Dr Donna Leishman      
Synopsis of Research Interest      
Keywords: Design-as-method, Interaction, Narrative, Netart, Folklore      
My work is a combination of critical writing and practice-led research in digital art with a particular interest in the intersection of narrative with internet based interactivity. Themes in the research include developing and exploring the role of the participant in these exchanges, developing a canon of practice that questions standard paradigms of behaviour. Others are: the avant-garde nature of the Net practice and how this holds forth in the ever-increasing commercialisation of the internet. What stories are being told and what possibilities digital literature offers us culturally; reframing history, using folkloric traditions, global and meta archetypes. My doctoral thesis (2004) explores and illustrates the particular resonance found when teaming this folkloric content with contemporary technologies.      
     
       
Employment      
2004 – Pres 
Course Leader BA (Hons) Illustration, MSC Communication Design strand leader, PhD supervision at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee.      
       
2004 – Pres Specialist speaker in New Media MPhil Glasgow School of Art      
2000 – 2004 (June)   Part-time lecturer in Visual Communication, The Glasgow School of Art, 2001-3 Job share Course Director BA (Hons) Illustration      
2000 – Pres Principal of 6amhoover.com      
2000 Bullseyeart, New York, Flash for TV developer, Flash Animator      
1998 – Pres Freelance Web /Designer, Flash Animator      
1998 – 1999 BlackID, Glasgow, Web designer, Flash Animator      
         
Education      
2001 – 2004 (Oct)
Ph.D., Department of Visual Communication, The Glasgow Schol of Art Glasgow University. Thesis: Creating Screen-Based Multiple State Environments: Investigating Systems of Confutation. [Director: Paul Stickley MPhil RCA, Examiner Dr Drew Davidson Carnegie Mellon]      
       
1998 (Sept) – 1999 MDes, Department of Visual Communication, The Glasgow Schol of Art Glasgow University. Thesis: Does and Click Interactivity Point Destroy The Story? [Supervisior: Nicholas Oddy RCA]      
       
1994 (Sept) – 1998 BDes (Hons), Illustration & Printmaking, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee / Dundee University. Thesis: Fitter Happier More Productive: Primitivism and Graffiti [Supervisior: Richard Carr]      
       
         
Artworks / Select Exhibitions      
Aug - Sept 2008 ALT-W Retrospective, Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw (Installation), CCA Glasgow. Alt-w: New Directions in Scottish Digital Culture, presented a selection of work from Scottish based artists whose practice has been supported by the Alt-w Fund. These works have been brought together for the first time in an exhibition curated by New Media Scotland in collaboration with CCA.      
       
         
May 2008 Contemplating Flight Launch, Media Arts Show, Visionary Landscapes, Electronic Literature Organisation, Vancouver USA.      
       
         
Jan 2008 Print Illustration for The Fairy Tale of the Wise Old Man by Eugen Lewin Dorsch (1923) for a Jack Zipes collection of fairytales from the Weimar Republic, edition by Caseroom Press      
       
       
Feb 2009 Print design. Not Love Birds Cut paper puppet design for Crankbunny's Paper Puppet Palooza Publication by Quarry Books ISBN 9781592534845      
         
May - Aug 2007 Avis Ana Six Cities Design Festival Keynote exhibition, by invitation longlist of 104 to 34. The Lighthouse, 70 Mitchell Street, Glasgow. Music by Daniel Padden      
       
         
Dec 2007 Matryoshka: Revisiting Rosebud Series nesting dolls. Invited group-show with David Sherry, Kate Davis, Swedish Design collective DEFRYA, and the Belfast based product designer Johanna Van Daalen.The Lighthouse, 70 Mitchell Street, Glasgow      
       
         
Dec 2005 Commissioned digital Illustration ZOOROOM - A room with a zoo. Curated by the Randy Knott of the IAMSTATIC collective. The exhibition showcases the print work of over 40 international designers and artists thematically linked around entrapment and extinction. Resistor Gallery, 284 College St. W2nd PL, Toronto      
       
         
Feb - Mar 2005 Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw, Scottish Show Comes Home, group show, The Lighthouse, 70 Mitchell Street, Glasgow.      
         
Oct - Nov 2004 6amhoover.com solo installation of online artworks, public launch of Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw at The Lighthouse, Glasgow      
         
April - Sept 2004 The Bloody Chamber & Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw (Work In Progress) The Scottish Show supported by The Lighthouse & the Scottish Executive, DesignersBlock , New Oxford Street London, also , Studio Zeta, Via Friuli, Milan.      
       
         
May 2003 The Bloody Chamber PlayEngines: streaming worlds, Digital Arts & Culture conference 2003, Melbourne, Australia.      
       
