Session 1: Practice, Process and Method 

Chairs: Prof. Duncan MacLeod (GSA) & Dr. Beth Whiteside (RCS), Bourdon Lecture Theatre

Lucy Allan (RCS): A practice-led exploration of expertise in improvised piano accompaniment for ballet class
Abstract: Piano for Dance is a specialist area of study at RCS. It is a discipline which demands highly specialised skills and knowledge from its practitioners, yet most of this expertise is absent from scholarship. I would like to introduce my PhD, in which I aim to address this gap in scholarship by exploring my own work as a piano accompanist for professional ballet and creating practice-led output. In this presentation I will offer an overview of the field and my role in the ballet studio. I’ll share a bit about the artistic practice itself, which is centered around improvisation. I will also foreground some challenges posed by documenting improvised music for dance, and how I might overcome them! While this is a PhD in Music, my research interfaces with dance studies and grapples with epistemological and methodological issues relevant across the performing arts.

Biography: Lucy Allan is a lecturer in Piano for Dance and piano accompanist in the School of Dance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is a frequent collaborator at Scottish Ballet, both as a pianist and an electronic composer-producer. In and outside of the dance studio, her music draws stylistic influence from jazz, minimalism and commercial electronic music. Lucy specialises in piano improvisation and her PhD research is a practice-led exploration of this specialism in the context of her ballet class accompaniment work.


Kenneth Tay (RCS): Not Paperwork Again! A Composer’s Reading of Artistic Practice Through Administrative Processes
Abstract: This presentation reflects on the lived processes of undertaking a music composition PhD at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, using supervision record forms and annual progress reviews as an exploratory site of artistic research in motion. Completed regularly for progress monitoring and visa compliance, these documents capture the entanglement of the banal and the conceptual. Read in retrospect, they reveal the slow, messy, and unpredictable labour behind artistic research: a process that cheerfully ignores the tidy boxes on the forms meant to describe it. By placing excerpts from this administrative trail alongside sketches, sounds, and finished works, the presentation shows how artistic outcomes grow out of the practical processes recorded in routine paperwork. I suggest that treating these documents as creative evidence can reveal the small decisions, tensions, and adjustments that shape artistic practice within a higher education context.

Biography: Kenneth Tay is a Singaporean composer, conductor, and researcher based in Glasgow, Scotland. He completed his PhD in composition jointly undertaken at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of St Andrews in 2026, where his research explored sacred music as a site of intercultural encounter, drawing on Singaporean-Southeast Asian musical ideas and stories in conversation with Western sacred forms. Recent engagements include presentations and performances at the World Symposium on Choral Music in Macau (August 2026), the International Network for Music Theology (June 2026), and a live broadcast of a new piece on BBC Radio 4 (June 2026).


Rebecca Meanley (SoFA, GSA): An Analysis of the Intersection of the Visual and the Textual: How is the Mesh functioning as a Methodology for this Research?
Abstract: It has been established that this research project exists in its entirety as a process already in operation inside the mesh. Yet, in its current incarnation, the mesh is shape-shifting, metamorphic and metamorphosing, occupying varying visual metaphors. Both its inhabiting of a particular shape or form and its state of transformation must be captured in stream of consciousness writing, installation-building or in the embodied encounter with an artwork. Autobiographical writing navigates the re-experiencing of powerful memories, the interpenetration of the past in the present and fear of the future with a dysfunctional body. An expanded abstract painting, preoccupied with light, space, transparency and suspension, generates iterative installations that challenge perception. How does the visual, as aesthetic consciousness, and the textual, as self-consciousness, interact and intersect in the mesh? How are the shape-shifting qualities of the mesh functioning and how do such states of transformation relate to the experiencing of a hyper-present state?

Biography: Rebecca Meanley is an artist, writer, researcher and senior lecturer. Her PhD at The Glasgow School of Art explores the intersection of autobiographical and experimental writing and an expanded abstract painting through a navigation of the visual-aesthetic-literary device of the mesh. Rebecca’s writing features in the forthcoming 2026 edition and the 2025 edition of The Yellow Paper, published by Art Writing at The Glasgow School of Art. Recent solo projects include a Residency in the Barnes Garage Space at GSA, July 2026, and a Residency in The Drawing Room, GSA, July 2025. Upcoming group shows include Palimpsest at The Annex Gallery, GSA, Glasgow in 2026, and The Winter’s Tale at The Bindery, London in 2026.


