Visual Culture and affiliated inter-disciplinary research
Research Showcase
BA (Hons)
History of Art and Design
Fashion and Dress History
Visual Culture MA
Curating Collections and Heritage
History of Design and Material Culture PhD
History of Art and Design Design Studies
Visual Culture and affiliated inter-disciplinary research
Research Showcase
Welcome…
…to the 2024 showcase of research in Art and Design History, featuring work by BA, MA, and PhD students at the University of Brighton. The showcase encompasses these courses:
1. Undergraduate courses: BA (Hons) History of Art and Design, BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History and BA (Hons) Visual Culture. For these students, the dissertation is the fulfilment of a year’s intensive research. Topics emerge from students’ own enthusiasms and specialist teaching. Their independent study develops through a range of supported milestones, culminating in this final public presentation.
2. Postgraduate courses: MA Curating Collections and Heritage and MA History of Design and Material Culture. The MA sudents’ showcase in this catalogue reflects their case study research projects in object study and critical perspectives on exhibitions, employing a range of theoretical and methodological approaches.
3. PhD students associated with the Centre for Design History organised a research symposium in March, where they presented papers. This catalogue showcases the most current stage of their research journey.
As you will see, students’ projects span across time and place, from the eighteenth century to the present, and include local concerns as well as international case studies. The themes cover gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and taste, politics and protest, consumption and collecting, craft and technology, structures and their subversion. The images, objects, media and sites include the sacred and the profane, the elite and the humble. Students engage with painting, photography and performance; film and digital media; advertising, periodicals and packaging; architecture, furniture and interiors; historic houses, galleries and exhibitions; fashion, dress and textiles. Students conduct research in libraries, archives and museums, as well as through interviews and fieldwork. Please take your time to enjoy the fruits of their labour; we are truly proud of them.
If this whets your appetite for pursuing studies in Art and Design History, our contact details can be found at the back of the catalogue. These courses enable depth and specialism from undergraduate to advanced level research.
Dr Ceren Özpınar (Course Leader, BA Art History and Visual Culture, BA History of Art and Design and BA Visual Culture); Dr Verity Clarkson (BA Fashion and Design History and BA Fashion and Dress History); Dr Claire Wintle (MA Curating Collections and Heritage); Dr Charlotte Nicklas (MA History of Design and Material Culture) and all the PhD supervisors.
The Centre for Design History applies a cross-disciplinary research perspective to understand how design in all its forms has shaped things, spaces and actions across time.
Our approach extends to research across other arts and humanities, the social sciences, engineering, health, and community engagement. A wide social and economic impact develops through our links with the cultural sector, particularly museums and art galleries, government and voluntary sectors and creative businesses. Our research in design history makes an important contribution to cultural life and wellbeing in areas such as heritage, sustainable design, housing and dress histories.
Intersections of Art, Religion and Science of the 18th & 19th Century
Lori Bennallick
The Enlightenment Era saw an unprecedented surge in intellectual, cultural and philosophical advancement throughout Europe from the late seventeenth century, emphasising reason, tolerance and equality, with Natural Philosophy uniting Aesthetics, Science and Metaphysics. However, these central tenets were within a patriarchal framework, and as such, were sentiments not readily extended to women. A defining intersection of art, religion and science is its historical exclusion of women as creator or scholar. Her permissible involvement is that of artist-Muse or polarised within the Madonna / whore dichotomy of godly moralising. In the realms of science, she is a walking womb for pathologizing or indeed, the cadaver for dissecting. I explore this by adopting the ‘Anatomical Venus’ as my primary reference point. Here, the Venus of Renaissance Europe––the epitome of feminine beauty and sexuality––is used as a template for eighteenth and nineteenth century wax works for the medical gaze. The casting of which, could require up to 200 female corpses for a single model. This aestheticization of death endeavoured to instruct while circumventing putrefaction and bodily decay, making the spectacle of death more agreeable. My argument contextualises the dehumanisation of the deceased against the fetishised feminine Exquisite Corpse of Art and Literature, questioning their posthumous transcendence from ‘fallen woman’ into art object. Their unsettling mimesis brings them within proximity of the abject, monstrous feminine or, what Freud describes as Unheimlich – The Uncanny. The form of Venus, objectified for its sensuality, creates an incongruity with its function as educational instrument, eliciting a peculiar blend of macabre curiosity and eroticism. She challenges our fascination with the subtle relationships between life and death, with desire, voyeurism and dominion.
From Repression to Expression: The Transformation of the Moscow Art Scene
in Soviet and Post-Soviet Era
Apartment exhibitions’ of non-official Moscow Art at the gallery APTART, Installation view, 1982. Photograph by George Kiesewalter.
This dissertation delves into the changes seen in the Moscow art scene from the Soviet era to the collapse of the USSR, when notable shifts in politics and society took place. The primary aim of this research is to examine how political and social transformations impacted artistic expressions in Moscow during and after the systems changed. It seeks to understand how artists adapted to changes in freedom of expression and responded to censorship. The study also explores how both the government and society reacted to art forms at that time, tracing their evolution during that era. Through an analysis of primary sources, such as interviews with artists from Moscow, including Lavrenty Bruni and Nikolai Kozlov, who are an important part of the local art scene, it investigates the phenomenon of Soviet art, namely ‘Moscow Non-Conformism’. Through this, further questions are raised, addressing the reaction of society, the public and the authorities to art that was unrecognized by the Soviet system. Delving into the world of Soviet-era art, the study also explores the artistic development under strict state control, while emphasizing its significant role as a form of cultural and political defiance The dissertation demonstrates how the development of the Moscow art scene was determined by social transformations, where art functioned as a mirror and a response to these changes.
The
Vasilii Bruni
Designer Dogs, Cowborgs and Lizardless Legs:
Introducing the ‘Next Animal’ to Art
Phoebe Huitson
Despite perhaps being the only beings in the universe which share ‘life’, humans class animals as something entirely separate from themselves, permitting usage of them as sources of food, experimentation, and entertainment. At the same time humans left fields for factories and created other ‘beings’ that much like animals, such as machines and computers, could labour and even eventually learn on their behalf. This dissertation is concerned with exploring the human-animal-machine relationship, charting examples of our contradictions (how can humans eat meat while keeping pets?) and our similarities (how can humans mourn the death of robots and pets alike?). From the mass-slaughter of livestock to genetic modification, robot-pet to artificially generated wildlife, the four artworks cited act as metaphors for the human inclination to destroy all life in the pursuit of extending our own. Using theories of Jean Baudrillard, this dissertation ultimately concludes that animals have entered a state of ‘hyperreality’, meaning humans perceive the current condition of animals as the norm rather than a colossal deviation from the lives they might naturally lead without our interference. As the boundaries between human, animal and machine collapse, we must question the projected direction of technological advancement will mean for all Life as well know it; What will the “Next Animals” will be? Will they join us if we upload ourselves to the Cloud? Or will we join them in the face of a second Industrial Revolution, where advanced automating technologies make all of us redundant?
Exploring the Controversial Photography of Robert Mapplethorpe: A Critical Analysis of Gender, Sexuality, and Artistic Expression
Alfie Mancell
Robert Mapplethorpe is known for his bold exploration of sexuality and the human body, creating a body of work that ignited intense debates around censorship and artistic expression. His photographs, which were often provocative and explicit, challenged societal norms and pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in art. The art industry, the media and the public have varied reactions to Mapplethorpe’s work. This dissertation explores how the artist’s groundbreaking and boundary-pushing photography can be seen as obscene and offensive.
