Leeds Arts University Repository (CREST)
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Bees, Mills and Museums
No full textThe output is an artefact created by Blagg, commissioned for the 'Following Threads' exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum.
Research Process: Bradford Industrial Museum was originally a working textile factory built in 1875, and was eventually converted into a museum in 1974. Using the history of the building (and his interest in the position of museums in our current cultural and economic environment) Blagg modelled his sculptural making process on three key ideas: mill workers, bees, and museums.
Through this research Blagg comments on the perception of the undervalued mill workers in the industrial North of England. Blagg connected the decline of bees and their domestication with the mill worker and ideas about work, usefulness and exploitation. He selected ‘throw away’ found, familiar, and purely functional objects made from overly exploited materials to create this artwork. The final form of this research is an assemblage of sculpture presented as museological objects.
Research Insights: The resulting artwork draws upon the nature of museums as a repository of uncanny experiences and associations, drawing on ideas of familiar and unfamiliar (unheimliche).
As this work was created during the Covid-19 pandemic, Blagg had to take into consideration how his work would be seen – as his practice usually involves the handling of objects by audiences. With this in mind, he purposely focused presenting the objects as they might appear in a cabinet of curiosity. Blagg’s intention was to impress upon the audience the physical nature of the objects, imagined handling, and their curious yet familiar natures.
Dissemination: The work has been shown in the 'Following Threads' exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum, from 26 February 2022 - 23 January 2023
Planning a pop-up exhibition: Reflections on a critical thinking club
No full textIn this book chapter adult, widening participation and lifelong learners (Broadhead et al., 2019) grapple with the ethics of solving a wicked problem (Sweeting, 2018), meaning an unsolvable social issue. It concerns a critical incident vignette (meaning specific events that happen during the pedagogic intervention explored in this study) at the Critical Thinking Club held at an arts university. The learners wrestle with the concepts of cultural confluence denoting the embedding of cultural inclusion (Sharma-Tankha, 2020) rather than cultural appropriation. Using two key texts, Thinking in Education by Matthew Lipman (2010) and Ken Brown (2018) Education culture and critical thinking, the Critical Thinking Club put into action Lipman’s Thinking Dimensions concept of critical, caring and creative thinking working in conjunction. Added to this the use of liminal educational spaces (Brown, 2018) created outside the traditional power dynamic of traditional educational settings. This was utilised as a way of working as a Community of Inquiry (Garrison et al., 2000) through the knotty theoretical issues when making artwork for a pop-up exhibition (Du Cros & Jolliffe, 2014). Francis Shor (1993) believes that adult learners are suppressed from thinking critically by societal norms of class and context (Bourdieu, 1993). In relationship to that assumption, I argue that lifelong learners can become confident critical thinkers who are able to understand and apply complex theories and concepts to creative projects both practical and theoretical through scaffolding (Vygotsky, 2012). This qualitative research employs post-structural theory and Barthes’ theory of decentring (1977) and Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004) to discuss the dataset
Accessing Art and Design Higher Education: A Comparative Study of Access Courses Delivered in Further and Higher Education
No full textFor many social, cultural and practical reasons some adults need to study their art and design careers later in life. Two routes into art and design higher education have evolved to enable adult learners to progress onto their chosen course of degree study without A-levels (in England) or in Scotland Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications. Described as ‘access’ courses, the first type are generally delivered in English further education (FE) and are referred to as Access to HE Diplomas (AHEDs). As a modularised qualification for students wishing to go to university, the AHEDs make the intended aim of Access education more explicit in its title. The AHEDs are specialised in, for example, law, medical sciences, education and social sciences. This study considers the effectiveness of AHED (art and design).
A second approach are Access Programmes delivered in higher education institutions (HEIs). These share a number of common features. They are situated within HEIs and facilitate internal progression to their own undergraduate degrees. They build on the students’ life experiences in order to develop study skills and preparedness for study but do not necessarily have the level of specialisation that AHEDs have. A case study of a ‘bespoke’ Access course from a Scottish university is compared with the English AHEDs to evaluate which better serves prospective adult arts students
The Janus of the Access to HE Diploma: Rethinking qualifications, units, credits and levels
No full textThis chapter explores the impact the underpinning thinking around credit accumulation and transfer had on the Access to HE Diploma (AHED). At the time of writing AHED courses are validated by Access Validation Agencies (AVAs). The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) licences the AVAs across England and Wales (Busher, James and Suthill 2012; DfE 2020).
