Dr Louis D'Arcy-Reed

Teaching

I currently teach across all elements of the Liberal Arts Foundation year and act as module convener for 'Truth and Invention' and 'Imagining the Future'. I also supervise and support students' independent projects. My interdisciplinary experience allows me to deliver lectures and seminars on human geography, film, gender, globalisation, urban and social fabrics, 20th and 21st century culture, and sociology.

I also teach on the Geography based Master's Environment and Social Justice programme, acting as module convener for 'Researching, Representing and Communicating Environmental-Social Relations and Ecological Justice'. I deliver sessions based on social justice, spatial embodiment and experience, creative responses to place, and situation-based spatial inquiry. I am also project supervisor for students' capstone projects which serve as a culmination of their master's course.

Currently, I act as module convener for the undergraduate Human and Environmental Geography module 'Nature/Culture' in third year, whilst also supervising dissertation projects.

I have experience teaching at York St John on Sociology, Criminology, Police Studies, and American Studies programmes, with previous institutional roles including Cinema and Study Skills to staff and students.

Research

My research spans social, political, and cultural theory specialising in the intersection of architectural and psychoanalytic inquiry, into the domain of spatial sociology, human geography, and architecture and psychoanalysis. Using facets of contemporary culture, media, and filmic representations, I tend to present interrogations on social and political control, and the role of the built environment in the creation of cognitive and embodied urban fabrics - this can be the physical world we live in, or within the cultural artefacts we consume. I also continue to hold a strong interest in museology and contemporary art studies within my research.

My PhD thesis examined the role of cultural institutions, such as museums, in transforming the cultural identity of cities and communities through psychoanalytic analysis of place, space, and architecture. Within the thesis I used a mixed methodology to work para-architecturally, meaning the creation of artworks, prose, photography, and installations as a means to further interrogate themes and concepts within space. I try to use these methods throughout my research, seeking to reveal new perspectives.

I am open to prospective PhD supervisions based on space, place, architecture, psychologies of the spatial, human geography, and contemporary culture. In 2025, I will be co-supervising 2 PhDs - one human geography based, one arts and ecology based.

Publications

Peer reviewed articles and chapters

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2024) Parallax as Disorientation in City Space (submitted to Architecture Research Quarterly – Forthcoming – Issue 28.2).

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2021). Zero-Institution Culture in: Architecture and Collective Life, Abingdon, Oxford, UK: Routledge. Book Chapter - 29 October 2021.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2021). Looking Up, Looking Down, Looking Awry in: Narrating the City; Mediated Cities, Bristol, UK: Intellect Publishing. Book Chapter - 4 January 2021.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2020). Gordon Matta-Clark: Physical Poetics [Book review], Visual Studies.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2019). Exposing the Unconscious through the Para-architectural Photo-Essay and Prose. Architecture and Culture.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2019). Observing Parallaxical Identities of Place in Architecture – Adopting Architectural and Psychoanalytical Approaches to Urban Fabrics. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 43(2), 166-173.

Other publications

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2022). Justin Fitzpatrick - Alpha Salad - Corridor8. [online] Corridor8, 7th April.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2019). Breaking New Ground in Aesthetica Magazine, Issue 91.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2019). Collette Rayner: Tests on Previsualisation. Tests on Dredging. Tests on Floaters. Corridor8. [online] 7th August.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2018). Sheffield Round-up - Corridor8. [online] Corridor8, 27th October.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2018). Leeds Degree Show Round-up - Corridor8. [online] Corridor8, 25th June.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2018). Material Environments - Corridor8. [online] Corridor8, 17th May.

D'Arcy-Reed, L. (2017). Why Blade Runner 2049 is a Masterpiece of Modern Cinema —  Rogues. [online], 30th October.

Conference presentations

August 2024: Disoriented Space – Unconscious Imbrications of the City. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference. Paper presented. Imperial College London.

June 2022: The Logic of Visualisation in the Blade Runner Universe. Blade Runner@40. International Conference hosted by The Centre for Film, Television, and Screen Studies. Paper presented. Bangor University.

November 2019: Zero-Institutionalist Architecture. Architectural Humanities Research Association Conference 2019. Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA). Paper presented (to be published by Routledge in 2021). University of Dundee.

November 2018: Parametricism to Foster Class Struggle. Alternatives to the Present. A Conference on Architecture, Urbanism, Sociology, Development and Planning. Architecture, Media, Politics, Society (AMPS). Paper presented. Kent State University, Cleveland, Ohio.

September 2018: The Missed Potential of the Contemporary Stoa. International Journal of Arts and Science Conference 2018. International Journal of Arts and Science (IJAS). The British School in Rome.

April 2018: Co-Production Using Psychoanalysis to Interrogate Architecture’s Effects on Cities - Reshaping Identities and Working Para-architecturally. PGR Research Symposium. Poster presentation regarding the role of psychoanalysis in analysis architecture. Derby University.

April 2018: Looking Up, Looking Down, Looking Awry. Moving Images – Static Spaces: Architectures, Art, Media, Film, Digital Art and Design. Architecture, Media, Politics, Society (AMPS). Paper presented (published by Intellect in 2020). Altinbaş University, Istanbul.

Professional activities

I am a Fellow of the HEA and have accreditation from RIBA (Part 1).

Selected exhibition and curatorial history

2018     Kintsugi, Bye Bye Bye, Zine contribution

2018     Fe/Male, AIR Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Altrincham, Manchester

2017     Hand In, Lime Street Gallery, Group Exhibition, Doubleyolk, Newcastle

2017     i must be missing the point [Artist and Curator], The Roper Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Bath Artists, Studios, Bath

2017     Hope in the Dark, 3rd on 3rd Gallery, Group Exhibition, Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, Jamestown, NY

2016     Embrace the past, Forget the future, Online Group Exhibition, Isthisit?

2016     Where is your Humanity?, Group Exhibition, Studio 44ad, Bath

2013     The Map is Not The Territory, Fringe Arts Bath

2012     Doctoring Practice, Bath Spa University and Salisbury Arts Centre

2009     Graduate Fashion Week, Earl’s Court, London