Thomas Watson

Senior Lecturer in Transmedia Production and Course Leader Film and Television Production BA (Hons)

Completed a PhD in Film (2015) Northumbria University in addition to MA and M.Res in Film/ Arts.

My research focuses on the manifestations of violence in contemporary audio-visual culture with a distinct focus on formal aesthetics and the creation of violence beyond representational content. With this in mind, my research considers structural techniques of avant-garde performance artists and experimental film, the violence inherent in discourse and structures of censorship and regulatory control.

I have published on subjects ranging from documentary cinema, experimental digital art, pornography and extremity, cult cinema and hardcore horror. My recent work considers the nature of transgression in cult cinema, gothic tropes in so-called 'hard-core' horror cinema and representations of punk subcultures and extreme politics on screen. I also have interests in extreme culture more broadly and definitions of 'extremity', specifically music culture and subcultures dealing with Noise and aural manifestations of transgression.