From factories to fine art - the origins and evolution of East London's artists' agglomeration, 1968-1998

Green, CN

Abstract

This study traces the development of the East End’s artists’ agglomeration from its origins in
1968 until 1998 through a geographical history of the studio blocks in which those artists have
worked. The thesis concentrates on visual artists and the ways in which they have commandeered space in which to work. The thesis argues that the agglomeration may be conceptualised
as a complex adaptive system which has evolved in the “edge of chaos” urban environment
which arose in the East End as it made the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial district.
The core methodology draws largely on ethnographic techniques. Information was gathered
from fieldwork, which in this project comprised semi-structured tape-recorded interviews and
semi-participant observation in the form of my involvement with a project “ViA” which is developing an information service for the East End’s artists.
The qualitative approach is Grounded Theory. Interview transcripts were “coded” for themes,
and these themes explored further in subsequent fieldwork, from which further coding was carried out in an iterative process. The themes which emerged were then combined with the archival research and the findings of the social network analysis, forming the foundations of a theoretical model.
The quantitative approach is social network analysis at an organisational level, which establishes that the organisational networks are weak, from which it is inferred, in combination with
the qualitative evidence, that the significant networks are informal, a sort of “grapevine”.
These foundations are developed into a unified theory which draws on existing models concerning the development of such “creative milieux” and then carries these forward using concepts
more commonly found in chaos theory and complexity theory such as inherent unpredictability,
sensitive dependence on initial conditions, adaptive topographies and fitness landscapes, and
emergence. I argue in conclusion that the artists’ agglomeration in the East End is an emergent
phenomenon arising from the actions and interactions of individual artists in search of studio
space. It can thus be conceptualised as a “complex adaptive system”, capable of learning, growing and spontaneously developing new properties, and finding new directions which cannot be
predicted simply by looking at the system’s constituent parts in isolation.

Citation

Green, C. From factories to fine art - the origins and evolution of East London's artists' agglomeration, 1968-1998. (Thesis). University College London

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 22, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Keywords: artists, East London, creative industries
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2001