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- Kingston University
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Submitting institution
- Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Summary impact type
- Cultural
- Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
- No
1. Summary of the impact
Dr Catharine Rossi’s research into nightclubs as important sites of design experimentation has led to a series of exhibitions beginning in 2014, culminating in the international touring show Night-Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960-today, co-curated by Rossi for Vitra Design Museum (VDM), Germany. Rossi’s research has resulted in significant impacts upon the curatorial and collecting practices of museums in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and the UK, including the generation of new exhibition subjects, and increased public, cultural and media awareness of the importance of nightclub design and heritage. In doing so her research has brought this overlooked subject to international attention, securing new and wider audiences for museums and galleries of art and design.
2. Underpinning research
Rossi first developed her argument that nightclubs are important but overlooked sites of design innovation in two text outputs: ‘Crafting a Design Counterculture’ [R1] and ‘The Italian Avant-Garde, 1968 – 1976’ [R2]. Both include a focus on Space Electronic nightclub (Florence, 1969), designed by Italian Radical Design collective Gruppo 9999. Previous understanding was that Radical designers largely rejected designing physical or commercial architecture. Rossi’s research challenged this interpretation, presenting Space Electronic as an innovative spatial typology composed of audio-visual technologies, which incubated multidisciplinary experimentation. This understanding has underpinned all of Rossi’s research into the design of nightclubs.
Exhibition-making has been key to the development of Rossi’s research and pathways to impact. In 2013 Rossi was invited to curate an installation for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale: Space Electronic: Then and Now (7 June – 23 November 2014) [R3]. Rossi furthered her research into Space Electronic, collaborating with Kingston Professor Ben Kelly on installation design and filmmaker Gilly Booth on a film about the nightclub for the installation. The installation emphasised the contrast between Space Electronic’s physical continuation and its earlier, ephemeral, history of experimentation, which has little material trace today. In addition to curating the installation, Rossi contributed to the Biennale catalogue, participated in events, and created a website and leaflet to disseminate the research. Further contextual and theoretical research into Space Electronic was published in a research output for AA Files in 2014 [R4].
Rossi expanded her research to a broader study of Italian nightclubs and Radical Design, following an invitation from the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) to co-curate an exhibition, the first of its kind in the UK. Rossi’s research included conducting interviews and reconstructing the design history of nightclubs through historical periodicals, photographs and films. Radical Disco: Architecture and Nightlife in Italy: 1965 – 1975 (8th December 2015 – 10th January 2016) [R5] featured 7 nightclubs, including Superstudio’s Mach 2 and Gruppo UFO’s Bamba Issa. Rossi co-commissioned an exhibition soundtrack from Bamba Issa’s DJ, and collaborated with Studio Julia on the exhibition design, inspired by Mach 2’s black and pink interior.
In 2016 Vitra Design Museum (VDM) invited Rossi to co-curate the international touring exhibition Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960-Today (7th March – 9th September 2018) [R6] with Jochen Eisenbrand, VDM Chief Curator. This third phase of her nightclub research shifted focus to the international design history of club culture from the 1960s to 2000s. Rossi conducted research into China, Hong Kong and South Africa, as well as leading the development of the exhibition’s UK and Italian content. Research included interviews as well as site, museum, and archive visits to identify exhibition content and objects. Working with the curatorial team, including Nina Serulus, curator at ADAM Design Museum, Brussels, the exhibition’s partner institution, who joined the curatorial team in April 2017, and exhibition designers Konstantin Grcic and Daniel Streat, Rossi developed the exhibition design and text. She also co-commissioned an audio-visual installation to communicate nightclubs’ experiential design and co-edited the accompanying catalogue (including a co-authored introduction and sole authored essay) [R7].
Night Fever and Rossi’s previous, linked research projects considered nightclubs as a new type of design space which emerged after the second world war, as distinct from other kinds of leisure environment such as dancehalls and jazz clubs. By situating them as incubators of design activity as well as vital parts of the social-cultural fabric, Rossi’s research has drawn museum and public attention to the importance of collecting, preserving, and interpreting their material heritage, and to documenting the contribution of architects and designers to their development.
3. References to the research
All underpinning research has been subject to both committee and editorial oversight, and/or peer review.
R1 – Rossi, C. (2013) ‘Crafting a Design Counterculture: The Pastoral and the Primitive in Italian Radical Design, 1972 – 1976’ in Made in Italy: New Perspectives on Italian Design, ed. Lees-Maffei and Fallan (London: Bloomsbury) DOI: 10.5040/9781474294133.ch-007
R2 – Coles, A. and Rossi, C., eds (2013) The Italian Radical Avant-Garde, 1968 – 1976 (Berlin: Sternberg) DOI: 10.1093/jdh/ept049
R3 – Rossi, C. (2014) Space Electronic: Then and Now 2014 (Venice Architecture Biennale) exhibition. REF2ID: 32-97-0000
R4 – Rossi, C. (2014) ‘Architecture Goes Disco’, AA Files, (69), 138-145. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/43202558
R5 – Rossi. C., and Upham, S. (2016-17) Radical Disco: Architecture and Night Life in Italy, 1965 – 1975 (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London) REF2ID: 32-97-0000
R6 – Eisenbrand, J., Rossi, C. and Serulus, N. Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960 - Today (Vitra Design Museum, Germany, 2018). Touring Exhibition. REF2ID: 32-118-1665
R7 – Eisenbrand, J., Kreis, M and Rossi, C. (eds) (2018) Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, 1960-Today. Weil am Rhein; Vitra Design Museum. Exhibition catalogue: ISBN 9783945852248. REF2ID: 32-118-1665
4. Details of the impact
Starting in 2015, Rossi’s research has had continuing impact on the exhibition subjects, programmes and collection practices of internationally significant museums and galleries in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and the UK. It has informed the development of new types of exhibitions on nightlife, as well as the collection and preservation of the material heritage of nightclubs. This has led to increased public and media engagement with the subject, generating new audiences for venues and increasing the range of venues engaging with VDM design exhibitions. For instance, awareness of her work led to an invitation to be a Trustee for the London-based Youth Club Archive in 2017, where Rossi is contributing to its future plans for a UK Museum of Youth Culture.
