Leeds Arts University Repository (CREST)
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446 research outputs found
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Who remembers post-punk women?
No full textWho remembers post-punk? Its cultural and musical presence in the late 1970s and the early 1980s is often celebrated by many, despite the numerous hardships that British society faced. From industrial disputes and strikes to anti-Thatcherism and youth unemployment, it was a transitionary time in British history. How do we remember post-punk? Established since the 1940s, memory work and oral histories provide an opportunity for this, although they simultaneously raise a multitude of issues, not least from terminology. ‘Individual memory’ and ‘collective memory’ both allow for misrepresentations, although Sara Jones contends that the latter ‘requires actors, both individual and institutional, to construct, transmit, and support particular narratives of the past’. It is hence paramount to ask: who has been permitted to remember? When considering memory alongside gender identity and post-punk, one can observe some of the opportunities that it afforded women, and yet debate continues to contest their ‘empowerment’ and ‘increased’ representation in popular music. Historically much memory work has been conducted by women, whilst oral histories of punk and post-punk have predominantly been written by men. Ultimately, this article examines the memory and representation of women through semi-structured interviews, revealing anecdotal nostalgia of post-punk by members of what was termed Generation X (those born between 1955 and 1975)
The sublime landscapes of Frankenstein: an investigation through abstraction, distant reading and data collection.
No full textThe output is a creative project comprising a risograph printed object and
conference paper. Research Process: In order to examine the representations of the sublime through the landscapes of Frankenstein and Shelley’s use of pathetic fallacy, the practical research seeks to investigate representations of the sublime through an investigation of reduction, abstraction and Euclidean geometry. Reduction was used to explore functionality in the narrative. Abstraction sought to investigate theories about perception to analyse the sublime in Frankenstein through a review of the abstract sublime in the work of Rothko who uses form and shape to emote a sense of the sublime. This paper posits the question: is there a congruence between Shelley’s elemental pathetic fallacy and Rothko’s spatial infinity? Research Insights: The axioms of Euclidean geometry have been explored as a method to reduce and abstract landscapes into congruent shapes and form. The 3rd postulate discusses the circle while the 5th postulate or the parallel postulate uses two straight lines to construct triangles. The circle and triangle are used to infer what Burke identifies as the relationship between the beautiful and the sublime. The landscapes seek to find what Derrida calls a ‘satisfaction’ between the negativity of the sublime and the positivity of the beautiful. These shapes are used to construct space and depth through a manipulation of scale and line, using Kantian ideas about boundlessness and limitlessness. This practical investigation seeks to answer the question: can landscapes be reduced and abstracted to convey a sense of the sublime in Frankenstein? Dissemination: This research was disseminated in the form of a risograph printed book object and paper presentation discussed at the ‘Gothic Realities’ Symposium 24-25 October 2019 at Stirling University
Phase III le modulor /Phase IV intersections art/architecture
No full textThe output consists of two sets of paintings that were included in the following two related exhibitions: ‘Phase III Le Modular’, Galerie HLM, Marseilles, and ‘Phase IV Intersections: Art/Architecture’, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwhich, London. Research process: Virgoe was invited to exhibit in ‘Phase III Le Modulor’ in Marseilles, 2019. For this a new body of work was produced, which responded to the 1948 text by LeCorbusier, and to be exhibited in the town where the Unite D’Habitation was realised. ‘Phase IV’ brought together artists from the UK and France along with ‘Outside Architecture’ research group from the University of Greenwich. Research insights: For the first exhibition Virgoe produced a series of paintings using a loosely modulor system of repeated units within the paintings, which to some extent reflect the adaprations that LeCorbusier himself made to his system. These were conceived as a series in a grid format, and as such bear a relationship to the numerous layout iterations in the text. For ‘Phase IV’, Virgoe exhibited four paintings that consider the space between architecture and abstraction. Dissemination:Phase III was a group exhibition at Galerie HLM, Marseilles, and Phase IV was a group exhibition at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich
