Chris Dooks
Dr Chris Dooks is an Honorary Research Fellow at CCRI and freelance interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker and community arts practitioner.
I am passionate about wellbeing practice and work in direct collaboration with clients at North Edinburgh Arts, WHALE and in various schools and colleges. I develop theoretical frameworks and adaptations to challenge the ‘one-size-fits-all’ mindfulness panaceas. As a Buddhist, mindfulness is my practice, but I am wary of the zeitgeist. I prefer to develop ‘idio-holistic’ approaches to wellbeing where the client is an active participant in a collaborative series of encounters.
My 2015 studio doctorate and exegesis The Fragmented Filmmaker: Emancipating The Exhausted Artist looked at housebound survival through interdisciplinary arts, with an emphasis on sound art and vinyl records. This was made over a six-year period at The University of The West of Scotland. I am also an electronic musician releasing sound art and electronica on various labels (see full profile) and I sometimes perform live work with film material I have produced. I live for residencies, and am a very process-based artist, falling into the category of artists who are never truly happy unless engaged in their work!
Born in Teesside, I have lived in Scotland for 28 years, and my degree in film came from the then Edinburgh College of Art in 1991-94. I moved quickly into both education and broadcast television directing in my mid-twenties. After a change in health around the millennium (I had an aggressive form of M.E.) I defined myself as an artist, as my filmmaking practice began to fragment into the elements of film; photography, texts, soundtracks, graphic design, podcasts - this became the ‘Fragmented Filmmaker’ of my doctorate title.
I feel there is a paradox in wellbeing research - that those closest to encounters in illness have the least energy in which to explore their insight or research it, and the healthiest are often so far removed from that kind of lived experience that it will often bypass, or jeopardise the agency of first-person experience. Therefore, as my health has reached a kind of equilibrium, I feel at home at CCRI where I am both involved in ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ culture.
Find out more below such as current research projects and outputs.
My artist doctorate, The Fragmented Filmmaker: Emancipating The Exhausted Artist (2015) explored first-person conceptual art strategies that aimed to be coping mechanisms for exhaustion. I forged a body of research from historical art practices alongside documentary techniques to augment the predicament of being housebound or chronically ill. The project was borne from a lateral practice of photography, time-lapse film and field recording, alongside contemporary art interventions such as appropriation and psychogeography. These interests are also at the heart of my ongoing community art practice where I enjoy working with collaborators interested in social change.
1990s
An ECA film graduate, I first became known in the late nineties as an abstract filmmaker supported by Scottish Screen, British Screen and Creative Scotland. Winning the First Reels award in 1996, this non-narrative approach saw me commissioned by The South Bank Show alongside a cluster of Scottish TV arts documentary strands. This led to a large commission to document rare Native American Rock Art sites for PBS USA in 1998. I was then commissioned to produce work for The Millennium Experience in 1999 before becoming a BBC Film Archive Artist in Residence for Arts Council England’s Year of The Artist in 2000. Around this time I had my first solo moving image retrospective in The North-East of England via d6culture.org
2000s
A change in health around 2001 forced me to adapt and diversify, defining myself as a multimedia/multidisciplinary artist, producing a large body of sensual work constructed from the constituents of film; sound pieces, photographic installations and ‘scripts’ culminating in solo shows and residencies. Such residencies included Stills Gallery in 2004-5, Timespan Sutherland in 2009 and an ambitious Year of Natural Scotland residency for Woodend Barn in 2013 where I undertook five back to back rural residencies to produce a ‘modular artist’s feature’ Tiny Geographies. Themes of human energy conservation, Buddhism, loneliness and the opportunities of isolation featured strongly in my work. Looking at ‘Artists in Extremis’ proved fruitful. Jo Spence, Miranda July and Donald Rodney had proved influential as well as ‘hidden’ artists I ‘uncovered’ through illness networks.
Because I trained as a photographer and independent filmmaker to broadcast standards, my skills base was extremely wide – and as a result, whatever symptom or situation I found myself in, I was able to select which stratum of filmmaking would be a suitable ‘prescription’ to augment a particular difficulty. Sometimes I worked visually, lens-based whilst other times I needed to close my eyes, so field recording was an excellent practice. Other times I was unable to leave the house so home-based and incarcerated techniques like exploring small objects, documentary style proved useful. And when it got really bad, I had to look at what Martin Creed was doing pinning a piece of blue-tack to the wall and giving it a name in his catalogue. I had also taken a formal interest in the link between incarceration and creativity and worked briefly in Barlinnie Prison, spurring research into artist collective Temporary Services and their influential text Prisoners Inventions [ISBN-13: 978-0-945323-02-0]. Here I felt were unexplored opportunities for health care providers where artists, the chronically ill and prisoners explored a common goal in forging practical, doable wellbeing/coping strategies which could be cost-effective and one day even implemented even if the prisoners’ ones were about a more brutal form of survival.