1. Curatorial Activity: New Exhibitions and Exhibition Content, 2015 – 2020 ongoing
The primary impact of Rossi’s research and curatorial practice-research has been on the programming, collection and curatorial practices of design museums internationally. Her work has been critical in establishing club design and culture as a new area of activity in major cultural institutions, with the potential to elicit positive media and audience response. In 2015, Radical Disco was exhibited at the ICA, London. This was the first major stand-alone exhibition of club culture and design in the UK. In a letter to the university, the ICA’s Associate Curator underlines the importance of Rossi’s research and practice to the ICA’s decision to develop this exhibit; noting that ‘ Radical Disco was born out of Rossi’s pre-existing research into post-war Italian design and architecture’. Importantly, the letter highlights that it was Rossi’s curatorial work on Space Electronic that ‘ brought my attention to this little-known period of experimentation’. In addition, the letter identifies ‘Architecture Goes Disco’ and ‘The Italian Avant-Garde’ as ‘ foundational in the development of the (ICA) exhibition’ [S1].
Rossi’s research for Radical Disco also came to the attention of other European venues, developing content on club culture design history. The Villa Noialles in Hyères, in France, staged a 2017 exhibition entitled La Boîte du Nuit (19th February – 19th March 2017), directly referencing Rossi’s research, particularly her work on Radical Disco, as ‘ one of the most relevant and interesting work(s) we’ve based our research on’ [S2]. The exhibition leaflet states that ‘ the selection here relies notably upon research’ undertaken by Rossi [S2]. As a result of Rossi’s curatorial research, she was invited to participate in the exhibition’s events programme.
Between 2016 and 2018 Rossi developed the touring exhibition Night Fever with VDM in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany; the organisation’s first exhibition on club culture. VDM’s Chief Curator Jochen Eisenbrand has identified Rossi’s ‘ pioneering research and outstanding expertise in this field, in particular her exhibitions Space Electronic and Radical Disco, [as] a major inspiration to stage Night Fever’. VDM’s Director had seen Space Electronic in 2014, leading to an invitation to Rossi to co-curate Night Fever in 2016. The relationship of Rossi’s research is further foregrounded in the VDM exhibition, which opens with a section on Radical Design nightclubs [S3]. As Eisenbrand has noted, Rossi ‘ was one of the first scholars to put the topic of the interconnectedness of nightclubs with the field of design in Italy on the map’ [S3]. Furthermore, the curatorial approach developed by Eisenbrand, Rossi and Serulus, has informed its presentation in the touring venues (listed below).
Following the successful development of Night Fever for its initial venue, Rossi’s research has informed the development of new exhibition content and programming in other cultural institutions across Europe. VDM secured 5 touring venues for Night Fever: ADAM Design Museum (Brussels, 21 November 2018 – 5 May 2019), Centro Pecci (Prato, June – October 2019), Designmuseum Danmark (Copenhagen, 2020); V&A Dundee (2021 forthcoming) and HOTA (Queensland, 2023 forthcoming). At each venue, the narrative and content of Night Fever has been enhanced to pay attention to its new location and audiences. This has generated new research, the identification of additional exhibits, and the development of supporting programme content, thus bringing the material heritage of nightlife to wider attention. For example, Designmuseum Danmark commissioned designer Johannes Torpe to create a 1:1 replica of a section of former Copenhagen NASA nightclub, which he had designed in 1997, for the final section of their exhibition. In support of the exhibition at ADAM Design Museum, Brussels, the tourist organisation Visit Brussels financed a freely distributed ‘Brussels Club Map’. This was in collaboration with ADAM, and designed by the exhibition’s graphic designer, to coincide with the exhibition’s opening at the Brussels venue.
In advance of the exhibition opening at the V&A Dundee (delayed due to Covid-19), new curatorial content is already being developed. As the Director of Programme at V&A Dundee points out, ‘ Our decision to programme Night Fever at V&A Dundee was informed by the strong curatorial narrative developed by Rossi, Eisenbrand and Serulus…This is the first time the Museum has hosted an exhibition on design and club culture’. She continues to state that ‘ Rossi’s research for Night Fever and our subsequent discussions and email exchanges have informed our curatorial activity at the museum and has led to our identification of new artifacts and sections for the exhibition’s installation here’ [S4].
In addition, Night Fever’s co-curator Nina Serulus followed the successful staging of the exhibition at ADAM Design Museum, Brussels, with another club culture exhibition focussed on Belgian graphic design. Designing the Night: Graphic Design of Belgian Club Culture (1st March 2019 – 29th September 2019), was an extension of the approach taken for the VDM exhibition, which ‘ originated in Night Fever: I would have never delved into the subject without the former exhibition’. Serulus emphasises how she ‘ utilized the intellectual framework developed in Night Fever to make this smaller, additional, Belgian focused graphic design exhibition’ [S5].
2. Publicity and Media Coverage for Institutions
Rossi’s research has generated significant publicity and media awareness for 3 of the exhibiting institutions so far. Radical Disco featured in over 25 print and digital media platforms including newspapers, fashion and music sites, and radio programmes. Night Fever has received over 200 radio, television, print and online appearances, in mainstream and architecture, design and music specialist outlets, in over 12 countries. According to Jochen Eisenbrand, VDM’s Chief Curator, ‘ In terms of press coverage…this exhibition was the most successful I ever dealt with’ [S2]. Night Fever has also increased the profile of a new museum and an ADAM co-curator posits Rossi’s work as fundamental to its success, noting that Night Fever ‘ put the subject on the agenda of both museums, but also foreign media to write about it’ [S5].
3. New Audiences
The exhibitions cited have generated healthy visitor figures in all their venues, with an increase in new and younger visitors, as well as positive feedback. For example, the ICA’s Executive Director has praised Radical Disco’s ‘ fantastic response’ with over 30,000 visitors, over 10,000 web page visits, and ‘ positive feedback’ [S6]. Night Fever received over 103,000 visitors at the first 3 venues. VDM’s Chief Curator Eisenbrand comments echo those above, noting that ‘ Night Fever brought us many new visitors, especially among a younger generation: our 2018 visitor survey… indicated a substantial number of first-time visitors to the Vitra Campus. 11% of all visitors in 2018 visited the Campus due to Night Fever’ [S3]. Whilst not all visitor figures for venues have been made available due to Covid-19 delays, the trajectory of evidence signals the critical importance of Rossi’s nightclub research on the audience profile for international venues.
VDM tours its exhibitions extensively all over the world. However, Night Fever was the first VDM exhibition to be staged at Italian, Danish and Australian venues, and therefore has contributed to VDM’s expansion of its touring partnerships and engagement with wider international audiences. Sales of the accompanying VDM catalogue, co-authored and co-edited by Rossi, have also been successful: by December 2020, the English edition of 4500 sold out (including the pre-orders for V&A Dundee and HOTA Australia) and the German addition has sold 1200 copies [S7].
