MoHoA - Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene

Lead Research Organisation: University College London
Department Name: Bartlett Sch of Architecture

Abstract

This application seeks support for two expert meetings and other participatory events for MoHoA partners and affiliates from the Global South to coincide with and enable their attendance at the MoHoA conference titled 'Modern Heritage and the Anthropocene', organised by The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), The School of Architecture at Liverpool University, and the University of Cape Town.

The two expert meetings will be held immediately before and after the conference to capitalise on and maximise the opportunities afforded by such an ambitious one-off event. Combined with associated UK site visits and meetings, the expert meetings will provide a unique and timely opportunity to bring together academics, practitioners, and other related professionals and stakeholders from different disciplines to strengthen global research networks engaged with decolonising, decentring, and reframing modern heritage and contribute to the completion of the Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage. This seminal document will be formally presentation to UNESCO after the conference at the second expert meeting on 29 October 2022.

Research networking activities will take place during two one-day expert meetings addressing specific topics related to MoHoA's agenda including the finalisation of the Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage, as well as specific site visits / tours of partner institutions in the UK. This application will allow up to 12 international partners from the Global South to engage meaningfully with a wide range of UK participants, professionals, and organisations, including universities, museums, galleries, National Trust, and Historic England, Scotland and Wales. This process will be documented in an edited open-access book and, together with MoHoA's wider activities, compiled into a series of freely available teaching materials on MoHoA's website.

MoHoA's conception coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Modern Heritage Programme, jointly initiated by UNESCO, ICOMOS, and DOCOMOMO in 2001, presenting a timely and important opportunity to reflect on the transformative cultural experiences and global consequences of the recent past that heralded the dawn of the Anthropocene and its impacts on society, culture, climate, and the planet.

Since its inception, MoHoA has successfully attracted funding for discrete activities and developed a strong research network that engaged hundreds of participants across four thematic workshops with key partners including the Africa World Heritage Fund (AWHF), UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICCROM, IUCN, the Swahilipot East Africa Heritage Hub and the Getty Conservation Institute. It also hosted an international (online) conference at the University of Cape Town in Sept 2021 with over 50 papers presented.

The initial phase of MoHoA was conceived within an African frame for two reasons. Firstly, the continent has been uniquely marginalised by current conceptualisations of 'modern' within heritage discourses. (Africa has just 89 cultural UNESCO World Heritage sites (less than Italy and Spain combined), compared with Europe's 439, and only one of these is exclusively categorised as 'modern heritage' - Asmara: A Modernist African City, the former Italian colonial city and capital of Eritrea). Secondly, Africa will experience the highest rates of urbanisation over the next 30 years.

The heritage of our recent past therefore possesses the paradox of being of modernity and yet existentially threatened by its consequences. The diverse issues associated with this paradox, from ecological crisis to structural racism, and their lessons for researching, defining, protecting, and ascribing value to 'the modern', will be the focus of the MoHoA conference at UCL in Oct 2022 and the activities outlined in this application. If successful, this collaboration will make one of the most significant contributions to decentring heritage theory and practice in more than a generation.

Publications

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Denison E (2024) Introduction: MoHoA guest editorial in Curator: The Museum Journal

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Denison E (2024) Introduction: Contributions and reflections on Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene in Curator: The Museum Journal

 
Description The most significant achievements from this award were:

1) The completion and publication of 'The Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage' and its presentation to UNESCO and their advisory bodies for further discussion.
2) The successful organisation and delivery of four Research Networking workshops across Africa and in the UK focussing on innovative and critical research approaches that challenge dominant references forged by inequitable structures of power - including those associated with colonial centres, political hegemonies, racialised inequities and nationalist narratives.
3) The Publication of the MoHoA Special Edition of 'Curator: The Museum Journal', containing over 20 peer-reviewed articles researched and written by MoHoA participants and partners.
4) The launch of the MoHoA global network, including the digital platform to host recordings and links to all the materials produced and related to MoHoA, and in particular from the International Conference: 'Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene'; and the AHRC-funded workshop: 'Referentiality: Towards a Decentred Future' held at The Bartlett School of Architecture (June 2023).

