Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior, 1500-1700: the case of decorative textiles

该网络汇集了人文和科学领域的研究人员、文物保护者、博物馆馆长和遗产专业人士，以解决一个中心研究问题：人们如何体验和参与现代早期英格兰家庭内部的视觉和材料特性，以及我们如何分析和呈现现在的这些体验。为了聚焦这个网络，我们选择了具有比喻意象的装饰纺织品作为案例研究，因为这些物体提出了关于感知动态的特殊问题：叙事（阅读）、视觉（形式和颜色）和材料（纹理）。装饰纺织品是现代早期英格兰最普遍的家居装饰形式，但很少有幸存下来，而且现存的物品对解释、保存、展示和展示提出了重大挑战（例如，它们特别容易受到光线和触摸造成的损坏和表面劣化）。除了满足日常生活的实际需要外，1500年至1700年期间任何规模的家庭室内装饰和陈设都表达了一系列关注点，包括财富、身份、信仰、教育、性别、品味和时尚。然而，学术和博物馆实践主要集中于描述国内建筑和家具的形式、技术和外观，而没有探究特定文化和多感官的感知形式，而这些感知形式为对这种环境的解释和体验提供了信息。因此，有必要建立一个专门的研究网络来调查研究同时代人如何感知和参与他们的物质环境的方法。这个课题需要持续的多学科调查，因为它对学术研究、博物馆实践和公众影响的影响程度。了解日常生活的家庭环境不仅是学术关注和争论的一个新兴领域，也是博物馆和历史建筑参观者的核心兴趣，他们希望根据当前对其物理和概念真实性的理解，获得对时期室内装饰的有意义的体验。通过一系列研讨会、会议、领先学术期刊的特刊和一系列播客，该网络旨在促进创新和协作的跨学科方法来研究国内室内历史，并为展示和演示提供新的方向。该网络跨越人文学科和科学学科之间的界限，交流有关历史文物和环境的知识，并探索心理学、神经科学、计算和数字考古学方面新专业知识、技术和方法的可能应用，从而能够研究与视觉感知相关的特殊性。特定的物体和设置（例如，移动眼动追踪的新发展）以及通过历史环境的数字重建和模拟。该网络由 17 名专家组成，包括英语、历史、艺术史和考古学等学科的国内室内装饰和/或纺织品研究人员；认知科学中视觉感知的研究人员；计算机科学家；保护者、策展人和遗产专业人士，同时也是该领域的研究人员。我们还将让在这一领域开始工作的研究生参与研讨会活动并推进影响目标。该网络促进了 14 个机构之间的交流，其中包括 6 所大学以及 7 个国家和地区博物馆。

This network brings together researchers in the humanities and sciences, conservators, museums curators and heritage professionals to address a central research question: how would people have experienced and engaged with the visual and material properties of the domestic interior in early modern England, and how might we analyse and represent those experiences in the present. To focus this network we have selected decorative textiles with figurative imagery as a case study because these objects raise particular questions about the dynamics of perception: narrative (reading), visual (form and colour) and material (texture). Decorative textiles were the most ubiquitous form of domestic furnishing in early modern England but few survive and the extant objects present significant challenges for interpretation, conservation, display and presentation (for example, they are particularly vulnerable to damage and surface deterioration caused by light and touch). As well as accommodating the practical needs of everyday life, domestic interiors of any size during the period 1500-1700 were decorated and furnished to express a range of concerns including wealth, identity, belief, education, gender, taste and fashion. Yet scholarship and museum practice has focused overwhelmingly on describing the form, techniques and appearance of domestic buildings and furnishings without probing the culturally-specific and multi-sensory forms of perception that informed interpretation and experience of this environment. It is therefore necessary to establish a dedicated research network to investigate ways of studying how contemporaries would have perceived and engaged with their material surroundings.This subject requires sustained multi-disciplinary investigation because of the extent of its implications for academic research, museums practice and public impact. Understanding the domestic context for everyday life is not only an emergent area of academic attention and debate, it is also a central interest of visitors to museums and historic properties who want to gain a meaningful experience of period interiors based on current understanding of their physical and conceptual authenticity. Through a series of workshops, a conference, special issue of a leading academic journal and series of podcasts, this network aims to facilitate innovative and collaborative cross-disciplinary approaches to researching the history of the domestic interior and inform new directions for display and presentation.The network crosses the boundaries between Humanities and Science disciplines to exchange knowledge about historical artefacts and environments and explore the possible applications of new expertise, technologies and methods in psychology, neuroscience, computing and digital archaeology, which enable investigation of the specificity of visual perception in relation to particular objects and settings (for example, new developments in mobile eye-tracking) and through the digital reconstruction and simulation of historic environments. The network comprises 17 experts including researchers on domestic interiors and/or textiles in the disciplines of English, History, Art history and Archaeology; researchers on visual perception in the cognitive sciences; computer scientists; conservators, curators and heritage professionals who are also researchers in this area. We will also engage postgraduate students starting work in this field in workshop activities and in progressing the impact aims. The network facilitates exchange across 14 institutions including 6 universities and 7 national and regional museums.