Policy documents and reflections from students, access managers and educators were analysed to understand the strengths and weaknesses of unitised curricula and to what extent they enable access to higher education. The flexibility and responsiveness to adults’ needs of unitisation, credit value, and credit level are reconsidered within the context of the AHED.
It is argued that although Access education and the unitisation of curricula are seen by many as supporting adult learning and widening participation, there are tensions and contradictions that have never been resolved. This has resulted in a qualification which, for some, is overly complex, bureaucratic and heavily assessed
What are the long-term benefits of investing in art, craft & design in education for learning, culture, wellbeing and society? Preliminary report
No full textThe inquiry began on 17 November 2020 with two preliminary evidence sessions, chaired by Sharon Hodgson MP and Nicholas Trench, The Earl of Clancarty. Nineteen reports and case studies were also gathered for the report.
This report is a collation of findings from two sessions. The sessions took place during the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings therefore acknowledge the impact of lockdowns on creative education in schools, in further and higher education.
The Research Group were also concerned about the impact of the pandemic on the creative sector, and how the pipeline of talent into those industries was in danger of becoming more fragmented and homogenised. Their specific enquiry focuses on: the benefits a creative education can have for learning, culture, wellbeing and society, while recognising the barriers that threaten access for some pupils and students to studying the arts.
MEMBERS OF THE STEERING GROUP include Helen Burns; Prof. Susan Coles; Hilary Cresty; Samantha Broadhead; Patricia Thomson; Dr. Kate Noble; Lucy Kennedy; Paula Briggs; NIicholas Trench ; Georgina Spry; Vicky Prior; Dr. Penny Hay; Liz Macfarlane; Ruth Sapsed; Richard Davies; Elizabeth Bainbridge; Sheila Ceccarelli; Michele Gregson; Baroness Sue Nye.
MEMBERS OF REPORT WRITING WORKING PARTY: Prof. Susan Coles, Prof Patricia Thomson Thomson, Dr. Helen Burns, Prof. Samantha Broadhead
PEER REVIEWERS: Dr. Kate Noble, The Fitz William Museum and The Earl of Clancart
Revisiting Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual: A Roundtable for Perspectives on Academic Activism
No full textIn this roundtable discussion, we revisit Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual (1993) as a departure for examining how and where academic activism can take place. This is situated both within and apart from existing public struggles, including #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) and other current movements. Academic activism will be explored as an intellectual project that may at times problematise notions of the public, the intellectual, and the activist.
We will examine how academic activism contributes to activist projects, while also interrogating how “public” representational claims are made. This includes important questions: who is responsible for publics that are not yet constituted as such? What voices are not yet heard, seen, or understood? And what is the role of academic activists in relation to these? This in turn raises ethical questions of how to represent and be accountable to the disadvantaged and/or subaltern.
In addressing these issues, the roundtable will explore activism both inside and outside the classroom, offering various figurations of academic activism. The discussion will draw on the participants’ experiences of university teaching and popular education within local contexts, as members of staff at Birmingham City University in the UK
Creative Consumption: Art About Eating on Instagram
No full textThis chapter explicates how Instagram has figured as a site, subject, and medium in our respective and collaborative art practices. Instagram, and specifically food on Instagram, is still a relatively unexplored subject within art practice. [Im]moral Food (Woolley & Worth, 2019), Wishbook (Woolley, 2015-), A drawing made by cutting up my body weight in celery (Celery Drawing) (Worth, 2016-17) and FEED (Worth, 2017) explore cultural and gender politics attached to photographs of food on Instagram. The selected works are underpinned by a concern with the ideological imperatives attached to certain raw foods and food commodities, and how these rhetorics are exploited and ‘shared’ by brands and individuals on Instagram. The role of accompanying hashtags will also be explored: how they sparingly dictate approved behaviours, also serving to affirm allegiances with virtual communities bound by these shared values through incantation like repetition of use.