This Research Networking Grant helped to ensure the main objectives were met, successfully strengthening and expanding the academic and professional research networks that have been established by MoHoA (Modern Heritage of Africa / Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene) since its inception in 2020. It provided multiple fora for discussion and ideas exchange that supported MoHoA's agenda to decolonise, decentre, and reframe global discourses and heritage practices of the modern era. Through a combination of public meetings across Africa (Senegal, Kenya, and South Africa) and in the UK, open access publications, and freely accessible recordings and pedagogic materials, this award helped to strengthen links between academia and practice by enabling conversations and making these materials available through the new MoHoA website: www.mohoa.org.

One of MoHoA's main aims has been to advocate for positive and meaningful change in the reconceptualization of what is referred to as modern heritage through policy and practice. Among the many findings from the four workshops, one of the key learning outcomes was a consensus and acknowledgement that the experiences of African and African diasporic communities regarding modernity and modern heritage were often profoundly distinct from those elsewhere and especially those conventionally regarded as being defined by universal norms according to the standards set by international organisations such as UNESCO and its advisory bodies. After multiple networking events, there was deep and widespread support for a decentring of the definition and conceptualisation of modern heritage and its associated experiences and legacies professionally, culturally, and disciplinarily. These sentiments underpin one of the main outputs of this grant - the completion and publication of 'The Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage', which seeks to achieve a global consensus on the reconceptualization of modern heritage. This was submitted to UNESCO and its advisory bodies in 2023 as the first formal stage in seeking UNESCO's endorsement and formal adoption of the Cape Town Document and its recommendations. 'The Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage' has also created a forum for discussion with UNESCO and its advisory bodies around redressing the partiality of the current UNESCO World Heritage List by encouraging more nominations from the African continent and supporting UNESCO's plans for establishing a Centre for Heritage Studies for Sub-Saharan African Continent at the University of Cape Town.
Exploitation Route There are several ways in which the outcomes from this Research Networking Grant might be taken forward. They include:

1) Further discussions with UNESCO and their advisory bodies to ensure the ratification of the Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage and adoption of its Recommendations. This also includes supporting the nomination of more modern heritage sites from Africa recognised by State and International Parties to redress the imbalance on the UNESCO World Heritage List that currently privileges European histories and experiences.
2) A third iteration of MoHoA - Modern Heritage of Asia and Africa - is being planned with our Asian partners.
3) An edited volume aimed at advocating and implementing decentred pedagogy and practice in fields related to modern heritage, building on the multi-disciplinary networks established through the Referentiality: Towards a Decentred Future workshop.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Creative Economy

Education

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections
URL http://www.mohoa.org
 
Description The findings generated through this research networking award have made a significant contribution to producing both disciplinary impact and public impact through a series of distinct but interrelated outcomes in cultural and educational sectors. Within the cultural and creative fields, leading figures in pedagogy and practice were given a public platform to exchange knowledge and experience and to engage with critical dialogues among peers and different publics, nationally and internationally. The new ideas generated through this trans-disciplinary dialogic process have subsequently and successfully been disseminated into policy, research, and education through distinct publicly accessible and impactful outputs. The global network established through this award, supported by a digital platform containing a repository of materials documenting and recording MoHoA's activities, contribute to changing public attitudes and pedagogic practices by supporting and providing opportunities to discuss and debate different forms of decentred approaches to our collective pasts. Evidence of this changing attitude can be seen in the growing number of related public events and exhibitions internationally, some of which MoHoA partners and contributors to MoHoA workshops have been involved with, that give voice to previously hidden or marginalised communities or narratives. The award has helped to generate a clear vision of new research agendas that cross disciplinary boundaries and generate trans-disciplinary knowledge that could lead to new disciplines. It also created new research areas based on the acknowledgement, participation, and inclusion of diverse and different experiences as well as new methodologies, that transform our understanding of modern heritage in a planetary age. The award supported the completion and dissemination of the 'Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage', a vital and progressive policy recommendation that seeks to implement this new agenda at global and local levels. Another impact of this recommendation is to highlight and redress the partiality of the current UNESCO World Heritage List by encouraging more nominations from the African continent. Finally, by creating a platform for discussion with UNESCO and its advisory bodies, MoHoA has played an instrumental role in UNESCO's plans for establishing a Centre for Heritage Studies for Sub-Saharan African Continent at the University of Cape Town. Challenges: While the premise of this project has been to support an equitable approach to researching, valorising, and disseminating our collective pasts, a major challenge encountered through this award has been to practice this approach in the planning and implementation of the activities. These are complex challenges, but broadly defined by practical, procedural, and institutional processes. For example, it became impossible within the award timeframe to bring African colleagues to the UK to participate in person. Consequently, workshops were planned and delivered by partners in three regions of Africa. In this instance the outcome was positive in providing a more inclusive and diverse participation (geographically and disciplinarily) and delivered a wider impact, but it also imposed other administrative burdens on the research team.
First Year Of Impact 2023
Sector Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Policy & public services
 
