The Machinery Installation : World Heritage Festival at Ironbridge Gorge
- Submitting institution
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The University of Birmingham
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 92047028
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- September
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- 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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2
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Radcliffe is the first scholar to identify the relationship between clog dancing and industrial performance, revealing it as a popular dance craze of c19th Britain. Through archival research and embodied practice, she uncovered intangible histories of a dance created by female textile workers, revising the accepted chronology of British industrial dance and noise music by over 100 years. Challenging Marx’s alienation theory, Radcliffe discovered a creative means of expression in which workers took control of repetitive factory work, coalescing with and embodying machines. Comparisons between working practices in c19th mills and c21st call centres revealed shared health issues and global histories [item T].
Testing steps against the sounds and movements of textile machinery, she sought to represent the repetition and exhaustion experienced by women in the mills through her own embodied practice. Radcliffe devised an interdisciplinary, live, digital performance, The Machinery [Output A] collaborating with artist Sarah Angliss. Recording and filming together, they created a sound, dance and video composition, choreographed by Radcliffe using live, sensate, sound and video software created by Angliss.
In 2018, Radcliffe received NHL/ACE digital funding to develop the performance with film-maker Jon Harrison, creating an immersive 3-screen installation [Output B]. ACE small tour funding followed in 2020.
The live performances and installation, which comprise the submitted outputs (funded through ERC, AHRC and further ACE grants) have featured in important galleries, museums and festivals, (including Compton Verney, June-Sept 2018 [CDEF]; Science Museum, April 2015 [GHI]; Café Oto, July 2017 [J]; Algomech 2016 [AB] and 2019 [OP]; Deutsches Museum Research Institute, Germany, September 2019 [QR]; and Unesco World Heritage Sites, Ironbridge Gorge September 2018 [KLMN]; Derwent Valley with tour postponed due to Covid) [S]; with research disseminated via academic articles [HT], TV [W] and radio [V], reaching millions of viewers and receiving reviews in major newspapers [FN].
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