Present Day
First and foremost I am an artist. I have produced much sensory work as a sound artist, photographer and filmmaker, therefore it is apt to be called an interdisciplinary artist, but it could be said that the ‘soundscape’ or ‘soundtrack’ is the centrepiece of much of my output. I release music on labels such as Brittany’s Eilean and multiple electronic and sound art labels such as Broken20, Hibernate and Canada’s Komino Records. Historically I produced sonic publications on European electronica labels such as Edinburgh’s Benbecula Records, France’s Bip-Hop, Dublin’s Fallt label. My PhD website details the importance of vinyl records in my practice and I have a large Bandcamp archive where lectures and commissions are available alongside solo and collaborative works. Situating myself at CCRI is an ideal fit for me - as well as creating conceptual methodologies, I’ve also began to test some of my techniques in communities, widening my research in the process.
Citizen
A commission from Edinburgh International Book Festival, this is a soundscape and creative writing digital publication that had its premiere at EIBF 2019. Working closely with North Edinburgh Arts in Muirhouse, WHALE in Wester Hailes and schools around the city you can hear it online at the link above. Themes of identity, race and age feature strongly in the work.
Autopaths
Autopaths was a commission from Art Walk Porty as part of the Land Mark strand where I designed a template for an electric cycling route, where geography triggers autobiography. The text from the publicity material describes the process: Many would like to leave some kind of autobiography in their will, or even just online for future researchers – but who has time for that? This project was created to practice two activities that are compromised as we age; memories and movements. The goal was to facilitate both in creating one’s modest autobiography in a day, via the deliberate act of walking or cycling. These experiences trigger memories and associations for the content. Video link: https://vimeo.com/354249591
Idioholism
Idioholism is a portmanteau I created to describe a suite of interrelated techniques that reframes the surroundings of the chronically ill client to return to some kind of participatory existence, on their terms, where aesthetic and social depravation has dominated through adversity. The techniques are augmentations or adjustments, through contemporary art practice and a kind of occupational therapy, that allow dignity and growth during chronic ill health. Examples include field recording from windowsills, time-lapse photography when totally immobile, appropriating household objects and lessons learned from minimalists and process-based arts where the emphasis is not on exhibitions and showing, but rather on the powerful prescriptions of art in incarceration.
Soundcurtains
Soundcurtains is part of a personal body of ethnographic sonic research, some of which made it into my doctorate, which looks at niche music genres and sonic art, exploring if it is possible to a) ‘curtain-off’ part of the acoustic world for those who suffer from hyperarousal and hyperacusis and b) trigger the relaxation response in clients for whom relaxing music or meditation is anathema to their stressed filled state. Music therapy and somatic research doesn’t often look at genres such as maximalism and German dub techno, but aspects of these genres are flagged in the link above, where I travel to a German forest to explore the work of Wolfgang Voigt and the album Konigsforst.
2019 Citizen Soundscape, residency and publication for Edinburgh International Book Festival and North Edinburgh Arts.
2019 Autopaths residency for artwalkporty.co.uk
2018 Séance residency for artwalkporty.co.uk with author Eleanor Thom
2018 Digital Respite, community arts project / financial award with UK charity Care for Carers
2017 Pebbles, podcast and graphic novella investigating Fibroids and anxiety for The Drouth Magazine
2017 AlpenOo, International sonic art collaboration based on Swiss field recordings (crowdfunded)
2016 Radiophrenia, CCA Glasgow, Sound Art / Radio art commission (C.S.*)
2016 Psychiatrische Klinik Wil, Switzerland - Artist in Residence (& Symposium Keynote Speaker)
2016 Stations of The Lost, ArtRail & ArtWalkPorty Artist in Residence/Lead Artist (ScotRail) 2015 The Idioholism Vinyl Trilogy - doctoral work www.idioholism.com
