Context and meaning

July 2016

Although you are not expected to produce any kind of installation or exhibition of your projects at Level 2 (HE5), there is certainly no reason why you shouldn't be thinking about where you could present your work, and the meaning of your photographs could be strengthened or expanded by their physical location. Think about whether there is a particular place where you could install your work for Assignment 5. Perhaps it is the same place that you shot the project, or somewhere that contrasts it somehow. Make a very rough sketch of how the prints could be hung, their scale and anything else that might be incorporated into an installation.

Read John A Walker's essay "Context as a determinant of photographic meaning", first published in 1980. The text is not devoted to site specific work in particular; however, it addresses the themes encountered in Part 5. Summarise Walker's key points and note down your personal reflections.

Source: Walker, J. (2009) Context as a determinant of Photographic Meaning.[online]. Available from: 
https://www.academia.edu/11911020/Context_as_a_determinant_of_photographic_meaning [last accessed 03/08/2016]

(Scribd uses a 30 day free trial before charging $8.99 per month to access documents) 

Main points from essay:
Location
"With each shift of location the photograph is re-contextualised and as the context changes so does the meaning." (p.1)
If my work was displayed in a gallery within the location as opposed to a book looked at in someone's house, the viewer would have a different understanding of the work. Gallery  - open to distractions, may be noisy, book - one to one viewing, read when time is available. May take different memories away from different viewings.

Frame
"The frame of the photograph encloses a space, a world, which we can enter in our imaginations. This space appears self contained and therefore it is natural for us to mentally place in brackets the context in which the photograph is viewed, even though that context is one important determinant of photographic meaning." (p.2)
The context in which we are viewing the image never disappears. This could be the fact that we have gone to an exhibition, or sat at home comfortably viewing a book, or outside in different weathers viewing an outdoor installation.

Re-contextualisation
"Re-contextualisation does not generally produce a radical transformation of the photographic denotation." (p.2)
If the photo is moved from one context to another (such a gallery to a book) the image or the meaning of the image does not change. Therefore the context needs to be qualified e.g historical, social.

Juxtaposition
"When a photograph - considered as a single unit of meaning- enters into a montage relationship with either a caption, text, another picture or a particularly potent display context, then a "third effect" meaning can be generated from that juxtaposition which was not inherent in either of the terms seen in isolation." (p.2)
The whole meaning can change, be given a new significance or be modified because of where the photograph or text are place. It may not be intentional so the artist should be mindful of this when displaying their work.

Mobility of the image
"The mechanical reproducibtility of photographs means that the same image can appear in thousands of settings simultaneously and in a variety of sizes and media". (p.3.)
The internet can send images across countries and cultures which in turn lessens the impact of what is seen. It also means that images can be studied at home, on phones, magazines, newspapers etc rather than having to visit the gallery.

Reality
Media image in a newspaper surrounded by text is different to that in a glossy art magazine. The newspaper is seen as a documentary and "real" whereas the art photograph may have been an made for a specific purpose.

Currency
Consider what was happening outside of the image at the time the image was made. Image viewed in different places at different times in socio-historical context. Photograph's meaning is subject to change as it is circulated and goes out of circulation. Circulating image is current, archived image may be used later in books etc in it's afterlife.

Mental context
"People have different relations with the same image according to the different places they occupy in society, determined by such factors as gender, race, nationality, class, age, education, kinship, etc." (p.8)

Commonality
Everyone is different and so sees the same images differently. However, there is a language which is common to social groups by which the media communicate. This includes desires, values, experiences and appall. It is only when social values change that selected mass imagery is defaced or destroyed, e.g revolt, revolution, sexism.

Control 
For an artist, most of the aforementioned is out of their control.

In summary, an artist has to do their best to ensure context and meaning stay as true to their intent as possible; however change is inevitable.

Reviewing Assignment 5, I based this around the history of the local landscape. My intent is to produce it in book form which acts as a guide book. I could look into using the "classroom" at Sherwood Pines to display images at a re-enactment event, although these only happen periodically. For this I would print with a white margin around the images and pin onto boards/use magnets directly onto the wall in conjunction with the rangers.

Another alternative is to use display boards to mount the images on which is a temporary solution as it would only be up for 2 days. Could glue metal strips to the display board to mount the photos.

Cylinder magnets - 2 types - magnetised through diameter (end to end) or length (side to side). (As seen at the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield) 

Mansfield Museum - ? cost, ?insurance - programme put together up to 2 years in advance. Needs to be stimulating though so would have to work around making it interactive. At the Hepworth, there were kids worksheets around Martin Parr's work. This could be useful.

Mansfield library - 10.3m linear metres of wall space. H track hanging system to hang double strung 2D work. 3 x display cabinets (tall and thin) £45 for 3 weeks. Work can be mounted on foam boards with Ryman command adhesive strips at a cost of £3.49 for 12 Need £5million public liability insurance. (£44 per year)

Sherwood Pines classroom £80 per day. Seats 40 people. No dimensions online. Would need to look at building.

Museum is the cheapest option although needs further investigation.

Rough layout of wall space

Online exhibitions

July 2016

"An online audio-visual piece doesn't necessarily have to be the piece of art in itself, but may simply be part of the "presence" of the work, put together to promote it, possibly to co-incide with an exhibition or publication, or to help generate interest more speculatively. This post by Sharon Boothroyd on WeAreOca discusses a piece of work that is particularly relevant to both our discussions on contemporary landscape photography and the slideshow format. The sequence in question was designed to be at the exhibition. Read the post and if you have any comments of your own, add them and include a link in your learning log." OCA Course Material

The collection of images which formed the slide show was composed of approx 80 images, selected from 5,500, viewed in 18 minutes. As a slide show, the viewing is compelling although I found I had to set aside quiet time away from distractions to view it. This becomes an isolated experience, compared to a gallery visit which I think of as a social visit, usually with someone with a like-minded interest with whom I am able to share the  experience. 

The timing was interesting, being equally divided, forcing me to look at some for perhaps longer than I would have liked to. There was a temptation (which I resisted) to skip through these.  Some photographs I felt were similar to well known photographers, some were familiar to me and others I wanted to look at for longer. The website does, however, provide the facility to click on the images and informs the viewer of the photographer, their reasons for taking the images and what compels them to take landscape photographs. 

Should there be music? I think if there was music I would have turned it off to concentrate on the images as I found the text was a distraction in itself.

As a medium, there are more photographers presented here than gallery exhibitions I have been to, and with information behind the image. So it works for me as a good resource which I would use in future.

Comments for OCA post: 

Boothroyd, S. (2012) Online Exhibitions Available at: http://weareoca.com/photography/online-exhibitions/?utm_source=Tutors+by+subject&utm_campaign=c3af55c4bfE_bulletin_4_October_2012&utm_medium=email [accessed 19th July 2016]

Preparation Assignment 3

Assignment 3 Space to Place plan

Space = a continuous area or expanse which is free, available or unoccupied

Place = particular position, point or area in a space or location

Different types of places – usually involve or have involved people.

Expand with examples and reasons for selecting my choice

First choice abandoned – mill -no access to interior, second choice abandoned – forestry commission cut out swathes of trees from WW1 training camp at Clipstone – no access at present to trenches.

Chosen place Cromford Mill, Derbyshire

Chosen because I am familiar with it. School trips to different attractions in the area – memories, watched restoration of mill complex over several years. Far enough away from home to feel like it is a day out. Place that my children enjoyed

exploring. Good café and area for children to feed ducks after a walk.  

Looked at different photographer’s approaches to place:

James Morris Landscape of Wales

goes where tourists don’t go

post industrial areas – buildings and architecture – historical importance

questions past and future

composition – diagonals, horizontal, curves, foreground interest, middle ground  interest, background interest, hills, always taken from standing? Same perspective – sometimes above subject, most colours greys and greens, large square format, dull, often misty weather

George Miles Views of Matlock Bath

Next village to Cromford. Images more rural, not what tourist would always see, green, uses different seasons, large format, much tighter composition than Morris often showing smaller area in frame.

1. Cromford overlooking village

Shows location, Foreground, middle ground, background interest, Sunlight picks out Arkwright’s house and some of village. Mill not visible – hidden in trees

2 (2a). Cromford’s other history – surrounded by mines and quarries. Historical quibbles between miners and Arkwright. History of land v industry Not sure if to include image or not.

3. (picture not taken yet) Cromford Mill from Heights of Abraham / Gulliver’s Kingdom? Mill not visible from this side of village. Can only see Masson Mills (next one along river). Found an open source map with suggestion of footpath behind mill. Try this next time.

4. Bear Pit

Arkwright used the “sloughs” – water channelled from the mine to power the mills. Dispute over whose water it was. Decline of mines and mill prospered (Gate locked) Raised viewpoint from standing on wall. Full frame camera with 24mm lens. Try 10-20 mm lens. Not sure how much distortion there would be. Set of steps and shoot across to include raised gardens?

