The CANARY and the HAMMER
- Submitting institution
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University of South Wales / Prifysgol De Cymru
: A - A – Faculty of Creative Industries, University of South Wales
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies : A - A – Faculty of Creative Industries, University of South Wales
- Output identifier
- 3660779
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- Book plus contextual information
- Open access status
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- Month
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- Year
- 2019
- 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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- Research group(s)
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B - Screen Media
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This multicomponent output details our reverence for gold. Gold is ubiquitous in modern life; the mineral is concealed at the heart of much of the technology we use and is, most fundamentally, a potent symbol of value, beauty, purity, greed and political power. Through a mix of image, text and archival material from primary sources, this output provides insight into the troubled history of gold and the complex ways it intersects with the global economy.
The book, The Canary and the Hammer, connects disparate stories from the mania of the gold rush; the brutal world of sexual politics in modern mining; illegal e-waste recycling in China; innovative global solutions to pandemics and environmental disasters, and gold’s often dark but indispensable role at the heart of high-tech industry. Prompted by the financial crisis of 2008 and its stark reminder of the global west’s determination to accumulate wealth, Barnard sets out to question gold’s continued status as economic barometer amidst new intangible forms of technological high finance. By addressing this through photography, Barnard raises the question of how we can respond to such abstract events and concepts.
The Gold Depository (2017) http://www.thegolddepository.com/ is a hybridised digital research project created in collaboration with ICVisual Lab that interlaces physical and algorithmic attributes, aesthetic and political forms. It asks, in the age of ‘information capitalism’, how can the photographic medium, which has eluded stable definition since its inception, respond to an event as abstract as the global financial crisis?
This research inquiry and its insights were disseminated via international exhibitions, while reviews of The Canary and the Hammer attest to its public reception. Because REF2021 prohibits combined physical/electronic output submission, we submit a hard copy of The Canary and the Hammer alongside a USB that (imperfectly) represents the multi-textual website that is The Gold Depository.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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