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
S1 – Letter from Associate Curator, ICA, 1 December 2015
S2 – Letter from Curator of La Boîte du Nuit & La Boîte du Nuit exhibition leaflet
S3 – Letter from Chief Curator, VDM
S4 – Letter from Director of Programme, V&A Dundee, 11 August 2020
S5 – Letter from Curator, ADAM Design Museum
S6 – Letter from Executive Director, ICA, 14 January 2016
S7 – Email from Chief Curator, VDM, concerning book sales, 18 January 2021
- Submitting institution
- Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Summary impact type
- Societal
- Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
- No
1. Summary of the impact
Caring for people with dementia requires that we understand how best to design activities and environments for them. Dr Jakob’s research has addressed this need. Her work has impacted the wellbeing of people living with dementia and their carers through improved design of environments, activity products, and sensory experiences. It has allowed various stakeholders to increase the engagement of those with dementia. The research (1) enabled care providers to improve the facilities and service they offer by creating more appropriate multi-sensory environments in their care-homes, (2) convinced dementia product suppliers to extend their range to better respond to user needs by including sensory-focused and age-appropriate designs, and (3) supported community projects and the heritage sector in adapting their services to meet the sensory needs of people living with dementia.
2. Underpinning research
Jakob’s research focuses on the design of multi-sensory environments (MSE), also referred to as ‘Sensory Rooms’. Her work explores how effective sensory design can improve user experience of these MSEs, positively impacting the wellbeing of people living with dementia, who have special sensory and cognitive needs. In 2013 – 2014, Jakob led an AHRC-funded interdisciplinary research project that investigated the quality and design of existing MSEs in English care-homes for residents living with dementia [R1]. This project built on previous research carried out by Kingston design researchers, which focused on the design of dementia care environments [R2].
In an attempt to alleviate psychological and behavioural symptoms in people with dementia through non-pharmacological care methods, MSEs were installed in numerous care-homes in the UK from the mid-noughties onwards. But anecdotal evidence suggested that they often failed to deliver the anticipated benefits. Staff often grew discouraged, perceiving these spaces to be of little value and leaving the rooms abandoned. Jakob’s research confirmed that this was due to poor and inappropriate design. Jakob responded by exploring how design interventions could improve residents’ experience of MSEs. The research involved identifying gaps in service, collating evidence of best practice, and subsequently developing strategies and recommendations for design improvement.
Collaborative partnerships with experts and professionals from healthcare were formed for this research project, including that with co-investigator Dr Lesley Collier (an occupational therapist and academic), practice partner Care UK (a leading independent provider of health and social care services), and academics from KU’s Faculty for Health, Social Care and Education (FHSCE). This was one of the first cross-faculty research initiatives between Kingston’s Design School and FHSCE, on the emerging KU research theme of Designing Health Interactions.
In order to assess the current situation, Jakob and her team conducted an ethnographic study involving 16 care-homes in the Greater London and Southampton area. They critically examined the design quality of existing MSEs and how they are used. Key findings from the study revealed aesthetically and functionally inappropriate installations and set-ups. Often, the MSEs placed too much emphasis on visual and tactile experiences, risking stressful visual overstimulation for users. The research revealed a lack of knowledge amongst care practitioners—as well as a lack of guidance for them—about how to facilitate sensory activities and environments for older people with dementia [R3, R4, R5].
Building on these insights, Jakob and her team went on to establish design criteria that meet the specific needs of individuals living with dementia, and their carers. As a next step, they developed design recommendations for installing a sensory enhanced space to be used by people with dementia. These guidelines were published online as a freely available, practical, hands-on guidebook [R6]. This guidance fills a gap in the understanding of best practices, and has enabled a significant improvement in the experience of MSEs for people living with dementia.
3. References to the research
R1 – AHRC (2013 – 2014) The Multi-Sensory Environment in dementia care: the role of design, AHRC Early Career Research Grant number AH/K003135/1; https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH/K003135/1
R2 – Dalke, Hilary et al (2011) Living with dementia: can design make a difference? ISBN 9781907684135 https://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/23111/
R3 – Jakob, Anke and Collier, Lesley (2017) Sensory enrichment for people living with dementia: increasing the benefits of multisensory environments in dementia care through design. Design for Health, 1(1), pp. 115 – 133. ISSN (print) 2473 – 5132; DOI: 10.1080/24735132.2017.1296274 REF2ID: 32-59-1710
R4 – Collier, Lesley and Jakob, Anke (2017) The multisensory environment (MSE) in dementia care: examining its role and quality from a user perspective. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 10(5), pp. 39 – 51. ISSN (print) 1937 – 5867; DOI: 10.1177/1937586716683508
R5 – Jakob, Anke and Collier, Lesley (2018) Sensory design for dementia care - the benefits of textiles. Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice (RFTD), 5(2), pp. 232 – 250. ISSN (print) 2051 – 1787; DOI: 10.1080/20511787.2018.1449078 REF2ID: 32-52-1709
R6 – Jakob, Anke and Collier, Lesley (2014) How to make Sensory Room for people living with dementia – a guidebook. [online] Kingston.ac.uk/sensoryroom REF2ID:32-59-1710
4. Details of the impact
The ultimate beneficiaries of Jakob’s research are the people living with dementia and their carers and care givers. The core pathway to impact has been the online publication, How to make Sensory Room for people living with dementia – a guidebook [R6] . This unique resource is the first ever guidebook advising on design of MSE for dementia care, and supports carers, care-home staff, and healthcare practitioners by helping them to provide environments appropriate for residents with dementia and their families. As a result, care practitioners and carers are now in a stronger position to support suitable activities and social interaction, thereby helping people with dementia, particularly in later stages, to (re)connect with their environment, regain a sense of purpose, maintain dignity, and reduce isolation.
Launched in October 2014, the guide is freely available through Kingston University and was subsequently referenced on online platforms and in the press. It has been mentioned on a variety of websites for organizations supporting people with dementia, including alzheimers.net, buildingbetterhealthcare.com, colleaga.org, and alphagalileo.org. The design guide and the research have had global reach [S1], leading to three main areas of impact: (1) It has enabled care providers to improve dementia care environments; (2) It has influenced suppliers of activity products for people living with dementia encouraging them to extend their range of new sensory and/or more dementia-appropriate products; (3) It has impacted community projects by influencing adaption of services to meet the needs of people living with dementia. These improvements have in turn benefitted people living with dementia and their families.
