Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/2329 on 13.03.2017 by CS (TIS)My thesis is both an oppositional history and a (re)definition of British
Underground Cinema culture (1959 - 2(02). The historical significance of
Underground Cinema has long been ideologically entangled in a mesh of
academic typologies and ultra leftist rhetoric, abducting it from those directly
involved. The intention of my work is to return definition to the 'object' of study,
to write from within. This process involves viewing the history of modem British
culture not as a vague monolithic and hierarchic spectrum but rather as a distinct
historical conflict between the repressive legitimate Art culture of the bourgeoisie
and the radical illegitimate popular culture of the working class. In this context,
Underground Cinema can be {re)defined as a radical hybrid culture which fused
elements of popular culture, Counterculture and Anti-Art. However, the first
wave of Underground Cinema was effectively suppressed by the irrational
ideology of its key activists and the hegemonic power of the Art tradition. They
disowned the radical popular and initiated an Avant-Garde/Independent cinema
project which developed an official State administrated bourgeois alternative to
popular cinema.
My conclusion is that Underground Cinema still has the potential to become a
radical and commercial popular culture but that this is now frustrated by an
institutionalised State Art culture which has colonised the State funding agencies,
higher education and the academic study of cinema. If the Underground is to
flourish it must refuse and subvert this Art culture and renew its alliance with
radical, experimental and commercial pop culture.
My methodology is an holistic interactive praxis which combines research,
writing, film/video making, digital design, performance and political activism. My
final submission will be an open and heterodox mesh of polemic, history and
entertainment. Its key components will be a written thesis which will locate this
praxis within its intellectual context and a web site which will integrate my
research and practice 1997-2003