Dr Mark Leahy

Associate Lecturer, Academy of Innovation and Research (AIR)

MARK LEAHY is a writer and artist working with text, image and performance. From Ireland, he now lives and works in South West England. He makes solo and collaborative performance works that use language, gesture, and digital interfaces to examine how individuals are shaped by cultural and social forces. Works look at the performer’s body as policed by economic, political and cultural narratives, at how ‘voice’ functions to place someone, and at how language can perpetuate inequalities. Recent live projects include ‘twiceness’ (2024) with Shelley Hodgson, ‘cream of the crop’ (Plymouth, 2024), ‘revised dictionary supplement’ (Plymouth, Falmouth, 2022), ‘Breath Pieces’ (Glasgow, 2018); ‘telling time’ (Dartington, 2018); ’threaded insert’ (Plymouth, 2017; Cardiff, 2018). Publications include At Sounds Like: 3 Projects (if p then q books, 2021), ‘9x9: a set of poems under constraint’ (ArtsandCultureExeter, 2020), Subject to Gesture (Dock Road Press, 2017) and ’in the key of’ (Counter Plymouth Artist Book Fair, 2015). He has written texts to accompany work by artists including Nathan Walker, Katy Connor, Andrew Kearney, and LOW PROFILE. He is active in peer-networks supporting artists’ activity in his region, and works with several arts and creative organisations including CAMP CIC, Take A Part CIO, and Soundart Radio. Having taught at Dartington College of Arts, he joined Falmouth University in 2010, teaching on the BA English and Writing programme, and contributing to the Postgraduate Research Programme as a supervisor, examiner, and teacher.

External Links

Dr Mark Leahy

Contact details

Email mark.leahy@falmouth.ac.uk

    Qualifications

    Qualifications

    Year Qualification Awarding body
    2009 PGCHE University College Falmouth
    2000 PhD University of Leeds
    1994 MA University College Dublin
    1993 BA University College Dublin

    Research Interests

    Research interests and expertise

    Research interests include relations between writing, performance and visual arts; questions of voice, gesture and communication; issues around genre in visual and textual production and consumption; theoretical investigations of reading and speaking; digital and electronic literature; and contemporary poetry. Research activities include a continuing practice in writing and performance, critical and theoretical writing on voice and performance, and curation of related exhibitions and events.

    Research Topics

    • Creative Writing
    • Contemporary Performance
    • Live Art
    • Voice
    • Gesture
    • Textual Practices

    Research Outputs

    Publications and research outputs

    • Brown, Katrina and Irvine, Rosanna

      (2016), what remains and is to come, In: what remains and is to come, 2016, Tramway Glasgow, Item availability may be restricted.

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2014), answering machine, In: Experimentica 14, 07 Nov 2014, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2013), Muster Page Habit 2, The Cube, Bristol

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2012), Muster Page Habit: Flat-head self-tapping, In: PW12: Plinths, May 2012, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2011), Voice Recognition: A Play after Gertrude Stein, William Shakespeare and Rolf Harris, In: Electronic Voice Phenomena, 16 October 2011, Bluecoat, Liverpool

    • Osmond, Matthew

      (2016), Language, Landscape and the Sublime, (Published)

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2013), "It is the act and not the object of perception that matters": MacGreevy's poetry in relation to perception in literary and visual arts, In: The Life and Work of Thomas MacGreevy: A Critical Appraisal, Bloomsbury Academic, London, pp. 33-47, ISBN: 9781441140920

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2010), "I might have been a painter": John James and the Relation between Visual and Verbal Arts, In: The Salt Companion to John James, Salt Books, Cambridge, pp. 195-223, ISBN: 9781876857967

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2007), Private Public Reading: Readers in Digital Literature Installation, In: A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, Blackwell, Oxford, UK, pp. 301-317, ISBN: 1405148640, (Published)

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2012), Hand in Glove - sinister hand vested sable lozengy couped, In: Open Letter: Negotiating the Social Bond of Poetics, Frank Davey ed., Toronto, Canada, 14 (8), pp. 74-82, ISSN: 0048-1939

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2009), Glossing Speakers, or bookmaking for amateurs, In: Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, Intellect Ltd., Bristol, 2 (1), pp. 55-67, ISSN: 1753-5190

    • Leahy, Mark

      (2005), Plantation and Thicket: a (double) sight reading of Sir Thomas Browne's 'Garden of Cyrus', In: Performance Research, Centre for Performance Research, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales, 10 (2), pp. 111-122, ISBN: 1469-9990, ISSN: 1352-8165

    Research Students

    Current research students

    Director of Studies on PhD project
    Drew Turner (UAL regs Falmouth University)
    Title: Between Grief, Memory and Home: an oscillating process of narrative illustration combin-ing 2D and 3D methods.

    Previous student supervision

    Supervisor on PhD project
    Paul Reynolds (UAL regs. Falmouth University, 2020)
    A Practice-Based Inquiry into a Taxonomy and Ontology of Holes in Devoré-Lace.

    Supervisor on PhD project
    Veronica Fazzio (Plymouth University / Transart, 2020)
    Social Sculpture: A Plastic Process of Mutual Transformation

    Supervisor on PhD project by
    Steven A. Evans (Plymouth University / Transart, 2019)
    Creative Caprice: States of Consciousness, Intrinsic Interest, Emotion and Practice-based Phenomenological Inquiry.

