Re-configuring ruins: materialities, processes and mediations
Lead Research Organisation:
University of London
Department Name: School of Advanced Study
Abstract
The aim of this project is to treat ruins as thresholds, windows that provide a unique insight into the relationship between past, present and future. The project is structured around three main questions, which together investigate the theoretical, geographical and material dimensions of ruins: How are ruins re-configured across time, space and media? Is the lens through which we tend to see and encounter ruins Euro-centric? If so, how can different geographies contribute to a richer understanding of the other cultures around and the alternative natures of ruins? Can the skills and approaches from different disciplines contribute to better understand the presence and the temporality of ruins? If so, what channels are commensurate with developing such understanding?
These questions are fundamentally about the meaningfulness of continuity and change at the heart of the Care for the Future theme. They touch on how different social and cultural groups from East Asia, Latin America and Europe (and across history) engage with ruins to relate to their pasts and projected futures. The aesthetic of ruins privileged in the romantic concept of Ruinenlust (illustrated by, among others, Tate Britain's 'Ruin Lust' exhibition, March-May 2014) captures a particular Western gaze upon ruins as a concept, site and process. Our cross-disciplinary and cross-period approach questions the meaningfulness of ruins from other perspectives, and asks whether the imagination of ruins can be a generative and pre-figurative means of engaging with future change as well as thinking about interactions with the past.
Our collaborative project draws on the skills, knowledge and methods of four researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds (history, human geography and urban studies, English literature, East Asian cultural studies and Latin American history) in order to unpack the ways through which the materialities, processes and mediations of ruins can be investigated. To achieve this, the project team includes two non-HEI partners that are central to the development and the delivery of its outcomes: Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and the NewBridge Project (NBP), Newcastle. MOLA will offer practical guidance on the archaeology of ruins, and also an institutional view on the social values of ruins across the UK, while the NewBridge Project will provide the creative lens through which to engage with ruins differently. Workshops, site visits and virtual platforms are planned to foster expertise and collaboration of academics, experts, practitioners and artists, with the four project investigators producing academic articles that will target an interdisciplinary audience. MOLA and the NBP will each host one workshop and lead the site visits. The NBP will plan and deliver an exhibition that will first be shown in Newcastle, and subsequently moved to London.
The non-HEI partners' experience with the communities of artists and creative industries in Northeast England (NBP) combined with archaeologists, property developers and mixed audiences across the UK (MOLA) will make the project not only innovative and creative, but also timely and relevant. In addition, the project contributes to the ongoing dialogue between the Northeast and Southeast of England by sharing expertise in order to enable diverse publics to appreciate the creativity and regeneration strategies that shape the contemporary UK landscape. This aspect speaks to the project's objectives by exploring a breadth of spatial (from local to national to global) and temporal (from 'ancient' to post-industrial ruins) perspectives, which are central to its general themes and theories as well as its practical experimental outcomes.
These questions are fundamentally about the meaningfulness of continuity and change at the heart of the Care for the Future theme. They touch on how different social and cultural groups from East Asia, Latin America and Europe (and across history) engage with ruins to relate to their pasts and projected futures. The aesthetic of ruins privileged in the romantic concept of Ruinenlust (illustrated by, among others, Tate Britain's 'Ruin Lust' exhibition, March-May 2014) captures a particular Western gaze upon ruins as a concept, site and process. Our cross-disciplinary and cross-period approach questions the meaningfulness of ruins from other perspectives, and asks whether the imagination of ruins can be a generative and pre-figurative means of engaging with future change as well as thinking about interactions with the past.
