Art & Archaeology
From 2006-10, James Dixon undertook a PhD studentship Public Art and Contemporary Archaeology in the Context of Urban Regeneration: creation, transformation, and people in Bristol, 1940-2010. James took as its starting point the broader discourse around public art, patronage and the role of artists in urban renewal on the one hand, and debates over the public value of heritage and archaeology on the other. His research made use of methods drawn from contemporary art, archaeology and ethnography to explore the changing material and social environment of central Bristol from the bombing in 1941 up to the opening and use of the new Cabot Circus development in Bristol.
Developer Daniel Chule reveals new shopping district for Bristol to fieldwork project participants, 2007. Photo: Claire Doherty
James used contemporary archaeological methods and theory to develop an in-depth understanding of the relationship between planners, residents, consumers and the built environment during the particular circumstances of urban renewal and regeneration.
This research was then used as a base from which to discuss the public art scheme that was developed for the Cabot Circus development (now complete), both in its own right and within wider local and regional contexts, with a view to proposing new ways that developers and public art commissioners can approach the local places in which they work.
James Dixon’s PhD ran alongside Material City, a programme of interdisciplinary conversations, fieldwork and creative responses which sought to address the ways in which the urban environment has been imagined, experienced, lived in, worked on, moved through and looked at. Material City culminated in an interdisciplinary fieldwork project and symposium, in which James Dixon took part.
Funders and supporters
James' PhD was funded by the Great Western Research Alliance (GWR) - a £14 million programme of collaborative research that aimed to catalyse research partnerships between research groups in HEIs and industry in South-West England and was supported by the University of the West of England in partnership with the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol, and with industry partner Bristol Alliance (Hammerson plc and Land Securities Group plc).
