Topographies of the Obsolete: Exploring the Site Specific and Associated Histories of Post-Industry
- Submitting institution
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Staffordshire University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Lists 44
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- Project outcomes have had extensive international dissemination : Former Spode factory, Stoke-on-Trent; Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan; KHiB, Bergen, Norway; N.A.R.P. Forum, Kristiansand, Norway; Ashmolean, Oxford; HEAD, Genève, Switzerland; V&A, London
- Brief description of type
- A multi-component curated project which includes a collection of practice-based artefacts, exhibitions, edited publications and a conference paper that address different aspects of a related topic and are collectively greater than the sum of their parts.
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2020
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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A - The C3 Centre: Creative Industries and Creative Communities
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- TOTO evolved over eight years through two phases of investigation (2012-2015, 2015-2020). Six site-specific residencies at the former Spode factory (2012-2014) generated extensive primary research, which was developed and contextualised via off-site reflection. TOTO’s overarching structure has sustained this intermittent process of exchange via coordinated events, whereby external transdisciplinary input (from anthropologic, geographic, sociological perspectives) critically framed interconnected research strands and commonalities of practice, strengthening the rigour and depth of individual/partner projects. The many outcomes are evidenced in three publications. They were disseminated internationally via exhibitions, symposia, other events, demonstrating how arts-led curatorial projects contribute to scholarly discourse surrounding deindustrialisation.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Topographies of the Obsolete (TOTO) is a multi-component international research project initiated and co-curated by Brownsword in collaboration with the University of Bergen, and in partnership with seven European HEIs and the British Ceramics Biennial. It has engaged ninety-seven artists, academics, and students from thirteen countries. Using collective interdisciplinary enquiry, TOTO extends Brownsword’s long-running interrogation of North Staffordshire’s legacies of deindustrialisation and their impact upon place, communities and cultures.
In Phase One (2012-2015), TOTO investigated consequences arising from the closure of the former Spode factory. It involved six site-specific residences with multi-media responses, bringing interdisciplinary arts research methodologies, curatorial strategies, and arts practices to bear on the question of how ‘Ceramics’ can expand beyond a narrow material focus and become a means of broad cultural inquiry. Phase Two (2015-2020) extended the use of ceramic production as a lens to examine twenty-first-century globalisation’s socio-economic impact on Stoke-on-Trent, and also applied TOTO’s methodology for interrogating the post‐industrial site to other regions with adjacent histories.
Brownsword’s outputs from the project comprise of three edited publications and three installations. Site Reflections (2015) outlines a methodology for investigating post-industrial sites with artistic research that goes beyond customary heritage discourse. Ashmolean Papers (2017) expands the contextualisation of TOTO’s practice-led research strands via the critical perspectives of scholars from a range of academic fields. Rhizomatic Trajectories (2020) documents independent projects that have developed from within TOTO’s contextualising framework. These publications encapsulate TOTO’s research scope and interdisciplinary methods. They are joined by the installations, which re-mediate Spode’s heritage to consider how ‘raw materials’ as concepts and physical artefacts can intersect with archival practice. TOTO has contributed to Stoke-on-Trent’s regeneration initiatives and international ceramics reputation, and influenced the local government’s heritage preservation policy. TOTO received a total of £349,525 funding, including multiple awards from the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
