Arts University Bournemouth
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Writing with pictures: Reconsidering Aby Warburg's Bilderatlas in the context of architectural scholarship, education and Google images
No full textThis chapter explores the work of art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929). Warburg's work, in particular the Bilderatlas Mnemosyene (known in English as the Mnemosyene Atlas), pioneered a means of 'doing' art history by juxtaposing images (mostly photographic works of art) mounted onto large panels to build an argument in pictorial terms
'That Dastardly Plot’: Gardens as Weapon of War and Peace
No full textOn the First of May 2000, central London was beset by some of the most violent civil unrest seen on the streets of the capital for decades. Tens of thousands of activists had gathered as part of global anti-capitalist protests, drawing vast crowds under a miscellany of banners, causes and affiliations. Anti-road movement ‘Reclaim the Streets’ was one such splinter group. Over the previous five years it had staged numerous street interventions, unannounced occupations of city centre road junctions and pop-up protest parties such as the moment in mid-July 1996 when 6,000 protesters blocked a section of the elevated M41, a four-lane motorway running through Shepherd’s Bush in West London. Hidden underneath colourful dancers on stilts and wearing expansive wire-supported dresses, environmental activists busily drilled holes in the motorway tarmac and planted small trees and saplings; the noise of the pneumatic drills was drowned out by the blare of music sound-systems rolled onto the highway
Ingenious Adaptations: The Development of the Professionally-Made Architectural Model in Britain, 1883-2020
Get PDFThis thesis presents an historical account of the development of the professionally-made architectural model in Britain that aims to understand how the model came to be as it is today. With existing studies of the architectural model having been predominantly focused on its use within the design process and its cultural meanings, this thesis, in examining the architectural model from within the field of modelmaking rather than architecture, highlights developments in the making of architectural models as opposed to the dominant ‘post-production’ perspective that overlooks the role of the modelmaker and the materials and processes employed.
Drawing from extensive interviews with practicing and retired architectural modelmakers alongside historic documents and photographs from previously undocumented private archives, this thesis responds to Anna Fariello’s call for a ‘front-end’ consideration of objects that considers their making through its conceptualisation of the model’s contemporary form as an assemblage that emerged from the complex interactions between the various people, processes, materials, and ideas that have contributed to its history.
What this thesis reveals is how the contemporary form of the professionally-made architectural model in Britain emerged as a result of developments that took place during four distinct periods in its history: the initial emergence of architectural modelmaking as a distinct profession during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries; the adoption of plastics as the principal modelmaking materials during the post-war boom of the 1950s and early-1960s; the turbulent realignment of the model’s ‘stylistic palette’ during the 1970s and 1980s; and the introduction of advanced digital manufacturing technologies from the 1990s to the present day. This thesis further argues that the notion of adaptability – emerging from the combined agency of the modelmaker’s imaginative and ingenious intentions and the intrinsic adaptability of the materials, tools, and processes employed – has been the most significant influence that has shaped the overall development of the professionally-made architectural model in Britain
Ingenious Adaptations: The Development of the Professionally-Made Architectural Model in Britain, 1883-2020
Get PDFThis thesis presents an historical account of the development of the professionally-made architectural model in Britain that aims to understand how the model came to be as it is today. With existing studies of the architectural model having been predominantly focused on its use within the design process and its cultural meanings, this thesis, in examining the architectural model from within the field of modelmaking rather than architecture, highlights developments in the making of architectural models as opposed to the dominant ‘post-production’ perspective that overlooks the role of the modelmaker and the materials and processes employed.
Drawing from extensive interviews with practicing and retired architectural modelmakers alongside historic documents and photographs from previously undocumented private archives, this thesis responds to Anna Fariello’s call for a ‘front-end’ consideration of objects that considers their making through its conceptualisation of the model’s contemporary form as an assemblage that emerged from the complex interactions between the various people, processes, materials, and ideas that have contributed to its history.
What this thesis reveals is how the contemporary form of the professionally-made architectural model in Britain emerged as a result of developments that took place during four distinct periods in its history: the initial emergence of architectural modelmaking as a distinct profession during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries; the adoption of plastics as the principal modelmaking materials during the post-war boom of the 1950s and early-1960s; the turbulent realignment of the model’s ‘stylistic palette’ during the 1970s and 1980s; and the introduction of advanced digital manufacturing technologies from the 1990s to the present day. This thesis further argues that the notion of adaptability – emerging from the combined agency of the modelmaker’s imaginative and ingenious intentions and the intrinsic adaptability of the materials, tools, and processes employed – has been the most significant influence that has shaped the overall development of the professionally-made architectural model in Britain
Speaking New Languages: Exploring the Landscape of Cross-Disciplinary Research
Get PDFThere are many dynamic communities of practice within the arts but not all of them can claim to have their own research culture. Consequently, many researchers become adept at co-opting theoretical frameworks, research methods, and language from other disciplines. But what happens when we use concepts and language developed elsewhere to address our own particular disciplinary concerns? Language matters, and as the Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure noted, language is not a nomenclature—it is not simply a question of linking a set of words to a pre-existing set of things; different languages
divide up the continuum of the world differently.
