A Cinematic Musée Imaginaire of Spatial Cultural Differences [CineMuseSpace]
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Architecture
Abstract
Now that cinematic representations of every part of the globe are available to us, the Cinematic Musée Imaginaire of Spatial Cultural Differences [CineMuseSpace] proposes to enlarge Malraux' idea of the Musée Imaginaire [Museum without Walls] to display, compare, contrast and communicate spatial constructs across cultures in order to generate a novel understanding of spatial cultural differences, arguing that Cinematic Archive and Musée Imaginaire in turn will expand the physical museum experience of today. The CineMuseSpace will deliver the first cross-cultural interdisciplinary study of space by unlocking architectural records previously embedded in cinematic media. By releasing this knowledge, CineMuseSpace will make it accessible to scholars but also architects, planners and policy-makers, as well as the general public, drawing great societal benefit from the new critical resources that are proposed.
Our first hypothesis is that the study of space has become increasingly prominent, making it a good interpreter of societies and cultures; space is an expression of our culture and history materialised in stone, concrete and glass in which our everyday lives unfold. Ultimately understanding spatial constructs from other societies may give us a unique insight into other cultures.
The second hypothesis is that of all cultural forms, cinema operates and is best understood in terms of the organization of space. The filmic image shows the visible side of a society and an epoch that image makers try to grasp in order to transmit it. Films record and communicate with unique immediacy how people in different cultures and cities live their lives in domestic buildings and communal spaces.
The third hypothesis is that Malraux's Musée Imaginaire provides us with a novel and appropriate paradigm. Malraux assembled photographs of world sculptures according to Eisenstein's montage principles, comparing and contrasting them across the pages. Our proposal is to start from Malraux's concept but use films instead of photographs and complement it with Descola's anthropological approach to images from other cultures (La Fabrique des Images 2010) in order to gather a deeper understanding across cultures.
Informed by Malraux's concept and Descola's ontologies, the research will work towards the creation of a Cinematic Musée Imaginaire of Spatial Cultural Differences where moving images will be the integrating medium for communicating the key points of the project. Central to the research is the construction of a cinematic ontology of spatial cultural differences that will more specifically focus on films representative from both the Western 'naturalism' tradition [Europe/USA] and from the Eastern 'analogism' tradition [China/Japan], after Descola's ontologies.
Following from that, our cross-cultural cinematic ontologies will be screened inside innovative installations at our partner museum sites: The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, National Museums Liverpool and The Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, China. Through a novel exhibition development process which utilises leading-edge approaches in museum studies and draws academics and curators together in a research-led design process, CineMuseSpace will also make a significant contribution to on-going developments in the cultural sector which seek to transform the physical museum experience.
Finally, catalyzing a conceptual paradigm-shift in the understanding of other cultures commensurate with the latest advances in digital technologies, we will implement an innovative online virtual version of CineMuseSpace, leaving a sustainable methodology and framework capable of replication across other cultures, a lasting resource that can be expanded over time.
Our first hypothesis is that the study of space has become increasingly prominent, making it a good interpreter of societies and cultures; space is an expression of our culture and history materialised in stone, concrete and glass in which our everyday lives unfold. Ultimately understanding spatial constructs from other societies may give us a unique insight into other cultures.
The second hypothesis is that of all cultural forms, cinema operates and is best understood in terms of the organization of space. The filmic image shows the visible side of a society and an epoch that image makers try to grasp in order to transmit it. Films record and communicate with unique immediacy how people in different cultures and cities live their lives in domestic buildings and communal spaces.
The third hypothesis is that Malraux's Musée Imaginaire provides us with a novel and appropriate paradigm. Malraux assembled photographs of world sculptures according to Eisenstein's montage principles, comparing and contrasting them across the pages. Our proposal is to start from Malraux's concept but use films instead of photographs and complement it with Descola's anthropological approach to images from other cultures (La Fabrique des Images 2010) in order to gather a deeper understanding across cultures.
Informed by Malraux's concept and Descola's ontologies, the research will work towards the creation of a Cinematic Musée Imaginaire of Spatial Cultural Differences where moving images will be the integrating medium for communicating the key points of the project. Central to the research is the construction of a cinematic ontology of spatial cultural differences that will more specifically focus on films representative from both the Western 'naturalism' tradition [Europe/USA] and from the Eastern 'analogism' tradition [China/Japan], after Descola's ontologies.
Following from that, our cross-cultural cinematic ontologies will be screened inside innovative installations at our partner museum sites: The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, National Museums Liverpool and The Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, China. Through a novel exhibition development process which utilises leading-edge approaches in museum studies and draws academics and curators together in a research-led design process, CineMuseSpace will also make a significant contribution to on-going developments in the cultural sector which seek to transform the physical museum experience.
