About

I am an artist, researcher and senior lecturer of Fine Art. I am interested in cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary practices, and the potential for academic as well as societal impact through creative methodologies.

Through arts research, situated and collaborative practice I consider hard to access, contested or sensitive spaces and communities. I use adapted technology, software and new media, alongside early cameras and analogue processes to make interactive installations, single and multi-screen videos or large-scale photographs. I am interested in borders, bordering, definition and media archaeologies. I work with the material qualities of image-making, defined by both historical technique and technological advance, to consider the different affordances and knowledge production that technologies enable. Projects result in multiple outputs such as artefacts, exhibitions, artists talks, performances, presentations, publications and awards.

My teaching reflects my research interests and arts practice and I teach on a range of undergraduate and masters modules as well as supervising doctoral students.

Teaching

Department of Art and Design

Department of Art and Design
Social Science and the Arts 
PhD Study
Fine Art: BA / MA / MFA, Extended Degree
Moving Image, Installation, Photography
Fine Art Employability Lead, partnership projects, strategic arts partnerships, Artist’s Journey Conference, graduate opportunities.

Courses

BA Fine Art
MFA Fine Art
Extended Degree

Modules

Transmission Lecture Series
Art Practice 1, 2 and 3.
Art Context 1,2 and 3.
Research Directions

Research

• Art and Design Research Centre
• Culture and Creativity Research Institute

Current Research Projects

I am currently developing a new cross-disciplinary research project. The research will consider how online interactions relate to, enhance or have impact on in-person connections (and disconnection) in small communities. Online dialogues in local communities function differently compared to larger online communities, as community members tend to know each other and interact in the local town and surrounding area. This creates particular dynamics and impacts, not present in communities of people only meeting online. The research will include online and on-the-ground research carried out over several stages. The project aims to develop in-real-life educational strategies, events, community and creative projects to support closer community dialogues.

Selected Examples of research / key publications

1. Doctoral research (2023) ‘Special Operations: Deploying artists’ methods to investigate surveillance’. This practice-based study takes place during the passage of the Investigatory Powers Act (2016) in the Houses of Parliament followed by analysis of archival film, video and photography from hidden cameras at the Stasi Archive, Berlin.

The study considered arts practice within the framework of surveillance practices: observation, data collection and analysis. The methodological approach added definition to arts research methods whilst generating unique insights into contemporary surveillance practices.

This portfolio of work was exhibited at Decad, Berlin (Jan 2020) and the HPO Gallery, Sheffield (July 2022) and funded by Arts Council England.

Links to selected examples from portfolio of work:
Exhibition at Decad, curated by Mareike Spendel (2020) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iaAJCuGyqaekqgWfbi85CzwU6Qe4C-wo/view?usp=drive_link

Exhibition at HPO Gallery (2022): https://shura.shu.ac.uk/33606/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jYsgMF3FR6q4J4y6EVnWfwyX5OxNbdb7/view?usp=drive_link

2. UNLAND was exhibited at NeMe, Cyprus, (April – May 2023) funded through Arts Council England and The Ministry for Culture, Cyprus. This collaborative exhibition (Kypros Kyprianou, NCL / Jeremy Lee, SHU) considers the buffer zone, and contested spaces in Cyprus. Contemporary imaging techniques (photogrammetry, LiDar, machine learning) were used to examine and consider sensitive militarized spaces. This work was presented at the Centre of Research Excellence in Cyprus (CYENS) (Nov 2021) Data for Care (2023, Cyprus) and Non Machines Playgrounds of Perspective Conference, Bauhaus, Weimar Germany (2023). A book publication with Torque Editions (2023) will be published in 2024.

The exhibition received significant press coverage in Cyprus and work from this portfolio was purchased for the Cypriot government collection. We were interviewed by curator, blogger and art critic Régine Debatty for the prizewinning blog We Make Money Not Art, this article provides images and details about the work: https://we-make-money-not-art.com/unland-undocumenting-glitches-in-the-cyprus-buffer-zone/

3. Come & Go was exhibited at The Lowry Jan 2016 as a prototype dual-screen, interactive video installation. It ran alongside the first digital exhibition in The Lowry Galleries: Right here Right Now (2016) and was exhibited as part of Everything Flows, Museums of Sheffield (June - August 2017) curated by Jeanine Griffin.

The work references Edison’s early films of The Serpentine Dance made in the 1920s. Its subject matter and execution alludes to analogue technique, now reworked for contemporary media and visioning. Filmed from above in high resolution slow motion, the dual screen playback ramps, plays forwards, backwards and oscillates in response to audience members in the space. On one screen the dancer physically dances backwards creating a continuous loop and a play on expectations and flow.

A collaborative artists print publication with artist-writer Emma Cocker (NTU) accompanies this work. The exhibition catalogue publication is available with review by Oliver Basciano (Art Review). The work was reviewed in Art Monthly (July 2017).

The work received an honorary award as part of the Surveillance Studies inaugural arts prize and was presented at the Surveillance Studies Biennale (2018). Researchers Amy Beeston, Mark Summers and Mathew Jarvis provided technical development, audio and programming for the work.

Relevant projects

As part of my role in teaching and learning I devised and ran four conferences titled The Artists Journey (2016 - 2021). The conferences supported MFA and BA Fine Art students, graduates and artists from Yorkshire, in establishing their creative careers. I formed partnerships between Sheffield Hallam University Fine Art Department, with Bloc Projects, Yorkshire and Humber Visual Arts Network, Mansions of the Future and NAFAE. This was part funded by Arts Council England through Making Ways. Invited curators included Kerry Campbell, Sunshine Wong and Roger McKinley. The Artists Journey #1&2 was presented at the Life After Art School, Group for Learning in Art & Design in Higher Education (GLAD) conference (2017) in partnership with The Council for Higher Education in Art & Design (CHEAD).

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/butler-non-machines-conference-2023/

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/unland-exhibition-2023/

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/unland-may-2023/

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/rose-butler-investigatory-power-2/?doing_wp_cron=1619128798.9755640029907226562500

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/maw2019-butler-atherton/

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/rose-butler-unconference/

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/rose-butler-creative-interruptions-festival/

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/rose-butler-lines-of-resistance-filmwinter-stuttgarter/?doing_wp_cron=1619128938.1610739231109619140625

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/rose-butler-ssnaf-honourable-mention/

https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/rose-butler-emma-cocker-above-and-beyond/

Collaborators and sponsors
- Arts Council England
- NeMe, Limassol
- Emma Cocker
- Kypros Kyprianou
- Jeremy Lee
- Mathew Jarvis
- Amy Beeston
- Mark Summers
- Saskia Petra -Bayerl
- Becky Shaw
- Empathy and Risk Research

Publications

Other activities

I have recently completed my tenure as external examiner for BA Fine Art / MA Fine Art and MA Painting at Arts University Bournemouth.

I contribute to the working groups of ‘Toolkit of Care’ a network research project within The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).

I am a director of Bloc Projects and on the steering committee of National Association of Fine Art Educators (NAFAE).

Postgraduate supervision

I am available for doctoral supervision for research enquiries that explore a range of territories including:

Media archaeologies
Art and surveillance
Arts research methods
Art and investigative journalism
Art, security and data
Surveillance, film and photography.
Resistant practices and activism.