Small is Beautiful? Visual and Material Cultures of Making and Mending

2009年初，媒体开始流传一个统计数据，即每天有120家英国小企业倒闭。虽然人们对这种损失的经济和社会影响非常感兴趣，但对经济衰退的文化影响及其对公共生活的特征和结构的影响的关注较少。该研究项目旨在记录特别容易陷入经济破产的工作场所的物质文化，这些工作场所的核心活动是制造或修补实物（如制鞋、钟表和电器修理车间、裁缝和女裁缝、模拟摄影工作室和锁匠）。这种普通的“动手”工作场所越来越不常见，它们的利基市场被大规模生产的廉价商品（这些商品很容易处理和更换）和不断变化的生产技术所取代。他们经常被认为是理所当然的，直到他们消失。失去的不仅是他们提供的服务，而且是维持他们的独特物质文化-维修和小规模生产的物品、工具、技能和材料。该项目将采用一种创造性的、多方法的方法来制作这些地方的物质文化的摄影和文字记录，将其带入经济和社会加速变革的时刻。研究活动将侧重于有证据表明存在寿命、技术和材料增长的工作场所。特别强调的是公共或准公共场所，店面车间和高街幸存者，有助于公共体验的视觉和物质质地。仍在运作的工作场所以及正在逐步结束运作或最近关闭的工作场所将被考虑纳入该项目。在每个地点，研究人员将制作一系列照片，对研讨会内容的框架进行特写和详细的处理。其目的是代表这些空间中物质文化的特征和美学品质，而不是产生一个全面的视觉调查。然后，这些图像将用于一系列以对象为中心的采访，采访地点的工作人员，收集有关材料的重要性及其使用历史的故事。该项目在地理上集中在西南部（定义为康沃尔郡、德文郡、萨默塞特和多塞特郡），该地区具有强烈的区域特征，并拥有完善的机构基础设施来支持该项目。该研究将涉及一个项目合作伙伴，西南图像库（SWIB），由普利茅斯巴比肯协会建立的摄影档案馆，提供一个可访问的手段，使公众可以参与与该地区的过去有关的图像。研究团队将与SWIB和其他组织密切合作，在整个项目中提供一个分阶段的多站点社区参与和沟通计划。这将包括一系列公开展览和研究对话，以及项目博客和其他评论和参与的机会。通过这些活动，该项目将启动关于社会和经济变革以及日常空间美学的对话。参与机构的东主和雇员将通过公众欣赏他们的工作、参加活动和收到制作的图像而从项目中受益。在项目结束时，图像文件将存放在SWIB摄影收藏中，并可在网上画廊查阅。除了提供明确的公共成果外，该项目还将有助于开发视觉和材料研究的替代方法，并在广泛的学科背景下显著促进学术理解。

Early in 2009 the media began circulating the statistic that 120 small UK businesses were failing every day. While there has been significant interest in the economic and social implications of this loss, less attention has been given to the cultural effects of the recession, and its impact on the character and texture of public life. The research project aims to create a record of the material culture of workplaces that are particularly vulnerable to economic insolvency, places where the making or mending of material objects forms the core activity (such as shoe, clock and electrical appliance repair workshops, tailors and seamstresses, analogue photography studios and locksmiths). These kinds of ordinary 'hands-on' workplaces are becoming increasingly uncommon, their niche closed out by the availability of mass-produced inexpensive goods which are easily disposed of and replaced, and by changing technologies of production. They are often taken for granted until they disappear. What is lost is not just the services they provided, but the unique material cultures that sustained them--the objects, tools, skills and materials of repair and small-scale production. The project will apply a creative, multi-method approach to produce a photographic and textual record of the material culture of such places, offering this into a moment of accelerated economic and social change. Research activities will focus on workplaces where there is some evidence of longevity, accretions of technology and material. Particular emphasis will be given to places that are public or quasi-public, storefront workshops and high street survivors that contribute to the visual and material texture of public experience. Workplaces that are still operational, as well as those that are winding down operations or recently closed, will be considered for inclusion in the project. At each site, researchers will produce a series of photographs which take a close-up and detailed approach to the framing of the workshop contents. The intention is to represent the character and aesthetic quality of the material culture in these spaces, rather than to produce a comprehensive visual survey. These images will then be used in a series of object-centred interviews with the people employed at the sites, collecting stories about the significance of the materials and their histories of use. The project is focused geographically in the South West (defined as the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset), an area with a strong regional identity and with a well-established institutional infrastructure to support the project. The research will involve a project partner, the South West Image Bank (SWIB), a photographic archive established by the Plymouth Barbican Association to provide an accessible means by which the public can engage with images relating to the region's past. The research team will work closely with SWIB and other organisations to deliver a phased, multi-sited programme of community engagement and communication throughout the project. This will include a series of public exhibitions and research conversations, as well as a project blog and other opportunties for comment and participation. Through these activities the project will initiate a dialogue about social and economic change and the aesthetics of everyday spaces. Proprietors and employees of participating establishments will benefit from the project through public appreciation of their work, attendance at events, and receipt of the images produced. At the close of the project, image files will be deposited in the SWIB photographic collection and made accessible in an online gallery. In addition to delivering clear public outcomes, the project will contribute to the development of alternative methods for visual and material research, and significantly further academic understanding in a broad range of disciplinary contexts.