2015 Shellackplatten Quintet Live - The Dark Outside, Galloway Forest Park, Site-Specific Artist (C.S.)
2015 Lessons Learned in The Konigsforst - Environmental Arts Festival Scotland, Site-Specific Artist (C.S.)
2013 Tiny Geographies, Woodend Barn, Banchory, Aberdeenshire, Lead Visual Artist (C.S.)
2010 Lodestone, Ayr Academy -Artist in Residence for Tramway Glasgow / Ayr Town Hall (C.S.)
2009 Surreal Steyning, Steyning Festival, Psychogeographer / Artist in Residence (Arts Council England)
2009 Studio 1824, Timespan Heritage Centre Photography Artist in Residence, Sutherland (C.S.)
C.S. = Creative Scotland funded
I have frequently worked in arts education both in the UK and around Europe. Keynote lectures include clients such as International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and The Sandberg Institute, also in Amsterdam, running workshops at Cornish College of The Arts Seattle, The University of Brighton and Newcastle University. More recently I delivered a keynote at “The Living Museum” at The Psychiatrische Klinik Wil, Switzerland where residency work was also carried out with psychiatric patients. My first experiences in art teaching were at Edinburgh College of Art where I taught in the late nineties and I worked for six months as course leader in Film and Television at Cleveland College of Art and Design, Middlesbrough.
I am open to MA, MSc and PhD exam/Viva work and supplementary supervisory appointments.
• Edinburgh International Book Festival - Creative Writing for Audio workshops at North Edinburgh Arts
• Craigroyston Primary Edinburgh, Sound Art tutor • Edinburgh University, Seminar for PhD students and for the MSc on Wellbeing
• Psychiatrische Klinik Wil, symposium speaker on PhD/medical humanities interventions
• Portobello Library, Portobello, Edinburgh – producing community stories from multimedia project Stations of The Lost
• Carnegie Library, Ayr International Earth Day, South Ayrshire Council, Digital art presentation + soundwork
• Lecturer, Sounding The River Ayr, University of The West of Scotland
• Photography Workshop tutor, Timespan, Sutherland – psychogeographic workshop
• 3rd Int.Middle East Festival, Edinburgh – lecture on Photographic project Polyfaith
• The Polyfaith Bus Tour, a sonic bus tour with ten mini lectures, Edinburgh, Stills.org
• Lecture for The National Galleries of Scotland, group SPIN on my methodologies 1995-2005
• Nuances as Narration, workshop for visually impaired clients. Tutor and designer, Stills.org
• Art and Buddhism, a lecture based on my holistic video piece Samboghakaya, Stills.org
• The Noble Eightfold Path, a lecture series for Edinburgh Buddhist Centre
• The Seventeen Perfections of The CD Burner, Lecture about art and death, Stills.org
• Photography / Film lecturer, University of Newcastle, Fine Art Dept.
• Photography / Film lecturer, Cornish College of Arts, Seattle, New Media Dept.
• Visiting International Lecturer, Sandberg Institute of Arts, Amsterdam, New Media Dept.
• Photography / Film lecturer, Edinburgh College of Art, Film and TV Dep
• Course leader, Fine Art / Film TV Dept. Cleveland College of Art and Design
• The Landscape and Art Institute, Surrey, about my Gaelic work
• Residency Art Tutor, Ellen Wilkinson High School Manchester
• Accretion Disc Eilean Records, Brittany, France
• The Motherlode and The Otherlode Broken20 Records, Glasgow
• CIGA{R}LES University of The West of Scotland • 300 Square Miles of Upwards University of The West of Scotland
• The Eskdalemuir Harmonium Komino Records, Toronto
• Triple Triage, Hibernate Records, Hebden Bridge
• The Aesthetic Animals Album, Benbecula Records, Edinburgh
• Aviophobia, Dukkha, Highpoint Lowlife, San Fransisco CD
• Social Electrics Bip-Hop Records, Marseilles
• Reciprocess w/Frank Bretschneider, Bip-Hop Records, Marseilles
• Drum Gizmo fallt.com, Dublin
• Pebbles, graphic novella + podcast for The Drouth Magazine
• Stations of The Lost, short story collection, ArtRail & Art Walk Porty Artist in Residence/Lead Artist (ScotRail)
• Heavenly Discourses, images & text from my astronomy project 300 Square Miles of Upwards published as part of Heavenly Discourses – a conference I spoke at, by The University of Wales: Sophia Press, June 2016. ISBN 13 - 978-1907767074
• Photo essays in Issue 33 of The Drouth Magazine
• Tiny Geographies, five ‘modular’ photograph-based films about Scotland’s landscape in the North East, exploring limitations and accessibility – The Year of Natural Scotland 2013 - entire film shot with multiple exposure high-resolution images. Published by Woodend Barn Banchory.
