Professor Stephen Barber
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Critical and Historical Studies
- School of Creative and Cultural Industries
Research Professor in Art History
About
Since 2012, I have been a Research Professor in Art History in the School of Art faculty at Kingston University and Co-Director of the Visual and Material Culture Research Centre. I previously held research positions at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, the University of Tokyo and Tokyo Keio University, the IMEC Research Institute in Paris, the Berlin Free University, and the Berlin University of the Arts.
My research has been funded by a wide range of research councils and foundations, including the AHRC, the German Ministry for Research and Education, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. My research is focused on urban cultures and their relationship to art and moving-image forms.
I have published many books in my areas of research, most recently 'Berlin Bodies: Anatomising the Streets of the City' (2017), 'Film's Ghosts: Tatsumi Hijikata and the Transmutation of 1960s Japan' (2019), and 'The Projectionists: Eadweard Muybridge, and the Future Projections of the Moving Image' (2020). In 2022, a book of my translations of Antonin Artaud's final writings, 'A Sinister Assassin', will be published. I am now developing a new research project, 'Into the Wastelands', spanning art, film and urban topographies, on the subject of the future of urban wastelands.
I have presented my research at such venues as the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Royal Academy, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Japan Society in New York, the Mori Museum in Tokyo, and the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio.
In June 2020, David Peace wrote about my books in the Times Literary Supplement: ‘Beginning in 1993 with Artaud: Blows and Bombs, Stephen Barber has quietly, independently forged one of the most singular and enriching bodies of work in contemporary writing.'
Qualifications
- BA (Hons)
- PhD
Publications
The projectionists : Eadweard Muybridge and the future projections of the moving image
Barber, Stephen (2020). Chicago, U.S.: (University of Chicago Press)
Film's ghosts : Tatsumi Hijikata's Butoh and the transmutation of 1960s Japan
Barber, Stephen (2019). Zurich, Switzerland: (Diaphanes)
Artaud 1937 Apocalypse
Artaud, Antonin and Barber, Stephen (2019). Zurich, Switzerland: (Diaphanes)
On disfiguration
(2018). Abingdon, U.K.: (Routledge)
Berlin bodies : anatomizing the streets of the city
Barber, Stephen (2017). London, U.K.: (Reaktion Books)
Pierre Guyotat : revolutions and aberrations
Barber, Stephen (2016). London, U.K.:
Performance projections : film and the body in action
Barber, Stephen (2014). London, U.K.: (Reaktion Books)
Pasolini : the massacre game : terminal film, text, words 1974-75
(2013). New York, U.S.: (Sun Vision Press)
Muybridge, the eye in motion: tracing cinema's origins
Barber, Stephen (2012). Washington, D.C., U.S.: (Solar Books)
The walls of Berlin: urban surfaces: art: film
Barber, Stephen (2011). Chicago, U.S.: (Solar Books)
Abandoned images: film and film's end
Barber, Stephen (2010). London, U.K.: (Reaktion Books)
Hijikata: revolt of the body
Barber, Stephen (2010). Chicago, U.S.: (Solar Books)
Artaud: terminal curses: the notebooks 1945-48
Barber, Stephen (2008). Chicago, U.S.: (Solar Books)
London eyes: reflections in text and image
(2007). New York, U.S.: (Berghahn Books)
The vanishing map: a journey from LA to Tokyo to the heart of Europe
Barber, Stephen (2006). Oxford, UK: (Berg Publishers)
Caligula: divine carnage
Barber, Stephen (2006). Chicago, U.S.: (Solar Books)
Jean Genet
Barber, Stephen (2004). London, U.K.: (Reaktion Books)
The art of destruction: the films of the Vienna action group
Barber, Stephen (2004). London, U.K.: (Creation Books)
Projected cities
Barber, Stephen (2002). London, UK: (Reaktion Books)
Extreme Europe
Barber, Stephen (2001). London, U.K.: (Reaktion Books)
Tokyo vertigo
Barber, Stephen (2001). London, U.K.: (Creation Books)
Edmund White: the burning world : a biography
Barber, Stephen (2000). London, U.K.: (Picador)
Artaud: the screaming body
