Beyond Text: Performances, Sounds, Images, Objects
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Beyond Text: Performances, Sounds, Images, Objects 1 Beyond Text Large Grants 6 Paul Basu, Andrew Burn, Lucy Durán, Sandy Heslop, Beyond Text: Performances, Sounds, Bob Ladd, Andrew Michael Roberts, Jason Toynbee Images, Objects Beyond Text Small Grants 16 Alistair Campbell, Jonathan Foster, James Gow, How do we go Beyond Text? Björn Heile, Paul Heritage, Marion Leonard, Keith Lilley, Graeme This was a question that the Arts and Humanities Research Milne, Alice O’Grady, Murray Pittock, Uma Suthersanen Council first posed in 2007 when it called for innovative new projects that dealt with the ephemeral aspects of human culture, Beyond Text Workshops 26 both past and present. As information is increasingly transmitted Zenon Bankowski, Helen Gilbert, Paul Grainge, digitally, the issue of how we capture, preserve and pass on Sally Harper, Elena Isayev, Sonali Shah intangible knowledge has become a crucial problem for the 21st century. But the problem is a long-standing one; education takes place in many contexts and often only has a tangential relationship Beyond Text Research Networks 38 to text books. The histories of dance, music, dress, the visual arts Julie Brown, Kelli Dipple, Antony Eastmond, John Hutnyk, and oral cultures all testify to the importance of embodied, James Leach, Sas Mays, Fabrizio Nevola, Alice O’Grady, transitory forms of knowledge. Charlotte Waelde In bringing together, amongst others, historians, literary specialists, Beyond Text Student Community 48 art historians, linguists, musicologists, computer scientists and Collaborative Doctoral Awards (Supervisors): psychologists, Beyond Text: Performances, Sounds, Images, Jennifer Binnie (Sandra Dudley/Rodrigo Quian Quiroga), Michela Objects has created an extraordinary community that has Clari (Siân Bayne), Katrina Crear (Christopher Wright), Tony Ross supported its members as we worked through this challenge. Over (Michael Moss), Matt Thompson (Colin Divall), Stephen Willey the past five years, the programme has provided a framework in (Andrea Brady) which to experiment, and, every now and then, to fail and to learn Student-led Initiatives: from that failure. With the help of the wider Beyond Text Suze Adams, Victoria Bates, Benedict Burbridge, Rachele community and the AHRC, scholars who were often used to Ceccarelli, Carla Cesare, Rebecca Cremin, Marl’ene Edwin, Ella working alone, found support for ideas that were experimental and Fisher, Owen Green, Diane Heath, Isis Hjorth, Paul Lihoma, Farès novel but also very risky. Beyond Text scholars have sung, filmed, Moussa, Fiona Noble, Katie Reid, Tony Ross, Lisa Stead, Patricia video-jockeyed, and danced their research. They have gone into Stewart, Danae Theodoridou, Rachel Walls, Helena Walsh, the field in Siena, Northern and Southern Sudan, Sierra Leone, Jonathan Waterlow Cuba, Venezuela, Rajasthan and Mali as well as into theatres, taxi cabs, circuses, festival sites, playgrounds, galleries and recording studies in the United Kingdom. They have tried with new interdisciplinary methodologies and challenged some conventional notions of what constitutes a publication. For example, Beyond the Basket: Construction, Order and Understanding was an exhibition, scholarly essays and conferences, but it was also an impressive series of weavings created by artists in situ in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich. These novel forms of basketry were part of the research process itself, not simply an output. In Children’s Playground Games and Songs in the New Media Age , the primary schools were not only the location for research; the children themselves were the researchers. Beyond the Basket: Basketry master class at Norwich University College of the Arts 3 Partnership and sharing knowledge between academics and those Archiving the Ephemeral which deals with the challenge of locating, preserving and outside Higher Education has been another of the programme’s interpreting the transient moments of live performances that take place in everyday or special settings. These can be sixteenth century street fights, contemporary Jazz key features. Although it was not a condition of funding, almost all improvisations or a dramatic performance on stage or at a music festival. Projects the selected projects included an external partner. This was no have provided key examples of how we can access these moments from our past accident. By building in a relationship with groups who understood and how we preserve them for our future. outreach and public accessibility, researchers had access to the Learning Between the Generations where we find that knowledge and skills are information they required and were able to ensure their findings passed between the generations not