5. Water

Only running water at mill due to renovations. This was an afterthought on the day – need to take on tripod and use 10-20mm lens.

6. West side of mill

Vegetable growing, person in garden? Try visiting earlier in the day. Links in with old photo. Could remove if plant sales of cup of tea are better.

7. Plant Sales

Plants give foreground interest to dead space. Need to leave space to walk through. ? Shoot from further to the left. Customers as well as owner?

8. Final phase board

Needs someone to read the noticeboard and add some interest/interaction to the photo.

9. Mill renovations

OK

10. View across water

Try shooting different angles to include more reflections

11. Second Mill

Like the idea of the viewing platform. Modern v old. Adds height. Like person viewing board. Try shooting to include more of the bridge – slightly different angle.

Cup of tea (image not taken yet)

View of dog walkers and their dogs outside with teapots

12. Wharf

Looked at duck feeding – doesn’t link in. Couple walking away (leaving building) –Wharf is raised. Perspective? Time it so boat is in dock? Boat trips 3 times a week.

Decided to abandon this and revisit idea on clipstone training camp. Closer to home. Seasonal (Novemver - remembrance), current - 100 years commemoration.

Assignment 5: Self directed project: In the footsteps of the Great Heathen Army

A.D. 868 . This year the same army went into Mercia to Nottingham, and there fixed their winter-quarters; andBurhred, king of the Mercians, with his council, besought Ethered, king of the West-Saxons, and Alfred, his brother; that they would assist them in fighting against the army. And they went with the West Saxon army into Mercia as far as Nottingham, and there meeting the army on the works, they beset them within. But there was no heavy fight; for the Mercians made peace with the army. (Anglo Saxon Chronicles)

This is the first of 5 entries in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles depicting the Vikings in Nottingham. Imagine the Viking Army marching from the York to take control of England. Through history books, dramatisation in film and re-enactment, we are led to believe the Vikings were a warring race. So what were the Vikings in this area really like? Are there any clues left behind in the landscape? Did they settle amicably with the Anglo Saxons? Inspired by Joy Gregory's "Cinderella tours Europe", I positioned a pair of Viking re-enactment boots, in the landscape and photographed the heterotopic space (where a real space which exists alongside another space at the same time where norms of behavior become suspended).

Blurb book preview

Evaluation of Assignment 5 self-directed project

Out of all the Landscape assignments, I found this the most interesting but perhaps the greatest challenge. My ideas changed quite considerably from the original brief. In the beginning, the project was based on street photography of Vikings dressed in re-enactment clothing at a Viking Festival, working the figures into the landscape. Further photographic research developed my ideas and it became a pair of Viking re-enactment boots placed in a landscape known to the Vikings looking at heterotopic space (a real space which exists alongside another space at the same time where norms of behavior become suspended). I had hoped to link it with the re-enactment event this year celebrating 1000 years of King Cnut with an exhibition but I ran out of time. This is certainly a learning point for me; to produce a body of work I am pleased with seems to take longer as I research and develop the context where it fits into current photographic ideas. 

During this project, I was fortunate to strike up a friendship with a reasonably local OCA Landscape student. We met to discuss ideas, attended exhibitions such as Martin Parr’s “Rhubarb Triangle” in the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield (which had several photobooks on display) and attended two OCA Symposiums; Photography Matters and Pastoral paradigms. Inspired by photobooks from Alec Soth, Martin Parr, Joel Meyerovitz and research, this project became a sort of historical guide book.

My allotted time scale took longer than planned because I encountered some interesting experiences. Having read Joy Gregory’s anecdote about people stealing her shoes, I decided to take someone with me into Nottingham to be my boot watcher, who then sat back, well out of the shot. When the boots were in place, people saw the boots and walked around them, often commenting about the boots. I went back to reshoot at different times, thinking it was because it was not busy enough. Eventually, I had to ask my daughter to stand in to read the notice board as I needed people in my image. Maybe in London where the streets are so busy, this difficulty would not exist? It would be interesting to try it out. Perhaps the only way around this is to layer the images? I found myself appearing on my daughter’s Snapchat feed, lying on the floor photographing Viking boots!

There were different encounters in Sherwood Forest. Quite early on in the project, the weather had been exceedingly wet and the ground was waterlogged, meaning it was easier to walk than cycle. I met two rangers who encouraged me not to photograph on Sherwood Heath as there was a naked man running around! I had to re-evaluate where I was comfortable going on my own. However, I met some really interesting people on my travels; including a Friend of Thynghowe. I initially photographed Thynghowe from the bridleway, when I was given a tour of the site and an introduction to the historical and geographical features, allowing me access as the land is owned by Thoresby Estate.

I was keen to represent historical accuracy; literature was often conflicting. Anglo-Saxons Chronicles, perhaps combined with Hollywood dramatization in popular culture has given us the stereotypical Viking which is not an accurate depiction. So a group of people that led reasonably “normal” lives in an area where nothing unusual happened that has been watered down by 1000 years is hardly sensational by today’s standards. The challenge was how to turn this into something inspiring. Through research, I came to the conclusion that using John Urry’s “Tourist gaze” and by re-examining literature on spaces, a kind of historical guidebook was the way forward. Foucault’s heterotopic space provided a link back to Assignment 3 (World War 1 trenches) and Assignment 4 (Stan Douglas (2009) Abbott and Cordova 1971.)

Revised Artist's statement following tutor feedback:

My work examines the contemporary landscape traversed by the Great Heathen Army who marched from York to Nottingham in AD868, returning through Sherwood Forest and later settled alongside Anglo-Saxons as Warrior Farmers. They were not war mongering, blood thirsty seafarers who pillaged and plundered as depicted in popular culture. 2016 marks 1000 years since the death of King Cnut (Canute), a Viking King, rekindling the interest in Viking heritage.

Local tourism promotes the idea of Robin Hood within Sherwood Forest using Foucault’s idea of a heterotopic space (a real space which exists alongside another space at the same time where norms of behavior become suspended), where children can pretend to be Robin Hood or one of his Merrie Men, but walkers and local staff working in the coffee shop and craft centre mingle with tourists. Sherwood Forest should be a mediated space as fictional films of Robin Hood would appear to show the Nottinghamshire landscape. However, “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves” (1991) Dir. Reynolds, shot on location in England, used locations such as Yorkshire, Northumberland, Wiltshire and the New Forest. Due to the rise in social media, visiting tourists’ expectations are well informed.

Using Foucault’s view of a heterotopic space, I positioned Viking re-enactment boots within the landscape to signify the presence of the Viking standing in the land as a historical character. The chosen landscapes have Viking connections. Photographing so that the boots remain in sight, the angle of view on most images is fairly narrow. Shot over the Winter and early Spring months, the undergrowth is bare so the boots remain visible in the photograph.

Inspired by Joy Gregory’s series, Cinderella tours Europe” (1998-2001), an interest in Viking heritage tourism, and continuing with the theme of Urry’s “Tourist Gaze”, my project challenges the viewer to consider the difference between the land now and the Viking age, updating the traditional view of the local heritage and developing our understanding of history through re-enactment.  

Final Proposal for the self-directed project Assignment 5 Landscape

Working Title

In the footsteps of the Great Heathen Army

Subtitle

Topic/Theme

2016 marks 1000 years since the death of King Cnut (Canute), a Viking King. A renewed interest in Viking heritage has sparked the imagination of Nottinghamshire, especially within Sherwood Forest. Friends of Thynghowe local history group have been involved for some years with Mercian Archaeological Services following the discovery of a possible Viking Thyng. Finds from an archaeological dig (2016) will hopefully confirm Viking people used the space as a significant place within the landscape. In old English, Thyng meant a governing assembly or High Court. Laws made at “Thyngs” formed the basis of mediaeval law in England. During the mediaeval period, Sherwood Forest was a Royal Hunting Forest and home to the fictional outlaw Robin Hood. The land passed to the Duke of Portland and is now maintained by the Forestry Commission.

Current ongoing research discovered that the Vikings settled alongside Anglo-Saxons as Warrior Farmers and were not war mongering, blood thirsty seafarers who pillaged and plundered as depicted in popular culture, with which some people do not wish to associate themselves. Local tourism promotes the idea of Robin Hood within Sherwood Forest using Foucault’s idea of a heterotopic space (a real space which exists alongside another space at the same time where norms of behavior become suspended), where children can pretend to be Robin Hood or one of his Merrie Men, but walkers and local staff working in the coffee shop and craft centre mingle with tourists. Sherwood Forest should be a mediated space as fictional films of Robin Hood would appear to show the Nottinghamshire landscape. However, “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991) Dir. Reynolds, shot on location in England, used other locations such as Yorkshire, Northumberland, Wiltshire and the New Forest. Due to the increase in social media, tourists are now likely to be well informed with what to expect.

