Tuesday 23 December 2014

TVAD Talks: Dr Barbara Brownie, ‘Shoes Without Feet: The presence of absence in empty-shoe memorials’



The last in our series of reflections on the research seminars presented as part of the TVAD Talks series in the autumn term of 2014 is Dr Barbara Brownie's ‘Shoes Without Feet: The presence of absence in empty-shoe memorials’, presented on Wednesday December 10th 2014. Here is the abstract for the talk, and a film of Barbara's presentation is below, with some images discussed in the presentation.

Personal artefacts left behind by the victims of conflict and tragedy become part of the material culture of war. The piles of clothes and shoes that were left behind at Auschwitz and Dachau, give us a sense of the thousands of victims who once owned them. Holocaust museums in particular display shoes among other primary artefacts as “tangible proof in the face of debate about, and even denial of, what transpired [during the holocaust]” (Williams, 2007, p. 25). Shoe memorials exhibit what philosopher Patrick Fuery (cited in Bille et al. 2010, p. 5) describes as “secondary absence”, that is, not absence itself, but absence that is “defined by its connection to presence”. Memorialists are directly concerned with expressing absence through presence. Shoes are presented as witnesses to past events, and are sometimes the only surviving evidence of the existence of the people who once wore them.
Though they are designed with the intention of referencing the past, shoe memorials often say more about the contemporary communities that construct them than they say about the memorialised victims. Particularly in recent temporary shoe memorials, for which shoes are repurposed (often donated by members of the bereaved community), victims are remembered as through the eyes of the living. There is an artificiality to these memorials that reflects a desire for familiarity rather than authenticity. Repurposed for use in a memorial, shoes are transformed into sacred objects. Once archived, the memorial artefacts are more effective as a record of public grief than of the tragedy itself.
This TVAD discussion will present examples of holocaust shoe memorials at Auschwitz and on the river Danube in Budapest, in which shoes are presented to document the suffering of victims, in contrast to vernacular and temporary memorials of the past two decades, for which shoes are selected to represent the grief of those left behind. I will address how shoes transform parks and streets into "traumascapes" or, in some cases, into data visualisations which precisely quantify loss.









Monday 22 December 2014

Dr Javier Gimeno-Martínez - TVAD Visiting Researcher gives TVAD Talk

As we were proud to announce TVAD's Visiting Researcher for 2014/15 is Dr Javier Gimeno-Martínez from VU University in Amsterdam (where Dr Grace Lees-Maffei is a Visiting Professor). Dr Gimeno-Martínez joined us for his first visit on 24th and 25th November, and the highlights of his work with us included a session introducing theories of national identity and design for the MA Students in the School of Creative Arts, a reading group session for staff to share work in progress, and on Monday November 24th 2014, Dr Javier Gimeno-Martínez gave his TVAD Talk entitled ‘A graphic negotiation with the past, present and future. Political devolution and the symbols of the Belgian regions (1970–1998). Here is the abstract and below it is the link to the film of Javier's talk.


Political devolution results in administrative institutions that are generally created anew. However, these new institutions try to conceal the brevity of their existence by reusing communal symbols from the past, such as flags or coats of arms. Even when these symbols might objectively carry certain polemical connotations, the weight of tradition can become an opportune tool for legitimating institutions, so that the past is somehow forced to conform to the present. Properly analysing this instrumentalization of historical iconography can pose quite a challenge for both historians and designers. Indeed, it is present-mindedness rather than historical perspective that drives these legitimating processes.
This talk analyses the negotiation of signs by the governmental bodies that resulted from Belgian federalization. Along with the conflict between past and present, the Belgian case addressed the future, too. Belgian political devolution evolved in parallel with the Maastricht Treaty (signed in 1992), through which regions attained prominent roles in Europe. Did the need to create competitive regions invalidate the suitability of ancient symbols for legitimizing public institutions? It does not seem to be the case. On the contrary, institutional emblems coupled the necessity for appearing established with the urge to project European regions as competitive entities.


We look forward to welcoming Javier back to the School in spring next year.

