Trudy Barber

After gaining my BA (Hons) in Fine Art  at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London and my PhD and Teaching Accreditation by Portfolio both  from the University of Kent at Canterbury, I joined the CCI Faculty at Portsmouth University in November 2006, where I lecture on various aspects of Media Studies. My specialist subjects are emergent media, cyber/digital culture, cybersexualities including robot sex, deviant leisure, media networks, visual culture, art practice and the digital future. I am also interested in notions of creativity and interdisciplinarity, and exploring approaches as to how practice informs theory. I also continue to follow traditional Fine Art practice with ongoing paintings, drawings, installations and film making as well as continuing writing articles on research. Previous teaching includes the University of Kent, the Institute of Education University of London and the Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

I am currently exploring notions of the multi-mediated body - including digital exploration of ‘polymedia’, gender, sexuality and technologically augmented sexual behaviour and the development of innovative user-generated content.  This will include exploring further developments and uses of haptics and virtual space,  and to include mobile content  and online streaming; as well as investigating interdisciplinary ‘Mash-Ups’ and social networking within ongoing ‘live and real’ off-line  time-based interaction. It is hoped that this cross disciplinary work will be disseminated through various media platforms and publishing. A project currently in planning stages includes some collaborative work with motion capture, performance and issues of gender.