Finally, catalyzing a conceptual paradigm-shift in the understanding of other cultures commensurate with the latest advances in digital technologies, we will implement an innovative online virtual version of CineMuseSpace, leaving a sustainable methodology and framework capable of replication across other cultures, a lasting resource that can be expanded over time.
Planned Impact
Four non-academic groups will benefit from the CineMuseSpace project: design practitioners & policy makers, filmmakers & time-based practitioners, the cultural organisations involved in the research and their wider museum network, and the general public.
Architects, urbanists, designers, policy makers, filmmakers and time-based practitioners involved in global transcultural projects would hugely benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of spatial and image representations in other cultures. It would help each of these groups' practice to move away from pre-conceived ideas and thus avoid potential misunderstanding. By equipping a new generation of creative practitioners and policy-makers with a greater understanding of other cultures, they would gain a substantial advantage for developing projects and securing new contracts. This would apply for Western professionals working for example in China and Japan and it would also benefit Chinese and Japanese design professionals gain a better understanding of the West.
The museum project partners, The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, National Museums Liverpool and The Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, China, will be greatly enriched by the expertise of the respective partners. This collaboration will offer curators new insights into exhibition practices conveyed by the idea of a museum without walls. For the three cultural organisations, all of which set out to generate cross cultural understanding at some level amongst their visitors, the insights gained by working through the ontology of spatial cultural differences will expand their understanding of both collections (representations on Chinese porcelain at National Museums Liverpool, for example) and of visitor experience.
The dissemination of the research progress throughout the project and the project outputs will ensure that this learning and impact is shared widely across the cultural sector. The host museums will actively disseminate the research findings within the museums profession and offer very direct routes to sharing the learning from the research.
In terms of the general public, this project is developed in order to generate new insights into spatial cultural differences through the museum installations, the exhibition catalogue and the online version of the Musée Imaginaire. Through a collaborative process and the generation of visitor-centred outputs, including three exhibitions, the project will reach a diverse public.
The primary role played by new media in communicating the intentions of the research via the proposed real and virtual exhibitions will encourage the viewing public to interact with these exhibits in a new way and acquire new knowledge about cultures, about collections and about themselves by directly engaging with digital technologies. As such, resultant studies produced on the reception of the exhibition and viewer interactions can be highly informative to the partner museums, the wider museums profession and the commercial design community, especially those who are involved in new media practices, exhibition curation and experience design. The School of Museum Studies hosts a network (Design for Change in Museums) which includes a strong representation of international museum design studios who will be engaged in the research through the ongoing activities of the network and the design practitioners will be directly targeted to attend conferences and workshops.
The way design practitioners, museum professionals, filmmakers & time-based practitioners and the general public will benefit from this research, will be by directly visiting the three exhibitions and by consulting the exhibition catalogues and the catalogue raisonné. All the material and findings will be made available through our innovative online virtual version of the Musée Imaginaire, providing framework and a lasting resource that can be expanded over time.
Architects, urbanists, designers, policy makers, filmmakers and time-based practitioners involved in global transcultural projects would hugely benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of spatial and image representations in other cultures. It would help each of these groups' practice to move away from pre-conceived ideas and thus avoid potential misunderstanding. By equipping a new generation of creative practitioners and policy-makers with a greater understanding of other cultures, they would gain a substantial advantage for developing projects and securing new contracts. This would apply for Western professionals working for example in China and Japan and it would also benefit Chinese and Japanese design professionals gain a better understanding of the West.
The museum project partners, The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, National Museums Liverpool and The Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, China, will be greatly enriched by the expertise of the respective partners. This collaboration will offer curators new insights into exhibition practices conveyed by the idea of a museum without walls. For the three cultural organisations, all of which set out to generate cross cultural understanding at some level amongst their visitors, the insights gained by working through the ontology of spatial cultural differences will expand their understanding of both collections (representations on Chinese porcelain at National Museums Liverpool, for example) and of visitor experience.
The dissemination of the research progress throughout the project and the project outputs will ensure that this learning and impact is shared widely across the cultural sector. The host museums will actively disseminate the research findings within the museums profession and offer very direct routes to sharing the learning from the research.
In terms of the general public, this project is developed in order to generate new insights into spatial cultural differences through the museum installations, the exhibition catalogue and the online version of the Musée Imaginaire. Through a collaborative process and the generation of visitor-centred outputs, including three exhibitions, the project will reach a diverse public.
