Mark Donoghue

     
Mark Donoghue
Ph.D. student University of the Arts London. Supervision team: Prof. Paul Coldwell, Dr Yuko Kikuchi
m.donoghue@gmail.com
markhdonoghue.wordpress.com


Biography

I am currently undertaking a Ph.D. at the University of the Arts London. My research focuses on the parallels in landscape illustration in print between Scotland and Japan in the 19th century. I am attempting to take a particular combination of representation systems observed in ukiyo-e and apply these to representations of contemporary Scotland. Informed by the work of Gilles Deleuze, I believe by combining different models of spatial representation that are contradictory it generates a rupture in signification and avoids the over-determination of style.

Academic Paper

Picturesque Scotland and Japan
This paper compares 19th century prints of Scotland after JMW Turner with Japanese woodcut prints by Utagawa Hiroshige of the same period. Gilles Deleuze’s concepts of smooth and straited space is used to highlight common features in regards to spacial illustration. Both Turner and Hiroshige’s prints are indebted to travel and it could be argued that Deleuze’s concepts of smooth and striated space as observed in these prints relate to different conceptions of travel, either as goal orientated or self-reflection orientated.

During the 19th century, Japan and Scotland, despite being half a world apart and no formal relations between the two existing, shared some intriguing similarities regarding the development of tourism. Of particular interest is how aesthetic concerns, primarily the appreciation of scenic views, played a pivotal role in both. This being the case, it should be possible to detect some common features in the prints that were produced to satisfy this growing interest  in travel.  

Turner is generally considered Britain’s greatest landscape painter and his prints accompanied work by Sir Walter Scott, perhaps the most important figure in the creation of the image of Scotland. Hiroshige’s landscape print series, likewise, are equally iconic, often being the defining image of ukiyo-e. So investigating the similarities between the work of the two should prove insightful.

In particular it is similarities in the treatment of space in the works, despite belonging to different traditions, that this paper is concerned with. Deleuze’s concepts of smooth and striated space provides a tool to make meaningful comparisons, despite belonging to separate traditions. In conclusion it is proposed that by attempting to assemble these counter-movements of smooth and striated space the works invoke both conceptions of travel as goal-orientated and as a means to self-reflection.