- Care providers
The research has impacted care provision, reaching providers first through direct co-design-based work with Coombe Hill Manor (CHM) care-home, Kingston upon Thames (2017 – present). After studying the guidebook, staff from CHM approached Jakob for advice on transforming an under-used lounge into a new space to be used for multi-sensory activities for the residents of the home’s dementia suite [S2]. The new unique facility is now used on a daily basis. In a letter to the university, CHM’s manager stated that ‘ this new facility significantly improves and supports the daily work of staff as the possibilities to provide person-centred care are endless’. The private care provider running CHM is considering rolling out the intervention in its other care-homes (currently 13 homes with 6 more under construction, located in Greater London and South England) [S3].
Based on recommendations from the guidebook, a new MSE was also created at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home (RBJH) in Omaha, USA (2015). The home caters for 86 residents, 61 of whom are living with dementia [S4]. Jakob was contacted by RBJH’s occupational therapist, who asked for permission to use information from the online guidebook for a presentation at RBJH and to subsequently design this new facility. The therapist stated that ‘ the guide educated us in important design features and practical considerations for this kind of environment that we had not found in other resources.’ [S4]
Jakob also advised on the transformation of an abandoned room meant for sensory stimulation on the dementia ward at Ronald Gibson House, South London (2014), supported by a GBP4634 People’s Postcode Trust grant [S5]. It acted as the case study in the guidebook [R6]. Feedback from the home’s Activity Co-ordinator described how ‘ the new room benefited especially from your [Jakob’s] advice … regarding how to arrange the space’. They stated that the stimulating, yet calm room ‘ helps to reduce challenging behaviour and stress. This applies not only to residents with dementia but also to residents with other mental health issues’ [S6]. They reported one resident, who usually expressed distress through shouting and abuse, saying ‘ *I cannot take it anymore, can I go to Paradise room now?*’ – demonstrating the positive reputation of this sensory room [S7].
- Suppliers of multi-sensory and dementia activity products
Relish (formerly Active Minds), a UK-based supplier of activity products - that is, products designed to engage people with dementia, has developed a new product range inspired and informed by Jakob’s research. The company became aware of the research and the guidebook when their head of design visited the exhibition Sensory Rooms: designing interventions to support dementia care in London’s Somerset House in 2014, and participated in the accompanying panel discussion [S8]. They developed a new product range to respond to the particular needs of people with dementia, ‘ Sensory Products for Dementia’, which includes Scentscapes, Sensory Scenes, and Sensory Snap. These are bought by care homes and individuals caring for someone with dementia. Relish’s Lead Product Designer has stated ‘ the addition of sensory products to our portfolio helped to provide comfort and reassurance to those in the later stages of dementia. The sensory category, inspired directly by Dr. Jakob’s research has been hugely popular with customers both at home and in professional care settings.’ [S9]
After reading the guidebook, another multi-sensory products supplier, Rompa, began to develop more products for older adults, realising their scarcity in the market. The guidebook has impacted the New Product Development Team’s decision-making when designing new products for Rompa’s catalogue ‘Meaningful Activities for Older Adults’, been an essential tool for sales consultants working with care homes, and has been reported to affect the choices of customers regarding product and room design [S6]. The 2019 edition of Rompa’s catalogue [S10] contains a supporting quote from [R6].
- Communities
As a result of Jakob’s research, Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) modified their health and well-being programme ‘ Sensory Palaces’ to better meet the sensory needs of people living with early-stage dementia and their carers. After visiting the Somerset House exhibition and reading the guidebook, HRP used the information to support the development of Sensory Palaces community sessions, which are run at Kew Palace and Hampton Court Palace. HRP authorities said that the research made them ‘ more aware and informed about the many issues surrounding sensory stimulation’ and that ‘ the aspect of sensory stimulation versus sensory overload was something they needed to carefully consider’. The guidebook was ‘ very useful and informative for creating sensory activities for people living in the early stages of dementia’ and they were therefore more able to attune their programme to the needs of their target audience and their carers [S11].
Jakob’s research has thus reshaped both the caring environment and the conversation on how to engage people living with dementia.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
S1 – Australian Journal of Dementia Care (2015) DIY guide to creating a sensory room
S2 – Journal of Dementia Care (2019 ) Leading designer transforms care home room with immersive tech
S3 – Testimonial from the General Manager at Coombe Hill Manor care home
S4 – Testimonial an Occupational Therapist at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home
S5 – Wandsworth Guardian Article, 8 April 2014
S6 – AHRC Project - The Multi-Sensory Environment (MSE) in dementia care: the role of design > Outcomes > Impact Summary
S7 – Design4Health 2015 European Conference Paper
S8 – Inside Out Festival 2014: exhibition - Sensory Rooms: designing interventions to support dementia care; event - Designing interventions to support dementia care: presentations and panel discussion .
S9 – Testimonial from the Lead Product Designer at Relish
S10 – Rompa’s Meaningful Activities for Older Adults Catalogue (fifth edition) (p 14)
S11 – Testimonial from the Community Learning Producer at Kensington Palace
- Submitting institution
- Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Summary impact type
- Societal
- Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
- No
1. Summary of the impact
Fixperts is a human-centred design teaching model arising from Charny's practice-as-research, which develops technical and interpersonal skills. It has directly provided personalised design solutions for over 500 individuals, in particular giving new independence to disabled people. It has become a global phenomenon, taught in over 30 Higher Education Institutions across 20 countries, and has influenced teaching practice at institutions in the UK and abroad. The RCA Fixperts awards scheme has attracted 796 students from 22 universities across 21 countries. Fixperts has also impacted on primary and secondary education in the UK, through inclusion in the STEM curriculum and CPD for teachers, and on development of young peoples' capabilities in the wider community through engagement with the Comino Foundation.
2. Underpinning research
Fixperts is a simple framework for teaching a human-centred design process developed by Prof Charny which takes the form of a web platform and network [R1], which can be adapted to a range of learning settings and age-groups. In a basic Fixperts project, participants (“the Fixperts”) team-up with an insight provider (“a Fix Partner”) to identify a daily issue in the Fix Partner’s life that becomes the focus of the project. The project is documented at all stages, usually captured in a film which is uploaded to a public, open-source, online archive [R2].
