Research Degrees Programme

Research degrees supervision record

Please complete this form and send a copy to your local PhD Coordinator, the Research Degrees Coordinator
and your supervisory team

Name of student: Michael Kelly

Start Date: 09/2017 Expected completion date: 07/2022

Date of Meeting: 13/10/2017

Supervisors present: Dr Frances Robertson

Duration of meeting 1 hour 30 minutes.

Subjects discussed:
1. (Frances) Speak to Thea re: GTA work in the design dept. for next year.
2. (F) SGSAH funding applications begin soon. I can apply to be considered by the school for
putting forward, but it is very competitive.
3. (F) Your practice lead comics direction is a significant improvement on the initial
proposal, in terms of granularity, methodological appropriateness, and scope for
exploration. (Michael & F) follow the goal of a practice lead thesis in the form of a comic
book.
4. (M) Key points of my revised thesis’ development over the past year: exploring the
comics format as practice based enquiry a la Nic Sousanis, suggested by Diarmuid
McAuliffe of the UWS Med Artist Teacher programme; optimising a sometimes obscure
self-referential/fractal epistemological direction to my written work; linking to my
ontological concern inherited from earlier reading of Douglas Hofstadter, and Deleuze &
Guattari; alongside an undergraduate exploration of sequential art and graphite drawing.
5. (M) I have and do regularly read other comic artists work, ie. Grant Morrison, Alan
Moore.
6. (M & F) The comics format is best suited to my concerns. At present the envisaged
format is perhaps 50/50 with a comic book (covering the material of the thesis in its own
distinctive manner) and a written contextual commentary/ exegesis of around 40.000
words –in the manner of Mitch Miller’s PhD submission.
7. (F) Make sure to include all sources relevant to my thesis’ development in my
bibliography, including those of comic artists.
8. (M) Laura Gonzalez has agreed to be an informal Advisor of Studies. I found her
treatment of Lacan as cycles of reference-reversal-resistance to be a turning point in my
thinking. (M & F) This would be a valued contribution to my thesis’ development.
9. (F) David Sweeney may be a good co-supervisor, given his interest in communication
design and comics, narratology and sociology. Reading his work, including his PhD thesis
at Glasgow University library, may provide useful antitheses - but hold off on
 approaching him at the moment due to illness.
10. (M) I have followed up Lynn-Sayers McHattie’s offer of liaising with Gordon Hush and
Michael Jonson re: ANT/Ontography training.
11. (F) Read Laurence Grove re: comic aesthetics, see his various publications, e.g in the list
in his GU page https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mlc/staff/laurencegrove/ . Mitch Miller re:
Dialectagrams, especially his PhD thesis in the GSA library. Possible meeting with Mitch in
the future, due to similarity of practice.
12. (F) There is an apparent quasi-religious concern in my work. It has been felt that my
position regarding religion’s truth claims have been kept ambiguous in the past. (M) My
understanding is that religion is a peculiarly well adapted persuasion mechanism, and so
well suited to study. This concern seems to be shared by the comic artist and reader
community more generally (anecdotal). (F) Notably, Alan Moore. (M) My aims somewhat
intersect with LaVeyan, culturally critical atheistic Satanism. While I am engaged and
interested by affects of religious imagery and doctrine, I hold no belief in its truth claims.
13. (F) It’s OK to work and cover a vast amount of ground this year—with the understanding
that not all the strands we discuss today might come to realisation in the PhD, but maybe
elsewhere. (M) Deleuze & Guattari’s Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Anti-Oedipus, and
then A Thousand Plateaus) tries to firstly identify ways we internalise authority, then
induce them to shatter through a number of multi-modally enacted “plateaus”. Arguably,
the source of the authors’ recommendation of reading the book “as you would listen to a
record”. My ambition is to realise, and improve on the same with regards to an
internalised spectator, through sequential images with text.
14. (F) Your images can be difficult to look at, due to their size, self-reference, and subject
matter. Your lines are thin and sharp, even though you are drawing on an iPad that tends
to pixelate. Perhaps the Euclidean versus the Fractal could be something to explore. (M)
Also Deleuze’s concept of stratification. The use of an iPad enables me to explore self-
reference, but also suits my life circumstances. However, I’m aware that my developing
methodology includes the re-enactment of established formal elements from historical
comic artists’ work, which I anticipate will require my adoption of analogue mediums. (F)
Things like economically determined processes of production and division of labour are
also important.
15. (M) I recall work in the Baltic gallery some years ago, using police boundary tape to
selectively enact internalised social prohibition in viewers. This gave me the idea of using
colour and weight of line, as well as imagery, toward achieving my aim.
16. (M) My wish to focus on transitional comic code versus underground comic art from the
early 1960’s is a strategic decision made from an Object Oriented ontological viewpoint:
affects becoming more visible in the dialectic between comic artists with ostensibly
opposing social and political concerns, still delineating during the beginning of
government moral policing. (F) Be open to exploring later developments as your
investigation progresses. There is a question as to the relevance of the 1960’s context to
the types of ideological processes described by such as Zizek.
17. (F) Recommend reading Graham Harman’s new paper: The Horror of Phenomenology,
also Lovecraft and Philosophy.
18. (M) I give Frances a revised methodology (attached).
19. (M) Reading Comics and Power (2015), there have been two dominant traditions in
comics research, the Anglo-Saxon concerned with ideology, and the Franco-Belgian
concerned with aesthetics. Fusion of these represent a relatively new development in the
 field, and so would seem the territory most likely to hold a gap in knowledge.
20. (F) See my article in the TRACEY journal of contemporary drawing research.
21. (F) How to break down the above to different lines of enquiry: Ontography in book
format. Comics medium; conceptual frameworks, ideology, and aesthetics. Use of
“obscurity vs crystal clarity (M)” as an enactive creative strategy.
22. (F) Begin to write papers for journals sooner rather than later.
23. (F) See Chapter One on Chris Ware, in The Language of Comics.
24. (M and F) We will meet to discuss a latest draft every 3 to 4 weeks, until further notice.
25. (F) Make the next draft for discussion text based.
Recommendations made:
• Speak to Thea re: GTA work in the design dept’ for next year.
• Apply to be considered by the school for putting forward for SGSAH funding.
• Follow the goal of a practice lead thesis in the form of a comic book.
• Make sure to include all sources relevant to thesis development in bibliography, including
those of comic artists.
• David Sweeney may be a good co-supervisor, given his interest in communication design
and comics, narratology and sociology. Reading his work, including his PhD thesis at
Glasgow University library, may provide useful antitheses - but hold off on approaching
him at the moment due to illness.
• Read Lauren Grove re: comic aesthetics.
• Read Mitch Miller re: Dialectagrams, especially his PhD thesis in the GSA library.
• Perhaps the Euclidean versus the Fractal could be something to explore.
• Be open to exploring contemporary developments as your investigation progresses.
There is a question as to the relevance of the 1960’s context to the types of ideological
processes described by such as Zizek.
• Read Graham Harman’s new paper: The Horror of Phenomenology, also Lovecraft and
Philosophy.
• See the TRACEY journal of contemporary drawing research.
• Break down your study plan to different lines of enquiry: i) Book Ontography. ii) Comics
medium; conceptual frameworks, ideology, and aesthetics. iii) Use of “obscurity vs crystal
clarity (M)” as an enactive creative strategy.
• Begin to write papers for journals sooner rather than later, esp. TRACEY.
• See Chapter One on Chris Ware, in The Language of Comics.
• The next draft for discussion will be text based.
• We will meet to discuss a latest draft every 3 to 4 weeks, until further notice.
Research Degrees Programme

