‘Indications of India’: Working with the Embodied Experience of Photography in Stella Snead’s Photographs, Photobooks, and Photo-Collages

This thesis examines the multifaceted artistic contributions of Stella Snead (1910–2006), a painter, photographer, collagist, and traveller, with surrealist inclinations. Employing a phenomenological approach to study the embodied experience of photography, it provides the first extensive investigation and theoretical evaluation of Snead’s work and explores how her work intersects with the studies of women artists, photography, and surrealism. Over the past thirty years, there has been a resurgence of interest in women artists associated with surrealism. While artists such as Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, Leonor Fini have become canonical women surrealists, Snead remains on the periphery and receives little academic attention. This thesis, however, does not aim to simply insert Snead into current historiographies. By examining her work through a phenomenological lens, it offers a crucial perspective for evaluating Snead’s place in art history and reflecting on potential issues within the historiographies of surrealism and women surrealists. The first chapter examines Snead’s approach to travel and photography in India. The second chapter focuses on Snead’s photobook Shiva’s Pigeons: An Experience of India (1972) and her photographic exhibition People Figures–India (1982) as part of the Festival of India (1982) to evaluate how these works challenge conventional representations of India. The third chapter analayses Snead’s method of reinventing her personal photographic archive to make photo-collages, aiming to understand the significance of manipulating embodied experience and rewriting memories. This thesis enhances the understanding of women photographers/artists who worked on the margins of surrealism, contributing to the historiography of surrealism. Furthermore, it experiments with a new dimension in the phenomenological approach to the studies of photography and highlights the significance of examining archival materials, which significantly contributes to the understanding of the artist’s working method and the interconnectedness of the mediums

Enriching Architecture: Craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760

Refinement and enrichment of surfaces in stone, wood and plaster is a fundamental aspect of early modern architecture which has been marginalised by architectural history. Enriching Architecture aims to retrieve and rehabilitate surface achievement as a vital element of early modern buildings in Britain and Ireland. Rejected by modernism, demeaned by the conceptual ‘turn’ and too often reduced to its representative or social functions, we argue for the historical legitimacy of creative craft skill as a primary agent in architectural production. However, in contrast to the connoisseurial and developmental perspectives of the past, this book is concerned with how surfaces were designed, achieved and experienced. The contributors draw upon the major rethinking of craft and materials within the wider cultural sphere in recent years to deconstruct traditional, oppositional ways of thinking about architectural production. This is not a craft for craft’s sake argument but an effort to embed the tangible findings of conservation and curatorial research within an evidence-led architectural history that illuminates the processes of early modern craftsmanship. The book explores broad themes of surface treatment such as wainscot, rustication, plasterwork, and staircase embellishment together with chapters focused on virtuoso buildings and set pieces which illuminate these themes

IN TEXTASIS: MATRIXIAL NARRATIVES OF TEXTILE DESIGN

Since its inception in the late 1970s, the academic field of design research has lacked significant input from textile design. Textile design inhabits a liminal space that spans art, design, craft; the decorative and functional; from handiwork to industrial manufacture. This PhD by thesis, although recognizing this particularity, asserts textile design as a design discipline and seeks to address key questions that define a design discipline (Archer 1979). Specific factors have prevented the participation of textile design in the development of design theory: the universalism of the Modernist age decried many of the innate characteristics of textiles despite the fact that the versatility of textiles has made it one of the most appropriate mediums for its message. This suppression points to the femininely gendered nature of textiles and how this affected the participation of textile designers in the development of design research. Addressing this historical and cultural context necessitated the utilization of feminist qualitative research methods in a methodology that references matrixial theory (Ettinger 2006) and relationality. Encounters, conversations, stories, drawings, metaphor, meshing and restorying are all key research methods used in this study. In its autoethnographic approach, my position as a textile designer and as the researcher is frequently foregrounded, and is also blended with the experiences of other textile designers. The study unfolds and expands in a non-linear way, structure and outcome co-evolving through my contingent thinking and activity. Theory and texts are montaged from anthropology, philosophy, literature, cognitive psychology and psychoanalysis to define key characteristics of textile design and its associated thinking, both tacit and explicit. These characteristics are then placed into the context of the design research agenda, with particular reference to design thinking and problem-solving. This both strengthens the position of textiles as a design discipline and highlights its anomalies. Through analysing the articulation of textile design practice and thinking, this study proposes an alternative perspective on design thinking and problem-solving in design which contrasts with the notions of divergence followed by convergence which are predominant in design research literature. It suggests that textile design thinking is fundamentally dimensionally expansive yet set in tense relation to external forces of folding and rhizomatic breakage (Deleuze 1993/1999, Deleuze & Guattari 1987/2008). This paradigm of design thinking rests upon the significance of long-established textile metaphors for the embodied and interconnected activities of cognition and action, and is indicative of particular views of post- Postmodernist thought. Based on this, as well as on other key characteristics of textile design process and thinking that have been defined, pedagogic implications are discussed and specific areas of current design research discourse which would benefit from greater involvement from textile designers and theorists are explored