During the height of the AIDS epidemic, Mapplethorpe’s natural portrayal of gay sexuality added a political dimension to the controversies surrounding his work. The discussion about his art extended beyond the visuals to the positioning of relationships depicted within society, challenging traditional ideas of the home and heteronormativity. By exploring the racial objectification within Mapplethorpe’s work at this time this dissertation is able to add another layer to the complexities of his art and the controversies surrounding it. Some critics have argued that in certain works, Mapplethorpe’s portrayal of Black people may have perpetuated stereotypes or objectified individuals based on their race. This study investigates how much controversy surrounds Mapplethorpe’s photography and whether the controversy is more about his art or about Mapplethorpe himself.
Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-portrait, 1988, gelatin silver print on paper, Tate and National Galleries of Scotland.
Utopias and Urban Planning: Exploring the Integration of Utopian Ideals in Urban Design
Holly Owen
Since Sir Thomas More introduced the concept of utopia in 1516, it has captivated scholars, writers, and thinkers. The idea of a better society being achievable has sparked literature, extensive research, discussion, and attempts to create utopian communities. But what does utopianism have to do with city building and urban planning? The ideals portrayed in literature just like More’s and the desire to create a better community or future have often manifested the construction of new cities. This dissertation seeks to explore how built environment can contribute to the realisation of utopian societies. Central to this exploration are the main questions: How have city planners integrated utopian concepts into their designs? What methods have they employed, and how do these methods align with the aspiration to create a better future?
The discussion begins with an analysis of utopian thought, establishing a historical and theoretical framework for understanding the concept as a perfect or idealised society. Through case studies of The Garden City, Ville Radieuse, and Singapore, this study evaluates how city planners have integrated such utopian concepts into their designs. It explores the methods they have employed, such as the integration of nature, strict layouts, and structures aimed at creating communities and reducing class differences within cityscapes. By analysing past attempts against theoretical frameworks, this research aims to shed light on the challenges and opportunities in realising utopian ideals through urban planning. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay between utopianism and urban design, providing insights into the potential of built environments to shape more harmonious societies.
Activist Art as a Medium of Memory in Violent Settings
Olivia Ratcliffe
This dissertation delves into themes around memory within activist art. The study will explore collective healing, tourism, grief, political corruption, the war on drugs in Mexico, the Berlin Wall, and harmful Native American stereotypes within museum spaces of North America. It is split into three sections, each exploring different examples from around the world. It examines the theoretical foundations of activist art and collective memory, highlighting the ways in which art can serve society as a vehicle for resistance, remembrance, and resilience.
The first chapter explores the Memorial a las Víctimas de la Violencia memorial in Mexico City, which is dedicated to victims of the drug war. It shows how this space helps people honour those lost, challenge official stories, and find a chance for collective healing amidst political turmoil. The second chapter focuses on art connected to the Berlin Wall. It examines how artists used their work to defy political oppression and celebrate the reunification of Germany both before and after the Wall. The final chapter shifts focus to the artist James Luna, whose work confronts stereotypes about Native Americans. By shedding light on historical and ongoing injustices, this artist challenges harmful narratives and pushes for change. Overall, this dissertation investigates how activist art serves as a powerful tool for social change. It highlights how different artworks from various cultural and historical contexts engage with memory to address violence and nurture resilience in society.
Ambrosius Holbein, Map of Utopia, 1518, woodcut and letter press print. The British Museum, London.
Ellen Fernandez-Sacco, James Luna, The Artifact Piece, 1987. Installation view, San Diego Museum of Man. x-traonline.
What Shapes an Identity?: Reflections of Japan within the Filmworks of Hayao Miyazaki
Camille Scribner
The filmworks of Hayao Miyazaki create an opening for discussions pertaining to identity, while reflecting on certain aspects of his and Japan’s own experiences. He also seeks to create films palatable for younger audiences. His films have a common theme, discussing humanity’s relationship with nature and how that alters the way people live. Using the environment within a movie, he reflects upon how the natural world shapes the characters, and how people affect and shape nature. This allows him to build narratives discussing both personal and national identity, using the film’s setting as an extension of Japan to convey the connection between humanity and the natural world.
Within this dissertation’s case study films, Miyazaki uses storytelling subtly rooted within periods of Japanese history to reflect on events within that time period. This alludes to the changing broader identity of Japan as a nation while the main character’s identity evolves throughout the story. These discussions emphasize the connections between the films and reality, and Miyazaki’s thoughts on the evolution of Japan’s national identity as seen during periods of Western involvement in Japan’s history. What Shapes an Identity?: Reflections of Japan Within the Filmworks of Hayao Miyazaki aims to decipher the themes within three Miyazaki-directed films, and how they inform the identities of both characters and environment throughout.
The Representation of the Female Form During the Consumption of Flesh in 21st Century Cinema
Romina Valerio Martinez
A scene depicting the protagonist crave for meat in Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau, performed by Garance Marillier, courtesy of IMDb, Wild Bunch, 2016.
Cannibalism in film has always been a controversial topic among society. This dissertation brings together a close look at modern films and a deep dive into how society views gender and bodies, focusing sharply on the portrayal of the female form within narratives of flesh consumption in twenty-first century cinema. Through analysis, it unravels the cinematic storytelling, uncovering the layers of symbolism and meaning woven into these narratives. The film The Neon Demon, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn navigates the fashion industry’s obsession with youth and beauty, portraying the female form as both revered and feared. Meanwhile, Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau, offers a compelling exploration of identity and desire as a young woman’s journey of selfdiscovery takes an unexpected turn. These films spark discussions on empowerment and sexuality, challenging conventional portrayals of women in cinema.
Beyond the screen, this study puts forward the socio-cultural implications inherent in cinematic portrayals, highlighting the underlying commentary on gender roles, societal expectations, and the commodification of the female body. Drawing from a fusion of feminist theory and cinematic analysis, this dissertation offers a scholarly examination of the intersection between corporeal representation and cultural discourse. As readers engage with this dissertation, they are invited to embark on an exploration of the cinematic landscape, where each film reveals profound insights into the web of gender, power, and representation.
Film still from Princess Mononoke by Studio Ghibli, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, depicting Ashitaka as he shows both the iron that tainted Nago and his own curse to Lady Eboshi, available on FanCaps.net.
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
How did Women Embody Freedom
and Gain Independence Through Cycling in the late 19th Century?
Lily Adair
Why did women cycle? What were the benefits of cycling? How did cycling provide potential escapism of traditional Victorian life for women? How did women embody freedom and independence through cycling? All these questions and more are investigated within this dissertation with the help from articles, magazines, photographs, letters, and other academic documents. The popularity that cycling brought to British women in the late nineteenth century also invited ridicule, predominantly from men. A major source to see this in is The Lady Cyclist (1896). Similarly, other published works from this period such as The Cosmopolitan (1895-08) and The Cycling World Illustrated (1896) include very useful insight into the social circumstances surrounding cycling women. A reoccurring theme of this dissertation is embodiment and embodiment within society, physically, through dress, and of dress. Whilst primary sources provided profound insight into this topic, secondary sources such as literature from Joanne Entwistle and Clare Fischer provided useful critical frames and methods for developing and exploring this topic further. Looking at women’s embodiment of independence and freedom through cycling in the late nineteenth century gave insight into women’s lives, hobbies, aspirations, tribulations, dress, and so much more. Also, it began paving new ways for the future generations of women through cycling. It allowed for substantial interpretation into the invaluable measures and means women went through in the challenging pursuit of achieving embodiment and gaining independence through cycling.
WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends) & Football Casuals: Fashion, Identity & Personal Style in 20th-21st Century Liverpool
Ellie-Mae Carter
Style is an individual and subjective topic, often with personal origins representing one’s personality, political affiliation, or social position. This means that style can represent many ideals; something that one finds fashionable may be the complete opposite for another person. This dissertation explores how the personal style of two different subcultures in Liverpool, across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, has been misrepresented instead of praised for their influence. I explore how different newspapers have controlled the narrative of these subcultures through stereotypes of classicism, poverty, and misogyny.
