Lest we forget: poppies and public commemoration

在2014年的百年庆典上，《血色席卷红海》成为纪念活动的惊喜之星。这个由888,246人组成的艺术装置由陶瓷罂粟组成，种植在伦敦塔护城河上起伏的波浪中。它的受欢迎程度表明，第一次世界大战纪念活动非但没有衰落，仍然受到英国公众的强烈欢迎。《我们忘记了》是一个创新项目，它将使用新的方法来探索在安装过程中收集的独特的大型数据集，从而调查人们是如何理解和参与其中的。该项目将通过解释公众(S)更广泛地纪念第一次世界大战的方式，在一个世纪的第一次世界大战史学的基础上，并在21世纪的背景下看待纪念活动，从而为装置提供背景。最后，它将研究是否有其他项目能够产生与《血迹斑斑》相媲美的公众影响，如果是的话，如何实现这一点。装置中的888,246朵陶瓷罂粟花都是为了代表一个人的生命而创作的，或者更确切地说，是代表死亡。陶瓷罂粟的数量和装置的规模是它的决定性特征，不仅是因为它在护城河中创造了奇观，也是因为人们对艺术品的意义。志愿者、工作人员、游客和采购者经常提到一朵罂粟，一条生命的情感意义。每一朵手工制作的罂粟花都体现了个性，这与第一次世界大战期间的服兵役有关。没有两朵罂粟是相同的，它们将阵亡战斗人员的个性与可怕的战争规模联系在一起。这个项目超越了《血腥横扫之地》的壮观场面。它将这个装置作为一个案例研究，通过它可以了解第一次世界大战纪念活动的一些更广泛的问题。它将考察公众如何理解第一次世界大战一百周年，以及他们如何使用装置来创造意义，表达情感，并与更广泛的人群分享这些意义。然后，它将探索人们通过不同媒体与《血迹横扫之地》互动的方式；从志愿种植罂粟花、参观装置、在社交媒体上分享照片、将自制文物存放在铁塔；到参加夜间点名仪式，或者购买陶瓷罂粟花。公众在多个层面上参与了装置，公众参与的程度也帮助塑造了装置及其项目，这成为了一种媒体现象。这项研究项目将调查这种参与的重要性；它还将批评公众、媒体和历史悠久的皇家宫殿认为该项目“成功”的方式。它将通过使用作为血扫土地项目一部分收集的数据，并将其他学科的方法应用于可能是可供研究的最大纪念活动数据集来实现这一点。随着2014-18年的百年纪念活动在2018年接近尾声，现在正是研究《血洗土地》的影响及其在第一次世界大战百年纪念活动中的地位的时候了。2018年的进一步实地考察将着眼于2014年纪念活动的长期影响，并询问在2014-18年的4年中，人们对《血洗土地》和纪念活动的态度是否以及如何发生了变化。这项研究将探索是什么构成了《血色横扫的土地》的成功，以及这种成功是否可以在未来的纪念和纪念活动中复制。《以免我们忘记》将通过会议论文和发表的期刊文章来传播其研究成果。它将汇集历史、遗产和记忆研究的遗产从业者和学者，以分享和讨论未来在遗产和博物馆中参与纪念活动。它将通过定期发表博客文章、公开演讲和教师奖学金方案产生公众影响，从而产生10个新的免费教师资源。

At the centenary of 2014, 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' became the surprising star of commemorative activity. This art installation of 888,246 comprised ceramic poppies, planted in undulating waves in the Tower of London moat. Its popularity showed that far from declining, World War I (WWI) commemoration was still intensely popular with the British public. 'Lest we forget' is an innovative project which will use new methodologies to probe a unique and large data set which was collected as part of the installation, and thus to investigate how people made sense of, and engaged with, it. The project will contextualize the installation by explaining the ways in which the public(s) commemorated the First World War more widely, building on a century of WWI historiography and looking at commemoration in a 21st century context. Finally, it will look at whether any other project could achieve public impact comparable to that of 'Blood Swept Lands', and if so, how this might be achieved.Each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies in the installation was created to represent a single life; or rather a death. The number of ceramic poppies and the scale of the installation were its defining features both in terms of the spectacle it created in the moat, but also in the meanings people made of the artwork. Volunteers, staff, visitors and purchasers frequently referred to the emotional significance of 'one poppy, one life'. Each handmade poppy embodied individuality within the conformity which is associated with military service in WWI. No two poppies were the same, connecting the individuality of the dead combatants with the horrifying scale of the war. This project looks beyond the spectacle of 'Blood Swept Lands'. It uses the installation as a case study through which some of the wider issues of WWI commemoration can be understood. It will look at how the public made sense of the WWI centenary, and how they used the installation to create meanings, express emotions, and share these with a wider group of people. It will then explore the ways in which people interacted with 'Blood Swept Lands' through different media; from volunteering to 'plant' poppies, visiting the installation, sharing photographs on social media, and depositing home-made artefacts at the Tower; to attending a nightly roll-call ceremony, or buying a ceramic poppy. The public engaged with the installation on multiple levels, and the levels of public involvement also helped shape the installation and its project, which became a media phenomenon. This research project will investigate the importance of this engagement; it will also critique the way the project was perceived as a 'success' by the public, media and Historic Royal Palaces. It will achieve this by using data collected as part of the Blood Swept Lands project, and applying methodologies from other disciplines to probably the largest data set of commemorative activity available for research. It is timely to study the impact of 'Blood Swept Lands' and its place within WWI centenary commemorations as the 2014-18 centenary draws to a close in 2018. Further fieldwork in 2018 will look at the longer term impact of the 2014 commemorations, and ask whether and how attitudes to 'Blood Swept Lands' and commemoration have changed over the 4 years, 2014-18. The research will explore what constituted the 'success' of 'Blood Swept Lands' and whether this success can be replicated in future commemorations and commemorative programmes.'Lest we forget' will disseminate its research findings through conference papers and published journal articles. It will bring together heritage practitioners and academics from history, heritage, and memory studies in order to share and discuss future engagement with commemoration in heritage and museums. It will deliver public impact through regular blog posts, public talks and a Teacher Fellowship programme, resulting in 10 new free teacher resources.