Log in
A public event at Coventry Cathedral attracted over 450 people from diverse backgrounds, involving local minority groups and representatives from national arts organisations. The event was part of the research project Noise of the Past which intervened in narratives of national belonging by enhancing public awareness of the historical contestations of a multicultural Britain. Postcolonial histories of World Wars and popular rituals of remembrance in Britain are charged arenas for public representations of the nation. Noise of the Past encouraged collective representations of nationality and citizenship that accommodates minorities. It worked with ex-WII soldiers, poets, musicians and film-makers; and collaborated with organisations including the Coventry Cathedral, Peace Festival and Imperial War Museum to develop their capacity to attract diverse publics for exploring a multicultural Britain
The research has resulted in positive impacts for cultural life, civil society and education by: (1) generating new ways of thinking that influence creative practice beyond the academy; (2) creating, inspiring and supporting new forms of (primarily) artistic and social expression beyond the academy; (3) contributing to continuing personal and professional development; and (4) preserving, conserving, and interpreting cultural heritage for audiences external to the academy. A `spin-out' performing organisation — Hull Sinfonietta — has been formed, and several creative works have been produced including a music-film (Lear Settings) made in collaboration with local primary and secondary schools and freelance animators and film editors. The main non-academic beneficiaries of the research are the music professionals of Hull Sinfonietta, the school children, their teachers, freelance practitioners, and concertgoers.
Impact derived from Prof Maggie Andrews' research was through collaboration, since 2008, with the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) in Staffordshire and, latterly, with archival and heritage organisations in Worcestershire and Staffordshire, to increase public involvement in practices of remembrance, memorialisation and commemoration and to enhance experience of them — both for those directly affected and for the general public. Andrews' collaboration with the NMA influenced development of the UK's first, national centre for remembrance during critical years of its evolution. Through assisting the NMA to envision and understand its role in the context of contemporary culture, her input informed the NMA's approach to supporting visitors' experience and framed and informed its developing approaches to visitor interpretation. Her collaboration with organisations in Staffordshire and Worcestershire supported development of approaches to forthcoming, national centenary commemoration of World War 1.
The Colonial Film project produced a major new website housing an online catalogue of all films showing life in British colonies held by three major film archives (the British Film Institute National Archive, the Imperial War Museum, and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum) from 1895 to the separate moments of independence. The project conserved and made newly accessible — both practically and intellectually — a significant global cultural heritage in the service of memorialising the frequently occluded history of the British Empire. It is now a major national and international resource, and has been utilised by its partner archives and others to improve their own cataloguing and hold new exhibitions.
Hughes' impact arises from his music for films without sound, which has rendered historically important silent films, and more recent silent film formats, accessible to contemporary audiences. Critics, programmers and broadcasters have all recognised this impact in their commissions and programming of Hughes' scores, and Hughes' work has also impacted upon the way in which museum curators display film and other archival materials. The films include commercial DVD releases of classic silent films by Sergei Eisenstein and Yasujiro Ozu, music for Joris Ivens' film Regen (1929), music for a new film by photographer Sophie Rickett, and music for a documentary image sequence of photographs from the Imperial War Museum archive.
Jo Fox's research on the British Documentary Film Movement has benefited: (1) the Grierson Trust, by enabling its members to contextualise the Movement's purpose and, through them, assisting film-makers to have better understandings of the documentary form and its heritage; (2) nominated and award-winning film-makers, by promoting their work to an international audience and to the film and television industries; (3) Lambent Productions, by profile-raising and assisting it to secure further contracts with the BBC and other television stations; (4) the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, by promoting the significance of Film Australia collections to wider audiences.
In Place of War (IPoW) is a research project that has had substantial impact on civil society and cultural life worldwide by documenting, analysing and enhancing the work of war zone theatre practitioners. Paradoxically, in a context of globalisation, these artists are professionally and geographically isolated: indeed, it is often assumed that art cannot take place in a war zone, when in fact it remains a vital means of human expression during times of crisis. To overcome this relative invisibility, the project has helped professionals and organisations in several countries by building artist networks, developing resources for creative practice, and offering practitioner training. The project has also provided support for third sector agencies developing projects in this field, with the research enabling more context-sensitive planning of programmes. There has also been impact on public discourse, providing new insights about the role of artistic work in conflict situations and the esteem in which it is held, while contributing to the increased public profile of such work and its potential for global circulation.
Dr David Ryan's research at Anglia Ruskin University has achieved impact in the areas of cross-disciplinary events and visual art and music. These include:
Memory of Fire, the 2008 Brighton Photo Biennial, shown across nine venues, had public impact, as measured by audience figures, audience comment on the website and in gallery comment books, attendance at public events and in education programmes, and the analyses of the event in an independent audit and Audience & Visitor Evaluation Report. Its longer term impact derives from the stimulation of discourse about the role of imagery in the conduct of war, over a period in which the UK has continually been at war, and in which the media's treatment of war has been of pressing public concern.
Voiceworks exemplifies the impact of Birkbeck's Contemporary Poetics Research Centre and its contribution to cultural life and creative industries, specifically in the field of song, composition and performance. A seven-year collaboration between poets from the Centre, composers and singers from Guildhall Conservatoire, and Wigmore Hall, Voiceworks annually creates new works for voice from a long process of reflective exchange, improvisation and practice. These are performed publicly at Wigmore Hall, and form new repertoire, accessible online. An emerging generation of creative Voiceworks practitioners have developed their practice in innovative directions, and continue to collaborate successfully on projects nationally and internationally.