Our collaborative project draws on the skills, knowledge and methods of four researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds (history, human geography and urban studies, English literature, East Asian cultural studies and Latin American history) in order to unpack the ways through which the materialities, processes and mediations of ruins can be investigated. To achieve this, the project team includes two non-HEI partners that are central to the development and the delivery of its outcomes: Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and the NewBridge Project (NBP), Newcastle. MOLA will offer practical guidance on the archaeology of ruins, and also an institutional view on the social values of ruins across the UK, while the NewBridge Project will provide the creative lens through which to engage with ruins differently. Workshops, site visits and virtual platforms are planned to foster expertise and collaboration of academics, experts, practitioners and artists, with the four project investigators producing academic articles that will target an interdisciplinary audience. MOLA and the NBP will each host one workshop and lead the site visits. The NBP will plan and deliver an exhibition that will first be shown in Newcastle, and subsequently moved to London.
The non-HEI partners' experience with the communities of artists and creative industries in Northeast England (NBP) combined with archaeologists, property developers and mixed audiences across the UK (MOLA) will make the project not only innovative and creative, but also timely and relevant. In addition, the project contributes to the ongoing dialogue between the Northeast and Southeast of England by sharing expertise in order to enable diverse publics to appreciate the creativity and regeneration strategies that shape the contemporary UK landscape. This aspect speaks to the project's objectives by exploring a breadth of spatial (from local to national to global) and temporal (from 'ancient' to post-industrial ruins) perspectives, which are central to its general themes and theories as well as its practical experimental outcomes.
Planned Impact
The project beneficiaries outside academia are our non-HEI partners, namely The NewBridge Project, Newcastle and the Museum of London Archaeology, as well as the general public in the Northeast and the Southeast of England.
Our non-HEI partners represent two mixed publics. The NBP works closely with a broad range of actors connected to the artistic communities, creative and digital industries and the co-production of regeneration strategies in Newcastle, which include early career and established artists as well as community activists and city councillors. MOLA works alongside developers, planners and property managers delivering public benefit through community engagement programmes across the UK. The project's combination of workshops, site visits and virtual platforms will secure their effective involvement in the project, while it will also encourage reflecting on the impact in their respective immediate environments. This might take the form of reassessing future policies and practices connected to the two sites chosen in agreement with the NBP and MOLA.
The project also reaches out to local communities and the general public in two complementary ways. The interactive web tool will serve to present the project progress and findings in a way that is experimental and innovative. More specific audiences (schools, urban planners, heritage organisations, city councillors) will be identified in consultation with our partners during and after the workshops. The exhibition will engage the general public and communities around the two sites in Newcastle and London, building upon the recognition of the NBP venue in Newcastle city centre and Senate House, home of the School of Advanced Study in Central London. The exhibition will be one of the highlights of the NBP 2015 programme. Similarly, the role of the School of Advanced Study in the Bloomsbury Festival will place the exhibition in dialogue with the annual showcase of artistic, creative, digital, media, publishing and other related industries based in Central London.
Our non-HEI partners represent two mixed publics. The NBP works closely with a broad range of actors connected to the artistic communities, creative and digital industries and the co-production of regeneration strategies in Newcastle, which include early career and established artists as well as community activists and city councillors. MOLA works alongside developers, planners and property managers delivering public benefit through community engagement programmes across the UK. The project's combination of workshops, site visits and virtual platforms will secure their effective involvement in the project, while it will also encourage reflecting on the impact in their respective immediate environments. This might take the form of reassessing future policies and practices connected to the two sites chosen in agreement with the NBP and MOLA.
The project also reaches out to local communities and the general public in two complementary ways. The interactive web tool will serve to present the project progress and findings in a way that is experimental and innovative. More specific audiences (schools, urban planners, heritage organisations, city councillors) will be identified in consultation with our partners during and after the workshops. The exhibition will engage the general public and communities around the two sites in Newcastle and London, building upon the recognition of the NBP venue in Newcastle city centre and Senate House, home of the School of Advanced Study in Central London. The exhibition will be one of the highlights of the NBP 2015 programme. Similarly, the role of the School of Advanced Study in the Bloomsbury Festival will place the exhibition in dialogue with the annual showcase of artistic, creative, digital, media, publishing and other related industries based in Central London.