Creature design: ex femina
No full textThe output is a creative project exploring eco-feminist perspectives on creature design. Chalmers has produced a sizeable body of creature designs for a variety of commercial opportunities and personal inquiries, and wanted to position this alongside select examples by international artists whose work has been crucial to her development. Research process: Building on an existing body of work on the theme of speculative biology and concerns around biodiversity, Chalmers wanted to position her research-practice in context to internationally renowned feminist concept artists: Terryl Whitlatch, Brynn Metheney, Kate Pfeilschiefter and Iris Compiet. Research insights: The project is contributing to definitions of Creature Design as a distinct discipline. Drawing on science, art and design, ex femina inquiries into women’s experience, understanding and positioning of this practice. Dissemination: The research was disseminated via peer-reviewed exhibition, ‘Creature Design: ex femina’, at Leeds Arts University Gallery, 29 August – 10 October 2019. Chalmers previously evolved her idea through ‘Women World Builders’, a one-day research forum, also at Leeds Arts University, 21 September 2018
Aging in our eyes and in our fingers
No full textThe output is an online journal article reflecting on the author’s continuing art practice. Research process: A continuing exploration of allegorical visual narrative to communicate experiences. The research consisted of a series of imaginative drawings made in response to an aging body and memories of childhood. This series of artworks has begun to embody information emerging from research into aging and memory, both as practice-based drawing research and as research undertaken as part of a community group that has been looking at how to manage the aging process. Research insights: Allegorical narratives about aging can be used within various formats, from an exhibition of large scale drawings, to presentations to focus groups and to theoretically sophisticated audiences who read about drawing. The use of text to reflect upon drawings, alongside spoken word presentations has allowed the allegorical potential of the work to reach a much wider audience than working in any one area. In particular older people have been brought into dialogue with the work, because of giving more presentations to older peoples’ groups. The further development of conversations about how it feels to inhabit an aging human body continues to open out new directions for practice. The artist is now researching how somatic perceptions can be visualised and brought into allegorical narratives and a recent commission to produce work exploring how to visualise the body for a variety of health and socially engaged community practices has provided more materials for future work. Dissemination: The exhibition of the original drawings and associated ceramics was held in Chapeltown and was attended by over 200 people, a blog post about the research was hosted by ‘Life hacks for a limited future’ as part of the Leeds Older People’s Forum and Barker has spoken about this work at research seminars
Under an artificial sun
No full text‘Oh yeah, I would have been a coal miner, I would think, if I hadn’t had tuberculosis when I was 12.’ Tom Jones, Singer-Songwriter
Under an Artificial Sun focuses on materials in the Stannington Children’s Sanatorium collection held at Northumberland Archives. This collection contains a wealth of material including: patients medical records and reports, radiographs, educational logbooks from the Sanatorium School from 1906 – 1970, a Matron’s Day Book from 1906 – 1933, photographs, ephemera and a collection of twenty-six oral history interviews with former patients recorded in 2013. The project is a collaboration between Leeds Arts University researcher, writer and filmmaker Debbie Ballin and Dr Janice Haigh, Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at Sheffield Hallam University.
Many of the children hospitalised at Stannington Sanatorium with tuberculosis were from working-class backgrounds and had been living in extreme poverty. In addition to medical treatment, hospitalisation included a multitude of emotional and developmental experiences. Under an Artificial Sun investigates connections between this historical material and contemporary debates around attachment, resilience, creativity, boredom and institutionalisation within childhood studies. It seeks to uncover stories of the emotional legacy of hospitalisation; examine experiences these children may not otherwise have been exposed to and to explore how hospitalisation may have shaped their lives in unexpected or seldom-discussed ways.
