Draft Project Plan

Saturday, 11 November 2017

PURPOSE 

To investigate the cultural interfaces and interrelationships that shape places such as Launceston and the Tamar/Esk region in Tasmania. Through the lens of material cultural production, (willow/wicker work as a focus) explore and  expose the social narratives along with the story telling and deep histories that are linked to and that define and shape 'place', cultural production and cultural landscapes – 'placedness'.  ... Update jan 11 2018

The Culture of Place: WILLOWweaving and Launceston

CONTEXT

The WILLOWweavers Research Project emerged out of a series of serendipitous encounters that sparked a hunt of a kind for a Launceston  WILLOWweaver. As it is with serendipity one thing led to another and what appears to be a set of 'faded memories', and some storytelling, it emerged that up until WW1, or thereabouts, Launceston had a longstanding 'wicker industry'. 

 The 'Ballard enterprise' employed somewhere around 40 workers and it seems that albeit they were the key makers and willow growers there were others in that era. And the stories not only resonated with 'colonial settlement' but also convict histories. However much later others seem to have turned up with different rich personal cultural cargoes. 

What seems to have been forgotten in Launceston is just how often willow weavers and basket weaving touched people and their lives pre WW2 and into the 1960s/70s. Indeed, it is not a stretch of the imagination to suggest that at the time 'basketry' touched almost every body's life in some way. Likewise, this was, and is, evidenced in cultural landscapes and arguably in tangible ways.

How might such an activity have faded from view and so quietly? How did it shape people's lives and the places they lived? What has taken its place? How and when? 

PURPOSE 

To investigate the rhizomic interfaces and cultural interrelationships that come together to shape places and landscapes like Launceston's via the material realities linked to cultural production, the social narratives and the deep histories linked to'place' and cultural production. 

OBJECTIVES

The project will aim to:

1. Gain better and more developed understandings of Launceston's cultural landscapes pre-contact, post-colonisation and contemporaneously via the interrogation of an element of 'cultural production'.

2. Gain better and mor inclusive understandings of the histories in play in Launceston/Tasmanian cultural landscape.

3. Engage with a broad spectrum of researchers, writers and others towards de-siloing the investigation towards gleaning more holistic understandings.

4. Focus attention upon the production of the class of goods serviced by basketry in colonial, post-colonial and contemporary domestic life.

5. Publish the outcomes of the investigation in progress and in various formats at various times throughout its 'life'.


RATIONALE

The project will operate in cultural context where:

1. The understandings of Launceston's cultural landscapes tend to celebrate and emphasise the colonial foundation upon which the city has been founded.

2. Tasmanian understandings of the histories that define and shape 'placedness' are typically inclined to be focused upon the socio-political and cultural imperatives of the city's colonial stories and cultural backstories that essentially defined Launceston's 'placescaping'.

3. Contemporaneous research methodologies are more inclined to be proactive in regard to de-siloing investigations and seeking out rhyzomatic [1]  connectivity and interfacing towards developing more holistic, more dynamic, understandings of socio-political imperatives and the consequent cultural outcomes.

4. Somewhat curiously the production of 'basketry' has faded from current cultural memories. It turns out that in a European context, and in various ways, 'basketry' in its various machinations straddles the industrialisation of the manufacture of goods used in domestic life and enterprises close to it. In colonial, post-colonial and contemporary contexts in Tasmania such products that are still in demand tend to arrive from elsewhere via globalised markets. Likewise cultural and physical landscapes evidence all this in multiple ways.

5. The current publishing paradigm is multidimensional thus in order to reach the full spectrum of audiences and research resources, multidimensionality is a requirement. Likewise, in order that the outcomes of any serious investigation needs to fit this circumstance in order to be relevant, rigorous and credible.


STRATEGIES

The project will aim to:

1. Engage with a broad spectrum of Launcestonians – and Tasmanians more generally – in an inclusive research project in order to:

• Conduct a networked investigation through the lens of basket making and the related deep histories embedded in post-colonial 'placescaping'.
• Focus a key element of the research on WILLOWweaving and the ways it is reflected in contemporary 'placescaping' –  and the rhyzomatic [1] interfaces that become evident;
• Conduct the investigation relevant to the cultural landscapes they live within and that had a part in forming their cultural realities;
• Encourage individuals and communities to share their storytelling in regard to pre-contact, post-colonisation and contemporaneous understandings of  'place and cultural production'.  

2. Initiate a process of 'collaborative cultural mapping' focused on the histories and narratives linked to 'the willow', basket making  and the impacts they have had and/or are having in Launceston/Tasmanian relative to cultural landscaping and cultural production.

3. Put in place an open and transparent collaborative/cooperative research process that involves a broad range of researchers, writers and others that will be encouraged to work collaboratively and cooperatively with an emphasis upon holistic 'cross disciplinary cum multidisciplinary' investigations.

4. Focus attention upon the production of – and the materiality of – the class of goods serviced by basketry – and  its alternatives – in colonial, post-colonial and contemporary domestic life.

5. Publish the outcomes of the investigation in progress and in various formats at various times throughout the project's 'life' in an open and transparent ways and that seek to establish rhyzomatic [1]  interfaces and interconnections that provide opportunities for serendipitous outcomes.

6. Seek sponsorships, in-kind support, project funding and entrepreneurial opportunities to adequately fund the project. Furthermore, initiate a CROWDfunding [1] project/s for discrete components of the project as it evolves. A guiding principle being that people offering professional services being paid fees commensurate with those typically paid in the relevant field of activity.


TARGET OUTCOMES

The project will aim to publish its outcomes in multiple and interfacing formats such as:

1. A network of Internet postings that operate rhyzomaticly that exploit the opportunities provided via social media;
2. A series of events – lectures, symposiums demonstrations, forums, field days, etc.
3. A series of essays and discussion papers published in a book or series of books – anthologies of various writings and images;
4. An exhibition or series of exhibitions designed to tour to multiple venues – Intrastate, interstate  and/or internationally;
5. A VIDEOdocumentary or a series of video presentations;
6. A research collection of artifacts that reflect research outcomes.