Within fine art practice the archive is referred to and drawn on by artists in many different ways, including referencing processes of collection and accumulation to create new work and engaging with documents to create narratives that contest mainstream histories. This practice based research sheds light on the backstage of archival engagement and knowledge production processes. Following the trajectory of a single artist’s encounter with a particular institutional archive, The Baring Archive, and the onward encounters this precipitates, this thesis explores how knowledge is negotiated and archival authority sustained, at the intersection of multiple forces; by human actors coming into contact with documents under particular conditions, localities, habits, protocols, exchanges, loyalties, emotions, personalities and more. Rooted in embedded art practice, the research articulates a series of performative experiments undertaken in The Baring Archive to reveal the conventions underpinning knowledge production in this instance, focusing on the relationship between the artist (as archive user) and the archivist. The research evolves iteratively to test whether these normative roles and agencies can be reformulated to shift patterns of narrative control concerning The Baring Archive away from the archivist as a gatekeeper or privileged interpreter to other interpreters, with the aim of democratising processes of knowledge production. Through testing out different devices for keeping archival interpretation open, the research arrives at a formulation for distributed authorship, and an understanding of how positionality affects the knowledge production process. The research finally identifies how findings relating to archival dynamics can be applied to effect a redistribution of power in artistic practice more generally, in situations where artists are working with participants or audiences to create narratives at the intersection of events and documents.

Visual identity can be understood as the result of the application of graphic design methods aimed at inter-brand differentiation, which paradoxically is leading to “homogenizing identities” (Bell, 2004). The globalization of visual identity is a phenomenon that can be observed not only among global brands competing with each other, but also in locally specific heritage brands that relinquish distinctive elements of their identity to resemble the global. In many cases, their specificities end up being distorted, blurred, or lost, and the richness of what is historically and culturally unique about them is often misinterpreted, neglected, or even discarded. By showing what can be lost with regards to historical and cultural memory within a brand’s imagery, this thesis questions the significance of archives to locally specific brands claiming symbolic and cultural relevance. It shows how can graphic designers can contribute to the preservation of cultural diversity through visual identity. To address the loss of cultural memory as well as the globalization of visual identity, this study draws on visual design heritage to achieve an understanding of the past as a source and a means to feed future cultural development. By adapting visual methodologies and case-study methods to assess brand identity, the study presents a methodological approach for the rescuing, interpretative analysis, and exploration of historical memory in brand imagery. It applies ethnographic research methods for data collection and graphic design methods for recovering visual materials, combined with timelines and grids for contextual and visual analysis. A main case-study is presented to demonstrate how the methods originated, how they enable the observation of identity transformations over time, and of how visual identity dissolves with global influence. This case addresses the historical context and today’s cultural relevance of an archive of the Portuguese iconic Sanjo sports shoes brand, which emerged with the rise of the ‘Estado Novo’ authoritarian regime in Portugal (1933–1974). Through the interpretation of how brand designs evolved in relation to contextual history it is possible to see the various social, cultural, political and economical transformations that occurred in their life spans. The thesis presents parallel examples of brands that were heavily influenced or even controlled by government in the past and now operate independently. As with the case of Sanjo, the comparative study investigates, and further draws attention to the relationship between the loss of historical memory and the globalization of visual identity. By examining the relevance of archives for addressing identity issues, the thesis shows that current graphic design practices can avoid failing to address historical contextualisation and cultural relevance if, firstly, a great deal of historical and cultural memory is retrieved, secondly, if there is substantial visual and contextual analysis, and thirdly, if the visual elements and histories uncovered are put together in the right context. By considering the possibilities that brand archives present for exploring the symbolic values of objects and generating meaning, this study fills a gap between archival practices and the way many designers and companies are dealing with locally specific brands. It argues that brand archives are key instruments for designers to derive meaning and convey cultural memory into the future, and that visual identity is a channel through which these can be acknowledged, displayed and experienced. The study concludes by suggesting possible approaches graphic designers might pursue to address the issues identified, and it broadens the scope of the directions in which brand archives can be explored through the re-contextualisation of cultural objects.