The primary role played by new media in communicating the intentions of the research via the proposed real and virtual exhibitions will encourage the viewing public to interact with these exhibits in a new way and acquire new knowledge about cultures, about collections and about themselves by directly engaging with digital technologies. As such, resultant studies produced on the reception of the exhibition and viewer interactions can be highly informative to the partner museums, the wider museums profession and the commercial design community, especially those who are involved in new media practices, exhibition curation and experience design. The School of Museum Studies hosts a network (Design for Change in Museums) which includes a strong representation of international museum design studios who will be engaged in the research through the ongoing activities of the network and the design practitioners will be directly targeted to attend conferences and workshops.
The way design practitioners, museum professionals, filmmakers & time-based practitioners and the general public will benefit from this research, will be by directly visiting the three exhibitions and by consulting the exhibition catalogues and the catalogue raisonné. All the material and findings will be made available through our innovative online virtual version of the Musée Imaginaire, providing framework and a lasting resource that can be expanded over time.
Organisations
Publications
Schupp J
(2018)
Cinematic Interpretation of Spatiality
in Cambridge Journal of China Studies
Schupp J
(2021)
A digital cinematic museum of the everyday
in Screen
Schupp J
(2021)
Cinematic rhythmanalysis of architecture: mining moving images for post-occupancy studies
in The Journal of Architecture
Title | Around the World in a Meal |
Description | Collage film from clips detailing the activity of eating |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | The work was exhibited at Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester 2019. |
Title | Creative film - Life in a Heritage Village |
Description | Produced through a creative and participatroy process exploring the CineMuseSpace research with residents of Port Sunlight village and partner organisations National Museums Liverpool and Port Sunlight Village Trust, the film captures the everyday practices of village residents. The film was screened at Lady Lever Art Gallery on 10 September 2019 to an audience of 100 residents and local organisations following a lecture from Professor Penz and Dr Schupp and prior to a conversation with the audience. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | The film project was part of the CineMuseSpace dissemination strategy. The evaluation of the process (see evaluation report) provides evidence of the impact of the process on both residents and partner organisations. |
Title | Documentary film "Focus on the Everyday, Nanjing University" |
Description | A documentary film about the everyday use of public spaces in the campus of Nanjing University. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Impact | The documentary communicates spatial cultural differences and has been used for teaching and presentations. |
Description | A reappraisal of daily gestures though film enables us to see the home with fresh eyes, renewing our interest in architectural domestic design. As a result of changes in patterns of everyday life, the way we live changes through time, necessitating a rethinking of our homes. Defamiliarizing what Lefebvre referred to as the 'minor magic of everyday life' opens up a vista of a more human-centred approach to architecture. Film facilitates this approach, enabling us to explore the spaces of the past in order to better anticipate the requirements and spaces of the future. In an increasingly globalized world, the CineMuseSpace project proposes a greater level of understanding and engagement between different cultures. Our similarities and differences have to be acknowledged, revealed and celebrated. Narrative cinema opens up the path to innovative reflection on the complexity of architecture as experience and the need to take full account of everyday activities, big and small, determined by needs, desires, seasons or time of day, in designing domestic dwellings. CineMuseSpace believes that observing cultural parameters in the present and the past through cinematic representations can help us rethink our attitudes and determine possible responses to the pressures of the as-yet unknown. This method of analysis can be construed as a prequel to the art of future living. |
Exploitation Route | The CineMuseSpace project has already inspired a new project - CineGenus - has reported under further funding. It is also clear that the methodology could been successfully extended to other cultures as well as to the urban realm and the non-domestic sector. The tool we developed - Pandora - has attracted a lot of attention and is likely to be further developed. |
Sectors | Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Environment Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
Description | CINEGENUS |
Amount | £80,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | GCAG/171 |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | Cambridge Global Challenges |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2019 |
End | 01/2020 |
Title | pan.do/ra - a searchable film database |
Description | In order to extract the everyday threads woven into the filmic fabric amongst the hundred films, our CineMuseSpace project has built an extensive film database through the open media archive platform pan.do/ra. Our database allows for the segmentation and time-based annotation of the selected fiction films. It creates a searchable archive of their cinematic 'everyday' content. |
Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | As a result, we can collect, store, analyse, contrast and compare the myriad of quotidian activities taking place in the various fiction film segments. This methodology has generated a malleable repository of thousands of film clips that can be searched by specific keyword combinations for analytical purposes and to generate various typologies, such as in this catalogue of everyday activities and architectural elements. |
Description | A Cinematic Museum of the Everyday, NextMixing Gallery in Shanghai (30 March 2019 - 6 April 2019) |