Sitian Zeng (GSA): Painting as an approach to explore immanent subjectivity in the post-digital age
Abstract: This practice-led research considers physical painting as a metaphorical screen and an operational field for exploring diverse facets of subjectivity under the influence of digital apparatuses and within the unstable post-digital context. The post-digital condition not only shapes our subjectivity but also renews painting by emphasising its qualities of slowness, materiality, and affective engagement. Although painting and subjectivity have long shared a complex relationship, this research argues that painting, renewed within the fleeting digital culture, offers new possibilities for exploring the affective and pre-articulated dimensions of subjectivity, understood in this research as immanent subjectivity. Throughout this painting practice, my research reveals tendencies of subjectivity in the post-digital condition: a desire to reach toward the canvas (i.e., a metaphorical screen) and interact with the virtual realm in an embodied way.

Biography: Sitian Zeng (b. 1995, China) is a Glasgow-based artist and doctoral researcher at the Glasgow School of Art. Her practice-led research lies within interdisciplinary contexts across expanded painting, subjectivity, identity, mass media, and power structures in the post-digital age. Sitian's painting has received international awards and has been exhibited internationally. In addition, she has presented papers on contemporary painting and her artistic practice at various events across Europe, and she also teaches Fine Art in higher education in both China and the UK.

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Session 2: Heritage, Place and Cultural Memory

Chair: Dr. Elizabeth Hodson (GSA), Bourdon Lecture Theatre

Rosie Dahlstrom (SoFA, GSA): Together We Labour To Realise Images: A Personal Reflection on Strange Evidence
Abstract: In June, I visited an exhibition and saw a work of artist moving image that happened to align with the double interest of my research question. My research is a practice-based investigation of the experience of beauty as constructed in an artist-made work, and the relationship between beauty and the representation or invocation of the ancient world. I hypothesize that encountering the ancient past and having an experience of beauty are closely related in terms of their effect on human perception, and the potential of harnessing this relationship in contemporary art has under-appreciated potential. This potential is especially interesting in terms of increasing qualities such as empathy, nuance and transcendence, fostering which in current society is more urgent than ever. However, discussions of beauty itself are very rare in contemporary art discourse, despite the fact that I believe artworks themselves often do so, and artists continue to purposefully create beauty that will connect with a viewer in quite a direct way. Invocations of the ancient world in contemporary art also interest me and my recent writing explores what artists are communicating when they use artefacts or imagery from Ancient Egypt in their work. Strange Evidence by Michelle Williams Gamaker is a film that I hope to show brings together these sites of tension around beauty, heritage and fantasy in a work which both illustrates some of my research interests and also challenges me as a practitioner. This talk will therefore briefly tell the story of my encounter with this film.

Biography: Rosie Dahlstrom is an artist and writer from Glasgow. She completed MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (UAL) in 2020. Her practice comes from a painting background, but as the work is narrative-driven the stories can also take the forms of collage, film, sculpture, text and installation. Rosie is now undertaking PhD by Practice with the School of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art, researching the relationship between beauty and the ancient world, and its implications for contemporary art.


Sabrina Ilma Sakina (SIT, GSA): Lost and Found: Kain koffo as a textile-based cultural heritage in Indonesia
Abstract: Kain koffo is an obscure traditional textile from Sangihe Islands, Indonesia. Having gone through extinction in 2011, the practice of kain koffo is now going through a grass root-led, government-supported revival. This research observes and explores the changes in kain koffo through the lens of making. This research employs ethnographic methods to obtain field work data and participatory workshops for community engagement. Findings include the cultural dissonance between the practice and the people, the loss of making motifs, and importantly, the enthusiasm of the participants towards learning. This study is funded by LPDP scholarship from the Indonesian Ministry of Finance.

Biography: Sabrina Sakina is a third-year PhD student at the School of Innovation and Technology, the Glasgow School of Art. She is currently on leave from her teaching position at the Faculty of Art and Design, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. Her research interests covers textiles, especially traditional textiles and their making processes. Her current work explores the disappearance and resurgence of the practice of kain koffo, a traditional textile from Sangihe Islands, Indonesia.


Toby Mao (SoFA, GSA): An introduction and research collection of Jarosław Kozłowski
Abstract: Jarosław Kozłowski (1945–) is one of the most reputable conceptual artists in Poland, currently based in Poznań. Kozłowski’s exercise in the deconstruction and analysis of art language through tautologies and linguistic works is significantly analytical and critical*, yet underrepresented in English-speaking academia. This ‘library-like’ collection displays books, exhibition catalogues and other materials about Kozłowski’s works and other Polish Conceptualism practices that were collected by the researcher from Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art Archive (Warsaw), University of Warsaw Library (Warsaw) and The Arsenal Municipal Gallery (Poznań) in summer 2026. The collection is accompanied by a presentation to introduce Kozłowski’s work in relation to the contemporary visual art context. 