Fixperts is based upon an approach to participatory and open design that characterises Charny’s practice-as-research. Charny’s work refocuses participation in design upon the concept of making and, latterly, fixing: a knowledge-in-practice that allows individuals, communities and societies to respond flexibly, creatively and reciprocally to a range of self-defined challenges. In Fixperts, Charny contributes a model of making as both an expressive and reflexive practice. In his seminal 2011 V&A exhibition, Power of Making, Charny explored how ‘ making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world’ and how ‘ the knowledge of how to make – both everyday objects and highly-skilled creations – is one of humanity's most precious resources’ [R3]. Whereas, if one loses their capacity to make tools, systems and technologies for themselves, then they become increasingly dependent upon those who still possess the means to do so, diminishing agency and worsening inequalities of power, money and resources.
Charny’s research into the social implications of making developed through two further exhibitions. Maker Library Network (MLN) [R4] was the result of a British Council commission to create a programme that connects designers and makers in the UK and South Africa. The outcome was a cultural exchange framework and open-source resource aimed at providing a sustainable and scalable means of building a critically engaged, connected international community of designers and makers. It was launched at Design Indaba Expo 2014 (Cape Town, 28 February–2 March 2014), and run by the British Council until 2017. The MLN concept was developed into a second format, Brave Fixed World for the Łódź Design Festival, Poland (9–19 October 2014) [R5]. This proposed a platform for fixing in day-to-day life (Fixhub) building on models of public-facing makerspaces like the Fablabs and repair cafes. It offered access, experience, engagement and confidence in making, with a focus to inspire fixing and repair. This prototype drew on Charny’s research for Fixperts and, in connection with the MLN, further included a library and a gallery.
This prototype of the new FixHub format became the model for the Future of Fixing, an online resource which was created by Charny and uploaded to Wikispaces, then to GitHub, via his creative consultancy From Now On. The complete exhibition was made available online and as an open resource, including full working planners and content - an original way of touring an exhibition with distributed design principles [R6]. The versions were made locally relevant and inclusive by the adapting curators.
Fixperts learning programmes for universities [R1] were initially developed by Charny as an element of this research and practice focus on fixing (and fostering creativity and social design), and developed these questions of agency, resilience, creativity and making in response to real-world design challenges in a more formalised learning environment. Key research insights and conclusions from the Fixperts programme were consolidated in a paper which presents four approaches to the challenge of moving from the Person to the Problem to the Fix [R4]. These four models – Primary, Partnerships, Community, Public - represent the evolution of the Fixperts framework to better enable the development of students as confident and empathetic socially-led designers. The Fixperts learning programme as research is both a response to and the expression of a provocation: what if design and making as tools to develop ideas, to respond to change and to think critically about real-world human-centred innovation were at the heart of education? Fixperts interrogates the central role that making plays in the design process, informing otherwise impossible decisions and outcomes, and considers how making brings together imagination and skill, two qualities vital to society and individuals responding to our changing world.
The Fixperts learning programme won the International Blueprint Award for Design 2016 and is a participant in the H2020 ‘Make it Open’ grant, which will create open schooling hubs in 10 European countries where more than 150 schools will each collaborate with enterprises and civil society organisations in order to run activities where children solve challenges in and with the community, using tools and approaches from maker education.
3. References to the research
R1 – Charny, Daniel, 2015, Fixing Education website: http://fixing.education/fixperts
R2 – Charny, Daniel, 2017, Fixperts film archive: http://fixing.education/films
R3 – Charny, Daniel, Sept 2011 – Jan 2012, Power of Making Exhibition (V&A Museum)
R4 – Charny, Daniel, 2014 – 2017, Maker Library Network Exhibition REF2ID: 32-21-1680
R5 – Charny, Daniel, 2014, Brave Fixed World (Łódź Design Festival, as curator)
R6 – Charny, Daniel, 2015, The Future of Fixing (open-source curated exhibition)
R7 – Micklethwaite, P., Charny, D., Alvarado, M., Cassim, J., Dong, Y., and de Vere, I. (2020) Fixperts: models, learning and social contexts, in Boess, S., Cheung, M. and Cain, R. (eds.), Synergy - DRS International Conference 2020, 11-14 August 2020. (peer-reviewed)DOI: 10.21606/drs.2020.325
Grant
‘Make It Open’ is part of the Horizon 2020 H2020-EU.5.d. programme (ID: 872106) and coordinated by Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, running from Oct 2020 to Sept 2023. The total budget is EUR1,549,037, with the Fixperts budget standing at EUR228,875.
4. Details of the impact
The Fixperts model’s flexibility and unique approach to making and learning has led to it becoming a global phenomenon, used in over 20 countries in a range of contexts. It provides an accessible, adaptable but nuanced way to introduce skills of creative problem-solving, social engagement and human-centred design into both specialist design learning and general STEM settings. It has become the framework used in a number of innovation challenges, schemes and awards run by major funders, design institutions and endowments [S1].
Since 2016 FixEd, the website and think-and-do tank started by Charny to provide a platform for the Fixperts model, has provided a hub for several strands of impact activity. These focus on three main types of beneficiary: schools and Further Education colleges; Higher Education Institutions and informal learning settings. In addition to these beneficiaries in learning and education, FixEd provides access to a searchable archive of over 500 FixFilms documenting the fixing challenges and solutions that Fixperts and their Fixpartners have created. These films have been viewed over 500,000 times in total [S1]. Each of these films represents a material, social or psychological improvement in an individual or group’s everyday life.
Due to the open-source nature of the Fixperts approach and its central principles of sharing, adaptation and open access to materials these figures and those reported in the rest of this case study likely represent only a portion of the true reach of Fixperts’ impact globally.
Universities and Higher Education Institutions
Fixperts been taught in over 30 Higher Education Institutions across 20 countries [S1], including Kyoto Institute of Technology, National College of Art and Design (Dublin), Bath Spa University, Tongji College (Shanghai), University of Johannesburg, Escola Massana (Barcelona), Berlin University of the Arts, Warsaw Fine Art Academy, Thammasat University (Bangkok), Coburg University (Bavaria) [S1].
