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Title Collecting Rooms: Objects, Identities and Domestic Spaces Title Collecting Rooms: Objects, Identities and Domestic Spaces Type Thesis URL http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/7782/ Date 2014 Citation Vale, Sam (2014) Collecting Rooms: Objects, Identities and Domestic Spaces. PhD thesis, University of the Arts London. Creators Vale, Sam Usage Guidelines Please refer to usage guidelines at http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/policies.html or alternatively contact [email protected]. License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives Unless otherwise stated, copyright owned by the author Collecting Rooms: Objects, Identities and Domestic Spaces August 2014 Sam Vale London College of Communication hesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of the Arts London i Acknowledgements With thanks to my PhD supervisory team: Janice Hart, Patrick Sutherland and Sara Davidmann for all their exceptional help and advice throughout the duration of this research. his enquiry would have not been achievable without the support of the University of the Arts London and the studentship that enabled me to undertake full-time research. My investigation into collecting rooms has only been possible due to the great generosity of the participants. I give special thanks to Tom, Allan, Trigg, Potts and John who shared their time, space, narratives and collections. Also I would like to thank their families for giving me alternative perspectives on living with a collector. Particularly Ellie, David, Tash, Jean and Carol, who all provided additional interviews. I would also like to give thanks to the numerous collectors and social groups who kindly gave me their time and hospitality during the ieldwork. I am truly humbled by the generosity of the people I have been fortunate enough to come into contact with and I have found many friends along the way. Also I would like to thank my wonderful patient friends: Allie Gazzard, Minna Kantonen, Fox, Cathy Higgins, Dafna Talmor, Melinda Gareh and Jody Moorat, who all dedicated their time to reading the manuscript drafts and viewing the creative work in progress. Each of them ofering valuable feedback and advice when it was most needed. I would also like to thank my colleagues from Amersham College and Canterbury Christ Church University, for their continuing support both in and out the work place. My exhibition at he Minories would not have been possible without the support and cups of tea given by Laura Jackson-Willis and her colleagues at the Colchester Institute. Lastly, and by no means least, I would like to thank my family who have shown immense support throughout this project. I would like to particularly mention my parents Bob and Sue, who have shown enduring patience, watching my artworks countless times and listening to me edit sound on their dining room table. Without their encouragement and help none of this would have been possible. ii Contents Page 0.01 Abstract 1 0.02 Introduction 2 0.03 hesis Structure 5 1.00 Literature Review 9 1.01 Objects as Triggers to Narrative 9 1.02 Object Displays as Biography 12 1.03 Collection, Objects and Memory 13 1.04 Collecting Motivations: Narratives of the Past, Present and Future 15 1.05 Space as Framework for a Narrative Enquiry 19 1.06 Collecting Rooms and Temporality 21 1.07 Narratology and Performance 22 1.08 Alternative Techniques for Interpreting Narrative 25 1.09 Communicating Research Findings to an Audience 28 2.00 Practice Review 35 2.01 Photography and Autotopographical Displays 37 2.02 Photography and Sound 44 2.03 Documentary Film and Fine Art Practice 49 2.04 Film in the Gallery Context 63 3.00 Collecting Rooms: Methodology 67 3.01 Recruiting, Selecting and Anonymising Participants 67 3.02 Photographic Stitches (2009) 69 3.03 he Journey to the Collecting Room (2009) 72 3.04 Audio Interviews (2010) 73 3.05 Developmental Case Study - Making a Killing (2010) 74 3.06 Initial Film Experiments (2011) 76 3.07 Four-Channel Projection of Unobtainable Dreams (2011) 78 3.08 Conirmation Presentation as Research Focus 78 3.09 Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis 79 3.10 Unobtainable Dreams (2011) 80 3.11 Exhibition: Citing Reverie (2011) 81 3.12 Methodology: Building on Earlier Experiments 82 3.13 Research Methods Employed for the Remaining Case Studies (2011) 83 3.14 Final Film Narratives (2011 – 2012) 84 3.15 Final Presentation of the Research (2012) 85 4.00 Case Studies 87 4.01 Developmental Case Study - Making A Killing 89 4.02 Unobtainable Dreams 105 4.03 Hook, Line and Sinker 121 4.04 It’s Not All Roses 137 4.05 Mastering Time 151 5.00 Conclusion 166 5.01 A Summary of Research Findings and Contribution to Knowledge 166 5.02 Related Future Research 172 5.03 Bibliography 174 iii List of Illustrations Figure 1: Teetotal Briton, 51, has 1,600 Beer Glasses Stocked in Spare Room, in Metro (23.10.2011) www.metro.co.uk/weird/stories/879477-teetotal-briton-51-has-1-600-beer-glasses-stocked-in-spare-room