The first chapter explores the individual culture that influences the fashion of football casuals. From boot boys to punks and Paninaro, this aesthetic is characterized by the history of Liverpool and football fans’ blend of sportswear and designer labels. All elements presented have manifested a powerful style and sense of identity, which has proven itself as a strong subculture that intertwines football, fashion, music, and masculinity. In the second chapter, I delve into the glamorous world of WAGs and the personal style of women from Liverpool, contrasted by the not-so-glamorous commentary of them perpetuated by the British press. It focuses on how the press has misrepresented hyper-feminine women as tasteless instead of celebrating their style as a valid form of self-expression. I also look at how these women have subverted expectations held over them by using fashion and beauty to mobilize socially.
A Pretty Summer Costume. 1896. Print.
The Cycling World Illustrated, The University of Warwick archives, Warwick. MSS.328/C/5/ CYW/2.
Scouse Women ‘at home’ in Liverpool City Centre. Photo courtesy of Jenny Poole via Flickr. www.flickr. com/photos/16873035@ N00/4893357883
The
Do-It-Yourselfers
and the Dead
Broke
Department: Young Women and Identity, Fashionability, and Do-It-Yourself Fashion, 1966-1976
Megan Davidson
Clothing and accessories have been D-I-Y-ed within the home across history. However, between 1966-1976, for one of the first times in British fashion history, the idea that a garment with visible handmade-ness could be perceived as fashionable, or even more fashionable than purchased garments, moved from the subcultural and into mainstream everyday fashion practices. This dissertation explores the relationship between D-I-Y fashion and young women’s identities in an era of growing social and financial freedoms and the sexually independent single girl. No longer was D-I-Y simply domestic labour, but it could be about playfulness, fashion, and subversion.
1966-1976 is also an interesting era regarding D-I-Y fashion practices, due to increasing mass production and consumerism as a result of increased disposable income amongst younger generations. This presents a unique social context, as clothing had never been so cheap, accessible or trendy – so just why was a D-I-Y clothing so popular?
This dissertation proposes that four main factors were responsible for the sudden fashionability and popularity of D-I-Y fashion. These are cost, accessibility, sizing and most importantly uniqueness/individuality. Whilst many may term this era as “the decade that taste forgot”, for the first time the value of fashionable dress lay in its distinctive eccentricity and visible handmade-ness as opposed to a simply fiscal value. The importance of individuality and how it relates to both D-I-Y fashion practices and young women’s identity is one of the key themes discussed.
Victorian Mourning Practices and Gender: Advertisement, Consumption, and Representation of Victorian Mourning Clothing
Nell Gostick
While mourning dress in Britain has been observed for centuries, it was during the reign of Queen Victoria that mourning culture reached its peak. From home furnishings to elaborate funeral displays, the innate human desire to honour and remember the dead was transformed in the nineteenth century into an empire of consumerism. The most iconic of all Victorian mourning was the clothing that was worn as an expression of grief for the duration of a mourning period. The Victorians took the already established etiquette of mourning and transformed it into a set of rules to follow in order to mourn ‘properly’, though, as this dissertation explores, there was often conflicting advice and many sources with their own ideas of what was socially acceptable.
This dissertation investigates how mourning wear was able rise to the extremes it did during the nineteenth century. The focus of this study is on the means of dissemination of mourning etiquette through advertising and consumption, and how these two factors have been reflected in, and shaped, the representation of those who wore mourning clothing. The research is supported by material evidence of advertising, from newspapers and magazines, extant garments, and the works of artists such as Richard Redgrave and Edward Killingworth Johnson. This study aims to use material evidence to draw conclusions about the way in which class and gender affected the display of mourning attire, focusing on the embodied experience of mourning during the Victorian period.
Front cover of Vogue, February 1972. Featuring the phrase “Do-It-Yourself fashion”.
Edward Killingworth Johnson. Drawing Britain, 1877.
Watercolour, gouache on paper. 55.9 x 35.2 cm.
The Victoria and Albert Museum.
Evening Dress, c.1928, silk rhinestone, Peggy Hoyt Spring/Summer Collection, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, New York.
How Did the Traditional Flapper Look Promote Social Change?
Alicia Harris
American society within the 1920s saw a revolutionary change in gender roles for women, as women’s suffrage movements of the previous decades alongside the growing rise in feminism and women’s rights movements allowed greater social and economic mobility for women. The fashions of this decade help to visualize these changes in women’s agencies, as there was a strong contrast to how women bound and concealed their bodies in the previous decades through various corsetry and concepts of ‘modesty’. The greatest signifier of these changing fashions was those worn by the ‘flapper’, a group of women within American society that represented youth cultures and changing ideas of the time, whose fashions represented the daring ‘modern women’ of the 1920s.
This dissertation explores the dress worn by these women, and how the changing styles and silhouettes were a rejection of nineteenth century dress ideals. It reviews various daywear, eveningwear and undergarments worn by the flapper at the time, as well as how the attitudes of these women worked with their clothing in tandem to create politicised figures. This study aims to uncover the nuance of the flapper identity, through researching their representations within media and film. Thus, it shows how fashion was such an important tool in shaping social attitudes and so crucial for women who wished to change their circumstances. The study also looks at Black identities in 1920s America, as beauty culture and fashion were just as important to them when it came to nurturing social change.
Kimono Design and Cultural Identity in Edo Japan’s Fashion Culture (1603-1868)
Aleksandra Maciorowska
How do fashion trends evolve over 200 years of self-imposed isolation? Using the proto-kimono, the kosode, I have explored the evolution of wafuku and the ways it reflects society and identity through the fashion of the turbulent Edo-period of 1603 to 1867, celebrating trendsetters in Geishas and Nōh actors and the sumptuary laws that shaped their choices. Dissecting the multitudes of textiles, colours, patterns and motifs, sold by the rising merchant class, and how these gave the tools for both the ruling class and commoners to express themselves in new ways as the zeitgeist shifted from the flamboyant Rinpa School to the subdued Iki aesthetic. I have shown through examples from pattern books and contemporary art pieces the many different historical iterations of the kosode and its many different variations through those eras. By varying the sleeve length, material, weave, embroidery technique and pattern, colour, use of metals, design, and layering, it is clear that there are as many different ways of styling one’s kimono to show social status, aesthetic sensibilities and cultural awareness, as there were citizens in pre-modern Japan. As Japan opened itself back to the world, the kimono was diluted by Western-style clothing, and changed to an item of clothing mostly kept and maintained for the festivals and celebrations that are still upheld today. The kimono is, as much as any part of Japan, an incredibly valuable piece of cultural heritage, through which we can view a microcosm of Japanese ideals.
Katsukawa Shunshō, An Echigoya merchant visiting two women, from the series ‘The Cultivation of Silkworms’, woodblock print, 1786. Victoria and Albert Museum.
English Rock band Slade photographed for their skinhead rebrand.
Walsall,1969. Darren Johnson, Slade in the 1970s. Sonicbond Publishing Ltd, 2023
A Spot of Bovver: Representations of Bovver
Boots in Britain, 1968-1975
Isabelle Murphy
Bovver boots emerged as an emblematic symbol of youth subculture towards the end of the 1960s, representing working class identity and rebellion. Adopted initially by the skinhead subculture, the chunky leather boots soon entered football terraces, transforming into a symbol of violence and thuggery. This dissertation explores the dual narratives of bovver boots, from their intrinsic value as objects of subcultural identity, to their portrayal externally by the media.