An independent evaluation found that Fixperts helps students develop technical design skills relating to prototyping and making, and transferable skills around communication and working with clients. For universities, it was found that Fixperts provides a concise and well packaged way to develop student skills and introduce them to key concepts and values around social design and user-centred design. In addition, it is a useful vehicle for fulfilling universities’ obligations towards local community engagement and communicating to the public the work of design schools in an appealing and accessible form. The evaluation also noted the benefits to Fix Partners, in particular disabled people, who gain independence in the achievement of everyday tasks, and a sense of empowerment in being able to have greater control and choice over when and how tasks are carried out [S2].
The Helen Hamlyn Design Centre at the Royal College of Art has run Fixperts Awards annually since 2013, to celebrate the solutions that university students from around the world and their Fix Partners create to improve the world around them. To date 796 students from 22 universities across 21 countries have applied to the awards, with fifteen longlisted each year [S3]. In addition to the impact upon those students and their universities, the submitted films document the positive outcomes participation has brought for the Fix Partners, whose real-life making challenges form the heart of each submission.
Fixperts has also had impact on the Helen Hamlyn Centre’s own organisational approach, influencing them to use video more consistently to document and disseminate their projects [S4]. The Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design, Royal College of Art [S4] stated:
‘The impact of Fixperts has been significant– we now direct our own students and researchers to the Fixperts site to study its solutions for people with the frailties of ageing or disabilities. Fixperts is also educating a whole generation of young designers to look at social challenges of everyday living right on their doorstep.’
In 2020, Fixperts became a partner in a joint project with Loughborough University and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (Istanbul): the “Sustaining Inclusive Design Collaborations through Co-Design Platforms (SIDe Programme)” project. Students were teamed up with volunteer design partners from two NGOs on disability and carried out a co-design process throughout the term. A representative from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University [S1] stated:
‘We can clearly express that the Fixperts method transformed our educational approach into a creative-problem-solving process through co-design. Besides, the method not only increased students’ understanding of the inclusive design but also helped the development of new knowledge on design within the partnering NGOs too.’
Schools and FE colleges
The Fixperts programme has had a major impact on STEM and design teaching in UK secondary schools. Because it has been designed to align closely with the Key Stage 3 & 4 Design and Technology curricula in English schools Fixperts offers secondary and FE teachers a flexible and accessible means to teach socially engaged and human-centred design within a benchmarked, quality assured teaching and learning framework. Fixperts has been offered in secondary schools in the UK since 2016 via free learning resources, downloads, Fixperts films and support from the FixEd specialist team [S1].
In 2016 the UK examination board AQA approached Charny and FixEd to embed Fixperts in a new STEM Technical Award at GCSE level. The 2017 course specification for the AQA STEM Level 1/2 Award (for teaching from Sept 2017 onwards and exams in 2019 onwards) comprises three mandatory units. In Unit 2, “Creating a STEM product or service”, learners carry out a project using the Fixperts process, either using an existing contact within the community or using AQA’s set of resources produced in collaboration with Fixperts [S5].
Following this, STEM Learning UK, an organisation which works in collaboration with the Government to provide teachers with access to resources, training and CPD in STEM subjects across the UK, approached FixEd to develop resources for Design and Technology teachers. Fixperts was made available to teachers as a training session on inclusive design, and was also incorporated into support for school STEM clubs. STEM Learning UK incorporated Fixperts into their primary-level Engineering course which trained at least 50 primary teachers over three years, and also into their NQT support which was used by around 200 teachers. They also offered subsidised day-long training sessions specifically on Fixperts, facilitated by a Fixperts trainer [S6]. The Technology CPD Lead, STEM Learning UK [S6] stated:
‘*The feedback from our clients about Fixperts has been overwhelmingly positive. Secondary schools could see the advantage of working in this way, especially once they had experienced the resources for themselves. Fixperts is really welcomed by secondary teachers that are ahead of the curve in the new Design and Technology GCSE and who want to work with clients and go down a bold route, which Fixperts scaffolds for them. Primary schools absolutely loved it: they are looking for ways to engage young people in social capital, and Fixperts is fantastic for that.*’
Fixperts has been cited and reproduced as Covid-19 home learning resources on the website of Potential Plus UK, an independent charity that has been working with families and schools for the benefit of young people with high learning potential. Two of the challenges in the 50 Challenges for 50 Years Anniversary Challenge Book were contributed by Fixperts [S7].
Fixperts has been a partner in the RSA Pupil Design Awards since 2018 [S8]. These awards encourage pupils aged 11-18 in participating schools to use their creativity and imagination to design solutions to real challenges facing people and the planet. The Teacher Resource Pack, which supports teachers in delivering the awards, provides a seven-week scheme of work, comprehensively supported by activities and resources from Fixperts [S8].
Fixperts Anywhere: Communities, Learning and the Campaign for Making
In 2018 Fixperts partnered with the Royal Academy of Engineering to produce FixCamp, a prototype three-week summer camp for 265 children aged nine to fourteen from 48 schools [S1] during which participants ‘fixed our world through daily challenges’, starting with designing and making their own toolbelts. Fixcamp was funded by the Comino Foundation, an educational charity with a mission to develop young peoples’ capabilities. The Development Fellow at the Comino Foundation [S9] stated:
‘*The impact of the summer camp was significant for the children involved in that it gave them opportunities to experience the sort of personal learning and development that the Fixperts approach provides in a more exploratory, research-friendly environment than most schools in England currently provide… Underpinned by deep academic engagement, [Charny’s] research has at its core potential for enriching learning throughout people’s lives, in both formal and informal settings.*’
The Comino Foundation subsequently engaged Fixperts to work with the North West Comino Creative Consortium (NWCCC), a multi-stakeholder community of practice bringing secondary schools in Manchester together with employers and partners from the creative and technology sectors. Eight Design Technology teachers from NWCCC schools joined a Fixperts expert trainer in March 2019 for a session exploring client-centred design, and in particular designing for disability. The focus was on the encouragement of iterative design – giving pupils a situation/problem with more than just a ‘standard’ design brief, enabling them to explore and experiment designing for different disabilities. This then fed into the teachers' curriculum planning [S10].
Fixperts was awarded the 2020 Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education [S11].
