Deirdre Macleod has a longstanding interest in the phenomenological aspects of cities; that is, how those who live in cities experience them. She pursues a spatial artistic practice which combines expanded forms of drawing and movement. She draws upon a range of fieldwork methods and observational strategies to reveal and frame aspects of the urban experience. Her artistic practice draws on her original academic training as a geographer. Deirdre’s current research explores how gesture-based performance might help tell the story of cities. She starts from the premise that movement-based research methods are a form of enquiry which can help make sense of lived experience and create new forms of knowledge.
Deirdre is a lecturer in Art at the Centre for Open Learning, University of Edinburgh and she is also a PhD candidate in Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh. Her thesis will examine how artistic practices, such as drawing and movement-based strategies, might contribute to methodologies and epistemologies within human geography.