Using prominent subculture theorists, particularly those from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, this dissertation dissects bovver boots, exploring their adoption into the subculture, the stylistic predecessors of skinhead and how class impacts subcultural dress. Despite the initial skinhead subculture being deeply intertwined with the style and sounds of Caribbean immigrants in Britain, fractions of boot-wearing gangs were intercepted by the right, causing the press to isolate and associate the distinctive symbols of the style, such as the buzzed hair and boots, with violence and intimidation. This was heightened further by incidences of football-related violence involving boot wearing football fans, leading to outright ban of bovver boots at various football stadiums across Britain. By analysing media representations and the subcultural significance of bovver boots, this dissertation highlights how external forces can shape perceptions about subcultural artifacts. From newspaper headlines to literature and film, the case of bovver boots demonstrates the footwear’s journey from a symbol of identity and class solidarity to an emblem of aggression.
The Relationship between Costume and the Body in the Ballets
Russes, 1909-1929 Cerys Pughsley
Dance in the twentieth century was revolutionised by the Ballets Russes. Sergei Diaghilev’s company earnt its place in high culture with the talent of his troupe and his contemporary approach to performance. The Ballets Russes performances featured costumes that were ingenious in their design, craftsmanship, colours, fabrics, and their ability to enhance the dancing body. Without the use of dialogue in ballet the relationship between the costume and the body is particularly poignant for characterisation and communicating messages to the audience. Despite this, the dancing body is often absent from existing costume scholarship.
This dissertation aims to fill the gap in existing research, exploring how different designers approached costume design, the interaction between costume and the dancers’ bodies and how the performing body is still evident in surviving garments. These aims are reached by analysing photographs, artwork and surviving costumes from the Ballets Russes productions. The purpose of this research is to reveal how, through the use of costume, the Ballets Russes presented their performers’ bodies in unique and profound ways that added new meaning to the dancing body.
This dissertation contributes new ideas about the costumed body by investigating the complex relationship between the dancers’ bodies and the garments designed for them. The research considers how the ideas and beliefs conveyed by the costumed body were received at the time, as well as how they can be interpreted today. This dissertation demonstrates the significance of costume in ballet and the powerful relationship between the dancers and what they wore on stage.
Léon Bakst. Costume design for Schéhérazade. [n.d]. Watercolour. Lebrecht Music Arts. Bridgeman Images.
The Notion and Impact of Celebrity in the 18th and 21st Century with a Focus on Analysing the Power of Their Style
Amelia Ringer
The intoxicating allure of celebrities can be traced back to Georgian Britain with its fabulous women of theatre such as Mary Robinson and Emma Hamilton. The scandalous affairs and dramas were plastered on gossip columns in newspapers where people would flock to see what the ultra-wealthy were up to. People are the same with current day celebrities today such as Zendaya and Paris Hilton who are constantly mentioned in magazines and on social media pages where their lives and careers are ruthlessly analysed. They seem to live these perfect lives free of worry and everyday struggles that many people envy and dream to be in their shoes, not knowing of the different problems that come along with fame. The world of celebrity offers a sense of escape for the everyday person as we gasp at the gossip and gawk at their styles on the red carpet while trying to emulate their outfits. Fashion is an essential tool for celebrities to keep their career’s flourishing and increasing their fanbases by creating style trends through their unique looks. Their clothing gives us clues into their personalities, life struggles but also how they wish to be portrayed in the media to be seen by the masses. The idea of celebrity has changed over time but also kept essential similarities from the eighteenth century and this culture has most definitely shaped our modern world today.
A Historical and Modern Biography of an 1897 Cycling Sweater
Lucy Rush
An image of an 1895 cycling sweater in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has gained popularity over the last few years, so much so that many describe it as ‘famous’. What makes this sweater so unique is that it is an item of clothing that does not typically survive. This has caused an influx of makers to create their own version, many of whom have shared their process and finished garment online via blogs and YouTube channels. This dissertation explores this phenomenon by looking into the different stages of the jumper’s life: the original context, the making process, and the online virality.
A knitting pattern for a similar jumper exists in the Butterwick Publishing Co.’s 1897 book Fancy and Practical Knitting Using Hilary Davidson’s ‘embodied turn’ to adapt Mida and Kim’s method for object-based research, I recreated my own version of the cycling sweater by following this pattern. This was with the aim of exploring how the act of remaking can further inform the original context of the sweater, gathered from a range of primary and secondary resources about the history of women’s cycling, sportswear, and knitted undergarments. This is followed by an investigation into the online remaking community and their uses in academic research, as they are a recent phenomenon that have not yet been considered. Using a case study of fourteen YouTube videos documenting the making of the cycling jumper, this dissertation discusses the appeal of the jumper to a modern audience in relation to historical revival and women’s studies.
Mrs Mary Robinson (middle) accompanied by the Prince of Wales (right) and husband Thomas Robinson (left), anonymous caricature, Universal History Archive, c.1800.
No. 2 Ladies’ and Misses’ Sweater, Fancy and Practical Knitting, Butterwick Publishing Co., 1897, 167.
Stones Wrapped in Ribbons: The Intertwinement of Modern
Female Indie Rock Music and Their Dress Sense
Julia Weaver
Twirling around in divine light on a dingy, decorated stage lives the modern Indie songstress. A culmination of all who came before them, richly referenced through taps of a Dr. Martens boots on a distortion pedal, calling to the “shoegazers” of late 1980s. Indie music, lyrical content, and a performer’s dress sense has been intrinsically linked since the term’s debut. With “indie” originally resonating with bands whose music was created independent from a large-scale record label, the music denotes a do-it-yourself rebelliousness allowing creative license for the avantgarde - with experimental music, performance personas, and visual language curated by these bands.
This dissertation aims to explore the history of female Indie musicians’ dress sense by analyzing the clothing worn by both performers and those who resonate with their music. Forming various sub genres and subcultures of Indie music during the 1980s and 1990s in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, it further points to the perception of the female body in a predominantly male atmosphere. Discussing androgynous dress and 1990s movements Riot Grrrl and Kinderwhore, displaying the honesty and nostalgia that Indie promotes through its content freedom, it explores the juxtapositions of an exteriorized adolescence of frilly white lace dresses and scuffed leather often worn. Taking a deep dive into the various aesthetics played upon by band The Last Dinner Party, formed in London in 2021, this dissertation analyzes how modern Indie female rock musicians present themselves and takes part in a larger dialogue of how musicians connect with their audience in the digital age through both their music and shared visual aesthetics as seen through the band’s collaboration with designer Sophie Spratley.
and
9 May 2024.
One Object, Countless Histories: Examining a Garment as a Family Heirloom
Natasha Wilde
An heirloom is a special object, removed from the realm of everyday use and defined in its passing of ownership between generations within a family. Emblematic of a family’s interpretation of their heritage, these heirlooms are often bestowed legendary qualities through the act of storytelling each time the object is bequeathed. Central to my dissertation is the investigation of one such object, an antique velvet gown from 1907. Gifted to me from a close friend, the corresponding anecdote of its provenance contradicted the material evidence of the gown, inspiring my two-fold investigation.
Examining the design of the gown and evidence from its dressmaker’s label, Lewis and Allenby, my dissertation explores both the physical and social historical context in which the gown originates. The latter half of this text is informed by Brian Massumi’s concept of affect, reflecting upon the tactile relationship shared by both researcher and heirloom descendant, and how this relationship translates into the evolution of an object’s biography. Kim Kardashian’s infamously controversial adoption of Marylin Monroe’s wardrobe serves as a comparison of an emotional relationship with a non-heirloom object.