In Assignment 4, I touched on John Urry’s notion of the “Tourist Gaze” (2011) suggesting that “photography has a part to play in updating local heritage” and through re-enactment our understanding of history is developed. Berger (1972) cited by Urry (2011 p4) explains, “we never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.”

Using Foucault’s view as a heterotopic space, I will position Viking re-enactment boots within the landscape to signify the presence of the Viking standing in the land as a historical character, questioning the difference between the Viking age and modern day. Local people can engage with the heritage of the area through recognition of the places and labelling the image with the place name. MacCannell (1999) cited by Fotsch (2010) suggests that photographs in guidebooks act as “markers which make the most unspectacular places worth seeing”. My accompanying text will ensure that the Vikings are portrayed in a different light from that of popular media.

Audience

Prints from the accompanying book (with text) would be of interest to local history groups such as “Friends of Thynghowe”, local residents, visitors of living history events, local museums, libraries and possibly displayed at a re-enactment event.

Approach and methods

The Great Heathen Army marched from York to Nottingham and back again, passing through Sherwood Forest and settling in the area. My project will study an area of landscape with Viking connections, researched through recent archaeology and historical records. Using a full frame camera and photographing so that the boots remain in sight, the angle of view on most images will be quite narrow. Some will show the land underneath the boot so the viewer will appreciate the lack of arable land. Photographs will be taken during one season, preferably winter or spring so that the undergrowth is as bare as possible. Research will be carried out in Nottinghamshire libraries, the internet and through Friends of Thynghowe, at a re-enactment event and dig day. If necessary, the Forestry Commission may be able to help.

Access

Bridleways, footpaths and the city centre will not require special permission. Thynghowe is on land owned by Thoresby estate. This would need special permission.

Timetable and budget

150-mile return trip to Yorvik Viking Festival to buy re-enactment boots (second hand -authenticity)

Photography (1 season)

Book writing, editing and printing

Research on local history

Availability of walking companion(s) due to photography in remote areas

Proposed research references

In Joy Gregory’s “Cinderella tours Europe”, Gregory’s images of tourist spots in capital European cities are inspired by conversation with Caribbean girls where “Europe was a place of unattainable dreams, regarded in the same way as Europeans think of Ancient Greece or the Holy Roman Empire.” Fast Forward Photography (n.d.) The local discovery of Thynghowe, re-enactment Viking culture through living history and my personal interest in Viking history prompted me to examine the importance of the Viking age in the sense of Gregory’s Ancient Greece or Holy Roman Empire, asking viewers to consider how the land might have looked in the Viking times and challenge the traditional perspective through photographs and text. I will look at the locations I use as heterotopic spaces, (as defined by Foucault) because the boots in the location are transient.

References

(Anon) (n.d.) Cinderella Tours Europe. Fast Forward [online.] Available from: http://www.fastforward.photography/gallery/cinderella-tours-europe/ (last accessed 22/07/2016)

(Anon) (2016). What is heritage? 3:1 [online]. Open University. Available from:  http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage/content-section-3.1.

 (last accessed 22/07/16)

Fotsch, M. (2010) Confronting the tourist vision. Politics and Culture. 2003 (1) [online] Available from:https://politicsandculture.org/2010/08/10/confronting-the-tourist-vision-2/ [last accessed 28/07/2016]

Urry, J. and Larson, J. (2011). The tourist gaze 3.0 London: Sage. (p.4)

Bibliography

(Anon) (2016) Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991). British Film Locations [online] Available from: http://www.british-film-locations.com/Robin-Hood-Prince-Of-Thieves-1991[last accessed 28/07/2016]

Edensor, T. (2001) Performing tourism, staging tourism (Re)producing tourist space and practice. Tourist studies. 1 (1), pp.59-81 [online] Available from:  http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/tourist/a019896.pdf [last accessed 28/07/2016]

Focault and heterotopia [user-generated content on line] Creat. Jones, V. 19/05/2010. 2 mins 14 secs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFcxzoPbJis [last accessed 28/07/2016]

Fotsch, M. (2010) Confronting the tourist vision. Politics and Culture. 2003 (1) [online] Available from:https://politicsandculture.org/2010/08/10/confronting-the-tourist-vision-2/ [last accessed 28/07/2016]

Halewood, C. and Hannam, K. (2001) Viking heritage tourism: authenticity and commodification. Annals of Tourism and research. 28 (3), pp. 565-580 [online] Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222570066_Viking_heritage_tourism_Authenticity_and_Commodification[last accessed 28/07/2016]

Tutor Report Assignment 5

"The breadth and depth of your research is driving the coursework and assignment work forward and leading to some very interesting developments." (Bloomfield, 2015)

Reading back over comments made from a previous assessment, one of the pointers was developing research. I have really tried to link theory to practice over this course and I think it is paying off.

 Points for development

·        "introduction to the Photobook at the top of the page"

·        "cut the assignment briefs" - too much writing on the page

·        "important to include your reference points in your prep, as you have done, but keep some distance to Gregory’s series in the work itself and in your artist statement, as this should be your own voice."

·        "permission for soundtrack". I have contacted the performer, but no response as yet

·        "artist’s statement a little confusing. It should be a finished statement of intent, so don’t include ‘hopefully confirm’ for instance. It could probably be a bit shorter, and kept tightly focused on your work."

·        Include research in the reading list tab e.g. Foucault’s heterotopic space

Previous idea for assignment

"Ghosts within the landscape looks really interesting, I especially like the two woman walking into shot. Some of the others are a little close perhaps, do you intend that intimacy?  Subject gaze to camera fundamentally affects the way an image is read – is that really what you want? You have to be rigorous with your visual language because you’re engaging with complex levels of representation here, that’s why I’m nit picking!"

Great to have feedback on an idea I originally pursued before developing it into the final version. I take my tutor's point about the gaze. I had thought the images needed more space around them. The gaze is something to be aware of in the future.

Further research (appears on books/research page on blog)

Liz Wells - gaze

Gillian Rose covers the Lacanian gaze, the male gaze and the tourist gaze in her Visual Methodologies. 

I had not come across Rose's book before but found a copy on the internet, along with John Berger's ways of seeing. Having read these, I was able to link assignments together in more detail through the tourist gaze.

Prep work for Assignment 5 including emails to and from my tutor

Original proposal for the self-directed project Assignment 5 Landscape

Working Title

In the company of Vikings

Subtitle

Vikings re-enter Sherwood Forest

Topic/Theme

Thynghowe was probably a significant place within Viking culture, politics and landscape. In old English, a Thing meant a governing assembly or High Court. Laws made at “Things” formed the basis of mediaeval law in England. During the mediaeval period, Sherwood Forest was a Royal Hunting Forest, home to the fictional outlaw Robin Hood. The land passed to the Duke of Portland and is maintained by the Forestry Commission. Lack of access preserved the site and under heritage and national lottery funding excavations are being carried out by Mercia Archaeological Services and Friends of Thynghowe (group of local volunteers).

Viking heritage is popular in England possibly because it is a chapter of history which begins with capturing school children’s imagination. The Viking Festival in York each February attracts a huge following with living history groups acting out epic battles and sharing tales, practicing crafts, and living everyday life alongside the modern city inhabitants. Interactive museum exhibitions and TV shows such as The Vikings and The Last Kingdom (2015) encourage the cult following. 2016 is an important year for the site as it marks 200 years since the first perambulation around the site.

My project will study the forest landscape of Birklands (the location of Thynghowe), researched through modern archaeology and historical records and interweave this with the faces and possibly artefacts of modern day Vikings. To achieve this, I will spend time exploring the forest, absorbing the atmosphere, light, sounds and imagining how the landscape looked to our ancestors. This will be a three stage project; to capture images of modern Vikings and their posessions, take forest photographs, and blend together in photoshop. Through enquiry into the concept of hyper-real, simulacrum and living history photography, I will investigate whether my images are believable to my audience.

At this stage, I can take photographs of the Vikings. I have not practiced much forest photography and I am inspired by Helen Sear, Patricia Townsend and Ellie Davies. My Photoshop skills need brushing up to achieve the desired outcome.

Audience

Initially this is a personal project to develop my creative and contextual skills. It could be of interest to the “friends of Thynghowe”, local residents, local history groups, visitors to living history events, museums and libraries alongside the accompanying research from the Thynghowe project.

Plans for a new visitors centre for Sherwood forest are being drawn up and the bid is out to tender.  I could develop a business plan and look at arts council funding, after an initial trial.

Approach and methods

The images would be contemporary rather than traditional.

