Official completion date: 14 March 2023

• Thesis title: Realist Collage: Non-fiction Film Practice Addressing the History and Identity of ‘Welsh Wales’ through Critical Realism, Found Footage and Animation

• Director of Studies: Professor Paul Ward

• Second Supervisors: Dr Paul Taberham, Dr Tom Walsh 

Marc Bosward studied Graphic Design at undergraduate level at the University of Derby, and then completed an MA in Illustration & Animation at Kingston University. He completed a practice-based PhD at the Arts University Bournemouth and successfully defended his thesis at the viva voce in October 2022. Marc has presented his research at conferences in the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden.

More details about Marc and his work can be found here: https://marcbosward.com/projects 

PhD thesis abstract:  

In the early 20th century, the techniques of collage and film montage were linked with the cultural production of political radicalism. The assemblage of new wholes from existing parts established a critical method for negotiating the social world. Driven by technological and cultural developments, the practice of combining separate images is now applied within a broad range of art and media forms. Through its assimilation and concealment within the popular and commercial, collage is detached from its political origins.  

This practice led project lies at the intersection of documentary, archive film, animation and history. Its philosophical framework is critical realism, a position that sees reality as a plurality of interdependent structures and mechanisms operating in stratified systems. The research deploys collage as a practical form of critical realism to explore the history of ‘Welsh Wales’ (Balsom, 1985), along with the region’s political, cultural and social identity. The investigation is conducted through engagement with film collection of the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales. Theories of Welsh history and identity are used in the analysis, interpretation and composition of the archive materials as evidence of a complex and layered culture.   

In the creative mediation of factual material, realist collage addresses the non-physical levels of reality that are not directly visible in the archive film. This is done through using spatial juxtaposition as a method of realist inference across abstraction, abduction and retroduction to represent the causally generative domain that determines actual events. The originality of the research is in development of collage as a visual and practical research method that offers a new form of critical realist inquiry. The thesis will reflect on the political implications of the practice, advancing critical theory of collage, and providing new insights in the function of collage processes in non-fiction film.