Figure 2: Image from the series, Tangible Cosmologies (1997), by Veli Granö, from: www.veligrano.info Figure 3: Inmate’s Table, from the series Killing Time (2007), by Edmund Clarke, from: www.edmundclark.com Figure 4: Image from the series Villa Mona (2006), by Marjolaine Ryley, from: www.marjolaineryley.co.uk Figure 5: Image from the installation, he Places We Live (2008), by Jonas Bendiksen, from:www.theplaceswelive.com Figure 6: Still from Transplant (2008), by John Wynne and Tim Wainwright, from: www.timwainwright.com/Transplant Figure 7: Still from Michael Hamburger (2007), by Tacita Dean, from: www.frithstreetgallery.com Figure 8: Still from Cloud Island (2010), by Fiona Tan, from: www.frithstreetgallery.com Figure 9: Still from Sleep Walk Sleep Talk (2009), by Suki Chan, from: www.sukichan.co.uk/sleepwalk Figure 10: Still from Yellow Patch (2011), by Zarina Bhimji , from: www.zarinabhimji.com Figure 11: he Orchid Conservatory Stitch (2009) Figure 12: he Clock Room Stitch (2009) Figure 13: he Clock Room Website (2009) Figure 14: he Clock Room Website (2009) Figure 15: Example of Selective Focusing from Making a Killing (2010) Figure 16: Experiment for Unobtainable Dreams (2010) Figure 17: Experiment for Unobtainable Dreams (2010) Figure 18: Image of the exhibition Citing Reverie (2011) Figure 19: Image of the exhibition Citing Reverie (2011) Figure 20 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 21 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 22 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 23 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 24 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 25 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 26 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 27 : Image from the series Making A Killing (2010) Figure 28 : Image from the series Unobtainable Dreams (2010) Figure 29 : Image from the series Unobtainable Dreams (2010) Figure 30 : Image from the series Unobtainable Dreams (2010) Figure 31 : Image from the series Unobtainable Dreams (2010) DVD Insert : Unobtainable Dreams (2010) Figure 32 : Image from the series Hook, Line and Sinker (2011) Figure 33 : Image from the series Hook, Line and Sinker (2011) iv Figure 34 : Image from the series Hook, Line and Sinker (2011) Figure 35 : Image from the series Hook, Line and Sinker (2011) Figure 36 : Image from the series Hook, Line and Sinker (2011) Figure 37 : Image from the series Hook, Line and Sinker (2011) DVD Insert : Hook, Line and Sinker (2011) Figure 38 : Image from the series It’s Not All Roses (2011) Figure 39 : Image from the series It’s Not All Roses (2011) DVD Insert: It’s Not All Roses (2012) Figure 40 : Image from the series Mastering Time (2011) Figure 41 : Image from the series Mastering Time (2011) Figure 42 : Image from the series Mastering Time (2011) Figure 43 : Image from the series Mastering Time (2011) DVD Insert: MasteringTime (2012) v vi his research project into interview-based narrative is produced through examining the symbiotic relationship between theory and practice. In light of this, the preferred method for reading this research project is through a digital PDF, as it presents the practical outcomes in the context of the overall investigation. vii viii 0.01 Abstract his practice-based enquiry into United Kingdom based collecting rooms reveals ive participants’ motivations, frustrations and satisfactions manifested in the creation of their spaces. hrough the examination of theorists and commentators in the distinct but related ields of cultural theory, sociology and art, the thesis proposes that a collector’s past can be witnessed through memories generated by and within the space. he thesis also advances the idea that part of the experience of the space takes place in the present but simultaneously imagines the future. I have constructed spatial portraits using semi-structured interviews, photography and video, which explore the environment of each collector thus gaining insights into individual circumstances and personal situations. Narrative within this enquiry takes three intersecting forms: irstly the account of the construction of each collecting room, which divests objects of their historical origins, replacing these with personal associations or meanings devised by each collector. Secondly, each participants’ re-telling of their narratives and thirdly through the re-presentation of the collectors’ narratives to an audience. he latter brings my agency as an artist into focus. Uniting all three narrative forms, the creative practice intends to produce a meta- narrative of each collecting room that further investigates the temporality of the space through the combined use of still photography, video and sound. Constructed from a symbiotic relationship between theory and practice, the research uses a methodology that combines Sensory Ethnography with Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.
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