*Piotr Piotrowski, In the Shadow of Yalta: Art and the Avant-Garde in Eastern Europe, 1945 - 1989, trans. by Anna Brzyski, First published in paperback (Reaktion Books, 2011). 336.

Biography: Toby Mao is a visual art worker and third-year PhD student at the School of Fine Art at GSA. His practice employs various media and formats, with critical, analytical, conceptual, and experimental features that develop new understandings of the act of thinking, logic, objecthood, and material interpretation of/through artistic practice. His research interests also include the analytical continental divide, the dualism argument, and philosophical investigation(s) in the visual art context. (E: chengwei.mao@network.rca.ac.uk, W: https://www.tobymao.net/).

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Session 3: Digital Cultures and Creative Agency

Chair: Dr. Maddy Scalter (GSA), Bourdon Lecture Theatre

Esraa Kasem (SIT, GSA): The Standards of Designing Virtual In-Game Events for a Positive User Experience to Enhance the Brand: Grand Egyptian Museum as a Case Study.
Abstract: The convergence of gaming technologies, Extended Reality (XR), and metaverse platforms is transforming how museums engage audiences and communicate their brand identity. 

Using the Grand Egyptian Museum as a case study, this research explores how game design elements, including challenges, rewards, avatars, and interactive storytelling, can create engaging cultural experiences that strengthen emotional connection and visitor participation. Drawing on theories of gamification, experiential marketing, and digital game advertising, the study examines how XR technologies can foster immersion, presence, and memorable experiences while extending museum engagement beyond physical spaces. It also investigates how virtual environments enable visitors to become active participants in shaping cultural narratives. Addressing a significant gap in museum and heritage research, the study proposes a conceptual framework for designing immersive virtual in-game museum experiences that enhance visitor engagement, support long-term interaction, and contribute to sustainable museum branding in increasingly digital cultural environments.

Biography: Esraa Kasem is a PhD researcher at the School of Innovation and Technology at the Glasgow School of Art, specializing in immersive creative media, extended reality (XR), gamification, and interactive experiences. Her research explores how virtual in-game events and XR technologies can enhance user experience, engagement, and branding, with the Grand Egyptian Museum as a case study. With a background in advertising, branding, and interactive media, she combines creative practice, digital technologies, and advertising theory to explore new approaches to experiential branding and audience engagement in immersive environments, with a particular interest in immersive technology, branding, storytelling, and digital heritage.



Mstislav Kochkin (GSA): The Investigation of the Integration of Generative AI into the Architectural Theory & Practice
Abstract: For my presentation, I will report on the outcomes of the first year of my PhD research. The outcomes include an introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence and its capabilities and functions within the architectural industry; and a summary the literature review, which highlights the key themes and knowledge gaps, which inform the future research direction. The presentation will also present the pilot methodologies, of application of Generative AI in the architectural visualisation for the adaptive reuse projects, which were tested in a workshop delivered to Master’s students and in the competition entry, which I am currently developing.

Biography: Mstislav Kochkin obtained his Bachelor and Master of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art in 2021 and 2024. Throughout his architectural journey Mstislav viewed architecture as the driver of progress, which is especially noticeable in his enthusiasm about the newest design solutions and technologies both in project delivery and construction. Mstislav’s Masters Dissertation proposed a methodology of AI-assisted design process, in which he used his Final Design Thesis as the training dataset and reiterated it using image-generating neural networks. His PhD continues this research and dives into a deeper exploration of adopting GenAI in architectural education and profession.



Lemon Tang (SoD, GSA): Designing Obedience: Behavioural Conditioning and Standardisation in China’s Graphic Communication Design Portfolio Education post-2020
Abstract: This presentation examines how behavioural conditioning operates within China’s private Graphic Communication Design portfolio education after 2020, asking how students learn not simply to design, but to design correctly. Situated within a highly commercialised and application-driven educational environment, the research investigates how repeated correction, imitation, standardised workflows, aesthetic preferences, and admission-oriented feedback can gradually condition students’ creative decisions and perceptions of successful design. Drawing on ongoing doctoral fieldwork involving interviews with students, tutors, administrators, and UK higher-education practitioners, alongside institutional observation and visual analysis, the presentation traces how standardisation is produced through everyday pedagogical practices rather than imposed through explicit rules. Importantly, it avoids positioning tutors or institutions as simply oppressive, instead examining the structural pressures surrounding them. The presentation ultimately considers what these practices mean for authorship, critical thinking, creative agency, and the increasingly standardised visual language of international design portfolios.