The medical and social aspects of hospitalisation at Stannington Children’s Sanatorium are well documented. The research builds on this body of work to create a more textured understanding of the experience of major illness in childhood and the way it shapes us as adults. The research informs the development of a new multi-disciplinary work that will weave together new and existing oral history testimony, writing and archival material. Practice-based methodologies will be utilised to tell detailed and layered stories about hospitalisation in childhood to enrich our understanding of this experience.
The project is supported by a Wellcome Trust Research Bursary Award, Northumberland Archives and Leeds Arts University
Breaking ground
No full textA Yorkshire Sculptor’s Group exhibition installed within the grounds of the Patching Arts Centre, Nottingham. Barker's contribution to this exhibition focused on allegorical ideas constructed as a ceramic ‘memento mori’ installation made in relation to responses to stories told to the artist by recent migrants to Chapeltown in Leeds. The exhibition was an opportunity to open out a very different opportunity for public engagement with Barker's practice and to provide a form of ‘closure’ to an ongoing series of interrelated narratives concerning responses to migrants. A series of drawings were done of plant forms, looking at possible memorial or ‘Memento Mori’ possibilities for migrants losing their lives at sea as they crossed the Mediterranean. These drawings then became the starting point for the development of a series of ceramic ‘flowers’ designed to sit within a field of a typically English wild flowers. Beginning with conversations had with recent Leeds migrants whilst drawing on the streets of Leeds, the initial response to these conversations included the making of images that included the tower block that the Leeds local authority were using to house recent migrants. Several exhibition opportunities have since been taken to exhibit different aspects of the allegorical narratives that emerged. One story told though ‘resonated’ with me and it was the story of a man in a small boat hallucinating a white rabbit as he fell into a reverie because of lack of water and food. This ‘white rabbit’ began to follow the boat and became a talisman of survival. From this story others began to open out. For example the animation that was selected for the Trinity Buoy Wharf drawing prize this year was one aspect of this story and this memorial piece was an attempt to put some sort of closure to the work that had emerged. Communion with a ceramic ‘ghost’ of this rabbit being just one form of parallel hallucinogenic activity that was used to encourage images to emerge from the subconscious during the realisation of this project. The rabbit was in this case ‘submerged’ back into the subconscious and the field of wild flowers became an ocean substitute. The use of QR codes placed next to the work was an attempt to build in another type of audience engagement, the link made to people’s mobile phones allowing them to access myself speaking about the underlying narratives that shaped the work and to remind everyone of the loss of life that continues to occur
Photos celebrating the north of England’s trans and non-binary communities
No full textThis output is a creative project using fashion photography to explore the visibility of young queer, trans, and gender-non-conforming individuals in the north. Hutchinson originated and project-managed, scouting and photographing the subjects in their own homes. Hutchinson collaborated with writer/editor Tori West, and Ashleigh Kane, Arts & Culture Editor, whom prepared the interviews. Research Process: Hutchinson undertook this project in order to discover and document the significant issues this cohort experience today, primarily discrimination, moderation and transphobic attitudes. Hutchinson also explored the finer substrate of BAME trans people in the north in order to gain insight into this often unrepresented niche of the LGBTQ community. Following a call on Instagram, a diverse range of subjects were selected. The subjects were briefed in detail on the purpose of the project. Research Insights: This process educated and informed readers who were previously unaware of such issues. Feedback from peers reinforced the sense of gratitude for giving greater visibility to the subjects. She was able to partake in discursive and engaging conversations which addressed and unpicked many preconceived ideas relating to sexuality, surgery and general comportment in the presence of trans and non-binary persons. The project moved towards a fuller understanding of the lived experience; daily challenges faced, prejudice and direct transphobia – under-reported in mainstream media. The manner in which transition affects people both physically, societally and psychologically has helped expand Hutchinson’s understanding of the subject matter and therefore the manner in which she is able to frame the subjects, specifically allowing subjects to dictate how they were represented, within their own space. Dissemination: Hutchinson’s project was published via Dazed & Confused magazine’s online platform and their social media accounts in June 2019. The Instagram account has 1.4 million followers
‘Their defining moments’: Identifying critical influences for progression into post compulsory education in the Arts.