In 2006 selected Cornish mining areas were validated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Here are found numerous remnants of the mining industry that justified Cornwall’s prominence from the Industrial Revolution up to the close of the last major mine in the 1990s. An essential part of that history is the trade of The Boulton and Watt Mining Company, formed when Midlands businessman Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) joined forces with Scotsman James Watt (1736-1819). This partnership influenced the history of Cornish mining and the whole Industrial Revolution. Traces of their endeavours remain on the Cornish landscape and in Cornish identity. Correspondence between the two men and Cornish mine manager Thomas Wilson (1748-1820) is held at the Cornish Records Office and is available online. Creative work began with these letters, seeking moments, words and gestures to resonate with narratives of the Cornish post-industrial landscape. These narratives were gathered through interviews with locals, tourists, students, mining enthusiasts and those who knew nothing of the Cornish industrial past, and were supported by experience and observation of the Cornish landscape. Poetry written from these sources strives to reflect upon contemporary landscape use and promote cultural ownership and understanding. To this aim, readings of the two collections were given in 2013 and the collections subsequently self-published. Responses to the work show that this project not only promoted Cornish industrial heritage but also prompted recognition of how stories of the contemporary Cornish landscape are intertwined with its history. This project’s partner was the King Edward Mine Museum, Troon, near Camborne, and its aims were supported by the Cornwall Record Office, Truro.

Taking hoarding as a model for amassing materials within art practice, this research questions the borders of a productive or rational relationship to collation and the development of pathology. In practice, I focus on how materials can be manipulated to reflect or imply attachments and value systems within disorder, collection and their interpretations/ analyses. Using historical examples, I question how disorder is formed, spatially, aesthetically and through clinical record-keeping, making specific reference to written/visual case-studies from Charcot and Freud. I question whether disorder can ever be seen as a culturally produced phenomenon in parallel to its clinical counterpart and suggest its uses to knowledge production within the fields of Fine Art and critical theory. I suggest hoarding – and the cultural construction of disorder - as collagist and create works, which reflect on the borders of psychopathological attachments to ‘stuff’; psychologies inherent to accumulation; and conscious and unconscious spaces occupied by both object and analysis. Creating new collagist and fictive methodologies out of the construction of case histories, and through the cooption of diagnostic tools and narratology used in psychoanalysis, I write about the work and within the work. This research questions how psychological disorder is re-narrated through fictive and visual forms within culture and via collective understandings of psychoanalytic subjectivities. I suggest how these fictions connect, accumulate and reflect back on themselves, affecting research and crossovers within psychoanalytic, spatial and cultural fields. I make links between the modern city and psychological disorder, drawing on the psychical affects of changes in urban space. Examining collation, the construction of psychological spaces and temporality in art practice (from Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau to Michael Landy’s Break Down and Tomoko Takahashi’s collation of objects) alongside new clinical research into Hoarding Disorder, I relate compulsion and space to a rationalisation of clutter in contemporary practice.

<p>This paper examines the role of the pioneer Filipino filmmaker Jose Nepomuceno and his films in the Philippine quest for independence and in the process of nation-building. As all of Nepomuceno's films are lost, most of the information was gathered from old newspaper articles on microfilm in different archives in Manila. Many of these articles were hitherto undiscovered. Nepomuceno made silent films at a time when the influence of the new coloniser, United States, was growing, and the Spanish language was what unified the intellectual opposition. Previous research on Nepomuceno has focused on the Hispanic influences on his filmmaking, as well as his connections to the stage drama. This paper argues that Nepomuceno created a national consciousness by making films showing native lives and environments, adapting important Filipino novels and plays to the screen and covering important political topics and thereby creating public opinion. Many reviews in the newspapers connected his films to nation-building and independence, as the creation of a national consciousness is a cornerstone in the process of building a nation and defining "Filipino". Furthermore, the films of Nepomuceno helped spreading the Tagalog culture and language to other parts of the Philippines, hence making Tagalog the foundation of the national Filipino language.</p>