Agreed action Responsibility Deadline

• Speak to Thea re: GTA work in the design dept for Michael Nov (TBC)
next year.
• Apply to be considered by the school for putting Michael “
forward for SGSAH funding.
• Follow the goal of a practice lead thesis in the form
Michael Ongoing
of a comic book; 50/50 practice lead thesis.
• Make sure to include all sources relevant to thesis
development in bibliography, including those of Michael “
comic artists.
• Read David Sweeney’s work, including his PhD thesis Michael Nov (TBC)
at Glasgow University library.
• Read Laurence Grove re: comic aesthetics. Michael “
• Read Mitch Miller re: Dialectagrams, especially his Michael “
PhD thesis in the GSA library.
• Explore the Euclidean versus the Fractal as praxis. Michael Ongoing
• Be open to exploring contemporary developments in
Michael “
comics.
• Read Graham Harman’s new paper: The Horror of
Phenomenology, also Lovecraft and Philosophy. Michael Nov (TBC)
• See the TRACEY journal of contemporary drawing Michael “
research.
• Break down study plan to different lines of enquiry:
Michael “
i) Book Ontography. ii) Comics medium; conceptual
frameworks, ideology, and aesthetics. iii) Use of
“obscurity vs crystal clarity (M)” as an enactive
creative strategy.
• Begin to write papers for journals sooner rather Michael After Dec
than later, esp. TRACEY.
• See Chapter One on Chris Ware, in The Language of Michael Nov (TBC)
Comics.
“
• The next draft for discussion will be text based. Michael
• We will meet to discuss a latest draft every 3 to 4 Ongoing
Michael &
weeks, until further notice. Frances
Further supervisor comments