Dr Jo Neil is Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Fine Art. Her practice is multi-disciplinary and explores the spaces between research, making, writing, presenting and performance. She has a PhD from the University of Glasgow and is a Senior Fellow of The Higher Education Academy. Jo’s doctoral research ‘Making the invisible visible: creating spaces for reflexive artistic practices through digital autoethnography’, investigated arts and design-based practitioners’ phenomenological experiences of using digital autoethnography for their reflective practice.

Her practice is focused on ‘imaginations’ of the self which manifest as drawings, photography, and video as documented performances in the home. She is currently working on a series of books and artefacts as limited editions based on newly constructed narratives from the digital autoethnographic research. These include ‘All the Places I have Lived’ and ‘Atomic’: a series of works based on catastrophe and domestic events. Performances include: 'SOS' for the International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry 2021, ‘Creating Spaces for Reflection and Bracketing Practice’ at the Nordic Summer University Winter Symposium Artistic Research | Performing Heterotopia/departures, deviations and elsewhere 2020, Vilnius, Lithuania, ‘Trace: impression|depression’ for the Embodied Experience of Drawing Symposium, Ocean Studios, Plymouth, 2018, ‘an autobiographical account of childhood’ New Modes of Art Writing 2: Intersections of the Critical and the Creative Voice. Manchester Metropolitan University, 2017 and ‘Interview with Self Part II’: Feminist Readings#3 ‘Feminist Writings’ 2016 University of Helsinki, Finland.

Articles

Neil, J. (2021) Making the invisible visible: digital auto-ethnography and disability AD magazine (NSEAD), issue 29, Spring 2021.

Neil, J. (2019) Creating Spaces for Reflection with Digital Autoethnography: Students as Researchers into Their Own Practices in Creating spaces: Conference special Issue, The International Journal of Art and Design Education. Vol. 38 (4): pp. 823-831.

Neil, J. (2017) Digital Auto-Ethnography: Interview with Self Prism: Casting New Light on Learning, Theory and Practice Vol. I (1): pp. 46-72 ISSN 2514-5347.

Neil, J (2015) Verbal Drawing: Exploring experiences of looking, seeing and describing: How can we use words to create and help us understand, think about, and prepare for drawing? Thinking Through Drawing 2015 Conference proceedings

Book Sections

Neil, J (2023) Interview with Self Part III. In J. Goode, K. Lumsden and J. Bradford [Eds]. Crafting Autoethnography: processes and practices of making self and culture. Oxford. Routledge

Neil, J. (2017) Slow Drawing: Conversations with the Inanimate, Animated, Real and Virtual in J. Journeaux & H, Gorrill [Eds] Drawing Conversations: Collective and Collaborative Drawing in Contemporary Practice. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Exhibitions

'Conversation with Selves’ You and I are discontinuous beings, International Project Space, Birmingham, 2018

‘Moving to the Sound of My Thoughts’ Carbon Meets Silicon 2017 at Wrexham Glyndwr University

‘Breaking/Mending/Making a theoretical dialogue and practice’ Nordic Summer University, Saulkrasti, Latvia 2017. Collaboration with Tom McGuirk

‘Tracing and Re-Tracing: Digital Auto-Ethnography as Practice’ Ethnoarts Ethnographic Explorations of the Arts and Education conference University of Porto, Portugal 2016.

Conferences, Talks & Presentations

‘Digital Autoethnography a pedagogy for empowerment’ Working Class Academics Conference 2021.

'SOS' International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry 2021.

‘Creating spaces for reflection with digital autoethnography: Students as researchers into their own practices’ International Journal of Art and Design Conference, Creating Spaces: Inclusivity, ethics and participation in art and design education 2020, hosted in partnership by The Glasgow School of Art and Goldsmiths, UAL.

‘The Pigeon ReActivated and ReVisited’ collaboration with undergraduate students developed for 2018 Nordic Summer University Conference (winter session), Riga Latvia: Practicing Communities: Transformative societal strategies of artistic research How does artistic research transform society?

‘Technological interference: strategies for reflection’ Carbon Meets Silicon 2017 at Wrexham Glyndwr University

‘Drawing Practice’ International Journal of Art and Design Conference 2016, Riverside Innovation Centre (RIC), University of Chester

‘Meaningful digital technologies: The pedagogy of digital auto-ethnography’ InSEA Regional Conference 2016 Vienna Art and Design Education in Times of Change, Austrian Centre Didactics of Art, Textile & Design, University of Applied Arts Vienna

‘Using digital auto-ethnography: Empowering students as researchers into their own creative practice’ Art as Research in Learning & Teaching International Conference 2016: University of Wolverhampton, Telford Innovation Campus

‘The pedagogy of digital auto-ethnography: Students as researchers into their own creative practice’ Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network Workshop 2016: Critical Pedagogies

‘The Pedagogy of Digital Auto-Ethnography and Reflective Practice’ 2016 Ethnoarts Ethnographic Explorations of the Arts and Education conference University of Porto, Portugal