Enriching Architecture

Refinement and enrichment of surfaces in stone, wood and plaster is a fundamental aspect of early modern architecture which has been marginalised by architectural history. Enriching Architecture aims to retrieve and rehabilitate surface achievement as a vital element of early modern buildings in Britain and Ireland. Rejected by modernism, demeaned by the conceptual ‘turn’ and too often reduced to its representative or social functions, we argue for the historical legitimacy of creative craft skill as a primary agent in architectural production. However, in contrast to the connoisseurial and developmental perspectives of the past, this book is concerned with how surfaces were designed, achieved and experienced. The contributors draw upon the major rethinking of craft and materials within the wider cultural sphere in recent years to deconstruct traditional, oppositional ways of thinking about architectural production. This is not a craft for craft’s sake argument but an effort to embed the tangible findings of conservation and curatorial research within an evidence-led architectural history that illuminates the processes of early modern craftsmanship. The book explores broad themes of surface treatment such as wainscot, rustication, plasterwork, and staircase embellishment together with chapters focused on virtuoso buildings and set pieces which illuminate these themes

6th International Meeting on Retouching of Cultural Heritage, RECH6

RECH Biennial Meeting is one of the largest educational and scientific events in Retouching field, an ideal venue for conservators and scientists to present their research results about retouching. The main focus will be to promote the exchange of ideas, concepts, terminology, methods, techniques and materials applied during the retouching process in different areas of conservation: mural painting, easel painting, sculpture, graphic documentation, architecture, plasterwork, photography, contemporary art, among others. This Meeting aims to address retouching by encouraging papers that contribute to a deeper understanding of this final task of the conservation and restoration intervention. The main theme embraces the concepts of retouching, the criteria and limits in the retouching process, the bad retouching impact on heritage and their technical and scientific developments.This Meeting will discuss real-life approaches on retouching, focusing on practical solutions and on sharing experiencesColomina Subiela, A.; Doménech García, B.; Bailão, A. (2023). 6th International Meeting on Retouching of Cultural Heritage, RECH6. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/RECH6.2021.1601

Merchants of the City: Situating the London Estate of the Drapers’ Company, c. 1540-1640

Through a case study of the Drapers’ Company, this thesis examines the role London’s livery companies played in the built environment of the early modern City.1 Broadly, it is concerned with tracing institutional topographies of the urban environment and examining the city’s development in relation to these systems of governance. Specifically, it investigates the Drapers as administrators, landlords and landowners in a critical period of livery company history. Much of the extant literature on the London guilds sidelines their significant role in the spatial processes of the post-Reformation city and fails to engage with their extensive property records. However, my research situates the companies as increasingly active agents in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century built environment. Pushing against the ‘Elizabethan silence’ of this period as perceived by architectural historians, I demonstrate that the accelerated acquisition of buildings, anxiety about their condition and canny negotiations with tenants for rebuildings reveal a Company proactively seeking to maintain corporate honour and profit through their valuable urban estate. At the same time, it explores how this transition, and the erosion of their original base of authority in the trade of drapery, was expressed or suppressed in corporate spaces such as the Company Hall. The thesis therefore contributes to debates surrounding the survival of London’s guilds in the face of substantive internal change by writing the livery companies back into the story of city space. Notably, the starting point for the research was an unusual book of accounts relating to thirty-six dinners held in the sixteenth century Hall. The ‘Dinner Book’ served as an unconventional entry point into an exploration of over 300 diverse documents in the Drapers’ Archive. Taking such a holistic approach to the Archive, the study is more widely about what can be achieved in utilising the records of London's livery companies as a source for urban architectural histories as it is about the guilds' role as co-producers of city space. In giving voice to the architecture of the early modern city and its inhabitants, it challenges architectural historians in particular to re-assess their view of appropriate methodologies and legitimate evidence in relation to the urban environment