Biography: Lemon Xueli Tang is a design researcher, educator, and researcher at The Glasgow School of Art. Their research examines design education, critical pedagogy, creative agency, and the commercialisation of portfolio education, with particular attention to China’s international art and design education landscape. Their research project, Designing Obedience, investigates behavioural conditioning and standardisation within Graphic Communication Design portfolio education in China after 2020. With a background in Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins, Lemon’s wider practice explores how institutional, cultural, and commercial structures shape design learning, authorship, ethical judgement, and students’ understandings of what constitutes “good” design.

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Session 4: Exhibition and Performance

Chair: Prof. Ross Birrell (GSA), The Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery, Bourdon Building.

Susan Torrance (SoFA, GSA): Wrestling Demonstration or How to Get to Grips with your Research Subject
Abstract: My research into an historic newspaper collection started with meaning-driven explorations of its pages to unlock the rich and less rich narratives of a community in flux. The longer I live with this artefact, the more it reveals of its agency, physical presence and uniqueness. An attempt to replicate and adapt just one page of its ephemeral historical relevance led to a mighty battle and a result which can only be described as a draw - but did lead to a new physical object. The performance illustrates my wrestling.

Biography: Susan Torrance is a later life artist and researcher who has taken advantage of her third age opportunities to thoroughly enjoy her until now unfulfilled creative interests in community, identity, story telling and the life of objects. Nothing has made her happier than uncovering the potential for a 'second chance' for her redundant physical newspaper collection to claim a robust existence in the present and to share this magical time machine with others.


Noah Rose (SoFA, GSA): Leabharlann na gClocha Ceilte / The Hidden Stone Library
Abstract: ‘Leabharlann na gClocha Celte / The Hidden Stone Library’ is the title of a sculptural-typographic installation I made during 2020-21 on Oileán Chléire/ Cape Clear Island, County Cork, Ireland. It formed the first of 3 case studies I employed to answer my PhD research questions, leading to the development of a new conceptual framework - that of the ‘Linguascape’ or ‘Teangadhreach’. This presentation details the context, practice-led, archival, linguistic and land-based research adopted to develop the work, highlighting  engagement with residents of a small Irish-speaking island during Covid-19 restrictions.  The outcome - a permanently-installed 8-part work sited along a walking trail around the island - and its legacy, are appraised through a detailed description, with photographs of research processes, and culminating in unveiling of a physical sculptural work that bridges the distance between GSA and the setting of this site-responsive work, a remote Irish island, in order to consider polarities of rootedness and remote representation in place-based sculptural practice and the value of sculptural archival illumination in minority-language cultures.

Biography: Noah Rose is an artist based in rural County Galway, Ireland.  His expanded sculptural practice incorporates creative disciplines such as drawing, typography and photography.  His research process is led by context and enacted through site-responsive approach. He is interested in the inter and intra-actions of sculpture and language - recent work focussing on the Irish language as a key repository of place-based knowledge.  Between 2019-2025 he undertook a practice-led PhD at Glasgow School of Art: ‘Sculpting the Linguascape/ Ag Dealbhú an Teangadhreach: unearthing place-based knowledge in the Irish language through expanded sculptural practice’.  He was awarded his PhD in December 2025.


MaryLynne Wrye (SoFA, GSA): Seperated
Abstract: I am engaging with the predicament of representation in the context of suffering, and with the idea of art practice as paying attention in the borderland of Lesvos, Greece. The work I propose discussing incorporates four elements in a collage format: an image of a life jacket lost during a sea crossing of refugees to Lesvos;  a line of Sappho’s verse in ancient Greek; poet Anne Carson’s interpretation; and my response, a variation on Carson’s translation. As refugees continue to cross the Aegean, debris writes on the island a visual story of celebration and lament. Because Carson incorporates in her translation the physical fragmentation of the papyrus where Sappho’s words remain, the verse, like debris, returns as a visual song to the island where it was composed. Through time and space, how does debris tell a story? Does the fragmentation of experience as trauma become an expression of the borderland?

Biography: MaryLynne Wrye works across photography, text, moving image, and performance. Her experience in the borderland of Lesvos, Greece, as an artist and as part of the humanitarian community is the impetus for her current PhD practice research.  Wrye holds a Master of Research from the Royal College of Art and a Master of Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. When away from Glasgow, she lives in New York City with her wife and son.


Yimin Xiang (SoFA, GSA): Research Dossier
Abstract: Research Dossier (2023–26) gathers the material accumulated over three years of this research: visual references, research documents, the conferences and events I took part in, and documentation of the exhibitions along the way. Held in ring binders, it can be leafed through by hand, though its order is not left to chance: pages are added, inserted and rearranged as the work goes on.

Biography: Yimin Xiang is an artist, printmaker, and researcher currently completing a PhD at the Glasgow School of Art. His research investigates the intersections of printmaking, archival theory, and contemporary visual culture.

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