Barber, Stephen (1999). London, U.K.: (Creation Books)
Weapons of liberation
Barber, Stephen (1996). London, U.K.:
Fragments of the European city
Barber, Stephen (1995). London, U.K.: (Reaktion Books)
A War of Fragments : J.G. Ballard's World Versus America
Barber, Stephen, 2017, Diaphanes: Art, Fiction, Discourse
Corporeal Disintegration as Last Gasp Vocal Act: the Final Works, of Murobushi, Artaud and Chereau
Barber, Stephen, 2017, New Theatre Quarterly (33), 2, pp 169-178
The Skladanowsky Brothers: the Devil knows
Barber, Stephen, 2010, Senses of Cinema, 56
Coma: the art of unconsciousness
Barber, Stephen, 2010, Mute
Vers la zone
Barber, Stephen, 2009, Europe: revue litteraire mensuelle, 961, pp 160-173
Genealogies of film's ruination
Barber, Stephen, 2009, Vertigo (4), 2, pp 30-30
Pasolini and Sade: a maleficient obsession
Barber, Stephen, 2008, Vertigo (4), 1, pp 50-51
The last words of Antonin Artaud: on the cinematic dimension of the envisioned final notebooks
Barber, Stephen, 2008, Vertigo (3), 8, pp 10-11
Hijikata Tatsumi at the Osaka World Exposition's Pepsi Pavilion, 1970. Multiple Historiographies of a Lost Performance
Barber, Stephen (2022). In: Fisher-Lichte, Erika, (eds.), Sugiera, Małgorzata, (eds.), Jost, Torsten, (eds.), Hartung, Holger, (eds.) and Soltani, Omid, (eds.), Entangled performance histories : New approaches to theater historiography. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, pp 106-124
Lovers: corporeal projections and ocular demands
Barber, Stephen (2017). In: Eckersall, Peter, (eds.), Scheer, Edward, (eds.) and Shintarō, Fujii, (eds.), The Dumb Type reader. Copenhagen, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press, pp 191-202
Cinemas' Sonic Residues
Barber, Stephen (2014). In: Gandy, Matthew, (eds.) and Nilsen, BJ, (eds.), The Acoustic City. Berlin, Germany: Jovis, pp 138-144
Traces and surfaces
Barber, Stephen (2011). In: Gandy, Matthew, (ed.), Urban constellations. Berlin, Germany: JOVIS Verlag, pp 174-177
The films of the Skladanowsky Brothers
Barber, Stephen (2011). In: Langford, Michelle, (ed.), Germany. Bristol, U.K.: Intellect
August Walla: Devil/God, image/text
Barber, Stephen (2010). In: Hunt, John Dixon, (eds.), Lomas, David, (eds.) and Corris, Michael, (eds.), Art, word and image: two thousand years of visual/textual interaction. London, U.K.: Reaktion Books, pp 317-328
The films of the Vienna Action Group
Barber, Stephen (2010). In: Weiner, Robert G., (eds.) and Cline, John, (eds.), Cinema inferno: celluloid explosions from the cultural margins. Plymouth, U.K.: Scarecrow Press, pp 217-225
Introduction: Part II: The modern age: London in image
Barber, Stephen (2007). In: Cunningham, Gail, (eds.) and Barber, Stephen, (eds.), London eyes: reflections in text and image. New York, U.S.: Berghahn Books, pp 119-121
An indescribable blur: film and London
Barber, Stephen (2007). In: Cunningham, Gail, (eds.) and Barber, Stephen, (eds.), London eyes: reflections in text and image. New York, USA: Berghahn Books, pp 123-134
La matiere de lecriture: sur Pierre Guyotat
Barber, Stephen K. (1999). In: Forest, P, (eds.) and Sollers, Philippe, (eds.), De Tel quel a L'infini: L'avant-garde et apres : colloques de Londres et de Paris, mars 1995. France: Pleins Feux, pp 123-135
Coming home : Eadweard Muybridge's return to Kingston
Kim, Seoyoung and Barber, Stephen(2022). In: Artist's Homes in Kingston : Gordine and Muybridge, 10 Jun 2022 :Held online
'Thatcher's tomb' : a talk and reading
Barber, Stephen(2018). In: Loving, Kingston Writers' Centre, 11 Jan 2018 :Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.
Challenging the frames of performance: memory, trauma and activism in the multimedia and interdisciplinary performance practices of dumb type in 1990's Japan
Barber, Stephen and Lloyd, Fran(2014). In: Trauma and Utopia: Interactions in Post-War and Contemporary Art in Asia, 09-10 Oct 2014 :Tokyo, Japan
The art of intervention: Kingston University responses: Japanese mob
Barber, Stephen, Davies, Rachel, Horrocks, Chris, Mancke, Carol and Maude-Roxby, Alice(2009). In: The art of intervention: critical perspectives on the intersections of private and public memory, 14 Feb 2009 :Kingston upon Thames, U.K.