At present I have 3 ideas – will probably go with 1 or 2

Take portraits of modern Vikings in “real” living history outfits at Jorvik Viking Festival then photoshop into photographs of Birklands.  Would like to display in light boxes outside so viewers find themselves walking amongst their ancestors. May have to be a gallery exhibition in visitors centre. No sound

     Take portraits of modern Vikings, print and pin on trees. Take photos of Vikings on trees like and remove at end of day like land art. Gallery exhibition or Viking portraits in light boxes for people to walk around at the site. Could correspond with open day. Similar to Puranen’s Imaginary Homecoming.
     As 1 and project the images onto a screen as a film like Helen Sear does with “The company of trees” at the Vienna Biennicle.  For this I would need to take video of a Viking walking across a wooded background and integrate it into my film set. (engage with her idea that her woman in a red dress is like a stage curtain). Sounds match the film? The audience may expect it to. What happens if it is not accurate? Refer back to assignment 4 hyper-real, untruthful, disbelieving, or should it be silent?

Access

Viking Festival February 2016 (York) 3 available days with events happening (check weather). Will still go ahead if York refloods. Forest accessible. Open day following dig 16^th April 2016.  Spring Thyng reenactment Sherwood Pines May 15^th 2016

Timetable and budget

150 mile round trip x 2 journeys to York (2 days)

Forest photography (? 7 days)

Prepare images (1 month of evenings)? May be unrealistic

Printing and mounting costs

Buy or borrow artefacts?

Light boxes? I have no experience of this – research

model release forms (RPS)

Proposed research references

context – identity – through fairytales –Landscape of memory

Ellie davies http://www.elliedavies.co.uk/images/

http://www.michaellange.eu/en/wald__landscapes_of_memory

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/32.2003.a-p/

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/06/17/forest-photography-tips-for-shooting-your-local-woodland/4/

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tG-cz44RAGQC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=forest+photographers&source=bl&ots=pF9qA5Quiq&sig=Eh_sezpxvV5NtVq6lWjQYdBkHhI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiaivGvrMzKAhWJRhQKHZjSBSA4FBDoAQhHMAc#v=onepage&q=forest%20photographers&f=false

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-99QKDX

http://www.helensear.com/the-rest-is-smoke.html

https://vimeo.com/124376937 helen sear the company of trees

Moving through the forest – outsider moving in what’s on the periphery? Exploration

Old railways, sculpture, old coal mine, pond, golf course, forestry machinery, logs, even how its used? Husky racing, cycling, walking, burnt out cars

http://www.nottinghampost.com/New-Sherwood-Forest-visitor-centre-finally-gets/story-28268591-detail/story.html

http://www.anhava.com/texts.php?id=20&name=Jorma%20Puranen&action=1

Original Artists statement: In the footsteps of the Great Heathen Army

My work examines the contemporary landscape traversed by the Great Heathen Army who marched from York to Nottingham in AD868, returning through Sherwood Forest and later settled alongside Anglo-Saxons as Warrior Farmers. They were not war mongering, blood thirsty seafarers who pillaged and plundered as depicted in popular culture.

2016 marks 1000 years since the death of King Cnut (Canute), a Viking King, rekindling the interest in Viking heritage. Finds from an archaeological dig (2016) will hopefully confirm Vikings used recently discovered Thynghowe as a significant place within the landscape. Laws made at “Thyngs” formed the basis of mediaeval law in England.

Local tourism promotes the idea of Robin Hood within Sherwood Forest using Foucault’s idea of a heterotopic space (a real space which exists alongside another space at the same time where norms of behavior become suspended), where children can pretend to be Robin Hood or one of his Merrie Men, but walkers and local staff working in the coffee shop and craft centre mingle with tourists. Sherwood Forest should be a mediated space as fictional films of Robin Hood would appear to show the Nottinghamshire landscape. However, “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991) Dir. Reynolds, shot on location in England, used other locations such as Yorkshire, Northumberland, Wiltshire and the New Forest. Due to the rise in social media, visiting tourists’ expectations are well informed.

Using Foucault’s view of a heterotopic space, I positioned Viking re-enactment boots within the landscape to signify the presence of the Viking standing in the land as a historical character, questioning the difference between the Viking age and modern day. The chosen landscapes have Viking connections. Photographing so that the boots remain in sight, the angle of view on most images is fairly narrow. Shot over the Winter and early Spring months, the undergrowth is bare so the boots remain visible in the photograph.

With an interest in Viking heritage tourism, I was enthused by Joy Gregory’s series, Cinderella tours Europe”, (1998-2001). These images of tourist spots in capital European cities are inspired by conversation with Caribbean girls where “Europe was a place of unattainable dreams, regarded in the same way as Europeans think of Ancient Greece or the Holy Roman Empire.” Fast Forward Photography (n.d.) Gregory, shows images of a pair of golden shoes in different capital cities; with the aim of recording and returning home. Continuing with the theme of Urry’s “Tourist Gaze”, my project challenges the viewer to consider the difference between the land now and the Viking age, updating the traditional view of the local heritage and developing our understanding of history through re-enactment. 

                                                                                                   Nicola Hampshire (2016)

Assignment 4: Critical Review: "Photography may (even) be the enemy of memory" (Campany, 2016) : Does contemporary re-enactment photography alter collective memory?

In the essay entitled “The angel of history in the age of the internet”, Campany explains that allegorical photography can be a medium for revisiting the past and reinterpreting it. He proposes the idea that photography’s well known critics such as Susan Sontag, Jean Baudrillard and Walter Benjamin have collectively argued that “we need to be on guard against the simple equation of photography with memory … just because a photograph is a document it does not follow that it’s meanings are clear … meaning requires … what Stan Douglas calls the “search for answers”. (Campany, 2016)

Using this as a framework to explore the subject of memory and photography based on my recent work in Clipstone’s reconstructed WW1 training trench for Assignment 3 led me to question how re-staging events alters collective memory[1]. I will explore the evidence to support and challenge the idea that “Photography may (even) be the enemy of memory” (Campany, 2016) through the study of contemporary historical re-enactment photography.

How does re-enactment photography[2] fit into the United Kingdom’s concept of heritage? In the 1980’s, Hewison described the heritage industry as a structure “largely imposed from above to capture a middle class nostalgia for the past as a golden age in the context of decline.” (Harrison, 2016:3.1), believing it prevented consumers from establishing an interest in contemporary art and critical culture, and what mattered was our relationship with the past, not the past itself. Identity depends on the knowledge people have of their family history or social group and so people have to recognize their past in order to ascertain their future. Hewison suggests that by viewing heritage through nostalgia, the past becomes Utopia rather than challenging the current problems although nostalgia “reinforces national identity when confidence is weakened or threatened.” (Hewison, as cited by Harrison, 2016:3.1)

Marxist critic Raphael Samuel disagreed with Hewison’s notion of heritage’s origins supporting Conservative political interests; indicating instead that heritage made the past “more democratic through emphasis on the lives of ordinary people.” (Harrison, 2016:3:2) Urry, too, responded to Hewison with the development of the “tourist gaze” proposing that “heritage to a large extent should be co-created by its consumers.” (Harrison, 2016:3.3). Hence photography and media both have a part to play in the updating of local heritage. Re-enactment photography alone does not meet the requirement for social change because most re-enactment groups have no political or social context; therefore, contemporary artists such as Jeremy Deller and Stan Douglas use allegory[3] to transport the observer through Campany’s “time tunnel” (Campany, 2016), in order to re-examine the past, come to terms with it (if necessary) and move forwards, thus using re-enactment as a catalyst to change.

Could re-enactment photography explore collective instruction rather than collective memory? Individual and collective memory are inter-related because all personal memories contain a “network of meanings that bring together personal with familial, the cultural, the economic, the social and the historical (Kuhn, 2002:4). In obtaining oral histories and reviewing evidence to build up collective memory, researchers find that some stories are revised, or have undergone “secondary revision” (Kuhn, 2002:5). Sontag argues that                                  

“Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as collective memory-part of the same family of spurious notions as collective guilt. But there is collective instruction…What is called collective memory is not a remembering but a stipulating: that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds.” (Sontag, 2003:76)

Individuals interpret events differently and are affected by economic, cultural and social factors, supporting Sontag’s belief that memory and guilt are individual whereas collective instruction is acknowledging responsibility for past actions, through historical knowledge, discourse and critical review. (Kattago, 2012:23)

With re-enactment, rules designed by the organizer for actors to follow create collective memories for the group in the present, but cultural histories are different providing only individual memories of the past. Unity is achieved through symbolism – re-creating badges, wearing uniforms, chanting and training to tell “the story of how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds.” (Sontag, 2003:76)

How would the viewer know whether Douglas’s straight photography[4], or Deller’s documentary photography is re-enactment? Allegorical work provides clues which can be read into the photograph. In Douglas’s “Abbot and Cordova 1971” the re-enactment portrayed the clash between police and citizens in the Gastown Riots. “Douglas stages a scene…which exploded mounting tensions between local hippies and law enforcement. Striving for historical accuracy, the work replicates local businesses, as well as music posters and newspapers from the time” (Zwirner, 2008). The chosen site was close to the original and reconstructed to look similar. Douglas controlled the stage by devising 9 sub scenes shot over three nights resulting in a composited photograph from 50 images. By using an elevated position, Douglas could separate the groups of people, positioned so the viewer questioned their roles. From oral histories and documented evidence, Douglas ascertained that middle and working class older men watched the event unfold from the sidelines, thus some characters were positioned as if watching a play. His work is displayed in the public sphere of an outdoor atrium, close to the original site, reinforcing the idea that this is site specific, representing the social and political struggles which happened to activate change.

