Dr David Chapman

Senior Lecturer

Film, Filmmaking, Moving Image Research Centre

Department of Media, Fashion & Communications , School Of Arts And Creative Industries

Dr David Chapman is Course Leader for MA Filmmaking and teaches film production and film history at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and supervises practice orientated PhDs and Professional Doctorates in Fine Art (DFA).

Areas Of Interest

Film and television production and history
Sonic arts
Visual arts

OVERVIEW

David leads and teaches across a number of MA and BA Modules, with a special focus on documentary film, film sound and professional practice in the moving image industries.

He currently leads the MA Modules Documentary Cinema and Audiovision (film sound & sound design) and the BA Modules Employment and Enterprise and Agency 2: Professional Life & Mental Wealth.

He is an active member of the School's research committees (Impact and Innovation and Research Degree) and runs Schema, UEL's Student Film Production Unit

CURRENT RESEARCH

David's current work is as a media artist and researcher with a particular interest in sound and image interaction. He creates video and multichannel sound pieces for both gallery and site-specific exhibitions.

David's most recent work investigates the sonic mediation of the natural world, the durational dimensions of place, and historical and cultural issues through audio-visual installations. He is a founding member of UEL's Moving Image Research Committee.

For more information, you can visit David's website.

Most Recent Research

Art as Problematic Waste (2019) Documentary film and multi-channel installation project, co-directed with Finnish media artist Aimo Hyvärinen. The work is funded by AVEK, the Finnish audio-visual arts council.

October 4 - 27, 2019 Turku Art Hall, Turku, Finland.
October 7 - 30, 2019 Kulttuuritalo Laikku, Tampere, Finland.
March 5 - 12, 2020 Greenwich University Galleries, London. Curated by David Waterworth.
April 2021, International Fine Arts Film Festival, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.

Meanings of Failed Action: Insurrection 1946 (2017) Collaborative multimedia installation with leading artist Vivan Sundaram, cultural historians Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Prof. Valentina Vitali (UEL).
(Archived Website) https://insurrection1946.wordpress.com/

March 17 – 25, 2017, Coomaraswamy Hall, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Museum, Mumbai, India.
Feb 9 – July 20, 2018, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India.

Chapman, D. (2017) 'Context-Based Sound and the Ecological Theory of Perception' Organised Sound, 22(1), pp. 42-50.

PUBLICATIONS

Publications

Chapman, D. (2017) 'Context-Based Sound and the Ecological Theory of Perception' Organised Sound, Vol.22. Issue1 pp: 42-50.
Chapman, D. (2016) 'The Undersea World of the Sound Department: the Construction of Sonic Conventions in Sub-aqua Screen Environments', The New Soundtrack, Vol.6.2, pp: 143-157.
Chapman D. & Wilson L.K. (2013) 'Falkland: a Sonic Investigation of Place', in S. Giametta & F. Michi (eds) Keep An Ear On: Atti Del V° Simposio FKL Sul Paesaggio Sonoro, Firenze, Italy: Fratini Editore
Chapman D. & Wilson L.K. (2011) 'The Caress of the Audio: Re-sounding Falkland', Social Semiotics Vol. 21, No. 4, pp: 517-529
Chapman D. & Wilson L.K. (2011) Re-sounding Falkland, (Catalogue) Falkland Centre for Stewardship
Chapman D. & Wilson L.K. (2010) 'Falkland: a Sonic Investigation of Place', Journal of Media Practice, Vol.11, No.3. pp: 231-242.
Chapman D. (2009) 'Chance Encounters: Serendipity and the Use of Music in the Films of Jean Cocteau and Harry Smith' The Soundtrack, Vol 2, No.1 pp: 5-18
Chapman D. (2009) 'Hark', Screenworks Vol. 1, No.1
Chapman D. & Wilson L.K. ( 2008) 'Critical Dialogues: David Chapman and Louise K. Wilson,' (Interview by Anne-Cranny-Francis) Scan: Journal of Media Arts Practice, Vol. 5, Number 3 (http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=125)
Chapman D. (2005) 'The Ark' [Molly Dineen, 1993]; 'I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like' [Bill Viola, 1986]; 'Video Diaries' [BBC 1990-2001]; 'Interactivity'; 'Multimedia', In Aitkin, Ian [ed] Encyclopaedia of the Documentary Film, New York: Routledge
Chapman, D. (1999) 'Downloading the Documentary' in Wayne, M. [ed] Dissident Voices London: Pluto Press.

