Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies

Photo of Professor Stephen Hodge

Professor Stephen Hodge

Professor in Live Art + Spatial Practices

S.Hodge@exeter.ac.uk

4524

01392 724524

Overview

I am Professor in Live Art + Spatial Practices and a member of the Centre for Contemporary Performance Practices. My Practice Research interrogates space and event across real, digital and imagined environments. I was Head of Drama (2012-2018) and the University's Academic Director of Arts and Culture (2016-2021), responsible for co-authoring and delivering the institution's Arts and Culture Strategy. I have designed and convened a number of BA modules in contemporary performance, and currently contribute to the MA Creativity: Innovation and Business Strategy. After taking a discipline lead on a UKIERI-funded, inter-institutional PhD programme, I am an adjunct faculty member of the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore, India.

I generate Practice Research across a range of contexts, for example:

I am a core member of Wrights & Sites. Formed in Exeter, 1997, Wrights & Sites are four artist-researchers (Stephen Hodge, Simon Persighetti, Phil Smith and Cathy Turner) whose work is focused on peoples' relationships to places, cities and walking. We employ disrupted walking tactics as tools for playful debate, collaboration, intervention and spatial meaning-making. Our work, like walking, is intended to be porous; for others to read into it and connect from it and for the specificities and temporalities of sites to fracture, erode and distress it. We have sought to pass on our dramaturgical strategies to others: to audiences, readers, visitors and passersby. The outcomes of our work vary from project to project, but frequently include site-specific performance, Mis-Guided Tours (e.g. Stadtverführungen in Wien, Tanzquartier Wien and the Vienna Festival, 2007), published Mis-Guides (e.g. A Mis-Guide To Anywhere, launched ICA, London, 2006, and more recently The Architect-Walker, 2018), 'drifts', mythogeographic mapping, public art (e.g. Everything you need to build a town is here for 'Wonders of Weston', CABE/Situations, Weston-super-Mare, 2010) or installations (e.g. mis-guided, Belluard Bollwerk International Festival, Fribourg, 2008), and public presentations and articles.

I have a history of deep connections to the creative industries. I am a trustee of In Between Time, Bristol, which brings people together around radical art and ideas to encourage new ways to think about the world and ourselves. From 2013-2016, I was Co-Director of REACT (Research & Enterprise in Arts & Creative Technology), a £4million-funded AHRC Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy (a collaboration between UWE, Watershed, and the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter). I was a resident at the Kaleider studio in Exeter from 2014-2021; was Theatre, Dance and Live Art Curator at Exeter Phoenix from 2001-2012; and was one of eight members of the New Theatre Architects, an Arts Council England initiated think-tank that sought to challenge artists and organisations to think about new models of making and supporting theatre in England from 2003-2009. I have been a board member, critical friend or associate of numerous organisations (e.g. Live Art UK, New Work Network, Spacex Gallery, Wide Awake Devon, b-side festival, Theatre Alibi and Exeter and Devon Arts Centre), and was a regional selector for the National Review of Live Art.

Personal website: www.stephenhodge.org

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Research

My research is focused in the area of contemporary performance (site and journey-related practices; and live art). I generate engaged Practice-as-Research (PaR) across a range of contexts, individually and as a core member of the artist-academic collective, Wrights & Sites, whose work is focused on peoples’ relationships to places, cities and walking. For example, Where to build the walls that protect us, explores new, interdisciplinary models for imagining future cities in an era of climate emergency, and collaborated with holders of expert, city-based knowledge (Met Office climate scientists, architects, politicians, entrepreneurs). An adjunct project provided the practice keynote (commissioned printed and online, audio interventions) at the last TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association) conference in 2019. And The Architect-Walker, détourns the form of the guidebook in order to seek new knowledge about walking and the built environment, and is supported by a range of activity, from an invited, hour-long lecture in Lithuania’s National Art Gallery to a companion event to the recent Richard Long retrospective at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol.

I am also very interested in the creative and digital economy, and from Spring 2013 until the project’s completion in 2016, I was the active Exeter Co-Director and CI of REACT (Research and Enterprise in Arts and Creative Technology), a £4m Knowledge Exchange Hub for the Creative Economy funded by the AHRC (2012-2016), a collaboration between Watershed (Bristol), UWE (PI), and the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.

From 2004-2009, I was Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded 'British Asian Theatre: Critical History and Documentation' project, with my Exeter colleagues Professor Graham Ley (PI) and Professor Jerri Daboo (CI). I brought a live art focus to the project.

I have been a member of a number of academic networks, including 'Pedestrian Pathways in the Healthy City' (Worldwide Universities Network funded, 2015-16), 'RIDERS: Research In Interactive Drama Environments, Role-Play and Story-telling' (EPSRC Research Network, 2011), 'Walking Artists Network' (initially AHRC funded, 2010-present), 'Digital Reconstruction in Archaeology and Contemporary Performance' (AHRC/BT Pilot Research Network, 2010), and 'On the go: mobilities, settlement and performance' (AHRC Landscape and Environment Research Network, 2008).