Abbott and Cordova 1971, Stan Douglas (2009) (please click on link)

The motivation for Deller’s dialogical[5] artwork “Battle of Orgreave” (2001) occurred because:

 “Families were torn apart because of divided loyalties, the union movement was split on its willingness to support the National Union of Mineworkers, the print media especially contributed to the polarization of the arguments to the point where there appeared to be little space for a middle ground. So in all but name it became an ideological and industrial battle between the two sections of British society.” (Wilson, 2012)

 Deller engaged with ex-miners and their communities spending eighteen months researching archives, collecting oral histories and working with Howard Giles from English Heritage to stage a re-enactment using re-enactors and the local community close to the original coking plant, resulting in a documentary film produced by Mike Figgis in 2001. The documentary was installed as part of Deller’s exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London and shown on Channel 4 television.

The Battle of Orgreave, Jeremy Deller (2001) (please click on link)

Could re-enactment photography be considered monumental? Bate theorises that “photography…revolutionalises memory: it multiplies and democratises it, gives it a precision and a truth never before attained in visual memory, and makes it possible to preserve the memory of time and chronical evolution,” (Le Goff cited in Bate, 2010:247) explaining that family photographs act like a memorial or monument to the past following Bourdieu’s argument of “establishing the truth of social remembrance” (Bourdieu cited by Bate 2010:248) closely. “Winters describes museums, films and TV in a way which the past is viewed through public representations of memories as “theatres of memory”” (Cherry, 2014:165) making Deller’s work an ephemeral[6] monument. Collective memory is therefore enshrined and memorialization recalls the past, through nostalgia and social change. Douglas would rather his work not be memorialized because Abbott and Cordova 1971 promotes conversation about the actual event rather than silence over a plaque or artist’s blurb (Alberro, 2010:20).

Is photography a medium which records the truth as the photographer intended? Contemporary re-enactment photography starts with research through archived documents and oral history. Although it is assumed photographs record truth, Joan Fontcuberta suggests that interpreting a document or picture is subjective, depending on the reader’s culture and knowledge of the world (Hildenbrand, 2008:113). The viewpoint of the photograph is predominantly that of the photographer. Known for his hyper-real work, Fontcuberta considers that a good photographer lies. When examining photographic archives, the viewer must be aware of the social context in which the photographs were taken (including political or authoritative issues of the time.) Moerman suggests a constructed image is more truthful to experience reality than a documented one because secondary revision of the memory of the event is a language which speaks to the mind and emotion (Moerman, 2012:8). Kuhn proposes that photographers

“may “speak silence”, absence and contraindication in as much as, indeed more than, presence, truth or authenticity and that while in the production of memory photographs might often repress this knowledge but they can also be used as a means of questioning identities and memories and of generating new ones.” (Kuhn, 2001:155)

Is photography able to re-write history? Photographs can convert the past to the present through re-imagining because “photographic truth is based upon a set of historically and culturally specific beliefs about photographs as documents.” (Rosler as cited by Wells, 2004:311a) Both Douglas and Deller’s work covered an event pivotal in cultural history. For Deller, research revealed the impression that media coverage from 1984 was in favour of the Government. Within the documentary, Tony Benn MP emphasized that BBC journalists “were ordered to transpose the order in such a way as to give the opposite impression” (Figgis, 2001).  Ward supports this, quoting Benn, “They didn’t make a mistake…whoever gave the orders actually destroyed the truth of what they reported” (Ward, 2005:65). An apology (issued in 1991 by the BBC) for inadvertently reversing the film footage, contained within the documentary and shown alongside the original footage provided the context for redressing the balance of history. Douglas’s reflective photograph, whilst not displaying the outcome, provides a supporting paratext informing people that the riot successfully changed the city regulations. Benjamin’s Angel of History redeemed the past by causing a storm and enabling progress to be made. (Benjamin, 1973:260)

Is it possible to separate the reality of the re-enactment from the emotion of the original event? Baudrillard’s concept of simulation in media as a representation of real demonstrates real becomes commonplace to reality. The image of simulation is simulacrum which has different feelings and emotions to reality. Simulation aims to mislead without having all the qualities of simulacrum. Simulation happens in real life and the experience is used against the participants so that they cannot tell the falseness of the imitation (Sandoz 2003).  Deller’s mining community volunteers were involved in the original battle; however, the simulation stirred up real feeling and emotions, leading to chaos, hindering identification of the original photographs from the simulation.

So, is “Photography the enemy of memory” as Campany (Campany, 2016) proposes? Supporting this question is the argument of whether collective memory exists, or whether, as Sontag suggests, all memory is individual. Re-enactment can never be the same as the original because people come from different cultures and critical discourse so it must be examined from a different perspective. The outcome is an image (or set of images) that only a few truly understand, offering different viewpoints of the event. However, in the search for answers, the truth may have been uncovered, through oral history and photography but is only ever as accurate as the recorder. Although initially I questioned the quote, having considered the evidence, I would support Campany’s hypothesis that photography is the enemy of memory and in order to understand an event, photographs should be questioned further; and if necessary scrutinized using a “time tunnel” (Campany, 2016) to revisit the past in order to critically move forward. Perhaps we need more than just photographs themselves.

Word count including references 1879 words

Word count excluding references 1342 words

Word count for footnotes 164 words

References

Anon (2016) Allegory. Oxford Dictionaries [online] Available from:  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/allegory [last accessed 6th September 2016].

Anon (2016) Collective memory. Oxford Dictionaries [online] Available from:  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/collective-memory [last accessed 6th September 2016].

Anon (2016) Dialogical. Oxford Dictionaries [online] Available from:  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dialogic?q=dialogical#dialogic__4[last accessed 6th September 2016].

Anon (2016) Ephemeral. Oxford Dictionaries [online] Available from:  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ephemeral [last accessed 6th September 2016].

Bate, D. (2010) The memory of photography. Photographies. 3 (2) 243-257. Available from:http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17540763.2010.499609?needAccess=true [last accessed 5^th September 2016].

Benjamin, W. (1973) Illuminations. London: Fontana.

Campany, D. (2016) The Angel of History in the Age of the Internet. Available from: http://davidcampany.com/the-angel-of-history-in-the-age-of-the-internet/ [last accessed 5^th September 2016].

Cherry, D (2014) After lives of monuments. New York, USA: Routledge.

Douglas, S. (2010) Interviewed by A. Alberro. An interview with Stan Douglas. 25^th November. Stan Douglas Abbott and Cordova 1971. Available from: http://arsenalpulp.com/extras/DouglasDraft3.pdf [last accessed 6th September 2016].

Harrison, R. (2016) What is heritage? The Open University. Available from: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage/content-section-3.1 [last accessed 5th September 2016].

Harrison, R. (2016) Heritage as popular culture. The Open University. Available from: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage/content-section-3.2 [last accessed 5th September 2016].

Harrison, R. (2016) Heritage and Tourism. The Open University. Available from: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage/content-section-3.3 [last accessed 5th September 2016].

Hughes, G. and Hildenbrand, K. (2008) Images of war and war of images. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Kattago, S. (2012) Memory and Representation in Contemporary Europe: The Persistence of the Past. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing ltd.

Kuhn, A. (2002) Family secrets. Kings Lynn: Verso.

Moerman, T. (2012) The Magic Mirror Reflections in Photography as Memory. [online] BA (Hons) dissertation. University of Glasgow. Available from:https://www.academia.edu/5125449/The_Magic_Mirror_Reflections_on_Photography_as_Memory. [last accessed 5th September 2016].

Sandoz, D. (2003) Theories of Media, Keywords, Glossary, Simulacrum, Simulation (1). Chicago: The University of Chicago. Available from:http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/simulationsimulacrum.htm. [last accessed 5th September 2016].

Sontag, S. (2003) Regarding the pain of others. St Ives: Penguin.

Figgis, M. (dir.) (2001) The Battle of Orgreave (2001). [Television]. Archangel Media. Channel 4. [user-generated content, online] Creat. Jonny Jones. 19/08/2013. 63 mins, 15 secs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncrWxnxLjg [last accessed 5^th September 2016]

Ward, P. (2005) Documentary: The margins of reality. London: Wallflower.

Wells, L. (2004) Photography: a critical introduction. 3^rd Edition. Glasgow: Routledge.

Wells, L. (2010) Photography: a critical introduction. 4^th Edition. Glasgow: Routledge.