This research comes at a critical time, as family and heirloom are separated for the first time in history, allowing me to integrate and preserve the metaphysical qualities borne from several generations of emotional connection with the historical context revealed though my investigation.
Abigail Morris of The Last Dinner Party performing at The Roundhouse in London. Photographed by Rosie Carne. February 2024.
Lewis
Allenby, Day gown, c.1907, white lace and purple velvet, silk lined, personal photograph by the author.
BA (Hons) Visual Culture
Otherworld - Cloud Forest, Wildheart Immersive Theatre and Arts Project, 2019-2022, Digital Photo, Online, www.differentplanetarts. org.uk/gallery.
Autism-Inclusive Participatory
Arts: Sensory Theatre’s Development and Value in Arts and Cultural Institutions
Tiffany Barron
Have you ever wondered why, despite the growing celebration of autism and neurodiversity in our contemporary culture, there are still barriers to providing fulfilling and empowering arts experiences for young autistic audiences in the UK? This dissertation focuses on how these barriers can be broken down and are challenged by autism-inclusive participatory arts through the creation of immersive, interactive and engaging experiences. Autism-inclusive participatory arts, such as Sensory Theatre, create the best autism-inclusive environments where engagement can thrive. These creative environments promote participation through sensory experience which leads to self-agency and self-empowerment, both crucial to a child’s development.
But the impact of these arts goes far beyond the individual autistic child. They can also initiate change in the social constructs and cultures of the arts and cultural spaces they are hosted within. Imagine the ripple effect of including these arts in significant institutions such as Tate Britain. Altering the neurotypical ways of viewing art, and the standardised ways of being within such spaces where culture is encapsulated, can have greater effects on the wider society. Further, the inclusion of these autism-inclusive participatory arts and their audiences can help change negative attitudes towards autism and neurodiversity. Together these changes can promote a fairer, more inclusive, modern society, for all.
This dissertation explores multidisciplinary research and aims to present intersections between the understanding of autism and art theory. It includes research from Jim Sinclair’s journal articles, an American autistic activist, Claire Bishop’s writings on participatory art, and Nicolas Bourriaud’s book, Relational Aesthetics (1988).
Group of Iraqi immigrant volunteers facing a gallery wall at the Lisson Gallery, protected by insulation suits, being sprayed with polyurethane for POLYURETHANE SPRAYED ON THE BACKS OF 10 WORKERS, 2004, London. Courtesy of Santiago-Sierra.com.
Contextualising Archetypes in Performance Art:
The Producer, The Endurer, and The Madman
Imre Bitirim
Performance art is indubitably the most precarious form of artist expression, revelling in discomfort and gambling with fate. This dissertation highlights three formidable artists whose performance artworks favour producing provocative antagonistic works, acts of endurance, and performed madness. It contextualises them into archetypal roles: The Producer, The Endurer, and The Madman. Each exemplar manufactures performances with unique approaches, consequently manifesting different outcomes, affecting both the audience and artist experience.
The performances discussed were all performed live before an audience, fleeting and intangible, thus requiring documentation (through imagery, interviews, and accounts) to provide the pieces of the puzzle to assemble an understanding of the works’ sentiment and give longevity to the dialogue, which the performances provoke. Documentation in performance art discourse has been heavily disputed, for example by Peggy Phelan, who argues that any attempt to document performance taints the ephemeral nature of the piece. This notion will be patently combated by outlining the potent analyses furnished by scholars who were not present for the works themselves, and the profound effect these encapsulated live performances continue to have on viewers. Additionally, this dissertation adds nuance to the narrative of critics who dismiss the works within this paper as ‘exploitative’, having no significant outcome, and refuting evident feminist framings as ‘irrelevant’. Overall, the dissertation offers a balanced analysis of various discourses within performance art, moreover, ones apparent in the specific artists’ careers, ultimately illustrating how performance art is a poignant tool in challenging social conventions and pushing boundaries.
The Importance of Viewing the Mother Through the Female Gaze
Ruby Cumiskey
Motherhood is something that everyone can say they have experienced, whether that is as a mother, having a mother or watching loved ones become mothers. So, why has it been predominantly represented by male artists in a romanticised and almost fetishised way throughout art history? The Virgin Mary is perhaps one of the first representations of a mother in art, with cis-male artists predominantly portraying her. They have shown her to be always calm and never flustered, always well put-together and clean, never with sick on her shoulder or milk leaking through her clothes. She became unobtainable and unrealistic.
This dissertation explores three female artists who have represented motherhood in the raw, unglamourised, and honest way that it is. Paula Rego (1935-2022) explores female bodily autonomy through abortion rights and the right that every woman has to choose to become a mother. Caroline Walker (1982-) studies the end stages of pregnancy and early motherhood through the discourse surrounding postpartum depression, loss of identity and the pressure society puts on new mothers. Finally, Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) considers society’s ideas of what a good and bad mother is whilst studying her complicated relationship with her mother. Through feminist theories from writers such as Adrienne Rich and Simone de Beauvoir, this dissertation investigates the importance of the representation of motherhood through female artists. The focal point of this dissertation is to show the complexities of motherhood and how the male narrative needs to be challenged. This dissertation shows that the female gaze is necessary to represent motherhood honestly and sincerely.
The Deconstructive Nature of Maison
Martin Margiela’s Spring/Summer 1990 Show: An Insight into the Possibilities of Dismantling Fashion Design Conventions
Olivia Heim Romero
Martin Margiela’s third runway collection for Spring/Summer of 1990 in Paris helped reignite a lost passion for subverting the contemporary norms of Fashion design of the time. Margiela was a designer that found himself assisting Jean Paul Gaultier in the mid 1980s, another Parisian designer known for his irreverent creations. Margiela replicated this appreciation for fashion design in his own narrative of deconstruction, as the designer stated himself, he was “almost too serious” in comparison to Gaultier’s irreverent love of glamour. Margiela diverted from the norms of Haute Couture in Europe with the foundation of his fashion house Maison Martin Margiela.
Martin Margiela set this third collection in a run-down playground in the outskirts of Paris. Neighbourhood children participated by individually hand-drawing invitations, as well as being invited, expressing their intrigue by interacting with the models. This functioned as a spectacular foreground for Margiela’s creations that formed conversations between body and clothing design, similarly to the children’s dialogue with the models. Margiela’s designs deconstruct perceptions of fashion design, investigating and reimagining garments, such as the use of a plastic bag from a French supermarket conglomerate as a repurposed blouse. This research views three designs from Margiela’s collection under the lens of deconstruction, using studies that place the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s writings on deconstruction into the realm of fashion design. Derrida ideated the notion that to ‘manifest’ deconstruction, two imbalanced yet intrinsically linked concepts must be explored and ultimately balanced. Margiela represents these notions with his creations that blur the lines of communication between the human body and clothing, two rudimentary concepts that rely on each other in many frames of society.
Caroline Walker, Roundmoor Drive, 2022, oil on linen, 200 x 300 cm, carolinewalker.org.
Maison Martin Margiela’s 1990 Spring/Summer collection in Paris. Photograph by Jean-Claude Coutasse, 1989. Courtesy of Business of Fashion.
Feminist Perspectives in Motion: Female Artists
Redefining Identity through Audiovisual Expression
Simona Moccetti
Women have always used art as a means of resistance to subvert patriarchal conventions and promote social change. Moreover, with the advent of digital technology, women artists have been able to democratise knowledge and reinvent conventional art forms by experimenting and expressing themselves with different creative media techniques. This dissertation explores how the spread of feminist ideas and active participation have been facilitated by digital media, disrupting social norms and offering greater opportunities for female artists to be heard in a field historically dominated by men.