An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?

Copyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction

History of Construction Cultures Volume 1

History of Construction Cultures Volume 1 contains papers presented at the 7ICCH – Seventh International Congress on Construction History, held at the Lisbon School of Architecture, Portugal, from 12 to 16 July, 2021. The conference has been organized by the Lisbon School of Architecture (FAUL), NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Portuguese Society for Construction History Studies and the University of the Azores. The contributions cover the wide interdisciplinary spectrum of Construction History and consist on the most recent advances in theory and practical case studies analysis, following themes such as: - epistemological issues; - building actors; - building materials; - building machines, tools and equipment; - construction processes; - building services and techniques ; -structural theory and analysis ; - political, social and economic aspects; - knowledge transfer and cultural translation of construction cultures. Furthermore, papers presented at thematic sessions aim at covering important problematics, historical periods and different regions of the globe, opening new directions for Construction History research. We are what we build and how we build; thus, the study of Construction History is now more than ever at the centre of current debates as to the shape of a sustainable future for humankind. Therefore, History of Construction Cultures is a critical and indispensable work to expand our understanding of the ways in which everyday building activities have been perceived and experienced in different cultures, from ancient times to our century and all over the world

The hammer-beam roof: tradition, innovation and the carpenter's art in late medieval England

This thesis is about late medieval carpenters, their techniques and their art, and about the structure that became the fusion of their technical virtuosity and artistic creativity: the hammer-beam roof. The structural nature and origin of the hammer-beam roof is discussed, and it is argued that, although invented in the late thirteenth century, during the fourteenth century the hammer-beam roof became a developmental dead-end. In the early fifteenth century the hammer-beam roof suddenly blossomed into hundreds of structures of great technical proficiency and aesthetic acumen. The thesis assesses the role of the hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall as the catalyst to such renewed enthusiasm. This structure is analysed and discussed in detail. Its place in the milieu of late medieval architecture is assessed, and its influence evaluated. That influence took effect mainly in East Anglia. Thus, early fifteenth-century trends in hammer-beam carpentry in the region are isolated and analysed. A typology of is created, from which arise surprising conclusions regarding the differing priorities late-medieval carpenters ascribed to structure, form and ornament. A chapter is also devoted to a critical review of literature pertaining to the topic

Evaluation of the new Design Summer Year weather data using parametrical buildings

The Charted Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) updated the near extreme weather (Design Summer Year – DSY) for all 14 locations in the UK in 2016. This new release attempts to address the underlying shortcomings of the previous definition where the averaged dry bulb temperature was the sole metric to choose DSY among source weather years. The aim of this research is to evaluate whether the new definition of the probabilistic DSYs can consistently represent near extreme condition. London historical weather data and their correspondent DSYs were used in this research. Dynamic thermal modelling using EnergyPlus was carried out on large number single zone offices (parametric study) which represent a large portion of cellular offices in the UK. The predicted indoor warmth from the sample building models show that these new definitions are not always able to represent near extreme conditions. Using multiple years as DSY is able to capture different types of summer warmth but how to use one or all of these DSYs to make informed judgement on overheating is rather challenging. The recommended practice from this research is to use more warm years for the evaluation of overheating and choose the near extreme weather from the predicted indoor warmt