Janet Banfield
Biographic Data
| ID | 209398 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Janet Banfield |
| GIVEN NAMES | Janet |
| FAMILY NAME | Banfield |
| SIGNATURE | BANFIELD J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8515-6829 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Liminality, flow and communitas in 5 Rhythms dance
Liminality, flow, communitas and 5 Rhythms (5R) dance are all considered to have self-transformative powers, and 5R has been analysed as ritual, as movement therapy and as psychologically beneficial. Here, we take methodological inspiration from 5R as movement therapy via nonrepresentational geography, we attend to specific ways in which 5R can be psychologically beneficial by considering participant-identified paths to personal growth, and we ex…
On the post-human political potential of puppets
With the confluence of interest in socio-natural or human-nonhuman entanglements and concern for the maintenance of a minimal humanism within such post-human ontologies, the puppet arises as a post-human artform that is well placed to address both simultaneously. To argue that the puppet is a post-human artform is not a new proposition, but what is new in this paper is its detailed account of how different features of puppet performance function …
Grab it and change it, it’s yours
This paper argues for incorporation of attitude into geographical work on affect. We do so through an engagement with affect in musical experiences and adopting as our focus punk music in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. Through a combination of lyrical analysis and in-depth interviews with some of those involved in the punk scene in Northern Ireland at that time, we find that affective responses to musical experiences can be translated into at…
Towards a pedagogical policy turn in geography
From liminal spaces to the spatialities of liminality
Geographical engagement with liminality to explore and conceptualise threshold and ambiguous experience is growing, with calls being issued to attend to its spatial qualities, yet it seems difficult to move beyond the application of liminality as an umbrella term to an ever‐increasing array of spaces and places despite disciplinary uses of liminality diverging from its conceptual origins as it is applied to broader contexts. My interest is in how…
Walking with amal
Little Amal is a giant puppet who walked across Europe in 2021 to highlight the plight of child refugees. This paper reflects on my experience of her visit to Oxford, UK, critically evaluating the political potential of the event through Amal's status as stranger and arguing that the practice of walking with Amal provides new but qualified political potency
Implicit influence on body image
With growing social science interest in the potential for images to facilitate access to embodied experience, this study re-examines the relative value of visual and verbal methods in body-oriented research. Taking one lead from Kyrölä's (2016) idea of body image as the relationship between representation and corporeality, and another from Gendlin's (1993, 1995, 1997) methods for attending to and articulating from pre-reflective experience, we de…
That's the way to do it
This paper initiates a new area of cultural geography - the geographies of puppets and puppetry - and makes both empirical and conceptual contributions by presenting an initial analysis of puppets in popular culture. The paper begins by highlighting the paucity of disciplinary interest in puppets and the productive potential of puppets and puppetry for a range of sub-disciplines within human geography. A content analysis of 50 films, television p…
Challenge in artistic flow experiences
This article explores the psychological phenomenon of flow through a nonrepresentational geographical emphasis on material practices. Both the positivity and skills-challenge balance assumed to characterise flow are brought into question by the challenge and negative feelings arising from material aspects of artistic practice. This challenge appears to be localised around a pivotal point in the emergence of the artwork and essential for both succ…
Amateur, professional and proto‐practices
With increasing disciplinary interest in amateur practice, and growing geographical use of artistic practice as a research method, ideas of proficiency are increasingly coming under scrutiny. In this paper, I explore and unsettle different classifications of proficiency in relation to empirical data from practice‐based research with art practitioners. I focus on the role and nature of experimentation within artistic practices across different lev…
Researching through unfamiliar practices
This article draws upon my first experience of processing a bird into meat to suggest that growing geographical interest in practices might benefit from a focus as much on the experiences and accounts of first-time practitioners as those of established practitioners
A sprinkling of sugar dust
This article describes research undertaken with a 'drawing dance' project, which suggests that thinking about cultural practices in terms of synaesthesia and developing research methods that involve inter-practice encounters to enliven these synaesthetic qualities might help to invigorate non-representational efforts to apprehend affect
Knowing between
The recent trend towards practice-based routes to knowledge has raised methodological questions concerning how best to research practices. Within the geography of art, the expansion over recent decades of collaborative and practice-based approaches has raised similar questions, along with concerns regarding the appropriateness of geographers not trained in art to undertake their own artistic practice within their research. This article grapples w…
From liminal spaces to the spatialities of liminality
Geographical engagement with liminality to explore and conceptualise threshold and ambiguous experience is growing, with calls being issued to attend to its spatial qualities, yet it seems difficult to move beyond the application of liminality as an umbrella term to an ever‐increasing array of spaces and places despite disciplinary uses of liminality diverging from its conceptual origins as it is applied to broader contexts. My interest is in how…
Knowing between
The recent trend towards practice-based routes to knowledge has raised methodological questions concerning how best to research practices. Within the geography of art, the expansion over recent decades of collaborative and practice-based approaches has raised similar questions, along with concerns regarding the appropriateness of geographers not trained in art to undertake their own artistic practice within their research. This article grapples w…
Towards a pedagogical policy turn in geography
Implicit influence on body image
With growing social science interest in the potential for images to facilitate access to embodied experience, this study re-examines the relative value of visual and verbal methods in body-oriented research. Taking one lead from Kyrölä's (2016) idea of body image as the relationship between representation and corporeality, and another from Gendlin's (1993, 1995, 1997) methods for attending to and articulating from pre-reflective experience, we de…
