Piers Britton Ph.D.
Department Chair, Media & Communication; Department Chair, Western Art History; Professor of Visual and Media Studies
Media & Communication
About
Piers Britton is currently working on a wide-ranging book on design for film and television that examines all major design disciplines, including production design and art direction, costume, makeup and hair, graphic design, and visual effects. The project offers a thorough reevaluation of existing critical approaches to screen design and continues and expands his prior work in this area. That work includes Design for Doctor Who (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021) and the groundbreaking co-authored study Reading Between Designs (University of Texas Press, 2003).
Two additional projects, currently in the initial research phase, address cinematic and televisual space in distinct but related ways. These projects explore:
- The ways space is represented in mise-en-scène for single-camera versus multicamera productions and in academy versus widescreen formats, using film and television adaptations of Great Expectations and Vanity Fair as case studies
- The reflexive representation of film and television production spaces, especially studios and backlots, in television fiction such as The Hour (BBC, 2011–2012) and An Adventure in Space and Time (BBC, 2013), and in films including Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019), Hail, Caesar! (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, 2016), and Quiz Show (Robert Redford, 1994)
Education
- Ph.D., art history and archaeology, University of Manchester, 1993–1997
- Dissertation: Humoral theory, physiognomy and the visual arts in the Italian Renaissance
- B.A., history of art, University of Manchester, 1988–1991
- Postgraduate Certificate of Education, University of East Anglia, 1999–2000
Professional Experience
- Member, International editorial board, Scene (Intellect Books)
- Director, Media & Visual Culture program, University of Redlands, July 2011–present
- Director, Art History program, University of Redlands, July 2008–present
- Faculty advisor, KDAWG, University of Redlands College Radio, 2019–present
- Founding co-convener, Humanities Advisory Board, University of Redlands, 2010–2011; 2018–2019
- Member, Humanities Advisory Board, 2010–2019
- Member, General Education Working Group, University of Redlands, 2010–2013
- Member, May Term implementation committee and working group, University of Redlands, 2010–2012
- Member, educational assessment committee, University of Redlands, 2010–2011
Areas of Expertise
- Design for television and film
- Doctor Who as transmedia text
- The films of Alfred Hitchcock
- Gender and sexuality in the early modern period
- Modern art and urbanism
- Renaissance art
- Television and film aesthetics
Publications
Books
- Design for Doctor Who: Vision and Revision in Screen SF (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021)
- TARDISbound: Navigating the Universes of Doctor Who (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011)
Articles and Chapters
- “Setting Variables: Axes of Time, Space, and Meaning in Production Design for the Screen.” Scene 4, no. 2 (2016): 117–135.
- “‘It’s All-New Doctor Who’: Authorizing New Design and Redesign in the Moffat Era.” In Doctor Who – The Eleventh Hour: A Critical Celebration of the Matt Smith and Steven Moffat Era, edited by Andrew O’Day, 141–156. London: I.B. Tauris, 2014.
- “Making ‘A Superior Brand of Alien Mastermind’: Doctor Who Monsters and the Rhetoric of (Re)design.” In Dimensions of Doctor Who: Adventures in Space, Time and Television, edited by Matt Hills, 39–53. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013.
Online Publications
“Style, Structuring Conceits, and the Paratexts of Mad Men.” Antenna: Responses to Media and Culture, May 22, 2015. bhttp://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/05/22/style-structuring-conceits-and-the-paratexts-of-mad-men/log.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/05/22/style-structuring-conceits-and-the-paratexts-of-mad-men/
“Marvel, Wired? Daredevil and Visual Branding in the MCU.” Antenna: Responses to Media and Culture, May 1, 2015. http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/05/01/marvel-wired-daredevil-and-visual-branding-in-the-mcu/
“‘Television Aesthetics’ versus Formal and Stylistic Analysis.” Antenna: Responses to Media and Culture, April 8, 2015. http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/04/08/television-aesthetics-versus-formal-and-stylistic-analysis/
“‘Oh, I Dig Your Fab Gear’: Costume, Fashion and the Doctor – A Brief History.” FBI-SPY: Serious About Fashion Body Identity, Nov. 10, 2013. http://www.fbi-spy.com/doctor-who-fab-gear
Reviews and Review Essays
- Raphael, edited by Achim Gnann, with C. Whistler and B. Thomas. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2018. Sixteenth Century Journal 50, no. 3 (2019).
- Yvonne Elet, Architectural Invention in Renaissance Rome: Artists, Humanists, and the Planning of Raphael’s Villa Madama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Sixteenth Century Journal 49, no. 4 (2018).
- Gardens of Renaissance Europe and the Islamic Empires: Encounters and Confluences, edited by Mohammad Gharipour. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. Sixteenth Century Journal 49, no. 3 (2018).
- Francis Ames-Lewis, Isabella and Leonardo: The Artistic Relationship Between Isabella d’Este and Leonardo da Vinci, 1500–1506. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. Sixteenth Century Journal 45, no. 2 (2014).
- Ian Christie, The Art of Film: John Box and Production Design. London: Wallflower Press, 2008. Screen 42, no. 4 (2011).
Awards and Service
- Outstanding Service Award, University of Redlands, 2020