Publications
Dobraszczyk P
(2016)
Digging Up and Digging Down Urban Undergrounds
in Journal of Contemporary Archaeology
López Galviz C
(2017)
Reconfiguring Ruins: Beyond Ruinenlust
in GeoHumanities
Pendleton, M.
(2017)
Tokyo: Memory, Imagination and the City
| Title | The Ten Commandments |
| Description | The Ten Commandments is a three-screen film and audio installation, commissioned as part of Reconfiguring Ruins. The commissioned artists, Kelvin Brown and Jacob Robinson, set out on a journey to find the ruined remains of the set for Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 film The Ten Commandments, a replica of ancient Egypt that has laid buried in the sands of the Guadalupe Dunes on the Coast of California since the film finished shooting in the 1920s. As part of their journey, the artists found at the counter of a Mexican diner two elderly men who told stories of the demise of Guadalupe from a thriving Wild West community to a town where half the shops on Main Street lie empty, and of the internment of Guadalupe's Japanese community during the Second World War. Kelvin and Jacob said 'Ultimately this process of construction, representation, myth making and final ruination, with its associated tension between the simulated and the real, allowed questions to be asked as to the notion of authenticity. These literal and metaphorical ruins raise questions as to the potential future of American society, a country whose ideals and aspirations have been so successfully propagated throughout Hollywood history.' |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | The exhibition of the piece in Newcastle attracted 750+ visitors and has contributed significantly to improving the artists' profiles, Kelvin Brown and Jacob Robinson, as well as the profile of the New Bridge Project, one of the non-HEI partners of Reconfiguring Ruins. |
| URL | http://thenewbridgeproject.com/the-ten-commandments/ |
| Description | The collaborative nature of the project allowed us to develop a mixed approach to facilitate reflection, discussion, and creative responses focused on ruins, combining presentations, fieldwork, small-group work and a blog. We learned that there is a significant amount of work by contemporary artists on ruins. Submissions to take part in the workshops (50+) and the artist commission (170+) showed us the range, quality and sheer diversity of work that artists have made in connection to ruins and processes of ruination in the UK, Europe and overseas. This is an invaluable resource that is generally overlooked by practices around heritage. Similarly, artists play a pivotal role in urban regeneration and gentrification, as residents and practitioners in buildings awaiting demolition or development, which needs further understanding. The project's web tool and a follow-on funding application (submitted in August 2016, unsuccessful) were a first step towards addressing this. Key findings for the New Bridge Project (NBP) included the interest in ruins in contemporary art practice. More specifically, the project helped the NBP map the scale of that interest, recognize the type of work being produced, and create a network of artists whose work is related to ruins. As important was the collaborative and iterative process between artists and academics, which could also be used to aid organizational development of the NBP. The artist commission documented a community, a landscape and a way of life in California, USA, reaching and educating a wide audience in and around Newcastle on this topic. The main outcome for MOLA has been a greater appreciation of how other disciplines are approaching contemporary ruins and what connections there are to more conventional practices around heritage. For the latter, still not widely accepted in more traditional archaeological contexts, the opportunity to work in the way we did, and on historical material that would be of interest to most archaeologists, allowed for the exploration of more innovative kinds of archaeology from an initial position of relative certainty. Although James Dixon (MOLA) already works in these ways, the operation and outcomes of the research has given an excellent way for him to promote new kinds of archaeology to others in a way where they can see tangible results/practices. The collaboration with the NBP and MOLA gave the project investigators access to an applied, practical context; something that they would not have achieved otherwise. Also, it expanded their views and invited them to see ruins through the different approaches from different disciplines, recognizing too the limitations and particularities of different traditions of scholarship around ruins in Europe, East Asia, and America. |