Selected exhibitions and art events

March 2020 'Art as Problematic Waste', Greenwich University Galleries, London. Curated by David Waterworth (collaboration with Aimo Hyvärinen).
Oct 2019 'Art as Problematic Waste', Kulttuuritalo Laikku, Tampere, Finland (collaboration with Aimo Hyvärinen).
Feb-July 2018 'Meanings of Failed Action: Insurrection 1946', (installed as part of Vivan Sundarem’s career retrospective) Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Curated by Roobina Karode, New Delhi, India.
Feb. 2017 'Meanings of Failed Action: Insurrection 1946', Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Museum, Mumbai, India (collaboration with Vivan Sundaram & Ashish Rajadhyaksha).
March 2016 'River', Curated By Peter Cobb and Richard Wilson, AVA Gallery, UEL.
Sept. 2015 'Decade / Decayed', Curated by Anne Bean, Dilston Grove, Café Gallery Projects, London.
March 2014 'Tottenham Takeover', V&A Museum, London.
2012 'I Hear Too-2' (Group Show) Guildhall, York, curated by Damian Murphy & Jude Bereton
2011 'Phono:Graphic' (Group Show), curated by Helen Frosi, Galerie8, London.
2011 'To the Field and Yonder!' (Group Show), curated by Helen Frosi. Gorey Art and Film Festival Gorey,Ireland
2011 'Touch Too', (Group Show), curated by Anne Cranny- Francis, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
2010 'Re-sounding Falkland', series of multi-channel sound and video installations, Falkland Centre for Stewardship, Falkland Scotland (collaboration with Louise K. Wilson)
2009 'I hear Too' (Group Show), York Minster, curated by Damian Murphy and Jude Brereton
2009 'Falkland Audiowalk’' headphone based audiowork, Falkland Centre for Stewardship, Falkland Scotland (collaboration with Louise K. Wilson)
2008 'Arcadia', 8-channel sound installation Palace of Falkland, Fife Scotland (collaboration with Louise K. Wilson)
2007 'Hark 2' (with David Cottridge) (Group Show) Matrix East Research Lab, University Of East London
2005 'Hark', (with David Cottridge) Gunpowder Park. Waltham Abbey. Funded by Gunpowder Park and Arts Council England
2005 Reap, (Group Show) Curated by Anne Bean, Café Gallery Projects, London

Selected media work

2007 Connecting Art and Anthropology (Sound Designer) Audio Notebook (MIRIAD)
2006 'Robert Wilson Project', Sound Work / Publication (Sound Designer), Gunpowder Park, Waltham Abbey.
2004 Steel Cello / Bow Chime Director, Editor, DVD Author
DVD documentary of the performance work of Bob Rutman, Adrian Palka and Wolfram Spyra. Collaborative research project with Adrian Palka [Coventry University] Funded By AHRB
2004 Flows and Levels (Radio work), Art Trail, Soundworks', Cork, Ireland.
2004 Revelation Online Art project. With Paul St. George & Maureen Kendall [London Metropolitan University] Funded by Lea Valley Park
2002 Wigs of Wonderment - Producer / Video editor
Interactive CD-Rom based on performance work by Keith Khan and Moti Roti. For African and Asian Visual Artists Archive / Live Arts Development. Funded by London Arts Board.
2002 Finding the Way Home - Producer / Director
Documentation of ERSC funded study of youth issues and cultures in East London and Hamburg. 30min. for the Centre for New Ethnicity Research - UEL. Funded ERSC
2002 Artists and Cosmonauts - Co-director/ editor
Video documenting artists working in zero-gravity conditions. Screened at Artists and Cosmonauts [Lilian Baylis Theatre, London; Strange and Charming Sci-art seminar series Royal College of Art , London and various symposia in Britain, USA and France. For The Arts Catalyst
2001 Chanting Heads - Producer / Video Editor, CD-Rom documenting recent work by 12 British artists for African and Asian Visual Artists Archive, Funded by the Athene Trust
1997 The Hum, Broadcast documentary, Splash/Faction Films for HTV / Westcountry TV (Producer).

COLLABORATIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS

Black Leaf Films
Discover.film
Dreamstudio Virtual Reality
Film and Video Umbrella
Highlife Productions
Just Runners
NICOLA (New International Company of Live Arts)

TEACHING

MODULES

MA modules

MS7502 Audiovision
MS7515 Documentary Cinema
MS7533 The Moving Image
MS7000 Professional Practice & Research Methods (Mental Wealth)
MS7001 Final Project.

BA modules

MS4013 Documentary 1 - Documentary and Representation
MS5038 Enterprise & Employment
MS5031 Mental Wealth: Professional Life - Agency 2
MS6201 Cinematics 3 - Dissertation projects

PhD supervision

David has supervised the following PhDs to completion:

2020 Orson Nava: Eastern Promise? Race, Innovation and Inequality in the Creative Industries-Driven Regeneration of East London, (Director of Studies).
2019 Najat Alsheridah: Women and Dance in Kuwaiti Cinema, (Supervisor).

He is currently supervising the following PhD and Professional Doctorate in Fine Art (DFA) candidates (with Due to Complete dates).

2022 Paul Greenleaf: Illusory Truth: Temporal Dislocation, Place Memory and Object Afterlife, (Supervisor) DFA.
2022 Ralph Overhill: Monsters and Margins, (Supervisor, DFA.)
2024 Julian Alexander: The Cinematic Hip-hop Narrative: Using Rap as the Primary Storytelling tool on Screen, (Supervisor) PhD.
2025 Hannah Beadman: Cinematography and Indigeneity: decolonizing Land / land/ land'scape', collapsing the apparatus-camera's gaze, (Director of Studies) PhD.

Search