Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging: a creative exploration of forced migration of ancient historical objects with refugee-background young people

该项目开发了一种创新的新方法——参与式艺术为基础的物品传记，以解决人们和古代物品被迫迁移到英国的（错误）理解。结合对来自其原籍地区的物品的档案研究，以及借鉴他们自己的被迫迁移经历的PAB物品传记的制作，来自难民背景的青年CSs将利用知识生产的情感，具体和感性模式来产生和分享对英国博物馆藏品的新观点。作为殖民占领的直接后果，来自非洲和亚洲的古代历史文物充斥着英国的博物馆，但它们如何进入收藏的具体细节往往记录得很少。这些物品通常被视为过去文明的静态代表，几乎完全由西方白人学者来解释。这种情况掩盖了他们传记的复杂性，这些传记讲述了关于跨国移民和帝国历史的重要故事。相反，在英国，难民背景的年轻人被定义为他们的运动，他们的难民背景阻碍了他们的政治、社会、经济和文化融入。导致他们被迫移民的环境定位在英国之外，否认帝国和当代新殖民主义的遗产。这些年轻人和古代历史文物都需要新的叙事。这个项目将把他们置于（新）殖民纠缠的跨国历史对话中，对每个人的被迫迁移产生独特的见解。对象传记认识到，对象在其历史上的意义和价值是变化的，这是基于它们的生产、使用、交换和运动的性质，以及与它们互动的人和事件。生成PAB对象传记将使CSs能够：检查对象的原始用途；导致人们离开原始环境的旅程；以及它们在英国的运输和展示。PAB对象传记的特权体现，感官和情感形式的理解和表达，促进CSs的想法和经验与他们的档案研究的整合，以扩大声音，很大程度上排除了影响这些对象的公认叙事。其结果将是挑战传统的基于文本的描述，并鼓励新的观察和感受方式。该项目包括五个工作包：准备工作；PAB工艺；物体成像和3D打印；展览;推广和传播。一个包括项目合作伙伴和CSs在内的指导委员会将指导这一进程。曼彻斯特博物馆的藏品包括来自与许多英国当代被迫移民国家（非洲、东地中海和西亚）重叠的地区的文物。CSs将选择感兴趣的对象，并与博物馆档案、策展人、专家和我们一起研究它们的历史。物体的成像和3D打印将创造出复制品，这些复制品可以以原件无法操作和探索的方式进行操作和探索。在与来自示巴艺术的BAME/难民背景艺术家共同设计和促进的过程中，这些艺术家具有创造性地参与被迫移民的经验，CSs将使用他们选择的艺术形式来探索他们自己的想法和经验如何与文物档案研究相结合。由此产生的PAB对象传记将传达强迫迁移和跨国历史的复杂性。这些艺术品将成为博物馆和网上展览的基础，与原始物品一起展出。与其他学术和公共成果一起，展览将吸引不同的观众对跨国背景下的人与物被迫迁移进行批判性反思和情感理解，为古代历史和遗产的非殖民化做出贡献，并鼓励未来PAB公民科学历史和遗产倡议。

This project develops an innovative new approach-participatory arts-based object biography-to address (mis)understandings of the forced migration of people and ancient objects to the UK. Combining archival research on objects from their regions of origin, and the production of PAB object biographies that draw on their own experiences of forced migration, youth CSs from refugee backgrounds will utilise affective, embodied and sensuous modes of knowledge production to generate and share new perspectives on UK museum collections.As a direct consequence of colonial occupation, ancient historical objects from Africa and Asia fill UK museums, but the specifics of how they entered collections is often poorly recorded. These objects are typically presented as static representations of past civilisations, interpreted almost exclusively by white, western scholars. This situation obscures the complex nature of their biographies, which tell important stories about transnational histories of migration and empire. Conversely, refugee-background young people in the UK are defined by their movement, their refugee backgrounds impeding their political, social, economic and cultural inclusion. The circumstances leading to their forced migration are positioned beyond the UK, denying the legacies of empire and contemporary neo-colonialism. Both these young people and ancient historical objects are in need of new narratives. This project will place them in dialogue, within transnational histories of (neo)colonial entanglement, to produce unique insights into the forced migration of each.Object biography recognises that objects change in meaning and value throughout their history, based on their production, use, the nature of their exchange and movement, and the peoples and events with which they interact. The production of PAB object biographies will enable CSs to: examine the objects' original uses; the journeys that led to removal from their original settings; and their transportation and display in the UK. PAB object biographies privilege embodied, sensuous, and affective forms of understanding and expression, facilitating the integration of CSs' ideas and experiences with their archival research to amplify voices largely precluded from influencing the accepted narratives of these objects. The result will be to challenge conventional text-based accounts and encourage new ways of seeing and feeling.The project comprises five work packages: preparation; the PAB process; imaging and 3D printing of objects; exhibition; promotion and dissemination. A steering committee including project partners and CSs will guide the process. Manchester Museum's collection includes artefacts from regions that overlap with the countries of many of the UK's contemporary forced migrants (Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia). CSs will select objects of interest and work with the museum archives, curators, specialists, and us to research their history. Imaging and 3D printing of the objects will create replicas that can be manipulated and explored in ways that the originals cannot. In a process co-designed and facilitated with BAME/refugee-background artists from Sheba Arts with experience in creatively engaging with forced migration, the CSs will use their chosen art form to explore how their own ideas and experiences intersect with the archival research on the artefacts. The resulting PAB object biographies will communicate the complexities of forced migration and transnational history. These artworks will form the basis of an exhibition at the Museum and online, with the original objects. Along with other academic and public outputs, the exhibition will engage diverse audiences in critical reflection and affective understanding of the forced migration of people and objects in transnational context, contributing to the decolonisation of ancient history and heritage and encouraging future PAB citizen science history and heritage initiatives.