| Exploitation Route | The web tool (above) is helping the NBP collect valuable data to evidence their impact and further inform their reports for different stakeholders. The web tool, the model of collaboration used in the project, and the network of artists attending the workshops and submitting their work to the artist commission are an important precedent for future collaborations. These might also help other academic researchers working with artists/arts organisations to learn from the successful experience of the project. At least two of the artists who attended the workshops have used their participation in the project to develop/inform their own practice around ruins: one through the festival Hinterland (Glasgow, 18-27 March 2016), the other by embarking on a PhD. For MOLA, one direct use of the research is the wider variety of ways of reading contemporary urban environments inspired by other disciplines and practices as seen through the course of the project. This was of special significance, given how MOLA read contemporary landscapes as professional specialists and how MOLA communicate and work with communities and the public. Practical and theoretical insights gained from the project have been and will be of use in other collaborative cross-disciplinary projects. The collaboration with NBP, for example, enabled a knowledge-exchange on the development of guidelines for artist calls and evaluation of artist proposals shared with the AHRC large grant 'Assembling Alternative Futures for Heritage' in which Nadia Bartolini (Co-investigator) is a Research Associate. These guidelines and tips from the NBP director (Charlie Gregory) were a good basis upon which the Co-Is and RAs of Assembling Alternative Futures will select and embed creative fellows in their project. Also relevant is the role that Carlos López Galviz (Principal Investigator) played as co-investigator in the AHRC-funded project Mobile Utopias 1851-2051, based in the new Institute for Social Futures, Lancaster University. Mobile Utopias included an artist commission for the Utopia Fair in Somerset House, London, in June 2016. Carlos is also involved in two international collaborative projects on rural heritage and utopias, where the findings of Reconfiguring Ruins will be of valuable use. Through his participation in the workshops, Paul Dobraszczyk (external collaborator) reframed his ideas around ruined cities, incorporating several of the debates around the materialities, the processes and the mediations of ruins, and which are now developed in his forthcoming book The Dead City: Urban Ruins and the Spectacle of Decay (IB Tauris, 2017). |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://reconfigruins.com |
| Description | The artist commission was exhibited in the gallery space of the New Bridge Project, Newcastle (Oct-Nov 2015), creating access to and engaging with the local community, but also with the wider public in and around the North East of England and Scotland. The exhibition attracted over 750 visitors and involved dozens of others in two sound walks and a screening of the two versions (1923 and 1956) of the original film The Ten Commandments, from which the artist commission took its name. The panel discussion and exhibition in London, in turn, attracted over 80 visitors during the long weekend of 30 June - 3 July 2016. The workshops, commission and other outcomes related to the project improved the profile of the artists (Kelvin Brown and Jacob Robinson) and of the NBP itself, having provided them with dedicated time to produce new work together. Charlotte Gregory (NBP Director) has used the data collected on artists/NBP in guest talks and conferences as well as to inform how/what the NBP feeds back to Arts Council, the City council, and other relevant bodies. MOLA's involvement in Reconfiguring Ruins will play a part in a forthcoming collaborative project with archaeologists and artists in Osaka and Kyoto wherein a pair of exchange research visits will aid the production of a document on 'best practice' in international collaboration in art and archaeology. This will include academic reports and publications. MOLA are increasingly working with art and artists in other contexts too and the research and practical experience of Reconfiguring Ruins, notably the workshops, will continue to inform the direction of such developments. The more strictly academic use of the project findings, process, and outcomes both complete and projected include: The co-written article entitled 'Reconfiguring ruins: Beyond Ruinenlust' published in the journal GeoHumanities vol. 3, issue 2, 2017; and three conference panels, namely, 'How Empty are Ruins? Re-configuring Ruins in China, Japan and England' at the Empty Spaces conference, Institute of Historical Research, London, April 2015; 'Ruins, temporalities, utopia and the city' at the Utopias, Futures and Temporalities AHRC symposium, Bristol, May 2015; and 'The Ten Commandments Revisited' at the Past Matters, Research Futures: An AHRC Care for the Future ECR Conference, Royal Society, London, 12-13 December 2016. Individual outcomes developed in close relation to the project also include: (1) Co-investigator Mark Pendleton's use of literary, cultural and archaeological sources for understanding ruins and ruination in 20th-century Japan as part of an AHRC International Placement Scheme in Kyoto, as well as a guest lecture at Tohoku University (Japan) and a graduate 'master-class' on ruins at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia; (2) Co-investigator Adam Stock's paper on the interrelations of utopia