Description Referentiality - contribution to decentred transdisciplinary creative practice
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to new or improved professional practice
Impact This workshop has joined a growing variety and number of different exhibitions that simultaneously and visibly diversified voices and experiences in cultural practice and public understanding (see list above). By including the curators and practitioners of some these exhibitions and other related events, it activated and implemented critical dialogue across different fields of creative practice through series of public conversations which cumulatively are changing public attitudes to how we engage with our pasts, especially those related to coloniality.
URL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/events/2023/jun/referentiality-towards-decentred-future
 
Description The Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage - completion, publication, and dissemination to UNESCO and relevant advisory bodies
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to new or improved professional practice
URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cura.12610
 
Description AHUWA 
Organisation University of Liverpool
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution research centre for West African architectural history and urbanism, with a specific focus on heritage in West Africa
Collaborator Contribution Hosted the discussion related to the CApe Town Declaration. Prof Denison attended the African Studies ASsociation UK's conference in 2022 co-hosted by AHUWA
Impact Cape Town Declaration completion Conference contributions by co-I Prof Uduku and PhD students
Start Year 2023
 
Description Consultant on 'Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence' V&A, London, until 22 Sept 2024 
Organisation Victoria and Albert Museum
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Professor Ola Uduku was invited as consultant on V&A Tropical Modernism Exhibition currently on in London.
Collaborator Contribution Invited Professor Ola Uduku as consultant on V&A Tropical Modernism Exhibition.
Impact The creation of the 'Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence' V&A, London, until 22 Sept 2024
Start Year 2023
 
Description Contribution to The Getty Conservation Institute's new publication: Urban Areas of the Twentieth Century: Case Studies in Conservation Practice 
Organisation The Getty Conservation Institute
Country United States 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The Getty Conservation Institute have been a supporter of MoHoA since its inception, participating in and hosting various workshops, including a series focusing on The Twentieth-Century Historic Thematic Framework: A Tool for Assessing Heritage Places throughout the summer 2021. However, as a result of this collaboration, colleagues at the Asmara Heritage Project and I have been invited to participate in a new forthcoming publication: Urban Areas of the Twentieth Century: Case Studies in Conservation Practice. This title is the fourth volume in the Getty Conservation Institute's Conserving Modern Heritage book series.
Collaborator Contribution The Getty Conservation Institute have provided an important platform for one of the MoHoA partner's research - in this case the World Heritage Site and modernist city of Asmara - to be one of the twelve global case studies in this important book, designed to address the field's need for recent, practical, well-vetted examples of the application of sound conservation methods to twentieth-century heritage structures and places.
Impact The output will be the publication of the book: Urban Areas of the Twentieth Century: Case Studies in Conservation Practice (2024).
Start Year 2023
 
