The Memory Workshop Open days: Ethics of co-production with Kara Blackmore

The Memory Workshop open days are a series of workshops and conversations about technical, narrative, and ethical considerations when archiving and documenting contested histories and heritage.

The Urban Room and Memory Workshop are invested in collaborative co-production for research, archiving, and exhibition making. This type of work is often challenging and requires a certain ethical framework to ensure that memories relating to urban, cultural, or political injustices are meaningfully understood. In this session Dr Kara Blackmore will present the new ethics framework for the Memory Workshop. She will share her experiences as Curator with four different collaborations done to date with the Urban Room. Ethics statements and risk assessments will be shared in detail to empower students, artists, academics, and community organisers interested in doing work together.

For specialists and prospective students interested in ethical-coproduction in Urban or historical settings check out the MaSc in Global Urbanism https://www.ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/study/postgraduate/global-urbanism-masc

and Public History https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught-degrees/public-history-ma

Plan your visit

The Memory Workshop Open Days run from 15th November 2024 – 12th December 2024. Visit the Urban Room between 10am-6pm Monday-Saturday during this time to find out more about the Memory Workshop.

Special events will be hosted during this time exploring specific aspects of collection and digitisation. These events will require a ticket.

About the Memory Workshop

The Memory Workshop is a collecting and digitisation project within the UCL Urban Room. Using the idea of lab-based learning, the workshop records oral histories within London and on campus in our mini-studio. Students and partner users of the workshop can digitise vinyl records, VHS and cassette tapes as well as edit their own digital materials. This work is part of Urban Room’s commitment to supporting impactful student research and developing collaborations with artists, residents and organisations around the Olympic Park where UCL East is located.

About the UCL Urban Room

Located at One Pool Street, the public-facing UCL Urban Room hosts events, exhibitions, workshops and engagement with local stakeholders, professional audiences, and the wider public. Exploring the impact of industry, globalisation, regeneration and gentrification on the six Olympic Park boroughs and their people, UCL Urban Room is a partnership between UCL Urban Laboratory, The Bartlett, School for the Creative and Cultural Industries and UCL Library Services: Special Collections.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/about/ucl-east/ucl-urban-room

For more information email [email protected]

The events and workshops are curated by Kara Blackmore, Spencer Samuel and Ishbel Tunnadine

Kara Blackmore

Dr Kara Blackmore is a curator and researcher who works at the intersections of arts, heritage, and social repair. Her practice is informed by long-term collaborations in areas affected by conflict and migration. Kara is the Curator of the UCL Urban Room where she supports experiential teaching, leads exhibition-based research, and fosters community dialogue. She is also the co-curator for the 15th Dakar Biennale (2024) under the theme of The Wake with a special guest curator section entitled We Will Stop When the Earth Roars. In this work she builds on her decolonial and feminist curatorial practice.

Spencer Samuel

Spencer Samuel is a Media Production Technical Manager working in ISD, responsible for managing and overseeing the specialist media spaces and studios within SCCI, including Media Studios, Specialist Computer Cluster rooms, BlackBox in Marshgate and the cinema in Pool Street. With over 20 years of experience in media departments and education (specifically digital media, and film production) Spencer has supported school projects, advised academic teams on practice, overseeing equipment needs for multiple modules, and led practical workshops for media classes.

Previously Spencer taught practical film modules for London Metropolitan University on their film courses. Between 2015-2023, he also worked there as the Senior Technical demonstrator in film & media, where he played a key role in developing and delivering audio-visual specialisms within the faculty. Before leaving, he designed, established and project managed the new London Met film studio. During the pandemic Spencer lead devising new ways to connect and teach media students online. Spencer also ran the broadcast studio at London Met, supporting journalism students in practical media production.

Spencer also has extensive experience as a freelancer on various commercial projects, working with clients such as BBC football league show for IMG, The National Gallery, Royal Academy of the Arts, London Electronic Orchestra and Hot Natured.

Spencer incorporates his rich industry experience into his teaching, aiming to share commercial knowledge to bridge the gap between theory and practice in education, with many of his students going on to earn RTS student awards.

Ishbel Tunnadine

Ishbel Tunnadine is an image-based artist who works with experimental photographic processes and filmmaking, writing, print and film. Her work is often site-specific, exploring the relationship between fiction and memory in the urban fabric of cities, with an interest in grassroots histories and struggle, and the politics of archival practices.

Working collaboratively is central to her art practice. With several years of experience facilitating art and filmmaking workshops in both education and arts such as BFI Film Academy, Studio Voltaire, Wysing Art Centre, Camden Summer School, City and Islington College, and PRU Schools across Bow and Hackney boroughs. She has also worked for Batalha, Centro de Cinema (Porto) as an editor of programming and their publications. Recent art residencies include BRAW Collective, Aqtushetii (Georgia), and involved in research projects as part of Stacion CCA (Kosovo).

Host or Publisher UCL Urban Room