The aim of this dissertation is to explore how digital technology vhas facilitated the dissemination of feminist ideals and the distribution of feminist artworks, specifically focusing on three female artists who have used the technique of film and video art to discuss issues such as femininity, sexuality, race and gender roles. I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much (1986) by artist Pipilotti Rist, The Watermelon Woman (1996) by filmmaker Cheryl Dunye and I.K.U. (2000) by cyberfeminist artist Shu Lea Cheang, are the three case studies that are discussed through an analysis based on the feminist theories of writers such as Griselda Pollock, Laura Mulvey, Angela Y. Davis, bell hooks and Donna Haraway. Furthermore, this dissertation highlights the significance of the study of visual culture concerning the current struggles that young women face in technological contexts, demonstrating how women have been able to use technology not only as an artistic medium but also as a means of creative resistance.
The Artist and the Alter Ego: Performing Masculinities
Poppy Phelps
Alter egos are a familiar concept in modern day popular culture. They are often presented in fairy tales or the superhero genre of films as darker, more sinister and dangerous versions of a pre-existing identity. However, this dissertation aims to explore the fact that alter egos exist outside of the boundaries of story and film and can be utilised as a creative tool for artists. Under the guise of the alter ego artists can create work that pertains to their private lives and struggles, whilst not directly impacting it. Through the framework of Freudian psychoanalytical theory, this dissertation explores how alter egos are born through a developmental lens. This theory is then applied to the early lives of the three case studies presented in order to establish why they may have adopted their alter egos. These alter egos are then viewed through the perspective of performing masculinity. Using the works of philosopher Judith Butler, the case studies act as a thread across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Each case study explores a different period where views on masculinity are varied, stretching from the 1920s deco dandy movement to the 1970s American dream and the 2010s postmodern man. This dissertation charts a timeline between the three case studies and how they have influenced those who come after them. Thus, it explores the development of alter egos for artists and how that can be used to perform shifting perspectives on performing masculinity.
Pipilotti Rist. I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much. 1986. Video Art. (0:02:06)
Matty Healy as Truman Black during the 1975’s At Their Very Best Tour, 2022.
An Examination of the Aesthetics, Symbolism and the Act of Performance within Black Metal
Samantha Williams
My dissertation explores the different symbolism and aesthetics within the Black Metal subgenre of Heavy Metal music, while also analysing the concept of the act of performance from different famous Black Metal bands. It reflects on the brief history of Heavy Metal and Rock ‘N’ Roll, by looking at early metal bands such as Black Sabbath. This leads to the association between the community within the subculture by studying the identity theory with the use of a garment of clothing, known as the Battle Vest as an example of creating an identity. Chapters evaluate the use of satanic symbolism within music with the use of mythical creatures; these are examined from album covers of early Black Metal bands. Another aspect of visual analysis is the face paint style commonly used in this community known as ‘corpse paint’ where fans and musicians devote their time to perfecting this look. I have researched the performance of bands as to why certain bands like Mayhem, would commit serious crimes such as arson on churches and murder. Another band I have focused on is Watain, as this band performs satanic rituals on behalf of their spiritual beliefs. This leads me to compare these bands towards others in music who use the same satanic visuals, but do not share the same motives, only using them for shock value, arguing why people create this kind of imagery throughout their careers.
King ov Hell, photo taken by Tommy Naess, Facebook, 21 July 2023, shorturl.at/eotHM.
MA Curating Collections and Heritage
An Analysis of Highgate Cemetery
Kila Gavin
The atmosphere of Highgate Cemetery is a living testament to the juxtaposition of memory, a space where heritage and history are interwoven like English ivy, knotted on each engraved headstone. Since its first burial in May of 1839, when Elizabeth Jackson, a thirty-six-year spinster, was laid to rest, Highgate has remained a prestigious burial place for the elite. Its intricate Victorian architecture and overgrown vegetation serve as tangible links to bygone eras, offering a poignant glimpse into history and remembrance.
This analysis explores the primary function of a cemetery, exploring its contemporary relevance by providing a space of reflection, commemoration, and education by indulging itself in a heritage site rather than a graveyard. Loudon explores the visitor experience one gets from attendance, considering cemeteries not just for the dead, but for living as places of the community, viewing Highgate as a heterotopia theorised through three spaces. The first is a communal space that orchestrates the personal, individual, and social connection, creating interrelation between the spaces. Exploring the ideas presented by Michel Foucault, Highgate Cemetery presented itself as a historical burial site and a cultural attraction enticing mortality enthusiasts.
In this analysis, it was found that Highgate was grappling with the challenge of meeting its visitors’ needs while ensuring the preservation of the site as a heritage landmark. Generating sufficient revenue from visitor fees and events contributes to improved facilities and, in the future, more public access. The Cemetery’s enhanced international prominence has heightened recognition of its cultural importance. A balance must be struck between the sustainable development of dark tourism and cultural consideration that will uphold the dignity of the site and the memory it holds.
The Alpha Ferro Telephone
Catherine Gardner
2023.
This Alpha Ferro model telephone, produced in 1984 in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), has survived into the twenty-first century, although the socialist state that created it did not. Informed by the writings of social-cultural anthropologist Arjun Appadurai and historians Adrian Forty and Leora Auslander, this research focuses on the intersection of material culture, politics and everyday life, exploring the social biography of the Alpha Ferro from its origins on a GDR assembly line to its current home in the UK. The telephone has transformed across time from a functioning object to a discarded thing, later becoming a retro relic of the GDR.
By researching its form, its use and its trajectories, the Alpha Ferro reveals stories about its relationships with human subjects and its social biography over the past forty years. Socialist policies and ideologies of the GDR influenced every aspect of the Alpha Ferro’s production, circulation and consumption. These included the predominantly female factory workers who constructed it, the red plastic that formed a part of the GDR’s plastic revolution, and the almost impossible dream, as a GDR citizen, of owning one due to decades-long waiting times for a telephone connection. Post-1990, the status of GDR material culture changed radically, and the Alpha Ferro transformed from a desirable object into an obsolete thing, which was later revived as a communications artefact and a part of the phenomenon of Ostalgia. This research links these transformations to the socio-political history of the GDR and its demise.
West Cemetery
Unmarked Grave, Highgate Cemetery, London. Personal photograph by the author. 25 Nov. 2023.
Alpha Ferro telephone, personal photograph by the author, 29 Dec.
An early twentiethcentury Arts and Crafts
An Early Twentieth-Century Arts and Crafts Suffragette Necklace
Glenda Harris
This research project is inspired by a necklace that is believed to be an example of suffragette jewellery. This supposition is based on the design and age of the piece. Manufactured exclusively between 1908 and the outbreak of war in 1914, suffragette jewellery featured the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) colours: green for hope, purple for dignity and white for purity. The necklace also has design elements that link it to the Arts and Crafts movement, such as the chain-link shape and the stones’ cabochon cut. Suffragette jewellery was enormously fashionable during the peak of WSPU activity and was produced at many price points, from mass-produced pins available for a few pennies to individually-crafted pieces. Following the First World War and the adoption of the Representation of the People Act 1918, suffragette jewellery went out of fashion until 2018, when many retailers began to sell replicas to celebrate the centenary of the act.
This project analyses the physicality of the object, considering it within the context of both dress and design history by placing it within Michael Thompson’s work Rubbish Theory (originally published in 1979), which argues that the value of objects is changeable and dependent on the beliefs and attitudes of the society surrounding them. It also explores the use of clothing to express political beliefs and examines the piece as an early example of commodity activism. This theory, developed by Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser, highlights the dichotomy of activism and consumerism and explores the morality and social impact of mass-produced political merchandise.
suffragette necklace
MA History of Design and Material Culture
Hornsea Heirloom Pottery – The Biscuit Jar
Poppy Catchpole
On a summer visit to a charity shop, I purchased a job lot of tableware made by the Yorkshire- based pottery, Hornsea. I was informed that this set belonged to one woman, who I fondly named Linda for the purpose of my presentation, and that the set was donated by her daughter upon Linda’s death. Whilst I focused on the biscuit jar, this information gave me a unique insight into the consumption habits of this person.