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
S1 – FixEd Website: Fixperts; Films; Social Responsibility Practices Course; Fixcamp
S2 – Evaluation of Fixperts by The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, 2016
S3 – Testimonial from the Fixperts Director
S4 – Testimonial from the Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design, Royal College of Art
S5 – AQA Specification for Level 1/2 Award in STEM (3765)
S6 – Testimonial from the Technology CPD Lead, STEM Learning UK
S7 – Potential Plus UK: Challenges 11 & 12
S8 – The RSA Website: Pupil Design Awards blog; The Teacher Resource Pack
S9 – Testimonial from a Development Fellow, Comino Foundation
S10 – The North West Comino Creative Consortium 2019 publication
- Submitting institution
- Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Summary impact type
- Cultural
- Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
- No
1. Summary of the impact
The case study is built on Dr O’Brien’s AHRC-funded research on the history of the electrification of rural Irish homes and its effects on women’s lives, conducted in partnership with the National Museum of Ireland, and leading to the exhibition Kitchen Power.O’Brien’s research and curation has informed changes to National Museum of Ireland communication, curation and collection practices, and improved wider cultural and public understanding of design, domesticity and electrification in Ireland post 1950. Through oral history and work with women’s groups on a community-based textile art project based on her research, O’Brien fostered inter-generational understanding and opportunities for creative exchange, with social benefits for the older women involved and National Museum of Ireland audiences.
2. Underpinning research
The research project was led by Dr Sorcha O’Brien, Senior Lecturer in Design History & Theory at Kingston University, from 2014 onwards, with AHRC funding from 2016-19. The Kitchen Power exhibition was curated by O’Brien with Noel Campbell, Senior Curator at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life. O’Brien is part of the Modern Interiors Research Centre, led by Prof. Penny Sparke, whose publications were influential on the project and who chaired the project advisory board [R1, R2]. The topic was developed out of O’Brien’s 2012 PhD on the visual representation of electrical technology in 1920s Ireland, published in 2017. This research explored the ways in which the Irish Free State sought to ‘harness electricity to step beyond the political nationalism of its painful revolutionary era and provide for its citizens’ [R3].
For her AHRC project and the resultant exhibition, O’Brien extended the research from her PhD to focus on the effects of electricity on rural homes, women’s everyday lives and the electrical products that they used and consumed, and to include the voices of these women themselves. Existing research about rural electrification had focused on the construction of the electrical network and the experiences of engineers and technical staff, relying on corporate history and newspaper reportage. O’Brien’s work instead focused on the way this technology was used by a generation of women who matured before the arrival of second wave feminism into Ireland in the 1970s: their involvement with traditional gender roles along with their now advanced age has meant that they were rarely considered as ‘pioneers’.
O’Brien engaged in extensive archival research and object analysis [R4], developing an innovative oral history project with women who were housewives in the 1950s and 1960s, in order to foreground their voices and make them heard across the generations. Object, archival and oral history methods were used to inform the development of the exhibition, working with the project partner and venue, the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life. Project partners (and advisory board members) also included the Irish Countrywomen’s Association, Age & Opportunity, and the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) [R5].
The exhibition focused on the kitchen; O’Brien looked at the physical manifestation of gender roles in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, and in contrast to the advertising fantasy of the happy housewife, influenced by British and American advertising and advice literature. This comparison brought out the reality of Irish rural women’s lived experiences with domestic electrical appliances [R6], both in terms of the actual appliances and changes in kitchen design, as well as the emotional reaction of women to acquiring and using these appliances.
Findings from the research indicated that the modern fitted kitchen was slow to spread across Ireland, with women preferring to install a limited selection of free-standing appliances into existing farm kitchens, mostly due to cost constraints. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) played an educational role, as well as generating electricity and selling appliances. Two groups of women played important roles - the ESB demonstrators were a source of peer information and confidence, and the Irish Countrywomen’s Association coordinated at grassroots level. An unexpected outcome of the research was the discovery of several appliance factories in Ireland, largely staffed by female assembly workers, despite a prevailing climate, both legal and religious, which encouraged women not to work outside the home.
The research findings will also form the basis of a forthcoming monograph by O’Brien.
3. References to the research
The outputs listed below have been subject to rigorous peer review. The exhibition was overseen by a project advisory board comprised of subject specialist academics and project partners.
R1 – Sparke, P. Electrical Appliances (London: Bell and Hyman, 1986)
R2 – Sparke, P. The Modern Interior (London: Reaktion 2008)
R3 – Sorcha O’Brien, Powering the nation: images of the Shannon scheme and electricity in Ireland. Newbridge, Ireland : Irish Academic Press (2017). ISBN 9781911024675 REF2ID: 32-81-1782
R4 – Sorcha O’Brien, 2017, ‘‘Made in Ireland’? National Narratives and Hybrid Identities in Irish Design History’, Writing Visual Culture, Available at https://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/40342/
R5 – Sorcha O’Brien, Kitchen Power: Women’s Experience of Rural Electrification, Exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland, open July 2019 to July 2020 (extended due to Covid-19 to Jan 2021) REF2ID: 32-79-1781
R6 – O'Brien, Sorcha, et al. “Our Own Memories: Women's Experiences of Rural Electrification: Edited Transcript of The Tommy Marren Show, Midwest Radio, 27 May 2019.” RCC Perspectives, no. 1, 2020, pp. 42–49. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26937552
Grant
Sorcha O’Brien, The Electrification of the Rural Irish Home: Housewives, Electrical Products and Domesticity in the 1950s and 1960s, Arts & Humanities Research Council, July 2016-December 2019, GBP245,195.
4. Details of the impact
The project had impact in two different areas, first through the impact on museum practices in both collection and curation in the National Museum of Ireland, and secondly through enabling social value and creativity amongst the demographic of older Irish women.
Improving collection and curatorial practices at the National Museum of Ireland
The curation of the exhibition spearheaded a number of developments in museological practice, particularly internal museum processes, as well as a shift in emphasis for NMI Country Life from folklife to social history.
The development of the Kitchen Power exhibition from 2015-19 spearheaded the move of the NMI Country Life from its existing emphasis on Irish folk life from roughly 1850s to 1950s, to that of Irish social history including the late 20th century. For the past decade NMI Country Life had been broadening its collecting and exhibition policy to include post-1950 and mass manufactured objects [S1, S2]. This approach was developed further with the inclusion in Kitchen Power of everyday, mass manufactured domestic appliances, and their subsequent addition to the permanent collection. Of the 51 objects in the exhibition, 16 were acquired to add to the 8 already in the collection (1,446 currently on display). The former NMI Country Life Manager/Keeper attests that ‘ The work with Dr O’Brien and the Kitchen Power exhibition helped bring about the realisation across NMI that approaches to collections needed to change and paved a way for that to begin to happen […]’ [S3] The and Senior Curator and Assistant Keeper, NMI Country Life, credits the project with prompting a major review of acquisitions policy across NMI: ‘ As a direct result of our collaboration with Dr O’Brien the National Museum of Ireland is working on an Acquisitions and Collections policy which covers contemporary collecting… The Kitchen Power exhibition has both contributed to and informed that debate. I think it has helped to push a boundary in the National Museum of Ireland’s thinking about what the Museum of Country Life should be covering in relation to material culture and social history.’ [S4] One practical example of this new institutional focus on both women’s and social history is the Art and Industry Division of NMI’s recent interest in buying Magdalene laundries in Dublin.
