Dr Gareth Polmeer
Academic Summary
Dr Polmeer is an artist and writer, and Senior Tutor at the Royal College of Art. He is a Pearl Fellow at Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology and a recent Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Divinity in Cambridge. He has exhibited works nationally and internationally in cinemas, galleries and festivals, and has published and presented widely.
Research Interests
Dr Polmeer holds research interests in the philosophy of art, metaphysics and theology. At Margaret Beaufort he is undertaking research on apophaticism, images and likeness through a study of selected artists, poets, philosophers and theologians. The project will include new writing and new artworks. The above work, Figure#1, is from a series of recent works using computer-based drawing processes to explore form and the imperceptible.
An image from a series of studies of angels
Affiliations
Associate of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism
Member of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies (ISNS)
Member of the Forum for Advanced Studies (FSA)
Member of the Computer Arts Society (CAS)
Recent Publications
- ‘Vision and Virtuality: Contemplation in Computational Culture’. In: Bowen, Jonathan and Giannini, Tula. (eds.) The Arts and Computational Culture: Real and Virtual Worlds, London, Springer. (forthcoming)
- ‘Lasting Light: Plotinus, Likeness and Images.’ In: Stamatellos, Giannis, Patsioti, Ioanna and Finamore, John. (eds.) Anthology of Papers from the 19th ISNS Conference. (forthcoming)
- ‘Poetry, Language and Meaning: Barfield’s Early Writing and the Influence of Coleridge’, Coleridge Bulletin, No. 59, 2022
- ‘Projection, Participation and Polarity’, Coleridge Bulletin, No.57, 2021
- ‘Computational Culture and AI: Challenging Human Identity and Curatorial Practice’. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Conference Proceedings, BCS, London. 2020. With Bowen, Jonathan and Giannini, Tula. et. al.
- ‘Historical Questions on Being and Digital Culture’. In: Bowen, Jonathan and Giannini, Tula. (eds.) Museums and Digital Culture: New Perspectives and Research. London, Springer. 2019. ISBN 978-3-319-97456-9
Recent Papers and Lectures
- Barfield’s Metaphysics: Language, Myth, Meaning and Participation. Participation and Subcreation: Creativity and the Experience of God in the Thought of O. Barfield and J.R.R. Tolkien. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 2023. (forthcoming)
- The Reciprocal Imagination. International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 20th Annual Conference, Sicily, 2023. (forthcoming)
- Unknowable Light: the Sacred Image and the Digital Age. Department of Classical Philology. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, 2023
- Inner Frames of Vision. International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 19th Annual Conference, Athens, 2022
- Appearance and Image: Neoplatonic Themes in Contemporary Aesthetics, ‘Philosophy as a Way of Life : the Reception of an Idea in Scholarly Traditions of Late Antiquity’ symposium, University of Ioannina, 2022
- Contemplation, Drama and Poetry. Forum for Advanced Studies. Rome, 2022
- Poetry, Philosophy and Silence. Stanley Rosen Workshop, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 2022
- Poetry, Participation and Meaning. Temenos International Conference, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, 2022
- Polarity and Inspiration: Barfield, Coleridge and a Philosophy of Imagination. ‘Barfield, Coleridge and Imagination’ Workshop, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 2020
- Logomorphism, Logic and Imagination: Owen Barfield and Hegel’s Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit. Phenomenology of Spirit reading group. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, November 2019