A Model Archive
Through collections spanning 1731 to today, ‘A Model Archive’ explored the relevance of the design archive today for different uses, and users.
Shaped through community participation, the project connected the archives of Gillows of Lancaster, the W. G. Collingwood Archive (Coniston, Lake District), Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Company (Salford) and Atkinson Design Associates (Leicester), with The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection.
Drawing on Ruskin’s ideas about craft and society, ‘A Model Archive’ unsettled existing concepts of the design archive; explored new ways of interpreting objects and the stories of the people who imagined, made and used them; and speculated on the future of the archive in a digital world.
The project resulted in a workshop (11th November 2020) and micro-commission exploring the relevance of the design archive today for different uses, and users, as part of the ESRC ‘Festival of Social Science’ 2020.
Project Leads: Professor Judith Mottram, Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts, and Professor Sandra Kemp, The Ruskin