only through formal means (such as schooling) made an immediate difference to a wider group of interested but also through informal absorption through daily observation and imitation. audiences. We have been privileged to work with organisations as Heritage and Values where creating an understanding of the heritage and values of diverse as the British Library and the Scottish National Library, a place or community can be helpful in generating a sense of responsibility for future Merseyside Maritime Museum, Red Bee Media and Urban Angel generations. Projects have worked extensively with international, national and local organisations to explore how heritage can (and cannot) create a sense of identity, Circus. We have been closely involved with schools in London and belonging and social cohesion. We have also shown how it can be divisive, alienating Sheffield and with artists across the UK. In examining how and why and challenging. New technologies are potentially very valuable in bridging the divide these collaborations worked, we found that ensuring a shared but are being adopted in very different ways for very different purposes. vision, open dialogue and personal trust was far more important Creative Industries and the Digital Economy has emerged as a key issue for UK than paperwork and institutional signatures. Learning how to growth. Beyond Text researchers have shown the complexities of circulating public support the skills required for successful partnership will be an data and visual materials and how we can break down the barriers between arts and humanities researchers and the digital industries. important lesson for the future. Finally, as with all major projects, the programme owes a large debt to many different Beyond Text Student-Led Initiatives allowed us to pass on some of this knowledge individuals. As Programme Director, I could not have done my job without the hard to the next generation of scholars. Relatively small sums (maximum of £2000) were work and wise advice of Professor John Rink and the members of the Beyond Text awarded to 22 groups of doctoral students who ran events, created training materials Steering Committee. I have relied on many AHRC staff for their input and I would like and websites, set up e-publications, commissioned music and works of art. They to particularly thank Susanne Hart and Lucy Parnall who have seen the project through came together to learn project management skills and to teach each other the virtues to the end. As all who have been involved will know, Ruth Hogarth, the Programme of collaboration. Manager has been our invaluable and much appreciated guide in ensuring our success. I would like to thank them all and to conclude with my gratitude to the Arts As we come to the end of the programme, and Humanities Research Council, its Council and Chief Executive for supporting we have been looking back at our original Beyond Text . aims and objectives and our initial themes. Some of our original issues became sharper and more focused. For example, Evelyn Welch, Beyond Text Programme Director we found common problems in the area Professor of Renaissance Studies and Vice-Principal of legal policy, with projects on copyright for Research and International Affairs in music and dance and in the key area of Queen Mary, University of London “Orphan Works”, where failure to identify the original rights holders has meant that institutions such as the British Library are unable to digitise and distribute cultural works. The issues were also important to numerous other projects where questions of ownership, emulation and copying were central to the research. In other cases, we have reframed the themes to reflect the emerging results. Our findings fall under four headings: © HumanSect by Urban Angels, Light Night, The Winter Gardens, Sheffield, 2006, collaborators in Exploring Festival Performance as a ‘State of Encounter’ 4 5 Beyond Text Large Grants Reanimating cultural heritage: digital repatriation, knowledge networks and These ambitious, large-scale projects were designed to take civil society strengthening in post-conflict innovative ideas and put them into practice over an extended Sierra Leone two to three year period. Outcomes from these projects include proof-of-concept prototypes of gaming equipment, exhibitions, films, websites and recommendations for educators, NGOs and People Dr Paul Basu , Institute of Archaeology, University College London (PI) the music industry. Dr Martin White , School of Informatics, University of Sussex Dr Zeeshan Patoli , School of Informatics, University of Sussex Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp , Institute of Archaeology, University College London • Reanimating Cultural Heritage: digital repatriation, knowledge networks and civil society strengthening in post-conflict Sierra Leone