Wilson, A. (2012) The Battle of Orgreave Archive (An Injury to One is an Injury to All) 2001. London: Tate Available from:http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/deller-the-battle-of-orgreave-archive-an-injury-to-one-is-an-injury-to-all-t12185/text-summary [last accessed 5th September 2016].

Zwirner, D. (2008) Stan Douglas: Humour, Irony and the Law. [online press release]. Available from: http://www.davidzwirner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/SD_DZ-show-2008.pdf[last accessed 7th September 2016].

Bibliography

(Anon) (2016) In pictures: A look back at the Battle of Orgreave in 1984. The Telegraph. (n.d.) Available from:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/10607957/In-pictures-A-look-back-at-the-Battle-of-Orgreave-in-1984.html?frame=2807646  [last accessed 5^th September 2016].

Coser, L. and Halbwachs, M. (1992) On Collective Memory. Chicago, USA: University of Chicago Press.

Dacey, S. (2010) The Gastown Riots as Public Art. The Tyee, 17^th February 2010. Available from:http://thetyee.ca/ArtsAndCulture/2010/02/17/GastownRiot/ [last accessed 6^th September 2016].

Deller, J. (n.d.) The Battle of Orgreave, 2001. [online] Available from:http://www.jeremydeller.org/TheBattleOfOrgreave/TheBattleOfOrgreave_Video.php [last accessed 6^th September 2016].

Douglas, S. (n.d.) Abbott and Cordova 7^th August 1971. [online] Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press. http://arsenalpulp.com/extras/DouglasDraft3.pdf[last accessed 6th September 2016].

Elkin, J., Ortega, M. and Williams, H. (n.d.) Referencing Handbook Harvard. 2^nd Edition. Lincoln: University of Lincoln.

Hewett, R. and Barber, S. (2013) AudioVisual Citation: BUFVC Guidelines for referencing moving image and sound. [online] London: Available from:
 http://bufvc.ac.uk/projects-research/avcitation [last accessed 6th September 2016].

Hoskins, A. (2010) The Diffusion of Media/ Memory: the new complexity. Warwick. University of Warwick. Available from:http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/warwickbooks/complexity/andrew_hoskins/ [last accessed 5^th September 2016].

McPhee, D. (2009) The Battle of Orgreave: police v the miners. The Guardian, 24^th February 2009. Available from:http://www.theguardian.com/uk/gallery/2009/feb/23/don-mcphee-miner-strike-photography [last accessed 6th September 2016].

Modrak, R. and Anthes, B. (2011) Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

OCA (n.d.) Harvard Referencing System. Barnsley: OCA

Shore, T. (2010) The Battle of Orgreave 25 years on: Memory, counter memory, re-enactment and translation. Available from: https://thomasmaxwellshore.wordpress.com/the-battle-of-orgreave-25-years-on-memory-counter-memory-re-enactment-and-translation/ [last accessed 5^th September 2016].

UCA (2015) Harvard Referencing Guide. Available from: http://community.ucreative.ac.uk/article/42936/PDF---Downloadable-Guide---Harvard-Referencing [last accessed 6th September 2016].

Illustrations do not appear on blog due to copyright. Please click on above links to see the images.

List of Illustrations

Douglas, S. (2008) Abbott and Cordova 1971. [Photograph]. Georgia Street, Vancouver, Canada.

Deller, J. (2001) Police officers pursuing miners through the village: The Battle of Orgreave. [Photograph]. [online]. Available from:http://www.jeremydeller.org/TheBattleOfOrgreave/TheBattleOfOrgreave_Video.php [last accessed 6th September 2016].

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[1] Collective memory is “the memory of a group of people passed from one generation to the next” (Anon, 2016)

[2] A Google search for “re-enactment photography” lists a variety of photo-help sites such as digital camera world, digital photography school and travel national geographic which concentrate on taking portrait and action shots of re-enactors in a landscape which may have seen the original action occur. Readers are taken through camera set up to post processing, and encouraged to approach organisers to provide photographs for next year’s advertisements or send images to re-enactors themselves.

[3] “Allegory – a story or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one” (Anon, 2016)

[4] Straight photography – emphasis upon direct documentary typical of the Modern period of American photography (Wells, 2010, 351b)

[5] Dialogical means dialogue (Anon, 2016)

[6] Ephemeral Monument - transitionary use of the space where the battle originally occurred and then returned back to a field once more “Lasting for a very short time” (Anon, 2016) 

Tutor Report Assignment 4

 Response to Tutor Feedback

"A well-chosen subject Nicola, which supports your recent assignment work. It does need a thorough read through for referencing and punctuation before assessment." (Bloomfield, 2015)

I was pleased with this comment. I was inspired by Assignment 3's further reading and came across a current article which fitted in well with it, which also developed my interest around memory. At times it felt I was studying sociology rather than photography and so having 2 artists to link the work back to kept me on track. I was keen to include Deller's work as I had previously been to All that is solid melts into air which I could relate to and I am old enough to remember the miner's strikes which happened not far from my location.

Points for development

·   Extend title - expand on quote by David Campany by linking it to re-enactment photography and collective memory to give more information 

·    "Harvard referencing - for direct quotes the author and page number should be cited within the text rather than the publisher or title.   Try printing on paper and in a different font for a final proofread before submitting."

·      "cite your sources when making statements of fact"

·      "lead with a question"

·       "be rigorous in your reasoning" 

I agree with the above comments and will re-write these points when revisiting this assignment.

·      "Titles and dates are needed for Dellers work and Mike Figgis’ film".  (I thought I had included them. I have tried to make this clearer)

·      "If your bibliography is the same as your references, just include the references. If you've read much more widely around your subject than your references suggest, then a bibliography can be useful to include."

I think this is one of the areas where tutors have individual preferences. For a previous tutor, I had to include all the references in the bibliography. I have removed them which makes the list shorter. It is cost effective when printing! I also discovered some punctuation had changed since I last wrote an academic assignment such as indenting a quote more than 3 lines long.

Further reading

I pulled of the OCA referencing guide, the UCA referencing guide, was given a copy of the referencing guide for Lincoln University and downloaded the audio visual citation guide. I hope these will stand me in good stead.

Walter Benjamin's Illuminations - contains a short extract on the Angel of History. having read this book towards the end of the course, I can associate with some of his ideas and see why he is used to illustrate some ideas. The edition I bought had a biography at the beginning so I now understands where he fits along with Debord and flaneurs.

During the Landscape course, I developed an interest and understanding in identity and memory and how this relates to landscape photography which I was keen to pursue further which would also give me insight into my chosen site for Assignment 6 Transitions which I had been studying for almost a  year.

Having read an article written by David Campany which related to re-enactment photography, memory and identity, it seemed fitting to expand on post work from Assignment 3 and broaden and deepen my understanding of the course exercises. He used a phrase towards the end of his essay hypothesising whether memory was the enemy of photography. I felt this was something I needed to explore; I started off by questioning him and I now agree with him having looked at the subject more closely.

I put together a plan and sent it off to my tutor for comment:

Possible critique idea assignment 4 landscape

“Photography may (even) be the enemy of memory” David Campany (2016)

In Campany’s essay entitled “The angel of history in the age of the internet” (2016) he explains that allegorical photography can be a medium for revisiting the past and reinterpreting it. Campany cites Stan Douglas’s Abbot and Cordova August 1971 as an example of a photographer who re-examined past events of a recent civil war through photography and presented it to the residents of the affected area. Campany concludes with the idea that photography’s well known critics such as Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard and Walter Benjamin have argued that “we need to be on guard against the simple equation of photography with memory […] just because a photograph is a document it does not follow that it’s meanings are clear […] meaning requires what Stan Douglas calls the “search for answers”.

Further research undertaken from my set of photographs on Clipstone WW1soldiers training trench and the centenary reconstruction for Assignment 3 led me to question how re-staging events alters collective memory (the memory of a group of people passed from one generation to the next -

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/collective-memory). I will be reviewing the evidence to support and challenge the quote that “Photography may (even) be the enemy of memory” through the study of contemporary historical re-enactment photography of Stan Douglas’s Abbot and Cordova (1971), Jeremy Deller’s Battle of Orgreave and Richard Barnes’s Civil War.

Arguments supporting the idea that photography may (even) be the enemy of memory

Stirs up old wounds

Takes a team of people and Hollywood to pull off the reality ? fantasy? How much is true

Undermines the authoritative records from the time?

Walter Benjamin – memory as a medium – re-enactment cannot be the same as the original

Storage – le Goff

Michael Focault -artificial memories

Freud – screen memories are created memories like fairytales – so watching the reenactment may change your original memories

Bathes – punctum

Susan Sontag “Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as collective memory--part of the same family of spurious notions as collective guilt. But there is collective instruction....What is called collective memory is not a remembering but a stipulating: that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds.”