That's the way to do it
This paper initiates a new area of cultural geography - the geographies of puppets and puppetry - and makes both empirical and conceptual contributions by presenting an initial analysis of puppets in popular culture. The paper begins by highlighting the paucity of disciplinary interest in puppets and the productive potential of puppets and puppetry for a range of sub-disciplines within human geography. A content analysis of 50 films, television p…
Researching through unfamiliar practices
This article draws upon my first experience of processing a bird into meat to suggest that growing geographical interest in practices might benefit from a focus as much on the experiences and accounts of first-time practitioners as those of established practitioners
Walking with amal
Little Amal is a giant puppet who walked across Europe in 2021 to highlight the plight of child refugees. This paper reflects on my experience of her visit to Oxford, UK, critically evaluating the political potential of the event through Amal's status as stranger and arguing that the practice of walking with Amal provides new but qualified political potency
A sprinkling of sugar dust
This article describes research undertaken with a 'drawing dance' project, which suggests that thinking about cultural practices in terms of synaesthesia and developing research methods that involve inter-practice encounters to enliven these synaesthetic qualities might help to invigorate non-representational efforts to apprehend affect
Knowing between
The recent trend towards practice-based routes to knowledge has raised methodological questions concerning how best to research practices. Within the geography of art, the expansion over recent decades of collaborative and practice-based approaches has raised similar questions, along with concerns regarding the appropriateness of geographers not trained in art to undertake their own artistic practice within their research. This article grapples w…
Amateur, professional and proto‐practices
With increasing disciplinary interest in amateur practice, and growing geographical use of artistic practice as a research method, ideas of proficiency are increasingly coming under scrutiny. In this paper, I explore and unsettle different classifications of proficiency in relation to empirical data from practice‐based research with art practitioners. I focus on the role and nature of experimentation within artistic practices across different lev…
Researching through unfamiliar practices
This article draws upon my first experience of processing a bird into meat to suggest that growing geographical interest in practices might benefit from a focus as much on the experiences and accounts of first-time practitioners as those of established practitioners
Challenge in artistic flow experiences
This article explores the psychological phenomenon of flow through a nonrepresentational geographical emphasis on material practices. Both the positivity and skills-challenge balance assumed to characterise flow are brought into question by the challenge and negative feelings arising from material aspects of artistic practice. This challenge appears to be localised around a pivotal point in the emergence of the artwork and essential for both succ…
That's the way to do it
This paper initiates a new area of cultural geography - the geographies of puppets and puppetry - and makes both empirical and conceptual contributions by presenting an initial analysis of puppets in popular culture. The paper begins by highlighting the paucity of disciplinary interest in puppets and the productive potential of puppets and puppetry for a range of sub-disciplines within human geography. A content analysis of 50 films, television p…
Towards a pedagogical policy turn in geography
From liminal spaces to the spatialities of liminality
Geographical engagement with liminality to explore and conceptualise threshold and ambiguous experience is growing, with calls being issued to attend to its spatial qualities, yet it seems difficult to move beyond the application of liminality as an umbrella term to an ever‐increasing array of spaces and places despite disciplinary uses of liminality diverging from its conceptual origins as it is applied to broader contexts. My interest is in how…
Walking with amal
Little Amal is a giant puppet who walked across Europe in 2021 to highlight the plight of child refugees. This paper reflects on my experience of her visit to Oxford, UK, critically evaluating the political potential of the event through Amal's status as stranger and arguing that the practice of walking with Amal provides new but qualified political potency
Implicit influence on body image
With growing social science interest in the potential for images to facilitate access to embodied experience, this study re-examines the relative value of visual and verbal methods in body-oriented research. Taking one lead from Kyrölä's (2016) idea of body image as the relationship between representation and corporeality, and another from Gendlin's (1993, 1995, 1997) methods for attending to and articulating from pre-reflective experience, we de…
Grab it and change it, it’s yours
This paper argues for incorporation of attitude into geographical work on affect. We do so through an engagement with affect in musical experiences and adopting as our focus punk music in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. Through a combination of lyrical analysis and in-depth interviews with some of those involved in the punk scene in Northern Ireland at that time, we find that affective responses to musical experiences can be translated into at…
Liminality, flow and communitas in 5 Rhythms dance
Liminality, flow, communitas and 5 Rhythms (5R) dance are all considered to have self-transformative powers, and 5R has been analysed as ritual, as movement therapy and as psychologically beneficial. Here, we take methodological inspiration from 5R as movement therapy via nonrepresentational geography, we attend to specific ways in which 5R can be psychologically beneficial by considering participant-identified paths to personal growth, and we ex…
On the post-human political potential of puppets
With the confluence of interest in socio-natural or human-nonhuman entanglements and concern for the maintenance of a minimal humanism within such post-human ontologies, the puppet arises as a post-human artform that is well placed to address both simultaneously. To argue that the puppet is a post-human artform is not a new proposition, but what is new in this paper is its detailed account of how different features of puppet performance function …
Sociology (13 works) · Art (9 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Political science (6 works) · Visual arts (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Geographies of human-animal interactions (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Politics (4 works)