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Supervision

I am open to discussing research proposals on any topic where I can add value. I am especially happy to consider working with candidates with interests in the fields of live art, site and journey based practices, contemporary performance curation or creative technologies.

I was Drama lead on the University of Exeter and National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore UKIERI-supported, split-site PhD programme, 'Intangible Histories'.

Research students

PhD, first supervisor (current):

  • Yuan, H., Artists mobility: A Practical Exploration of Residency and Migration Between Taiwan and the UK (PhD Performance Practice) (commenced 2017).


PhD, first supervisor (completed):

  • Platt, W., Subverting the Spectacle: A Critical Study of Culture Jamming as Activist Performance (completed 2019).
  • Murali, S., Performing Psychogeographies of Exile in Delhi Post-Partition (completed 2017). [ The first graduate of the University of Exeter and National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore) split-site PhD programme. ]
  • Darby, K., Pedestrian Performance: A Mapped Journey (completed 2013).


PhD, second supervisor (current):

  • Hazra, A. The performance lecture and its role in decolonising knowledge formations (commenced 2022).


PhD, second supervisor (completed):

  • Frodsham, D., Utopic Spatial Practice (AHRC) (completed 2015).
  • Grogan, S., I’m Doing it But I’m So in the Moment: Towards a Language of Optimal Performance in Dance Theatre (completed 2014).
  • Lennox, S. Narratives of Performance: An Interdisciplinary Qualitative Ethnography Investigating the Storied Lives of Amateur and Professional Boxers (completed 2012).

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2019 | 2018 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1998 | 1997 |

2019

  • Hodge SJ. (2019) Where to build the walls that protect us, Performance Research, volume 23(7), pages 45-47, DOI:10.1080/13528165.2018.1557009. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (2019) Where to build the walls that protect us; a practice research project exploring new collaborative models for imagining future cities through socially-engaged live art work.

2018

  • Hodge SJ. (2018) On installation, one-on-ones and the Exeter Experiments, The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia, Routledge, 138-139.
  • Hodge S, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S, Crewes S. (2018) The Architect-Walker: A Mis-Guide, Triarchy Press. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2018) The Architect-Walker: A-Mis-Guide; a co-authored, détourned artists’ guidebook drawing on disrupted walking practices to initiate playful debate, collaboration, intervention and spatial meaning-making. [PDF]

2015

  • Hodge SJ, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2015) Walk & Talk: We are all Architect Walkers.

2014

  • Hodge SJ. (2014) Where to build the walls that protect us.
  • Turner C, Hodge S. (2014) The International Festival and the City Space: The Dramaturgy of the Local, Dramaturgies in the New Millennium: Relationality, Performativity and Potentiality, Narr Verlag, 111-129.

2013

  • Hodge SJ, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2013) Walk On: From Richard Long to Janet Cardiff - 40 years of art walking.
  • Turner C, Hodge S, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2013) Performance and the Stratigraphy of Place: Everything You Need to Build a Town is Here, The Archaeology of the Contemporary World, Oxford University Press, 149-163.

2012

  • Hodge SJ, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2012) Ambulant Architectures.
  • Hodge S. (2012) The Master Plan, Book Works.
  • Hodge SJ. (2012) British Asian Live Art: motiroti, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre, University of Exeter Press, 196-207. [PDF]

2010

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2010) Everything you need to build a town is here.
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2010) A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture: 'dealing with the city', Performance and the Contemporary City: An Interdisciplinary Reader, Palgrave Macmillan, 69-86. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (2010) 2ND LIVE: Shaping Space and Event in a Virtual World, Contemporary Theatre Review, volume 20, no. 2, pages 223-232, article no. 8. [PDF]

2009

  • Hodge SJ. (2009) 2ND LIVE: exploring live performance in the Second Life® world. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (2009) Walking and Talking with Wrights & Sites, Footfalls: walking and contemporary performance practice (as part of ANTI Festival 2009), Kuopio, Finland, 24th - 25th Sep 2009.
  • Hodge SJ. (2009) Reflexive Architecture: A Second Space for Performance, Theatre and Performance Research Association Conference 2009, Plymouth, Uk, 7th - 9th Sep 2009.
  • Hodge SJ. (2009) 2ND LIVE: Virtual ASBOs, Viral Duets, Reflexive Architecture & The Death Of An Avatar, Performing Presence: from the live to the simulated, University Of Exeter, Exeter, Uk, 26th - 29th Mar 2009.

