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