Description Politics of Heritage in Africa course at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, potentially leading to third iteration of Modern Heritage of Asia and Africa 
Organisation Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Country Japan 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Prof. Vawda was invited on a four month visiting professorship at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies to teach a course of the Politics of Heritage in Africa. This foreign assignment also comprised three key note seminars at the Tokyo University of foreign Studies, University of Kyoto, and University of Hiroshima.
Collaborator Contribution Hosting Prof Vawda and opening talks and negotiations for a possible Afro-Asia component of MoHoA.
Impact Having successfully delivered the course and keynote speeches, Prof Vawda also has started discussions with colleagues at Japanese universities to initiate a third iteration of MoHoA focussing on Asia and Africa.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Referentiality workshops - strengthening and expanding the modern heritage network through multi-disciplinary collaborations 
Organisation Iziko Museums of South Africa
Country South Africa 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution One of the objectives of MoHoA has been to support MoHoA's long term strategy of developing new intra-African and associated global research networks by strengthening and expanding MoHoA's research network through expert meetings and other participatory events. The purpose of these networks is to advocate innovative heritage policies and practices that address 21st century challenges of racial, spatial, and social injustice and their interrelation with the climate and ecological crises and to support sustained, original and critical debate across disciplinary boundaries. Four multi-disciplinary research networking events were planned and delivered based on an equitable approach and the underlying principles of inclusivity and diversity. Three were hosted in Africa by MoHoA's Africa-based partners, and one was based in London at The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). Contributions by MoHoA's research term were (in chronological order): Prof Shahid Vawda: (18-19 April 2023) organised this two day event and public workshop hosted by the Iziko Museums and University of Cape Town with presentations and representations by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the state-party of South Africa represented by the Department of Sports Arts and Culture, a variety of civic organisations, experts from the Universities of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Cape Town, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Western Cape, independent scholars, and MoHoA participants, who attended this hybrid event both in-person and online. Abdulrahman Ndegwa and Arafat Mukasa: (31 May 2023) organised a one-day workshop hosted by the Swahilipot Hub Foundation, Mombasa (Kenya), designed to strengthen and build research networks across different types of heritage practice in the East Africa region, focussing on the youth participation from the city of Mombasa and the East Africa Region. Prof Edward Denison: (26 June 2023) co-organised a one-day collaborative workshop with colleagues at The Bartlett School of Architecture, titled 'Referentiality: Towards a Decentred Future', synthesising the themes of the MoHoA conference and its associated workshops and to develop them further by linking them with inter-and trans-disciplinary academic research and creative practice. The overarching theme of referentiality was drawn out of the ideas and reflections from the conference and to question the growing ubiquity of the term decoloniality. To avoid the limitations of the (de)colonial frame, referentiality sought to interrogate different approaches to decentring futures by posing the question: "In this time of planetary reckoning - when racial, social, and environmental inequities of multiple pasts inhabit our present and inhibit our future - is it possible to enable change and envisage futures that are not primarily deferential or referential to the structures of power of these pasts, whether colonial, imperial, ethnic, economic, geo-political, cultural, etc?" The day comprised five sessions, supported by the following members of the research team in various capacities, from providing intellectual expertise and professional experience to Chairing sessions and guiding conversations: Alyssa Barry, Dr Emily Mann, Ievgeniia Gubkina, Maxwell Mutanda, Guang Yu Ren, Prof Mike Turner, and Prof Shahid Vawda. Alyssa Barry: (26 July 2023) organised a one day research networking workshop at the Théodore Monod African Art Museum in Dakar (Senegal) under the theme 'Dakar, African City Port: Challenges and Opportunities of the Safeguarding of Traditional and Modern Cultural Heritages' in collaboration with the Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Senegal, the University College of Architecture of Dakar (CUAD), and the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD), the event brought together a variety of participants including public actors, architects, students, PhD candidates, as well as representatives from civil society.
Collaborator Contribution Iziko Museums and University of Cape Town provided vital institutional support, promotion, and expertise in guiding the discussions at the first MoHoA workshop in South Africa. As one of the premier cultural institutions in South Africa, Iziko Museums operates 11 national museums in Cape Town, while the University of Cape Town continued to proofed its support following the first MoHoA conference, which it hosted in Sept 2021. The Swahilipot Hub Foundation in Mombasa (Kenya) has been a key partner of MoHoA since its inception in 2020, hosting a UCL-funded workshop in 2021. By hosting this Research Networking workshop, The Swahilipot Hub Foundation was able to deepen and widen its partnership with MoHo, reaching new audiences through its own networks in the region.The National Museums of Kenya has also been vital collaborator of MoHoA through the Swahilipot Hub Foundation. The Referentiality public event in London invited speakers and special guests to build and strengthen research relationships through artistic, curatorial, policymaking, academic, and other forms of creative practice. The event brought together colleagues, students, and practitioners to raise