Arguments against the idea that photography may (even) be the enemy of memory

Search for answers – uncovers the truth, collective data and memory banks put together

Photography together with supporting arts interviews, editorials, essays can give the public more information to rediscover and ask questions

Documented truth challenged (media may have been ordered to show a different side to the truth) History rewritten through apology and challenge

Late photography – more deliberate, photos taken after the event, documentary style, truth?

Critical engagement is more than simulacrum (deeper than Baudrillard’s concept)

Changing collective memories by training and re-enforcing the other side – e.g miners to policemen

Collective memory strengthened by re=enactment (Green)

Bordieu

Conclusion – which side do I agree with?

http://www.academia.edu/3151422/_Interpreting_Jeremy_Deller_s_The_Battle_of_Orgreave_

http://www.jeremydeller.org/TheBattleOfOrgreave/TheBattleOfOrgreave.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncrWxnxLjg

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/dms/scc/management/corporate-communications/documents/leisure-culture/libraries-copyright/archives/research-guides/miners-strike/Miners-strike-study-guide-v1-1/Miners%20strike%20study%20guide%20v1-1.doc

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage/content-section-3.1

http://thetyee.ca/ArtsAndCulture/2010/02/17/GastownRiot/

http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/stan-douglas/survey/image/page/22/

http://davidcampany.com/the-angel-of-history-in-the-age-of-the-internet/

http://www.richardbarnes.net/projects/#/civil-war-1/

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/richard-barness-civil-war-renactments

https://thomasmaxwellshore.wordpress.com/the-battle-of-orgreave-25-years-on-memory-counter-memory-re-enactment-and-translation/

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D7P3X99RWvkC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=susan+sontag+collective+memory&source=bl&ots=bx4kMUD1A9&sig=03aHqoSdnc03MCYDNmKDu2IS2o0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1l6Wb1snKAhXLtBQKHSuaCkMQ6AEIODAD#v=onepage&q=susan%20sontag%20collective%20memory&f=false

“Photography may (even) be the enemy of memory” David Campany (2016)

In the essay entitled “The angel of history in the age of the internet” (Campany, 2016) explains that allegorical photography can be a medium for revisiting the past and reinterpreting it. He proposes the idea that photography’s well known critics such as Susan Sontag, Jean Baudrillard and Walter Benjamin have argued that “we need to be on guard against the simple equation of photography with memory […] just because a photograph is a document it does not follow that it’s meanings are clear […] meaning requires […] what Stan Douglas calls the “search for answers”. (Campany, 2016)

Using this as a framework to explore the subject of memory and photography based on my recent work in Clipstone’s reconstructed WW1 training trench for Assignment 3 led me to question how re-staging events alters collective memory[1]. I will explore the evidence to support and challenge the quote that “Photography may (even) be the enemy of memory” through the study of contemporary historical re-enactment photography.

Re-enactment photography[2] fits neatly into the United Kingdom’s concept of heritage (1980). Hewison described the “heritage industry” as a structure “largely imposed from above to capture a middle class nostalgia for the past as a golden age in the context of decline.” (OpenUniversity, 2016), believing it prevented patrons from developing an interest in contemporary art and critical culture, and what mattered was our relationship with the past, not the past itself. Identity depends on the knowledge people have of their family history or social group and so people have to recognize their past in order to ascertain their future. Halbwach (1992) suggests that by viewing heritage through nostalgia, the past becomes Utopia rather than challenging the current problems although nostalgia “reinforces national identity when confidence is weakened or threatened.” (OpenUniversity, 2016)

Marxist critic Raphael Samuel (Theatres of War 1994) indicated that heritage’s origins support Conservative political interests. However, heritage made the past “more democratic through emphasis on the lives of ordinary people.” (OpenUniversity, 2016) The Open University advocate that through the transformative power of history and heritage’s role in providing diversity, heritage becomes a social process which involves communities wishing to preserve their heritage. Urry (1990) developed Foucault’s “gaze” into the “tourist gaze” proposing that “heritage should be co-created by its consumers,” (OpenUniversity, 2016) believing that photography and media had a part to play in updating local heritage. Photographing re-enactment alone does not meet the requirement for social change because most re-enactment groups have no political or social context, therefore contemporary artists such as Jeremy Deller and Stan Douglas use allegory[3] to transport the observer through Campany’s (2016) “time tunnel”, in order to re-examine the past, come to terms with it (if necessary) and move forwards, thus using re-enactment as a catalyst to change.

Individual and collective memory are inter-related because all personal memories contain “a network of meanings that bring together personal with familial, the cultural, the economic, the social and the historical.” (Kuhn, 2002, p. 4) In obtaining oral histories and reviewing evidence, researchers find stories are revised, or have undergone “secondary revision” (Kuhn, 2002, p. 5). Sontag disputes this; “Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as collective memory-part of the same family of spurious notions as collective guilt. But there is collective instruction…What is called collective memory is not a remembering but a stipulating: that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds.” (Sontag, 2003, p. 76) Sontag believes that memory and guilt are individual and die with each person whereas collective instruction is acknowledging responsibility for past actions, through historical knowledge, discourse and critical review. It is crucial not to let ideology stand in the way of education because the photograph/event becomes myth. (Kattago, 2012, p. 23)

With re-enactment, rules designed by the organizer for actors to follow, create collective memories for the group in the present, but cultural histories will be different providing only individual memories of the past. Unity is achieved through symbolism – re-creating badges, wearing uniforms, chanting and training to tell “the story of how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds.” (Sontag, 2003, p. 76)

How would the viewer know whether Douglas’s straight photography[4], or Deller’s documentary photography is re-enactment? Allegorical work provides clues which can be read into the photograph. In Douglas’s “Abbot and Cordova 1971” the re-enactment portrayed the clash between police and citizens in the Gastown Riots. (Campany, 2016) cites Zwirner “Douglas stages a scene […] which exploded mounting tensions between local hippies and law enforcement. Striving for historical accuracy, the work replicates local businesses, as well as music posters and newspapers from the time.” The chosen site was close to the original and reconstructed to look similar. Douglas controlled the stage by devising 9 sub scenes shot over three nights resulting in a composited photograph from 50 images. By using an elevated position, Douglas could separate the groups of people, positioned so the viewer questioned their roles. From oral histories and documented evidence, Douglas ascertained that middle and working class older men watched the event unfold from the sidelines, thus some characters were positioned as if watching a play. His work is displayed in the public sphere of an outdoor atrium, close to the original site, reinforcing the idea that this is site specific, representing the social and political struggles which happened to activate change.

 Image 1 Stan Douglas Abbott and Cordova 1971

The motivation for Deller’s dialogical[5] artwork “Battle of Orgreave” (2001) occurred because “Families were torn apart because of divided loyalties, the union movement was split on its willingness to support the National Union of Mineworkers, the print media especially contributed to the polarization of the arguments to the point where there appeared to be little space for a middle ground. So in all but name it became an ideological and industrial battle between the two sections of British society.” (Wilson, 2012) Deller engaged with ex-miners and their community spending eighteen months researching archives, collecting oral histories and working with Howard Giles (English Heritage) to stage a re-enactment using re-enactors and the local community close to the original coking plant, resulting in a documentary film (producer Mike Figgis) shown on television and an installation at the Tate Gallery.

Image 2 Jeremy Deller The battle of Orgreave

Bate (Bate, September 2010) quotes le Goff (1974)and Bourdieu as theorizing that “photography revolutionalises memory – it multiplies and democratises it, gives it a precision and a truth never before attained in visual memory, and makes it possible to preserve the memory of time and chronical evolution,” explaining that family photographs act like a memorial or monument to the past following Bourdieu’s argument of “establishing the truth of social remembrance” closely. Could re-enactment photography could be considered monumental? “Winters describes museums, films and TV in a way which the past is viewed through public representations of memories as “theatres of memory”” (Deborah Cherry, 2014, p. 165) making Deller’s work an ephemeral[6] monument. Collective memory is therefore enshrined and memorialization recalls the past, through nostalgia and social change. Douglas would rather his work not be memorialized because Abbott and Cordova 1971 promotes conversation about the actual event rather than silence over a plaque or artist’s blurb.