This paper examines the role of the pioneer Filipino filmmaker Jose Nepomuceno and his films in the Philippine quest for independence and in the process of nation-building. As all of Nepomuceno's films are lost, most of the information was gathered from old newspaper articles on microfilm in different archives in Manila. Many of these articles were hitherto undiscovered. Nepomuceno made silent films at a time when the influence of the new coloniser, United States, was growing, and the Spanish language was what unified the intellectual opposition. Previous research on Nepomuceno has focused on the Hispanic influences on his filmmaking, as well as his connections to the stage drama. This paper argues that Nepomuceno created a national consciousness by making films showing native lives and environments, adapting important Filipino novels and plays to the screen and covering important political topics and thereby creating public opinion. Many reviews in the newspapers connected his films to nation-building and independence, as the creation of a national consciousness is a cornerstone in the process of building a nation and defining "Filipino". Furthermore, the films of Nepomuceno helped spreading the Tagalog culture and language to other parts of the Philippines, hence making Tagalog the foundation of the national Filipino language.

Das Populäre und das Archiv sind zwei sich gegenseitig ausschließende Gegenstandsbereiche, wenn man ersteres mit den Kennzeichen Allgemeinverständlichkeit und Allgemeinzugänglichkeit bei gleichzeitiger affektiver Verankerung (Williams 1976) verbindet, und letzteres in erster Linie als Selektionspraxis und normative Wissensformation versteht (Foucault 1969, Derrida 1995). Mit Urs Stäheli (in Pompe, Scholz 2002) lässt sich hier ein Paradox aufzeigen: das allgemein Verständliche zu archivieren hieße, nur das, was schon überall vorhanden ist zu verdoppeln. Das Populäre der Archivordnung zu unterwerfen, hieße jedoch auf der anderen Seite, es zu ‚entpopularisieren’, den Zugang zu selegieren. In der jüngsten Vergangenheit nun werden wir mit fluktuierenden Archivstrukturen konfrontiert, die sich via Internet und Netzwerk-Konfigurationen als dynamisch veränderbares Bilderkonvolut und als selbstreflexive Medienpraxis präsentieren. Wikipedia und YouTube drängen sich heute als dominante Bildarchive auf, die als populäre Medienpraxis die archivarische Arbeit am Bild beständig weitertreiben und umbauen. Es wäre nun zu fragen, ob nicht gerade hier eine Archivpraxis bereitstünde, die das Populäre nicht in statuarischen Ordnungssystemen tot stellt, sondern Selektions- und Ordnungsprozesse als performative Praxis offen hält. Vielleicht wäre es möglich, hier das Bild eines ‚Archiv-Dunkels’ und einer offenen Oberfläche des Populären zu einem hybriden Konzept zu verschränken.

Das Populäre und das Archiv sind zwei sich gegenseitig ausschließende Gegenstandsbereiche, wenn man ersteres mit den Kennzeichen Allgemeinverständlichkeit und Allgemeinzugänglichkeit bei gleichzeitiger affektiver Verankerung (Williams 1976) verbindet, und letzteres in erster Linie als Selektionspraxis und normative Wissensformation versteht (Foucault 1969, Derrida 1995). Mit Urs Stäheli (in Pompe, Scholz 2002) lässt sich hier ein Paradox aufzeigen: das allgemein Verständliche zu archivieren hieße, nur das, was schon überall vorhanden ist zu verdoppeln. Das Populäre der Archivordnung zu unterwerfen, hieße jedoch auf der anderen Seite, es zu ‚entpopularisieren’, den Zugang zu selegieren. In der jüngsten Vergangenheit nun werden wir mit fluktuierenden Archivstrukturen konfrontiert, die sich via Internet und Netzwerk-Konfigurationen als dynamisch veränderbares Bilderkonvolut und als selbstreflexive Medienpraxis präsentieren. Wikipedia und YouTube drängen sich heute als dominante Bildarchive auf, die als populäre Medienpraxis die archivarische Arbeit am Bild beständig weitertreiben und umbauen. Es wäre nun zu fragen, ob nicht gerade hier eine Archivpraxis bereitstünde, die das Populäre nicht in statuarischen Ordnungssystemen tot stellt, sondern Selektions- und Ordnungsprozesse als performative Praxis offen hält. Vielleicht wäre es möglich, hier das Bild eines ‚Archiv-Dunkels’ und einer offenen Oberfläche des Populären zu einem hybriden Konzept zu verschränken.

Arts and Humanities Research Council, through a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentship / The full text will be available at the end of the embargo period