2008

  • Hodge SJ. (2008) Walking & Talking with Wrights & Sites, On the go: mobilities, settlement and performance, Royal Holloway, University Of London, Uk (11 Bedford Square, London), 1st - 1st Apr 2008.
  • Hodge SJ. (2008) 2ND LIVE: Island Version 2.0, INTERREGNUM: In Between States (PSi #14 conference), University Of Copenhagen Amager Campus, Copenhagen, Denmark, 20th - 24th Aug 2008.
  • Hodge SJ. (2008) REGION_FLAG_BLOCK_TERRAFORM, Site - Art - Audience, Tramway, Glasgow, Uk, 26th - 26th Sep 2008.
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2008) Mis-Guided. [PDF]

2007

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2007) North, South, East, West. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2007) Stadtverführungen in Wien. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (2007) What is a theatre? Where is it and how do you get there?, Performance Research, volume 12, no. 2. [PDF]

2006

  • Hodge SJ. (2006) Out of place.
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Austin C, Fletcher M, George J, McAllister J. (2006) 4 Screens #1: Simultaneous Drift. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2006) Simultaneous Drift (4 walks, 4 routes, 4 screens), Material City, Arnolfini, Bristol, Uk, 11th - 11th Oct 2006. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P. (2006) Soho Mis-Guided.
  • Hodge SJ. (2006) The Mis-Guide Project, National Review of Live Art, Tramway, Glasgow, Uk, 7th - 11th Feb 2006.
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2006) Exeter Everyday. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2006) Possible Forests. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2006) 4 Screens #2: A Mis-Guide To Anywhere. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Weaver T. (2006) A Mis-Guide to Anywhere. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2006) A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture: 'dealing with the city', Performance Research, volume 11, no. 2, pages 115-122, article no. 15. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (2006) Dislocation dislocation dislocation: Mis-Guided walking in the company of Wrights & Sites, Liverpool Live 06 - a festival of urban apparition (part of the Liverpool Biennial), Liverpool, Uk, 26th - 29th Oct 2006.

2005

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Edelstyn D. (2005) Subverting the City: A Mis-Guide to Milton Keynes. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2005) Mis-guided in Zürich - mind the MAP. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2005) A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture: 'dealing with the city', Everyday Walking Culture: The Sixth International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century, Zürich, Switzerland, 22nd - 23rd Sep 2005. [PDF]

2004

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Weaver T. (2004) Mis-Guided To Anywhere. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2004) Anywhere: Theories and Practices at Play in the Current Work of Wrights & Sites, Site / Sight <-> Source / Resource, University Of Exeter, Uk, 11th - 12th Sep 2004. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2004) Mis-Guiding the City Walker, Cities for People: The Fifth International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century, Copenhagen, Denmark, 9th - 11th Jun 2004. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2004) Blue Boy Walks. [PDF]

2003

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Weaver T. (2003) An Exeter Mis-Guide. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (2003) An Exeter Mis-Guide, Live Art Symposium, Newlyn Art Gallery, 5th - 6th Sep 2003.
  • Hodge SJ, Turner C. (2003) Out of the way: 3 square walks.
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2003) Lost Tours. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2003) Stack. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Weaver T. (2003) A Courtauld Mis-Guide. [PDF]

2002

  • Hodge SJ, Turner C. (2002) Under Cover.
  • Hodge SJ. (2002) Honiton GPS.

2001

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2001) Out of Place: The Politics of Site-Specific Performance in Contested Space, Performance of Place, University Of Birmingham, Uk, 26th - 27th May 2001. [PDF]

2000

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2000) The Dig. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (2000) Exeter A-Z.
  • Hodge SJ. (2000) Sitelines / Matt's archaeological dig / 3 PHASE (650 approx), Studies in Theatre and Performance, pages 61-80, article no. 5.

1998

  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Clarke S. (1998) The Quay Thing: PILOT, Navigation. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (1998) Sitelines.
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C, Clarke S. (1998) The Quay Thing: A Sense of Place. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ. (1998) Matt's Archaeological Dig.
  • Hodge SJ. (1998) 3 PHASE (650 approx).
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (1998) The Quay Thing. [PDF]

1997

  • Hodge SJ, Procter D, Sawyer D, Fletcher M. (1997) 2^6.

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Teaching

Teaching through research-led practice has been at the heart of Drama at the University of Exeter since its inception over 50 years ago, when it became the first HE Drama Department to assess practice. I am committed to practice-as-research and research-led teaching with practice at its centre, and bring a distinctive, professional practice in contemporary performance to the Department’s teaching portfolio. I have taught broadly across Drama’s curriculum, redesigned and convened three UG core modules, and have written and convened four UG optional modules driven by my own Practice-as-Research.

I have championed research-led, practice-based teaching beyond the University of Exeter, as External Examiner on the MA Performance Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of the Arts London (2012-2017), and as the inaugural External Examiner on the MLitt Theatre Practices at the University of Glasgow (2013-2018).

Modules taught

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