Staff Profile
Dr Sarah O'Brien
Associate Head of School (Performance)
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I am Associate Head for Performance in the School of Arts and teach mainly on the Theatre courses. I am also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and have taught Theatre and Performance using various approaches to teaching and assessment as either a teacher, External Examiner or reviewer at several Universities in the UK since 2005. I gained an MA in Contemporary Theatre Practice and a PhD through practice from Lancaster University..My research practice includes academic writing, live performance, theatre, creative writing, video art and installation art and often reflects on the nature of participation in arts practice, the relation between empathy and proximity, and questions surrounding place, space and identity.
- School – School of the Arts
- Email – s.obrien@yorksj.ac.uk
Teaching
In Higher Education I have taught many approaches to acting and making performance. This has included teaching acting for theatre; acting and presenting for the camera, radio and live performance; directing for theatre; writing for theatre and the screen; and, I have supervised many individual projects at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Research
I conduct my current research through both writing practice (academic and creative) and performance (theatre, live art, video installation and site-specific work). My research areas of interest include digital media, subjectivity and identity; the Gothic and the Uncanny; theatricality of the object and the perception of agency; and audience experience within participatory/interactive performance. I have worked on many interdisciplinary projects with Sociologists, Designers and Developers.
Professional Activities
Writer and Director of ‘Do as I do, My Love’ a play commissioned by Middlesbrough Borough Council and sponsored by Thirteen Group, performed at Middlesbrough Town Hall November 2018.
Director for NSFW by Lucy Kirkwood commissioned by ‘Mock the Weak’, an international conference of comedy, ARC, Stockton, September, 2016.
Performer in Georgina Starr’s opening exhibition I, Cave, MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art), Middlesbrough, UK, 2014.
Associate Director for ‘The Andy Warhol Project’ with T. Power for Bath Spa University, Full Tilt Theatre Company, 2008.
Performer in development showings and workshops on the physical realisation of The Medead, a performance by international New York based performance practitioner Fiona Templeton in Nuffield Theatre at Lancaster University, UK and Arts Admin, London, 2002.
Publications
Peer Reviewed Articles and Chapters
O’Brien, S (2020) ‘Playing the Zombie: Participation and Interpassivity in Gothic XR’. Body, Space & Technology.
O'Brien, S. (2017). “Not the exotic anymore, but the endotic”: Georges Perec and Performing the Ordinary. International Journal of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences
O’Brien, S. (2013) ‘Thinking Through Moving Image and Performance’ in Of Other Thoughts Non-traditional Approaches to the Doctorate. Eds. T, Engels-Schwarzpaul and M. A. Peters. Sense Publishers.
O’Brien, S. (2007) ‘Practice-as-Research in Performance: A Response to Reflective Judgement’ Studies in Theatre and Performance 27:1 Intellect
Conference Papers
O'Brien, S. (2019) Delegated Performance in Phantasmagorical Extended Reality (XR). Paper presented at Radical Immersions conference, DRHA: Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts, London, September 2019.
O'Brien, S. (2018). The Alienated Self? Addressing the Border Between the Digital Self and Participation in Immersive Experiences. Paper presented at Theatre and Migration – Theatre, Nation and Identity: Between Migration and Stasis IFTR World Congress 2018, Belgrade, Serbia.
O'Brien, S., Blinova, K., & Innerd, A. (2018). Bringing together the Exergame and the Serious Game for Young children: an action research project towards the enhancement of physical health and learning during classroom time. Paper presented at 2nd Digital Health and Wellbeing Conference, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.
O’Brien, S., Grady D. (2016) ‘Understanding Theory Through Practice in Performance’ workshop as part of the Festival of Learning, Teesside University.
O'Brien, S. (2015). Staging Disorientation: Who’s Ordinary? Paper presented at 5th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Carroll R., O’Brien S., Salzer H. (2010) ‘I, Performer: Exploring Student Identity and Interdisciplinarity’ In the proceedings of University Learning and Teaching Conference, Teesside University, February 2010 (UK)
Abbas A., Singleton C., Carroll R., O’Brien S., Salzer H. ‘Epistemological (dis)comforts and (dis)satisfactions in collaborative research’ in the proceedings of The British Sociological Association annual conference, Glasgow Caledonian University, April 2010 (United Kingdom)
Abbas A., Singleton C., Carroll R., O’Brien S., Salzer H. (2009) ‘Comparative Data Analysis: Performing, Dancing and Theorising the Data’ in the proceedings of 9th Conference of the ESA-European Sociological Association, Lisbon, Portugal.
O’Brien, S. (2009) ‘A MUVE toward democracy? Second Front and the co-presence of avatar-audience and avatar-artist’. In the proceedings of Performing Presence: From the Live to the Simulated An international conference, Centre for Intermedia, University of Exeter, UK, 26-29 March 2009
Editorial Review and Published Reviews
Reviewer for ‘Shared Differences: Creativity in Graduate Research’ in Knowledge Cultures 4 (1) (2016), Addleton Academic Publishers.
O’Brien, S. (2010) Review of Staging the screen: the use of film and video in theatre, Greg Giesekam in International Journal of Performing Arts and Digital Media
Reviewer for PALATINE (Performing Arts Learning and Teaching Innovation Network) Development Awards (August 2006).
Arts Practice-as-Research
O’Brien, S. (2016) ‘Deck Chair’ a video installation exhibited at the Constantine Gallery, Teesside University 1st-26th April 2016, and Scythia 11, Kherson, Ukraine 15th – 26th June 2016. See The Gift Give Project Edition 1 catalogue ISBN-10 13 67459192.
Burton, R and O’Brien, S. (2016) ‘A Gift from my Fathers’. Medium: Steel, hopsack cotton, digital print construction. Exhibited at the Constantine Gallery, Teesside University 1st-26th April 2016, and Scythia 11, Kherson, Ukraine 15th – 26th June 2016. See The Gift Give Project Edition 1 catalogue ISBN-10 13 67459192.
‘Flemish Transfiguration’ (2015) (Published by Textile Art of Today, featured in Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) as a performer in a collaborative installation by Dave Allinson, Rob Burton (MissKiKiSalon), Sarah O'Brien and Michelle Tripp.
‘Mirror Stage’ (2015) as a performer in a collaborative video installation by Dave Allinson, Rob Burton, Sarah O’Brien and Michelle Tripp.
O’Brien, S. (2015) ‘Salience’ a video installation for the proceedings of the Emotional Geographies conference Edinburgh University June 2015.
O’Brien, S. (2013) ‘Empathy’ site specific video installation and performance working with Stockton Council, UK.
Co-organiser of: Arts Practice and Sociological Research Methods: Exploring Boundaries: A One-day Conference, June 4th 2009, Teesside University.
O’Brien, S. (2009) ‘I Performer’ Learning and Teaching Innovation Fund for: ‘Arts Practice and Research Methods: an interdisciplinary learning and teaching research project’, Teesside University.
O’Brien, S. (2005) ‘peep’ video and performance installation submitted as part of PhD.
O’Brien, S. (2004) ‘Voice’ video and performance installation submitted as part of PhD.
