Professor Ken McMullen

Kingston School of Art
Department of Film and Photography
School of Arts

Professor

[email protected]

About

Professor of Film at KSA incorporating contemporary philosophical perspectives. Previously Professor of Film at University of the Arts London (1997-2012). Additionally, has regularly been a visiting professor to institutions across Europe, the United States, China and India. Subjects are drawn from collaborations in contemporary philosophy, art/science, fine art and international cinema.

Produced and directed more than 50 motion picture works, including major international feature films that have had significant worldwide distribution. These feature films have been selected for category 'A' List festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, San Sebastian, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Delhi and New York. The films have won many international prizes and have been awarded the Prize for Outstanding Work in Art and Science, Beijing.

Honoree of the American Film Institute, The Art Film Institute Moscow and the Kanatica Film Directors Association of India. Continue working in new directions in both feature film and fine art, along with a series of documentaries and other research vehicles.

"As a research professor, teaching students is of paramount importance to me. The passing on of contemporary knowledge, gained through research underscored by my own ongoing creative encounters is a professorial duty. Engagement with students is a two-way exchange being both interactive and experimental with the intention of helping students towards their 'integration', 'maturation' and their own uniquely individual approaches to creative work".

Qualifications

BA Fine Art
HDFA Slade, University College London
Honoree American Film Institute 1991
Honoree Moscow Art/Film Institute 1989
Honoree Karntica Film Directors Association India 1994
BAFTA full voting member

Domains

My research has included collaborations with CERN (Geneva), SLAC (Stanford University, California), College International de Philosophie (Paris), MoMA (PS1, New York), MoMA (San Francisco), Museum of Contemporary Art (Beijing) amongst others. Each of the projects that I engage in always explores and questions developing means of production, the context in which these productions take place and new directions in dramatic transference. The research element of my work always requires engagement with original ideas and processes, often in collaboration with other disciplines in search for new synthesis. In advancing these projects, screenplays and visual sketches go through many stages. A hit rate of approximately 1 in 2 of the screenplays finally go into production. Discarded elements can often find their way into other projects in what is a process of re-integration and revision. This may indeed involve a change of medium and approach. I find that work that is carried out with intensity and authentic research is rarely wasted. Something always happens when we lose ourselves honestly, energetically, in the work.

Selected filmography from over 50 films and motion picture works:

The Immortal Mortal (currently in production)
The Philosopher's Hamlet (2018-2020, currently in post-production)
Murder in the Garden of Figs (2016-2019 awaiting cinema release)
OXI: An Act of Resistance, (2014)
An Organization of Dreams, (2009)
Arrows of Time, (2007)
Art, Poetry and Particle Physics, (2004)
Pioneers in Art and Science: Metzger, (2004)
Signatures of the Invisible,(six films, 2001-2006)
Lumin de Lumine, (2001)
Stories, 1997
Oedipus Flabbergasted (1994)
Five Works with Jacque Derrida, (1993-1996)
1871, (1990)
Partition, (1987)
Zina, (1985)
Being and Doing, (1984)
Ghost Dance, (1983)
Resistance (1981)
The Shaman's Arrow (1979
Stories (1977)
Being and Doing (1975-80) With Performance Artist Stuart Brisley
Collaborations with Kantor and Cricot 2 Theatre, Poland 1974
Lovelies and Dowdies (1974)
Correspondence and 3 works with Joseph Beuys 1973
Room to Move (City Symphony Los Angeles) 1971

Specialisms

Cinema
Fine Art
Contemporary European Philosophy and its relationship to other cultural contexts
Speculations in High Energy Physics (Directed a program at CERN and at SLAC 2000-2010
Fusions between Analogue and Digital cultural forms

Gallery of work

Do you believe in 'Ghosts' Feature Film

Screen grab: Ghost Dance - with Jacques Derrida and Pascale Ogier

From Ghost Dance: Questions that may be more than questions.

French actor Pascale Ogier facing Jacques Derrida with a philosophical question about 'Ghosts'

Two Art Works: Exhibition PS1 MOMA New York

Two works conceived and engineered at CERN in correspondence to High Energy Physics.

'Trinity': Art Work. One of a series of works exhibited on themes of 'Line, Position and Surface' in high energy physics.

Exhibited as part of 'Art+Cinema=Dark Energy' Cascais Portugal. Steel: Wood, Lead

'Who was Hamlet?' Discussing the pre-history of Shakespeare's character: Research

Ian McKellen with Ken McMullen

Oedipus and Tireseus: What is blindness?

Still from feature film 'OXI-An Act of Resistance' with Lex Shrapnel (UK) and Don Mouseau (USA). (Was Tireseus blind?) Screenplay drawn from research in psycho analysis, classical theatre and philosophy

'Machiavelli interrogated': Feature Film... screen grab

Anastasia Pierucci (It/Rus) interrogates Machiavelli: Questioning the nature of Truth and Political Power in 'Murder in the Garden of Figs'

Gallery Installation. 60 mins continuous loop: Atlantis Gallery London... (Research)

Documentary with John Berger 'The validity of Research in Art and Science'

'The Wave' Art work (celebrating inherent resistance in materials and mediums to imposition of concepts)

From Exhibition Gulbenkian Lisbon

Studio as basis of all projects and ideas: (Action develops Thought)

Shot of my drawing studio in Greece... Exploring visual ideas for a feature film 'The Immortal Mortal'

Historic discussion with Joseph Beuys during exhibition, Kasel Germany

During my part of the Documenta exhibition collaborated with Joseph Beuys on a new work 'The Shaman's Coat'

'The Father as 'Spectre': Two Hamlets meet: Feature Film in Production

'Pirates' Exploring missing scenes in deconstructions of Hamlet

Elene Ny (Sing) plays a pirate in Shakespeare's missing scene when Hamlet returns to Denmark. Ah!!! Or does he? With pirates like this why would he?

'Conscience and Murder': Screen grab from drama doc exploring character and transference of text to action

John Shrapnel (UK) plays Claudius in the moment of confession: 'Philosopher's Hamlet'

Antigone and Creon: Interrogation of Power, Privilege and Wealth: Feature Film screen grab

Gabriella Wright (Fr/US) and John Shrapnel (UK) in 'OXI An Act of Resistance'

'Shadows and Errors': - Art Work:

Light/steel/reflections/motion/sequence. A work constructed in the prototype engineering workshop at CERN incorporating concepts in contemporary physics. Research background with theorists and experimentalists at CERN

The Shaman's Coat: An Anthropological Art Work

An early work made in discussion with Heinz Koppel and Joseph Beuys on the pre-histories of artistic practice

'Two Blackboards' 45min (Research) Motion Picture Installation as continuous projection loop. First shown MOMA San Francisco

In Collaboration with Michael Peskin, Head of the Theory Division, SLAC Stanford. What is Dark Energy? How many colours in a quark?

'Politics, Economics and Environment'. Documentary. Section from 3 hour interview with Pepe Mujica, President of Uruguay

A unique interview with one of the most enigmatic and profound political figures of the 21 century.

Physical explorations in sculpture, reflections and surface area

Shot looking down on my Fine Art studio, London

'Singularity': An Installation combining Motion Picture and Concrete Art Work

Exhibition photo from my exhibition 'Art + Cinema = Dark Energy'. A dialectical fusion of static and motion elements in this image of my gallery installation.