Transforming Collections: 6-month update and researcher vacancies

The 3-year Transforming Collections: Reimagining Art, Nation and Heritage project at UAL Decolonising Arts Institute launched in November 2021. One of 5 Towards a National Collection (TaNC) Discovery projects, Transforming Collections combines critical art historical and museological research with participatory design and machine learning development.

Six months in, the work of the project is well underway, led by Professor susan pui san lok. The team of Co-Investigators includes colleagues in the Creative Computing Institute and Tate, while project partners include 14 national and international collections, archives and arts charities.

The premise for Transforming Collections is that a ‘national collection’ cannot be imagined without addressing structural inequalities that perpetuate barriers within and across collections. The work aims to surface suppressed histories, amplify marginalised voices, and re-evaluate artists and artworks ignored or sidelined by dominant narratives.

Opportunities to join the project team

The core team welcomed Project & Partnerships Manager, Jerneja Rebernak in February 2022 and Project Administrator Fleur Kaminska in December 2021. By September 2022, the team will have 9 Co-Investigators and 5 Researchers in place.

Transforming Collections is now recruiting for an additional 4 part-time Post-doctoral Research Fellows with experience in art historical, museological and critical feminist decolonial approaches and theories, who will develop critical case studies across partner collections over the next 2 years.

The deadline to apply is 17 May 2022 and applicants with PhD research or equivalent professional experience in a relevant area are welcome; such as in art historical, curatorial and museological research and practice-based research.

Project activities and emerging case studies

So far, Transforming Collections has carried out a range of early research activities, including:

• Revisiting and expanding the audit of works by artists of African, Asian and MENA region heritage in 35 UK public art collections, originally conducted as part of the AHRC Black Artists and Modernism research project (BAM, 2015-18). This work is being led by Dr Anjalie Dalal-Clayton (Co-I) and Ananda Rutherford (Research Fellow), who have recently concluded their work on the TaNC Foundation project, Provisional Semantics.
• Undertaking a subject index tagging project and systematic review of problematic and euphemistic language in the cataloguing of artists’ work in Tate’s online collection. Christopher Griffin (Co-I and Tate Research Convenor) is leading this work.
• Scoping and preparing the iniva artists’ archive for digitisation. The role of Transforming Collections/iniva archivist has been taken up by Kaitlene Koranteng, who is also iniva’s Archivist and Engagement Producer.
• Exploring the possibilities and practicalities of machine learning development (led by Professors Mick Grierson and Rebecca Fiebrink) and the ethics of data sharing and participatory design (supported by Dr Charlotte Webb and Ananda Rutherford). Research assistant, Kit Bower-Morris joined the team in February; and a new research fellow will be announced in May.

We are undertaking a series of closed workshops with our project partners and collaborating organisations throughout year 1 and 2. The first All Partners Workshop will take place on 18 May 2022, where our 14 partners will come together for the first time. During the workshop we will be sharing emerging case studies and early lo-fi prototypes of a machine learning tool for feedback and further development..

Save the date: 2023 conference

Save the date for our forthcoming public-facing conference at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands: 20-21 April 2023. Registration and programme details to be announced in the autumn.

Keep in touch

For enquiries about Transforming Collections, please contact: ContactTransformingCollections@arts.ac.uk

To receive the Decolonising Arts Institute newsletter, please email decolonisingartsinstitute@arts.ac.uk

Follow us on Youtube and Soundcloud