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 one week in March/April 2019, this exhibition proposed to explore cinematic everyday life situations encountered in and around the home. It was visited by a wide range of people - mainly architects but not only. There was also a launch with talks and performances. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.cinemusespace.arct.cam.ac.uk/news/a-cinematic-museum-of-the-everyday-shanghai-30-march-2... |
Description | As part of the CineMuseSpace project, 'A Cinematic Home of the Everyday' took place in partnership with the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) in Manchester. The installation formed part of an exhibition on 'Future Cities' and ran from 1st August 2019 until 20th October 2019 with free admission. |
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 | The Manchester exhibition followed the NextMixing Gallery in Shanghai in the Spring of 2019 and explored further cinematic everyday-life activities encountered in and around the home. The Cinematic Home of the Everyday exhibition offered a reappraisal of the routines and gestures of daily life made possible by the analysis of a range of cinematic scenes from different countries post 1945 and imparts new interest in the home. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.cinemusespace.arct.cam.ac.uk/news/a-cinematic-home-of-the-everyday |
Description | Filmmaking hackathon for data-driven storytelling, University of York |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Team members participated in a three day workshop to work with the University of York and BBC R&D on new interactive dissemination modes. The workshop sparked many ideas for further exploration and future collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/filmmaking-hackathon-for-data-driven-storytelling-tickets-43559314081... |
Description | On 4 & 5 July 2017 the inaugural workshop took place to launch the CineMuseSpace research project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | The anthropologist Prof Philippe Descola (Collège de France, Paris) came to our Department together with Prof Eugene Y. Wang, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University, Prof Andong Lu from Nanjing University, Prof Philippe Bonnin (CNRS, Paris) and many others to launch the new 'A Cinematic Musée Imaginaire of Spatial Cultural Differences' project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.cinemusespace.arct.cam.ac.uk/events/inaugural-workshop-of-the-cinemusespace-project-4-5-... |
Description | Paper presentation at 'Fictional Urban Lives', Kent |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Paper on 'Urban Living in China and India through Fiction Films' was presented by Janina Schupp at the Fictional Urban Lives British Academy Conference at the University of Kent, 12/2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Paper presentation at Creative Cambridge by Cambridge Enterprise |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Lightening talk 'A Digital Cinematic Database - A New Tool' presented by Janina Schupp at Creative Cambridge by Cambridge Enterprise, 11/2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Paper presentation at NECS European Network for Cinema and Media Studies conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Janina Schupp presented a paper on 'Everyday Life Rebooted: Database Cinema and Narratives of Spatial Cultural Differences' at the conference Structures and Voices: Storytelling in Post-Digital Times, NECS European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, Gdansk, 6/2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Paper presentation at Screen Studies Conference 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Janina Schupp presented a paper on 'Sleeping, Washing, Eating: The Cinematic Everyday as Revelator of Spatial Cultural Differences' at the Screen Studies Conference 2019, University of Glasgow, 6/2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Talk at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk given by François Penz and Janina Schupp on 'Cinematic Museums of Everyday Lives' at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, 09/2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | The 'Slices of Everyday Lives' conference took place at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, on 19th and 20th September 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | The 'Slices of Everyday Lives' conference was situated towards the end of the CineMuseSpace grant and the opportunity to present the key findings of our project. It generated novel understandings of spatial cultural differences and new awareness of everyday life across cultures. The conference also provided an opportunity to debate with a wide international and interdisciplinary audience issues around the analysis of the everyday in visual culture more broadly. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.cinemusespace.arct.cam.ac.uk/news/invited-speakers-announced-and-registration-now-open-f... |
Description | Workshop Cinematic Interpretation of Spatiality |
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 | The event was composed of a one-day workshop and a one-day seminar to explore ideas of "Cinematic Architecture" at Nanjing University. The event attracted around 100 attendants, which included academics from across China and beyond, undergraduate and postgraduate students and filmakers and architects. The event led to various discussions and creative outputs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.cinemusespace.arct.cam.ac.uk/news/cinemusespace-workshop-and-seminar-on-cinematic-interp... |
Description | Workshop at RCMG, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The two-day workshop allowed participants to explore and create connections between the two future exhibition venues and the first project research findings from Cambridge. The special guests of the event were the representatives of the project's two partner museums, which included Sandra Penketh (Director of Art Galleries of the National Museums Liverpool), Zoe Dunbar, (Director of the CFCCA in Manchester) and Marianna Tsionki (Research Curator of the CFCCA in Manchester). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.cinemusespace.arct.cam.ac.uk/news/cinemusespace-workshop-at-rcmg-school-of-museum-studie... |