According to the Head of Collections at NMI and the acting Managing Keeper at NMI Country Life for the past six months, these practical decisions about collections and acquisitions also prompted more strategic and conceptual developments in NMI’s curatorial staff: ‘ The Museum of Country Life has always included oral histories in relation to objects, but a key impact from the Kitchen Power exhibition experience is to bring ethnographic oral history into use in terms of modern times e.g. 1950s. It’s fair to say that the Kitchen Power exhibition and Dr O’Brien’s research helped to extend this timeframe and also aided thinking and debate that informed our formal Contemporary Collecting Strategy at the National Museum of Ireland.’ [S5] In particular, the use of oral histories as part of new permanent displays at NMI sites in Dublin will be informed by this work and include audio of O’Brien’s research interviews.
These shifts in curatorial and acquisition practices meant the NMI as a whole began to address historical issues with communication between departments. The role of O’Brien as the external curator working closely with a project team was instrumental in highlighting issues so they could be resolved at an early stage, including the role of curators in exhibition titling. The Senior Curator and Assistant Keeper, NMI Country Life considers the Kitchen Power project [S6] to have been ‘ a mould-breaker in terms of curatorial practice’ [S4] The operational demands of working collaboratively with O’Brien prompted him to work ‘ completely differently’ to his normal practice. This highlighted that a Head of Operations was a significant gap in NMI Country Life’s organisation, and that role has now been created and filled. The former Manager/Keeper of NMI Country Life considers that ‘ by bringing Dr O’Brien’s design and research skills, Kingston University and the AHRC into the equation it enabled the Museum to learn that you can collaborate [with partners and external experts] successfully without any loss of standards in the design, production and delivery of an exhibition.’ He wrote that the exhibition ‘created conditions for positive changes in mindset and attitudes between staff divisions of the National Museum of Ireland (the NMI), between the Museum of Country Life and the wider NMI and between the NMI and others… This was a significant change.’ [S3]
NMI visitor numbers increased significantly from the opening of the exhibition in July 2019 to March 2020 (when a national Covid-19 lockdown began in Ireland) – they rose from a previous July 5-year average of 13,532 visitors to 15,060, and a previous August 5-year average of 15,560 to 18,002; a rise of 11% and 16% respectively. As of February 2020 (the last full month for which complete visitor figures are available before lockdown) 73,426 people had attended the exhibition [S7]. There were 22,748 visitors to the galleries from the end of lockdown in June 2020 to October 2020, when the galleries closed again due to Level 3 restrictions. While this is around half the usual attendees for these months, compared to previous years, it still represents a strong level of attendance in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular the absence of overseas visitors and the social distancing restrictions that limit the number of people in the galleries to 50.
While the outbreak of Covid-19 shut the NMI Country Life galleries housing Kitchen Power completely from March 2020 and much of the remainder of that year, this has prompted new online curatorial activities in the museum [S8]. NMI have decided to extend the exhibition’s run to January 2021, and Audrey Whitty, the current Acting Keeper, said that elements of the exhibition will become part of the permanent online and real-life displays: ‘ In the future, the Kitchen Power exhibition will have more presence on the newly launched National Museum of Ireland website […]. The National Museum of Ireland is also planning a major renovation on our Collins Barracks site with a permanent exhibition in one whole wing on the theme of the 20th century history of Ireland. It will open in 2023. The story of rural electrification will be an important part of this story and so will be present as part of the permanent exhibition. *The social history interviews conducted by Dr O’Brien that were an integral part of the Kitchen Power exhibition may be represented through audio visual display.*’ [S5]
Enabling Social Value and Creativity in Older Irish Women
The project enabled interventions with older women in Irish society in two different ways, through the oral history interviews and the textile art project.
The intergenerational oral history interviews involved 60 participants in total, most of whom were older Irish women who remembered rural electrification. Clips from the oral histories are included in the exhibition [S8] and quoted in publications [R4]. Several of these participants attended the exhibition opening and were interviewed on national television news, national and regional newspapers and radio [S9].
The project also catalysed a creative intervention by a group of older women in Irish society, highlighting their lived experience and craft skills through the textile art project. 15 older Mayo women worked with artist Anna Spearman (commissioned through Age & Opportunity) over 11 months to develop a process-led project to create individual and group textile artworks [S10]. The artworks produced were based on the participants’ life experiences and memories of life before and after rural electrification, which emerged as a definite generational watershed. The textile art showcase held in May 2019 as part of the Bealtaine festival had an audience of approximately 150 people, and a 20 minute radio interview by O’Brien and a project participant in May 2019 was broadcast on regional station Midwest Radio [R6].
A survey answered by 28 of the overlapping group of oral history and textile art project participants recorded a very positive response to their involvement. All of these responses were positive about their sense of being part of social change in Ireland, 26 responded that the experience had improved their self-confidence and sense of self, 23 that it had improved their general sense of wellbeing and 27 found that it had renewed their interest in creative activities. The words most associated with the projects were ‘engaging’, ‘reflective’ and ‘fulfilling’ [S11].
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
S1 – Anthony Candon, ‘ Breaking into the Present: Addressing boundaries at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life’ in Dissolving Boundaries: Museological Approaches to National, Social and Cultural Issues, ed. Annette B. Fromm & Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader, 2014.
S2 – National Museum of Ireland Master Vision Statement 2018-2032
S3 – Testimonial from Former Manager/Keeper of NMI Country Life
S4 – Testimonial from Assistant Keeper and Senior Curator, NMI Country Life
S5 – Testimonial from Head of Collections NMI and Acting Keeper, NMI Country Life
S6 – Kitchen Power exhibition webpage, National Museum of Ireland
S7 – NMI Country Life Footfall Figures
S8 – Electric Irish Homes project website
S9 – Kitchen Power exhibition launch media coverage cuttings compilation
S10 – Our Irish Heritage Electric Irish Homes Textile Art project webpage
S11 – Survey Responses