Material Culture Methodologies Workshop with Dr Kate Smith

Comprising scholars from a variety of fields and geographical specialisations, the cluster aims to foster interdisciplinary approaches to the study of materiality. In particular, we are interested in the myriad relationships between people and things, interrogating issues of making, consumption, exchange and agency.

MVC Research Cluster

Dr Kate Smith (University Birmingham) will lead an object analysis workshop for PhD researchers working with/on material culture history.

Rm 1.02

This workshop, for PhD students centres on methodological approaches to object based research and material culture. Bring along an object you have been studying and we’ll develop skills to closely anaylse it. Although the cluster&#x27;s interests fall primarily within the 17th and 18th centuries, the workshop is not limited to this time period and encourages wider contributions. Refreshments provided (but sadly not tea or coffee - byo T/C)What we’ll do: In What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images (2005), the art historian W. J. T. Mitchell asserts that ‘Objects are the way things appear to a subject – that is, with a name, an identity, a gestalt or stereotypical template, a description, a use of function, a history, a science’. Given the ways in which ‘objects’ are produced in and through human culture, attending to them as (physical) entities – as ‘things’ can prove difficult. In this session we will consider the ways in which we attend to objects as we research them and how our modes of attending might shape our means of analysis. We will begin the session by considering these questions:1. How do you pay attention to the objects you research? How do you look at or handle objects when researching them? 2. How do the physical (the room, the table, the gloves) and social framing devices (the rules, the people) at work in museums and archives shape your interactions? 3. How do catalogues and provenance information shape your interaction and the analytical avenues you might explore? We will then go on to listen to what each of us has found in terms of their current analysis of a particular object, before discuss ing what might have shaped such analyses and how other methodological approaches might further complicate and develop understandings. In preparation for the session, you’ll need to consider the questions listed above. Please bring an image of ‘your’ object (one you are currently researching), and any catalogue information that accompanies the object. Be prepared to talk about your research on the object and any questions you are considering in relationship to it. Before attending, you should read Smith, K, and Leonie, H., ‘Return and Repetition: Methods for Material Culture Studies&#x27;, in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Summer 2017, Vol.48(1), 43-59.You may also wish to dip into the book Mitchell, W.J.T., What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images (2005), available in the ECA library. The workshop is followed by the Material Culture in the 17th and 18th Centuries Research Cluster inaugural lecture: Loss and Dispossession in the Long Eighteenth Century given by Dr Smith. The event is free, but please register <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/loss-and-dispossession-in-the-long-eighteenth-century-tickets-88816637955" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/loss-and-dispossession-in-the-long-eighteenth-century-tickets-88816637955" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">.</a>

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Material Culture Methodologies Workshop with Dr Kate Smith

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Material Culture Methodologies Workshop with Dr Kate Smith

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