and ruins at the annual conference of the American Comparative Literature Association, Harvard University, 17-20 March 2016, which includes firm plans for publication; the development of the app 'In the Mesh', which explores an alternate-future Montreal, building on his Visiting Scholarship in Concordia University last summer (2015); and the article 'The Blind Logic of Plants: Enlightenment and Evolution in John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids' Science Fiction Studies 42.3 (2015); (3) Principal investigator Carlos López Galviz's contribution to the co-authored article 'Digging Up and Digging Down: Urban Undergrounds', Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 2, 2 (2015). Carlos has also used the experience and insights gained through the project to contribute to two international research collaborations: ALTRURAL, a project on heritage-led rural regeneration led by the University of Copenhagen submitted to the Horizon 2020 call SC5-21-2017 (application unsuccessful); and the new Utrecht Utopia Network, based in the University of Utrecht, and with partners in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and India. Similarly, Carlos co-chaired a panel during the European Association of Urban History (EAUH) conference in August 2018 with the title 'Beyond Ruinenlust: Historicising renewal, regeneration and resilience'. The insights and experience of Reconfiguring Ruins will also help shape the strand 'urban futures' of the new research training programme by the Institute for Social Futures, Lancaster University, currently under development. As of March 2019, additional outcomes incorporating the project findings include: The proposal for a special issue of Urban History based on a selection of papers from the EAUH conference. The proposal will be submitted by end of April 2019. A conference paper by Adam Stock at the 19th international conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, 9-12 July 2018. The book Modern Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought (Routledge: 2018), also by Adam Stock. The project led by Mark Pendleton New Directions in Coal Mining History and Heritage, awarded one of the ESRC/AHRC UK-Japan Connections grants (ES/S013237/1). In 2019, the New Bridge Project (project partner) hosted a short residency by Japanese artist Risa Tsunegi, in collaboration with Mark Pendleton. |
| Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | New Directions in Coal Mining History and Heritage in Japan and the UK |
| Amount | £43,484 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/S013237/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 06/2020 |
| Description | Open Space Research Centre |
| Amount | £1,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Open University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2016 |
| End | 07/2016 |
| Description | Reconfiguring Ruins MOLA |
| Organisation | Museum of London Archaeology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The project contributed to broadening the concepts and ways of communicating 'ruins' that MOLA uses when engaging with a range of communities and the public at large. It brought their expertise and work as archaeologists closer to a range of non-specialist audiences, including creative practitioners and artists. |
| Collaborator Contribution | MOLA was one of the project's non-HEI partners. They helped shaping the project, including the outcomes, from the outset, and hosted the London workshop. James Dixon, senior archaeologist, was closely involved in planning and delivering the London workshop and took part in the many discussions we held during the course of the project. |
| Impact | This was a multi-disciplinary collaboration including archaeologists, museum practitioners, artists, historians, English literature scholars, and geographers. Two workshops, one in London (12-13 January 2015), and another one in Newcastle (8-9 June 2015). The artist commission The Ten Commandments, launched in Newcastle on 2 October 2015. The web tool: http://reconfigruins.com The co-authored article 'Reconfiguring ruins: Trans-disciplinarity, praxis and the limits of co-creation'. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Reconfiguring Ruins New Bridge Project |
| Organisation | NewBridge Project, Newcastle |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The project helped to increase the visibility of the New Bridge and raise their profile in the North East of England, but also nationally and internationally. It brought the community of artists around the New Bridge (many with studio facilities in their building) into contact with academics, archaeologists and other creative practitioners to think about the role that ruins can play in their work, individually and collaboratively. The project's web tool has been designed with the New Bridge in mind as a means of testing ways in which we can capture the value that artist communities have in processes of urban regeneration and gentrification across the UK. This will be explored further should a follow-on funding application to the AHRC be successful. |