critical awareness of and demonstrate new research approaches to subjects that have endured cultural, historical, and intellectual marginalization, trivialisation, and neglect. Contributions by partners included: A roundtable discussion in which invited academics and researchers shared and debated their work, joined by representatives of the three Africa workshops, each of whom presented summaries of their events and their respective outcomes. Speakers included: Dr Nick Beech, Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham; Jhono Bennett, tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture (BSA); Dr Alistair Cartwright, Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool; Jumana Emil Abboud, PhD candidate at the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL); Shahed Saleem, Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Cities, Westminster University; Kay Sedki, Lecturer at the BSA; Vasundhara Sellamuthu, a London based Indian artist; Adefola Toye, PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool; and Doron von Beider, an architect, researcher, and academic teaching at the BSA. The roundtable was followed by a series of conversations between established creative practitioners in front of a public audience. The first was an intimate and co-creative student centred lunchtime activity hosted by architect Sumayya Vally, facilitated by BSA design tutor Jhono Bennett, titled: Sites and Insights - Intereferantial Drawing. The exercise saw students work with Sumayya to co-produce a drawn artefact through facilitated series of co-production. Through drawn discussion based on inter-related insights and sited experiences, the group worked through questions on referentiality in architectural research and practice. The first conversation of the afternoon was between Christopher Samuels, a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, and Valerie Asiimwe Amani, visual artist, and Clarendon Scholar at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, on the topic Contemporary and Modern Art Practices Beyond the Canon, chaired by Nana Ocran, founder and Editor of People's Stories Project. The second conversation was between the celebrated dance artist and choreographer Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, and the acclaimed baritone Peter Brathwaite on Insurrection: A Work In Progress, which explores the history of resistance in Barbados through Peter's personal story, as well as his ongoing work, Rediscovering Black Portraiture. The conversation was chaired by Maxwell Mutanda and Dr Emily Mann, both of the BSA. The evening panel comprised a discussion between the architect and Honorary Professor at the BSA, Sumayya Vally, whose work includes the 2021 Serpentine Pavilion (UK), the Asiat-Darse Project (Belgium), and the Islamic Arts Biennale (Saudi Arabia), and the curator and author Ekow Eshun, curator of In the Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery (UK) and the The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure at the National Portrait Gallery, UK. The conversation was hosted by Professor Amy Kulper, Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture (BSA), and Felicity Atekpe, Director of Practice at the BSA. The day was concluded by a 'musical conversation' with the emerging singer-songwriter, LGBTQIA activist musician and notable Tanzanian live performer Tofa Jaxx who performed an acoustic music set accompanied on guitar by Leon Michael King.
Impact All these events have been documented either in writing through the MoHoA special edition of 'Curator: The Museum Journal' (Jan 2024, 67/1) and/or recorded and now available on the MoHoA website (www.mohoa.org), making them available to audiences globally.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Referentiality workshops - strengthening and expanding the modern heritage network through multi-disciplinary collaborations 
Organisation University of Cape Town
Country South Africa 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution One of the objectives of MoHoA has been to support MoHoA's long term strategy of developing new intra-African and associated global research networks by strengthening and expanding MoHoA's research network through expert meetings and other participatory events. The purpose of these networks is to advocate innovative heritage policies and practices that address 21st century challenges of racial, spatial, and social injustice and their interrelation with the climate and ecological crises and to support sustained, original and critical debate across disciplinary boundaries. Four multi-disciplinary research networking events were planned and delivered based on an equitable approach and the underlying principles of inclusivity and diversity. Three were hosted in Africa by MoHoA's Africa-based partners, and one was based in London at The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). Contributions by MoHoA's research term were (in chronological order): Prof Shahid Vawda: (18-19 April 2023) organised this two day event and public workshop hosted by the Iziko Museums and University of Cape Town with presentations and representations by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the state-party of South Africa represented by the Department of Sports Arts and Culture, a variety of civic organisations, experts from the Universities of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Cape Town, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Western Cape, independent scholars, and MoHoA participants, who attended this hybrid event both in-person and online. Abdulrahman Ndegwa and Arafat Mukasa: (31 May 2023) organised a one-day workshop hosted by the Swahilipot Hub Foundation, Mombasa (Kenya), designed to strengthen and build research networks across different types of heritage practice in the East Africa region, focussing on the youth participation from the city of Mombasa and the East Africa Region. Prof Edward Denison: (26 June 2023) co-organised a one-day collaborative workshop with colleagues at The Bartlett School of Architecture, titled 'Referentiality: Towards a Decentred Future', synthesising the themes of the MoHoA conference and its associated workshops and to develop them further by linking them with inter-and trans-disciplinary academic research and creative practice. The overarching theme of referentiality was drawn out of the ideas and reflections from the conference and to question the growing ubiquity of