Sunday 21 December 2014

'TVAD Talks' Research Seminar Series Autumn Term 2014: Polly Palmer 'Out of Study Experiences'

This autumn term has been such a busy one for TVAD that we (I) haven't been able to allow the blog to keep pace with the research activity in the group. But, with the magic of television, or a video camera and the help of colleagues Laith Shewayish, Richard Winter and student proctor Sarah Bennett, we can recall the fascinating talks we have heard again and share them with readers of this blog.
The first TVAD Talk of the year, in October, was Nick Lovegrove speaking about ‘Crisis Communication: A visual history of BP’s use of public relations after the Deepwater Horizon accident’. TVAD researcher Dr Barbara Brownie kindly filmed Nick's talk, and uploaded it to the blog here http://tvad-uh.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/nick-lovegrove-speaks-about-his-project.html 
November's TVAD Talk (November 12th 2014) was delivered by Polly Palmer, who lectures for the Interior Architecture and Product Design degrees and has a professional and research interest in developing a pedagogy of museum visiting for design students. Her presentation Out of Study Experiences’ is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aUb4uEv_cw  It began with the observation that engaging students in a diverse culture of arts, technology and architecture, and asking them to consider where within it their work is placed, has become increasingly difficult for tutors and students alike as a result of perceptible changes in the student demographic. The Arts Council (2010) has identified key changes, not only in the youth demographic but also in the definition of high culture and its audience. This may lead us to question not only existing contextual studies teaching strategies and what might be an appropriate repertoire of learning and teaching techniques to encourage participation, but also the basic assumptions of what constitutes culture and the concomitantly appropriate curriculum. This presentation summarises work in progress for an article that aims to communicate the reasons for this success and thereby provide a recipe for continued future benefits for students using this strategy. 
Polly examined the benefits of direct, planned, and facilitated engagement with contemporary design and arts culture for art and design students in higher education, using case studies of her work with 3D design students. Her specific focus was on cultural visits, both local and further afield, and how these can advance knowledge, understanding and skills in studio and academic practice alike. Definitions of culture were discussed, from vernacular culture to traditional high culture. The nature of students’ normal participation in cultural activities was explored, and traditional and unorthodox views of the student demographic, including a rejection of all such classifications, were evaluated, as were expected responses current in contextual studies.

Polly's research presents a new model for student cultural participation and ways to encourage engagement. It shows strategies to draw students into reflective analysis of design and the built environment through ‘out-of-study’ experiences; taking cultural participation out of the lecture room and the library and into the street, site and venue.

Watch Polly's talk here:

Tuesday 18 November 2014

TVAD Visiting Researcher 2014-5 Dr Javier Gimeno-Martínez




Javier Gimeno-Martínez is Assistant Professor at the VU University Amsterdam. He holds a MA-degree in Industrial Design from the Universidad Cardenal Herrera, Valencia (Spain) and an MA-degree on Art History from the Universidad de Valencia. He got his PhD in 2006 from the KULeuven with the dissertation “The Role of the Creative Industries in the Construction of Regional/European Identities (1975-2002): Design and Fashion in Belgium and Spain.” He was a visiting scholar in the department of Design History at the Royal College of Art (London, UK) for the year 2009-2010. Dr Gimeno-Martínez’s research interests encompass design and fashion as related with consumption, gender and national identity. He has been conducting research on the shifting cultural status of industrial design and craft from the 1950s up to today with Belgium as case study, funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders from 2007 to 2010. The culmination of the first three years of this research project was the seventh ICDHS conference “Design and Craft: A History of Convergences and Divergences”, organized in collaboration with Dr. Fredie Floré, which provided the opportunity for an international discussion on regional specificities as well as the impact of global processes of industrialisation. If, until now, design history has been largely dominated by the Western narratives of industrialization, then moving the focus towards non- industrial design practice might bring non-Western scholars to the forefront. Moreover, previously marginalized design histories in industrialized countries can finally get a voice. Dr Gimeno-Martínez was an Editor of the Journal of Design History from 2008-2013 and he is currently co-editing a special issue on Dutch design for that journal.

