Counter Memories: Seeing Empire through the National Trust, c. 1895 - c. 2020

反记忆：通过国民信托看帝国，c。

• 批准号: 2633202
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2633202
• 关键词: Counter; Memories; Seeing; Empire; through

This research project seeks to better understand the colonial heritage of national trust properties through the study of a photographic collection held at a country house. A specific property is yet to be specified, but for any house the same fundamental approaches would apply. The project aims to further conceptions of the British "imperial gaze" through a "visual archaeology" which will demonstrate how this form of material culture created and reinforced European imaginings of the colonial Other. The personal images of colonised peoples and places collected by Britons will be investigated, rather than official or formal photographic collections created for government purposes in the colonies. By focusing on a regional context rather than the metropole, the project builds on existing research by asking how visions of the colonies may have varied outside of London. The project seeks to assess how these images were collected, stored and used by those who lived in the house, and what effects the collection may have had on perceptions of the colonised, and how perceiving the colonised may have affected viewers. Photography is associated with modern European colonialism as it was constructed and understood through post-Enlightenment ideals which priviledged the empirical, particularly that which was visual. Photos were understood to be direct windows to other places and times, which is particularly relevant to this study as it suggests that those viewing them would have believed themselves to be transcending metropole and colony (Ryan, 1997). Terms such as "image-Africa" are useful to refer to the perceived colony as opposed to the reality (Landau and Kaspin, 2002).The project is interdisciplinary, with Professor Hicks' and Doctor Kefalas' supervision providing expertise in archaeological and anthropological methods and my own background in history merging these disciplines which already have blurred boundaries, particularly within imperial and material studies (Gosden, 1999; Hicks and Beaudry, 2010). As a collaboration with the National Trust, this project's findings will both benefit from the expertise within the Trust and contribute to understanding of its collections, with the hope that public visitors can be given greater access to the colonial histories of its properties too.The photos studied will be assessed in terms of their materiality as much as for their contents, informed by Edwards' conception of the photograph as a physical object (Edwards and Hart, 2004). Both the creation and reception of the photographs will be equally important to this project, as both their physicality and the context in which they were viewed fundamentally shaped what they told viewers about their subjects. Insights from historians and archaeologists of the senses may be valuable in further understanding this, as those who were being shown the photographs were only seeing black and white, still images, without the access to the sounds and smells of the places they were learning about. Where they had access to other artefacts, such as foods, fabrics or musical instruments, these were highly curated, luxurious commodities and still provided limited access to the colonies thenselves. Consideration of the contexts in which the photographs were being seen and consumed will be important in gaining an accurate understanding of their meanings. This project will also take an intersectional approach, considering the ways in which, race, gender and class affected both the colonisers and the colonised's images of themselves and each other. Whilst drawing on a source-base which was created and owned by the coloniser, every effort will be made throughout to draw out the voice of the colonised from the images. This research provides an opportunity to address the role of colonialism in creating the wealth attached to many country houses, and to contribute to a more informed understanding of its relevance to the social lives of the families.

这项研究项目试图通过对乡村别墅的摄影收藏进行研究，更好地了解国家托管财产的殖民遗产。具体的房产还没有具体说明，但对于任何房子来说，同样的基本方法都会适用。该项目旨在通过“视觉考古”进一步理解英国的“帝国凝视”，展示这种物质文化如何创造和强化了欧洲人对殖民时代的他者的想象。英国人收集的殖民地人民和地方的个人照片将受到调查，而不是为殖民地政府目的而创建的官方或正式照片收藏。通过关注地区背景而不是大都市，该项目建立在现有研究的基础上，询问在伦敦以外的殖民地的愿景可能会发生什么变化。该项目旨在评估住在房子里的人是如何收集、存储和使用这些图像的，这些收集可能对被殖民者的感知产生了什么影响，以及对被殖民者的感知可能会对观众产生怎样的影响。摄影与现代欧洲殖民主义联系在一起，因为它是通过后启蒙运动的理想来构建和理解的，这些理想有利于经验主义，特别是视觉上的。照片被认为是了解其他地方和时间的直接窗口，这与这项研究特别相关，因为它表明，观看照片的人会认为自己超越了大都市和殖民地(Ryan，1997)。该项目是跨学科的，希克斯教授和Kefalas博士的监督提供了考古学和人类学方法方面的专业知识，我自己的历史背景将这些已经模糊了界限的学科合并在一起，特别是在帝国和材料研究领域(Gosden，1999；Hicks和Beaudry，2010)。作为与国家信托基金的合作，该项目的发现将受益于信托基金的专业知识，并有助于了解其收藏，希望公众游客也能更多地了解其财产的殖民历史。研究的照片将根据爱德华兹将照片作为物理对象的概念，从其重要性和内容方面进行评估(爱德华兹和哈特，2004)。照片的创作和接受对这个项目同样重要，因为它们的物理和观看环境都从根本上决定了它们告诉观众关于他们的主题的内容。历史学家和考古学家对感官的洞察可能对进一步理解这一点很有价值，因为那些被展示照片的人只看到了黑白的静止图像，无法接触到他们正在了解的地方的声音和气味。在他们可以接触到其他文物的地方，如食物、织物或乐器，这些都是高度精心策划的奢侈品，而且当时进入殖民地的机会仍然有限。考虑照片被观看和消费的背景对于准确理解它们的含义将是重要的。这个项目还将采取一种交叉的方法，考虑种族、性别和阶级对殖民者和殖民者自己和彼此形象的影响。在利用殖民者创造和拥有的资源基础的同时，将尽一切努力从图像中提取殖民者的声音。这项研究提供了一个机会，以解决殖民主义在创造许多乡村别墅所附带的财富方面的作用，并有助于更明智地了解其与家庭社会生活的相关性。