Outputs (3)

Mass Observation as a relational art practice (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Edge, C. (2017, July). Mass Observation as a relational art practice. Presented at Mass Observation 80th Anniversary Conference, University of Sussex

The visual artefacts and documents created during MO’s early incarnation seem to be possessed of a kind of latent energy which has continued to shape their function and interpretation. In particular, this quality can be traced through the history of... Read More about Mass Observation as a relational art practice.

What they think in Worktown : using photography to create a participatory archive (2014)
Presentation / Conference
Edge, C. (2014, May). What they think in Worktown : using photography to create a participatory archive. Presented at Anthropology and Photography Conference, Royal Anthropological Institute, British Museum

In 1937 Mass Observation went to Bolton to study ‘the cannibals of the north’. Photographers and artists worked alongside trained and untrained participant observers to create an ‘anthropology of ourselves’. Whilst artists were accorded the status o... Read More about What they think in Worktown : using photography to create a participatory archive.

What they photograph in Worktown : participatory photography and Saturday afternoons in Bolton (2014)
Presentation / Conference
Edge, C. (2014, April). What they photograph in Worktown : participatory photography and Saturday afternoons in Bolton. Presented at Recording Leisure Lives 2014, University of Bolton

In 1937 Humphrey Spender photographed leisure in Bolton for Mass Observation’s Worktown study. MO recruited local people as participant observers but community involvement was fairly limited and the project has been subsequently characterised as a po... Read More about What they photograph in Worktown : participatory photography and Saturday afternoons in Bolton.