Assignment AR 6a : Reflective Journal
Reflective Journal 2011/2012
This is the Intellectual Property of Anne Dexter
Being on the Masters Course is a new beginning for me, a chance to develop further in my artistic practice, which, after two years on the BA (Hons) Applied Arts, had only just left the starting blocks.
Initially it seemed daunting to be on the course, maybe because I felt that I didn't as such have an established practice–that is I was very unsure of what direction I wanted to take, except that I had decided not to continue working in glass. This was liberating in many ways, why constrict oneself to one medium, when there is so much to explore and experiment with?
The first few weeks were structured with various sessions and getting to know my cohorts. I love that everyone is from different disciplines, it puts a different perspective on my own thinking, and that is a very positive feeling. During the applied arts degree it felt somehow less positive and the competition between students sometimes held me back. I have always shied away from competitive situations, possibly due to lack of confidence in my own abilities. One thing I did discover was that my drawing skills were in fact much better than I had thought, so my confidence in that area was increased.
During our early sessions on the MA we tackled blog writing. I had started writing a blog on my BA course, but it had taken a backseat due to the pressures of writing my dissertation and concentrating on making and developing my skills in that area. I have actually been surprised that not many of my cohorts had little experience of blogging; in fact it is a surprise to me that most of them are not all that familiar with computers at all. The good thing about this situation is that I enjoy helping others and I enjoy stepping in to give advice and help if anyone needs it.
We have had a few assignments to date, when the results of the work were posted on our individual blogs. That was quite enjoyable, although for some reason I find it difficult to post my actual work on my blog. I'm not sure why this is? Some of my cohorts have worries about personal information being ‘out there’ which I do feel also, but maybe it's a confidence problem again with me. Or is it may be a fear of plagiarism that makes me slightly reluctant; I need to think more on this to find the answer.
We had a group tour of the British Art Show 7 planned for the early part of November, which I was very excited about and I purposely didn't want to see any of the exhibits/venues before we went as a group. I think it makes me evaluate work in a more open frame of mind, when I can hear others' opinions. That's not to say I would like or dislike a work on any other opinion, but that I may miss something or not see it from a different perspective. It was interesting to look at the format of critical framework, which I hadn't really experienced before. Having said that I think that subjectivity does play a larger role in the way one experiences art. However much one tries to evaluate any work of art, subjectivity rears its head and can get in the way of objectivity!.
We were introduced to another aspect of the course when Karin asked us to make something that “inspired us”, using items and materials we had to hand. This was a great exercise for me, and made me reflect on when and what and why? I had been thinking around the area of mementos and how they tell stories relating to family histories and kinship.
As a result of some initial research I had also been looking at the idea of “Reliquaries” which traditionally (certainly in Orthodox Christian religion) held the bones of saints, or others held in high esteem. Reliquaries can be very decorative, generally made of metals and perhaps wood, sometimes festooned with semiprecious stones. There are many of these held in museum collections if not in churches or other religious centres.
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It is not always certain whether the items in reliquaries are absolutely genuine. This concept always reminds me of an episode in the BBC TV comedy “Black Adder”. When attempting a moneymaking scheme in the very first series, Edmund Black Adder’s servant Baldrick is assembling items of “religious significance” for selling on to gullible clients, when he announces in a very straight-faced manner:
Baldrick: Moving on to relics, we've got shrouds, from Turin; er, wine from the wedding at Cana; splinters from the cross (his finger gets a sliver from one of the splinters); er, and, of course, there's stuff made by Jesus in his days in the carpentry shoppe: got pipe racks, coffee tables, coat stands, bookends, crucifixes, a nice cheeseboard, fruit bowls, waterproof sandals... (picks up a piece of wood that's partly carved) Oh, I haven't finished that one yet.
Percy: But this is disgraceful, My Lord! All of these are obviously fake!
Edmund: Hah, yes!
Percy: But, but how will people be able to tell the difference between these and the real relics?
Edmund: Well, they won't! That's the point!
Percy: Well, you won't be able to fool everyone! Look (he takes a red cloth from his sleeve): I have here a true relic.
Edmund: What is it?
Percy: (unwraps the cloth) It is a bone from the finger of Our Lord. It cost me 31 pieces of silver.
Edmund: Good lord. Is it real?
Percy: It is, My Lord. Baldrick, you stand amazed.
Baldrick: I am -- I thought they only came in boxes of ten. (he opens a box of finger bones) (??????????)
Percy: What?!
Baldrick: Yeah, yeah -- fingers are really big at the moment. Mind you, for a really quick sale, you can't beat a nose. For instance, the Sacred Appendage Compendium Party Pack: you get Jesus' nose, St. Peter's nose, (??) of St. Francis' nose...” (The Bishop, 1983)
I think the point, however cynical, is well made.