         
May 2003 The Bloody Chamber Finalist in The Barcelona OFFF Film Festival: Interactive      
         
Apr - May 2003 Boston Cyberarts Festival: Linear Quicktime Edit of The Bloody Chamber M.I.T Media Wall Boston MA , USA      
         
Sept 2002 Red Riding Hood Re-Animate Web Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands      
         
Apr - May 2002 Hypnogogia: Two Waking Dreams Interactive Art by Crankbunny & 6amhoover. Glasgow Art Fair - CCA: Music by Stuart Braithwaite and John Cummings of Mogwai,      
       
Jun - Sept 2002 Red Riding Hood Web Racket, DeCordova Museum Boston, USA.      
       
Feb 2002 Red Riding Hood Technopoetry Festival, Georgia Tech, USA.      
       
Oct 2001 Angel Interceptor Meta Metier UKINNY Festival, Parsons New School, New York, USA      
         
Apr - May 2001 Angel Interceptor Boston Cyberarts Low Bandwidth Festival, Boston MA, USA.      
         
Papers /Publications / Conferences      
May 2008 The Aesthetic of Dissonance in 6amhoover.com & Artist Talk. Electronic Literature Organisation: Visionary Landscapes Conference. Vancouver USA. Leonardo Online call for papers, Dissonance in Multi-Semiotic Landscapes in the Work of Donna Leishman. 3500 word paper.      
       
         
2008 forthcoming Will Internet Art Ever Grow Up? Essay in Cross Media Communications: an Introduction to the Art of Creating Integrated Media Experiences. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning      
       
 
April 2007 Harnessing Disorder and Disaster in Reponsive Narrative Systems. EDA2007 7th International Conference of The Design Academy, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey. 3650 words paper [undelivered due to bereavement]  
 
 
Spring 2007 TIRWEB Vol 9. No1 Multimodal writing. Online publication specialising in electronic literature and experimental writing.      
 
April 2005 What Is Interactivity? Flash In The Can [FITC] presentation / paper. Design and Technology conference, Toronto, Canada  
 
 
May 2004 Invited Panelist on Narrative FITC, Design and Technology conferemce, Toronto, Canada      
 
May 2004 On The Horizon Journal, special issue on Games, Simulations and In teractove Media in learning contexts. Paper: Visual literacy and learning: finding some online territories for the slow learner. ISSN: 1074-812      
       
 
Oct 2004 Textual Play: Woman's Work In Literary Hypermedia. Presented by Strickland & Luesebrink, virtual content collaboration. Society for Literature & Social Science Annual meeting, Duke University, USA      
       
 
Aug 2003 Invited Chair, Readings session ACM Hypertext 03 conference. Curated artists: John Cayley. Simon Biggs, Talan Memmot, Noah Wardip-Fruin. Nottingham Trent University.      
       
Jan 2001 Touching Red Riding Hood. Presentation. Hypertext, Narrative, Flash, Time, Boston MA, USA.      
       
 
Awards / Honours
May 2008 Media Arts Show ELO bursary. Visionary Landscapes, Vancouver, USA.  
 
2007 Avis Ana Media Arts & Imaging Research Development Fund, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee University.  
 
     
May 2003 Streaming media section winner (The Bloody Chamber) Australian Centre for Moving Image Prize. PlayEndgines Exhibition. Acquisition to the public programs permanent collection.  
2003 Full Alt-W Scottish Arts Council Production Grant.  
     
2002 New Project Bursary - CCA for Hypnogogia: Two Waking Dreams Scottish Arts Council.  
     
2000 - 4 Full PhD Stipend The Glasgow School of Art.  
     
1998 Group Exhibition Bursary, Tales of Ordinary Madness, Scottish Arts Council. Patriothall Gallery, Stockbridge, Edinburgh.  
   
     
  Features  
  CIAC's Electronic Magazine, Flash Goddess, Tekka.net, Histories of Internet Art: Fictions and Factions,  
  Design Week, The Herald, Create Online, Computer Arts, The Scotsman, The Guardian, Desktop Magazine (AUS), The List.  
     
  "If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise. Donna Leishman's sly, modern fairy tale is a delicious mix of deceptively simple animation with trippy interactive sequences. Like Red Riding Hood, take a little time and wonder off the story path, to discover the cunningly hidden pockets of interactivity which hold secret diaries and moody dream sequences. Leishman strikes just the right balance between plot and charming distractions, packing enough secret scenes under the skin of her story to make a repeat viewing a must." By Kate Stables - The Guardian Online Mar 2001