the term decoloniality. To avoid the limitations of the (de)colonial frame, referentiality sought to interrogate different approaches to decentring futures by posing the question: "In this time of planetary reckoning - when racial, social, and environmental inequities of multiple pasts inhabit our present and inhibit our future - is it possible to enable change and envisage futures that are not primarily deferential or referential to the structures of power of these pasts, whether colonial, imperial, ethnic, economic, geo-political, cultural, etc?" The day comprised five sessions, supported by the following members of the research team in various capacities, from providing intellectual expertise and professional experience to Chairing sessions and guiding conversations: Alyssa Barry, Dr Emily Mann, Ievgeniia Gubkina, Maxwell Mutanda, Guang Yu Ren, Prof Mike Turner, and Prof Shahid Vawda. Alyssa Barry: (26 July 2023) organised a one day research networking workshop at the Théodore Monod African Art Museum in Dakar (Senegal) under the theme 'Dakar, African City Port: Challenges and Opportunities of the Safeguarding of Traditional and Modern Cultural Heritages' in collaboration with the Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Senegal, the University College of Architecture of Dakar (CUAD), and the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD), the event brought together a variety of participants including public actors, architects, students, PhD candidates, as well as representatives from civil society.
Collaborator Contribution Iziko Museums and University of Cape Town provided vital institutional support, promotion, and expertise in guiding the discussions at the first MoHoA workshop in South Africa. As one of the premier cultural institutions in South Africa, Iziko Museums operates 11 national museums in Cape Town, while the University of Cape Town continued to proofed its support following the first MoHoA conference, which it hosted in Sept 2021. The Swahilipot Hub Foundation in Mombasa (Kenya) has been a key partner of MoHoA since its inception in 2020, hosting a UCL-funded workshop in 2021. By hosting this Research Networking workshop, The Swahilipot Hub Foundation was able to deepen and widen its partnership with MoHo, reaching new audiences through its own networks in the region.The National Museums of Kenya has also been vital collaborator of MoHoA through the Swahilipot Hub Foundation. The Referentiality public event in London invited speakers and special guests to build and strengthen research relationships through artistic, curatorial, policymaking, academic, and other forms of creative practice. The event brought together colleagues, students, and practitioners to raise critical awareness of and demonstrate new research approaches to subjects that have endured cultural, historical, and intellectual marginalization, trivialisation, and neglect. Contributions by partners included: A roundtable discussion in which invited academics and researchers shared and debated their work, joined by representatives of the three Africa workshops, each of whom presented summaries of their events and their respective outcomes. Speakers included: Dr Nick Beech, Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham; Jhono Bennett, tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture (BSA); Dr Alistair Cartwright, Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool; Jumana Emil Abboud, PhD candidate at the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL); Shahed Saleem, Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Cities, Westminster University; Kay Sedki, Lecturer at the BSA; Vasundhara Sellamuthu, a London based Indian artist; Adefola Toye, PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool; and Doron von Beider, an architect, researcher, and academic teaching at the BSA. The roundtable was followed by a series of conversations between established creative practitioners in front of a public audience. The first was an intimate and co-creative student centred lunchtime activity hosted by architect Sumayya Vally, facilitated by BSA design tutor Jhono Bennett, titled: Sites and Insights - Intereferantial Drawing. The exercise saw students work with Sumayya to co-produce a drawn artefact through facilitated series of co-production. Through drawn discussion based on inter-related insights and sited experiences, the group worked through questions on referentiality in architectural research and practice. The first conversation of the afternoon was between Christopher Samuels, a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, and Valerie Asiimwe Amani, visual artist, and Clarendon Scholar at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, on the topic Contemporary and Modern Art Practices Beyond the Canon, chaired by Nana Ocran, founder and Editor of People's Stories Project. The second conversation was between the celebrated dance artist and choreographer Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, and the acclaimed baritone Peter Brathwaite on Insurrection: A Work In Progress, which explores the history of resistance in Barbados through Peter's personal story, as well as his ongoing work, Rediscovering Black Portraiture. The conversation was chaired by Maxwell Mutanda and Dr Emily Mann, both of the BSA. The evening panel comprised a discussion between the architect and Honorary Professor at the BSA, Sumayya Vally, whose work includes the 2021 Serpentine Pavilion (UK), the Asiat-Darse Project (Belgium), and the Islamic Arts Biennale (Saudi Arabia), and the curator and author Ekow Eshun, curator of In the Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery (UK) and the The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure at the National Portrait Gallery, UK. The conversation was hosted by Professor Amy Kulper, Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture (BSA), and Felicity Atekpe, Director of Practice at the BSA. The day was concluded by a 'musical conversation' with the emerging singer-songwriter, LGBTQIA activist musician and notable Tanzanian live performer Tofa Jaxx who performed an acoustic music set accompanied on guitar by Leon Michael King.
Impact All these events have been documented either in writing through the MoHoA special edition of 'Curator: The Museum Journal' (Jan 2024, 67/1) and/or recorded and now available on the MoHoA website (www.mohoa.org), making them available to audiences globally.
Start Year 2023
 