My own reliquary was made using items/materials I had at home, and held small items and that had their own narrative and encouraged reflection.
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| My Reliquary |
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The items I had placed in my reliquary all had some significance to my life story, and me. Though not of any monetary value these pieces of ephemera each had a narrative or history of their own. Pieces of broken ceramics or glass found in the local river on walks, an American quarter coin, brought back from my first trip to New York (where I had dreamed of visiting since a child). As a starting point I found this an interesting and rewarding project, it has channeled my thoughts and is leading me in several unexpected directions.
I had started researching my own family tree some years ago and have interests in history and archaeology. It seemed then a logical step in my journey, following on from the ‘Reliquary’, to look again at my family history and see how that would feed into my practice. I feel it is important to keep one's connection with ancestors; it gives one perspective and some sense of one's place in the scheme of life. In order to best understand why this might be the case, I started further research in Genealogy, memory studies and social anthropology.
Although there appears to be a dramatic increase of interest, what a report in the Guardian called family research ‘our new national obsession.’ (Durrant, 2006) . Genealogy as a subject has little academic support; Tom Laichas in a journal article said “Most scholars view ‘family history’ with genial disregard.” (Laichas, 2005) Although he goes on to say “...graduate students in history could learn something from the evidentiary rules credential genealogists are obliged to obey.” (Laichas, 2005) As a practice, it straddles social class, confined to neither the middle nor the working classes but it shows a burgeoning and flourishing interest in the workings of social class and in a history that connects place, past and person.
This increase in awareness of genealogy at least in the United States is generally attributed to Alex Haley’s “Roots”, which was a huge success as a book and later as a television mini-series. Millions of viewers where gripped by the story of the Haley family history being traced back to Kunte Kite from Africa. While the story was not necessarily accurate it did inspire an incredible rise in awareness.
Tracing ones roots though could be a time and financially consuming hobby. In the past it entailed much travel to public record offices and churches for births, deaths and marriage details. Fifteen years on from ”Roots” and the advent of the World Wide Web began to change the way one could find these records. The popularity of the BBC’s program “Who Do You Think You Are?’ must also be a contributing factor in the UK, having audiences in excess of 5 million viewers. In a study of Genealogical practice in the North West of England, Jeanette Edwards commented “...while only some family historians have a feel for genealogy, all family historians have feelings about genealogy: they are affected - moved - by what they discover.” (Edwards, 2009). What she discovered was that Genealogical research is emotional work. Family treeing is likened to detective work.
Where leads that go nowhere frustrate and discoveries excite: and where disappointment and doldrums are interspersed with joy and elation. (Edwards, 2009)
Jeanette Edwards discusses various approaches to Genealogical research quoting from Tim Ingold’s book ‘Lines: a brief history’, “The line of the genealogical chart, he argues, ‘neither grows nor flows but connects’” (Ingold, 2007). He points to the distinction between pedigree and genealogy.
Ingold seems to be arguing that while residents of ‘western’, cosmopolitan societies live in fragmented environments which are assemblies of connected elements (like the genealogy), they nevertheless thread their way through these environments tracing paths as they go. Best then, he says, to shift from the paradigm of assembly (connecting up points) to the paradigm of the walk. (Edwards, 2009)
The walk is a useful way of describing the meanderings in the on going research of family history - the digressions family historians take, for example, into finding out more about a particular occupation discovered on a census form, or to speculate on the living conditions in either small and overcrowded houses or large and spacious mansions; or to dwell on the experience of high infant mortality. The walk is also usefully applied to the genealogical diagrams produced - the lines do more than connect up people they transport them (in more than one direction). Family historians also talk about coming to dead ends - to cul-de-sacs - to lines that end abruptly. It also ties in with Mind Mapping diagrams, one of which I have made to visually link my research and findings.
Because I could see the connections with Genealogy I also began to research memory and identity in several areas. In an online essay on cultural identity Peter Prevos discusses recent thinking.
The postmodern concept of social identity has shown that there is no fixed concept of identity; we are not simply defined by our Profession, Gender or any of the other social categories. (Prevos, 2004)
Prevos’s idea also implies that no substantial self exists behind the narratives, as the narratives are the self. Identity and social structure are in a symbiotic relationship, as either cannot exist without the other. He concludes “both identity and social structure propel each other forward in eternal flux...” (Prevos, 2004)
Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) is credited with first inventing the concept of ‘Collective Memory’ and using it in sociological research. Halbwachs when writing about ‘Collective Memory” distinguished among autobiographical memory, historical memory, history, and collective memory. Autobiographical memory is memory of those events that we ourselves experience, while historical memory is memory that reaches us only through historical records. History is the remembered past to which we no longer have an "organic" relation - the past that is no longer an important part of our lives - while collective memory is the active past that forms our identities. Memory inevitably gives way to history as we lose touch with our pasts. Historical memory, however, can be either organic or dead: We can celebrate even what we did not directly experience, keeping the given past alive for us, or it can be alive only in historical records, so-called graveyards of knowledge.