MON 24TH NOVEMBER 2014 F390 Wright Building

10 am to 12 pm – Session with PG, MA and research students, led by Dr Gimeno-Martínez on national identity in design

12.45 to 3 pm – TVAD Talk ‘A graphic negotiation with the past, present and future. Political devolution and the symbols of the Belgian regions (1970–1998)’ LUNCH PROVIDED
Political devolution results in administrative institutions that are generally created anew. However, these new institutions try to conceal the brevity of their existence by reusing communal symbols from the past, such as flags or coats of arms. Even when these symbols might objectively carry certain polemical connotations, the weight of tradition can become an opportune tool for legitimating institutions, so that the past is somehow forced to conform to the present. Properly analysing this instrumentalization of historical iconography can pose quite a challenge for both historians and designers. Indeed, it is present-mindedness rather than historical perspective that drives these legitimating processes.
This talk analyses the negotiation of signs by the governmental bodies that resulted from Belgian federalization. Along with the conflict between past and present, the Belgian case addressed the future, too. Belgian political devolution evolved in parallel with the Maastricht Treaty (signed in 1992), through which regions attained prominent roles in Europe. Did the need to create competitive regions invalidate the suitability of ancient symbols for legitimizing public institutions? It does not seem to be the case. On the contrary, institutional emblems coupled the necessity for appearing established with the urge to project European regions as competitive entities.




3.30 to 5 pm - Student presentations about their work (follows on from morning session).

TUES 25TH NOVEMBER 2014 F302 Wright Building

11.30 am to 12.30 pm – Planning for next visit, all staff invited to input.

1.30 pm – 3 pm – Reading Group session with TVAD and School research staff and PG students. Staff and research students are invited to circulate a piece of their writing in progress in advance to Dr Grace Lees-Maffei, g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk for discussion at the reading group round table.

For more information, contact Dr Grace Lees-Maffei g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk  Blog  http://tvad-uh.blogspot.co.uk/

Friday 24 October 2014

Michael Heilgemeir's 'Archives of the Artist-led' included in the UCL Urban Laboratory's 'Cities Methodologies 2014' exhibition – Private View Tuesday 28th October

This is a brief initial post regarding my project 'Archives of the Artist-led', which has been selected for the UCL Urban Laboratory's 'Cities Methodologies 2014' exhibition – and an invitation to come and see the exhibition.

I have previously presented work in progress from this project at my TVAD talk back in March and the feedback from this presentation helped develop this project further into an installation format that brings together a a collaborative, open-access knowledge base of artist-led spaces and the publication 'The Nomadic Studio' in an interactive setting. The display is designed by installation artist Claudia Djabbari.
A more detailed post will follow soon after the exhibition opens.

The private view and exhibition opening is on Tuesday 28th October, 6:30 – 9pm at the Slade Research Centre, UCL, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0HBAll welcome, no booking required.
Further opening times:
Wednesday 29 October, 10.00 - 20.00
Thursday 30 October, 10.00 - 21.00
Friday 31 October, 10.00 - 18.00

Further information on the exhibition and related programme of events:


CITIES METHODOLOGIES is an annual exhibition and programme of events showcasing innovative methods of urban research from across UCL and the wider urban research community.


ARCHIVES OF THE ARTIST-LED is a collaborative, free and open-access database of shared knowledge on historic and current artist-led spaces or projects that anyone can contribute to. It is an attempt to map the trajectories of these crucial contributions to contemporary culture and the urban experience, as well as to preserve knowledge on initiating and successfully maintaining such projects – and make it accessible for everyone. 
Initiated by Michael Heilgemeir as a companion to the publication ‘The Nomadic Studio – Art, Life and the Colonisation of Meanwhile Space’ it is developed in collaboration with Mo Hoffmann Studios. If you would like to contribute and add an artist-led project to ‘Archives of the Artist-led’ you can simply create an account on archivesoftheartistled.org and start editing.

‘THE NOMADIC STUDIO — ART, LIFE AND THE COLONISATION OF MEANWHILE SPACE’ is a publication of photographs and texts by Michael Heilgemeir which together form an enquiry into the role of the artist studio within processes of re-development in cities today, and portray the spirit of an artists’ commune working in temporary urban sites. Operating as case study, this photographic perspective encompasses a set of vignettes, reflections, facts and fantasies extracted from the lifeworld of a transitional artist-led community in Bermondsey, South London and its 18 months in creative habitation of a complex of defunct council premises. In light of this narrative the publication also revisits the rarely told historical experience of autonomous artist spaces and their sociopolitical implications through a series of new texts and interviews with contributors Mike Nelson, Jonathan Harvey, Ron Henocq and Fran Cottell. Capturing the nature of such transient spatial interactions, The Nomadic Studio explores and highlights a vital cultural tradition of experimentation and freedom within the increasingly precarious urban zone and the extent to which these temporary artist-run spaces — despite their importance within contemporary culture and the city — are often forgotten.
Further info: thenomadicstudio.com