I used two theoretical frameworks to analyse this pottery, those of Michael Thompson and Louise Purbrick. Thompon’s book, originally published in 1979 and entitled Rubbish Theory: The Creation and Destruction of Value, explored the idea of an object’s value fluctuating through time. This particularly interested me, as I was interested in the changing sentimental value of the set as well as the methods used to ascertain its monetary value. However, it was Purbrick’s 2007 research The Wedding Present: Domestic Life Beyond Consumption that most heavily influenced my work. Looking at the significance of the wedding present to the genesis of the home and coupling this with Brian Heckford’s observations of the backstamps on Hornsea pottery, I was able to hypothesise what the first five years of Linda’s marriage looked like. Starting with a simple set of crockery in 1972, additions were made in the subsequent few years to replace breakages and keep her a loyal Hornsea customer, which aligned with the company’s strategy. Then in 1977 higher value items, such as the biscuit jar, completed her set for her fifth wedding anniversary.
Reproduction/revival
Art Nouveau lamp
Pippy Stephenson
I bought a stained glass Art Nouveau reproduction lamp online and began a spiralling tour of ideas; retro revivals, pastiches, the Arts and Crafts movement’s resistance to industrialisation through craftsmanship and nostalgia, garden cities, the 1900 Paris Exposition, the deviance of Art Nouveau, “Art for arts sake”, Louis Comfort Tiffany and the unrecognised craftswomen who worked for him, kitsch, good and bad taste.
Frederic Jameson’s thoughts on how we view the past and Mark Fisher’s about nostalgia, were helpful in understanding the strange ways in which the lamp embodied not just our latest contemporary revival of the art nouveau style, but also the nostalgia for the pre-industrial era that the arts and crafts movement expressed that influenced the Art Nouveau.
Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of cultural capital helped explain ideas of taste. It was funny to learn, that despite it’s several revivals the art nouveau style has been much disapproved of, with John Betjemin writing that it had created, “Many a hideous side table, many a sickly front door”.
A closer look at the lamp also made clear how ironic its reproduction was. Constructed with very little craftsmanship in mind, it was funny to consider how the conception of its aesthetic is found with a group of people who valued craftsmanship above all else. The Arts and Crafts movement hoped to avoid the exploitation of materials and labour that are evident in the story of my lamp. It is made of low quality glass, cheap metals and plastic and was delivered to my home, after passing through several depots and warehouses and the hands of many underpaid staff, wrapped in what felt like metres of plastic and tape.
An aerial view of the author’s collection of Hornsea Pottery. Personal photograph by the author, 26 Jan. 2024.
Revival Art Nouveau lamp, 2022. Photograph by author.
Diasporic Archives and
Photographers of Color: Cultural Production in the Midlands
Kamal Badhey
I am researching the Apna Heritage Archive and Punjabi Workers Collection, which includes approximately 2000 family photographs from Punjabi families from the Black Country region in the Midlands in the United Kingdom. The photographs span the 1960s-1980s, and were collected by photographer Anand Chhabra, the archive’s director, who also utilizes the archive to engage with the community and cultural sector. As part of the research, I engaged family members connected to the archives, as well as interviewed cultural producers connected to the region. Some of the questions around the project address how a diasporic community archive uses photographs as a way to think about cultural representations of underrepresented stories of postwar migrant communities. I am studying photographic practice in the Midlands focusing on a set of interviews with cultural producers and photographers from diasporic communities involved in organizations Black Country Visual Arts, Re-Framed and the Apna Heritage Archive. I am addressing how the intersection of place, family and transnational migration creates unique perspectives of these producers and their work in community-based archives and arts practice. Discussions include how engagement with life stories reveal nuanced understanding of leadership roles in the cultural sector and community participation.
Dress, Identity and Memory at Greenham Common (1981-2000)
At Greenham Common, protesters hung their babies’ clothing to showcase the lives at stake under the threat of nuclear war. The symbol of motherhood conveyed protesters’ fears for the lives of future generations.
My PhD research focuses on the use of dress as creator and promoter of identity and memory, in the context of the protest action Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp (1981-2000). This camp was set up in West Berkshire, in England, at the fence surrounding RAF Greenham Airbase, to protest the housing of American nuclear missiles in Britain. This protest combined anti-nuclear ideology with feminist theories of the 80s, directly linking men with war and violence, and women with pacifism and care for life on Earth. I explore the way protesters used clothing and dress objects to promote and legitimise their identity as political participants. I also examine how clothing can be a carrier of memories and emotions, and how that quality was used as a tool to protest at Greenham.
This exhibition, Supnaa, Dreams of My Father by Anand Chhabra was part of the FORMAT International Photography Festival 2024.
Mansill Pai, a Woman Designer in Post-Korean War Seoul
Oknim Jo
Mansill Pai’s entire career spans from the 1950s to the 2000s. She was an educator, writer, designer, and artist working in the fields of fashion, interiors, furniture, and textiles. She was a professor in the Department of Decorative Art at the College of Fine Arts, Ewha Woman’s University from 1961 to 1988. She spent her later life as a prolific textile artist, but her early career as an interior designer has remained relatively little known. This paper derives from an archival research project on Mansill Pai (1923-2018) with the National Museum of Modern Art, Korea (MMCA) I conducted in 2022. Pai’s personal archive composed of more than 4,500 items was donated to MMCA in 2021 by her family members. Her archive includes plans, pattern drawings, furniture design sketches, photographs, textile samples, prototypes, mock-up models, material board, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and varying artefacts. This research focuses primarily on her early career background and interior and furniture design practice between the 1960s and 1970s.
De-installation of Medicine Man exhibition at Wellcome Collection, February 2023. Photograph taken by Laharee Mitra.
Ghosts in the Galleries: How Museum Learning Staff Interpret Legacies of Colonialism in Practice
Laharee Mitra
The word ‘decolonisation’ has become a popular, but contested, word within the heritage and cultural sector to describe approaches to museum practice that attempt to address the injustices of colonialism present in these institutions. Yet the reality of what this looks like in daily practice is largely restricted to the work of curatorial, documentation and conservation staff. To explore the gap in literature, my research uses ethnographic fieldwork to explore how learning and engagement staff incorporate decolonisation into their daily practices, engaging with visitors, school groups and communities. I focus on the key concept of legacy, particularly the legacy of institutions and collections formed during the period of colonialism, and how they are interpreted by the public engagement and learning staff at the Wellcome Collection and the Horniman Museum. I delve into how these staff deal with the legacies of the institutions’ founders, Henry Wellcome and Fredrick Horniman, both of whose businesses and collecting practices profited from colonialism. I discuss the legacies of past museum professionals who have impacted current practices and attempts to challenge them. Finally I examine how staff are building legacies for future practitioners that attempt to incorporate decolonial ways of practice.
Mansill Pai at her solo exhibition in Seoul, hosted by
sill
(Seoul: Hanrimwon, 2012).
Write me a Novel, February 2024, photograph by Alice Pierre for Alice JL Pierre Photography.
Looking at photoliterature as an artist and researcher; deconstructing narratives and building new ones through body writing and plurimodalism, from life writing to live writing.