Through a collection of appropriated Instagram posts [Im]Moral Food illustrates popular binaristic divisions of food into “good” or “bad”, such as posts using #cleaneating and #eatdirty. The resulting slideshow demarcates the visual identity and linguistic tropes attached to contemporary moralising rhetoric around food, which has become a mainstay of social media platform Instagram’s pictorial oeuvre. The quasi-religious undertones of such content and the food commodities featured will also be explored in relation to Woolley’s Wishbook. In Wishbook individual commodities are presented to highlight gendered ideologies implicit in commercial branding practices on Instagram. Identity and morality attached to food will also be discussed in comparison to Celery Drawing which examines the ideologies attached to raw foods as opposed to food commodities. The chapter will close with a reflection on FEED; a literal representation of the consumption of identity through the ingestion photographs of consumables, which emphasises the divorce between food and bodily nourishment which occurs when photos of food are shared on Instagram
Imagined Mappings of Geopolitical Power: Liquid Borders, Military Infrastructures and Ecological destruction in the South China Sea
No full textThis essay analyses installations by the architectural research practice Map Office concerning the geopolitical status and border complexity of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Control of the Spratly Islands, as well as maritime rights of way and resources in the South China Sea, is contested by a number of nation-states, including Malaysia, the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In recent years the PRC has sought to project an imagined historical sovereignty over the Spratly Islands by building an extensive network of military bases there and by resisting the international community’s recognition of the South China Sea as an international waterway. It is argued with regard to installations by Map Office’s that the continuing liminal liquidity of the South China Sea plays critically against arbitrary impositions of national identity as well as to related struggles over ownership of rights of way and material resources.
The research was initiated as part of a curatorial project - a collaboration with architectural research practice Map Office that resulted in an exhibition and catalogue. It involved conversations, interviews and an in-depth understanding of the history, geopolitical and geo-economic significance of the territorial dispute as well as the ecological ramifications of the conflict.
The research contributed to a deeper understanding of MAP Office’s practice, informed the curatorial approach and was consolidated in the essay. In terms of knowledge production, through employing visual culture research methodologies it offers an analysis of the multi-layered complexities (geopolitical, cultural and ecological) in the area. It highlights the role of architecture and visual art in providing an interdisciplinary account of the historical conflict
Working Girls
No full textWorking Girls is a solo exhibition of sculptural works by Chambers. This exhibition comprises sculptural works, installation, and film -- and includes works created specifically for the Whitaker made in response to the history of women mill workers in the region.
The film work 'Shame', included an original soundtrack by Erica Dawn Park created in collaboration with Chambers. The sound edit was undertaken by Pete Cunliffe.
Research Process: The artworks in this exhibition are material-led investigations of women’s histories of ambivalence. In the months prior to the exhibition, Chambers worked with the Whitaker Museum’s object archive researching the material culture of working-class women from the region. Many of these objects were exhibited as part of Working Girls alongside the sculptural works in the galleries.
Several of the pieces exhibited had been conceived and created as site specific works: 'Feminist Escape Route: Attempt No. 9', 'Feminist Escape Route: Attempt No. 13', and the two iterations of 'Her Magic Slippers'. In addition, a new film work was created specifically for the exhibition, was devised in response to the history of working-class women in the region, and shot on location in Rawtenstall.
Research Insights: The primary concern that became apparent through the process of reading first-hand accounts of working-class women’s lives, was the idea of shame. Women consistently spoke of the shame they felt in relation to their bodily functions, their sexual drives, their hidden wants and needs, and about their poverty and lack of material wealth. It was this that inspired the creation of the film work 'Shame'.
Dissemination: The exhibition was shown at the Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery, Rawtenstall, from 14th April until 12th June 2022, along with an artist’s talk held during the exhibition. The film 'Shame' is available on Vimeo and shared via social media
Porto Marghera: working class environmentalism
No full textThe output is a chapter in an edited book through which Tsionki has discussed long-term consequences of industrial activity in Porto Marghera, Venice. The process involved research into the historical and socio-political conditions around the development of the industrial zone and a closer look into working-class movement and Operaismo (Workerism). In a misperceived safe distance from the historic city of Venice, the industrial complex of Porto Marghera was developed in the 1920s focusing primarily on the petrochemical sector. Throughout the years the zone saw exponential growth resulted in a detrimental destruction of the surrounding ecosystem (non-human and human-workers, inhabitants). In the 1990s strict environmental regulations were introduced to reduce soil and groundwater contamination but despite the restrictions the lagoon is still affected by nonbiodegradable pollutants, which contribute to the accumulation of phytoplankton blooms and in turn can cause major environmental problems. This essay discusses the impact of modernity and industrialisation in the area touching on issues of toxicity, health and labour conditions while challenging the notion of economic progress. The essay focuses on working class environmentalism, a term that is not widely discussed within the historical analysis of trade unions, with an important contribution around the way Operaismo and the labour movement in Italy incorporated environmentalism as part of their major demands. The essay is published as part of the Venice and the Anthropocene: an ecocritical guide