broadening the scope: May 2013

Here some results of the challenge addressed to MA Culture, Criticism and Curation students at CSM. Brand archives' case studies included from Casa 7, Cortebel, Northampton Museum, Walsh, and Ruth Boots. Students responded nicely.

"Brand Archives, from dust to blooming is part of a Post-doctoral research project based at Central Saint Martins, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The project discusses the radical potential of archives of material culture as generative tools to promote cultural diversity and to foster brand innovation. It aims at developing awareness of the value of brand archives as rich resources for designers, cultural organizations, and commercial companies, where brand heritage is, or has, the potential to become a critical or defining asset.

Narrative objects was a workshop in two parts. In Part 1: Probes and triggers students engaged with a collection of objects, images and personal stories provided by people with different backgrounds and interests around the subject of collections and archives.

By getting to know better those narrative objects through engaging with given contextual accounts, in Part 2: Immersive interactions participants were asked to respond to those objects in narrative and curatorial terms. Possibilities for interpretation included, among others: establishing connections between objects and images; creating categories and clusters of information; identifying gaps to their understanding; finding patterns, contrasts and similarities."