Michael Heilgemeir

Thursday 23 October 2014

TVAD Research Group - Plans for 2014





The TVAD Research Group has enjoyed a productive period in the past academic year 2013-14, and looks forward to further development in the current year. Development will focus on two directions: greater collaboration between TVAD’s researchers, and further external collaborations. The former will build on commonalities revealed through the sharing of research in the TVAD Talks series, for example in the shared interest the design event (Kerry Purcell) and the photographic event (Dr Daniel Marques Sampaio) and how the body opposes power (Dr Daniel Marques Sampaio) through undress (Dr Barbara Brownie). Collaboration between TVAD members has also found focus in last year’s Texts/Cities conference convened by Dr Daniel Marques Sampaio and Michael Heilgemeir, which showcased the work of other TVAD researchers among others, including Dr Barbara Brownie and Dr Marta Rabikowska, each with an interest in place and environment. We plan collaborations with the wider University research community via the University’s Centre for Sustainable Communities (particularly research collaboration with the Centre’s Dr Susan Parham), Creative Economy Research Centre and UH Galleries. External collaboration will be boosted when we are joined by our third annual Visiting Researcher, Dr Javier Gimeno-Martínez, working on national identity and globalization in design in the current academic year. TVAD comprises a group of established and emergent researchers and across the constituency; we seek to prioritise quality in our activities and outputs, pursuing publication in the most favourably rated journals in the various fields engaged by TVAD research and seeking strategic conference exposure. As an aid to quality we also plan a reading group, to facilitate peer feedback on work in progress.  

What follows is an outline of the planned work for some of TVAD’s researchers, who were present to represent their research at a TVAD meeting in September 2014. Other TVAD researchers’ work is outlined in the TVAD webpages.
As noted, Dr Daniel Marques Sampaio has been working with Michael Heilgemeir on the Texts/Cities conference last year (which showcased the work of other TVAD researchers including Dr Barbara Brownie and Dr Marta Rabikowska) and a related event in Berlin. A resultant volume of TVAD's online peer-reviewed journal Writing Visual Culture is planned for publication by the end of the current academic year. Michael and Daniel plan to develop the issue as an app to emphasize the visual aspects of the content with enhanced multimedia for the iPad. Daniel will deliver a new paper at the conference 'Photography and Politics: Images of Revolution' while Michael has developed his project 'The Nomadic Studio' into an open wiki and has been liaising with UCL's urban lab.
Dr Marta Rabikowska has focused on fewer targets, centred upon people, environment and discourse. She is interested in working with Michael and Daniel further. She will be presenting her research on the role of reflection at the University's SSAHRI research institute conference Betwixt and Between (October 2014) and at another conference in November. Dr Rabikowska has a book contracted on the topic of visual methods in community which summarises her research over the past six years (Rowman and Littlefield), and she is developing published work on the creative labour of diverse urban communities in London.
Dr Barbara Brownie is working on and with the 'Titles and Trailers' group. She has two books on fashion forthcoming with Bloomsbury and will have two journal articles completed within the next year.
           Polly Palmer is working on a journal article about study experiences out of the classroom and capacity for social and cultural change that this pedagogical practice promises, with reference to regeneration theory. She is contributing a research seminar on the same topic to the TVAD Talks series and is working with UH Galleries on engaging students with the Galleries’ exhibition series.

  
In August 2015, the British Film Institute will publish Dr Mark Broughton’s analysis of the 1981 television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited. Dr Broughton is working on a new book about screenwriter Nigel Kneale and plans to undertake a new study about the rostrum camera facilitated by external funding.












Dr Grace Lees-Maffei is completing two contracted book manuscripts to be published in 2016: Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization, co-edited with Prof Kjetil Fallan (Berghahn, for submission in January 2015) and Reading Graphic Design, co-authored with Dr Nicolas P. Maffei, (Bloomsbury Academic, for submission in June 2015). In addition, she is contracted to write three book chapters for the different large scale book projects on consumption and globalization, home and hospitality and verbal descriptions of furniture respectively. Dr Lees-Maffei has several projects planned for which she will apply for external funding, and a new book project proposal in process.
Watch this space for news of these plans developing!

 

Dr Grace Lees-Maffei
TVAD Research Group Leader.