry. Metaphysical Poetry and the Thought of Adam Mickiewicz in the European Context conference. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, September 2023. 

Language, Myth, Meaning and Participation. Participation and Subcreation: Creativity and the Experience of God in O. Barfield and J.R.R. Tolkien conference. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, September 2023.

The Reciprocal Imagination. International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 20th Annual Conference, Sicily, June 2023.

Unknowable Light: The Sacred Image and the Digital Age. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, January 2023.

Contemplation and Participatory Vision.    International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 19th Annual Conference, Athens, June 2022.

Appearance and Image: Neoplatonic Themes in Contemporary Aesthetics. Philosophy as a Way of Life symposium. University of Ioannina, Ioannina, June 2022.  

Frames of Inner Vision. Forum for Advance Studies, Rome, May 2022.

Projection and Polarity. Owen Barfield and S.T. Coleridge: Imagination and Participation. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, May 2022

Vision, Intuition and Silence, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, April 2022.

Poetry, Participation and Meaning. Temenos International Conference, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris. March 2022. 

Polarity and Inspiration: Barfield, Coleridge and the Creative Imagination. 'Barfield, Coleridge and the Imagination' Workshop. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, May 2020.

Logomorphism, Logic and Imagination: Owen Barfield and Hegel's Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit. Phenomenology of Spirit reading group. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, November 2019.

Reason and Eternal Essence: Spirit, Absolute Knowing and the Poetry of Hegel's Logic. Absolute Knowing and Presuppositionless Science. Fourth Oxford Hegel Reading Group Workshop. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, 2018.

Spirit and Experience: Hegel, Intuition, Concepts and Non-Identity. London Hegel Reading Group, SOAS, University of London, 2018.

Digital Senses and Aesthetic Autonomy. 'Coded Communication: Digital Senses and Aesthetics, Merging Art and Life'. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Pre-Conference Symposium, British Computer Society, London. 2017.

Intuition, Images and Appearance in the Logic. 'Hegel's Science of Logic and the Logic of his Philosophy'. Third Oxford Hegel Reading Group Workshop. St. John's College, University of Oxford, 2017.

Appearance of the Lasting: Art, Spirit and the Digital Age. University Church, University of Oxford, 2017

Knowledge and Relativism: A Critique of Postmodernism and an Argument for Systematic Philosophy. Humanities Research Forum, Royal College of Art, London, 2016.

Appearance, Illusion and Time. Part of the panel 'Modern Time'. 'Living Pasts, Moving Present', German Screen Studies Network Symposium. King's College London. 2016

Sublating Time: Hegel’s Speculative Philosophy and Digital Aesthetics. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA), British Computer Society, London. 2016.

Duration and Timelessness: Hegel, Aesthetics and the (Slow) Image in Time. Slow Cinema Symposium. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 2016.

Impermanence and the Image of Trees: Hegel, Dialectic and the Experience of Nature. German Research Seminar, King's College London. 2016.

‘Immanent Movement’: Hegel’s ‘speculative thinking’ and questions of meaning in German Philosophy. Humanities Research Forum, Royal College of Art, London. 2015.

Processes and Variations in Digital Landscapes. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA), British Computer Society, London. 2015.

Fragment/Continuum - Disunity in Cinematic Time. Unity/Disunity Conference. University College London. 2013.

Experimental Film and the Architectonics of Light. Association of Art Historians conference. University of Reading. 2013.

Re-temporalising Time: Motion and Intervals in Experimental Film. Fast/Slow: Intensifications of Cinematic Speed. Anglia Ruskin University. 2013.

States of Flux. Visual Communication Research Symposium, Royal College of Art. 2013.

Adorno, Nature and Film. Marx and the Movies conference. University of Central Lancashire. 2012.