| Collaborator Contribution | As one of the project's non-HEI partners, the New Bridge helped shape the aims and outcomes of Reconfiguring Ruins from the outset. More specifically, the New Bridge hosted the project's second workshop in their premises in Newcastle. They also led two artist calls: First, the call of expressions of interest to attend the project workshops (for which we received 50+ applications) and, subsequently, the artist commission which attracted 170+ submissions. They hosted the winning commission, The Ten Commandments, in their gallery space in Newcastle, 2 October - 7 November 2015, taking care of installation, publicity, related events, and more. |
| Impact | This was a multi-disciplinary collaboration including archaeologists, museum practitioners, artists, historians, English literature scholars, and geographers. Two workshops, one in London (12-13 January 2014), and another one in Newcastle (8-9 June 2015). The artist commission The Ten Commandments, launched in Newcastle on 2 October 2015. The web tool: http://reconfigruins.com The co-authored article 'Reconfiguring ruins: Trans-disciplinarity, praxis and the limits of co-creation'. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Title | Reconfiguring Ruins web tool |
| Description | The web tool was developed to capture data that the New Bridge Project can use in the future to inform their reports and negotiations with the local council, real estate developers, and other relevant bodies. It gives a brief synopsis of the project and consists of two main sections: (1) A public media gallery through which artists upload a 'response' to a ruin using any media (text, image, audio or film); and (2) a Surveys page where we ask different kinds of respondents to tell us more about the role that initiatives such as the New Bridge play in the areas where they are based. We are starting with users within the group attending the project workshops in London and Newcastle, but aim to open it up to anyone, anywhere. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | We are currently (March 2016) testing the functionality of the tool with a sample of users. It is hoped that the tool will be of use to any organisation and initiative by creative practitioners in a similar situation as that of the New Bridge Project in Newcastle. Other arts organisations in the UK will be invited to use it and help us adjusting it as needed. |
| URL | http://reconfigruins.com |
| Description | Conference panel 'How Empty are Ruins? Re-configuring Ruins in China, Japan and England' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a panel we organised for the conference Empty Spaces at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, on 10 April 2015. The conference was attended by 50+ people, mostly academics, but also including the general public and people interested in the conference topic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Conference panel 'Ruins, temporalities, utopia and the city' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is a panel we organised for the AHRC symposium Utopias, Futures and Temporalities: Critical considerations for social change, in Bristol, 18-20 May 2015. Our panel was well attended (30+) and led to establishing relevant contacts with scholars working in related fields. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Launch and exhibition of the artist commission, The Ten Commandments (Newcastle) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The exhibition of the project's artist commission, The Ten Commandments, ran from 2 October till 7 November 2015, attracting 750+ visitors. As part of the exhibition programme the New Bridge Project ran two field audio recording workshops with Kelvin Brown, one of the commissioned artists, and hosted a screening of the two versions of the original film The Ten Commandments (1923 and 1956) providing an exceptional contrast with the commission. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://thenewbridgeproject.com/the-ten-commandments/ |
| Description | Panel discussion on Alternative Heritage Futures at the World Archaeology Congress 8, Kyoto, Japan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a forum/panel discussion organised by the AHRC-funded project Heritage Futures for the World Archaeological Congress in Kyoto, Japan, on 29 August 2016. The PI (Carlos Lopez Galviz) joined a panel of nine presenters who discussed the future of heritage in several countries and covered a range of topics including colonial violence, natural reserves, rural gentrification and activism, big data and museum displays. It led to new collaborations which are in the making. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Research creative workshop (London) |