• Studio 1824, large-scale photography show, residency and performance / Published by Timespan Helmsdale.
• Glasgow 10x1 minutes, One Minutes, International
• I, Log, a film about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Another Roadside Attraction Gallery, London
• Glacial Motion, for Scottish Sculpture Workshop / Deveron Arts
• (May They Keep) One Arm Free, www.scot-pep.org.uk and The Leith Festival
• A Guide to Polyfaith.com, commissioned by Furtherfield.org
• Tathagata Tales, National Museum of Scotland and Stills.org
• Shorts Retrospective 2, Sonar Festival Barcelona - North Tyneside Arts / ISIS Arts
• Shorts Retrospective 1, Instal.02, The Arches, Glasgow
• Leg Across My Kin, Edinburgh / Toronto - Scottish Arts Council - Canadian Dance Film Festival
• To Look North, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam - lecture, screening, interviews
• Svanejeger / Kaibilder / Organismene, Chris Dooks and d6culture.org at The Millennium Dome, London (a temporary show commissioned by The Millennium Experience)
• Liquid Oxygen, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh / Arches Glasgow, multimedia – Scottish Arts Council
• Eyes in Stone, Rock Art in Modoc County, California - PBS USA • Glaswegian Bedroom Beethovens, Scottish Television
• The South Bank Show, Scanner - ITV • No One Sees Black, Scottish Screen
• Beacons, Scottish Screen - Winner of Scottish Screen 'Centenary Reels' national film competition The Sound of Taransay, Yorkshire Television (writer, director, photographer)
• Hirta Works, St Kilda, Outer Hebrides - Installation work for Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow
2018 Artists who Make Music, Musicians who Make Art - group show, Queens Park Railway Club curated by Ross Sinclair
2016 Stations of The Lost [book edition, installation and tour of region] Portobello Library, Edinburgh
2016 Station of The Found - The Skylark, Edinburgh [headphones and text]
2016 Stations of The Lost Installation - St Mark’s Church, Edinburgh
2015 Tiny Geographies, Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh - screening and installation
2014 Tiny Geographies, University of Zagreb - screening and installation
2013 Tiny Geographies, Woodend Barn, Banchory - screening and installation
2010 Surreal Steyning, web-published Interactive psychogeographic mp3 tour with two live performances – Arts Council England and The Steyning Festival
2009 Studio 1824
, performance / photography collaboration about icehouses – Creative Scotland and Timespan, Sutherland. Involved six A0 sized Lambda prints, video and sound.
2009 How’s The Ghost? photography, short fiction, and film archive manipulations with Scottish Fairground communities in Glasgow – Creative Scotland and The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, An Tobar Mull
2008 Select Avocados, commissioned psychogeographical tour with a website to launch Edinburgh International Arts Festival
2008 Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh and Scottish Arts Council (C.S.) 2006 The Slough of Despond (The Wicker Man Remixed), Live audio-visual piece for Halloween in Huntly, Huntly Town Square, Aberdeenshire – Deveron Arts
2006 The Room of One Arm Free, installation, with song and story-based performance for a sex workers charity, www.scot-pep.org.uk - The Leith Festival, Edinburgh
2005 The Erica Tetralix Polyfaith Map of Edinburgh, citywide interactive mp3 psychogeographical tour of Edinburgh using paradolia and simulacratic forms as narrative. Also two performances, a mini- bus tour, website, related lectures, and publication. Funded by The Scottish Arts Council and Stills.org. A film about the project was later commissioned by Furtherfield.org and exhibited inter- nationally.
2004 Samboghakaya, video installation and performance based on scriptures found in Mahayana Buddhism about the state between form and formlessness, with lecture – Stills.org
2004 A Keeper of Ducks Sings for You, performance of a song-cycle at Stills.org
2003 The Perfection of Wisdom, audio installation with typographic mantra, edited interview with an experienced eighty-year-old meditation practitioner. Based on the world’s oldest book, The Diamond Sutra – Edinburgh Buddhist Centre 2002 Svanejeger / Kaibilder / Organismene, video commission for a post-millennial art work, placed in a portfolio of sculptures and installations to grace the River Tyne - North Tyneside Arts.
2001 For The Exhaustives, covert psychogeographical intervention placing an engraved plaque on a small, uninhabited island on Loch Lomond – Self-funded to raise awareness of M.E. in the UK
2000 To Look North, an Arts Council England Year of the Artist commission with BBC TV (North East), to produce a series of new works re-appropriating material from news archives from 1945 to 2000. Exhibited internationally with a CD Rom publication alongside internet syndication.