Introduction

The project title is “Storytelling Through Mixed Media & Textiles: The Industrial Revolution, Landscape and My Family History”.

I intend to answer two questions that relate to each other.

How has my local landscape changed from before the Industrial Revolution to today? (local textile industry).

How does my family’s connection play its part? The first question helps to answer the second, as my family members played an active role, as they worked as weavers in a local cotton mill and were part of the history of the textile industry at the time of the industrial revolution.

My Work

I am a neurodiverse artist, and my work focuses on historical narratives using video footage and sound recordings from various sources to produce documentary-style films. I also use printmaking (photographic imagery), drawing, bookbinding and textiles in my work. I aim to use these techniques, alongside my developing research and theoretical work, to respond creatively in an academically responsive and sensory way to the questions I have raised in this proposal and throughout the course of the studentship. Dialect, and Lancashire poetry, are subject areas that I have included in my work, as they are deeply rooted and recognised within my own family narrative and heritage. Recognition of the impact of learning and physical disabilities, including synaesthesia, and how inclusion plays a role is also an important aspect of my work.

I recognise the theories of photography, representation, communication and aesthetics; I do not simply use these theories within a photographic medium but also within my own creative practice in other media. I voice a narrative through imagery, text, and film to give my work a meaningful and emotional connection. I use these connections as threads that make up a historical, creative and contextual outcome. I intend to use sketches and notebooks for reflection purposes and, as part of the project, methodologies to help me organise my thought processes and aims and objectives to aid my visual concepts, research and final outcome. At the end of this studentship, I intend to write an illustrated final thesis, combining my findings from practical work concepts and final outcomes and various methodologies and research. 

My Inspiration

Contemporary filmmaking and photography have only recently started as notable features of my creative practice. I am aware of two predominant, inspirational and contemporary figures in filmmaking Wim Wenders and Andrei Tarkovsky and in relation to photography Vivian Maier who was an amateur street photographer with an intriguing story.

Conducting research that enables creative and engaging visual outcomes combined with an engaging narrative with multiple, sometimes complex methodologies I find exciting, and to have an opportunity to do this as part of a PhD studentship would be an amazing opportunity for me.

As part of my current project, I have had the opportunity to collect black and white and colour archive footage by collaborating with the Manchester Film Archive.  Examining the footage, it gave me a new perspective and thinking regarding social and cultural history and narrative, plus a new perspective for my practice as a research-based artist.  I felt elated and nostalgic about my own cultural heritage. This opportunity will enable me to create this feeling of elation for the public to enjoy and be part of. It will also enable this archive material to be rejuvenated, which is important because it is our social history and heritage. 

For this studentship, I intend to examine historical context and theory through evidence-based research. The brief says that “wider cultural thinking has come to recognise the potential of narrative….” This itself proves how important history and narrative are for the wider community. I intend to look at colonial historical narratives and theory-based research methodologies to strengthen my understanding of historical contexts and recognise and examine my creative thinking process towards my final outcomes.