Is photography a medium which records the truth as the camera intended? Contemporary re-enactment photography starts with research through archived documents and oral history. Although it is assumed photographs record truth, Joan Fontcuberta (Hildenbrand, 2008, p. 113) suggest that interpreting a document or picture is subjective, depending on the reader’s culture and knowledge of the world. The viewpoint of the photograph is predominantly that of the photographer. Known for his hyper-real work, Fontcuberta considers a good photographer lies. When examining photographic archives, the viewer must be aware of the social context in which photographs were taken (including political or authoritative issues of the time.) (Moerman, 2012, p. 8) suggests a constructed image is more truthful to experience reality than a documented one because secondary revision of the memory of the event is a language which speaks to the mind and emotion. Kuhn proposes that photographers “may “speak silence”, absence and contraindication in as much as, indeed more than, presence, truth or authenticity and that while in the production of memory photographs might often repress this knowledge but they can also be used as a means of questioning identities and memories and of generating new ones.” (Kuhn, 2002, p. 155)

Re-enactment photographs have the ability to re-write history; they are made in the “now” and can convert the present to the past through re-imagining. Both Douglas and Deller’s work covered an event which was pivotal in cultural history. For Deller, research revealed the impression that media coverage from 1984 was in favour of the Government. Within the documentary, Tony Benn MP emphasized “BBC journalists were ordered to transpose the order in such a way as to give the opposite impression.” (Youtube, n.d.) (Ward, 2005, p. 65) supports this view, quoting Benn, “They didn’t make a mistake…whoever gave the orders actually destroyed the truth of what they reported.” An apology (issued in 1991 by the BBC) for inadvertently reversing the film footage, contained within the documentary and shown alongside the original footage provided the context for redressing the balance of history. Douglas’s reflective photograph, whilst not displaying the outcome, provides a supporting paratext informing people that the riot successfully changed the city regulations. Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History called for a time which could redeem the past by propelling it into the present; enabling people to critically re-examine the past.

Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulation in media as a representation of real demonstrates real becomes commonplace to reality. The image of simulation is simulacrum which has different feelings and emotions to reality. Simulation aims to mislead without having all the qualities of simulacrum. Simulation happens in real life and the experience is used against the participants so that they cannot tell the falseness of the imitation. (Sandoz, 2003) Deller’s mining community volunteers were involved in the original event, and in his simulation, the action stirred up real feeling and emotions, leading to chaos and making it difficult to identify the original photographs from the simulation.

So, is “Photography the enemy of memory” as David Campany (2016) suggests? Supporting this question is the argument of whether collective memory exists, or whether, as Sontag suggests, all memory is individual. Re-enactment can never be the same as the original because people come from different cultures and critical discourse must examine from a different perspective. The outcome is an image (or set of images) that only a few truly understand, offering different viewpoints of the event. However, in the search for answers, the truth may have been uncovered, through oral history and photography but is only ever as accurate as the recorder. Although initially I questioned the quote, having considered the evidence, I would support Campany’s hypothesis that photography is the enemy of memory and in order to understand an event, photographs should be questioned further; and if necessary scrutinized using a “time tunnel” to revisit the past in order to critically move forward. Perhaps we need more than just photographs themselves.

Word count including references 2020 words

Word count excluding references 1561 words

Word count for footnotes 164 words

References

Bate, D. (September 2010). The memory of photography. Photographies Volume 3, 243-257.

Campany, D. (2016). http://davidcampany.com/the-angel-of-history-in-the-age-of-the-internet/. last accessed March 2016

Cherry, D (2014). After lives of monuments. New York: Routledge. p165

Hughes, G, Hildenbrand, K (2008) Images of war and war of images, Cambridge Scholars Publishing p113

Kattago, S. (2012). Memory and Representation in Contemporary Europe: The Persistence of the Past. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing ltd. p23

Kuhn, A. (2002). Family secrets. Kings Lynn: Verso. p4, p155

Moerman, T. (2012). The Magic Mirror Reflections in Photography as Memory. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/5125449/The_Magic_Mirror_Reflections_on_Photography_as_Memory. p8 last accessed March 2016

Open University. (2016, January). hhttp://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage/content-section-3.1. last accessed March 2016

Sandoz, D. (2003). The University of Chicago, Theories of Media,Keywords, Glossary, Simulacrum, Simulation. Retrieved from http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/simulationsimulacrum.htm. last accessed March 2016

Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the pain of others. St Ives, UK: Penguin. p76

Ward, P. (2005). Documentary: The margins of reality. London: Wallflower. p65

Wells, L. (2010). Photography a critical introduction. Glasgow: Routledge. p351

Wilson, A. (2012, October). http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/deller-the-battle-of-orgreave-archive-an-injury-to-one-is-an-injury-to-all-t12185/text-summary. last accessed March 2016

Youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncrWxnxLjg. last accessed March 2016

 

 Bibliography

Bate, D. (September 2010). The memory of photography. Photographies Volume 3, 243-257.

Campany, D. (2016). http://davidcampany.com/the-angel-of-history-in-the-age-of-the-internet/. last accessed March 2016

Cherry, D. (2014). After lives of monuments. New York: Routledge.

Hughes, G , Hildenbrand, K (2008) Images of war and war of images, Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Kattago, S. (2012). Memory and Representation in Contemporary Europe: The Persistence of the Past. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing ltd.

Kuhn, A. (2002). Family secrets. Kings Lynn: Verso.

Moerman, T. (2012). The Magic Mirror Reflections in Photography as Memory. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/5125449/The_Magic_Mirror_Reflections_on_Photography_as_Memory. p8 last accessed March 2016

Open University. (2016, January). hhttp://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage/content-section-3.1. last accessed March 2016

Sandoz, D. (2003). The University of Chicago, Theories of Media,Keywords, Glossary, Simulacrum, Simulation. Retrieved from http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/simulationsimulacrum.htm. last accessed March 2016

Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the pain of others. St Ives, UK: Penguin.

Ward, P. (2005). Documentary: The margins of reality. London: Wallflower.

Wells, L. (2010). Photography a critical introduction. Glasgow: Routledge.

Wilson, A. (2012, October). http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/deller-the-battle-of-orgreave-archive-an-injury-to-one-is-an-injury-to-all-t12185/text-summary. last accessed March 2016

Youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncrWxnxLjg. last accessed March 2016

Coser, L (1992) Maurice Halbwachs On Collective Memory, University of Chicago Press

The following websites were last accessed March 2016:

http://lineberger-center.lr.edu/sites/lineberger-center.lr.edu/files/images/Green-%20Individual%20Remembering%20and%20'Collective%20Memory'.pdf

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/deller-the-battle-of-orgreave-archive-an-injury-to-one-is-an-injury-to-all-t12185/text-summary

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ck26ZIQ51QIC&pg=PT263&lpg=PT263&dq=collective+memory+and+reenactment+photography&source=bl&ots=RYRGmbLK42&sig=dqhMBsQM6Nr1hvUzVQtCWaBSG1g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAr8rhlKfLAhWG8RQKHc8ED7cQ6AEIITAA#v=onepage&q=collective%20memory%20and%20reenactment%20photography&f=false

https://thomasmaxwellshore.wordpress.com/the-battle-of-orgreave-25-years-on-memory-counter-memory-re-enactment-and-translation/

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/warwickbooks/complexity/andrew_hoskins/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/10607957/In-pictures-A-look-back-at-the-Battle-of-Orgreave-in-1984.html?frame=2807646

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/gallery/2009/feb/23/don-mcphee-miner-strike-photography

http://thetyee.ca/ArtsAndCulture/2010/02/17/GastownRiot/

http://arsenalpulp.com/extras/DouglasDraft3.pdf

http://www.jeremydeller.org/TheBattleOfOrgreave/TheBattleOfOrgreave_Video.php

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[1] Collective memory is “the memory of a group of people passed from one generation to the next” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/collective-memory)

[2] A Google search for “re-enactment photography” lists a variety of photo-help sites such as digital camera world, digital photography school and travel national geographic which concentrate on taking portrait and action shots of re-enactors in a landscape which may have seen the original action occur. Readers are taken through camera set up to post processing, and encouraged to approach organisers to provide photographs for next year’s advertisements or send images to re-enactors themselves.

[3] “Allegory – a story or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one” - http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/allegory

[4] Straight photography – emphasis upon direct documentary typical of the Modern period of American photography (Wells, 2010)

[5] Dialogical means dialogue (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dialogic?q=dialogical#dialogic__4)

[6] Ephemeral Monument - transitionary use of the space where the battle originally occurred and then returned back to a field once more “Lasting for a very short time” http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ephemeral

Learning point - reference email correctly. No dates on dropbox. Rectified for assignment 5.

I have attached an idea for my critical review following your feedback from assignment 3. Please let me know if it needs to be simpler. I was interested in the further reading and how it fits into the local landscape. ....
N.Hampshire (2016) Assignment 4 [via dropbox] Sent to R.Bloomfield, March.

I like your idea to examine photography as memory within the context of your
own recent work framed by Campany's essay. I would make clear in your opening
paragraph what your argument is going to be and then outline your territory
with reference to sources before making a tentative conclusion. This is a vast
field of history, photography and representation so keep it focussed on one or
two themes such as re enactment. Sontag rather contradicts your argument so
its a brave move to include her, make sure you respond to her comment on
collective memory. I wouldn't stray too far into Barthes punctum which doesn't
seem relevant here, although Campany's idea of a certain 'time tunnel' moment
in which the past can be reevaluated and understood is interesting.

Bloomfield, R. (2016) Assignment 4 [via dropbox] Sent to N. Hampshire, March.