Visual and Material Practices Research Group (VAMP)

The Visual and Material Practices Research Group (VAMP) at UWE Bristol is a cross-disciplinary group of makers, writers, and historians, interested in visualities and visual and material cultures. The group’s purpose is to generate new knowledge and innovative methodologies by putting writers and creative practitioners into conversation. We are committed to creating a generous and inclusive research culture, which we feel is crucial to rigorous and sustainable research practices.

Our current research activity is organised into five strands:

• Cultures of Care
• Art School Futures
• Writing Practices in Art and Design
• Materiality and Place
• Disrupting Visual Histories.

Much of our academic output critically challenges dominant cultural (including academic) hierarchies and representations. Alongside providing support for research outputs and hosting public-facing events, VAMP is a forum for curriculum development. VAMP’s student-facing programme includes an annual undergraduate research symposium and a student-produced journal (Visual Encounters).

For more detail about the group and its activities, see our website.

VAMP website

Strands of enquiry

Strand one: Cultures of Care

The Cultures of Care strand aims to critically explore ontologies of care. The strand juxtaposes art and design with health and wellbeing, contributing, for example, to new discourses on maternalities and maternal well-being, and critiquing practices of care in research. The strand includes work on hope and nourishment in Art School pedagogies.

Strand two: Art School Futures

The Art School Futures strand investigates embodied knowledges, Visual Culture pedagogies, and decolonising Art School curricula. The strand examines the contexts within which art and design education takes place, developing innovative thinking about curriculum development.

Strand three: Writing Practices in Art and Design

The Writing Practices strand explores the transdisciplinary capacity of writing, writing as a practice of care, and writing with (rather than about) objects. The strand is a hub of research activity within which the Ways of Writing in Art and Design research network (WoW) sits as well as the Writing In/To/Through Art initiative (WITTA). There is a long history in art schools of separating writing from making, and WoW in particular is driven by that challenge.

Strand four: Materiality and Place

The Materiality and Place strand includes cross-disciplinary research in the fields of materialism, material literacies, situated and embodied practices, craft practices and ideas about place in art.

Strand five: Disrupting Visual Histories

The Disrupting Visual Histories strand aims to increase the visibility of under-represented and as-yet untold histories of creative practice, and to upset linear temporalities. The strand includes work on queer histories, activist practices, feminist approaches to art history, inter-generational approaches to art and visual culture, maternal representations in religious iconography and contemporary practices, and decolonising histories.

Members

Our membership includes academic and technical staff at all career stages, drawn mainly (but not exclusively) from the School of Arts at UWE Bristol. We also have members who are external to UWE Bristol as well as PhD students.

As a group, we are committed to engaging students at all levels with research culture. Our work is guided by a steering group, which includes representation from a range of visual and material practice disciplines as well as external representation.

VAMP is co-led by Dr Jenny Rintoul and Dr Clare Johnson.

Contact

For enquiries, contact Dr Clare Johnson (clare.johnson@uwe.ac.uk) or Dr Jenny Rintoul (jenny2.rintoul@uwe.ac.uk).