It follows that the ways that we engage with other disciplines potentially has a bearing on how we see, think and talk about our home discipline. This conference explores the
challenges and benefits of research that features significant interaction between two or more disciplines. It will explore [even contest] ‘trans-’, ‘cross-’ and ‘multi-’ disciplinary approaches to research
Out in the open and invisible: the city as archive in the essay film San Sabba
No full textIndependent filmmaking is often faced with difficulties. For the team behind San Sabba, the issue resided in the invisibilities embedded in the film’s location: a concentration camp within the city of Trieste. This article will explore how and why the writer and director of San Sabba considered Trieste as an archive of multiple histories, memories, and postmemory due to the historical findings the film is based on, and how silenced history informed a phenomenological examination of what a landscape can add to the collective memory. Linking other locations in the city, which contribute to the elucidation of stories and histories deprived of public attention, this article analyses the historical data and considers the ontological qualities of the landscape as an archive where dominant narratives impact the understandings of present and past identities
The Big Picture: The Materiality of Size in Ansel Adams’s Large-Scale Works
Get PDFThe prominence of the large-format photograph in contemporary art since the 1970s is often attributed to the desire to explore new pictorial and spatial avenues by moving beyond the documentary approaches that had dominated since the 1930s. While not an inaccurate characterisation, the focus upon the artistic impulses associated with large-scale photography comes at the expense of the material issues that enabled it. This article addresses the gap by examining two largely overlooked forms produced by Ansel Adams between 1930 and 1960 – the photomural and the folding photo-screen – in order to demonstrate the high level of direct engagement that existed between photographer and materiality, which resulted in large-scale works that addressed many of the same issues dealt with in contemporary large-format photography, but that also stood in stark contrast to the ephemeral, mass-produced, large-scale work prevalent at the time. By con- sidering historical examples, from an era when materials and processes were very different, the article demonstrates the active, physical effects of photographic enlargement, revealing print size to be not simply a changeable option but an inherently material condition, honing our understanding of why a photograph is big by demonstrating how it got that way
Aardman’s neo-Baroque: The dual nature of special effects in Aardman’s Feature Production
No full textContemporary stop-motion filmmaking is the repository of the special effect, i.e. the physical effect enacted within the camera as opposed to the visual effect generated by computer software and dependent on post-production processing to appear in a final cohesive image. This chapter will consider how special effects operate as part of the Aardman production process, both in practical terms considering how sequences with effects elements are planned and executed, and also in conceptual terms; how do these effects serve to connect stop-motion processes to a Hollywood neo-Baroque? Or can they be seen to constitute performances in themselves, requiring animators to engage more deeply with the ephemeral nature of their subject matter? It will investigate how the performance of the effect relates to what animator Barry Purves has called the ‘instinctive performance’ deployed by stop-motion animators. And in relation to the claymation aesthetics of the Aardman film in particular, it will consider how these effects as a form of fata morgana are rendered materially imminent in the context of a tactile set and what Cordelia Brown has identified as the ‘viewer’s subjective tactile knowledge’, i.e. the haptic perception of the audience. How does the tactile nature of physical effects animation relate to notions of artifice inherent in the aesthetics of stop-motion imagery? And what can this tell us about the organicism of clay as it plays a key role in interpreting Aardman’s animation aesthetic
Working against the grain: Women sculptors in Britain c.1885-1950
No full textThis lavishly illustrated book breaks new ground in focusing on some of the many successful professional British women sculptors active during this period. Largely unknown, the few women who have been mentioned in histories of twentieth century British sculpture have been those who adhered to the (masculine) Modernist canon. Organized by theme this book explores and illustrates an unusually large number of and stylistically varied works. The social and cultural contexts in which these women sculptors were working are investigated, revealing how, mostly male, commentators often fixated on their gender at the expense of seriously engaging with their work. A wide variety of sources are used, ranging from contemporary art historical accounts to articles in popular magazines. This book explores contemporary sculptural developments, art school training, exhibiting opportunities, and the writings of influential critics. It also reveals how important photography, film and the written word were in the creation of reputations. Alongside revealing important works and individuals, this book's originality also lies in its scope, covering diverse sculptural genres such as decorative sculpture and utilitarian objects for the home and garden; portraits and statues; architectural sculpture, war memorials and ecclesiastical work