"Disaster Photography: When is Documentary Exploitation." Text by Richard B. Woodward.

A text on “Ruin Porn” and representing disasters.

Read full article

"The Site is the Question" Airspace Gallery, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

During our second workshop we held a research in progress show with works and documentation of work from the first work in progress show in Rom8 in Bergen with additions as we progressed on site at Spode for the second workshop. This time we were very happy to hold it at Airspace Gallery. Here is a sneaky peek at what it was like.

Topographies of the Obsolete receives funding from the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme.

The project "Topographies of the Obsolete: Exploring the Site Specific and Associated Histories of Post-Industry", headed by Professor Anne Helen Mydland, has just received funding from the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme.

The focus of the project is on the landscape of post industry, explored through artistic research projects taking its point of departure in workshops/residencies in the closed Spode Factory site in Stoke-on-Trent. This site offers multi-faceted scope for creative interpretation through its socio-economic histories, industrial architecture, production and material remnants.

"This is great news", says Anne Helen Mydland and explains: "For KHiB it is an exploration of the possibilities of the new structure of the Department of Fine Art and the goal of making artistic research the core of what we do and how the institution is built: How do we develop methods for research based teaching and larger inter-institutional and international research projects?" Co-artistic leader is Neil Brownsword, Professor at KHiB, and Buckinghamshire New University.

The funding is NOK 1.9 million from January 2013 to September 2014.

read more here

Some additions to the reading list.

Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay; refections on art, family and survival. Christopher Benfry.

Wedgwood and the Wilsons. A. N. Wilson, article in CRAFTS, December issue 2012.

Dust, the archive and Cultural History. Carolyn Steedman.

The Secret Life of Dust, from the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of little things. Hannah Holmes.

Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens.

Radio documentary on Northern Soul.

Northern Soul on bbc radio, 60 mins of Northern joy.

Some links to other projects/things of interest in Stoke-on-Trent.

Stoke in the guardian

Project by Andy Parker

Replace project

Andrew Brown

For 'Resurrecting the obsolete' in September 2012 my modus operandi was to try to retain an open mind as I walked around the site, listening, recording, taking photographs and simply enjoying the experience. I brought my existing interests:

• Post-industrial landscapes
• Exploring moments in time, being ‘present’
• Thresholds and spaces betwixt and between

and approaches:

• Retracing steps
• Design direct embodied experience
• Solitary vs. collective
• Making use of what is there
• The particular effectiveness of sound

and found myself initially drawn to signage, personal effects and inscriptions that gave insights into the the former Spode workforce. As I explored tentative routes began to form for a group walk, taking participants from one sonic environment to another.

For ’Topographies of the Obsolete’ March 2013 I returned with recording equipment and the intention of effecting a temporary repair of the works bell. This I recorded from various parts of the site.

I’d been put in contact with local archivist Ray Johnson (from the Staffordshire Film Archive) with whom I spent a couple of highly productive hours, as well as one of the key members of Airspace gallery, Anna Francis. Meeting her, Glen and Andy provided a cultural dimension that was previously missing for me.

The bus tour of Bradwell woods, Etruria, Gladstone and Burslem was also significant, making the place more comprehensible as a city. To develop this, and to begin to address the second strand of my project I performed several walks, to Cobridge, along the canal towpath to Westport Lake, back to Spode via Burslem and Hanley Park, to the Garden Festival site, and finally to Harecastle tunnel.

Overall I am pleased to have overcome my initial rush of naieve excitement regarding the site and, through having now worked there a second time and for a longer period, I feel I am better-placed to produce a mature response.