Cathy Fitzgerald celebrating with a beautiful NZ tree fern at University College Dublin, 19 November 2018.

I’m delighted to announce that this week I was conferred with a PhD by Practice in Visual Culture at the National College of Art and Design at a ceremony at University College Dublin. There are so, so many people to thank and I’m delighted to start to share some of my practice and research, FINALLY!

Sincere, heartfelt thanks to all who have supported me in a journey that covered many years and some unavoidable breaks for health and family reasons. A PhD is never created by one person alone and I wish to acknowledge my husband Martin, Holly (our late dog who kept me company on this adventure), my incredibly supportive family in Aotearoa New Zealand, my supervisors, examiners, friends, and people from many fields and places and of course, all who reside at Hollywood forest. This image below is a page from my eBook that I submitted for my PhD by creative practice. I had so much support from so many fields for my transversal adventures in academia, filmmaking, new-to-Ireland Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry, environmental science, politics and philosophy.

I had to prepare a short statement about my PhD for the ceremony, so this might give you an idea of what I was doing, this long, long time.

Cathy Fitzgerald, an Irish-based New Zealander, has a long history at NCAD, completing her BA in Fine Art in Painting in 2000, an MA in Virtual Realities in 2002, and now her doctorate.

Cathy’s previous career in biological science, her long involvement in progressive Irish forestry, the Green Party, and artists’ professional development in her former role as Director of ArtLinks, an Arts Office programme in the South East, informs her PhD by Practice called The Ecological Turn. As awareness of the ecological imperative for our and other species thriving increases, harnessing creative energies effectivitely will never be as vital. Cathy’s PhD contributes an accessible theory-method framework to explain the value and social power of ecological art practices in the still little understood but increasingly important art and ecology field. Through her creative practice and theory work, Cathy understands first-hand the challenges that occur when art and ecology are brought together; the science and political context is complex and necessitates an expanded ethic for future generations and nonhuman others. Such practices question the validity of short-term art residencies and inspire artists to collaborate with scientists, ecologists, politicians, philosophers and communities for the better world we know is possible. Overall, Cathy’s research more broadly increases understanding of why, and how, eco-social art practices increase ecoliteracy and grassroot political agency for practitioners and their audiences.

Of particular note, part of Cathy’s PhD by Practice submission provides an illustrated guide for others. In her now available audio-visual eBook The Hollywood Forest Story (now available on Apple’s iBook Store here), she reveals the usefulness of applying the framework to explain her eco-social art practice and her deep interest in new-to-Ireland continuous cover forestry, as an alternative to destructive monoculture clearfell forest management. In Cathy’s eBook, one encounters video footage, photography, and writings about the slow art and practice of continuous cover forestry that is transforming the small plantation-becoming a permanent forest that she lives within, in County Carlow. As a live, real-world example of an eco-social art practice, the ongoing Hollywood Forest Story develops new thinking that has contributed to new national forestry policy, begun a public discourse about the crime of ecocide and inspired others to live well with their forests. Cathy thus demonstrates how to develop and maintain effective eco-social art practices.

Cathy wants to offer sincere thanks to Dr Paul O’Brien, for teaching her why art, ecology and politics are always connected if we want a livable, just world – Cathy had the good fortune to have been taught by Paul for her undergraduate and masters degrees, and he was her key theory advisor for her PhD. For her practice, Cathy also wishes to extend thanks to Dr Iain Biggs, artist, transversal practice advocate and educator, and senior research fellow in the Environmental Humanities Dept. of Bath University. Iain supported Cathy to pursue an ambitious PhD by practice, that successfully wove adventures to and from many disciplines and real-world experiences.

And if you are interested, my ebook and thesis are now available to read online. Any comments welcome.

The Hollywood Forest Story eBook is now available to download from the APPLE iBook Store.

The Hollywood Forest Story eBook is the cultural artefact (the evidence from my creative practice) for the key argument of my PhD by practice, on why and how a theory-method framework is essential for effective and engaging eco-social practices). As such, this eBook is the critical introduction for my successful PhD by Practice – The Ecological Turn: Living Well with Forests to Articulate Eco-Social Art Practices Using a Guattari Ecosophy and Action Research Framework (2018).

The text, images and video material in this eBook reflects the central creative practice of blogging for this eco-social practice, from my blog http://www.hollywoodforest.com. My blog follows the ongoing (since 2008) transformation of a monoculture tree plantation into a permanent, mixed species forest following new-to-Ireland Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry practices.

Please note the eBook is a formal text that was presented as part of my PhD by Practice submission.  However, it gives a great introduction to Hollywood forest and my work to develop a straightforward theory-method framework to more simply understand how to develop and maintain effective eco-social art practices.

• If you  have an iTunes account, The Hollywood Forest Story eBook is FREE AND available to download through the Apple iBook Store here

• Alternatively, a copy of the eBook is available as a print-on-demand book here
• or as PDF here

Note: if reading the print or PDF version, the videos from the eBook can be seen on Vimeo here

The full and accompanying written thesis

The Ecological Turn: Living Well with Forests
to Articulate Eco-Social Art Practices
Using a Guattari Ecosophy and Action Research Framework (2018)

is available to download here from https://ncad.academia.edu/CathyFitzgerald

Abstract: