I am a current Midlands4Cities funded PhD candidate. My research interests sit within the fields of creative arts and perceptual psychology specifically fine-art photography and visual perception. These interests have developed primarily from my own curiosity to understand the often-peculiar nature of how I visually encounters the world through congenital Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI), In contrast to the generic attributes of what a typical visual experience is expected to involve. The development of my research is motivated by personal experiences of CVI having a first-hand understanding of the potential impact a greater understanding of the relationship between the creative arts and visual impairment may have.

Current Research

An investigation of how individuals who identify as having Cerebral Visual Impairment(s) (CVI) perceptually encounter fine-art abstract photographs and the ways and significances of how this perception differs from a neurotypical visual perception.

Institution: Birmingham City University // School of Visual Communication - https://www.bcu.ac.uk/visual-communication

Funding: Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership - https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk

Exhibitions, Conferences & Publications.

[Conference presentation] Journey as a person with CVI, understanding CVI though art. The American Conference on Paediatiric Cerebral Visual Impairement, July 2022, Omaha, Nebraska. USA. Conference Brochure

[Exhibition] CVI Art: Online conference and Exhibition 2021

[publication] Cowle, K., Hackett, P.M.W. (2021). Declarative Mapping Sentence Method for Investigating thePerception of Fine-Art Photographs for Individuals with Cerebral Visual Impairment.Academia Letters Article1173. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1173

[Conference presentation] Art and Visual Experience -The professional association of the vision impairment education workforce (VIEW) conference 2021. Birmingham, UK. online.

[Conference presentation] Embedding the unknown within explorations of neurodivergent visual perception. Material Encounters Summer Colloquium 2021 – Uncertain knowledge(s). Online.

[Conference presentation] I am an artist with a CVI The Cerebral Visual Impairment Society Convention “Opening Doors”, November 2019. Bristol, UK.

[Publication] Cowle, K. (2018) The relationship between abstraction and Illusion: A study of photographyand visual experience, MRes Dissertation, The University of Worcester, Worcester,UK

[Exhibition] Images of research, University of Worcester, 2018.
[Exhibition] FreeRange Graduate Show,July 2017. London, UK.

[Exhibition] Contributor to awkard artist cafe, TedXbrum 2017, Birmingham UK.

Future:

News

BBC - November 2021