Description MoHoA Research Networking Workshop: Dakar, African City Port: Challenges and Opportunities of the Safeguarding of Traditional and Modern Cultural Heritages (Senegal) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The West African MoHoA Research Networking workshop was held on 26 July 2023 at the Théodore Monod African Art Museum in Dakar (Senegal) under the theme 'Dakar, African City Port: Challenges and Opportunities of the Safeguarding of Traditional and Modern Cultural Heritages'. Organized in collaboration with the Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Senegal, the University College of Architecture of Dakar (CUAD), and the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD), the research networking event brought together a variety of participants including public actors, architects, students, PhD candidates, as well as representatives from civil society. It was attended by more than 50 participants and widely covered by the local media. The discussions gave an overview of the cultural and maritime heritage of Dakar and the issues and challenges they face. They also highlighted the possibilities of cohabitation between traditional and modern heritage in the capital associated with its status as a port. The main conclusion that emerged was that there is no boundary between traditional and modern heritage, whether tangible or intangible. Both contributed to forging the image and cultural identity of Dakar and its inhabitants. The event also exposed how much work still needs to be done to raise awareness on the importance of research in preserving this heritage. The discussions have enabled the enrichment of the subject of modern heritage and to mobilise other partners to support the project through a travelling exhibition on the maritime cultural landscape of Dakar organized by the Directorate of Cultural Heritage in early 2024.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description MoHoA Research Networking event, University of Cape Town (South Africa) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A very successful MOHOA workshop was held on 18-19 April 2023. There were presentations and representations by the World Heritage Centre, state-party South Africa through the Department of Sports Arts and Culture, various civic organisations, experts from Universities of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Cape Town, Pretoria and Stellenbosch and Western Cape, independent scholars and MoHoA participants, both in-person and online. Nine students from the Universities of Cape Town and Pretoria made presentations. One of the highlights of the workshop was a walking interactive tour on the various enslaved and indentured peoples' contribution to Cape Town. It was directed towards an awareness of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) guidelines, emphasising the contemporary urban landscape 's creation from the many waves and connections through historic migrations, colonial connections and enforced movements of people, goods and ideas from many parts of the world, including Brazil, Philippines, China and Japan, and their engagements within and outside of empires. None of these connections as manifested in Southern Africa, which was also highlighted in the presentations, can be understood without the intangible aspects of history and heritage. A key recommendation that emerged was that the 1972 World Heritage Conventions and the 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention be fused to become a single World Heritage Convention. The collaboration has led to closer co-operation between the Iziko Museums of South Africa and the Department of Sports Arts and Culture.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Modern Heritage of Africa workshop: Swahilipot Hub Foundation, Mombasa (Kenya) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a one-day workshop held on 31st May 2023 to strengthen and build research networks associated with different types of heritage research and their relationship with practice, with an emphasis on youth and the City of Mombasa. The workshop followed the first MoHoA workshop in July 2021 and the MONDIACULT 2022 Globinar under the topic "New Heritage Dimensions for the 21st Century," which took place in September 2022. The Globinar was a side event organised by the UN-Habitat UNI metro hub consortium and centered around Heritopolis: Heritage and the Metropolis during the UNESCO World conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development.

