Matter of the Manor: Bringing Art Practice into Historic Building Conservation
- Submitting institution
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University of Portsmouth
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 26322460
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- A multi-component output with contextual information, consisting of two visual essays with written and photographic collages, a supporting group exhibition and artists’ books.
- Open access status
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- Month
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- Year
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This is a MULTI-COMPONENT output consisting of an artefact, an artists’ book, a journal article and book chapter, with contextual information. This research is an interdisciplinary project between 2015 and 2020 by interior designer/artist Belinda Mitchell and heritage scholar Karen Fielder. Its aim was to merge conservation and fine art practice in order to tap the intangible heritage of community sentiments about and practices with particular historic sites, including the emotionally evocative effects of their interiors. It was based in a 17th century house in a rundown urban setting, Wymering Manor, in Cosham, Portsmouth. The project resulted in a body of work that branched into different interconnected disciplinary contexts. First, it was presented at conferences in archaeology and geography; secondly, it took the form of a visual essay in a special issue of the Journal of Interior Design, breaking new methodological ground for the discipline; thirdly, it contributed to debate about the future of interior design; and fourthly, it was exhibited at historic sites and at a gallery setting. The research developed hybrid ways of recording the intangible legacies of historic sites and proposed ways to embed this information into planning for the manor’s future. Mitchell created artists’ books including McCall’s Multi-Blue (2017) with visual artist Eileen White to capture the intangible qualities of the site. The project’s methods were derived from feminist art and architectural practice and informed by phenomenology and New Materialism. They involved semi-structured conversations with members of the supporting community and employed techniques of expanded drawing and site-writing. The investigators’ sustained on-site presence while conducting these activities sensitised them to the affective agency of the manor’s dilapidated assemblages of materials, which are the outcomes of many uses, modifications and repairs over time.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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