No full textThe challenges of widening participation (WP) practice within the field of the arts are presented. Expanding on Bourdieu’s (1973) cultural, social and economic capitals, it investigates how good, democratic (Broadhead and Gregson. 2018), emancipatory (Biesta. 2013) or compensatory education (Bernstein. 1996) can/ cannot/ alone overcome society’s constraints to attain upward social mobility. It is a quandary that has been argued by Bernstein (1970), Gorard (2010) and Coffield and Williamson (2012 p.64). The question for Widening participation (WP) practitioners and practitioner researchers is: ‘Can WP compensate for society?’ The reality of the complexity and messiness of WP practice, to create meaningful change, is in contrast to the ‘should-ist’ approach of policy and regulatory guidance. Practitioners are tasked to deliver WP interventions, targeting specified under-represented groups to create measureable impact. The directives are to create conditions so that progression into and through post compulsory education becomes viable. However the challenges are how to surmount multiple overlapping hurdles that hinder individuals, families and communities attaining the capacity to progress in education. Interventions with groups, identified through single labels of disadvantage, maybe further complicated by other disadvantages being present in their lives. The difficulties faced may be underestimated or overlooked by an uncritical acceptance of the overly simplistic nomenclature. This complexity is demonstrated in the Children’s Commissioners Report (2018). The empirical data had its own challenges of overlapping criteria, limitations of datasets, a ‘toxic trio’ of vulnerabilities and ‘hidden’ individuals who are not counted. To interpret the impact of effective interventions, as a constant iteration, through reflection and refinement of WP, are important parts of practice. This can be achieved through a hermeneutical interpretivist approach, influenced by John Dewey’s (1933) pragmatism. The research method has been narrative enquiry (Clandinin and Connelly 2000) with critical incidents technique (CIT) (Flanagan. 1954). Semi-structured interviews with ‘storytelling prompts’ (Gremler 2004 in Spencer Oatey 2013, pp81-82) of highly engaged arts students, who were involved in WP delivery, provide a series of rich case studies. Emergent themes provide insights into their experiences and tribulations. The accounts reveal an array of factors encountered in their paths into post compulsory education. Their voices shape the design of timely and influential experiences that offer positive learning opportunities for its participants. Outreach pedagogy needs to be bespoke, responsive to its context, at a level that is appropriate for its recipients, at the stage of their education pathway that they find themselves at
Viral bodies: ‘are you repeating yourself?’
No full textAre you counting yourself?* We tend to think of a virus as something airborne: a disease that visits us.Yet, the structural qualities of the virus are about digging in, catching on, and spreading outwards. The virus replicates and, as a result, produces parasitical forms beyond its host body. The viral extends to the condition of the photocopier machine, in its ability to replicate images as well as expelling reproductions with a difference. Taking the photocopy works of artists Barbara T. Smith and Helen Chadwick as focal studies, this text explores the historical lineage of the female and the copier; with a specific interest in the subversive materials produced at the point where they meet. In Adjusted Margin (2016) Kate Eichhorn explores the mimeographic qualities of the photocopier and offers examples of how the photocopier helped to expand industrial workplace capitalism, while also galvanise artistic subcultures. Within Western frameworks, women have long been inscribed within narratives of repetition in both professional and domestic frameworks. The workplace copier—its commercial use dated to the late 1940s entangles gender norms, perhaps most literally, as a proxy for the office work undertaken by women. As a result, the act of repetition in place of the female and/or reproductive machine allows for a shared empathy. This essay proposes that the political traces of the copier and the female may be understood as a type of material entanglement, and questions how – despite in the face of the photocopier’s demise – reproduction can be a useful tool for contemporary feminist ontological thought. *This phrase is indebted to Jenny Hval, ‘Mephisto is in the Water,’ from the 2013 album Innocence is Kinky