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Outputs (10)

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.

Creating a collaborative Worktown Archive : photography, place and community (2017)
Thesis
Edge, C. Creating a collaborative Worktown Archive : photography, place and community. (Thesis). Bolton Museum and The University of Bolton

This practice-based thesis uses photography as a method to examine how photographic archives constitute community. It develops a case study of the Worktown photographs, which were taken by Humphrey Spender during Mass Observation’s experimental stud... Read More about Creating a collaborative Worktown Archive : photography, place and community.

Looking for Bolton in the Worktown Archive (2015)
Book Chapter
Edge, C. (2015). Looking for Bolton in the Worktown Archive. In E. Edwards, & C. Morton (Eds.), Photographs, Museums, Collections : Between Art and Information (247-263). London: Bloomsbury Academic

Worktown Observation Centre (2014)
Exhibition / Performance
Edge, C. Worktown Observation Centre. 26 July 2014 - 2 August 2014. (Unpublished)

‘The Observers are the cameras with which we are trying to photograph contemporary life’ The Worktown Observation Centre is a collaborative visual archive of everyday life in Bolton. It is inspired by Mass Observation’s Worktown study of everyday... Read More about Worktown Observation Centre.

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.

Worktown 75th Anniversary Exhibition, Bolton Museum (2012)
Exhibition / Performance
Edge, C. Worktown 75th Anniversary Exhibition, Bolton Museum. [Exhibition]. 22 September 2012 - 1 December 2012. (Unpublished)

A major exhibition of photographs and artefacts created during Mass Observation’s Worktown study of everyday life in Bolton in the 1930s, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the project

Bolton Worktown: An online archive of Humphrey Spender's photographs of Bolton for Mass Observation
Other
Edge, C. Bolton Worktown: An online archive of Humphrey Spender's photographs of Bolton for Mass Observation. Bolton

In the 1930s Mass Observation made an experimental study of everyday life in Bolton, a town in North-West England. This study, known as the Worktown project, famously included some of the earliest documentary photographs, taken by Humphrey Spender. T... Read More about Bolton Worktown: An online archive of Humphrey Spender's photographs of Bolton for Mass Observation.