    Supervisor on PhD by
    Katrina Brown (UAL regs. Falmouth University, 2017)
    Intersect / Surface / Body: A Choreographics of Drawing

    Supervisor on PhD by
    Annabel Banks (UAL regs. Falmouth, 2015 )
    Poetry and the Boulton and Watt Archive: History, Story, Community

    Supervisor on PhD by
    Mark Greenwood (Kingston University; 2012)
    The body considered as a site of writing, resistant to the advance of cultural commodification.

    Director of Studies on PhD by
    Camilla Nelson (University College Falmouth / UAL; 2012)
    Writing with a Tree: Practising Nature Writing as Enquiry

    Supervisor on MPhil by
    David Sullivan (University College Falmouth / University of Plymouth; 2011)
    The Visible Invisible Object: A Photographic Enquiry ‘Recording’ a Lived Life

    Supervisor on PhD by
    Larry Lynch (Dartington College of Arts / University of Plymouth; 2009)
    The Difficult Impossible: Writing, Performance and the Subject

    Supervisor on PhD project by
    David Evans (Dartington College of Arts / University of Plymouth; 2007)
    Reading neuroscience : ventriloquism as a metaphor for multiple readings of self

    Supervisor on PhD project by
    Anya Lewin (Dartington College of Arts / University of Plymouth; 2006)
    Performing a practice: narrative - translation - live installation - urban intervention

    Number of research students supervised to completion

    11

    Research degrees examined

    I have been external examiner on 6 PhD projects in the UK and overseas. I have been Internal examiner on 1 PhD project at University of Plymouth, and on 4 PhD projects at Falmouth University. I have also been Chair for 9 PhD examinations under UAL Regulations at Falmouth University.

    Number of research degree examinations

    11

    Teaching

    Areas of teaching

    • Fine Art
    • Academic Writing
    • Creative Writing
    • Performance Writing
    • Contemporary Performance
    • Research Skills

    Policy engagement within Cornwall

    Engagement with organisations which contribute to the development of educational, cultural or socio-economic policies in Cornwall

    • Co-director of CAMP CIC (Contemporary Art Membership Platform), a network organisation for artists and makers in Devon and Cornwall.
    • Chair of the Trustees of Take A Part CIO, a national organisation for the development of socially engaged art practices.

    Professional Engagement

    Independent professional practice

    • Twiceness – performance with Shelley Hodgson, Mayfest2024, The House, Plymouth, May 2024
    • Cream of the crop – performance, SOAK Live Art, Leadworks, Plymouth, January 2024
    • Revised dictionary supplement – a solo performance with audio and improvised movement; commissioned by The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth 2022
    • Hello! This is a test. – a radio project for radia.fm, season 46, #834; commissioned by Soundart Radio; first broadcast March 22nd, 2021.
    • 9x9: a set of poems under constraint - a commission for ‘hyperlocal’ by Arts & Culture Exeter, 2020
    • Subject to Gesture - collaborative performance project with musician Benjamin D. Duvall; commissioned by Mark Greenwood for Gramophone Ray Gun 6, Everyman Bistro, Liverpool, 2017
    • His voice - live and digital performance for Counter Plymouth Art Book Fair, Karst, Plymouth, 2015
    • Flat-head self-tapping - performance presented as part of Care & Attend, curated by Joanne Lee and Emma Cocker for SAR Spring Event, Chelsea School of Art, London, 2015
    • Answering machine - live and online digital performance commissioned for Experimentica14 festival; Chapter Arts, Cardiff, 2014
    • Muster page habit 2 - digital performance commissioned for EVP by Mercy and Penned in the Margins, at The Cube, Bristol, 2013
    • Voice Recognition: A Play - commissioned as part of Electronic Voice Phenomena, hosted by Mercy at Bluecoat, Liverpool for the Chapter and Verse Festival, 2011
    • Figure and ground: Plymouth - performance commissioned for Performance Market, The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow, Plymouth Arts Centre, 2010

    Social, community and cultural engagement

    • Joint-lead on Considering Time workshop with Marilyn Arsem for Live Art Ireland, June 2024
    • What time is art? – a 2-part online workshop commissioned for the PITCH series by CAMP (Contemporary Art Membership Platform) 2020
    • Telling time - a Communal Making workshop commissioned for Jamboree 2018, Dartington, Devon, 2018
    • Convenor of panel on ‘Art & Writing’ for Parallels/Encounters: Art, Words and their Meetings, part of Synesthesia II, Cultivator, Cornwall; June 2022
    • Mentor for the VAP Platform project for Plymouth Art Weekender 2018, funded by Horizon Project Plymouth and Arts Council England, January - October 2018
    • Organising committee member for In Other Tongues: creating metaphysics, embodying language, art.earth, Dartington Hall, June 2017
    • Organising committee member for Language Landscape and the Sublime, art.earth and Schumacher College, June 2016

     

    Engagement with professional associations and societies

    I have peer-reviewed essays for Ruukku; Textual Practice; Theatre, Dance and Performance Training; and for Literary and Linguistic Computing.