| 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 | Through a combination of brief presentations by academics and artists and collaborative fieldwork (around the Museum of London), we spent a stimulating day and a half (a) reflecting on some of the key theories and concepts around ruins; (b) sharing useful insights into the practical dimensions of managing heritage; (c) discussing what artistic practices bring to the table when thinking about ruins; and (d) working collaboratively on creative responses to the site (inside MoL and the medieval walls around it) which were discussed in the group at the end. We issued a call for artists to take part in the workshop and received 54 applications (for 10 places), having offered 3 travel bursaries for those outside London. The important interest that both the call and the actual workshop generated is now captured (though only partly) through the project's blog/website, under the heading 'Ruins Elsewhere and Otherwise'. See: http://reconfiguringruins.blogs.sas.ac.uk/ruins-elsewhere-otherwise/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://reconfigruins.com/reconfiguring-ruins/workshops/ |
| Description | Research creative workshop (Newcastle) |
| 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 second of our two project workshops took place in Newcastle on 8-9 June 2015 at the NewBridge Project, on Newbridge Street. There were 22 attendees, including 15 artists. It had a stronger emphasis on the mediation aspects of our project, through literature, media and the arts. We started off with a tour of the New Bridge Project by director Charlie Gregory, followed by artists' presentations and small-group discussions around five themed tables each exploring different aspects of the mediations of ruins. We also had site visits to the Dunston Staithes by the river Tyne, Locus+, which is another artist organisation, and a thematic walk that joined different sites across Newcastle centre through responses by creative writers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://reconfigruins.com/reconfiguring-ruins/workshops/ |
| Description | The Ten Commandments in The Crypt Gallery London, exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over 80 people visited the exhibition from 30 June to 3 July. The installation in the Crypt Gallery of St Pancras Church, London, showed us a different dimension of The Ten Commandments. Whereas in Newcastle the screens made the visual aspect of the work most apparent, the Crypt in London immersed people in the sounds, voices and soundtrack of the piece. This showed the installation being as powerful, though differently, and for different reasons: It gave the stories that Jacob and Kelvin 'excavated' a unique presence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://cryptgallery.org/event/the-newbridge-project-present-the-ten-commandments-kelvin-brown-jacob-... |
| Description | The Ten Commandments in The Crypt Gallery London, panel discussion (preview) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This was a panel discussion responding to The Ten Commandments which brought together the project's investigators (Nadia, Adam and Carlos), partners (Charlie from the New Bridge Project and James from MOLA), and the commissioned artists (Jacob Robinson and Kelvin Brown). It triggered a fascinating discussion and a great response from visitors who came to see the piece afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://cryptgallery.org/event/the-newbridge-project-present-the-ten-commandments-kelvin-brown-jacob-... |
| Description | The Ten Commandments, Revisited, a panel for the 'Past Matters, Research Futures: A Care for the Future ECR Conference' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a panel discussion on approaches to ruins across the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Using the project's artist commission, The Ten Commandments, as its focus, the investigators Nadia, Adam and Carlos, partner James Dixon (MOLA), and guest artist and project collaborator Verity Birt, debated how the artwork engaged with issues around sustainability and legacies. The panel included a screening of the filmic version of the Ten Commandments and was followed by a discussion with the audience. A central point made during the discussion was related to the limits of co-creation and the role of artists in informing/shaping academic research outputs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://careforthefuture.exeter.ac.uk/events/past-matters-research-futures/ |
| Description | Utopia conference (Madrid) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Adam Stock gave a paper entitled Ruin in Utopia at the conference '500 Years of Utopia: readings on Thomas More', Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 15-16 December 2016. The conference was convened by the HISTOPIA project (Historia del futuro); Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Dept of modern history); and Red Transatlántica del Estudio de las Utopías. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Utopia workshop University of Utrecht, The Netherlands |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I joined the discussion of a new emerging network on 'Utopia and the Future in Transnational, Transcultural, and Intermedial Perspective', organised by Barnita Bagchi, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Utrecht. The network is seeking funding from the Dutch government to organise a series of events in 2018-2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://utrechtutopianetwork.nl |