Therefore, according to Halbwachs, studying memory is not a matter of reflecting on the properties of the subjective mind; rather, memory is a matter of how minds work together in society, how their operations are structured by social arrangements.
One may say that the individual remembers by placing Himself in the perspective of the group, but one may also affirm that the memory of the group realizes and manifests itself in individual memories. (Halbwachs 1992, p.40)
It is in society that people normally acquire their memories. It is also in society that
In a way, contemplative memory or dreamlike memory helps us to escape society. (Halbwachs 1992, p.39)
Tim Ingold’s book I have found both fascinating and inspirational, and I intend to study that further and other work on memory as ongoing research towards my practice. The genealogical investigation within my family has also been instrumental to my artistic development.
they recall, recognise and localise their memories... (Halbwachs 1992, p.38)
In a way, contemplative memory or dreamlike memory helps us to escape society. (Halbwachs 1992, p.39)
Tim Ingold’s book I have found both fascinating and inspirational, and I intend to study that further and other work on memory as ongoing research towards my practice. The genealogical investigation within my family has also been instrumental to my artistic development.
It is a matter of some regret that I did not research my family history until after my father’s death, since it is my paternal linage that has provided me with a really captivating narrative as a basis for my practice. If I had thought to enquire then I am sure that I would have gleaned more detail to our history. Nevertheless I have found, through researching Census records, and talking to my mother, that my paternal Grandfather and Great Grandfather owned and worked Lace Machines. My family are based in southeast Derbyshire, which in the height of the Industrial Revolution, along with Nottingham, was a major textile-manufacturing region. The small town I grew up in Sandiacre was also a hub of activity in the Victorian era. The photograph shows Springfield Mill, now re-furbished as luxury apartments, but was built to accommodate Lace manufacture in 1888.
Springfield Mill a former Lace factory
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My ancestors lived and worked in Long Eaton, three miles south of Sandiacre. The town saw great expansion due to the Industrial Revolution and the development of machine made lace. 1813 saw John Leavers invention of a machine capable of producing lace in bulk. By the mid 19th century these machines were employed in Long Eaton, which began to develop into the centre of the Leavers lace trade in the East Midlands transforming Long Eaton from a largely agricultural village into a developing industrial town. The town's growth as a result of this is shown in the census returns between 1850 and 1900, the population increasing from 1,000 to 13,000 between these dates.
John Heathcoat was the youngest son of a respectable small farmer at Duffield, Derbyshire. As early as the age of sixteen, he conceived the idea of inventing a machine by which lace might be made similar to Buckingham or French lace, then all made by hand. At twenty-one, Heathcoat went to Nottingham as a setter-up of hosiery and warp-frames. He first studied the art of making Buckingham or pillow lace by hand, with the object of attempting the same motions by mechanical means. On analysing the component parts of a piece of hand-made lace, Heathcoat was able to classify the threads into longitudinal and diagonal. He eventually succeeded in working out his principle and, at the age of twenty-four, he was able to secure his invention by a patent.
In 1809 the Luddites attacked Heathcote’s factory in Loughborough and destroyed thirty-seven lace-machines. Ten of the men were apprehended for the felony, and eight of them were executed. After this attack Heathcote decided to look to move his business. In Tiverton, Devon, he found a large building, which had been formerly used to manufacture wool. There he recommenced the manufacture of lace on a larger scale than before, with around three hundred machines and employing a large number of artisans.
Shortly after Heathcoat patented his machine, John Leaver developed his 'Leaver' machine. By 1805, this had been modified with the ‘Punch Card’ system invented by Joseph Jacquard in France and now was able to copy hand made lace. By 1841, the last great development was added which allowed the machine to also incorporate the ‘gimp’. Once this was accomplished, the use of lace machines developed so quickly that the market was soon flooded with this new inexpensive lace.
As shown in the Mind Map the relationship between Textiles and computers; Charles Babbage adapted Jacquard’s Punch Card system to enter data to his “Analytical Engine’ which eventually led to the invention of the computer. In another twist in my research is that Ada Lovelace; Babbage’s assistant (she is sometimes called the first computer programmer) was the daughter of Lord Byron. In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense settled on the name "Ada" for a new standardised computer language, named in honour of Ada Lovelace. Byron’s ancestral home is Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire and is a place I loved and visited many times whilst growing up. Alongside my reading and research I have been experimenting with the plasma cutting of steel, with the idea of cutting lace patterns into it. The current result of this research and practice is my move into sculpture, which is a total departure from all I have done previously.
To be continued...
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| Synchronicity |
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