[ONLINE] ‘Travelling Taxonomies’

‘Travelling Taxonomies’ focuses on Sloane’s ‘Miscellanies’, objects that by their very designation were considered to sit outside clear categorisation, and Sloane’s changing display of objects, the movement of these between cabinets, and the different configurations in which he presented and performed them to visitors. A new data set was created by 'tabulating' objects from Sloane’s ‘Miscellanies’ that moved between cabinets. A selection of these objects, listed in catalogues as title, textual description, and pencil markings alongside the entries, were the starting point for open-ended physical and discursive sessions with movement practitioners, including a dancer, drummer, actor, dance journalist, gardener, and art therapist. In resistance to the tendency to classify, categorise, and record, these sessions were not recorded nor were material or physical outputs created during them. Outputs: a data set of objects that moved between cabinets; Miro Board mind maps of engagement sessions; and a ‘Proposal for a Ballet’ set in the Enlightenment Gallery of the British Museum – part script, movement notation, images, and sound piece this work recognises how objects were brought into European/Western framing, categorisation, and reference. The research explores and creates choreography of movement in which objects, meaning, and taxonomies travel as creative resistance to hierarchies of confinement and control.

Register for the Zoom event and view the full seminar series programme: https://critical-creative.eventbrite.co.uk

The Sloane Lab Seminar Series is convened by Marco Humbel (Sloane Lab & UCLDH), Nadezhda Povroznik (TU Darmstadt), Julianne Nyhan (TU Darmstadt & UCL) and Andrew Flinn (UCL). Administrative support is provided by Lucy Stagg (UCLDH & UCL IAS).

This joint virtual seminar is co-hosted by University College London, TU Darmstadt, the British Museum and the Natural History Museum.

The symposium is funded by the Towards a National Collection programme (Arts and Humanities Research Council) as an activity of the Sloane Lab Discovery Project.