Photoliterature: the plurimodalism of Bodywriting and Life Writing
Alice JL Pierre
This practice-based research is looking into the relationship between plurimodalism and the use of the human body as a canvas within the genre of Photoliterature. Based on the use of life writing and bodywriting, it is a very personal project, entitled ‘Write me a Novel’: ‘publishing’ short stories on the human body instead of on paper, thus using it as a page, demonstrates a fascination for the human form and all its possibilities, and the use of several types of medias to transfer works of autobiographical fiction is the translation of a bilingual mind. The Write me a Novel series was first exhibited online as part of her Masters’ dissertation, and revolved around the idea that a narrative, and thus a story, changes depending on the way it is transmitted (whether written on a page, on a body, or told out loud).
Becky Robinson
How Women in
Asylums
in Nineteenth Century Britain Found Their Voice: Protest and Subversion Through the Art of Needlework
Embroidered sampler 1837, Treason Against the State Inked linen piece 1850’s Eyesight Gone both Mary Heaton (1801-1878).
Long-band embroidered ‘scrolls’, 1870’s/1900’s both Lorina Bulwer (1837-1912).
The focus of this research examines the use of sewing in the production of textile artefacts, as a method of communicating personal experience, by two women inpatients of an asylum, and the pauper lunatic ward of a workhouse, during the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Mary Frances Heaton (1801-1878) and Lorina Bulwer (1838-1912) were committed to institutions as certified insane according to classification methodology during the Victorian era in England. The diagnosis of insanity could be ascertained by the decision of any two doctors.
These artefacts provide an invaluable record of these women’s incarcerated experience, and emotions, at a time when the voice of women in their circumstances, both actual and written, would be disregarded, and considered unworthy of comment or reportage.
Exploring the legislation and systems of treatment for asylum/ lunatic ward inhabitants, women’s role in Victorian society, expectations of behaviour and diversions from the ‘norm’ which could lead to incarceration as a certified lunatic. For both women, the use of their work to identify their persecutors, give credence to their beliefs and provide a discourse for us to understand what gave them the strength to produce such creative and passionate works resulting from a distressing situation.
Tracing Persian Influences on Indian Hand-Knitting and Crochet
Pragya Sharma
Hand-knitting and crocheting form one of the most prominent everyday domestic craft practices that women in North India perform, especially during winter months. The spread of the skills is attributed to the rise of missionary activity under the British Raj in the late 19th century. However, few reference images of objects – particularly gloves, caps and socks, as part of collections at Ashmolean Museum, V&A Museum and MFA Boston suggest the possibility that crochet and knitting were being practised much before their introduction to the subcontinent with the Empire project. Although the silhouettes of these objects are a colonial import, the ornate motifs and patterns carry Mughal influences. In the absence of any detailed descriptions regarding the maker (Kashmiri immigrants in Punjab, in a few cases) and the wearer (for whom were these elaborate pieces created?), there is much ambiguity in tracing the provenance of these objects. Another hypothesis that can be formulated is that the crochet hook—because of its similarity to the hook used in Aari embroidery—is used interchangeably in literature to refer to the latter. This suggests that Indians were familiar with the hook much before crochet as a technique was introduced. My research at this stage of my PhD tests this hypothesis.
Bottom up designing still leaves us at the bottom
This sentence describes the idea of moving beyond traditional Eurocentric neoliberal ideas of inclusive practice, towards a new philosophy of collaboration that actively works to dismantle legacies of oppression that exist with design and research.
Participatory DesignWho, Why and Where Did It All Begin?
Chantal Spencer
My work critiques foundational participatory models of design research from intersectional feminist and mobility justice perspectives with a view to create more just research practices. The study will also examine the role that design plays in the production (or limitation) of mobilities due to Design’s role in creating alternative visions of the world.
Through this work aim to develop philosophies of inclusive practice that move beyond arbitrary participatory models of design research towards methodologies that actively work to dismantle systemically embedded legacies of oppression within the design industry and academia. Design justice and disability justice principles acknowledge that any given design advantages some people, and disadvantages others according to intersecting social structures such as race, disability, and gender. Participatory design models are themselves designed and therefore are subject to the same problematics as any other product of design. I argue that a contributing factor to these inequities lies with who is doing the designing and why they are designing it, as feminist theorist Haraway states “it matters who worlds worlds”.
I have begun exploring the historical underpinnings of these practices, looking back at the who and where they all began as a place to begin understanding some of the hidden legacies of oppression.
A knitted 19th century woollen Indian glove in the collection of Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Accession Number: 30.11
GB-1837-DES-DCA-301-POR-M-29-1. Design Council Archive, University of Brighton Design Archives.
Transnational History of Textiles in the1920s: Ethel Mairet and Japan
Anika Shaikh
Ethel Mairet (1872-1952) was a British woman textile artist who built her artistic career in Ditchling, East Sussex and dedicated it to teaching textiles to women students. Her anti-industrial ethos in design was inspired by the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, characterised by colour and texture from vegetable dyes, hand spinning and hand weaving. Resonating with the Mingei theory, Mairet’s woollen fabric was introduced to Japan through her friendship with Shoji Hamada, Soetsu Yanagi and Bernard Leach, the major figures of the Mingei Movement. Little is known about her significant impact on Japanese crafts and the fact her textile practice was applied by the Japanese male textile artists Goro Aoda and Zenzo Oikawa. Tracing the network Mairet built with the Mingei figures in Ditchling, the movement of textile design and its practice from Britain to Japan in the 1920s is explored.
Portrait of Ethel Mairet. Catalogue number:
Supervisors and Students
Supervisors
2023-2024
Dr Tom Ainsworth
Dr Harriet Atkinson
Dr Sue Breakell
Dr Verity Clarkson
Dr Irralie Doel
Dr Åsa Johannesson
Dr Helen Johnson
Dr Veronica Isaac
Dr Yunah Lee
Dr Deborah Madden
Dr Helen Mears
Professor Lesley Murray
Professor Darren Newbury
Dr Charlotte Nicklas
Dr Ceren Özpınar
Professor Annebella Pollen
Dr Megha Rajguru
Dr Eliza Tan
Dr Claire Wintle
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Lori Bennallick
Vasilii Bruni
Phoebe Huitson
Alfie Mancell
Holly Owen
Olivia Ratcliffe
Camille Scribner
Romina Valerio Martinez
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
Lily Adair
Ellie-Mae Carter
Megan Davidson
Nell Gostick
Alicia Harris
Aleksandra Maciorowska
Isabelle Murphy
Cerys Pughsley
Amelia Ringer
Lucy Rush
Julia Weaver
Natasha Wilde
BA (Hons) Visual Culture
Tiffany Barron
Imre Bitirim
Ruby Cumiskey
Olivia Heim Romero
Simona Moccetti
Poppy Phelps
Samantha Williams
MA Curating Collections and Heritage
Kila Galvin
Catherine Gardner
Glenda Harris
MA History of Design and Material Culture
Poppy Catchpole
Pippy Stephenson
PhD
Kamal Badhey
Aurore Damoiseaux
Oknim Jo
Laharee Mitra
Alice Pierre
Becky Robinson
Anika Shaikh
Pragya Sharma
Chantal Spencer
The University of Brighton community of Arts and Humanities courses, staff and student evolved from the Brighton School of Art founded in 1859.
For 2024-25 entry, the History of Art and Design programme offers the following degrees:
BA (Hons) Art History and Visual Culture
BA (Hons) Fashion and Design History
MA Curating Collections and Heritage
MA History of Design and Material Culture
PhD in History of Art and Design, Design Studies,
Visual Culture and affiliated inter-disciplinary research
For further information, please contact the university on 01273 644644, enquiries@brighton.ac.uk or visit the University of Brighton website: brighton.ac.uk
To follow History of Art and Design programme activities and communications, please see:
