Kate Cecilia McGowan

Queering the A Priori: a disruption to archival methodologies in the case of Dorothy Stokes

Kate’s thesis 'Queering the A Priori' concerns the difficulty of representing lost epistemologies (such as lesbian histories in Ireland) in contemporary research. Her thesis is grounded in archival materials from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the National Library of Ireland that pertain to musician and photographer Dorothy Stokes (1898-1982).

Her contribution to the graduate exhibition is the installation 'The Body Is The Only Site', which positions thinking and as biotic processes, centring phenomenal consciousness at the level of the individual as the site of all knowledge.

Kate's recent work includes musical compositions that accompany/respond to visual art, the founding of a collaborative knowledge sharing group 'What the F*ck Club', and its accompanying manual for the study of visual cultures at undergraduate level. Her work "shitearchive.com" is an ongoing project to catalogue emotional ephemera.

Having worked in youth mental health services during her time in university, she hopes to continue working in education at the conjunction of music and art.

*shitearchive.com* entry, pictured on the left is Kate Hanley, my name sake, likely taken somewhere in the midlands c.1940.

shitearchive.com entry, pictured on the left is Kate Hanley, my name sake, likely taken somewhere in the midlands c.1940.

Visualising 'synthetic meaning' and potential loss of knowledge after

Visualising 'synthetic meaning' and potential loss of knowledge after "Photographic Ecosystems and Archives" (Stylianou-Lambert, 2019).

Poster for *What the F*ck Club*, an open door study group.

Poster for What the Fck Club*, an open door study group.

*The Body Is The Only Site* dance installation at NCAD Works, 2026. Using phenomenology to argue that knowledge is biotic, and subsequently question the form/matter hierarchies at play in the contemporary 'art world'.

The Body Is The Only Site dance installation at NCAD Works, 2026. Using phenomenology to argue that knowledge is biotic, and subsequently question the form/matter hierarchies at play in the contemporary 'art world'.

1/12 graphics for a digital zine about collaboration (text by Alisha Tsoumbou Ward).

1/12 graphics for a digital zine about collaboration (text by Alisha Tsoumbou Ward).

Research

Sketch visualising the cataloguing of archival materials against fixed metrics in order to expose the absence of 'submerged histories' (Mak-Shram, 2024).

Sketch visualising the cataloguing of archival materials against fixed metrics in order to expose the absence of 'submerged histories' (Mak-Shram, 2024).

Smith, Bobby, *Bobby Smith Kissing an Unidentified Person* (1960). Bobby Smith Photograph Collection. Image 71. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/bobbysmith/71

Smith, Bobby, Bobby Smith Kissing an Unidentified Person (1960). Bobby Smith Photograph Collection. Image 71. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/bobbysmith/71

Stokes, Dorothy. [Stokes: Donegal Album: extract of image 3 of 18] c. 1930s, NLI ref: ALB220.

Stokes, Dorothy. [Stokes: Donegal Album: extract of image 3 of 18] c. 1930s, NLI ref: ALB220.

Stokes, Dorothy. [Stokes: Hiking Album: extract of image 3 of 18] c. 1940s, NLI ref ALB218.

Stokes, Dorothy. [Stokes: Hiking Album: extract of image 3 of 18] c. 1940s, NLI ref ALB218.

Stokes, Dorothy. [Stokes: Northern Europe Album] c.1961, NLI ref ALB238, image 59

Stokes, Dorothy. [Stokes: Northern Europe Album] c.1961, NLI ref ALB238, image 59