Lecturer

Email: hugh.mccabe@tudublin.ie

 

Profile

Hugh McCabe is a digital media lecturer, researcher and artist. 

Hugh’s MA from the National College of Art and Design explored the application of object-oriented ontology to photography theory. He is currently working towards a PhD on the algorithmic image from the same institution. His original training was in Computer Science and he holds a BSc and an MSc (Artificial Intelligence) in this area.

His research interests lie broadly within the field of digital culture and include media archaeology, philosophy of technology and new media theory/practice, with a particular interest in the past, present and future of the digital/algorithmic image. 

Hugh is a member of DRIVE (Digital Realities Interactive Virtual Environments) research group at Blanchardstown campus which explores the practical and theoretical issues around emerging interactive technologies. He is a principal investigator on a research project studying the use of Augmented Reality to articulate lived experience and is also a member of AESTHETICO (Aesthetics of Care with Ecology in Technological Education) European Culture Lab research project team. He founded the Graphics and Gaming research group at the Blanchardstown campus and supervised numerous postgraduate research projects on topics such as sound synthesis, virtual cinematography and procedural content generation. 

Hugh sometimes publishes or presents on pedagogical issues that arise as a result of his teaching. Some of his recent publications include:

• ‘Pattern Recognition and the Grammatisation Of Vision’ (forthcoming). 
• ‘We Have Never Been Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Computer-Generated Image’ (Artech, 2019) 

 

His artistic practice is oriented around various forms of lens-based media.  A selection of his exhibitions include:

• Lost State, a collaboration with Suzanne Walsh, at Draíocht (2017)
• Traces Of the Real (PhotoIreland Festival, 2011) 

 

More recently Hugh has been making music videos including a visual piece to accompany the reissue of the music of Dublin band The Wormholes on All City Records (2021). He is also a practicing musician and has played on numerous album releases over the years. The latest, by Mike Stephens and The Ghasts, was funded by the Arts Council Agility Award and will be released in late 2022.

 

Lecturing Profile

Hugh teaches on the MA Creative Digital Media (User Experience and Interaction Design) and on the BA in Creative Digital Media, both on the Blanchardstown Campus. 

Hugh currently leads the 3D Environments (BA), Critical Theory (BA) and Interactive Technologies (MA). He is Course Coordinator of the final year of the Creative Digital Media degree and is responsible for overseeing Final Year projects. Hugh manages the Work Experience programme for third-year students. He also supervises research projects for MA students. 

Other modules that Hugh has taught include:

• Critical and Contextual Studies (MA)
• Sound Design (BA)
• Professional Practice (BA) 
• 3D Modelling and Animation (BA)

 

Prior to his involvement in School of Media programmes Hugh taught on the B.Sc. in Computing which included subjects such as:

• Multimedia Development
• 3D Graphics 
• Programming. 

 

In addition to his TU Dublin activities, Hugh has occasionally carried out invited teaching on postgraduate and undergraduate programmes at the National College of Art and Design.