“Grim Up North? : Symposium on Northern Identity, History and Heritage (2)

“Grim up North?” presentation

16^th September 2016

This was my first academic presentation and it was gratifying to be a part of a well-organised and well-attended symposium. The symposium itself was supported by the Heritage Consortium of Universities and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It was ably organised by two PhD researchers, Michael Reeve and Andrew McTominey. I've posted about the day itself here.

I presented on my research by practice to date, with the title “Using Urban Wandering and Visual Outcomes to investigate Northernness : How did I get here?”. Within my powerpoint presentation, I used photos from my urban wandering as backdrops to the slides, with the intention of adding context and interest to the paper.

I started by describing how my practice is fuelled by my own lived experience and is an investigation into what’s happened, and what is happening, to me – hence my subtitle, “how did I get here?” (which also links back to my 3-minute presentation at the“Heritage Show & Tell” back in March – this presentation built on that one). I then mentioned my emerging methodology of wandering and response to investigate Northernness and positioned this as a synthesis of academic research, wandering and visual outcome.

I went on to talk a little about my own lived experience – my own personal narrative – as context for my research, mentioning my family as Engineers and the trauma of redundancy when the industry closed down. I explained that when I restarted my art practice, it quickly became apparent that I was expressing “what’s inside me”. I showed an example of my work (on the slide below), and that when I came to write my MA proposal, I needed to express this in a more elegant written format – hence the research question on the slide below. And that was how I “got here”, i.e. presenting my work to a room full of historians!

 

 

Next, I talked a little about my theoretical perspectives, admitting I had no background in heritage, but quoting Harrison on heritage: the ideas of heritage concerning people, places, objects and practices, and heritage only happening if something is at risk – and obviously our industry was at so much risk that it disappeared. I also quoted Bathmaker on life history as the life story in its social context, which resonated with Jack Southern’s comments on microhistory earlier in the day. I used these two points to illustrate my argument that the two work together – heritage and identity, past and present.

After this came the main point of the presentation – the urban wandering, and beyond. I showed some images of my wandering from Woodhouse to Armley and talked about my purpose of seeking Northernness, and how it then became clear to me that I was also moving into the area of psychogeography, showing a definition of pyschogeogrpahy from Tina Richardson. I talked about crossing the boundary into Armley, findng the canal, the repurpsoed mill, factories derelict an in use, and how I took the splashes of colour – e.g. the yellow of some skips – to be a sign of life amidst the soot-ingrained bricks of the buildings. I told the story of me being in my Dad’s space, but not our space together, and yet it was no longer his space as the industy had moved on – an example of the quotidian of yesterday forming the heritage of today. I explained that this had been a really direct and immersive experience of the theoretical perspectives of heritage and identity and I re-quoted Richardson’s quote of Abdelhafid Khatib, one of the founders of psychogeography: “at the same time as being a form of action, it is a means of knowledge”.

 

Explaining one of the Armley abstracts (photo: Mel Dewey)

 

I therefore had found Northernness, conflated with industry and memory, and my next action was to depict it. I showed a couple of my visual outcomes from the wandering, and offered some insights into how I’d used what I’d experienced. I explained how I had repurposed the shapes and colours I’d seen, using the colours as a palette. I’d used collaged black and white images to represent the past amongst the colours of the present. By using an abstract approach, I had tried to offer a universal way into the work, to invite viewers to join me in my experience; not just what I’d seen, but what I’d experienced. I also showed some close-up details and drew attention to the layering and scratching, depicting memories, the hidden and the revealed, leading to the painting becoming an industrial palimpsest.

Further explanations about developing a visual language to depict embodied experience (photo : Mel Dewey)

Explaining that this was the start of a personal visual language of Northernness, I went on to talk about how it had taken on a life beyond the wandering, giving a new sense of direction and purpose. It carried on in car journeys, with me taking pictures of anything and everything I found interesting and industrial and Northern, and I cited the example of the pylon abstracts, produced using the same methodology as the Armley abstracts from the picture in the slide below. I concluded this section with images of some outcomes from the Holbeck wandering, explaining that I had introduced printing using the shapes I’d seen.

My talk finished with a brief mention of my next steps: more visual and academic research, the possibility of collaboration, and the definite undertaking of further wanderings.

 

Reflection

I’d rehearsed the talk a few times, and had tested it out on a couple of people to ensure there was a logical flow, so I was quite confident about getting up and presenting. That said, I was still nervous when I stood up. However, it went well, I said what I wanted to say, only one slide got stuck, and I was more or less within my 15-minute slot.

It was clear that my research was at a much earlier stage than most of the other presenters, who were all PhD candidates or Early Career Researchers. However, I didn’t see this as a problem, simply a fact. There was a difference in presentation style and that’s something for me to consider  if/when I do another presentation. My presentation was much more personal than the others, although that is in part because my research by art practice is very personal. The others’ talks were clearly part of their ongoing research – a window into their research at this time, so to speak – whereas my presentation was a business-style affair with a definite beginning, middle and end and slides that had been prepared specifically for the occasion (some others had obviously done this, some not). I prefer the business-style presentation but I do wonder if perhaps mine was a little too personal on this occasion; however, there is no escaping that my life history is the basis of my research. I also made a point of including lots of visuals in my presentation rather than just loads of text. I do think this helped maintain interest.

After my panel, some people came up to talk to me. I hadn’t anticipated this and it was a shock, and a pleasant surprise, to find that people were interested in my work. The psychogeography element definitely captured people’s imagination. I think most people in the audience were from some kind of history background and I think the psychogeography angle gave them a way into my art practice. This was an interesting and potentially useful revelation. One participant told me he had done something similar as part of his undergraduate studies and that he had actually walked to some of the same places as myself. He did say he would share his writings with me but that hasn’t happened yet, which is a shame. He was also complimentary about my art work which was really gratifying. 

Cate Benincasa, who was formerly a lecturer at Leeds College of Art and is now a Senior Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield was really encouraging and complementary about my talk and told me I had pitched it at the right level. That was really useful and encouraging feedback. She also complemented me on the red pylon abstract which I was very pleased about. 

I realised afterwards that this is the first time I’ve shown my recent work to anyone publicly. I’m glad I didn’t realise it beforehand or I would have been very nervous. To have the work complemented was fantastic.  

Dr Henry Irving of Leeds Beckett University also approached me regarding a possible participation in Leeds Beckett’s “Being Human” festival event, when he and colleagues will lead participants on short walks around Leeds City Centre and help them produce written response. He was interested in possibly producing visual responses. This is really interesting and I hope it will come off. 

The whole experience was a really good one and I hope I can give another paper at some point. Although the preparation took a long time, the research I did will form the basis of my dissertation, which I will write on the same topic.