As a follow up, the National Museums of Kenya, Swahilipot Hub Foundation and Technical University of Mombasa held this one-day workshop focusing on heritage research with the youth in the city of Mombasa and throughout the region to develop the discourse on how the youth interpret and engage with heritage within their city and the wider East African region. The workshop brought together different practitioners, including academics, artists and heritage professionals to strengthen existing research networks and build new ones with the aim of supporting and developing current heritage practices and paradigms in the East Africa region.

As a result of the workshop, all partner organisations are keen to explore new approaches to research, specifically with emerging trends such as intergenerational forums that can deconstruct knowledge production and also draw more emphasis on the documentation of heritage. The workshop opened important avenues of future research approaches towards showcasing and juxtaposing traditional and modern heritage models.

A consequence of this event was the contribution of colleagues from the National Museums of Kenya, Swahilipot Hub Foundation and Technical University of Mombasa to the 'Heritopolis Lunchtime Globinar (Europe and Africa)' in Sept 2023 that was part of the Heritopolis (www.heritopolis.org ) globinar for the UNESCO-MondiaCult2023. See link below from 1:05:45.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://youtu.be/BkRrooIoRJI
 
Description Research Networking Workshop: Referentiality: Towards a Decentred Future 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This public event at The Bartlett School of Architecture and organised by MoHoA focused on innovative and critical research approaches that challenge dominant references forged by inequitable structures of power - including those associated with colonial centres, political hegemonies, racialised inequities and nationalist narratives. The day-long event is part of the MoHoA global initiative and one of four workshops sponsored by the AHRC Research Networking Grant.

Referentiality was a day-long public event with a series of presentations and discussions with special guests raising critical awareness of and demonstrating new research approaches to cultural, historical and intellectual marginalisation, trivialisation and neglect. It was aimed at making a significant contribution to supporting, promoting, and strengthening artistic, curatorial, policymaking, academic, and other research and practice relationships related to MoHoA's key objectives.

Referentiality comprised a series of dialogues throughout the day, starting with scholars and practitioners engaged in research that challenges canonical references. This was followed by an in-conversation lunch and collective drawing exercise with Sumayya Vally. The afternoon events invited global figures from diverse art practices including architecture, dance, opera, curation, activism and music, to share their experiences of and approach to research and how it informs their work. Descriptions of each session feature below and recordings can be found here:(https://mohoa.org/events/referentiality-towards-a-decentred-future/?en)

Research Dialogue - Interrogating Referentiality: A collaborative public forum in which scholars from different institutional and disciplinary practices share their work and experiences in doing research that attempts to be independent of structures of power that have dominated their field, including, but not limited to, colonial centres, political hegemonies, racial inequities, and nationalist narratives. This will include presentations by representatives of three MoHoA regional partnerships from East, South and West Africa: Swahilipot Heritage Hub, University of Cape Town and Direction du patrimoine culturel du Sénégal.

Sites and Insights - Intereferential Drawing: an intimate and co-creative student centred lunchtime activity hosted by architect Sumayya Vally, facilitated by BSA design tutor Jhono Bennett. The exercise saw students working with Sumayya to co-produce a drawn artefact through a facilitated series of co-production. Through drawn discussion based on inter-related insights and sited experiences, the group worked through questions on referentiality in architectural research and practice.

Conversation with multi-disciplinary artist and disability activist Christopher Samuel, and Tanzanian interdisciplinary artist and writer Valerie Amani, in conversation Nana Ocran, the London-based Founder and Editor of People's Stories Project and former Editor-in-Chief for the Time Out Group's series of guides to Lagos and Abuja.

Conversation with the acclaimed baritone Peter Brathwaite expands on his pivotal Rediscovering Black Portraiture series and the vital new work-in-progres Insurrection: A Work In Progress, which explores the history of resistance in Barbados through the tradition of opera and Peter's personal story. Taking its cue from the radical folk traditions of enslaved Black workers, this new performance piece celebrates the human need to gather, move, make music, and tell stories amid and in response to oppression. Peter will be in conversation with renowned British dance artist and former Chief Executive of The Place, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE.

A public in-conversation event with celebrated architect, Sumayya Vally, and the distinguished curator, Ekow Eshun. They will be discussing the theme of referentiality through their latest works, including, respectively, the Asiat-Darse Project (Belgium) and the Islamic Arts Biennale (Saudi Arabia) and In the Black Fantastic (UK) and The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure opening next year at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Musical conversation with the emerging singer-songwriter, LGBTQIA activist musician and notable Tanzanian live performer Tofa Jaxx will perform an acoustic music set accompanied on guitar by Leon Michael King. With his unmistakably smokey, unique and mysterious voice this musical conversation will carry the audience to the sun-soaked shores of the Indian Ocean utilising West African troubadour-historian griot style historical narratives and oral traditions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://mohoa.org/events/referentiality-towards-a-decentred-future/